 |
|
ON RECORD US-Pak collaboration and its ramifications for India |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
PROFILE COMMENTS UNKEMPT DIVERSITIES—DELHI LETTER
|
ON RECORD The architect of India’s economic reforms, the erudite Dr Manmohan Singh, is livid about the way the NDA government has dealt with the economy. A member of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) and Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, he finds no merit in the "India Shining" campaign. Almost 13 years after he made his famous budget speech in 1991 that would change the course of the country’s economic growth, he exuded confidence that the Congress would come back to power. In an exclusive interview to The Tribune, Dr Singh spoke about a number of issues and expressed concern about incidents such as those in Gujarat. He maintained that personal health reasons compelled him to steer clear of contesting the general elections from Punjab. Excerpts: Q:The exit polls have projected a favourable result for the Congress. Yet, as a party you have been opposing exit polls till the final phase of election is over on May 10. Do you still stick to that stand? A: We have taken a principled stand on it. Since this is a lenghthy election spread across five phases, exit polls do influence the voters. I am not an expert on opinion and exit polls. But the internal assessment of the Congress shows that the people of this country want a change in government in Delhi. And the evidence that we have got does show that we are going to form the next government. Q: The BJP and some Opposition parties have been whipping up the issue of Mrs Sonia Gandhi’s foreign origin. What are your comments? A: This is a fake issue. Sonia Gandhi is very much a citizen of this country and she has won parliamentary elections from two constituencies in North and South India. That the BJP is now raising the issue only shows that they are nervous. The BJP had earlier said that they would fight the elections on a development agenda and the bogus "India Shining" campaign was launched. But by raising issues such as Sonia Gandhi’s foreign origin and Bofors only shows the hollowness of their campaign which is reflective of their state of nervousness. On dynastic politics, all that I can say is that a successful politician cannot be created in the backroom of Parliament or the legislature. Q: The BJP had hit the campaign trail in the backdrop of the "India Shining" campaign. As the architect of the economic reforms programme, how would you react to this government-sponsored publicity blitzkrieg? A: The India Shining campaign is a bogus campaign. The average rate of growth of GDP during this government is much lower than the one witnessed during the Congress regime. Agriculture and employment have been the biggest casualties. There has been a colossal neglect of agriculture. If India were shining why would the farmers be committing suicide? Public expenditure in health, education and agriculture have come down drastically. There may have been some progress in telecommunication and roads. But again it was the Congress government which opened up the telecom sector. It was during our government’s time when the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) was set up. This only shows that the BJP has tried to copy the Congress programme. During the time of the Congress government, private corporate investment as a percentage of GDP was in the range of 9 per cent. It has now fallen to 4 per cent and the savings and investment rates have also gone down significantly. Q: The government has projected a robust economic growth in 2004-05. How realistic are the projections? A: This year (2003-04) was an aberration. After a year of severe drought the growth rates are bound to go up. A similar trend was witnessed during 1987-88 when the GDP rose at the rate of more than 8 per cent following a year of drought. The government’s projection about next year (2004-05) is not achievable. Their projections are not corroborated by the projections of anybody else. The National Council for Applied Economic Research (NCAER) and the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) have projected that the GDP growth in 2004-05 would be in the range of 6 to 6.5 per cent. Q: Unlike the NDA, which has consistenly projected Atal Bihari Vajpayee as the undisputed leader of the BJP-led coalition, the Congress and its allies have not projected anybody as its Prime Ministerial candidate. Your comments? A: If the Congress gets majority, Mrs Sonia Gandhi is the obvious leader. In the case of the alliance, the leaders of all the parties will sit together and decide on the leadership issue in a democratic manner and that is how parliamentary democracy works. There is no doubt that Mrs Sonia Gandhi is the leader. This has been acknowledged by our alliance partners. Laloo Prasad Yadav, Karunanidhi and others have said that Mrs Gandhi is going to be the leader of the Congress-led alliance. Q: But the BJP has alleged that the Congress has used the Muslims only as a vote bank and has not done anything for them. A: What has the BJP done for the Muslims apart from spreading hatred? How many Muslims have been given tickets by the Muslims? Events such as Gujarat create instability in the system. A state known for its entrepreneurship became a victim of state-sponsored terrorism with the minority community being targeted. Mr L K Advani has the cheek to say that Narendra Modi is the best Chief Minister of the country. Some of his Sangh Parivar colleagues have even gone on to say that Narendra Modi is a future Prime Minister. This does not augur well. Q: What about reports that you were offered a ticket from Punjab but decided not to contest? A: This is a purely personal decision for reasons of health. I have recently had an angioplasty and that is why decided not to contest. Q: Almost 13 years after you made your budget speech, do you feel satisfied with the pace of the economy ever since? A:
When I was the Finance Minister and started the economic reforms
programme, we went forward with the process even when the BJP and the
Left had opposed it, as we thought the direction is right. The United
Front and the NDA governments have by and large carried on with the
same direction. However, this does not mean that we fully support the
BJP’s economic policy. The disinvestment programme is being carried
out in a totally non-transparent manner. And when the Comptroller and
Auditor-General (CAG) points out some irregularities, the Minister,
instead of explaining it to Parliament, calls the CAG an idiot. The
transaction costs are very high and there has to be state controls in
strategic places. There is also the issue of corruption. Tehelka, UTI,
defence purchases, cooperative bank scams and other incidents have
been highlighted by the CAG. There have also been the case where the
personal staff of the Minister of State for Finance were involved in
transfer of officials for the exchange of money. |
|
US-Pak collaboration and its ramifications for India Washington is all praise for the role played by General Musharraf in its war against terrorism. Stuck in an intractable Iraqi quagmire with the ever-increasing rebellion by Shi’ites and the Sunnis and with presidential elections fast approaching, President Bush is once again looking at General Musharraf to deliver on the Al-Qaida front. Despite the highly provocative developments in Pakistan in recent months with international ramifications, the US has displayed a markedly soft and acquiescent attitude towards Pakistan. General Musharraf knows that the US needs him more than he needs the US. The Al-Qaida menace cannot be eliminated without his cooperation. The Al-Qaida infested tribal areas of Waziristan lie along the Pak-Afghan border where no soldier had dared in the past. Since 9/11, the US and its allies have given grants to Pakistan, nearing between $ 1.8 billion and $ 2.5 billion, written off $ 1.5 billion debt servicing by Pakistan and instituted $ 600 million a year military and economic aid programmes over a period of five years. Mr Colin Powell announced a ‘Major Non-NATO Ally’ status for Pakistan during his recent visit to South Asia. The US aim is to bolster General Musharraf’s image in Pakistan to help him meet its demands in the region. Political morality and principles are secondary when it comes to vital national interests. With the announcement of MNNA status, Pakistan has all of a sudden become a part of the exclusive 13 nation club. It will entitle Pakistan priority clearance of defence equipment, joint R & D and stockpiling of US military hardware on Pak soil for future joint operations. Access to a whole range of military hardware and military training will please the generals the most. This puts Pak on par with Israel, Japan, S. Korea, Australia and others like the Philippines, Argentina, Egypt, Kuwait, Jordan and Bahrain. Conferment of this status on Pakistan at a time when Lok Sabha elections are in full swing in India was surprising. In contrast, the US had earlier deferred the announcement about India becoming its ‘Strategic Partner’ on the ground that it could irk Pakistan at that juncture. To mollify the much-touted strategic partner now doesn’t help in any way. Pakistan will have an unimpeded flow of hundreds of millions of dollars in direct US economic and military aid. This will only help bolster the establishment’s ego and the aspirations to take on India when appropriate. This has been India’s experience in the past. Despite the US Administration’s assurances to India in the past that the US military aid to Pakistan would not be employed against it, the 1965 war that in itself was the direct consequence of US economic and military aid, saw the latest technology Patton Tanks employed in the western front. Pakistan’s nuclear proliferation activities have been a source of concern to the world. It had created a wide international blackmarket network for nuclear proliferation. The top brass amongst the scientific community was extensively engaged in garnering funds in return for the bomb technology. Both Libya and Iran had paid millions of dollars in this transaction. North Korea came equally handy in supplying missiles in exchange for the bomb. Pakistan had the bomb but not the means of delivery (other than the aircraft). No individual, however, big, dare indulge in nuclear proliferation of this magnitude, unless he had the sanction of the army chief who control Pakistan’s nuclear programme in its entirety and, to a lesser extent, the civilian governments. When this came out in the open the Father of Pak bomb, Dr Abdul Qader Khan was seduced to accept the entire responsibility in a mutually convenient bargain. General Musharraf pardoned him instantly. The US, in turn, exonerated Pakistan promptly. The US swallowed it all willingly at the face value, without even raising a finger. Instead it rewarded Pakistan rather than punish it for the unprecedented nuclear proliferation. But then, General Musharraf has to nab dead or alive the Al-Qaida and Taliban leadership to bail out Bush at home. As it is, Washington speaks from the perspective of Islamabad. Little leverage that India thought it had with the US in getting General Musharraf to deliver on the question of cross-border terrorism may not be there any more. The US may not like to irk General Musharraf when it needs him the most. These developments are bound to strain the Indo-US ‘Strategic Partnership’ announced a few months ago in January this year. The partnership embodies areas of civil space, civil nuclear and high-tech cooperation. Missile defence and other measures in the partnership haven’t made much headway. The US wants India to lift the trade barriers and open up the agriculture sector for US exports into India. The tilt towards Pakistan is slowly becoming decisive, for the US has high priority objectives in that region. Whenever in the past, the US had backed Pakistan in economic and military terms, Pak invariably hardened its stance towards India, nullifying all previous efforts at reconciliation. The current situation is no different from that of the past. Just as the Indo-Pak relations are on the ascendance, come the US with all goodies that will, endear it to Pak generals. Another month or so, when the snow melts in the valley will reveal Pak’s hand. The US may once again turn out to be one to mar the peace process and fast burgeoning Indo-Pak amity. Spurt in violence in recent weeks seem to point finger in the very direction. His outbursts are hopefully meant for appeasing the critics home. The sense of anger and alienation amongst the tribals and the radicals is worrying General Musharraf. Kashmir is an outlet for him to relieve pressure. But only time will tell the
truth. The writer is former Director-General, Defence Planning Staff, Ministry of Defence, Government of India |
PROFILE
His woes were compounded when Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee implored him to join the National Democratic Alliance. Defence Minister and NDA Convener George Fernandes added to Mulayam’s discomfort when he more vigorously repeated the Prime Minister’s offer. The result was that the Muslim electorate got suspicious and reports say that they began tilting back towards the Congress, sending shock waves in the Samajwadi Party ranks. Only the poll outcome will show if Mulayam’s base has cracked or remained intact but he is bound to remain the most sought after politician in the post-election scenario. Besides the BJP, the Congress and the Third Front leaders have already begun wooing him for they may need his support in the post-poll scenario. Barely eight months back, nobody thought that Mulayam Singh Yadav could become the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh for the third time but what was unimaginable had come true. He had then won a battle but now the Samajwadi Party leader is in the midst of a war but, irrespective of whether he wins or loses, he remains a tenacious fighter. Four decades back when the Jat patriarch and former Prime Minister, Chaudhary Charan Singh, saw a young man jostling to meet him in a crowd of his party workers, his impromptu comment was: “Yeh chottey kad ka admi, bade kaam ka lagta hai”. With his long years of experience, Chaudhary Sahib had spotted the talent in this “little fellow” and, simultaneously, Mulayam Singh embarked on his turbulent political career. Fired by the idealism of Dr Ram Manohar Lohia brand of socialism, he still acknowledges that “Doctor Sahib has been my inspiration”. His critics say he belied the great socialist leader’s ideals. Having come under the tutelage of the Jat Patriarch, Mulayam Singh made his first mark in 1967. He hit the headlines by becoming the youngest member of the country’s biggest Legislative Assembly with 425 seats. Even foresighted Chaudhary Sahib did not imagine at that time that Mulayam Singh would ever become UP's Chief Minister and play a significant role at the national level. Nobody took Mulayam Singh seriously when he became the Chief Minister for the first time and his government was thought to be a passing phase. But he proved his critics wrong. In-built tenacity came to the fore when he rescued the Babri Masjid, which a year later the Narasimha Rao government could not protect with all its might. Even though Mulayam Singh saved the Babri Masjid, the bold step cost him his government in 1991 and brought the BJP to power in the sensitive state. Paradoxically, the same Babri Masjid brought him back to power in 1993; he was vindicated. Mulayam Singh’s tenacity in saving what has come to be known as the disputed structure made him hero in Muslims and he got a nickname “Maulana Mulayam Singh”. He became the Defence Minister in the United Front Government and was in the run for the Prime Minister’s post when the H.D. Deve Gowda government fell. The criticism against Mulayam has been that he let loose a virtual caste war in the regions of Agra and Avadh leading to confrontation between upper caste and lower caste. The charge of castism has tarnished his socialist image and his adversaries openly hit out at him as an “opportunist” and “betrayer” of Dr Lohia’s ideals. Stoutly built Mulayam Singh was a wrestler and his impressive performance at a bout against his powerful rival impressed the local socialist MLA, Nathu Singh, and he became his first political “Guru”. Mulayam met Dr Lohia for the first time in 1966 when the socialist leader had come to Itawa to address a public meeting. Doctor Sahib always encouraged dedicated and committed young men, keen to join the socialist movement . He saw promise in Mulayam and picked him as a volunteer and backed his candidature in 1967 poll. Nobody thought that “this boy” had a chance against the formidable Congress rival. The young socialist sprang a surprise; he not only won by a huge margin but his rival lost his security deposit. Mulayam Singh was only 28 at that time; he became youngest member of the UP Assembly. He is now locked in a much bigger political wrestling bout, the outcome of which will decide his future. |
|
COMMENTS UNKEMPT Out of blue the Bengali service of the BBC asked me to take part in a discussion about the Indian election. “Out of the blue” because though once a frequent speaker in both Bengali and English I had been on the bench and out of practice for quite a while. I also felt the embarrassment of someone who has become more and more cynical. A prime reason for that deja vu cynicism is the list of assets filed by Lok Sabha candidates. They are all on their marks at the starting line to “serve the poor” but their wealth often reaches sky-high proportions. And one can be sure that the lists undermentioned the asset figures forgetting, for instance, the amounts transferred to children funds etc. The elderly have the habit of looking back and the young stare forward so we must try and be in step with them. But where do we find the optimism? In seeing the funeral of 21 women trampled to death in a stampede to get cheap saris? How deep must their need have been to stake their lives? And what about the farmers in several states who find suicide the only way out of their debts? Who are the elections for, was one of the questions posed by the anchorside. Is there much difficulty in identifying them? In Argentina, mothers have been silently demonstrating every week for 20 years for their children gone missing during the military dictatorship. In Kashmir, too, there is a similar organisation but who pays any attention to it? Certainly, not we who are supposed to be the cognoscenti. We are well off and are indifferent to the Kashmiris (militants or victims) or to those apprehended in the North East. There law gives even junior and uncommissioned army personnel the right to open fire on ‘militants’ a catch-all word for those who today operate from the jungles of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Assam and elsewhere and whose aims and sacrifice are not given the price of a jute-stick. What I would tell the BBC’s listeners many in sub-continent about this and about Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s blank fire about reservation of seats for women in the Lok Sabha? Though not an addicted watcher I do turn often to TV news. The Bengali channels have daily programmes on the mofussil and of course on Kolkata. At least 90 per cent of the items everyday on these programmes are about want, breakdowns, unrepaired public buildings and services, murders, violent fights over local elections and so on. One way would be to shut them off and forget what we see, but that is difficult. I want to see the “town meeting” type of programmes in America when ordinary citizens meet in a school or other institution and put forward their questions and answers in orderly fashion. Such confrontations are very, very few and the people endlessly chewing cud and analysing the results as they come in are usually the same as we have seen in the years past. Language? Those who bother to listen to street or village meetings would be quite put off by the language of the candidates and their command over issues. I can speak of Bengali and Hindi and in neither is a speaker arresting. They have not heard the Hindi of Jayaprakash or Ram Manohar Lohia or the Bengali of Pandit Kshitimohan Sen, Amartya Sen’s grandfather. Bidhan Roy was a powerful leader. A very poor speaker in Bengali may be he can be forgiven because he is really a Bihari who moved to Kolkata after Patna University. He had personality cult and join that shattered glass. Contrariwise Dr Rajendra Prasad, a Bihari, moved to Presidency College, Kolkata where his results were brilliant. I once went to cover, for All India Radio in fact, a Congress meeting in Kolkata, where the bigwigs came like the Speaker, P.C. Sen the Number Two in Dr Roy’s cabinet then etc. The quality of the Benglish was awful. Bangladesh has gone far ahead in spoken Bengali, West Bengal fields excellent writers like the late Asin Das Gupta and Amlan Dutt but few good speakers. Is it a matter of pride when we tell a BBC audience about the prime influence of caste, about the steady decline in absorption of foodgrains over the years, about the increase of violence against women among us voters? No, we the well-to-do are the wrong people to ask about what is happening in the country and we are often put to shame by someone much younger than us like Arundhati Roy. We should roundly blame our politicians and parties for the steady trivialisation of the media. We should tell our parties to train their candidates in speaking and deportment. We can, perhaps, talk in election year of a nation with 300 million not so poor and, of them 150 million who can afford the things advertised in the glossies. But that is not India and for 700 million people the country is not “shining”. Even in a relatively rich city like Delhi, the slums are unsightly. What kind of education the municipal schools give is apparent when servants’ or other people’s children come to ask questions about the tasks they have been set. The scene changes completely when we take a drive along the Patna-Gaya or Gaya-Ranchi road. There it is the women who seem most downcast — with scarcely a smile on their faces, working ceaselessly from sunrise not just for their family but breaking stones beside the road, carrying heavy bits of wood for contractors and at the same time looking after their children. What the last ten years in India have given is, if we admit a sense of shame among those who yearn to send their children to private English-medium schools with fees they have to struggle to meet. Others are in homes where English is the chosen medium, even the under 15s are given cars and who dream of migrating aboard. I sometimes shudder to think of the front bench in the Lok Sabha all set up for a beauty contest. I pray that, out of the blue, I don’t have to throw a chest on such a day and crow about
it. |
|
DIVERSITIES—DELHI LETTER In the backdrop of Dr Kalam’s two poems — The Life’s Tree and The Vision of India — he danced at the Kamani auditorium. Mind you, with Western classical music matching his Indian classical dance steps. Anyway, New Delhi has the distinction of having masters for each of our dance forms. To the best of my knowledge, it is Bharati Shivaji for Mohiniattam, Birju Maharaj and Uma Sharma and Shovana Narayan for Kathak, Raja and Radha Reddy in Kuchipudi, Guru Singhajit Singh and Charu Mathur in the Manipuri form. The list could go on and on, but I must mention here that names of two stand out in the context of the two being not particular about publicity. They are Bharati Shivaji and Birju Maharaj. In fact, the latter was my neighbour for years but what a simple and no fuss life he and his family led. Totally middle class with his wife in the kitchen and he playing with his grandchildren or else talking in that Avadhi style, with the paan tucked away in one corner of his mouth. I could hear him talk for minutes at a stretch and it was relaxing for he speaks with such ease and calm as though there is no worry on earth. Mix and match Moving on, it was the same mix and match, that is of the Western with the Indian, at the Lakme India Fashion week. I was at the Grand hotel on Friday afternoon when rains were at the peak and amidst rumours afloat of the rain water trickling in one of the dressing rooms the show was on. Okay, before I write any further, I must offload two instant observations. There were several rather old looking women and men hanging around and not just about sheepishly but in full control of their confidence, as though stating that age is no bar to enjoy bar bar. Then, several of Arab buyers could be spotted amidst the small numbers of those from western countries. I asked one Arab buyer — Bin Yousef — from Qatar, whether Indian fashion trends etc are popular in his country and this bespectacled young man with a couple of Arab women friends standing with him, more than nodded. Speaking in fluent English, he said, “Of course, they are a rage. I am here to buy in bulk and though I know the Indian fashion industry too well, but this time I was particularly left impressed with Narendra’s collection”. Would women in his country be able to wear this mix and match of the see-throughs and smaller-the - better cuts? “Yes, there’s no problem. There is absolute freedom”. Being no great fashion enthusiast myself, I asked other colleagues covering the event what they thought of this hyped fashion event — hyped to such an extent that it is eating into the election space — and they’d said that amidst duplication and repeat of styles and designs, it is the young and upcoming designers who are to be watched, as they’re throwing up fresh cuts. Going backwards! At the national seminar on “Creativity and the state in contemporary India” (held at the IIC on April 25 and 26), what I found refreshing was to hear academic R. Nagaswamy. He dwelt on the set of laws centering around electioneering, which had prevailed in Tamil Nadu, thousand years back. Space constraints sneak in as always, but the crux of these laws as told by Nagaswamy was that candidates entering the electioneering process had to go through some very rigid dos and don'ts, so much if one of them was caught lying then he and nor his family members couldn't contest for a set period of time. And if one of them was caught in a corruption charge, then he was to be debarred for life. If caught in a scandal, the worst possible strictures on him. At this rate, none of the present-day candidates would have ever been able to
contest. |
Blessed are the pure in heart, for to them is given the knowledge of God. — Sri Krishna The name of the true Lord is the source of all bliss. — Guru Nanak One who conquers one’s self by one’s own self alone experiences supreme bliss. — Lord Mahavir Right views will be the torch to light his way. Right aims will be his guide. Right words will be his dwelling place on the road. — The Buddha Blessed are you, when men shall revile you, and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. — Jesus Christ |
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Mailbag | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | National Capital | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
Once known as the darling of Muslims, having earned the sobriquet “Maulana Mulayam”, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav is facing the toughest electoral battle of his 40-year-long political career. Years back, he had carved out a solid base for himself in the most populous state of Uttar Pradesh which has as many as 80 seats and emerged on the national scene as the unbridled leader of the minority community. Weaning away Muslims from the Congress was a feat indeed and Mulayam had done it. So much so that he cherished Prime Ministerial ambition. Reports emanating from Lucknow now say that Maulana Mulayam’s support base is slipping away primarily because Muslims have been made to believe that he is in office for the third term because of the BJP’s tacit support. Muslims in UP still do not trust the BJP.
Storm, rains, thunder and traffic jams. Describing New Delhi’s weekend highs or lows, whichever way you’d like to perceive. But in the midst of all, the doer Delhiite kept on going. On World Dance Day (April 29), dancers seemed to get together for a change. Three major performances in the city. One was, of course, at the Sangeet Natak Akademi; then a dance book was presented to President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam and the prime doer in the field of classical dance, Kuchipudi maestro Raja Reddy, presented a rather special item that very evening.