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Thursday,
September 20, 2001, Chandigarh, India  
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Another pious ideal PSEB: towards darkness Rajnath ups the Dalit ante |
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Fallout of the September 11 infamy
Trying times for U.S. Ambassador
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Another pious ideal FREE, compulsory and universal education for children up to the age of 14 years has been an exciting dream of social activists and reformers since independence. The Constitution pledged to make every child a literate within 10 years – that is, by 1960. But the founding fathers knew the enormity of the task so they wrote this into Article 45, Directive Principles of State Policy which is just a guideline and not legally enforceable. Now the BJP-led alliance government has decided to make education a fundamental right by adding a clause to Article 21. There is a delightful irony in this. Education will be a fundamental right and parents and guardians will have the legal obligation to send their wards to school but the state will not commit itself to strictly implement the law. Its duty will end with providing funds – from the present allocation of Rs 4,000 crore to about Rs 10,000 crore. There are several unanswered questions here. Some states have over the years bound themselves to provide children free education but without making any difference on the ground. Obviously, it is one thing to make laws and quite another to succeed in social engineering. Primary education is in the concurrent list and any major decision needs the concurrence of the states. This is particularly true of primary education. Also, non-BJP ruled states are wary of the Centre’s policies on higher education and have banded together to oppose radical changes, as the attendance at the meeting convened by West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharya showed. The insurmountable problem is the acute shortage of schools, teachers and the reluctance of rural parents to send their children to schools. It needs a massive effort of state governments to change the situation. The Centre is clearly oblivious of the problems. To start with, unlettered children are to be found mostly in poor families of rural areas of backward states, which also contribute to baby boom. The parents depend on their elder children to take care of their siblings and also augment the family’s meagre earnings. Educated children refuse to follow family vocation and disrupt long traditions. This goes with the absence of schools, teachers and even black boards in the rural areas. An assessment of operation blackboard, launched some years ago to make India a literate nation, brought out the pitiable state of primary education in rural India. Three-fourths of the children drop out of schools before they complete the fifth standard. Somebody should seriously examine why education, already free in all government schools, fail to retain the interest of students. The fiasco of the midday meal scheme, a kind of bribery to starving families, is an eloquent testimony of the muddle-headed policy on universal education. Villages which breed illiteracy cry out for a different approach than the urban and semi-urban areas which manufacture salaried workers. Tinkering with laws, even as sacrosanct as the Constitution, is not a solution. |
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PSEB: towards darkness DUE to mismanagement, profligacy and political populism, the Punjab State Electricity Board has been bled white over the years. And there is no end in sight to its continuing bleeding. Rather, going by some recent decisions of the board and the political leadership, the board is in for further trouble. While the open tussle between the state Power Minister and the PSEB chairman has come to an end with the easing out of the latter and the takeover of chairmanship by an IAS officer, much to the chagrin of the board’s senior technocrats, peace at the top has been replaced by resentment at the middle level with the recent indiscriminate transfers of engineers. How low internal bickering can sink was evident from the snatching of the chairman’s powers, before his ouster, to transfer the staff by an overbearing Power Minister. What do you expect from a Minister for whom the power to transfer employees is more important than making power available to the people of his state. Financially, the board is going from bad to worse. Take, for instance, the recent directive to the board to regularise 41,000 tubewell connections. This alone will put the PSEB under an additional burden of Rs 100 crore. Besides, the service connection charges have been reduced from Rs 10,000 to Rs 5,000. And Punjab is supposed to have a state electricity regulatory commission whose job is to take such decisions on merit. But this is an election year and the Chief Minister is busy extending his vote-bank by showering favours which may make the PSEB’s return from ruin, whenever attempted, a very difficult exercise. To make matters worse, at least four companies which supply coal to the board, have served an ultimatum, asking it to either clear its dues, estimated at about Rs 60 crore, at the earliest or face suspension of coal supply. Going by the near bankruptcy of the PSEB, it is hardly surprising to read about the profligate ways of its management, which had hired management experts from Delhi and Kolkata at unusually high rates when it could have easily tapped the talent available in the region at a much lower cost. But this is a minor dip into the board’s kitty which has been plundered recklessly by successive extravagant managements and state
governments. Nobody has ever thought of, or even expected, that this chronically ailing board can be run professionally. Power reforms are an area of darkness for those in power. Two significant consultancy reports on “re-engineering of the PSEB” and the “PSEB’s information technology plan” are gathering dust in the management’s files. There is another equally important plan to redesign the PSEB working on the pattern of the Bombay Suburban Electricity Supply (BSES). The board’s own staffers say that if these reports are implemented, the board can provide 24-hour power supply to at least 12,000 villages, besides earning an additional revenue of Rs 2,000 crore a year for the board. It is not for lack of advice or ideas that the PSEB has been reduced to its present plight; it is lack of will, political and administrative. The sufferers are the people of Punjab for whom 24-hour electricity supply is a dream. |
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Rajnath ups the Dalit ante NO one can accuse Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Rajnath Singh of not trying hard enough to give the Bharatiya Janata Party an outside chance of winning the assembly elections. Keeping in mind the fact that the poll forecasts continue to be gloomy for the BJP, his pro-Dalit moves may just about do the trick. He is playing from a position from where he cannot lose. His moves can only resurrect the electoral fortunes of the party. The decision to sack a lower caste minister is part of a well thought-out strategy. It all began with the announcement of job reservation within the existing quota for the newly created category of the most backward castes. Both Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party and Ms Mayawati of the Bahujan Samaj Party had no option but to make only unconvincing noises against Mr Rajnath Singh's decision. Strident opposition to the initiative would have made the Chief Minister's task of reinventing the BJP as a pro-Dalit outfit easier. His next move was to sack an upper caste minister. To add power to his punch the Chief Minister said that the voluble Mr Naresh Aggarwal was being dropped because there were charges of corruption against the Lok Tantrik Congress leader. The intended political message was that the new BJP was pro-Dalit and anti-corruption, the two issues that still command a high premium in the marketplace of manipulative politics. A desperate Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav ordered his MLAs to resign on the plea that the term of the current Vidhan Sabha would technically end on October 17. The expiry date has come and gone and the only expected development was the acceptance of the resignations of the MLAs who made themselves available for a physical head count in the office of Vidhan Sabha Speaker Kesrinath Tripathi. Mr Rajnath Singh continues to be Chief Minister and the resignation of the Samajwadi MLAs has had no impact on the stability of the coalition he heads. He has not lost sleep over the crossing over to the Samajwadi Party of a few members of the coalition, including one from the BJP. But of all the moves Mr Rajnath Singh has made thus far, the one involving the sacking of a Dalit minister was the most daring. |
Fallout of the September 11 infamy ALL those who have said that the “world changed on September 11” because of the worst ever terrorist attack on the mightiest nation on earth are entirely right. It is equally clear that a global war on terrorism — President Bush calls it the “21st century’s first war” — is in the offing though it will not begin as early as some seem to imagine. The implications and ramifications of what is afoot are enormous, indeed incalculable. However, it is altogether typical that in this country the whole issue affecting the entire globe and having myriad dimensions has been reduced, yet again, to the vexed question of India-Pakistan rivalry and competition. From this grievously flawed premise many have drawn conclusions that bespeak of irrational fear, not cerebration of any kind, rational or otherwise. Though regrettable, this is not surprising because at the root of the current confusion lies Kashmir. Given the geo-strategic realities of the region, it should have been obvious even to the meanest intelligence that to get to Osama bin Laden and the Taliban that harbours him in landlocked Afghanistan, the US-led coalition will have to go through Pakistan. Facilities available in India and elsewhere (Bangladesh has already agreed to the use of its air space) would help but would not be enough. For any ground action in Afghanistan, the USA would require launching pads on Pakistani territory. Nor should there have been any doubt that, despite its many difficulties and dilemmas, the Musharraf regime had to fall in line and accept every single of America’s requirements for retaliatory strikes on Afghanistan in general and on Osama’s hideouts in particular. General Pervez Musharraf went to television thrice to reassure the Americans. He looked nervous as he did so. For, he was aware of the angry backlash from the powerful jehadi elements in Pakistan and from the Taliban that has already started. But the General and the government he presides over had absolutely no choice. Consequences of defying the USA would have been vastly more catastrophic than any harm the jehadis can do in the near future. Islamabad has dutifully sealed the border with Afghanistan. It has also begun withdrawing its 3,000 soldiers from that country. It was in this context that Pakistan, evidently with some help from the CNN, floated reports that General Musharraf had made Pakistan’s cooperation with the USA conditional. One of his four demands was said to be that the USA should play a “more active” role in getting the Kashmir issue settled. Exclusion of both India and Israel from the force invading Afghanistan, remission of $ 30-billion loans, and lifting of all sanctions on Pakistan were the other three. Some credence was lent to these reports by US Secretary of State Gen Colin Powell’s statement that Pakistani “sensitivities” had been noted. In this country, however, all hell broke loose. Many convinced themselves that General Musharraf had persuaded the Americans to “de-link” Kashmir from the burning question of terrorism and had thus “upstaged” the Indian government exactly as he had done at the time of the failed Agra summit. America took immediate steps to dispel these misgivings and to contradict the reports that had been circulating. Washington even said that neither Kashmir nor the exclusion of India and Israel from the international coalition against terrorism was mentioned in General Musharraf’s telephonic talk with Mr George Bush. The new US Ambassador in New Delhi, Mr Robert Blackwill, went from one senior minister to another with this message. And yet instead of being removed, the erroneous impression has, if anything, become stronger. This surely is a sign of paranoia unworthy of a great country that is generally acknowledged to be an emerging global power with an economy that would be the world’s second largest, after China’s by 2020. The Indian giant seems to be both flabby and uncertain. The brainy, indeed gifted, Indians apparently are unable to think maturely. The Americans, who have invested a lot of time and energy over the last few years to tell this country and the world that a brave new phase of “qualitatively different and close” relations with India has begun, remain insensitive to this country’s paramount concerns. Despite its rhetoric against terrorism and not with standing the formation of a joint Indo-US working group on counter-terrorism, never once has the USA used the term terrorism, leave alone the more accurate expression cross- border terrorism, about the goings-on in Jammu and Kashmir. Sadly, the culpability of the Indian government on this score is even greater. It has never taken up this immensely important issue with the American government publicly and forthrightly. It claims that it has been trying “persuasion in private” Since this has been wholly ineffective, the excuse cuts no ice. Against this backdrop, the first and foremost duty of the ruling coalition’s leadership was to educate not only the public opinion but also — this indeed is even more important — political party leaders who are evidently as ill-informed as large sections of the general public. But the reality is precisely the opposite of what it should be. That Left parties and other opposition groups should be perturbed and start demanding that there should be no cooperation with America militarily is perhaps understandable. So is the Congress’s cautious decision to stay broadly non-committal. But what is one to say when two major partners in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) — the Samata and the DMK — are distancing themselves from the government’s policy and indeed “warning” it to steer clear of the Americans? Even this pales into insignificance when leading members of the BJP, such as Mr V.K. Malhotra, are screaming that the USA has once again “teamed up” with its old ally, Pakistan, and therefore India shouldn’t extend to the Americans anything more than “token help”. Strangely, no one has pleaded that what we should do is to look at the situation in terms of realpolitik and hard strategic realities and then adopt a course of action that would best promote this country’s security and supreme interests. We still have time to do this, if we are interested. It is not only the Taliban who are delaying a decision on Osama’s fate though it ought to be clear that the terrible regime in Kabul has no intention to surrender him. President Bush and his advisers also need time to cobble the global coalition and work out the strategy for the war not just on Afghanistan but on terrorism. In this context it ought to be obvious that the Americans would be both stupid and self-defeating if, as a price for Islamabad’s support in the war on Osama and the Taliban, they agree to overlook the ferocious terrorist groups like the Lashkar-e-Toiba and the Hizbul Mujahideen on the rampage from their bases in Pakistan or permit Pakistan to let the madarsas go on functioning and thus producing more and more merchants of terror. From the foregoing it follows that, instead of being in clover, General Musharraf is indeed in deep trouble. Already huge demonstrations against him, the largest and angriest since he seized power two years ago, have spread from Karachi and Lahore to other towns . Once the air and ground strikes on Afghanistan begin, the fat would be well and truly in the fire. |
Trying times for U.S. Ambassador U.S. Ambassador Robert Blackwill, who presented his credentials recently to President R.K. Narayanan, is expectedly caught in some intense diplomacy with Indian leaders following the numbing airborne terrorist strikes in New York and Washington. He has had discussions with Union Home Minister L.K. Advani and Union External Affairs and Defence Minster Jaswant Singh emphasising that the Bush administration is not bargaining on Kashmir or on any other issue while placing its demands for assistance from the Pervez Musharraf military regime in Pakistan. After the attacks on the NRI Sikh community in the USA, Mr Blackwill has specially made it a point to visit the Bangla Sahib Gurdwara in New Delhi and assure the leaders of the Sikh community in this country that the Bush administration is taking all possible steps to protect the interests of the Sikhs in the USA. He has also impressed upon the State Department in Washington that a clear message should go to all Americans that the Sikhs have a distinct religious identity and are neither Arabs nor owe their allegiance to the Saudi fugitive Osama bin Laden. As a specialist in international security, Mr Blackwill, it is believed in New Delhi, will understand what India wants for tackling Pakistan’s proxy war in Jammu and Kashmir, going on for more than a decade. The dictator of Afghanistan One of the names which often find mention in all that is going on in the wake of the horrifying terrorist attack in the USA is Mullah Mohammad Omar, the man who leads the Taliban, controlling over 90 per cent of Afghanistan. In the early nineties he was just one of the mujahideen commanders fighting among themselves after the departure of the Soviet forces from that unfortunate land. Mujahideen were also indulging in abominable acts like rape and abduction to take revenge on one another. In that chaotic situation, Mullah Omar, who was earlier associated with the Harkatul Inquilab-e-Islami of Moulvi Mohammad Nabi Mohammadi, a respected name among the Afghans, began to use the students of his own school to restore order in parts of Kandahar. He set up the madarsa after he fell out with his mentor, Moulvi Mohammadi. Gradually, his local-level movement gained popularity and credibility. When the CIA-ISI duo noticed the development, they adopted it and helped militarily and otherwise to acquire the shape of what the world knows as the Taliban (the plural of “talib”, meaning a student). Both the CIA and the ISI were looking for such an opportunity to consolidate their position in the war-ravaged country. They could not ask for more. The Taliban group was now under the shadow of the Pakistani and American intelligence networks and both had their own axe to grind. The Americans were working on implementing a plan of their MNCs and the Pakistanis wished to control Afghanistan as part of their grand geopolitical design. In the process the Taliban took the shape of a powerful militia and scored one victory after another. Now it was a baby of the ISI, as the Americans perhaps found it tough to court the Pathans. In September of 1994, ironically, the month when terrorists struck at the USA, the Taliban under Mullah Omar captured Kandahar and gained much publicity. Two years later his men ran over Kabul too, sending out a clear message about the shape of things to come in new Afghanistan. In the meantime, another mujahideen commander propped up by the CIA-ISI combine was dumped on the mountains as an unwanted baby. The man whose writ today runs in almost 90 per cent areas of Afghanistan is a dictator to the core. Educated in a madarsa in the North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan, Mullah Omar belongs to the most orthodox school of Islamic thought. The deadly combination of being a dictator and an orthodox of the extreme variety could do no good to the Afghans. But he is a cunning dictator. Most of his major decisions, including the destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas, have the stamp of the network of religious experts (of course, of his extreme brand) he has created after establishing his rule. So, if he decides to swim or sink with Osama bin Laden, suspected to have been involved in the tragic happenings in New York and Washington, Mullah Omar can say that he went by the advice of the ulema (religious scholars). The truth, however, is that nobody can dare go against the one-eyed ruler’s (Ameerul Momineen’s) wishes in Afghanistan. US-trained terrorists? At first glance, David M. Charlebois and Waleed M. Alshehri did not seem to have anything in common with each other. The first was the pilot of the doomed American Airlines Flight 77, and a victim of the tragedy that stuck the USA on Black Tuesday. The second, according to the FBI, was one of the perpetrators. Further investigation showed that they had something in common. Both were alumni of Florida’s Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, a respected 76-year-old institution that has been the training facility for many of the world’s commercial pilots. Charlebois graduated in 1983 and Alshehri in 1977. The terrorist attack on the landmark buildings in New York and Washington has brought America’s flying schools under scrutiny and it seems that they may have, unwittingly, equipped the terrorists with deadly skills to carry out their acts. Many of the terrorists had received training as pilots and, besides Alshehri, at least three other men are said to have been trained in Florida’s flying schools. Some also managed to get training in simulators for big commercial jets like the Boeing 737 that they crashed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon According to reports, when Alshehri attended Embry-Riddle, a Boeing 737 simulator would have been available to him. Mohamed Atta and Marwan were trained on a Boeing 727 simulator at SimCenter near Miami for two days in December. American flying schools thrive on training foreign students, including those from South Korea, Saudi Arabia and India. It is, in fact, cheaper to get training in the USA than in India and many other countries. Also, there are fewer restrictions on trainee pilots. According to various reports, the American government does not conduct any special background checks for international students who want to acquire aviation skills. This is likely to change in the future as may happen in the case of many other aspects of security in the nation under siege. |
As the ripened melon is separated from the stem. May our death be a step to immortality. — Atharvaveda, 14.1.17 *** Meditate on death - Because there is no way to know life, unless you stand face to face to death. And it is everywhere. Wherever life is death is also. They are really, two aspects of one and the same phenomenon. And when one comes to know this — he transcends both. — Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, What is Meditation, 36 *** Devote your energies To noble and beneficial works, The Supreme God assigns Specific work To every man. It is His pleasure That all of us respond to His commands; Meditate on the excellent glory And imbibe the attributes of the Divine creator, Who is all-sustaining and victorious. — Rigveda, 5.81.1 *** Walk the Divine Path To greater wisdom and Divine Glory This is the path which the Divines love. God escorts and is a constant companion to those who are inspired to work hard; on them does He constantly shower The joys of His blessings. — Rigveda, 1.154.5 *** Rise above material desires To the heavenly path of spiritual experience And behold the Light Divine Guiding Thee towards eternal joy. — Yajurveda, 8.52 *** O man, nothing shall go forth with thee from this world, Except thy devotion to God! The delights of this world are as dust. Nanak, true wealth is repeating God’s Name. — Guru Arjan Dev,
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