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Wednesday,
September 17, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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The collapse at Cancun Police inhumanity Woes of women |
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It’s Modi versus Rule of Law
Daughters and daughters
From New Delhi to Hanoi — by train
DELHI DURBAR
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The collapse at Cancun WHAT
has India gained from the collapse of the ministerial-level trade talks at Cancun? Hardly anything. So back home, Commerce Minister Arun Jaitley has little good news to offer. His strong posturing at Cancun may partly be due to electoral considerations as any give-in could have been dubbed a “sell-off” and politically exploited by the opposition parties. The Cancun meeting was expected to finish 50 per cent of the WTO’s Doha agenda that is planned to be completed by January 1, 2005. This deadline is unlikely to be met now. Bureaucrats will resume the WTO talks in Geneva, assessing the Cancun failure for the next three months and finding ways to avoid a deadlock in future. A disappointed EU trade commissioner, Mr Pascal Lamy, dubbed the WTO a “medieval” organisation. What provoked him is the fact that decisions at the WTO are taken by consensus and any state can veto any deal. The WTO has 146 members with Nepal and Cambodia scheduled to join in a month. The whole decision-making system is now being challenged. Cancun has seen the emergence of a very vocal and powerful block called the G-21, comprising developing countries led by China, India and Brazil. It displayed remarkable unity and successfully resisted pressuress from the EU and the US to take up fresh issues like investment, competition, government procurement policies and rules governing trade. The G-21 sought an end to the EU-US farm subsidies, which allow Western agricultural products to flood global markets, ruining local farmers. The US, for instance, produces expensive cotton, but the $4 billion subsidies each year make it a top cotton exporter. Because of the EU’s common agriculture policy, farmers produce more and the surplus is offloaded in developing countries. Cheaper dairy products have threatened Indian milk producers. The least developed countries emerged as another block and the G-21 had little hold over them. Their extreme stand also contributed to the Cancun impasse. The need for the G-21 to carry along this group is obvious. Both the US and the European Union had no justification for their subsidies and the concessions they offered at Cancun were too little and too late. The rich nations can now use other tactics to break the G-21 alliance by going in for individual or regional pacts. Global trade is in the interest of all nations and any setback to framing the rules of the game is a setback to every member. Hard positions may yield some clapping, but economic gains alone will benefit in the long run. Since Mr Jaitley focussed largely on farm subsidies, one question that he and other informed Indians may like to ponder is: are farm subsidies in India not unreasonably high and burdening the taxpayer? Developing infrastructure and increasing productivity alone can help India push exports of farm and industrial products. |
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Police inhumanity THE shame of Jhajjar, where some persons suspected of cow slaughter faced the ire of beasts in khaki last year, was re-enacted in Safidon last week where the policemen excelled themselves in excesses. Four farmers, wrongly believed to have killed a cow, were allegedly treated worse than animals in the police station. Policemen in mofussil towns behave as if they are a law unto themselves but the torture and humiliation they heaped on the hapless farmers was simply inhuman. Nor did they realise that their insensitivity could cause a communal flare-up. While officials have claimed that nobody’s religious sentiments were hurt, the anger among the Sikh community to which the victims belonged is palpable. The situation is still very delicate and needs careful handling. Had the villagers of the area not gheraoed the police station, even an FIR against the guilty cops might not have been registered. Although five guilty policemen have been placed under suspension under public pressure, there are many who see this only as a ruse to buy time. The common complaint is that such policemen are always reinstated after some time, with the result that they think nothing of repeating their boorish behaviour. The Safidon constables did the unthinkable on the orders of the SHO. That shows the extent of the rot. If at all such cases come to light, the government is rarely keen to investigate them. The natural tendency is to stand by the police force, which only increases the anger and frustration of the public. In the Safidon incident, the villagers reportedly appealed to the Chief Minister but no action was taken. They then resorted to a gherao of the police station and that did the trick. Isn’t that an open invitation to all those seeking justice to indulge in dharnas and strikes? Something which should not have happened has taken place. Intervention of politicians and vested interests may make matters worse. What needs to be realised is that some policemen tend to be unfair to nearly everyone who comes in contact with them. Their behaviour should not be misconstrued as the targeting of any particular community. It is just by chance that the victims in this case happened to be Sikhs. Perhaps, the cops would have displayed the same ugly facet of their personality even if the civilians brought to the police station were Hindus or Muslims or Christians. |
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Woes of women IN the drive against militancy in Jammu and Kashmir, the wails of the ultimate sufferers are ignored. They are the widows and the children who have lost their bread-winners for no fault of theirs. Their exact number is not known, but they can be found in great numbers in the strife-torn state. The story of Chuk Seer village on the Srinagar-Baramula highway, carried in The Tribune of September 16, should be enough to make one understand the plight of this hapless section. The case of the village with 100 houses is unique as every family here has lost one member or two, and 45 families have only widows and children left to fend for themselves. But such victims are all over the state. Whether the male members of such families have been done to death by terrorists or have lost their lives in counter-terrorism operations does not matter much to them. They fail to understand the reason for their plight. They have lost their faith in the official machinery because of its inability to provide them the necessary financial help. Promises are made only to be forgotten. This is a very sad situation. Their problems should be given top priority to ensure that terrorists and their sympathisers are unable to exploit their resentment against the government. In fact, the counter-terrorism campaign can get a sharper edge if the militancy-hit families are identified at the state level to highlight the crime of Pakistan-trained killers. The widows and their children can be useful in launching a counter-jihad against those killing and maiming innocent people in the name of religion. The ideological battle can be more effective in exposing those engaged in this inhuman activity. Pakistan has been successful in carrying on the proxy war by bringing religion into the picture. Once everybody comes to know that this is a fraud, and the entire exercise is aimed at enslaving the people of Jammu and Kashmir, the terrorist industry will fail to find new recruits and die its natural death. The pathetic situation in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir can be highlighted to prevent more women from becoming widows.
Man is the measure of all things. — Protagoras |
It’s Modi versus Rule of Law MR Narendra Modi is a strange kind of Chief Minister the country has thrown up — cynical, arrogant and impervious to reason or democratic values. Any other person with some respect for the principles that ought to guide this nation would have driven to Raj Bhavan on Friday last week when the Supreme Court came out with the severest-ever indictment a Chief Minister has earned since Independence. Respect for institutions is, however, not in Mr Modi's nature. Commenting on what Mr Modi's government did or did not do in denying justice to the victims and the acquittal of as many as 21 accused in the Best Bakery case, the Chief Justice of India, Mr Justice V.N. Khare, said: "I have no faith left in the prosecution and the Gujarat government.... You have to protect the citizens and prosecute the guilty. What is Rajdharma?.... If you cannot protect them, then it is better to quit." When the Modi government's counsel made the curious plea that the Chief Minister was "democratically elected", the Chief Justice cut him short and said, "Democracy does not mean that you will not prosecute the guilty". The Supreme Court Bench, consisting of Mr Justice Khare, Mr Justice Brijesh Kumar and Mr Justice S.B. Sinha, said that the state government's appeal against the acquittals "is just eyewash and nothing else". The court added: "We do not have trust anymore in the prosecution. We will order either a CBI investigation or have our own agency to investigate the matter. There appears to be some collusion between the government and prosecution in a case where 14 people were burnt alive. Is this the way prosecution should conduct trial before the trial court?" Any other Chief Minister would have, but no one expected Mr Modi to put in his papers in the wake of the apex court's observations which were clearly more than obiter dicta. Only those who have respect for the Rule of Law and democratic values would think of resigning. Mr Modi's silence since Friday is only tactical or because of the fear that any criticism of the Supreme Court at this stage could invoke contempt and greater judicial wrath. His supporters in the BJP, including the party President, Mr Venkaiah Naidu, have chosen to proclaim that there was no case for Mr Modi's resigning as Chief Minister. We do not know what the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Lal Krishan Advani, have to say about the Supreme Court's observations about the Modi government's conduct in the Best Bakery case where prosecution has been wilfully used not to punish the guilty but to allow the accused to get acquitted. The silence of the BJP's Central leaders could be interpreted as approval of Mr Modi's acts of omission and commission or it would mean that they are finding themselves unable to take any action against a Chief Minister who has been defying them (Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee, particularly) ever since he came to power and more so after the Gujarat riots. This is not the first time someone thought it necessary to remind Mr Modi about what should be the Rajdharma of a Chief Minister. Mr Vajpayee himself had cited from a public platform in Ahmedabad the concept of Rajdharma last year when Gujarat was burning and the Chief Minister was found looking the other way when over a 1,000 people whom he was duty-bound to protect had been allowed to be killed in the riots. Mr Modi ignored Mr Vajpayee and remained stuck to his Chief Ministership, absolutely certain that he would carry the day in the party. One problem with Mr Modi's conduct of public affairs is that he thinks that he is always right, but many in the country are increasingly coming to realise that such men pose a serious danger to democratic polity as it faced when Sanjay Gandhi ran amuck under Indira Gandhi's filial patronage. Mr Modi, like Sanjay Gandhi, does not believe in the elementary concept of public accountability. When the media started reporting the Gujarat killings, Mr Modi blamed it for worsening the situation, accusing it of bias. The media rightly rejected Mr Modi's charges and went ahead doing its duty to the people. Concerned at the gory reports, the then Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission, Mr Justice J.S.Verma, was one of the first dignitaries to rush to Gujarat soon after the killings began. He was criticised by Mr Modi and his men believing perhaps that Gujarat was their fiefdom which could not bear any interference from his quasi-judicial commission, sitting in Delhi, forgetting that no human rights violation should escape investigation by the NHRC. A self-righteous Mr Modi picked up quarrel with the Chief Election Commissioner, Mr J.M. Lyngdoh, for stating the obvious truth that conditions were not conducive for holding elections in Gujarat. Mr Lyngdoh was subjected to demonstrations by Mr Modi's men who were keen to win the Assembly elections to instal him and his party again in power riding the crest of communal passions that had been unleashed in the wake of the riots — an exercise similar to the one encashed by the Congress Party in the wake of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. Mr Lyngdoh on his part was neither overawed by threats nor by the insinuation that he was Christian by faith and, as such, was preventing the installation of a Hindu like Mr Narendra Modi from coming to power. The Chief Election Commissioner stood his ground and simply did his duty to the Constitution and upheld its dignity and that of his office and in the process earned thanks from discerning countrymen. The new National Human Rights Commission, headed by a former Chief Justice of India, Mr Justice A. S. Anand, has also been attacked for taking inter-est in the Best Bakery acquittals. It was criticised by the Modi government and his cohorts for visiting Vadodara and demanding retrial of the Best Bakery case. Howls of protest were raised when it decided to approach the Supreme Court and seek retrial of the case so that justice denied in the Best Bakery case could still be ensured by the highest court of the land. This is what Mr Justice Khare and his brother judges have taken upon themselves to do. The country is certain that the Supreme Court will do its duty and the tone and content of the remarks of Mr Justice Khare's court about the conduct of the Modi government show that it is serious in its resolve to ensure justice for the victims and punishment for the guilty. "We are not going to be silent spectators," said the Supreme Court, warning the Gujarat government against not prosecuting the guilty. Mr Modi has been put on notice. Neither he nor his party are, however, inclined to take the hint and learn that a ruler has got to do his duty to the people by protecting every citizen, irrespective of considerations of caste, creed or religion. It is this Rajdharma Mr Modi forgot to follow. The Supreme Court has now made it plain it will be watching. Essentially, the contest is between Mr Modi's hubris and the Rule of Law being rightly insisted upon by the Supreme Court. In such a situation, it is difficult to see how the Central leadership of the BJP can allow him to continue as Chief Minister. He has become an embarrassment for his state as well as for the
party. |
Daughters and daughters NIGHT duties fascinate me in some way. Perhaps because I love to do the things which majority of world people don’t do. Being a medical technologist in a hospital, I have to do such duties a lot. The nocturnal duties offer the cases that are often challenging, sometimes surprising as well as thought-provoking and many times both. A pathetic tale entails each patient. On that “calm” night also, I had barely stretched my legs after slipping into my chair, expecting a little rest, when my ward servant, Balwinder, arrived and pulled another chair besides me. In free time, I often like to have informal chats with my colleagues. I find it necessary as well as nourishing for a good working atmosphere. Sometimes we chirp about families, sometimes laugh cracking jokes and sometimes discuss the shades and ironies of life. I had barely broken the ice, when the telephone rang. Balwinder rushed and picked the receiver. He called me to the phone. “There’s a call for you, sir.” “From?” “Labourroom, sir. Some kid is very serious.” All that I had to do was to x-ray the patient. Balwinder took the x-ray machine to the labour-room. I saw my cute little patient, a new-born and asked the staff-nurse to call some relative of the baby. The nurse gave a blank expression. “The relatives are gone,” she murmured. “How,” I could not resist asking. “After all how can one leave a new-born like this?” “Unhe ladka chaahiye thaa,” the nurse clarified. Shocking. It was, indeed, shocking. I watched the bright-eyed child — the girl child. At least a mother can’t abandon her child this way. In all probability, the poor woman might have been threatened to bring only a male child home. So on delivering a female, she couldn’t but left the new-born to its fortune, thus succumbing to the pressure from the so-called thekedars of society. No doubt, the infant had been administered the first dose of punishment for being a female, right at birth. We x-rayed the child and returned to our department. The episode gave us one of the darkest sides of our society to discuss that dark night. This episode also reminded me of another case of an old and extremely sick woman who had come to me some days back. She was accompanied by a young lady. I remember but can’t express with my pen the affection the young lady showered on her old and ailing relative while helping her for the x-ray. I can’t recall whether the young lady was a daughter or a daughter-in-law. Yes, one thing I remember very sharply. The old woman vomited and spoiled the colourful dress of her daughter or daughter-in-law. The old woman felt very ashamed and humiliated. But the young lady reciprocated with smile and affection, saying, “It’s my good fortune that I’m getting a chance to serve you, ma!” This is all I remember of that case. Rest I leave to the thekedars of society to ponder. Let them scratch their
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From New Delhi to Hanoi — by train A conscious effort has been mounted by the Vajpayee government in the past few years, particularly post-9/11, to beef up economic relations with the SAARC countries minus Pakistan, the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) region, the European Union, South Africa, Brazil and the Arab world. There is a renewed focus on increasing bilateral trade, setting up joint commissions and negotiating free trade area regimes with countries, blocks and regions. The idea is: if economic relations improve, the political, diplomatic and strategic contents will automatically follow. Prime Minister Vajpayee’s announcement recently about a possible New Delhi to Hanoi (Vietnam) rail link should be viewed against this backdrop. Speaking at the second India-ASEAN business summit in Delhi on September 4, Mr Vajpayee said: “Work has started on a trilateral highway project linking Thailand, Mynamar and India. Under the Mekong-Ganga cooperation, we are also looking at a New Delhi to Hanoi rail link”. The announcement not only shows India’s “Look East” foreign policy in action but also sounds a warning bell to China. The unmistakable message is that India is sharpening its knives for cutting a greater slice of the North-East Asia, South-East Asia and Far East economies — a region which Beijing has traditionally considered to be its backyard. Another subtle message conveyed with this announcement is that India will be running its economic race with China on railway tracks. The past, it is said, can tell the future. The British consolidated their rule in undivided India by creating a massive network of railway tracks. The Indian Railway network has been expanding at the rate of 1,600 km a year since the first train steamed out from Boribunder to Thane on April 16, 1853. The Railways has played a key role in ensuring the hectoring pace of development which has also brought in economic prosperity. The proposed New Delhi-Hanoi rail route (see map) may take years and decades for completion, but the promised Thailand-Mynamar-India highway project will usher in development in the region at a faster pace. Trade and investment are the basic building blocks of the Indian-ASEAN relationship. ASEAN is an economic powerhouse and a regional cooperation miracle waiting to happen which has a combined gross domestic product of a whopping 750 billion dollars plus. Trade between India and ASEAN is currently more than US $10 billion and the laid down target is to triple it within the next four years. The proposed international train to run between the Indian and Vietnamese capitals will serve several purposes. It will cement India’s ties with ASEAN, a region with which India has graduated from being an insignificant “dialogue partner” to a summit level participant. Pakistan has been trying for years to join the ASEAN, even from backdoor. Such is the economic and political importance of ASEAN. Secondly, it will help a great deal in correcting the trade imbalance as India’s trade is vibrant with only a select few of the ten-member ASEAN. India’s trade relations with at least half of them continue to be in a supine state. Thirdly, friendly countries like Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and Mynamar — the four newest members of ASEAN — will be on the proposed rail route. These countries had been advocating most vociferously India’s case for a closer knit relationship with ASEAN. Presently, there is no rail connection among Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. A single railway line connects Malaysia with Thailand and Singapore and Southern China with Vietnam. Cambodia had, in fact, asked for Indian help from Mr Vajpayee when he visited the capital Phnom Penh last November for the India-ASEAN summit. Premier Hun Sen had suggested that New Delhi could help Phnom Penh build a railway network within the country which could eventually form part of a direct rail link between Singapore and Kuoming (southern China). Lastly, the proposed New Delhi-Hanoi rail link will enable India to take on the competition in the region with the Chinese. Beijing has already started work on a rail line between Singapore and Kuoming (southern China) which will run through virtually most of the ASEAN region. Interestingly, nobody in the Ministries of External Affairs and Railways has any details about the New Delhi-Hanoi rail line, how long will it be, what will be the total cost, the project deadline and how the Indian and ASEAN authorities would negotiate the extremely difficult terrain for constructing the rail line. Konkan Railway was billed to be the Indian Railways’ last frontier. It will no more be so once work on the New Delhi-Hanoi rail link starts. |
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DELHI DURBAR NEW Delhi was compelled to put things in perspective at least with the Arab world after the strategic gains following Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s historic visit to India last week. There was palpable disquiet in the Arab world and Iran was not found wanting in expressing its unvarnished views about Sharon’s conviction that Teheran is moving closer to possessing weapons of mass destruction. The Ministry of External Affairs wasted no time in inviting ranking Arab diplomats to apprise them of the discussions. With certain sections in the Arab world issuing veiled threats that India is dependent on energy supplies from that part of the world coupled with substantial NRI presence, the effort was to put things in perspective and assure them that India’s relations with Tel Aviv was not at the cost of the Arab world.
Sharon visit The Congress was not comfortable answering questions on Ariel Sharon’s visit to the country, the first by an Israeli Prime Minister. The Congress described party president Sonia Gandhi’s meeting with Sharon as “absolute formality’’ saying that she had to meet the visiting dignitary since she was the Leader of the Opposition. But the party was hard put to explain the presence of senior leaders — Dr Manmohan Singh and Mr Natwar Singh — during the meeting. The Congress holds much in store by way of India’s traditional leadership of the Third World and its espousal of the Palestinian cause. Lest it should be misunderstood, the Congress preferred not to comment on the Indo-Israeli cooperation in the defence sector.
Bobby Misra The appointment of Bobby Misra, a Special Secretary in the Department of Economic Affairs, as India’s executive director at the International Monetary Fund in Washington has not come as a surprise. An IAS officer of the 1969 batch, it is widely believed that Bobby’s proximity to the central leadership made things that much easier for him. Bobby’s wife Adarsh Misra is also a civil servant of the same 1969 batch and a Secretary-level officer as well. She has the right to claim a family posting.
Secrecy in IB Posters plastered at the headquarters of the Intelligence Bureau (IB) make some interesting reading. Here is a sample. “Do not keep the files open in your office,” “Secrecy is your bread and butter,” and “Solving secrecy is intelligence.” As you get out of the lift on any of the five floors of the IB, these posters stare you in the face. Finding these posters an eyesore, a deep throat wonders why should this work not be given to an advertisement agency.
Meal scheme The announcement of providing midday meals to all government primary school children found truant students attending school. The meal is an apology. In any case what can one get for a meagre Rs 2 per head. Half a loaf is better than no bread. However, that loaf should be edible. Children often complain against the cockroach-infested meal. About 30 MCD students felt under the weather recently after having the meal. They are still recuperating. Contributed by T.R. Ramachandran, Prashant Sood and Pramod Chaudhari |
He has no childhood, no old age His Court and Commandments are Eternal. What we beg, He grants. He is the hope of those without hope. — Guru Arjan Dev Humility, unostentatiousness, non-injuring, Forgiveness, simplicity, purity, steadfastness, Self-control; this is declared to be wisdom; What is opposed to this ignorance. — The Bhagavad Gita Know that God resides in all things animate and inanimate. Hence everything is an object of worship, be it men, beasts or birds, plants and minerals. — Sri Ramakrishna Numerous are the angels in the heavens; yet their intercession shall avail nothing until Allah gives leave to whom He accepts and chooses. — The Koran |
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FORGET
about Pakistan giving India the most favoured nation status. Don’t worry if Bangladesh does not cooperate with New Delhi. Don’t be unduly perturbed if China is racing away to achieve its declared super power status by 2025.