Non-military pressures

  DR Shrikant Paranjpe's "Dialogue with Pakistan: conceptual study of key issues" was a brilliantly analysed article, indeed!

It is true that placing India's and Pakistan's nuclear tests of May, 1998, on the global agenda is but an invidious attempt of the P-5 group, particularly the USA to "direct the two countries to seek a dialogue not (just) for nuclear non-proliferation but for the need for these countries" to have to bargain with the developed world.

The writer has done well, recounting the various international treaties ( the NPT, MCTR, CTBT and FMCT), US restrictions and other trade embargoes, to stress on how these world powers are trying, on the one hand, to strengthen the non-proliferation regime to enforce their status-quoist agenda and, on the other, to "quarantine the two countries (India, Pakistan), raising their disputes to explosive levels".

While the learned author correctly feels that "the main asset of the nuclear capability is to raise India's diplomatic leverage in the bilateral dialogue" and has rightly recommended the agenda for this dialogue as "laid out in the framework of the preferential trade arrangement (SAPTA) under the auspices of SAARC", we must not miss out on the other measures to face particularly the threats to India "identified (as) non-military pressures like trade, intellectual property rights, the environment and technology control". This can be achieved only by firmly and steadfastly refusing to open up the insurance sector for foreign interests or to amending the Indian Patents Act of 1971.

J. N. NARANG
Chandigarh

* * * *

Blame Cong, not BJP

This refers to the article “A tottering system: parliamentarians are part of drift” (Dec 18) by Mr Hari Jaisingh in which various types of maladies infesting the country and the political system have been discussed.

This phenomenon is certainly not a sudden development, but a result of years of misrule, corruption and bungling of the national economy by the Congress. The BJP has only inherited it. It would be unfair to throw the mud on the BJP, as has been done in the article.

There are some other aspects of it also. Most of the voters are led by petty considerations of caste, language, religion, region and even potatoes and onions. They are short-sighted, or more correctly, do no have the time, capability or urge to understand the reality. Mostly they are selfish and self-centred. So the people are getting the type of government they deserve, and that is the fundamental of democracy.

ANAND PRAKASH
Panchkula

ALARMING POLICY: We have viewed with alarm the tendency to pursue the policies of irritation and bluster which is liable, at anytime to confront us with the alternative of humiliation or war.

The need is for the conscientious, intelligent people to come to power and work without bothering about any kind of pressure.

VIVEK SINGH MAR GIRAN
Kurukshetra

Fund-grabbing by NGOs

Apropos of the news item “Dhumal for exposing fund-grabbing NGOs” (The Tribune, Dec 14), there is an urgent need for action in this regard. Many NGOs simply exist on paper, and employ all means, including political connections, to secure funds from the government, which are ultimately shared by politicians, bureaucrats and the office-bearers of these organisations.

The goal of NGOs should be the upliftment of society through selfless work, free from all types of material considerations.

BHOLA NATH NAG
Shamnagar (Dharamsala)

* * * *

Question of political morality

Do democracies — other than India — like the USA have a superior sense of public responsibility, and higher standards in political morality than we have in this country?

Going by the precedents both in India and the USA, it appears that other countries do practice more sublime ethics in political and public life than we do.

US President Richard Nixon resigned from his office, though he had won with a landslide majority, just because he had admitted he lied to the nation in the Watergate scandal.

The latest is the example of the US House of Representatives voting to impeach President Bill Clinton on charges of perjury and lying to a federal grand jury, investigating the Monica Lewinsky affair. Had the same thing happened in India, his political party would have cried hoarse that it was "a politically motivated" campaign aimed at character assassination and a crude attempt to destabilise "the government and the nation". Those involved in such a crusade would have been branded enemies of the nation.

We, in India, have during the last 51 years generated a flood of similar — some even more serious — examples but a drought of morality to own our guilt and quit honourably. Even in the face of court verdicts against us, we boast bravely of going to the "superior and higher court of the people". We prefer an ignominious drubbing by the electorate, and not an applause for displaying lofty political ethics and morality.

Here lies the strength and weakness of their democracy and our democracy.

AMBA CHARAN VASISHTH
Shimla

* * * *

Internet in Chandigarh

The Internet and e-mail users in Chandigarh are being held to ransom by the local authorities. It is impossible to imagine that at the end of the twentieth century when everywhere communication is becoming instantaneous, the elite citizens of the City Beautiful and the residents of prosperous Punjab have to wait for hours to connect to the Internet. Usually, they are successful only at unearthly hours — the wee hours of the night or the early hours of the day.

Throughout the day after endless attempts at connecting to the Internet via VSNL's Chandigarh server, if one succeeds at last, it is only to find a snail-slow communication network on which one can hardly complete any job on the Net.

Recently, I had an opportunity of connecting to the Internet at Bombay for a few days, and I was amazed to find that the connection was almost always instantaneous, very stable and fast. Even on a Sunday, the VSNL guide was there to answer any queries.

I wonder if this is possible in a mega city like Bombay, then why not in Chandigarh? Moreover, why should the Internet subscribers in Chandigarh pay so much for hundreds of wasted telephone calls and have daily tension of not knowing whether they would be able to connect to the Net or not?

Will the VSNL authorities at last wake up to the situation?

ANIL SARWAL
Chandigarh