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Monday, February
11, 2002,
Chandigarh, India  
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CBI
secures its terrorist Vote out
drug-pedlars
Expanding
role, reach of US power |
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Pen,
paper and hand
SYL
canal: more on Supreme Court’s lack of jurisdiction
Weddings
big business in Saudi Arabia
1992, Literature: SEAMUS HEANEY
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CBI secures its terrorist THE CBI has done it at last. It has brought a dreaded terrorist from Abu Dhabi, with the active intervention of the Indian Prime Minister and the US administration. But the spadework was done to perfection by the agency, and others merely supported the case. It was excellent team work and in the end it paid. The CBI has put together a detailed dossier on Aftab Ansari’s background, his criminal past, his acquisition of false passports and kidnapping of leading businessmen like Mr Parthapratim Roy Burman last July and extorting a ransom of Rs 3.75 crore (or was it Rs 5 crore?). The CBI believes that this money was used to fund the daring attack on the American Center in Kolkata on January 23. It had sent a team of senior officials to Abu Dhabi to seek Ansari’s deportation and not extradition. Deportation is the sovereign right of the state and extradition is a judicial process that takes a long time. India did not want a hassle legal process and got it, thanks to the CBI homework and the international anti-terrorism mood. But the arrest of one terrorist does not make for a terror-free society. There are big and small violent men lurking in the corner and they have to be neutralised, and the earlier, the better. The significance of the arrest and deportation of Ansari go beyond one man. For the first time it shows a coordinated effort at the liquidation of terrorism of all kinds. It is heartening that this country is an active part of the new scheme. The obvious next act is to use the Abu Dhabi example to armtwist Pakistan to deport the 20 terrorists India wants. India has an extradition treaty with Abu Dhabi but deportation was more attractive since it was quick and effective. India has given a list of 20 wanted criminals to Pakistan and it needs to send them back without raising bogus arguments about the nationality. Having set a precedent, the USA has to lean on Pakistan to deport identified terrorists to this country. Operation Enduring Peace demands this. |
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Vote out drug-pedlars BATHINDA schoolchildren made a touching plea to the election contestants in Punjab the other day: “Drugs are a curse. Uncle, please don’t distribute these among your workers. These will destroy their lives, destroy their families.” However, such impassioned pleas are unlikely to move thick-skinned politicians, who along with policemen are chiefly responsible for the alarming increase in the consumption of intoxicants like smack, opium and liquor in Punjab, as a recent survey reveals. The victims of drugs are too many and too visible to need any identification or study, and the culprits and causes are also well known. Yet the survey is enlightening. Conducted by an NGO, Kiran De-addiction Centre, along with Anubhav Feature Service, the survey, covering 2,000 people, also held parents and teachers responsible for the increasing number of youngsters getting hooked to drugs, besides blaming other factors like unemployment, social environment, lack of religious education, spread of foreign TV channels and growing population for the drug menace. How serious and widespread is the crippling effect of drugs among Punjabis in general and youth in particular can be gauged from the fact that the state has some 1,200 NGOs working on de-addiction and creating an anti-drug awareness. And yet the drugs issue is not a priority with the squabbling politicians. Drug consumption and smuggling from Afghanistan increased tremendously during the tenure of the present Akali-BJP ministry, and yet no political party has put it in the dock on the issue, leave alone promise to curb the malaise. During election time the voter is all powerful. Even if he does not understand the complex issues relating to the economy or the SYL canal dispute, he can judge a candidate by applying this simple yardstick: does the candidate use and promote intoxicants? He can use his vote to banish from politics all those who have aided and abetted in any manner drug and alcohol consumption among youth. Women can come forward to stamp out this growing evil from society since they are the ones who ultimately pay the price. Think of Maqboolpura on the outskirts of Amritsar where 50 drug-addicts have lost their lives and which is now dubbed a locality of widows and orphans. It is time to vote out the drug-pedlars. |
Expanding role, reach of US power At the turn of the last century, Rudyard Kipling who was known as the bard of British colonialism, asked the USA to take up “The white man’s burden and rule” the Philippines islands. The USA did rule the Philippines for sometime. The US is now well on its way to assuming this “burden” throughout Asia. During World War II US forces, fought a bitter war in the Philippines to defeat the Japanese. The US forces particularly the navy, stayed on for more than four decades in the Philippines thereafter and now the US forces are back again, on request of the Philippines, for tackling terrorism connected to the Al Qaeda. What is happening in the Philippines today, with US forces fighting along with the Filipino soldiers, is symbolic of the expanding role and reach of the American power. After September 11, 2001, when the world changed drastically for the people of the USA, the US administration and the US people in general, woke up to the menace of terrorism which respected no frontiers nor norms of any society. The global alliance which the USA brought about for fighting terrorism in Afghanistan was assembled last year and it continues. Though an interim government under the UN auspices has taken over in Afghanistan, the evil genius, Osama bin Laden, and the erstwhile cleric chief of Afghanistan, Mullah Omar, are still at large, along with an unspecified number of Al Qaeda terrorists. The US bombing is continuing in some areas in Afghanistan and the US forces are also having encounters with Al Qaeda terrorists in a few places there. In the State of the Union speech on January 20, President Bush asserted that the war against terrorism had just begun and it would not stop till all forms of terrorism were eradicated. Bush identified an “axis of evil” consisting of Iran, Iraq and North Korea which, he said, posed a grave danger by building chemical, biological or nuclear weapons. Bush warned them that they would not be allowed to pursue their terrorist activities. Indeed if reports emanating from Washington are to be believed, the US administration has apparently identified a wider axis of evil consisting of a few other countries like Syria, Sudan and Somalia and these countries may also come into focus at a latter stage. A week before the State of the Union speech, President Bush outlined a huge defence budget for 2003 involving a colossal increase of $48 billion. The increased outlay was meant for “defence and homeland security”. If approved by the Senate and the House of Representatives, the US Defence budget would reach a record-breaking $380 billion for 2003. This huge expenditure is justified on the grounds of meeting the needs of the ongoing challenge of terrorism, the tightening of security measure such as airport security, strengthening of the FBI, etc, for finetuning domestic security measures and for developing new weapons. The Missile Defence Programme also figures in the scheme. What with the record-breaking popularity rating of 86 per cent which Bush commands at present, the budgeted funds are likely to be approved by the legislators irrespective of their party affiliations. After the collapse of the USSR in 1991 and the Central Asian States became independent the USA emerged as the sole superpower in the world. While Russia does not pose a challenge anymore, even China, which is studiously and systematically strengthening its military and economic might, is unlikely to become a possible challenge to the USA within the next 25 years. The manner in which the Missile Defence Programme of the USA has been responded to, by Russia as well as by China, shows that there could be no serious opposition which could block the eventual emergence of the Missile Defence Programme. The USA is the only country which has its forces stationed in the four corners of the world such as Japan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the Balkans, Uzbekistan etc. After the Afghan war began last year, Pakistan has become a frontline state for the US forces, in a much bigger way than it was when Russia was fought in Afghanistan in the 1980s. The USA has taken over some of the major air force stations and the Karachi port has also been made available. The US troops are operating, along with Pakistani soldiers, on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border in their hunt for the Al Qaeda. In Afghanistan itself, the interim head of government, Hamid Karzai, and the North Alliance Ministers like Abdullah Abdullah have asked for the continuance of the American forces in Afghanistan without specifying any time limit. In fact, Hamid Karzai has asked for an increased number of peacekeeping forces. Russia is content with watching its interests being protected by the friendly Central Asian States and the Northern Alliance, whose ministers are holding important posts in the interim Afghan government such as Foreign Affairs, Defence and Home. Kipling’s memory again comes up in this context since he was a player in “The Great Game” for supremacy in Afghanistan between the British Empire and the Czarist Russia. Kipling could never have dreamt that the great game would end up, in a matter of 100 years, in which neither Britain nor Russia but the USA would emerge as the winner. Iran, Iraq and North Korea have been identified as forming the axis of evil but it is Iraq which is going to feel the impact of American military power quite soon. President Bush seems to be determined to complete the task which was left unfinished by his father a decade ago. A beginning is likely to be made by asking Saddam Hussain to accept the return of UN inspectors and in the event of Saddam Hussain’s refusal Iraq may face severe bombardment. Iraq’s oil wells and other vital installations are likely to be targets this time thereby destroying its economic power. The ultimate goal of the USA is overthrow of Saddam Hussain and on this the US administration seems absolutely determined. It is hopeful of getting its allies agree to this by stages since, as of now, even the friendly Tony Blair of Britain is said to be against a war on Iraq. Among the Asian countries, the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia have been identified as sanctuaries of some of the Al Qaeda terrorists. The Islamic terrorists of the Mindano region of the Philippines have been fighting a war for secession for over two decades but the Al Qaeda connection to this movement has now brought them severe retribution. The USA would be only too willing to send its forces to any other country in Asia affected by Al Qaeda terrorist activities on their soil. In pursuing its global agenda for putting down terrorism, President Bush also outlined in his speech on January 20, certain demands about “values” such as the rule of law, respect for women, private property, free speech, equal justice, religious tolerance etc. It has been rightly pointed out that some of the staunch US allies like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Pakistan, etc, do not measure up to these expectations. In its pursuit of power politics, the US itself has been encouraging and supporting the dictatorial and undemocratic regimes in these countries. Moreover, while talking about the values and preventing atrocities and terror, the USA itself is guilty of not observing a neutral role in the tragic conflict between Israel and Palestine. While President Bush spoke of the emergence of a Palestine State, when he was seeking a global alliance in his war against terrorism, he has now thrown his full weight behind Israel’s Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. “The Middle East will burn with American interests and even lives going up in the flames, unless the USA intervenes swiftly and displays much more neutrality in the conflict” as The Economist puts it. In spite of the general acclaim which greeted President Bush’s speech on January 20 and the overall euphoria thereafter, there are second thoughts and gentle warnings from perceptive analysts in the USA itself. The New York Times has cautioned that “the apparent success of the Afghan campaign should not encourage President Bush to overreach — September 11 does not give him an unlimited hunting licence”. In essence, the USA, while discharging the “white man’s burden” in the various regions of the world, should act cautiously and with a sense of fairplay and justice. The writer is a former Governor of West Bengal and Sikkim. |
Pen, paper and hand Though my mind has almost always appreciated new movements in modern thought, and adjusted my responses to the complex reality of a fast changing world, particularly in the fields of literary criticism, I have not somehow been able to accept the machine — from the typewriter to the latest computer and other info-tech facilities with ease and urgency. I quite realise their immense range and reach, and do not wonder at the manner in which the younger generations all over the world have seized the moment, as it were, to widen their horizons. They find these artefacts “savvy”, hospitable to their burgeoning dreams. So, my own problem is peculiarly my own, and since my “business” is writing, above all, in the years of my age and illness, I have to fall back upon my own reserves of form and style to remain in the swim of things. And my problem of writing is, in a way, so congenially linked with my right hand that for me to put pen to paper has been from the beginning — almost immediately after Independence — as much an emotional issue as the question of, say, love-letters. My whole being seemed committed to whatever touched my imagination — from a harrowing tragedy of the Partition horrors to the birth of my first child, a daughter who was a “signature on the parchment of our flesh”, as I put in a recent poem “Our Daughters”. For me, then, to write, was to put my heart out on the sleeve, or let my spirit flutter on the string like washed linen in the sun and the breeze. So when I started writing my earliest piece for publication over half, a century ago, I had to, like almost everyone else around that time, to get my long-hand manuscripts typed out somehow or other. It was a couple of years later when I had picked up a lovely secondhand Remington portable that I realised my inability to compose anything of value — a poem, a short story, a light essay — by hammering away with my two index fingers on the “come-hither” machine! Of course, I had neither the time nor the inclination to learn the stuff at a typing school or outfit and I had to improvise, and get going. And I did that prodigiously, for my muses demanded a performance, a “theatre” of words continually. So, I would sit down with pen, pencil and paper (always a virginal white long sheet) to let my imagination take the bit in its mouth, and rush me along on the roads that led me to a perceived “Xanada” — or more often to nowhere. It was all a game, a playfulness of the spirit on paper, and the pen serving as my “lance”. Yes, always a certain kind of gallantry, (or perhaps extravagance) was there to keep my afloat. And believe me all my published books, scores, and scores of essays, critiques, commentaries and light variations on this wondrous world of fish and fowl, of man and woman — all, all came out effortlessly when first written in long hand were then entrusted to my two faithful index fingers. That, in sum, is the long history of my labouring hand, my “blessed” hand. No, even when in my grievous years of physical disabilities, my children wanted to have lap-dog latest devices and other wonderful new aids placed within my reach, I had to remain true and fast to my evolved ways. I knew I would never be able to discard the pen and the paper. They had become a part of the structure of being, above all, of my thought. Which reminds me of an episode from the life of America’s greatest playwright, Eugene O’Neill, perhaps the greatest writer of tragedies in the English language after Shakespeare, an episode which brings out best my dilemma, even though the context is different, and my talent and energies are woefully small. In his sixties, O’Neill’s right hand (or writing hand) became increasingly unstable, following the onset of some nervous disease, perhaps Parkinson’s, and he would often remain fretful, depressed and lost. Then, one day, his youngish third wife, Carlota (Charlie Chaplin’s daughter if my memory holds) suggested the hiring of a steno-typist for the purposes of dictation. So many writers in England and America were even, otherwise, getting used to the new form. No, that O’Neill realised was absolutely impossible in his case. And to paraphrase his words to Carlota, O’Neill said something to this effect: “Dearest Carlota, ideas don’t come to me that way. The thing, idea, image, thought etc first starts in my head, then travels down my right arm, and finally gets my hand moving, and then words come on their own as if on wings....” Now that my other limbs are nearly turned traitrous, my right hand, my trusted ally, my friend in distress, my “healer”, if you like, still does its duty whenever pressed into service. The day, the pen falls my hand, there’ll be little to look forward to except the chaos. |
SYL canal: more on Supreme Court’s lack of jurisdiction “A watercourse is naturally a unity which cannot be torn asunder into separate parts by imaginary boundaries,” wrote the Swiss scholar, Max Huber, the first to undertake a systematic examination of water disputes in international law. “The assuring of cooperation between the States concerned is thus in many cases more important than the demarcation of rights.....” With great respect to the Supreme Court’s judgement in the SYL case, the profound wisdom of the approach underlying these words, applicable (I submit) as much to intra-State disputes as to disputes between sovereign States, appears to have been totally lost on the court. Whether due to lack of assistance at the Bar or otherwise, nowhere in the lengthy 100-page judgement does the court advert to, or indicate its awareness of, this larger perspective of the problem of water disputes and the counsel of caution against judicial intervention that leading writers on the subject the world over have often thought it necessary to sound. One of them, and perhaps the tallest, is Prof F.J. Berber, whose book “Rivers in International Law”, translated from German and published in 1959, is not likely to be surpassed for its breadth of comprehension and remains an invaluable guide even today. Water disputes, says Berber, taking off from where Max Huber leaves, “are generally agreed to constitute a classical example of disputes which cannot be satisfactorily solved by judicial decision. This is true also of municipal tribunals....” In the parlance of international law, “municipal” is used as a synonym or substitute for “national” as distinguished from “international”. A keen student of water disputes in India, even in the 1950s, Berber illustrates the point by referring explicitly to Article 262 of our Constitution, on which I had written last time. “This is an indication,” he writes, “valuable also for international law, that disputes as to water rights, whether of an internal or international character, and especially in the absence of settled rules of law, are not suitable for adjudication by a court, but only for settlement by way of agreement or for the imposition of a solution by legislation.” Forty three years after his book was first published for the benefit of the English-speaking world, and three weeks after the Supreme Court’s SYL verdict, prising open the Pandora’s box of Punjab-Haryana relations, it is difficult not to marvel at this understanding of the Indian Constitution shown by a professor of international law thousands of miles away in the University of Munich. No less noteworthy is the fact that Prof Berber posits Article 262 of the Constitution as a “valuable” benchmark for the development of international law as well, even though he displays throughout the book a strong disinclination to adopt principles of water law in any municipal legal system — particularly Roman and American law — as a basis for the settlement of international water disputes. Academic opinions apart — law schools and law courts have never come close to establishing even a working relationship in India, what to speak of a partnership, and judges tend generally to be patronising towards the seminaries of law they once graduated from — even distinguished judicial bodies like the Supreme Court of the United States, which admittedly has jurisdiction over inter-state water disputes, have advised caution in handling them. “The reason for judicial caution in adjudicating the relative rights of states in such cases,” ruled the court in 1943 in Colorado vs Kansas, “is that, while we have jurisdiction of such disputes, they involve the interests of quasi-sovereigns, present complicated and delicate questions, and, due to possibility of further change of conditions, necessitate expert administration rather than judicial imposition of a hard and fast rule.” Such controversies, added the apex American court, “may appropriately be composed by negotiation and agreement pursuant to the compact clause of the Federal Constitution. We say of this case, as the court has said of inter-state differences of a like nature, that such mutual accommodation and agreement should, if possible, be the medium of settlement, instead of invocation of our adjudicatory power.” Lesser known federal courts like the German Staatsgerichtshof under the Weimar Constitution of 1919, in its well-known judgement of 1927 in the Donauversinkung case, have formulated the inexpediency and inefficacy of a permanent solution by judicial order even more aptly and in terms directly germane to the SYL dispute between Punjab and Haryana. “(I)t seems doubtful,” observed the Staatsgerichtshof, “if even (our) decision... proceeding on the basis of a detailed collection of evidence, a decision which has naturally to be restricted to the stating of some fundamental principles, would be appropriate to settle the controversy once and for all.” “The relationships produced by the Donauversinkung (it continued) have become so entangled, their scientific and technical evaluation is so controversial, the interests of the states concerned are so interlaced, that it is only from an amicable settlement that a permanent solution of the matter can be expected.” The problem with the January 15 judgement of the Supreme Court in the SYL case is that, while exercising a jurisdiction that is clearly prohibited under Article 262, it does not even purport to lay down any fundamental legal principles for the settlement of inter-state water disputes in India. Except a “principle”, if it can be so called, that is so clearly outside the Constitution that its establishment as a precedent in the SYL case is likely to lead to the most startling consequences for India’s federal polity. The “principle” that, failing Punjab, the Government of India is under a “constitutional obligation” to implement the mandatory injunction issued by the Supreme Court for the completion of the SYL canal and to “get it done through its own agencies as expeditiously as possible”. The only basis for such a constitutional obligation disclosed by the court in the judgement is the need for “good governance of the States” which, says the court, would “benefit the inhabitants of the states (concerned), the inhabitants of the neighbouring states and the country as a whole.” That the Constitution of India provides for a federation with a strong Centre has always been known. But that the Government of India is under a constitutional obligation to maintain “good governance” in the states, and can be directed by the Supreme Court to do so on pain of contempt, is a principle that has been laid down by the court for the first time since its establishment in 1950. More on that next week |
Weddings big business in Saudi Arabia Cars swarm for hours around an icing-white mansion off Arab Brotherhood Street on Thursdays — the most favoured night of the week for weddings in the Saudi capital, Riyadh. Arrival time is flexible, but catching the bride’s midnight procession to a raised bridal seat to await the groom is a priority for most of the guests — all women. More than half the 22 million-strong population are under 20 —making marriage a growth industry. One five-star Riyadh hotel earns about $ 2 million annually from the wedding business alone, according to the regional president of an international hotel chain. The most elaborate occasions involve women. Men celebrate elsewhere in the birthplace of Islam, where interaction between the sexes, if men and women are not related, keeps to a minimum. Participants at the separate all-male wedding parties describe austere affairs, where guests can sip tea and soft drinks, eat and leave all within an hour and a half. Islam bans the consumption of alcohol. The all-female wedding party one recent Thursday followed its own special rhythm for guests seated on draped chairs facing the walkway leading to the bridal dais. A laser light show highlighted the celebrants in glittering evening dress milling about the bride, herself decked out in a pearled white satin and tulle creation. After a decent interval the women musicians backing zubaida, a famous singer, struck up louder. Many women put their veils back on. Curtains parted at the end of the carpeted walkway to reveal a group of men, the groom and close relatives of the happy couple. The effect was electric as the procession of men in brown and black gold-bordered robes and white headdresses strode toward the bride. Guests and camera-women darted to film and snap pictures of the occasion. Soon after, a troupe of folk dancers swept back up the aisle ahead of the couple. Guests followed through clouds of incense into a lavish buffet dinner ranged round a towering, multi-tiered wedding cake. It was close to 3 A.M. At a party that would last until morning.
Reuters
FAO opposes admixing of antibiotics in animal feed Chloramphenicol, a broad-spectrum antibiotic usually mixed in the animal feed to reduce bacterial contamination could make food-chain toxic leading to genetic damages and cancer, among consumers. Owing to the ill-effects, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has suggested that countries should take steps to stop the use of chloramphenicol in food production. “Chloramphenicol is a broad-spectrum antibiotic used in human and pet animal medicine, and it is still being applied in some countries in animal production, including aquaculture,” a FAO statement said here today.
UNI |
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Money is like a man. If you do not hold it too jealously it returns to you the more readily. Never hesitate to give aid where you feel there is sore and pressing need, for fear you will be left in want yourself. You will never be. Let no man lean on anyone save God and his own divine self. But little helps, when they are unexpected, arouse hope and awaken new faith and new ambition in a discouraged soul. Look about you for such souls — the worn and weary father of a brood of hungry children, the widow struggling with adverse fate in an effort to clothe and educate a child, the tired shop-girl who uses all her earnings to sustain her parents, the ambitious boy or girl eager for a chance in life and the poor, cripple or invalid seeking health. Do not be afraid to... give these worthy ones a happy surprise, no matter how poor you are. It is an insult to the opulent creator to suppose you will suffer want and poverty if you help those who are in temporary misfortune. The man who is not afraid to use his small means to assist others need not fear poverty. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox, The New Thought It is beyond the power of human mind to apprehend Thy beauty. — Imam Zainul Abedin, Sahifa-e-Kamila Abstain not from love though it be of the transient. For it becomes a cause to approach the real. — Abdul Rahman Jami, Lawaih The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His Mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning. — The Bible; the Lamentations of Jeremiah, 3:22 |
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