Pakistan's Kashmir agenda
PAKISTAN'S economy is in a mess. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is being given a torrid time by the opposition parties who have joined hands in a determined effort to see him out.

Teaching science
THE new academic session has begun in universities and colleges in the routine manner. Last year, this newspaper had suggested after the declaration of the results of various examinations that special attention should be paid over the next 12 months or so to the revision or, if necessary, the restructuring of our science curricula at various levels.

TAKING VOTERS FOR A RIDE
Tamasha can't strengthen democracy
by Hari Jaisingh
AS the country moves on to the second and later phases of polling, a few points need close scrutiny. First, the low turn-out at the polling booths indicates voters' fatigue and hence their apathy. Perhaps, they are tired of frequent elections and the level of electioneering. Or, could it be that they are getting sick of the system and the leaders who do not seem to enthuse them beyond a certain point? In short, the people's apathy should not be dismissed as a non-event. It is a matter of serious concern.

Military in political crossfire
by Harwant Singh
PLAYING competitive politics after the Kargil victory, political parties are throwing accusations at one another for the initial failure on the one hand and claiming credit for the eventual success on the other.

Need to forge anti-Taliban front
by M.S. N. Menon
IT is said of the Vatican that it sought the alliance of the fierce Mongols (even the Chinese) against Turkish and Arab ascendancy. But no king of India ever approached the Mongols and the Chinese for an alliance against the rising power of the Arabs and Turks.

Art of selling
by S. Raghunath
THE Punjab State Dairy Development Corporation (PSDDC) plans to streamline and tone up milk distribution in major cities and towns by allotting agencies to retired senior police officers who are willing to take them up to supplement their pensions.

75 Years Ago

Legislative Assembly: non-official Bills
SIMLA: As a result of the Bills held this week, no less than 20 non-official members have drawn Bills for introduction in the Legislative Assembly on September 16.

Pakistan's Kashmir agenda

PAKISTAN'S economy is in a mess. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is being given a torrid time by the opposition parties who have joined hands in a determined effort to see him out. However, it must be admitted that in spite of the innumerable crises facing the country, the Pakistani establishment has not given up creating trouble in Kashmir and in the name of Kashmir at the global level. The increase in the incidents of militant violence in Jammu and Kashmir and the attempt to tell the international community that there is no difference between East Timor and the Kashmir problem are part of Pakistan's “India policy”. It is evident that Islamabad’s anti-India cell is not worried about the negative response it invariably attracts every time it cries wolf in the context of Kashmir. Mr Nawaz Sharif has neither any sense of shame nor political propriety left in him to make him understand that the global community has begun to see Pakistan as a perpetual mischief-maker which needs to be shown its place. The Pakistan Prime Minister was virtually summoned to White House for a personal dressing down by President Bill Clinton for the mess he had created in Kargil. Instead of learning to mind their own business Pakistani leaders were at it again by drawing ridiculous similarities between the developments in East Timor and the ISI-sponsored acts of terrorism in Kashmir. And the US promptly snubbed Pakistan again. State Department spokesman James Rubin told the Press in response to a question that "Kashmir is not East Timor". He also indirectly ridiculed Pakistan for trying to project the low voter turnout in the Valley during the first phase of the Lok Sabha elections as proof of the Kashmiri people's desire for "azadi" from India. Mr Rubin put the issue in perspective by stating that "India's latest elections are only the most recent example of its dedication to democratic principles".

In a certain context Pakistan was not exactly wrong when it sought to draw a comparison between Kashmir and East Timor. The part of Kashmir under the illegal occupation of Pakistan can be said to be the "East Timor" of the subcontinent. There are striking similarities in the circumstances in which Indonesia gobbled up East Timor and parts of Kashmir were grabbed by Pakistan after the departure of the British. As far as the low voter turnout in Jammu and Kashmir in the first phase of the election is concerned, Pakistan is squarely responsible for creating an atmosphere of fear across the state by stepping up militant activity. Circumstantial evidence suggests that Kargil may have been a diversion created by Pakistan to smuggle in trained militants in the Valley through unguarded points across the LoC. The militants are now not only better armed but have also become more daring in selecting their targets. The killing of the Bharatiya Janata Party candidate from Jammu and the unsuccessful attempt on the life of Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah are part of a diabolical Pakistani design to somehow disrupt the election process in the border state. The security forces would need to step up vigilance to thwart the nefarious attempts of ISI-trained militants to keep the voters away from the polling booths by increasing the scale of violence across the state. It must be understood that the success of the democratic process in Kashmir further weakens Pakistan's spurious claim over the territory which legitimately belongs to India.

Teaching science

THE new academic session has begun in universities and colleges in the routine manner. Last year, this newspaper had suggested after the declaration of the results of various examinations that special attention should be paid over the next 12 months or so to the revision or, if necessary, the restructuring of our science curricula at various levels. Looking at the syllabi, one does not find any new effort in the direction of making science teaching more purposeful and less subjective or excessively theoretical. We have lost precious time. Our concerned science educationists of yesteryear had said that while educating our students in science, the syllabi are made so heavy for a given course, and the teachers get so little scope to teach anything other than detailed mathematical theories or high-order skills of a given science that "ultimately a student completing his education acquires the characteristics of a machine or a robot, which performs a certain prescribed task absolutely correctly, but blows the fuse if used for some task other than that for which it was built." In Arthur Koestler's view, "the same inhuman — in fact, antihuman artistic trend — pervades the climate in which science is taught, the class rooms and the text-books. To derive pleasure from the art of discovery, as from other arts, the consumer — in this case, the student — must be made to relive, to some extent, the creative process." In other words, he must be induced, with proper aid and guidance, to make some of the fundamental discoveries of science by himself, to experience in his own mind some of those flashes of insight which have illuminated its path. This means that the history of science ought to be made an essential part of the curriculum.

Joseph Henry says: "Knowledge should not be viewed as existing in isolated parts but as a whole, each portion of which throws light on the other.... The tendency of all is to improve the human mind.... for they contribute to sweating, to adorning and embellishing life." Can we ask: Where has science lost its track? Has education in science been conducted in the wrong way? Is the methodology of science teaching defective? Many intellectuals, trying to get satisfactory answers to these questions, are now pointing their accusing fingers at the methodology of teaching science. Ritchie Calder, in his book "Science in Our Lives", has written, ".....It is not surprising, therefore, that, an ordinary person begins to think of science as a kind of vault with a lock, of which only a Ph.D. knows the combination, and within it a series of safes labelled 'physics', 'biology', 'geology', 'astronomy', each again with its own special combination lock, and inside these safes, lockers — a vast number of lockers — marked 'nuclear physics', 'crystallography', 'solid state', 'colloid chemistry', 'organic', 'inorganic', 'cytology', 'genetics', 'biophysics', 'biochemistry', and what have you! And inside these are more caskets, also locked, with more and more precise labels, almost ad infinitum". Over-specialisation is the curse of our age. Although it is understandable, even inevitable, it is still a curse because it gives people the excuse for saying, "how can we understand?" and it gives scientists the excuse for saying, "we have no time for other subjects." An expert, it is said, is one who knows more and more about less and less. But there is another definition. An expert is just a perfectly ordinary person a long way from home. He is a babe lost in the forest which he cannot see for the trees. Have our educationists not heard all this before? If they have, why don't they come up with new and productive syllabi?

TAKING VOTERS FOR A RIDE
Tamasha can't strengthen democracy

by Hari Jaisingh

AS the country moves on to the second and later phases of polling, a few points need close scrutiny. First, the low turn-out at the polling booths indicates voters' fatigue and hence their apathy. Perhaps, they are tired of frequent elections and the level of electioneering. Or, could it be that they are getting sick of the system and the leaders who do not seem to enthuse them beyond a certain point? In short, the people's apathy should not be dismissed as a non-event. It is a matter of serious concern.

Second, electioneering so far has been dominated by non-issues in place of the problems that directly affect the people. Why is it so? How come politicians have taken the voters for granted? They should be competing to respond to their genuine needs. This underlines a grey area of politics.

Third, while Indian democracy is very much alive and kicking on the surface, it lacks direction and substance. A clear glimpse of it has been provided by lacklustre electioneering even by the main political parties, the BJP and the Congress. Devoid of seriousness, the whole show looks like a tamasha.

Tamasha has surely a place in national life. But if it is overstretched, it becomes a farce. In Bellary, men and women flocked to poll rallies of Mrs Sushma Swaraj for the sheer novelty of seeing a housewife from Ambala unleashing her oratory. Here was the BJP's surprise candidate posing as their "behan" and speaking in fluent Kannada with all the theatrical qualities she had mastered right from her college days in an otherwise sleepy town known for its manufacturing skills in scientific instruments. Her youthful dramatics did draw considerable attention.

In contrast, the "bahu" had to bank on the back-up of her daughter Priyanka to counter Sushma's "swadeshi appeal". What actually gave the Bellary contest an extra edge was its "swadeshi" versus "videshi" syndrome.

This throws up the fourth most important point in the country's electoral politics. As already pointed out, the people's genuine problems and policy matters are hardly heard in the campaign. Personal attacks and scandal-mongering have become the standard practice of every political faction. Indeed, never before has the country seen such a low-level of electioneering.

Electioneering, in a way, is a mirror of our national malaise. Besides the low quality of campaigning, there is violence in the air which, in turn, vitiates the atmosphere and corrupts the process of free and fair elections. Perhaps, we have not properly assessed the nature of violence and reasons which have created restlessness and lawlessness in our society.

I am not talking of the abnormal conditions prevailing in Jammu and Kashmir and certain parts of the North-East. In Andhra Pradesh too there has been a spate of killings. As for Bihar and parts of Uttar Pradesh, the mafia has been part of the election process.

Violence has its roots in the malfunctioning of the socio-economic system that thrives on caste, class and communal factors which are exploited by vested interests belonging to different political groups. It also underlines the failure of crisis management by those working in sensitive areas. In the Indian situation, the failures are mainly political.

Problems are, of course, far too many. Each problem is complicated not because it is insoluble but because the system and its leading cadres have either been indifferent or slow in responding to the needs of the hour.

Visible or invisible seeds of unrest sown in the process have invariably germinated into a major source of division and tensions.

If we look closely at certain murky goings-on in the polity, it will be seen that most aberrations are the byproduct of social malfunctioning and political inaction. Do such matters figure in the poll campaign? Hardly. Which is a pity.

Why have we come to such a sorry pass? There is no easy answer to this question. But unless leaders of major national parties themselves set standards, things cannot be improved.

There is, of course, no denying the fact that India's democratic system of governance has stood the test of time despite several aberrations and flaws. In fact, the people have got so much wedded to democracy that they will not accept any other form of government. This is my firm conviction. This is not a small achievement for a country where large sections of the population are backward, poor, illiterate and continue to be discriminated against by an insensitive system. However, the issue confronting us right now is not the level of poverty but the level of politics, norms of democracy and the mode of electioneering. This presents a disturbing scene.

Commenting on the great Britain of his times, Bernard Shaw in his work, "Political What is What", observed that "adult franchise has killed democracy." The voter in India, however, may not be sufficiently enlightened to understand the finer points of democratic functioning. But he is very articulate and has robust common sense. Indeed, the silver lining of Indian democracy is the people. The real problem here lies with the political leadership and political parties.

Public debate on vital matters have been of very poor quality. The question of swadeshi-videshi, the mud-slinging around the "widow-bachelor" syndrome, wild charges and counter-charges and political gimmickry seem to be the order of the day. From his sick bed in 1971 Jayaprakash Narayan brought some of these issues before the nation. But the leaders in post-JP India have failed to learn from past mistaken so as to respond adequately to the people's hopes and aspirations.

Things have only gone from bad to worse since then. In the present electioneering, party programmes are hardly projected before the public. In the absence of principles and ideology, mud-slinging has hogged the headlines. For that matter, the Kargil issue has been politicised. Even the Army has not been spared. Both the Congress and the BJP all the while desperately try to capitalise on Kargil's success and failures. Even the widows of Kargil martyrs have been brought into the vortex of politics. This is petty politics,dangerous politics.

For God's sake, spare the Army. Keep it out of your petty politics, dear politicians. Look at the now famous Bellary constituency. The people are poor and backward. They suffer perpetually because of the lack of drinking water and food. Yet both contenders hardly raised these basic issues in a serious manner. What a shame!

Allowing things to drift, howsoever politically tactical and expedient, is not in national interest. In the first place, those at the helm have to learn to respond to the people's needs. They have to be extra sensitive to public moods and grievances.

Secondly, they have to analyse problems and work out available options. Thirdly, they should exercise the best option for the good of the people speedily and judiciously. Fourthly, an option once exercised should be implemented comprehensively, whole-heartedly and promptly. Fifthly, firmness has to be shown subsequently.

Dithering and fickle-mindedness are signs of weakness. A democratic government is expected to be constantly responsive to public opinion. It should not expose itself to undesirable pressure tactics from interested quarters. But this seems to be the order of the day, elections or no elections.

In the absence of adequate responsiveness of the leaders, major political parties have been unable to sustain public support for long. We have seen this happening repeatedly since 1971. In the election that year, Indira Gandhi's Congress gained a big majority of seats in the Lok Sabha. This was followed by its sweeping the elections to State assemblies in 1972. In 1977 the newly formed Janata Party was catapulted to power, with Indira Gandhi winning hands down again in 1980.

The political scene keeps changing. In place of established leaders, new ones come. But things do not change since the requisite steps for improving the system have not been taken on the scale required.

Perhaps, the time has come to raise certain basic issues and question the system which is fast becoming perverse. Maybe, we can learn from Socrates' intellectual honesty. "The radical vice of democracy", according to Socrates, "is that of not demanding evidence of any special knowledge in its leaders; it suffers the destinies of society to be in the hands of men without true insight. Partly this means that by not demanding intellectual qualifications for office, democracy surrenders the control of affairs into the hands of men with no adequate expert knowledge".

Socrates was against the abuse of power and suffocating public opinion. He always expected the authority of the State to evolve a clean approach to public life. In fact, Plato's Republic is based on the Socratic conviction that "politics is the application to the community at large of the principle that knowledge of the absolutely good is the necessary and sufficient condition of well being."

This great Athenian philosopher (470 B.C-399 B.C) preferred to consume poison rather than give up his conviction. He was then accused of "corrupting the youth" and "neglecting the gods." It is now acknowledged that his voice was directed against corruption, petty politics and the authoritarian mode of governance which subverts the democratic system.

Unfortunately, our country cannot boast of having committed leaders and intellectuals with conviction. It does not have a Socrates who could passionately advocate cleanliness in public life. We surely have a number of saner elements who continue their crusade for a value-based polity. But their sober voices get lost in low-level politicking and electioneering. The fight must go on regardless of consequences.

Military in political crossfire
by Harwant Singh

PLAYING competitive politics after the Kargil victory, political parties are throwing accusations at one another for the initial failure on the one hand and claiming credit for the eventual success on the other. All this carries the danger of politicising the defence services.

In this tug-of-war involving political parties what should be the services’ stance? General Westphal, one-time Chief of Staff to Rommel, in his book, “German Army in the West”, dilating on the rise of Nazis and the German army’s indifference to this development, records, “Those in command of the Army, Navy and the Air Force should not suppose that their duty ends with military obedience. They have a further, apolitical responsibility to the nation.” Thus the service chiefs should have said a firm “NO” to the briefing of the functionaries of the ruling party by senior Army and Air Force officers even if the instructions for the same had come from the political masters of the day.

Posting portraits of service chiefs and depicting scenes of Kargil battles at election rallies is not only in bad taste but is singularly vulgar and unethical. Presenting lotus and hand-shaped “rakhis” to soldiers is a cheap stunt in the electoral game and the Army Chief did well to tell them to “lay off”. However, a previous naval chief, writing in a national newspaper, noted that many officers wear a saffron vest under their olive green uniform. This is a dangerous trend and bodes ill for the future. Already traces of this dangerous drift are being seen by many.

There are accusations and counter-accusations on the issue of making the Services suffer with economy measures and denying bare minimum budgetary support. It was towards the later half of the eighties and throughout the nineties that a sustained financial squeeze had been applied to the defence services for which the successive Congress governments and the successor governments can be held accountable. At the same time the BJP and its allies while in power not only made no efforts to correct the situation but also merely followed the same policy. In fact, it is during the BJP-led government that the strength of the Army was reduced by 50,000 troops at a time when commitments had substantially increased in J and K and the North-East for internal security tasks.

In a democracy, it would be incorrect to lay all the blame for the neglect of the national security issues entirely on the government of the day. Parliament is accountable for failing to debate the issues vigorously. There is nothing on record in the proceedings of the House, during this long period, where the Opposition parties raised serious objections to the starving of defence services of funds. In fact, Parliament has rarely witnessed a worthwhile debate on defence Bills. Absenteeism and lack of debate are the more visible features of the passing of a defence Bill. While throughout these years it had been repeatedly pointed out in the national Press, more so in the columns of this paper, that, “the periodic reduction of the defence budget in the face of the deteriorating security scene is a sure recipe for disaster”. When the crisis loomed large on the western horizon, all that the Army Chief could say was that if war is thrust on us, “we will fight with whatever we have”. As if he had any other choice, but his observation was loaded with the sins of past neglect.

It is possible to argue that the Kargil incursion was indirectly the result of the fiscal problems of the Indian defence forces. It has been common knowledge that the defence forces had suffered in many ways — the equipment, the levels of reserves, modernisation, etc, — and in Pakistan’s perception the Indian edge in conventional force capability had eroded. It may be recalled that even a somewhat minor action at Kargil involving only a few units resulted in the Army desperately looking for Bofors and even small arms and ammunition in the world markets. That was perhaps a sure indication of the dangerous levels to which the ammunition reserves had been allowed to run down. The difficulties would have sufficiently surfaced had the conflagration spread to larger dimensions.

The casus belli of the Kargil misadventure by Pakistan lay in three areas of Indian defence developments. One, the erosion in the superiority of conventional forces. Two, the ever increasing commitment and consequent deployment of the Army in J and K and the North-East on internal security tasks. Three, the perception of a shift in policy relating to Indian response to an aggression in J and K. Therefore, the debate merely on the fiscal starvation of the defence services by one party and reversing the trend by the other is puerile and meaningless, and is purely to score debating points without any genuine concern for national security.

(The author, a retired Lt-General, was the Deputy Chief of Army Staff).

Art of selling
by S. Raghunath

THE Punjab State Dairy Development Corporation (PSDDC) plans to streamline and tone up milk distribution in major cities and towns by allotting agencies to retired senior police officers who are willing to take them up to supplement their pensions.

A retired Deputy Superintendent of Police whose forte while in service, was law and order, criminal investigation and anti-militancy operations has been the first to take up the offer and appropriately, his agency number is 007.

Hardly a week in business, he has already notched up record sales not only of milk, but also agmark ghee, pasteurised butter, Miltone and cheese.

What accounts for his enviable success? Let’s see.

“What do you want?”

“I want a quarter litre satchet of milk.”

“Come smartly to attention and salute before talking to me and always address me as sir. So you want only a quarter litre satchet, do you? How would you like to receive the beating of a lifetime from my regulation lathi and have a First Information Report filed against you? You wouldn’t like that? So I thought. You’ve changed your mind and you want a crate containing 20, one-litre satchets. How about buying 45 kg of best quality agmark ghee manufactured by the PSDDC at its Patiala plant?”

“No, no, sir I’,m a heart patient and my doctor has put me on a strict fat-free diet. Ghee will be the death of me, even agmark ghee. Please, sir may I go now?”

“So you don’t want to buy my yummy ghee, eh? You strip to your waist and I’ll tie your fingers to those fan hooks and subject you to the aeroplane treatment. That’s the only language you underworld characters and rowdy-sheeted goondas understand. Ah, that’s better. You want six large tin of ghee? It’s a pleasure to do business with you.”

“Would you like 10 kg of pasteurised butter to take home? I’m sure your children would love to eat it with their bread sandwiches.. It costs just Rs 80 a kg and how shall I wrap it?”

“Please sir, I don’t want any butter and because of my heart condition, I don’t touch it and I don’t have children who eat sandwiches.”

“So you don’t want my butter? Now that’s a laugh. Where have I kept my rubber hose and my bag of Andhra red chillies?

Ah, that’s fine, you want 30 kg of butter and I’ll have it wrapped nicely. Customer satisfaction is my motto. Now how about an extra large crate of Miltone? PSDDC has specially formulated it with groundnuts to provide fortified protein and extra nourishment.”

“No, no, sir, the very sight of Miltone and I throw up. You see, I’m allergic to groundnuts. Please sir, shall I go now?

“So you don’t want to buy a crate of Miltone? I know that you were an anti-social gangster who had jumped bail the moment you asked for a quarter litre satchet of milk. You come into the booth and strip to your waist. You then lie flat on your back, your arms spreadeagled. I’ll place a bamboo stave across your knees and stamp it with my ammunition boots causing a multiple fracture of the bones and you will be a cripple for the rest of your life. You wouldn’t like it. So I thought and you’ll take home 5 crates of Miltone.”

“That’s my boy and you can stop trembling now. May I have the coupons for all your purchases, please? Thank you and please do come again for all your requirements of PSDDC’s products.”

Need to forge anti-Taliban front
by M.S. N. Menon

IT is said of the Vatican that it sought the alliance of the fierce Mongols (even the Chinese) against Turkish and Arab ascendancy. But no king of India ever approached the Mongols and the Chinese for an alliance against the rising power of the Arabs and Turks. So much for the statecraft of India. Strategic thinking was and is alien to this country.

To secure the “gate” is the natural instinct of every householder. Afghanistan was India’s gate. But we were indifferent to its upkeep. It remained wide open for more than half a millennium. Invaders poured into the plains of India to pillage and plunder, to conquer and colonise. And not one of our kings (there were hundreds of them) ever thought of organising an alliance of Indian raja to close the gate and block the invaders’ way.

The Maharaja of Kashmir was supposed to keep an eye on Chinese expansion into Ladakh. After 1947 this task fell on the Abdullah Government. What did it do? It promptly closed the sentry posts and gave up even periodic border surveys. Those were days of Hindi-Chini bhai-bhai! This explains how the Chinese were able to construct a highway to Tibet and occupy Aksai Chin without alerting the Indian authorities. It must have taken them years to construct the road, but not even a shepherd is reported to have told the Indian authorities what was happening.

Why am I raking up this history? Because India continues to be indifferent to its geo-strategic interests and its security needs. In fact, we refuse to even have a foreign policy to promote our interests. How else can one explain the continuing proxy war waged by Pakistan against India for over a decade? We have not been able to work out a proper response to this affront in all these years. And yet the clue lay in Kabul. Kabul is the key to Pakistan’s good behaviour.

It is said, security is the first priority of a state. This has never been true of India. In 1947, we woke up only when the invaders reached the outskirts of Srinagar. We gifted away the POK and the strategic northern territories to Pakistan. In 1965 we were unaware of Pakistan’s mobilisation against us. In 1962 we were caught napping in the Himalayas. In 1971 we were so desperate that we had to sign a treaty with Moscow. And what about Kargil? There, we did not have even boots and clothes for our soldiers to fight the war in the snowclad mountains! Our politicians have a long tradition of neglect of security needs. As for the military, well, they are not supposed to speak in Public. This suits the politicians.

All these explain why the Taliban, with whom we have no quarrel, have chosen to insult us by sending their killers to Jammu and Kashmir to fight Pakistan’s proxy war. Osama bin Laden attacked some of the US embassies. What happened? The punishment was prompt. America pounded his camps with devastating effect. He sent his men to Jammu and Kashmir. What was the Indian response? Nothing. We have a tradition of long suffering. We merely protest. It reminds us of the ill-tempered cripple who would shout every time he was annoyed by the urchins: “Let me get up, I’ll show you!” But he could never get up being a cripple. It is not necessary for the USA to tell us of the virtues of tolerance and patience (although it displays none of these). We are by nature tolerant of even evil.

In a letter to Burhanuddin Rabbani, head of the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan, Prime Minister Vajpayee recalled the close bonds of friendship India had with Afghanistan based on civilisational and cultural affinities (as if these are our immediate concern today. True, these go back to when I cannot say. Kaikeyi, wife of Dasaratha, came from Kekaya, a kingdom of Afghanistan, and Gandhari, wife of the blind king Dhritrashtra, came from Gandhara, which became a famous centre of Greek art (Gandhara art). Afghanistan was part of the Mauryan and Gupta empires, as also of Kanishka, and Bamiyan was one of the greatest Buddhist centres in the world. During the rule of the Mughals and sultans India was in close touch with Afghanistan. Such are our old links with the region.

But to what purpose? These have not served us because we do not cultivate these old relations. We showed no strategic alacrity either to build on these ancient ties when we became independent, or to craft new relations on the basis of new perceptions. We did not support the monarchy there, nor were we particularly close to the regime that followed — that of Dost Mohammed. When the Marxist revolution broke out in 1978, Moscow was as much surprised as the rest of the world. We then made a fundamental mistake: we thought that counter-revolution was right and revolution wrong. So we permitted Pakistan to gain influence over Afghanistan with US help. In the process Pakistan created the Taliban — the new rulers of Kabul. Thus Pakistan has been able to establish its permanent presence in Kabul. Didn’t we realise the folly of our course? Perhaps not.

We could have played a positive role in Afghanistan during its Marxist years. It was in our interest to set up a powerful regime in Kabul in cooperation with Moscow. But we thought that Moscow had “invaded” Afghanistan to grab Gulf oil (some of our “great” commentators held this view). Some thought that the “Reds’ were coming too close for our comfort. Are they now feeling comfortable with the Taliban even closer — in Kashmir?

Mr Vajpayee’s letter says that India is committed to Afghan unity, its independence and territorial integrity. Fine words! But too late. By letting Pakistan gain control of Kabul, we have not only doomed the future of the Afghans, but also created a more formidable Pakistan. And in the final phase, both Moscow and New Delhi betrayed the Najibullah regime. Moscow denied it military supplies (particularly aviation fuel) and India failed to make a last-minute effort to save Dr Najibullah from the gallows.

Today, Afghanistan is the centre of world terrorism and narcotic trade. They depend on each other. But what has stirred the USA into action is the growing challenge from Osama bin Laden, and the fear that Afghanistan may well become the haven of “Bin Ladens” of the world.

The Indo-US talks on Afghanistan are welcome, if their aim is to stamp out terrorism. But this cannot be the US objective. The USA has always found some use for terrorists and it will continue to use them in future. Taliban had a major hand in Kashmir’s militancy and yet America refused to even acknowledge it. Instead, it maintained friendly relations with the Taliban. Washington refuses to declare the Taliban as a terrorist outfit. Has all that changed? It is not possible. But why this hush-hush?

And America has not given up the pipeline project through Afghanistan and Pakistan. The success of the gas pipeline project, of course, depends on India, which is supposed to be the main user. Is that why Washington wants to involve India in the talks?

For an effective solution to the problem of the region, Afghanistan must be weaned away from Pakistan, for Pakistan will never give up its secret plan to annex Afghanistan. In the process, it will keep up tension in the area. India must, therefore, back up the Central Asian and Iranian efforts to oust the Taliban from Kabul. And India must invite US support for this task.

Recently, the Foreign Ministers of Kazakhstan, Kyrgystan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan met to coordinate their responses to the increasing threat from the Taliban. Taliban has already created civil war conditions in Kyrgystan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. These countries have a commitment to oust the Taliban.

We have a common cause with them. And we look beyond the Taliban to a multi-ethnic Afghanistan. With such an Afghanistan, we must forge an enduring strategic alliance. Only then can we contain the blind animus of Pakistan against India.

75 YEARS AGO

September 10, 1924
Legislative Assembly: non-official Bills

SIMLA: As a result of the Bills held this week, no less than 20 non-official members have drawn Bills for introduction in the Legislative Assembly on September 16. Mr Kelkar has got two Bills, one to amend the Societies’ Registration Act, 1860, and the other to amend the Passport Act.

Mr Joshi and Mr B.Dass will introduce Bills to regulate the employment of women in factories and mines those states to which the Assam Labour and Emigration Act, 1901, applies, sometime before and sometime after confinement, and to make provision for the payment of maternity benefit.

The other Bills for introduction are Dewan Bahadur Ram Chandra Rao’s to amend the Specific Relief Act, Pandit Sham Lal Nehru’s Bill to prohibit export trade in cattle meat, Mr Neogi’s Bill to amend the Indian Railway’s Act, 1890, and another to reverse the coastal traffic of India to Indian vessels and Mr Rangaswami Iyengar’s to amend certain provisions in the Penal Code relating to offences against the state and public tranquillity, another further to amend the code of Criminal Procedure, 1898, and still another to repeal the Indian Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1908.