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So far so good Kashmir roadblock |
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In election mode
Quest for permanent seat
The man behind the bomb
Pre-poll analysis BBC to cut 2,900 jobs to save £320m a year From Pakistan
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So far so good THERE was bonhomie during the meetings the Prime Minister and the Home Minister had with the leaders of the National Socialist Council of India on Tuesday. Neither side could have expected a resolution of the vexed Naga problem in one go. After all, it is now 75 years since the Naga Club submitted a memorandum to the Simon Commission in 1929 articulating its demand. What is significant about the meetings is that both sides showed considerable restraint and readiness to accommodate each other’s sensibilities. Since the NSCN leaders had been talking to the Centre’s interlocutor and former Union Home Secretary K. Padmanabhaiah for quite sometime, they had a fair idea of the government’s limitations. It is noteworthy that both the Centre and the NSCN have ensured that the ceasefire which first came into force in 1997 is not affected. The state has also remained, by and large, peaceful. But the absence of violence does not mean prevalence of peace. Conditions have to be created to ensure that peace is enduring. In order to achieve this, they have to address the Naga question without in any way creating new problems. The violence Manipur and Assam witnessed when unconfirmed reports appeared that the Centre would grant the demand for a Greater
Nagaland was a pointer to the ticklish nature of the problem. This must have had a sobering influence on the NSCN, which, to all intents and purposes, is yet to give up its demand for sovereignty. Mr Isak Chishi Swu and Mr T. Muivah, with whom the government has been negotiating, are definitely the ones with the greatest clout in Nagaland. But if they are not able to achieve tangible progress in their talks, the danger of their rivals consolidating their position and resorting to violence cannot be ruled out. They are already at work accusing the duo of compromising on the Naga demand for sovereignty. Needless to say, any delay in reaching a settlement will strike at the roots of the NSCN (I-M)’s credibility and, therefore, its ability to negotiate from a position of strength. So it is in the interest of both that they begin talking on “substantive issues” at the earliest opportunity. |
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Kashmir roadblock NEGOTIATIONS can never bring out the desired result if either of the two parties involved has a rigid attitude. This explains why the technical-level talks between India and Pakistan on the proposed bus service between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad made little headway. They have agreed to resume their discussions to restore this road link that got snapped in 1953. This will, of course, keep alive the hope of the Kashmiris that one day they will be allowed to use the convenient bus route to meet their relatives. But the truth is that the dialogue cannot lead to its logical conclusion unless both sides show sufficient flexibility in their stand. Playing politics will amount to playing with the sentiments of the Kashmiris on both sides of the Line of Control. India must get credit for not insisting on its original position that the users of the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus service must have visa stamp on their passports. It has expressed its readiness not to insist on visa if the passengers have passports and “entry permits”. After all, the people of Jammu and Kashmir visiting Pakistan have been using the passport as a travel document so far. But Pakistan continues to insist on the “entry permit” —- the state subject certificate —- as the only travel document. Pakistan’s idea is to restrict the bus facility to the Kashmiris from both sides. This cannot be acceptable to India, as it means creating a new class of Indian passport-holders, different from the rest. Pakistan, it seems, is least interested in the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus service, proposed by India. It, perhaps, fears that such facilities may strengthen the case for accepting the Line of Control as an international border. But promoting people-to-people contacts between the two sides of Kashmir without the use of passports will, it is believed, provide political leverage to Islamabad. This, however, exposes the real intentions of Pakistan. Contrary to its claims, it is not bothered about the aspirations of the Kashmiris. |
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In election mode THE three Haryana Bills facilitating municipal and
panchayat elections 120 days before the end of a local body’s term have got the Governor’s assent after an avoidable standoff. The Bills were earlier returned by the Governor for reconsideration, but the Assembly passed them again, leaving him with no alternative. When a Governor expresses genuine reservations over an issue, traditions of the parliamentary system demand that the Chief Minister should not press it in the same form. But Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala does not seem to believe in such democratic niceties. He not only made public his displeasure at the Governor sending back the Bills, but also went to the extent of questioning the very relevance of the office of Governor. How does the Chief Minister stand to gain from the Bills becoming Acts? The state Assembly goes to the polls sometime in February. By holding the panchayat and municipal elections before that, Mr Chautala wants to ensure that his party consolidates its base in villages and towns. A ruling party usually has an advantage of winning the civic elections since official machinery can be used to boost its electoral prospects. The drubbing Mr Chautala’s Indian National Lok Dal got in the last general election seems to have made him desperate to retain power. The passage of the three Bills may be legally permissible, but democratic norms do not approve of such indecent haste in rushing with the civic elections. An outgoing government, as a matter of principle, should avoid taking major decisions. But towards the end of his tenure, Mr Chautala has made significant appointments like those in the state public service commission. His proposal to appoint a Lok Auykta has got a rebuff from the Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court. He has launched a series of welfare schemes that are totally election-oriented. The Election Commission should take note of such populist decisions and may consider, as part of the electoral reforms, advancing the time limit of the election code to six months or more. |
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Every man is wanted, and no man is wanted much. — Ralph Waldo Emerson |
Quest for permanent seat
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s hot-paced visit to this country will be remembered as something of a landmark for two good reasons. The first is its undoubted importance in purely bilateral terms. It has not only got out of the way some issues that had needlessly created bad blood but also ushered a time-tested relationship into an “energetic new stage”, to borrow words from the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh. Secondly, and perhaps unintentionally, it has turned the spotlight on this country’s quest for a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council and thus on the obstructions that are likely to arise on the road to the realisation of this legitimate objective. On the first point much need not be said, if only because the 10-part joint declaration — emphasising the meaning and scope of the strategic partnership and bilateral cooperation between the two sides — the accord on cooperation in outer space that would facilitate joint development and use of Russian Global Navigational Satellite System (GLONASS) and so on are fresh in the minds of all concerned. So is the significance of the joint decision to streamline BrahMos, the supersonic anti-ship cruise missile jointly developed by the two countries. Even so, a painful question arises. Why was the issue of an Indo-Russian agreement on “defence secrecy” (now happily concluded) allowed to drag on for so long as to drive the Russian Defence Minister, Mr. Ivanov, to something close to high dudgeon? Before leaving Moscow for Delhi a day ahead of the Russian President, Mr Ivanov had declared that Russian draft of the required agreement was “lying with the Indian side for two years and New Delhi had not made any substantive objection or suggestion”. In the absence of this treaty, he had added, “we will find it difficult to move forward in high-end defence technologies. This is becoming something of a problem. We will not hand over technologies for nothing. Russia is not the Soviet Union”. Unnamed Russian sources had used even stronger language. It is both sad and ironic that the terms of India-Russia discourse should have become so acrimonious, despite their long-standing friendship, at a time when the tone of the Indo — US dialogue has changed conspicuously for the better. New Delhi must accept its share of blame because its decision-making process has become both unconscionably slow and apparently slipshod. For, Russian sources do not make any secret of their hurt feeling that India had signed a similar agreement with the US rather speedily. Mr Putin was perhaps surprised by the storm over his original remarks on India’s permanent membership of the Security Council because his country, unlike the US, has been championing the cause of India being given a permanent seat on the council for some years. But circumstances had put him into a situation he had obviously not foreseen. The report of the “high-level” group of eminent persons on the reform of the UN — the enlargement of the Security Council from 15 members to 24 is but a part of this comprehensive document that seeks to empower the Security Council to authorise “preventive” international intervention in sovereign states in all manners of situations, including one for “humanitarian reasons” — was published on the eve of the Russian leader’s arrival. Almost the entire Indian media had concentrated on the Security Council membership issue, and, with striking unanimity, declared that India was being offered the council’s “second class” membership because the right of veto would not go with it. Since Parliament was in session and members were agitated about the “second class” status, the Foreign Minister, Mr Natwar Singh, stated that the council membership without the right of veto would be “unacceptable”. It was against this backdrop that the right of veto became the focal point of the media’s interaction with Mr Putin. To be sure, he did not rule out the right of veto to India if and when it joined the Security Council. But his answer, in Russian and translated into English, was ambiguous enough to be interpreted in different ways. Most newspapers interpreted it as his opposition to veto right to new members of the Security Council, one of them declaring, “Putin vetoes India’s right of veto”. The public reaction was similar. It was in response to this that the Russian President clarified his stand and said that every new member of the Security Council should have all the rights available to the existing P-5, including the veto. But he went on add that the only alternative to even-handed treatment to the old and new would be abolition of veto to which he was clearly opposed. Indeed, he reaffirmed what he had said the previous day — that the veto was a “useful instrument” of the UN structure. For the benefit of those who are happy with Mr Putin’s revised statement, let me say that while it is nice of him to “offer” India and other new members of the council the veto, the pertinent question is whether he can deliver. The answer, alas, has to be an emphatic No. For the harsh “ground reality” (another favourite expression of Dr Manmohan Singh) is that the gang of five just will not extend the right of veto to anyone else — assuming that the elaborate scheme to restructure the UN would be finalised any time soon. It is totally unrealistic to believe that China would concede the right of veto to Japan or even this country, for that matter. The US, virtually the final arbiter of all such international issues, is silent and has yet to endorse India’s claim to one of the additional permanent seats. Under the circumstances, it makes little sense to reject out of hand something that is not even on offer yet. Let us wait and watch and try to influence events to our advantage. An enlargement of the Security Council even without the right of veto for new members would make it representative of a majority of the world’s population. And if, as expected, new members include India, Japan, Egypt, South Africa, and Brazil, the council would become representative of all civilizations, too. Wouldn’t that be better than the present state of affairs? As for the undoubted problem of discrimination, isn’t the power pattern or the world order, political and economic, discriminatory enough? A struggle against this would be in order. The new members can start a campaign for a reduction in the use of veto, to begin with, with a view to its eventual
abolition. |
The man behind the bomb DURING May 1990, I attended the College on Atmospheric Boundary Layer Physics at the erstwhile International Centre for Theoretical Physics at Trieste, Italy. There I met Professor Abdus Salam, the Nobel Laureate and the then Director of the Centre. On May 25, I sought an interview with him. “Professor does not meet with visitors these days”, his secretary asserted in a protective tone. I requested her to talk to Professor Salam about me. Within minutes, she came out and took me in. “Just five minutes, not a second more”, she cautioned me on the way to his spacious room. Professor Salam got up from his seat with great difficulty and held me tightly in a “Punjabi” style hug. He was suffering from Parkinson’s disease. I felt embarrassed that I could not respond promptly to his endearments, expressed in a mixture of Hindi and probably Urdu. He realised my predicament! “Oh, you are from the South!” he exclaimed. “I understand Hindi and can speak in Hindi”, I protested mildly. He was very friendly. He was deeply concerned with nuclear proliferation in the subcontinent. He wished to persuade Pakistan to abandon its nuclear
ambitions. He recalled his discussions on this topic with Dr Vikram Sarabhai. Dr Salam then had no doubt about Pakistan’s nuclear potential. This is contrary to Mr K.Subramanyam’s inference based on a casual talk he had with Professor Salam in August 1985. Apparently, Salam then doubted the capability of A.Q. Khan to make nuclear weapons for Pakistan. Professor Salam certainly knew of the nuclear developments in Pakistan. He did not tell me whether he had any clout with the then rulers of Pakistan. On 24 January 1972, Professor Salam attended the meeting in which Mr Z.A.Bhutto asked his scientists to commit themselves to develop nuclear weapons. Salam did not support the move. Reportedly, he attended another meeting held in March 1974 to initiate what was declared as a work of great national importance. He was then the Adviser for Science and Technology to the Government of Pakistan. The participants concealed the weapons objective and never used the word “bomb”. I found it extremely difficult to lead him away from any topic other than nuclear proliferation. Finally, I asked him why Italy which produced eminent nuclear scientists like Enrico Fermi, turned away from nuclear power. (In 1988, Italians through a referendum decided to abandon nuclear power). “Don’t you know?” he smiled mischievously and added, “Some Italians think that nuclear radiation may make them impotent!”. He suggested that the facts about nuclear power should be publicised to dispel such myths. My brief courtesy call lasted 45 minutes! I could not figure out why the gave me a long interview. That I am from India might have helped. Later, his secretary told me about some of his idiosyncrasies! Most of it was gossip. Admittedly, that is not worth another middle
column.
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Pre-poll analysis by Satish Misra
THE Bihar assembly elections early next year are a subject of intense debate. Anyone after a visit to the state would have convincingly predicted the end of the 15-year-rule, rather misrule, of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD). Not just anti-incumbency, but the total absence of even a semblance of development, poor roads, high rate of unemployment leading to large-scale migration of labourers to other states, flourishing ransom and kidnapping business, wide scale closure of industries, broad-day dacoity and murders, non-payment of salaries to the government employees like teachers and hoards of other problems would have sealed the fate of any government in any other state. But then all this and more appears to be not enough to terminate the lordship of the RJD supremo over his subjects, consisting mainly of Muslims and Yadavs. Broadly the elections will be a three-cornered contest. On the one side is the ruling combine of the RJD and the Congress. The Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) of Union Chemical and Fertiliser Minister Ramvilas Paswan is making an earnest effort to dislodge the husband-wife reign of Mr Yadav and Mrs Rabri Devi. The third challenge will come from the National Democratic Alliance partners. The Bharatiya Janata Party and the Janata Dal (United), which fared very poorly in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, resulting in the defeat of seven of the nine ministers in the Vajpayee government hailing from Bihar at the hustings, is trying its best to “liberate” the state from the present misrule. It is true that a large turnout at the LJP rally on November 27 in Patna has aroused expectations that Mr Paswan is capable of challenging the RJD. But in the highly politicised state of Bihar, where caste strength and denominations have a decisive say on the outcome of any electoral contest, large rallies and meetings are no firm indication of poll results. In the last Lok Sabha election, the LJP, the RJD and the Congress became a formidable combination that resulted in the defeat of the NDA alliance. Now in the assembly elections, the LJP is trying to emerge as a credible alternative to the RJD-led alliance. But the strength of Mr Laloo Prasad Yadav is his hold on the Yadavs and Muslims, who roughly constitute 30 per cent of the electorate. Any political combination interested in seriously challenging the RJD alliance will have to wean away either the Muslims or Ahir-Yadavs. Muslims are with the RJD not out of love and affection for Mr Yadav, but because of their deep sense of insecurity. In the perception of Muslims, only the RJD can provide them security and that is why Mr Yadav appears to be impregnable. The LJP, which is claiming to contest all the 243 assembly seats, may in the absence of sizable Muslim support, end up as a whimper, winning around two dozen seats. The BJP and the JD (U), which in 1999 emerged as a credible alternative to the RJD because of the intense antipathy of the upper castes, is trying to put its act together after its dismal performance in the Lok Sabha poll. The BJP rally on December 2 in Patna was undoubtedly large and well attended. The upper castes and non-Yadav section of the backward caste, including the Kurmis, are with the NDA, but it appears that this is not enough for the numerically strong MY (Muslim-Yadav) combine. Moreover, the RJD supremo is trying to attract the upper castes also to his party and has been attending their congregations, rallies and meetings. Mr Yadav is likely to field a substantial number of upper caste candidates in the hope of winning a majority. With the state power at command, the RJD’s rally on December 23 is going to be very big. Mr Yadav has told his Rajya Sabha MPs to proceed to Bihar for ensuring a large turnout and not to bother about the ongoing winter session of Parliament. Low turnout at rallies is not the determinant of the electoral contest, but the political strength is dependent on caste loyalties and that have become rigid and social cleavages in Bihar appear to be frozen. Political observers in the state, particularly in Patna, converge on one point that only the Congress has a theoretical strength of challenging the RJD but the possibility of coming of the country’s oldest party to Mr Paswan’s LJP is out of question because of the excellent chemistry and understanding between Mr Yadav and Congress President Sonia Gandhi. Since a separation between the Congress and the RJD is ruled out, the future of the Rabri Devi government appears to be secure. Only a divine intervention, in BJP President L.K. Advani’s latest political vocabulary, may unseat the RJD government. |
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BBC to cut 2,900 jobs to save £320m a year THE BBC will save £320m a year through job cuts and other savings in a major overhaul of the broadcaster announced yesterday by the director general, Mark Thompson. He told the BBC’s 27,000 staff that 2,900 jobs will be cut from support services - including the human resources, legal, financial, marketing and communications departments - and from factual and learning. Further jobs losses will follow as a result of 15 per cent cuts in content divisions including television, radio, new media, news and nations and regions, the details of which will be finalised by March. The final tally of posts cut, including jobs coming off the BBC’s payroll as a result of selling off or seeking partners to run parts of the BBC’s commercial arm, will run up to 6,000. A further 1,800 staff who work in children’s television, sport, Radio Five Live, new media and R&D are faced with the decision of whether to move to Manchester, as part of a £500m shift of the BBC’s resources out of London. Employees affected have been asked to decide in the next 18 months, although the move will not start for three to five years. Those who choose not to go will be offered redundancy. The director general told staff: “The BBC has a reputation as a fair and considerate employer. We will not be walking away from our responsibilities or the redundancy terms we offer.” Mr Thompson acknowledged “a time of considerable pain and disruption”, but promised to reinvest the money saved in areas where the BBC has “commanding reputations” - journalism, drama, comedy, music, children’s television, sporting events and original entertainment shows. He promised fewer repeats in peak time and an end to derivative and formulaic programmes such as DIY shows, pledged more money and slots for Panorama and announced a new pan-BBC music strategy to be headed by the radio chief Jenny Abramsky, including an Alternative Proms with contemporary music. The £320m annual savings target to be achieved within three years builds on the present licence-fee settlement reached in 1999, when the BBC is committed to making savings of £155m a year by the end of the present charter period in 2006. The savings represent 11 per cent of the licence fee. Other changes announced after reviews into value for money, content supply, commercial services and which departments should be moved out of London, include cutting the BBC’s in-house programme production capacity by 10 per cent. This will open opportunities for independent production companies to bid against in-house programme-makers for an extra 25 per cent of commissions through creative competition. Union leaders have vowed to oppose compulsory redundancies. The National Union of Journalists, Amicus and Bectu said: “We are committed to working together to oppose the effects of the savaging of staff in the biggest cuts in BBC history.” Don Foster, the Liberal Democrats’ culture spokesman called the changes “a brutally honest manifesto for a 21st-century BBC”. — By arrangement with The Independent, London |
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Performance report
ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Prime Minister has directed all federal ministries and divisions to immediately submit a list of achievements made in their respective areas in the first 100 days of the government so as to launch a media campaign. Informed sources told Dawn on Tuesday that the move would counter a negative perception in certain quarters about the ineffectiveness of the government by presenting facts and figures before the nation. The sources said that a letter had been written to the ministers to list inaugural events of important projects, major policy decisions and other achievements in all sectors. A focal point has been created at the Prime Minister’s Secretariat under the minister of state and secretary-general of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League, Senator Tariq Azeem, to prepare a comprehensive report on the achievements of the first 100 days of the government. — The Dawn Kidnapped judges
SUKKUR: Heavy contingent of the Rangers and the police on Tuesday launched an operation in Dakhan police limits, district Shikarpur, for the safe recovery of two additional sessions judges who were kidnapped on Friday. The joint operation, led by DPO Shikarpur KK Memon, and Major Fareed Jan of the Rangers, was launched in the Golo Daro area during which personnel of law-enforcement agencies raided several villages, including Hafiz Abad, Dil Murad Jatoi and Mahi Khan Shar, and arrested over 23 suspects, who were kept at Dakhan police station. Sources said the kidnappers had been identified but the police did not want to take risk, as they wanted to recover both the kidnapped judges safely. The police were trying to contact with the influential people of the area to secure the safe recovery of the kidnapped judges.
— The News
Of the ‘media revolution’
ISLAMABAD: PML Secretary-General Senator Mushahid Hussain on Tuesday noted that a “media revolution” was in the offing, and hoped the press freedom in Pakistan would strengthen civil society, promote democracy and help project the country’s true image of a moderate state. Speaking at a conference on “Private media for a civil society,” he said the debate and discussion on the electronic media had opened the minds of the people and increased their understanding of national issues. Mr Mushahid noted that by the standards of Pakistan, South Asia and even the Muslim Ummah, there was a virtual media revolution in the offing. “Media is playing an important role in influencing perceptions and shaping policies on vital and key issues,” he added. On the role of the media on foreign policy issues in Pakistan, Mr Mushahid quoted an observation noted journalist Robert Frisk had made at a conference in Washington two years ago that the “Pakistani media is freer on foreign policy than the American media”.
— The News
Widening rural-urban divide
KARACHI: There is a serious rural-urban division in the country and the social indicators of the rural areas lag behind those of the urban areas and the gap is widening, according to a report by the Urban Resources Centre (URC). The educated and enterprising persons and artisans from the rural areas are migrating to the urban areas and the rural economy is being controlled increasingly by the urban-based arthis and bayparis. This process is impoverishing the rural population both financially and politically, which forms the overwhelming majority of the population. Much of the bonded labour in the agricultural sector consists of the labour class without land and one of the major reasons for their being bonded is that they do not have a place to stay, as they have no access to land for residential purposes. The economy power in the rural areas has made the feudal institutions ineffective. However, feudals in many areas of the country still hold power, which is disproportionate to their economic power or to their performance in the election processes.
— The Nation |
When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall-think of it, always. —Mahatma Gandhi What is the Simran? Literally it means the remembrance of God through love and devotion, but in reality it is the potent sword of the spirit that is relentlessly applied upon the fetters that Maya has put upon man. —The Sikhism The man who performs evil acts, suffers in both worlds. He suffers the results of his act in this world and he suffers in dreading the vicissitudes of the next world. Such is the fate of the evil doer. —The Buddhism Faith to be true has to be a giving love. Love and faith go together. They complete each other. —Mother Teresa  |
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