E D I T O R I A L   P A G E

EDITORIALS

Worse than bodyline
FLY the flag at half-mast and mourn the formal demise of international cricket. Henceforth Sachin Tendulkar’s delectable straight drive and Saurav Ganguly’s equally majestic cover drive may not be able to cheer up the genuine lover of the game of cricket.

APHC’s role
THE All-Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC) is an organisation of influential Kashmiri Muslim leaders. It has sufficient clout in the valley. The leaders have taken varying stands on various occasions because no one has recognised their potential and significance in the politics of Jammu and Kashmir.

OPINION

A HOT SUMMER FOR KASHMIR?
Wages of half-hearted measures
by Sumer Kaul
NOW that the snows in the upper reaches of Kashmir are beginning to melt, common intelligence as well as experience suggest that Pakistan will enlarge infiltration and intensify its bloody deeds across the LoC and, of course, in the valley. Not that the winter this time halted their terrorist machinations. In fact, the end of their Kargil invasion which coincided with the end of summer witnessed major escalation in violent incidents, including some audacious strikes at our security apparatus in Srinagar itself.

MIDDLE

Of angles, angels and astrologers
by Chaman Ahuja
EVERYTHING seemed to go perfect with my friend and yet he was in panic. He was haunted by the fear that some such thing was imminent as might leave him in utter penury and thus necessitate a real hard struggle to keep the wolf from the door. His problem was that a palmist had predicted his dying in harness. Inevitably, he visited a renowned astrologer.

NEWS REVIEW

‘Grand alliance’ differs over leader
From Krittivas Mukherjee in Calcutta
THE proposed “grand alliance” of anti-Communist parties in West Bengal is beset with leadership problems even before its formation. The “mahajot” or grand alliance, proposed by Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee to overthrow the Left Front coalition ruling the State for 23 years, has generated much enthusiasm amongst the opposition parties — the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) — but differences over the leadership have created fissures already.

Experts cautious about IT Bill
From Frederick Noronha in Bangalore
NOT everyone in India’s Silicon Valley is upbeat about the Information Technology Bill, 1999, to be discussed in Parliament next month. While agreeing that the bill would ensure a “useful framework” for e-commerce, experts who gathered in Bangalore for a two-day conference on IT and the law, said it could hamper the IT industry by introducing unnecessary official interference.

75 years ago

April 12, 1925
Beneficent Department
IT will be remembered that the other day Mir Maqbul Mahmud carried and amendment in the Punjab Council asking the Government not to utilise any portion of the revenue surplus in paying off its productive debt, but to make use of it as fully as possible in expenditure on the beneficent departments which were being almost starved for want of funds.

Worse than bodyline

FLY the flag at half-mast and mourn the formal demise of international cricket. Henceforth Sachin Tendulkar’s delectable straight drive and Saurav Ganguly’s equally majestic cover drive may not be able to cheer up the genuine lover of the game of cricket. Who would be in a mood to celebrate when one of the greatest icons of contemporary cricket has admitted to having taken money during the recent five-match one-day series between South Africa and India? When the Delhi Police broke the news of match-fixing and named Hansie Cronje as the main suspect the initial reaction was that of disbelief. Anyone can cheat, but not the South African captain. His demeanour on and off the field was that of a straight and upright player who loved the game and his country in equal measure. In a single stroke he has brought disrepute to both. If Cronje is a crook, so are Herschelle Gibbs, Peter Strydom and Nicky Boje, whose names along with those of the Indian bookies too figure in the FIR registered by the police in Delhi. The real issue of the role of money in the post-Packer era in destroying the spirit of the game was never taken seriously by the establishment. Officials thought there was enough clean money for everyone in the sponsored version of the game to keep a player from being tempted to accept some more on the side for considerations other than cricket. There is never any smoke without fire. But the lovers of the game were secretly praying that what the Delhi Police was chasing were merely false smoke signals. Of course, the fact that External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh had personally given permission, in view of the likely diplomatic fallout of the investigations, to go ahead with the probe did lend more than the usual air of credibility to the most sensational story of match-fixing. Otherwise, such stories kept turning up like bad pennies, with embarrassing regularity ever since Shane Warne and Time May named some Pakistani players. But why lament the death of the game of cricket alone? Which international sport has remained clean after the entry of the ubiquitous sponsor with bags full of money?

Of course, Cronje’s is the first instance of an international cricketer admitting that he took money for fixing games. Shane Warne and Mark Waugh too were caught with their fingers in the till. But for some unexplained reason neither the International Cricket Council nor the Australian Cricket Board thought that the two had committed an offence which would justify their banishment from the game. Had their seemingly minor trespass of taking money from an Indian bookie for providing information on “weather and pitch” been dealt with harshly Cronje the crook may not have replaced Cronje the cricketer, who was also a remarkable leader. The ICC has much to answer for not giving to the issue of betting and match-fixing the serious attention it deserved. ICC President Jagmohan Dalmiya’s dream of globalising cricket now lies shattered because of his indifference in the matter of addressing the problem of corruption in cricket. Henceforth every match would appear to be fixed. If a player drops a catch, he would be deemed to have taken money. If a batsman gets run out, he would be seen as following the script given to him by a Sanjeev Chawla or a Rajesh Kalra or a Krishen Kumar or a Dawood Ibrahim. One question which only Cronje can answer is: why did he of all the cricketers have to do it? He had everything going for him as a player and as captain of a team which has been plain unlucky to never have reached a World Cup final. Greed after all is not just a Third World problem and individual honesty too can be purchased if the price is right. Now that Cronje has confessed, it may not be wrong to presume that he was dirty all along. Gibbs too was presumably his side-kick in the dirty game of throwing matches for money. The catch which Gibbs dropped of Steve Waugh in the semi-final of the 1999 World Cup may now have a big question mark put over it. Waugh may now realise that he was way off the mark when he said in jest to Gibbs, “you have just dropped the World Cup, son”. He did not drop it. He was, perhaps, paid to drop it.

APHC’s role

THE All-Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC) is an organisation of influential Kashmiri Muslim leaders. It has sufficient clout in the valley. The leaders have taken varying stands on various occasions because no one has recognised their potential and significance in the politics of Jammu and Kashmir. Chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Prof Abdul Ghani Bhat and Maulvi Abbas Ansari, who were released from the Jodhpur jail last week, are, by and large, friends of Kashmir. The main trouble lies with the prevailing situation. Every Kashmiri leader is afraid of cross-border terrorism and Pakistan’s other gameplans. Left to themselves, the sensible APHC men will cooperate with Indian leaders in finding a solution to the Kashmir problem. But there are many voices which do not make a chorus; these produce cacophony. The release of the three APHC stalwarts by the Government has come after long deliberations. When Mr Geelani says that they were not contacted by the Indian authorities in the jail and the release of his colleagues and himself was an event full of surprise, he is only using the language of abundant self-explanation. The Union Government has given the freedom of expression to various Muslim leaders who do not agree with the manner in which the Government talks and acts. But in their hearts, they are Kashmiris and they value their roots. No one should expect unafraid plainspeaking from these leaders. One should understand that in the mercenary-dominated atmosphere, few people can take courage in both hands and speak against Pakistan. The state government has released hundreds of disoriented young men who had chosen the path of militancy. Only some of them have gone back to the bad ways of the bad days. Maulvi Umar Farooq has been more strident than Mr Geelani in making confusion more confounded. The Union Government has not taken any risk in allowing the three APHC leaders to leave the Jodhpur jail and go to their home state as free men. This gesture will show its results within a few months. Pakistan has never exhibited such magnanimity to the dissenters languishing in prisons in its territory. Freedom is dear to Mr Geelani and Professor Bhat. They have never advocated the destruction of the Indian state. Fear and its manifestations have, however, made them speak a language which is full of ambiguity.

What do they want? They want talks on the Kashmir issue with the involvement of Pakistan and the “representatives of the Kashmiri people”. No one, who believes in dialogue, wants any other kind of talks. Bilateral talks envisage the participation of India and Pakistan. Mr Geelani and his friends add “the people of Kashmir to the list of the talkers”. In fact, Mr Geelani and his true friends can be treated as representatives of Kashmiris. Where is the hitch? There is only an element of caution in these words: “The key issue is not with Pakistan or the USA. The name of the British Prime Minister is being dragged in unnecessarily. The solution lies with India. Indian leaders have to use their good offices to solve the Kashmir trouble.” Mr Geelani is right when he says that the declaration made at Tashkent, Shimla and Lahore have not worked because the grassroots were not represented at those summits. The accords were signed without the participation of the “people’s representatives”. It is necessary to give the known dissidents some importance. They should be encouraged to talk sincerely to the leaders in New Delhi and convince the people in the valley and the plains that there is no dark tunnel without some light at its end in Kashmir. One can look at the tendencies of many of the former politicians of Jammu and Kashmir who have shown faint-heartedness and bargained with the terrorists. The three leaders set free now can make a real difference to the prevailing situation. No one should be afraid of them. Obviously, New Delhi wants Srinagar to be the centre of cool-headed talks instead of a place marked by bloodshed. Home Minister L.K. Advani has taken the right step. We expect a change of heart in Hurriyat leaders. Once the process of dialogue with them starts without unnecessary publicity, bitterness will begin to diminish. If Hurriyat comes clean at the conference table with a legitimate and representative status, the process of a truly meaningful discussion will be resumed. Pakistan does not figure anywhere in the present process. Its name has to be mentioned because it is a formidable trouble-maker. Goodwill is knocking at the strongly-shut door of uncommunicativeness. There is a glimmer of hope in the statements made by the released leaders.

A HOT SUMMER FOR KASHMIR?
Wages of half-hearted measures
by Sumer Kaul

NOW that the snows in the upper reaches of Kashmir are beginning to melt, common intelligence as well as experience suggest that Pakistan will enlarge infiltration and intensify its bloody deeds across the LoC and, of course, in the valley. Not that the winter this time halted their terrorist machinations. In fact, the end of their Kargil invasion which coincided with the end of summer witnessed major escalation in violent incidents, including some audacious strikes at our security apparatus in Srinagar itself. The Clintonian exhortation to maintain peace on the LoC notwithstanding, there is nothing in the subcontinental air to suggest the slightest improvement on the ground. On the other hand, there is ample evidence to portend a substantial worsening of the situation in the coming weeks and months.

Home Minister Lal Krishan Advani finds it strange that Pakistan should step up its terrorist depredations after every Indian “Triumph”. “It is ironical”, he said recently, “that India has had to confront terrorism after 1971 and more ironical that there has been a spurt in terrorism after our victory in Kargil”. This dripping naivette betrays the absence of a basic understanding of the designs of those who call the shots in Pakistan, whether in civvies or in uniform. It is this lack of perception and perspective on our part that has emboldened Pakistan and caused us so much trouble and tragedy, right from the first invasion of Kashmir in 1947 to the Kargil war which cost us more than 500 young lives without winning for us even short-term peace.

More likely than not, at least short-term peace would have been possible if we had, to use a Hindi proverb, answered Pakistan’s eenth (brick) with a pathar (stone), that is, punished it for the invasion in a manner that made security sense. Instead, we were content with merely pushing them back to the LoC, and called it “a great victory”. For the rest, the Prime Minister made a plaintive appeal to the USA to designate Pakistan a “terrorist state” and otherwise prevail on it to cease and desist in Kashmir.

This is a piece with our decision during Pakistan’s first invasion of Kashmir to go to the United Nations in the foolish belief that the Security Council (dominated by ex-colonial powers, including the one which divided India and created Pakistan) would listen to our good-boy prayer and ask Pakistan to vacate the aggression. That first of what has been a procession of blunders resulted in losing one-third of the state to the aggressor. In 1965 and 1971 when our military superiority could have been used to deal a durable blow to Pakistan’s war machine and consequently to its ambition to wrest Kashmir and dismember India (Punjab), we acted in defiance of all canons of statecraft, war and peace and returned to them not just the one lakh prisoners of war but sizeable territories, including, incredibly enough, some strategic areas in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (which we claim as ours) without gaining anything in terms of a settlement or even a binding assurance of non-violent behaviour on their part.

The people of India and especially those who voted for the BJP-led alliance because of that party’s (then) strong platform of national self-respect and national interests first and above all expected a qualitative and hopefully decisive change in our dealings with Pakistan, particularly in regard to Kashmir. These hopes stand seriously eroded — first by the predictable denouement of the government-created and media-endorsed delusion about Pakistan’s desire to end its rabid hostility against us as a result of Mr Vajpayee’s bus ride to Wagah and then by the self-limited response to the Kargil invasion and the humiliating mismanagement of the hijacking episode. When Kargil hit us, the people of India and perhaps the whole world expected that we would answer Pakistan’s perfidy by a crippling blow to the training and supply camps, if only to minimise if not eliminate renewed mischief on their part. As it happened, however, the people had underestimated even this government’s resolve not to break out of the traditional weak-kneed responses of successive Indian governments. But there is one difference this time: the government sought and is seeking the help of the eager-to-intervene Big Brother in Washington. Hence the subterraneous delight in official circles at President Clinton’s exhortation about “respecting the Line of Control”.

That this was directed as much at India as at Pakistan was completely lost on our political and diplomatic leadership. It may be that the government acquiesces in what is implicit in Mr Clinton’s advice, namely, that the LoC be treated as the international border. In that case why doesn’t the government make bold to openly say so, why doesn’t it try to convince the country that this is the best solution and move to make Parliament jettison its unanimous resolution to regain all of Kashmir? Why doesn’t it then officially offer the solution to Pakistan?

Far from doing any of this, the Prime Minister has reiterated the claim to the whole of Kashmir. India will not enter into any talks with Pakistan unless the latter “vacates the occupied territory in Kashmir”, he declared just the other day. When the Prime Minister says something like this, his countrymen expect that his government means it. However, within days of Mr Vajpayee’s assertion, his Foreign Minister put ending “cross-border terrorism” as the sole condition for the resumption of talks. But it is not as though Mr Jaswant Singh was overriding his Prime Minister and changing the policy; he was merely re-stating what the government said virtually the day after the Kargil war ended. Imagine, we offer the olive branch and we are subjected to a fierce war. We don’t seek to punish them, we don’t even demand war reparations, never mind seeking it through the World Court. Instead, we go there to defend ourselves against their demand for compensation for downing their spy plane, after repeated warnings, over our own territory! And we say we are ready to talk but please first end terrorism!

This defensive, virtually apologetic mindset comes to the fore at every turn, even as the killings continue, bombs go on exploding, RDX and weapons and counterfeit Indian currency are seized from ISI agents on a daily basis. These come from various directions, including “friendly” Nepal, but now increasingly through the Samjhauta (!) Express, the train service between India and Pakistan which Pakistan has threatened to discontinue on some technical ground but which our Ministry of External Affairs rushes to declare India is “committed to continue”!

One would have thought it would be the other way round but, given our namby-pamby pronouncements and policies, one no longer knows what to think! This government has been crying hoarse about the ISI’s expanding mischief in India and had promised a White Paper on the subject to expose the agency and its masters. The facts have been collected and the document is ready, but it won’t be released because, according to a newspaper report, the government fears there may be a backlash against ISI agents and allied miscreants and, believe it or not, in order not to “upset certain influential sections”.

So, not only the international community whose support we desperately seek but even the people of India shall not know. What they must know, however, is that the counter-insurgency grid is to be restructured, the intelligence network is to be divided into 39 sectors, and day and night area domination is to be established to defeat terrorism in Kashmir. All this after a high-level security meeting of the Cabinet. Pray, what use is this information to the public? If the idea of this disclosure was/is to send shivers up the spines of the terrorists, well, they have responded by massacring 35 Sikh villagers in Kashmir, (as they have tens of scores of Pandits). And not just civilians. Small bands of terrorists come prepared to attain “martyrdom” and attack our security establishments, and we blow up the buildings in which they park themselves. This presumably is our pro-active policy at work — to kill terrorists who come on suicide missions!

And now, in a significant policy decision which could have far-reaching implications, three jailed Hurriyat leaders have been released. (At the time of writing they were being treated as honoured guests and put up in the posh state guest house in the Capital — just a few miles from where thousands of Kashmiri Pandits, ousted from the valley by gun-toting militants, continue to languish in inhuman camps!). And the first thing they do is to reiterate their secessionist sentiments and even hobnob with the Pakistani High Commissioner!

There are reports that the government plans to hold talks with the secessionist trio, and also perhaps involve some Pakistan-sponsored local militant organisations in Kashmir, with a view to reviewing Centre-state ties. If the idea is greater autonomy, it is welcome and indeed necessary for all the states of the Union. But there are hints that the proposed “negotiations” may be on the basis of the pre-1953 status. If true, it marks an incredible metamorphosis of the ruling BJP which has all along stood for the abolition of Article 370. Be that as it may, those who expect that a reversion to a framework of limited accession will end the violence in the state and make Pakistan stop terrorism and cancel its ambition of annexing Kashmir will find that they are living in a fool’s paradise.

The IT boom and bust
by Balraj Mehta

THE boom of the information technology (IT) stocks on the bourses in India last year was out of proportion to the value of its products and earnings. IT companies in India depend for their earnings on the supply of software to be used by foreign, especially US, corporations. When the technology stock traded in New York tumbled, the value of the shares of Indian IT companies could not escape a bust either.

The increase in the wealth of individuals or companies in India, engaged in the software business, was dazzling. But a good chunk of this wealth on paper has disappeared after the sharp erosion of their stock in recent weeks. This by itself does not, however, have much significance for the working of the real economy of India.

IT and its application in India is so far only of marginal relevance to economic activity on a broad social base and is primarily of elitist interest. The number of Indians using IT software in India is estimated to be no more than half a million. Its relevance in futuristic terms too is bound to be limited unless there is a dramatic spurt in the rate of growth of the real economy and rapid rebuilding of appropriate material and social infrastructure for this purpose.

The idea indeed is fanciful that the IT industry by way of software exports can play the leadership role in the economic growth and modernisation of India. The rise of any particular industry or its segment to a leadership position is possible only if it can attract within its fold, directly or indirectly, a substantial chunk of the resources of the country — human, financial and material — for optimal engagement. The software exports are simply not suited for such engagement. On the contrary, their impact on economic activity and social relations as well as utilisation of resources is likely to be disruptive, indeed counter-productive, in many ways.

The importance given to software export has already resulted in distorting priorities in the allocation of financial resources for the balanced development of human and material infrastructure. Even in the limited sphere of the IT sector, the development of hardware has tended to be pushed back and software exports have gained ascendancy.

The development of software for exports too has failed to establish appropriate forward and backward linkages with the growth of the domestic economy and the educational, cultural and social progress of the country. It has indeed tended to be an isolated and insular activity.

Another problem in the wake of the attempt to try and boost software exports is the spurt of speculative activity in the bourses. Shady finance companies have emerged and smart operators under high-sounding IT claims and nomenclatures are at work to attract public savings by fraudulent methods. They are also enjoying fiscal concessions from the government.

There is a need for the strict regulation of the IT sector, in particular, software exports. There is a need also to lay down norms for the fixation of a price-earning ratio for the shares and stocks of IT companies that are being traded in the stock markets as well as the salary and perks of those working in these firms.

This is not to deny the positive role of IT in the socio-economic development process in India or world-wide. What is necessary is the attempt to try and develop technology relevant to the domestic economic activity on a broad front and make it more efficient and rewarding. The current obsessive concern with software exports is wrong and misdirected. The need is for the delineation of an appropriate technology policy and not just IT policy and the boost of software exports.

Indian scientists, in spite of many hurdles and handicaps in their way, have notable achievements of their initiative and perseverance in many critical areas. There is, however, widespread scepticism among scientists and technologists about the official technology policy. The market-friendly economic growth policy and political-strategic obligations under the globalisation banner have indeed restricted to a dangerous extent the space for Indian science to flourish and appropriate technology to develop and deliver essential goods.

The Indian market has been recklessly opened up for the inflows of foreign technologies as well as final goods and services for current consumption. Reliance is being placed on the import of “proven” technologies rather than on the more arduous and risky but also more rewarding indigenous R&D effort.

A special variant of brain-drain from India is being developed for software exports. The trained and skilled Indian manpower is being hired by transnational corporations for the production of goods of elitist interest for sale in India and abroad, and running of their sophisticated services, as part of their global operations, at relatively low Indian wages. But in this scheme of things, critical hardware cannot be made in India. There is no transfer of latest technologies to Indian hands either. In the case of joint ventures, a phased programme of indigenisation of the manufacturing process is ruled out and R&D made redundant.

It is remarkable in this context that a reputed journal with high progressive-pragmatic credentials in the past has gone to the extent of arguing that India will not only gain from supplying IT inputs to the rest of the world but also from supplying personnel to carry out the jobs of the globe’s back offices. It further argues that “traditional caste, culture and Macaulay have created in India the world’s largest army of efficient clerks. There is also enough entrepreneurial talent to organise the clerks into outfits that seek out and perform the world’s back office work”. This is indeed a sickening line of reasoning.

Of angles, angels and astrologers
by Chaman Ahuja

EVERYTHING seemed to go perfect with my friend and yet he was in panic. He was haunted by the fear that some such thing was imminent as might leave him in utter penury and thus necessitate a real hard struggle to keep the wolf from the door. His problem was that a palmist had predicted his dying in harness. Inevitably, he visited a renowned astrologer.

“Of course, you’ll die in harness, but that is only because you are going to have excellent health in old age and that will keep you active till the end.”

My friend felt relieved, grateful as well as intrigued. When he told me about this, I narrated to him that story about the two wise men of the east whose interpretation of their king’s dream earned them such drastically different fortunes. One of them was hanged when he said that the dream forebode great misfortune — king’s seeing dead bodies of his children and grandchildren. On the other were bestowed top honours and awards when he declared that the dream implied king’s living for more than a hundred years!

The real point in the twin tales is not the ambiguity inheriting soothsaying but relativity governing the world of human affairs. Witness another story—this time without involving any astrologer. A poor, old guy felt so miserable when his young wife started spending all her time with a rich paramour to such an extent that she was rarely at home. Completely shattered, he was disconsolate. But, one day, to the great surprise of all, he was found in an extremely jovial mood. When asked the reason, he declared that he had learnt to view things in a new perspective. “I used to feel so bad that my wife was living with another man; now I feel, instead, that a rich man’s beautiful beloved comes occasionally to visit me — an ugly old thing though I am.” Perhaps the Bard had also the same change in outlook in mind when he had declared that nothing was either good or bad but thinking made that so. Indeed, in this world littered with angularities, angle it is that matters.

A corollary of the Shakespearean aphorism is to be had in another popular saying—that one man’s meat might be another one’s poison. Recently a young man visited our home with an invitation to his wedding. When he introduced himself as the new pujari of the temple next street, my octogenarian uncle took him into an effusive embrace. “Oh, so you are the sweet creature that plays the records of the bhajans and scriptures in the morning. Thanks, my dear, thanks for affording that Amritvani to an old, invalid man like me right in his bed. You are doing great service to the community. It’s because of angels like you that the world is still intact. May you live long, my son. May God bless you with joy, glory, prosperity!” Overwhelmed, the young man touched uncle’s feet before leaving. In his excitement, he failed to notice the scowls on the faces of the rest of the family. Hardly had he stepped out when my cousin burst forth: So this is that devil who wakes us up at 4 a.m.? The damned fool has no civic sense. Service to community? Service, my foot! He is an anti-social rogue — a public nuisance. Everybody in the locality is cursing him. Sure, he’ll rot in hell. What will one man’s blessings do against the curses of so many?”

‘Grand alliance’ differs over leader
From Krittivas Mukherjee in Calcutta

THE proposed “grand alliance” of anti-Communist parties in West Bengal is beset with leadership problems even before its formation.

The “mahajot” or grand alliance, proposed by Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee to overthrow the Left Front coalition ruling the State for 23 years, has generated much enthusiasm amongst the opposition parties — the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) — but differences over the leadership have created fissures already.

Apart from the problem of bringing together the Congress and the BJP, Mamata Banerjee, the moving force behind the alliance and the only common ground between the two ideologically opposite parties, will have to decide on the question of leadership.

The BJP, which has been the Trinamool’s electoral ally in the last two national elections, does not object to the Congress joining the alliance but has refused to accept that party’s state President, A.B.A. Ghani Khan Chowdhury, as the leader.

Talk of Chowdhury heading the alliance for next year’s State Assembly elections gained ground after Mamata herself said she was willing to see the veteran Congress leader as the chief ministerial candidate. Mamata has shared warm relations with Chowdhury since her early days in the Congress, which she left in 1997 to form the Trinamool.

According to BJP state unit president Asim Ghosh “The working mechanics of the proposed alliance are not yet ready. In such a situation Mamata Banerjee has announced who will head the alliance. She should have spoken to us as we are their allies. The Trinamool is the bigger of us two, so we would like to see Mamata leading the ‘mahajot’.”

Ghosh said the BJP is not prepared to accept anyone from the Congress as the leader.

BJP’s Tapan Sikdar, the Union Minister of State for Communications, is also unhappy with hints being dropped about the alliance’s leader much before its actual formation. “Moreover, the Assembly elections are nearly a year away. So why is the question of who would be the alliance’s Chief Minister arising now?” he asked.

Political analysts say the BJP is opposed to a Congress member heading the alliance as it could not afford to hand over the credit of dislodging the Left Front to the party that is its rival on the national stage.

The BJP is still hoping the Congress will finally not join the grand alliance and instead a faction might break away from the parent party to ally with the anti-Communist platform. Should that happen, it would be a major jolt to the Congress and a big gain for the BJP.

The rift within the state Congress over joining the alliance has widened with the section led by party Working President Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi still opposing the move to be part of any formation that includes the BJP. The majority faction, led by Chowdhury and Somen Mitra, however, says ground realities indicate that fighting the Communists is more important for the time being than combating communalism in West Bengal. The Congress brands the BJP a “communal” party.

Mitra, who was instrumental in convincing a major section of the state Congress that the grand alliance was a good idea, says that the party had to join the formation because it was the will of West Bengal’s people that the Communists be dislodged.

“And this is only possible if an alliance is formed against them (the Communists). More than communalism, the atrocities of the Communist government are of paramount interest to the state’s people,” he said.

On the question of the BJP’s opposition to Chowdhury leading the grand alliance, Mitra said that depended on the Trinamool. “Even the BJP thinks the Trinamool should have the biggest say in the alliance. So Mamata Banerjee has herself said Ghani Khan could lead the alliance. We have not demanded that the alliance’s leader be from our party,” he said. — India Abroad News Service

Experts cautious about IT Bill
From Frederick Noronha in Bangalore

NOT everyone in India’s Silicon Valley is upbeat about the Information Technology Bill, 1999, to be discussed in Parliament next month.

While agreeing that the bill would ensure a “useful framework” for e-commerce, experts who gathered in Bangalore for a two-day conference on IT and the law, said it could hamper the IT industry by introducing unnecessary official interference.

“It’s good from the point of view of setting up a legal framework. But everything else (in the bill) I think is a waste of time,” said R. Ramaraj, Managing Director of Satyam Infoway Limited, India’s first private Internet Service Provider (ISP), speaking at the conference organised by the National Law School of India University here.

He said recognition of electronic signatures was a good aspect and he was also hopeful of electronic board meetings gaining legitimacy. But he warned: “Once you put in more and more laws, government involvement will increase, and I can’t think of any politician who won’t say impose more taxes.”

Attorney at law Sajan Merianda, a Bangalore-based legal consultant on IT issues, criticised the bill as it was likely to focus more on procedural aspects. Instead, he said, it was silent on what could be done to protect Indian firms from “those firms (in the West) who will bombard one with technology patents from outside”.

Merianda suggested area-specific laws for the IT sector, rather than “a system where we have one law doing everything with IT”. Separate laws could have been passed to help Indian firms with technology patents, tackling confidentiality of information issues and concerns like pornography, he suggested.

“Electronic documentation and evidence are issues which could have been brought in later,” he said and blasted the bill for “utter disregard for confidentiality and privileged communication.”

“Would you appreciate any authority getting into your hard-disk and going into what mails you sent? It is in violation of constitutional rights, since the right to life under Article 21 has been held to include the right to privacy,” Merianda added.

Said Gopi Garge, Director of Exocore Consulting: “I strongly disagree that the IT Bill should have the powers to examine everybody’s (e-mail) messages. Why presume that everyone is a malicious hacker?”

He agreed that it was essential to have laws to build up a framework for acceptable e-commerce. But why should there be laws to regulate the Internet, asked Garge.

Most speakers at the conference were critical of the Bill, though some did feel that without regulation the Internet would witness “jungle raj on the Net”.

Ramaraj of Satyam questioned the need for the Government to decide on encryption technologies. “Now, the level of encryption is to be determined by the government. Do I leave all these (encryption) keys with some official body (which could be open to misuse),” asked Ramaraj.

Pointing to another aspect, Ramaraj said, “Cyber laws should be technology-independent. Or else, by the time the law is written, technology will have changed. Then all of us will be sitting before Government offices, instead of doing our business.”

“Cable grew in this country because there was no law. IT services also grew because there was no minister (for the same),” said Ramaraj. Instead, he said, the government needed to merely focus on solving disputes arising from e-commerce, while the market could well decide how business ought to be done. — India Abroad News Service

75 years ago

April 12, 1925
Beneficent Department

IT will be remembered that the other day Mir Maqbul Mahmud carried and amendment in the Punjab Council asking the Government not to utilise any portion of the revenue surplus in paying off its productive debt, but to make use of it as fully as possible in expenditure on the beneficent departments which were being almost starved for want of funds.

It is satisfactory to learn from an announcement made by Sir John Maynard in the Council on Monday that the Government have now decided to come forward in May with concrete proposals for applying the revenue surplus to beneficent objects to the extent of 15 lakhs.

Although this sum is evidently far too small, considering the needs of the Province in respect of education, health, sanitation, industrial development, etc., it undoubtedly indicates an improvement on existing conditions and as such is to be welcomed.