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Another snub for Modi Fake gallantry |
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Forgotten Bhopal Wake-up call to end the injustice IT is a measure of the national indifference to the enormous injustice inflicted on victims of the Bhopal gas tragedy that two recent developments have failed to jar our conscience or activate the public and the authorities.
Abuse of Iraqi prisoners
The cost of a cuppa tea
News analysis
People
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Another snub for Modi TIME was when an admonishment by the highest court of the land would make every official in a state government go beetroot red in the face. A stricture would almost amount to an order to put in one's papers. No longer! The Gujarat government has made morality standards hang upside down. The number of strictures it has received in the Best Bakery case should be a record and yet, it has received them as if they are a non-event. The latest bashing came its way for filing an application seeking modification of an April 12 order shifting the Best Bakery case, in which all the 21 accused were let off, out of Gujarat for trial in Maharashtra. The Gujarat government persistently went on opposing it for obvious reasons, provoking the Supreme Court to call it an "abuse of the process of court, which of late is found to be on the increase, more for selfish reasons than to further or strengthen the cause of justice". Could there be more severe reprimand for a state government? Perhaps the state administration is too thick-skinned to appreciate the sense of outrage felt by the apex court and all right-thinking people in the country over what happened in Gujarat during the riots. What is noteworthy is that the April 12 order had not identified the guilty. Yet, the Narendra Modi government tried to stall the shifting of the case out of Gujarat, provoking the Bench to issue the ultimate warning: “We have not pointed fingers at A, B, C and D. If you want, we would do it.” The problem is that even this kind of criticism is sought to be converted into a political trophy by Mr Modi and his men. Since he has become the star campaigner for the BJP, he feels he can get away with anything. He is mistaken. He has already crossed the Lakshman Rekha of public ethics. He will be taking even half a step further only at his own peril. |
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Fake gallantry A people now used to scams had been made to believe that the larger picture was unsullied. The judiciary and the defence services were perceived to be the institutions where personal and professional integrity was not compromised. A few unsavoury incidents involving the higher judiciary made the larger picture look less attractive. The armed forces continued to be seen as the last outpost of selfless service. Not anymore. The latest episode involving three officers in manufacturing fake killings in Siachen is one incident too many for the people to retain their faith. The nation need not be reminded of what one bad fish can do to the pond. There are no redeeming features in the sordid drama. The motive of the officer who blew the whistle after seeing the strange goings-on for five months is itself suspect. Did he blow the whistle out of disgust or because he wanted to settle scores with his superior officer? Forget how the Pakistan establishment will treat the startling disclosure. What is more shocking is the attempt by certain quarters in the top echelons of the Army to somehow brush the disgusting episode under the carpet. The nation used to look with pride at the officers and the jawans posted in the inhospitable terrain of Siachen. Where was the need to produce fake incidents of enemy killings and pass them off as acts of gallantry? Col K. D. Singh and Major Surinder Singh have added an inglorious chapter to the Indian Army's record. What is more shocking is that the tapes of fake killings were produced between July and November last year on the basis of which files were being moved for recommending gallantry awards. It is a pity even the severest punishment cannot now stop sceptics from questioning the value of gallantry awards. That is a damage that cannot be undone by giving the harshest punishment to the guilty men in uniform. |
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Forgotten Bhopal IT is a measure of the national indifference to the enormous injustice inflicted on victims of the Bhopal gas tragedy that two recent developments have failed to jar our conscience or activate the public and the authorities. The “good news”, if the term is any consolation, is that two activists, and survivors of the tragedy, Ms Rasheeda Bee and Ms Champa Devi, have won global recognition for their efforts to secure justice for the thousands who are still suffering from the effects of the gas leak. These two gritty women have been awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize. The second bit of news, very positive indeed, should the Union and Madhya Pradesh Governments decide to wake up from their slumber, is the March 17 order by a US Court of Appeals that requires Dow Chemical, which acquired Union Carbide in 1988, to remove the contamination from the soil and groundwater in the affected area. The court has upheld the case of the affected survivors of the leak, from the Union Carbide plant on that fateful night of December 2, 1984. Twenty years after the world's worst industrial and environmental accident that killed nearly 3000 people and, over the years, claimed another 15,000 to 20,000 gas-affected lives, neither India nor the United States seem to be moved by the demands of justice. In fact, the saga of injustice and the failure to bring Union Carbide and its then chief executive to book, is another deplorable tragedy by itself. Now, the US Court order — to make Dow/Union Carbide undo the havoc wreaked by the pesticide plant leak — can be executed only if it is legally enabled by the Union and MP Governments. All that the authorities have to do is submit to the court that they would accept an order for the remedial work to be undertaken by Dow/Carbide. It would be shocking if the governments failed to seize this opportunity since this would benefit the country, the environment and the survivors of the tragedy. |
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The first requirement of a statesman is that he be dull. — Dean Acheson |
Abuse of Iraqi prisoners THE international humanitarian law prohibits any kind of inhuman and degrading treatment to the prisoners of war (PoWs) or detainees and also the civilian population. The treatment of PoWs or the detainees at the time of an Armed conflict is governed by the Law of Armed Conflict, also called the International Humanitarian Law under the 1949 Geneva Conventions. Geneva Convention-III provides for the treatment to be given to the Prisoners of War, whereas Geneva Convention-IV provides for the protection of civilian persons at a time of war. The US and most other nations that have signed and ratified the Geneva Conventions are legally bound by its provisions. Article 13 of Geneva Convention-III provides that the PoWs must at all times be humanely treated and protected particularly against acts of violence or intimidation, and against insults and public curiosity. Article 14 of the same convention further provides that PoWs are entitled in all circumstances to respect for their person and their honour. Although Article 17 does not prohibit questioning or interrogation of prisoners, it provides that every PoW is bound to give only his surname, first name and rank, date of birth, personal number of any equivalent information. It further stresses that no physical or mental torture, nor any other form of coercion may be inflicted on a PoW to secure from him or her information of any kind whatsoever. And the PoWs who refuse to answer may not be threatened, insulted or exposed to any kind of unpleasant or disadvantageous treatment. The treatment being meted out to the Iraqi prisoners in Abu Ghraib prison is no less than physical as well as mental torture that is specifically prohibited under Article 17 of Geneva Convention-III. The treatment as depicted in the pictures of naked prisoners made to stand like a pyramid is insulting, degrading and unpleasant, and violates the provisions of Geneva Convention-III. The Convention, under Article, 7, makes the rights granted to the PoWs as absolute. In the case of any violation the responsibility is of the detaining power. Therefore, the US can in no way obliterate its responsibility under the Geneva Conventions. The officers’ in charge of Abu Ghraib prison are presumed to be aware of the provisions of the Geneva Conventions that the US has ratified. The Conventions bind the US to disseminate the provisions under Article 127 as it states that military or other authorities that assume responsibilities in respect of prisoners must possess the text of the Convention and be specially instructed as to its provisions. Therefore, the responsibility of such degrading treatment to the Iraqi prisoners lies with the US officials in charge of the prison since they cannot take the defence of superior orders under the customary international humanitarian law. The US administration also cannot shirk from its responsibility under Article 7 (mentioned above) as it was supposed to disseminate the text of the Geneva Conventions. Even though the US argues that these prisoners don’t fall under the category of those who are entitled to the PoW status under Article 4 of the Convention, these detainees would be covered for humane treatment under Geneva Convention-IV for the protection of civilians or “unlawful combatants”, who are other than the soldiers belonging to a regular armed force or a militia or irregular forces carrying arms openly and, therefore, not covered under the PoW Convention. These detainees are still to be protected under the provisions of Geneva Convention-IV, and are entitled to respect for their person and honour and shall at all times be humanely treated and protected, especially against all acts of violence or threats thereof against insults and public curiosity. Geneva Convention-IV further prohibits the torture of and any physical or moral coercion against protected persons, particularly to obtain information from them. The US troops have not only violated the Geneva Conventions but also the Torture Convention (Convention Against Torture or other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, 1984) to which US became a party in 1994. Under the Convention, torture means any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining information from him or a confession. The Torture Convention not only prohibits any kind of act amounting to torture but also provides that each state party to the convention shall undertake to prevent in any territory under its jurisdiction other acts of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment which do not amount to torture as defined in Article 1. The US has also violated the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights that it ratified in 1992. Article 7 of the covenant provides that no one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Therefore, the US holds responsibility for the acts committed by its troops at Abu Ghraib prison. We may say that having a strong economy, the US will be able to pay huge compensation to the victims but the kind of penal action that the US will take against its officers still remains undetermined. All these violations of the Geneva Conventions by the US troops amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity. The Bush administration has opposed the Rome Statute establishing the International Criminal Court (ICC), although former US President Bill Clinton had earlier signed the Rome Statute but the Bush regime did not ratify it and rather opposed the statute. The Rome Statute, establishing the ICC, penalises for war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and crimes against peace. War crimes as defined in Article 8 of the Rome Statute include grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions like wilful killing, torture or inhuman treatment, etc. It also includes outrages against personal dignity, in particular a humiliating and degrading treatment. One of the reasons for opposing the Rome Statute at the outset seems to be that the US wants to protect its officers who are committing war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. The US seems to be holding out a shield for its officers engaged in Iraq. Had Washington signed the Rome Statute that established the World Criminal Court, the officers responsible for such heinous crimes would have been tried there and everybody would have got an opportunity to see justice done. But at this point of time, when the US has not signed the Rome Statute, it remains to be seen whether justice would really be done. The writer teaches law at the Army Institute of Law, Mohali |
The cost of a cuppa tea THOSE were the days when a rupee had 16 annas and 64 paise. Also, when senior government functionaries were, by and large, of unimpeachable integrity, albeit some of them being squeamish about little things. The superintendent of police, a young, strapping IPS officer, allocated to one of the eastern states, was honest and upright. Soon after taking charge of a district, he went visiting a police station. The station house officer (SHO) served him tea accompanied by burfi and fried cashew nuts. “Take the burfi and cashew nuts away,” announced the SP, almost like a command. “I shall take tea only, ” he added. The visit over and the SP was set to leave. He slipped his hand in the pocket of his trousers, took out a chavanni (a four-anna coin) and placed it on the table. “This is for the tea,” the SP uttered. The face of the SHO reddened to the ears. He mustered courage, saluted the SP and spoke haltingly:” Sir, Your Honour’s visit to the police station has been godsent for me. It has bolstered my morale. I, though, couldn't serve you enough. Kindly take the money back”. The SP didn’t relent and left the place. Within a couple of weeks, the SP called a meeting of the supervisory officers and the SHOs at the district headquarters. During the course of the meeting, he had a cup of tea sans the burfi and cashew nuts, served to each one of them. As the meeting came to a close, the SHO of the police station where the SP had gone visiting first, walked up to him, saluted him smartly and put a one-rupee coin on the table. “What’s it?” the SP demanded to know. “Sir, this is for the tea I have taken in the meeting,” replied the SHO without batting an eyelid. “No, no, it is customary to serve tea in such meetings,” said the SP, a faint quiver discernible in his voice. “Moreover, a cup of tea costs four annas and not a rupee,” he added. “No, sir,” the officer in charge of the police station chuckled, “the SHO’s tea is worth four annas, that of the SP, a rupee!” And saying so, he exited the room.
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News analysis THE military operation in South Waziristan (March 16-29, 2004) to weed out the Al Qaeda remnants ended with what analysts perceive as a “retreat” by the Pakistan Army and paramilitary forces following an unexpectedly fierce retaliation by the tribals. Heavy
casualties were suffered both by the troops and civilians even as the much sought after ‘high-value’ targets managed to escape. The military operations have generated an intense debate among different political parties and groupings, and brought about a resumed focus on Mushar-raf’s close linkages with US policies, and their discomfort with the extended military dominance of political life in the country. The Pakistan People’s Party-Parliamentarians (PPPP) had been critical of the government’s handling of the operations. On 21 March, 2004, Chairperson Benazir Bhutto said that ‘every high value target was allowed to escape months in advance while the tribal population was used to sacrifice the lamb to satisfy the power lust of the regime’. She said that the international media had been ‘duped’ into believing that Al Qaeda’s Ayman Zawahiri was cornered while the truth was that Chechen and Uzbek fighters were hiding in the area. Parliament had been bypassed and remained ignorant of the operation, which had been planned by a handful of individuals outside the constitutional ambit for decision-making. The PPPP’s partner in the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy (ARD), PML (N), continued to be more combative on this issue. The PML (N) has described the situation like that in 1971. A former PM, Nawaz Sharif, in a message on the occasion of Pakistan’s National Day on March 23, 2004 said that “at that time an armed operation was launched in East Pakistan in the name of crushing terrorism, today again gunfire has been opened under orders of a military dictator against the patriotic tribes of Waziristan on the pretext of attacking foreigners”. Jailed PML (N) leader and ARD President Makh-doom Javed Hashmi said on March 28 that the “Army is becoming a target of popular repulsion and the country is on the way to a civil war owing to military operations in Wana”. The Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) found itself in a more complicated situation as it is in power in the NWFP and part of a coalition-government in Balochistan. Its religious agenda and general suspicion of US policies in the region prevents it from supporting the operations in Wana. Therefore, it re-quired to do a balancing act of managing the relationship with the federal government (seeking survival for its provincial governments) and simultaneously projecting itself as the principal opposition to the military action ordered by the Federal government One of the components of the MMA, JUI (S), had de-manded on March 23, 2004 that the MMA government in the NWFP should resign because it had failed to stop killing of people by the army. While Qazi Hussain, acting President of the MMA and Amir of Jamat-e-Islami (JI), has been more critical of the WANA operations and has been criticising the Army, the JUI (F) led by Fazlur Rehman has been relatively less vituperative in its attacks on the government in
comparison. On February 27, 2004 the JI chief said that the Army was playing a dangerous game and the next target of western powers would be Pakistan’s nuclear programme. There also appeared to be differences between the JUI (F) and the JI on the controversial decree on martyrdom of Pakistani troops. On March 23, 2004, Jamaat-e-Islami approved a decree issued by a Rawalpindi cleric that Namaz-e-Janaz of Pakistani soldiers was against Isla-mic injunctions because they could not be considered martyrs. This decree was also approved by the JUI (S). Qazi Hussain Ahmad said that “the tribesmen and Mujahideen are martyrs, while the Pak-istani troops are not be-cause they are operating on US commands”. However, JUI (F) leader Hafiz Hussain Ahmed, on March 28, 2004, said that soldiers, who were just following the military orders, should be considered martyrs and their Namaz-e-Janaza was according to Islam, but not the commanders who issued those orders. President Musharraf, speaking on television on March 31, 2004, criticised Qazi Hussain specifically for spreading misleading information about foreign terrorists and said that the MMA leaders should know that the foreigners are not innocent people and they have pushed the nation to a serious crisis situation. |
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People MENTION John Updike in the late 1960s and most people remembered him as the author of the novel "Couples" (1968) that was frowned upon by the moral monitors in India; because "Couples" was just that - about couples and couplings in suburban America. But the book was more about society, a telling social comment on people coping with existential limitations, including the boredom of suburbia. But, by last week, when Updike was honoured with the PEN/Faulkner award for fiction for his "The Early Stories", the world new better, and more about the man and his phenomenal output: novelist, essayist, literary critic, poet and writer of short stories. They had also learnt in the last 30 years that his best-known work is not "Couples" but the Rabbit series. Height of it It is everyone's dream to be taller than the next person. But this growth is the abiding nightmare for Leonid Stadnyk of Ukraine. Standing 2.54 (8.33 ft) metres tall in his socks, 33-year-old Stadnyk is believed to be the world's tallest living man. The soft-spoken giant, who lives in a remote village in Ukraine, is a clear 17.8 centimetres taller than the man now recognised as the Guinness world record holder. But while the 2.36-metre (7 ft 8.9 in) Radhouane Charbib, from Tunisia, revels in his international celebrity status, Stadnyk makes a reluctant record-holder. To him, his height is a "punishment from God". Stadnyk suffers from acromegalic gigantism, a condition caused by a tumour on his pituitary gland that makes it produce too much growth hormone. In the past two years he has grown 30 centimetres. If his condition is not treated he is likely to become the tallest man in recorded history, beating Robert Pershing Wadlow, from Illinois, who was 2.71 metres (8.89 ft) by the time he died in 1940 at the age of 22. In comparison, Mangal Singh of Bhopal and Gattiah of Ulnoor village of Karimnagar district in Andhra Pradesh are believed to be tallest
Indians at 2.28 metres (7 ft 6 in), according to the Limca Book of Records.
Bend it like... Remember Jess, the football-crazy Punjabi girl in Bend it like Beckham? That was Parminder Nagra, a typical Punjabi kudi settled in vilayat. Well, she has hit big time in Hollywood. She has been included in the cast of the American soap, ER, which is sold worldwide. The 28-year-old actress has shifted from Leicester to Los Angeles where ER is filmed. Not many back home know that she played the lead, Nisha, in Fourteen Songs, Two Weddings and a Funeral, the Tamasha Theatre Company's English language musical adaptation of Hum Aapke Hain Kaun. |
Conquer anger by forgiveness, pride by humility, deceit by straight-forwardness and greed by contentment. — Lord Mahavir God is like a hill of sugar. A small ant carries away from it a small grain of sugar, and a bigger one takes from it a considerably larger grain. But in spite of this, the hill remains as large as before. So are the devotees of God. — Sri Ramakrishna By hearing the name of God, truth, contentment and divine wisdom are bestowed. — Guru Nanak Till heaven and earth pass, one jet or one title shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. — Jesus Christ O man, take refuge in God! Take refuge in Him! Then alone Mahamaya will be gracious and clear the way for liberation. — Sarada Devi |
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