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Escape from Tihar A rape a day |
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Raise your glass! Liquor cartels hijack the policy PUNJAB'S excise policy for 2004-05, unveiled on Tuesday, makes little sense as far as the state’s and the consumer’s interests are concerned. It has apparently been hijacked by the liquor lobby.
Unending nuclear hypocrisy
Principals of principles
Tamil politics in flux once again FROM
PAKISTAN
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Escape from Tihar
THE escape of Sher Singh Rana, accused of killing dacoit-turned-MP Phoolan Devi, from Tihar Jail shows the depths to which standards of jail administration have plummeted. Rana has proved how easy it is to hoodwink the jail authorities. Come to think of it, Tihar is the largest jail in the country and is located right under the nose of the Central Government. It is also touted as a model jail. It is, therefore, difficult to believe that Rana could have managed to escape without any help from the jail administration. Only a thorough investigation will reveal whether some jail officials were hand in glove with the alleged killer who, while surrendering to the police, had predicted that he would come out of incarceration within three years. Given the abortive bid Rana had made earlier to escape from Tihar, the jail authorities should have been extra-cautious in dealing with him. But even elementary scrutiny was not made when a "policeman" approached the staff concerned with a fake court warrant. Obviously, he is a well-connected person. Even when he surrendered to the police claiming that he had shot the MP for vendetta, there were many who doubted his version. Whether there was any substance in the suspicion that he was owning responsibility for someone else's crime or not, it was obvious that he was not acting alone. This should have forewarned the jail staff against showing any leniency to him. Alas, none of these considerations seems to have weighed with the jail staff when they perfunctorily allowed the fake constable to take him away to safety. The incident has come less than a month after the infamous jailbreak in Chandigarh from where three hardcore terrorists crawled their way to safety through a tunnel they had been digging. The police have no clue about the whereabouts of the escapees while they give out fanciful theories of the great escape. What was more shocking than the escape was the kind of lifestyle they enjoyed in the high-security jail. They had access to all creature comforts, which an average Indian cannot even dream of. Corruption in the jails is such that those with connections can get everything from mobile phones to multi-channel television to tasty home-made food, to be washed down with the choicest wines. If anything, this shows that till corruption in the jails is rooted out, the Ranas and Hawaras will escape making a mockery of the law and the functioning of the government. |
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A rape a day IT was not a state secret Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala disclosed when he told the Vidhan Sabha that hardly a day passes without the registration of a rape case while the number of murder cases registered in the State every day is two. It was perhaps to underline the fact that his police was able to crack a majority of the cases of rape, murder, dacoity and looting registered last year. Of the 355 cases of rape, 349 were cracked by the police, which solved 574 of the 705 murder cases as well, he claimed. While that is a good track record that Mr Chautala may find satisfying, what is important is the rate of conviction, which happens to be abysmally low. The nightmare of a rape victim does not end even after she undergoes the ultimate humiliation. She not only has to undergo social ostracism as if she is not a victim but a criminal herself. The police indifference and even arrogance add to her misery. In court, she has to answer questions which are embarrassing to the extreme. Even after all this degradation, many victims are mortified to learn that the culprits have gone scot-free courtesy legal loopholes. That is why most of the rape incidents are not even reported to the police. If it is any consolation, things are hardly better in the neighbouring Punjab. Rather, the rising crime graph is an all-India phenomenon. When the rapist of the Swiss national kidnapped during the International Film Festival in Delhi is moving about freely, what kind of security can be promised to women in the rest of the country? One thing that is undeniable is that harsher punishment in law has not proved to be a deterrent. This social menace can be checked only if the fear of the law is supplemented by moral education and societal pressure. The government has to work in tandem with social organisations to bring about a transformation in attitude towards rape. |
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Raise your glass! PUNJAB'S excise policy for 2004-05, unveiled on Tuesday, makes little sense as far as the state’s and the consumer’s interests are concerned. It has apparently been hijacked by the liquor lobby. Year after year it had been the state policy to extract maximum revenue from the auction of liquor vends. Nobody protested even if the liquor vend owners passed on the burden to the consumer. Many thought the high price would discourage its consumption. Last year the Amarinder Singh government was widely slammed for handing over liquor vends to certain cartels from outside the state. That was understandable as the state government earned more revenue for the depleted treasury. But now, it seems, is the time to say thanks to them. This year the cash-strapped state government has done something unusual: it has announced that “there will be no increase in the auction money”. Now auctions are held annually only to get the highest possible bids for the liquor shops. There can be no motive in this self-inflicted financial injury other than the desire to benefit the liquor barons. The policy, if it can be called so, in effect means that the government gets no additional revenue, while the consumer ends up paying more. Another illogical feature of this policy is: while the duty hike will make the common man’s booze dearer, the expensive brands consumed by the moneyed class will become less expensive. The abolition of the additional quota will lower the quantity of available liquor in the state. The shortage will encourage its smuggling from the neighbouring areas. The lower excise duty in Chandigarh will also boost smuggling, causing additional revenue loss to the state. It is obvious that the state’s interests have been ignored to serve the well-entrenched private interests. If press reports are to be believed, even the Punjab Excise Minister was not involved in the framing of the excise policy, which is widely believed to be the handiwork of a nexus of politicians, bureaucrats and cartels. No wonder, the minister chose to stay away when the policy was announced. Thought for the day Honesty is the best policy; but he who is governed by that maxim is not an honest man. — Richard Whately
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Unending nuclear hypocrisy ON the vexed and vexatious issue of nuclear nonproliferation is there going to be no end to the hypocrisy of the western nations, led by the United States, the sole superpower and the self-appointed guardian of the nonproliferation regime such as it is? This question is unavoidable because of the sequence of relevant events following America’s willing acceptance of the Pakistani claim that the rogue nuclear scientist, Dr A.Q. Khan, alone was responsible for the massive leakage of nuclear secrets, materials, equipment and weapons designs to Libya, Iran and North Korea. At one remove, the US had also swallowed Pakistani President Gen Pervez Musharraf’s palpably absurd pretence that no military leader was ever involved in the terrible transactions. Since then Ms Benazir Bhutto, a former Prime Minister of Pakistan and now self-exiled leader of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), and General Mirza Afzal Beg (retired), a former Chief of the Army Staff, have both repudiated the make-believe jointly fostered by Islamabad and Washington. Indeed, they have referred to a full-page advertisement in a Pakistani newspaper 10 months after General Musharraf had seized power in which the government had “invited buyers” for sensitive nuclear materials. General Beg, a one-time boss of the present military ruler, in fact, showed the advertisement to Mr Hamid Mir, a prominent journalist to whom he gave an interview. Meanwhile, British newspapers continue to publish reports that Dr Khan’s London-based daughter, Dina, has in “safe custody” documents and a tape-recorded statement that could prove that Pakistani military leaders since 1977, including General Musharraf, have acquiesced in the shenanigans of the now disgraced “father of the Islamic bomb”. It is in this murky context that one must view President George W. Bush’s speech at the US Defence University. In it he gloated over the success of the CIA in “exposing” Dr Khan’s nefarious network and spelt out a seven-point programme to counter the proliferation of the weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and their means of delivery. Ironically, the most important part of his oration was not what he said but what he refused to say, apparently wilfully. There is, for instance, not a single word in the US President’s speech — or in an earlier presentation by the CIA Director, Mr George Tenet — about the role of industrial outfits of European countries, such as Germany, France, the Netherlands and Switzerland, in Dr Khan’s shenanigans lasting two decades. Mr Bush waxed eloquent about a factory in Malaysia, run by a Sri Lankan collaborator of Dr Khan, that reportedly forged some centrifuges. But he has remained totally silent on a whole range of highly sophisticated equipment and materials that simply could not have been produced either in the Malaysian facility or at the Khan Research Laboratory in Pakistan. Included in the items supplied by Dr Khan’s European partners, consistently and persistently, is the plant for the manufacture of uranium hexafluoride, a highly corrosive element that needs to be handled with exceptional care. The same goes for the high-tech metal alloys needed to produce centrifuges and the powerful motors to rotate these centrifuges at very high speeds. To cut a long story short, the bitter truth is that European firms, easily identifiable by any serious student of the nuclear business, are the real culprits. They were the ones that allowed Dr Khan to first steal from the European firm, Urenco, designs and drawings of centrifuges and then supplied him all the equipment to enable him to set up the uranium enrichment laboratory at Kahuta. Thereafter, the dubious European firms were the producers of the nuclear contraband that Dr. Khan sold in what the IAEA chief, Dr El Baradei, calls the nuclear “Wal Market” for which the nearest Hindi equivalent is “chor bazaar”. In other words, Dr Khan was the chief organiser and salesman of the goods unlawfully turned out by the European industrial establishments. And thereby hang not just one tale but two. First, since the public memory is proverbially short, it needs to be stressed that America’s main motive to push through the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) in the sixties was to ensure that Germany (and Japan) did not have access to nuclear weapons. The Germans knew this because this was the period when they were demanding that “one of the fingers on the nuclear trigger should be German”. According to several nuclear experts, illegal exports of nuclear equipment, material and technology that have torn the NPT to shreds are Germany’s “sweet revenge” and in this venture it has had no dearth of collaborators from neighbouring countries all of which are signatories to the NPT. That is where the second tale, partly bizarre and partly ironic, comes in. In the midst of hair-raising disclosures about relentless proliferation that has made complete nonsense of the NPT, ostensibly friendly foreign dignitaries, such as the British Foreign Secretary, Mr. Jack Straw, are advising India to sign the NPT! This is by no means all. Massive illegal transfer of nuclear technology and equipment having been allowed to take place, there is now an attempt to obstruct lawful and legitimate flow of peaceful nuclear technology. Of Mr. Bush’s seven announcements — made shortly after the “Glide Path” agreement for hi-tech Indo-US cooperation in the fields of nuclear electricity, space, dual-use technology and missile defence — only one is of major interest to India. According to it, only those countries that sign the “additional protocol” permitting the IAEA, the UN’s “nuclear watchdog”, intrusive inspection rights would be entitled to import equipment and technology for a civilian nuclear programme. There is no way India can or should sign the IAEA’s “additional protocol” unless this is done on the same terms as are allowed to the five nuclear weapons powers recognised by the NPT. Despite this country’s impeccable nonproliferation record, it is a moot question whether the “Gang of Five” would agree to this. Of a piece with the America’s pernicious proclivity to turn a blind eye to proliferation by Europeans and Pakistanis over the years is its thundering silence on China’s major contribution to Pakistan’s clandestine nuclear programme first and then its supply of missiles to Islamabad. China has even built a plutonium reactor in Pakistan and helped it set up a reprocessing plant. But once again President Bush is totally unwilling to comment on this. It is not the US administration alone that is to blame. The performance of the supposedly independent American media and academia, including its much-praised think-tanks, is equally appalling. |
Principals of principles THE recent death of Principal Triloki Nath, a former Principal of DAV College, Chandigarh, reminded me of a similar great soul of thirties in Lahore. He was Dr Anthony Lucas, an American missionary, who was Principal of Foreman Christian College of Lahore. F.C. College was an American missionary institution and the atmosphere in it was conducive to intellectual discourse in the 1930s. The setup and staff constituted of devoted and dedicated missionary professors from America who were paid the maintenance charges and some pocket money. There were, of course, some Christian, Hindu and Muslim professors too who were also imbued with the spirit of sacrifice in the interest of nation-building activities. Two instances out of many need mention to dilate on the character, greatness and missionary zeal of Dr Lucas. The year was 1938 and the Unionist Ministry led by Sir Sikander Hayat Khan had taken over power in pre-partition Punjab’s Capital at Lahore a year earlier. The vexatious question arose as to who should be the chief guest at the annual convocation of F.C. College, which was to be held on February 19, 1938. Despite pressure from the state government Dr Lucas stood his ground and invited Mahatma Gandhi to preside over the convocation. The moment Gandhi entered the convocation hall, Dr Lucas touched his feet in the presence of hundreds of his students. The exuberant, shrieking students, both boys and girls, gave a standing ovation to the honoured guest, and animatedly listened to his address. This act of Dr Lucas shook the British-India Government and, as was expected, Dr Datta, a meek and mild Bengali Christian from Calcutta, replaced him as Principal. Dr Lucas, however, volunteered to stay on as the vice-principal of the college and served his beloved institution without any remuneration for many years. The other incident related to the visit of a hundred-strong group of boys belonging to the University Officers Training Corps (UOTC) of the college like our present-day NCC. There was a fortnight-long camp at Shahadra, 12 miles from Lahore. There was a small malta (Punjabi orange) garden not far from the camp, which was raided by a group of students, and with pockets full of maltas the students climbed the top of Emperor Jahangir’s tomb to enjoy the feast and left the malta skins and seeds on the rooftop. The mali (gardener) felt the pinch of the theft but unable to find the skins, waited for a chance discovery on the roof of Emperor Jahangir’s tomb. He immediately approached Dr Lucas and with the help of a bamboo ladder showed him the evidence on the rooftop. Dr Lucas quietly enjoyed the ingenuity of the students but paid rupees one hundred to the owner of the garden as compensation (almost equivalent to Rs 25,000 of these
days). |
Tamil politics in flux once again
THE most conspicuous feature of the coming Lok Sabha elections in Tamil Nadu is the readiness with which the Congress and the BJP have submitted to becoming junior partners of the regional parties - the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and the All India Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam(AIADMK). This underscores the growing importance of the Kazhagams for the national parties as crucial partners in any coalition government at the Centre. Never before have these "two birds of the same feather", as K Kamaraj once described them, held the whip-hand as they do now in deciding the terms of an alliance with the national parties. On the contrary, the two Kazhagams are more mindful of the demands of other state parties which have the greater potential to chip away at their vote base. It is over 36 years since a national party, the Congress, was sent packing from Fort St George, the seat of governmental power in Tamil Nadu, by the DMK. Unable to reconcile itself to being unseated by the DMK, for 30 years the Congress kept harping on the need to bring Tamil Nadu back to the "national mainstream" and revive "Kamaraj rule" in the state. It is a different matter that Kamaraj had broken with the Congress in 1969 and stoutly opposed it till his death during the Emergency, when Indira Gandhi appropriated his name and legacy for the party. In fact, the break-away AIADMK led by MGR was created by the Congress in 1972 to wreck the DMK, which was why the AIADMK, until Ms Jayalalithaa emerged at the helm, remained a subservient adjunct of the Congress, or for that matter, any formation ruling at the Centre. And to Jayalalithaa goes the credit of making the national parties dance to the tunes of the AIADMK and the DMK, both offshoots of the self-respect movement led by Dravida Kazhagam ideologue E V Ramasami Naicker. Before she loomed large on the country's political stage, the national parties struck an alliance with either of the Kazhagams for elections and dropped them like hot potatoes at the earliest thereafter. In the arithmetic that prevailed till the 1990s, the regional party which allied with the Congress invariably won a lion's share of the seats. This gave the Congress the upper hand and seat-sharing, regardless of whether the poll partner was the DMK or the AIADMK, was cast in a formula mould: the Congress would contest two-thirds of the Lok Sabha seats and settle for one-third of the assembly constituencies. Whichever Kazhagam lost the race for winning the Congress hand had no option but to band together with the other parties such as the CPI, the CPM, the Janata Party and its offshoots. Ms Jayalalithaa changed all that from the early 1990s, making the Congress and the BJP compete with each other for wooing her. Since 1996, whether the AIADMK is in office or in opposition, her party has been the preferred one for the BJP and the Congress. Only when they were unwanted by her did they make a beeline to the DMK. Paradoxically, this has strengthened the DMK, too, as the AIADMK's only challenger to whose leadership the other parties must submit. Hence, we have a situation where the once-mighty Congress that was offered 22 out of the 39 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu settling for as little as 10, leaving 15 seats for the DMK that leads the six-party Democratic Progressive Alliance. In fact, the other partners, namely, the PMK of Dr S Ramadoss, the MDMK of Mr Vaiko, the CPI, the CPM and the Muslim League, together account for more - 14 seats - than what the Congress could manage to negotiate. This formidable pre-poll alliance being sewn up way ahead of any other national or state-level pact reveals the growing importance of the DMK and the AIADMK in the coalition calculus of both the Congress and the BJP. There was much surprise at the Congress opting to ally with the DMK, after a gap of over 20 years, especially as the Dravidian party had been pilloried for its pro-LTTE sympathies. Elections are not about principles or ideology but about winnability and the Congress had no choice but to pitch for the DMK. Ms Jayalalithaa did not want the Congress and she had made known her opposition to "foreigner" Sonia Gandhi. In the event, the Congress had to join hands with the DMK if it wanted to be reckoned with at all as a force in Tamil Nadu. That the Congress had sought the ouster of the DMK from the United Front government of Mr I K Gujral because of its alleged links with the LTTE which is accused of killing Rajiv Gandhi was so much history. Much more than the DMK, the Congress would be in a strategic alliance with the MDMK and the PMK also and they have been open supporters of the LTTE's cause. It is only a technical point that the MDMK and the PMK are allies of the DMK and not (directly) of the Congress. To those who have followed the many U-turns in Tamil politics, the Congress-DMK alliance is nothing surprising. The DMK-Congress alliance for the 1980 elections was even more surprising as the DMK ministry was dismissed during the Emergency . It was relentlessly persecuted and its leaders and cadres were jailed and tortured. Yet, the Janata Party's "natural ally" of 1977 unhesitatingly did an about-turn to partner the Congress in the name of "stability". Once the DMK's M Karunanidhi arrived at an accord with Mrs Sonia Gandhi, electoral arithmetic dictated that the AIADMK should join hands with the BJP. But Ms Jayalalithaa, aware that it was the BJP which needed her more, declared that the AIADMK would go it alone in the Lok Sabha. This had the desired effect with BJP leaders rushing post-haste to Tamil Nadu to woo the very lady, who had toppled Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's government in 1999 by withdrawing from the NDA. It took the charms and wiles of everyone the NDA could muster for the mission, from party chief M Venkaiah Naidu and Defence Minister George Fernandes to Mr Vajpayee and Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani to win over the 'Iron Butterfly' of Tamil Nadu. After all this effort, although an alliance has been proclaimed, the BJP is wary of even voicing its expectations about seats. The BJP, which won four seats from the state in the last elections, dares not even whisper about more than 10 seats lest Ms Jayalalithaa take offence and change her mind about the six seats she may concede. Whatever the outcome of the Lok Sabha elections, as the scene looks today, it will take more than a few electoral setbacks for Ms Jayalalithaa to climb down from her high horse. Strangely enough, this is also to the advantage of her arch-foe, Mr Karunanidhi, who gets
strengthened as a counter-point. |
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FROM PAKISTAN PESHAWAR: Unauthorised sale of satellite mobile phone connections in the local market has not only caused revenue loss to the government, but is also creating problems for law-enforcement agencies to check the misuse of the facility by anti-social elements. Four shops at the Awami Market in Karkhano Bazaar — known for stocking smuggled goods — are selling illegal satellite telephone connections at cheap rates. Since December 2001, when the only licence holder of a Dubai-based satellite mobile company launched its operation in Pakistan, the illegal sale of its connections started at the local market, adjacent to the tribal region of Khyber Agency. — Dawn
Anti-terrorism
operation
QUETTA: Chief Minister Jam Yousuf has said that terrorists involved in subversive acts in the province have been identified and the government will soon launch an operation against them. Talking to reporters here on Tuesday, Mr Yousuf said that at present he could not say anything about the involvement of some foreign hands, but pointed out that mostly local people were used in these acts. About the situation in Dera Bugti, he said that some anti-social elements were disturbing the law and order situation, but the government would not stop the development programme in the province.
— Dawn
A show for provincial unity
LAHORE: The biggest event in Punjab, National Horse and Cattle Show-2004, was revived by Chief Minister Ch Pervaiz Elahi after nine years to promote unity among the four federating units. The mega event was inaugurated by Governor Khalid Maqbool along with Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi on February 16 and it would continue till February 20. On the last day, Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali is scheduled to be the chief guest. The show has always promoted national cohesion and cultural harmony, besides providing entertainment to all and sundry.
— The News International
Atta shortage in Lahore
LAHORE: The city retail market witnessed an acute shortage of wheat flour as the commodity is available only in the black market due to a high profit margin and the failure of the administration to act against hoarders and profiteers. A 20-kg wheat flour bag is being sold for Rs 235 at selective shops and not easily available to people. The shopkeepers claimed that the flour mills have not been supplying atta bags according to the demand at the ex-mill rate of Rs 206, as they are more interested in supplying the commodity to the NWFP and Sindh where a 20-kg bag is being sold for Rs 260. The wheat flour price is on the rise after
Id-ul-Azha. The 20-kg bag was earlier available at Rs 220 -Rs 225 in the retail market.
— The Nation
LAHORE: The Punjab police has demanded removal of certain “impediments” in the way of an effective implementation of the Police Order 2002, caused due to the presence of the word “Government” in at least six articles of the law. Demanding removal of the word “Government” from certain articles of the Police Order, the police authorities have pleaded that the presence of this word is creating confusion as to the role of the provincial Home Department in police affairs, hence hampering progress on the implementation of the new police law, enforced on August 14, 2002.
— The Nation |
The shining gods, the spirits of the dead and the spirits in the psychic world all happen to be worshipped by men in different stages of development but they are all limited forms of the Supreme and cannot give the aspiring soul the peace that is beyond all understanding. — Dr Sarvepalli
There is no other Giver but God who creates and sustains all. So, meditate ever on His Name, merge in it and gather thereby the fruits of its bliss. — Guru Nanak Thy desire is thy prayer; and if thy desire is without ceasing, thy prayer will also be without ceasing...The continuance of your longing is the continuance of your prayer. — Saint Augustine Hatred does not cease through hatred at any time. Hatred ceases through love. This is an unalterable law. — The Buddha We never reach our ideals, whether of mental or moral improvement, but the thought of them shows us our deficiencies, and spurs us on to higher and better things. — Tryon Edwards |
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