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Not a partisan issue Going up quicker |
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Justice in 44 days!
The young in Pakistan want peace
The decline of decency
News Analysis Defence notes
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Going up quicker The decision to ensure quicker promotion of army officers from junior to middle rungs addresses a long-standing grouse of the officers who were having to stagnate for long. This was not only demoralising them but was also leading to a piquant situation where commanding officers were at times too old to keep pace with their men. This was noticed particularly during the Kargil war. The faster promotions up to the rank of Colonel will reduce the age profile at the combat level. There will be an added advantage. It has been felt that the Army is not attracting very many promising young men to its ranks. First of all, it is a tough calling as such. One has to put one’s life at stake repeatedly, whereas the civilian jobs are comparatively much easier. Facilities that one gets during field postings are also primitive in comparison. To make matters worse, a person joining a civilian stream gains promotions much quicker. That is why there is a shortfall of 12,000 officers in the Army. At least the last grouse will be removed with the partial acceptance of the recommendations of the Ajay Vikram Singh Committee report. The immediate fallout will be the creation of 750 additional posts of Colonel. The force will be more motivated and the sharpness of field formations will increase. All this will translate into a more fighting-fit force ready to defend the country and also make the Army more attractive as a career prospect. What must be noted is that only four of the 15 proposals have been cleared. The other 11, which are to be taken up with the Ministry of Finance in batches, also need to be examined sympathetically keeping in view the special needs of the Army. One of them relates to giving opportunity to officers to work in the private sector. It is only through such steps that the hardship that joining the army entails can be softened. |
Justice in 44 days! THURSDAY’S report in The Tribune of a Chennai court judge delivering the fastest verdict in the annals of the country’s judicial history has come as a whiff of fresh air. This should serve as a unique example for all other judges and lawyers. The fast track court judge, Mr K. Asokan, deserves to be commended for expediting the trial and giving his ruling in just 44 days. This is in sharp contrast to the system that prevails in most courts which take years and decades to hear cases. Sometimes, people do not get justice even in their lifetime. It is this reality that makes people believe that the last word is yet to be said even in the present case. For, Mr Asokan’s ruling, sentencing four men to seven years’ imprisonment for killing a man in a drunken brawl, is likely to be challenged in the High Court. Unfortunately, even though the Vajpayee government took steps to speed up the justice delivery mechanism through the Code of Civil Procedure (Amendment) Act, 2000, one is yet to see significant improvement on the ground. The backlog of cases in various courts is so huge and mind-boggling that it is doubtful whether the problem can be resolved in the near future. Similarly, the Malimath Committee’s report on streamlining the criminal justice system is gathering dust in the cupboards of South Block. No doubt, fast track courts, lok adalats and family courts have reduced the burden on the courts, but the government needs to do a lot more to inspire public confidence in the judiciary. The main problem is that on the one hand, some judges and lawyers do not have the will to speed up justice and help poor litigants. On the other hand, government officials are callous and prolong litigation for litigation sake. Surely, there is need for an attitudinal change among the judges, the lawyers and officials. Their ultimate objective should be to expedite justice and come to the rescue of the suffering people. |
When you do the common things in life in an uncommon way, you will command the attention of the world. — George Washington Carver |
The young in Pakistan want peace
BY the time our plane took off, two hours late, for the 50-minute flight to Lahore we were handrags. For weeks Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry, Home Ministry, High Commission, Intelligence and all manner of agencies had kept us on tenterhooks with pinpricks about our visas. In the sacred name of “reciprocity” the Indians probably do the same in Islamabad. All, of course, under the rubric of the new friendliness which has overtaken us. In the time we had finished requesting, soliciting and entreating platoons of Pakistanis and Indians in Delhi we were exhausted and resigned. Then came the long visa telegram from Islamabad where, Salma from our host organisation, had been working on it for days. “Come and visit us” both sides seemed to say, the political bigwigs and the military machos — and then proceed to batten down as many hatches as possible. Report at the visa counter even before the sun peeped out in the cold morning, wait for hours there and then be fobbed off on some pretext, to come back. Well, finally, as I said, almost on the day we were due to leave the message positive came. The Indian military — security brass, not to be outdone, put on what turned out to be a “bomb drill” at the airport, inconveniencing us and thousands of others and then we were on our way. Our host in Lahore with the lovely name “Burgad” was an NGO whose symbol is a spreading banyan tree. We began in the late evening with the famous Pappu Saiin drummers who made my eyes prickle with tears because it was the same giant drums slung across the shoulder and beaten with sticks as “dhaks” are at Durga Puja time. Home seemed not far away. The most brainless — and invariable — finding of Indian visitors always is: “Everything is the same”. In a sense of course they are — people in Pakistan also have but two legs, two arms, two eyes and one head. But it is the differences which matter, congealed by 57 years of suspicion and manipulation. Zahoor, the long-time driver of my oldest friend, soured by the corruption and money-play said that “It would probably be better for the two countries to come together as before”. Of course not. It's just as idiotic as to declare that the two Bengals should meld together. Big mistake. Easy travel and commerce, border defence at a minimum, lots of entertainment and art, newspapers and books, staying with friends, studying at one another universities and schools, gobbling up glorious ethnic food, yes, but bonded together under a common junta of purblind politicians — no, decidedly no. First, we don’t have the likes of men and women of vision who plotted a European Union and then worked tirelessly for decades to achieve it. SAARC, by comparison, is a rickety and toothless organisation because India will never move its gargantuan shadow that frightens away all the others. Our political vision does not reach to working towards a common parliament, a common court of human rights, universities where common teachers can take classes by flying several times a week, common diagnostic standards and competitive games galore. There is a new gap in the midst of our relations with a rush of visits, debates, treacly speeches, meetings and so on but none in policy know what next to constructively do. The standoff hackles lie in the older generation who have a good bit to lose if there is too much genuine warmth. What happens for instance, to the mammoth armies on the two borders? To hundreds of thousands of soldiers ostensibly keeping Kashmir at bay? Hundreds of intelligence characters putting papers under electrically magnified glass? What happens to pedestalling Gandhi and Jinnah and then about turning from everything they stood for and said — all in their names of course. This visit, I found that the wave of feeling for mucking together is overwhelming among young Pakistanis, eager for the freedoms and institutions that we in India run as moth-eaten. Pakistani young women and men said in our meetings: “We have been taught the wrong history, we have been taught to hate but not any more”. The Indian young taking part had the same reaction, saying the same but in lower key because India is such a big country with many others to love! and hate. The emotions were the same. It was amazing to see how quickly they made friends — girl friends and boyfriends. The welcome of the young by the young was heart warming and spelt “no go” to the gloomy finger-wagging of the older generation. But is that enough? In our long time we of the older generation have made the horrible mistake of teaching Indians and Pakistanis to hate and dwell for ever on “integral part” and “core issue”, losing in the meantime the powerful thrust that India-Pakistan- Bangladesh-Sri Lanka and Nepal could have had in South Asia. And of course losing so many lives and breeding so much official ill-will. Today we are, despite our size and demography, dummy states not consulted or involved in solving Big problems facing nations. Internally terrorism harries both countries. It’s not clear in Pakistan when it is Al-Qaida that strikes and when others. The Indians, also harried by bombs and internal political wrangles want to be friends with Israel, the Americans and the seething Middle East all together. How abjectly and blindly we have given in to the farsighted strategic conspiracy of the neocolonialists of the US and Britain, of the entire First World in fact, they growing ever more prosperous while we languished and bought expensive arms from the great arms bazaar of the West and the US opened up 739 military establishments. Our so-called leaders have seen no more than the ends of their noses and, have, of course padded their own nests spending a meagre 4 per cent of the GNP on education while, in India alone, 350 million are illeterate. Pakistanis have to look wider and deeper into India than at North Indian Punjab to know India. Indians, in a much larger country, must shake off the general disinterest about Pakistan’s social forces about which they are hugely ignorant. In both countries and in our region we must look for newer and better heroes than our Chief and satellite Ministers who harvest obsequiousness and have to travel in frightened convoys with three, four or six or more bulletproof cars — all acquired from abroad. Restaurant-food, newspapers and clothes among other things, seemed much more expensive in Pakistan though our boys got whooping discounts from shops because they were from Hindustan. Travelling by the Delhi-Lahore bus our boys and girls were let through Pakistani customs with hardly a glance and were even given breakfast. Delhi’s customs on the other hand, combed them thoroughly. For us in Lahore it was a sparkling, friendly time. Our young came back brimming with that message, but will the old generation rise above their self-created threshold of hate and doublecross? Maybe they’ll have to for there is nothing so powerful as an idea whose time has
come, if it has really come. One cricket series is not a swallow! With Pakistan’s chequered history of military and political snakes-and-ladders it is impossible to speculate or
foresee. And India, whimsical as in cricket, has blocked and
smothered, never determinedly innovated for a strong conjoint power.
The young in Pakistan unmistakably want friendliness and good
fellowship, will India dare reciprocate? |
The decline of decency
DARWIN said that it is the species with the greatest ability to adapt to change that survives. Having survived till the ripe age of 63, in a world that is changing with bewildering speed, I believe I can give myself credit for a fair degree of adaptability. I am now able to play patience on the computer, send out e-mails and use the “naturally speaking” software to obtain printouts of all that I write. But at least once in each computer session I have to seek the assistance of my computer teacher to unravel some errors that I have committed in the operation. I possess a mobile and am able to communicate with people all the time. Of course, more often than not, I forget to switch the contraption on, or having forgotten to recharge the battery, it runs out in the middle of an important conversation. These adaptations, clumsy as they are, have been made without pain. Yet there is one change that it has pained me to adapt to and this is the increasing tendency of people to ignore communications to them. I first noticed this tendency amongst my children. Ever since I started teaching I would send out “best of luck” cards to each student of the examination classes. Over the years the number of children who thanked me for these dwindled, till last year not one child responded. This year I am not sending out any “best of luck” cards. I was hurt by this lapse but I shrugged it off by telling myself that they were only children.. Then I noticed this tendency among adults too. I established the practice of sending out birthday and anniversary greetings to all my staff. The number of staff who express their appreciation for this gesture has decreased greatly: this year I have sent out only five cards. Again I have tried to assuage the hurt by rationalising that most of them are youngsters who have not been taught the niceties of life. But then I realised this malaise was not limited to the younger generation. Every Founders Day I would send out almost 400 invitation cards to various dignitaries: with only a trickle of responses. I now had a restricted mailing list and yet I offered a justification: they were strangers, mere acquaintances I should not hold this lapse against them. Then at the beginning of this year my new book came out. I sent out 87 complimentary copies to close friends and relatives. I received 19 acknowledgements. There are now 68 fewer addresses in my address book. If I look through you, when next we meet, you will know why. I have adapted to this change too and survived. Yet on some quiet, solitary evenings, I miss the warmth of the thank you notes I once wrote, the response to invitations, which established my connectivity with others. I mourn the decline of decency in
myself.
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News Analysis No scope for a partisan view by K. Subrahmanyam It does not reflect great credit to our system of policy making that the Prime Minister had to say that a statement attributed to the Foreign Minister on nuclear policy was not a statement on foreign policy. The Foreign Minister is a member of the National Security Council and of the national command authority empowered to authorise the release of nuclear weapons. This development highlights that at the level of the Cabinet there is not adequate understanding of the Indian nuclear policy. The Prime Minister has reiterated that the country’s defence and foreign policies are decided on continuity and consensus and “need to be kept out of national politics”. Dealing with this issue the Kargil Review Committee report had said: “The report clearly brings out that beginning with Indira Gandhi; successive Prime Ministers displayed extreme sensitivity towards the nuclear issue and consistently supported an Indian nuclear weapons programme. They judged it necessary to envelop it in the utmost secrecy and consequently did not take their own party colleagues, the armed forces and senior civil servants into confidence. “This has caused many in the country to believe that India’s nuclear weaponisation programme is a departure from the traditional policy of merely keeping the nuclear option open indefinitely. The record must be set right. The contribution of Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, V.P. Singh, Chandra Shekhar, P.V. Narasimha Rao, Deve Gowda and Inder Gujral to India’s emergence as a nuclear weapon state and compulsions on them to ensure this should be made known. “The record clearly establishes that the Indian nuclear weapons programme had a much wider consensus than is generally believed. The committee, therefore, recommends the publication of a white paper on the Indian nuclear weapons programme. This will also bring out the stark facts of the evolution of Pakistan’s nuclear capability with assistance from countries who tirelessly decry proliferation and the threats posed to India through nuclear blackmail”. The Kargil Review Committee report, though tabled in Parliament in February, 2000, has never been discussed. Even as the NDA government took action to implement the recommendations of the Kargil Committee report, it did not implement this recommendation to publish a white paper on the evolution of nuclear policy. One can understand the reasons for not publishing the white paper. Such a white paper would have established while the NDA government conducted the nuclear tests and is entitled to the credit for doing so, the weapons themselves were developed and in place due to the efforts of the previous seven Prime Ministers, particularly through those of Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and Narasimha Rao. It is difficult to understand why the Congress did not press the government for the white paper. Even more surprising why the UPA Government, after it took over office, has taken no steps to publish the white paper. Even now one wonders whether the Prime Minister would initiate steps to enlighten his own Cabinet members and other members of the party on the evolution of the Indian nuclear weapon policy and the crucial role by the Congress Prime Minister. It is also sad that the National Security Council has not taken steps to enlighten itself on the evolution of the country’s nuclear policy. If this is the position right at the top of the Cabinet, one wonders how our diplomats are able to explain our nuclear policy to the governments to which they are accredited. Beyond boasting about conducting the nuclear tests, the NDA government in six years of office did precious little to educate the political class, our diplomats, our armed forces and the media on our nuclear policy and strategy. The UPA government is not doing anything better. If the defence and foreign policies are to be kept above party politics, as the Prime Minister desires, it is his primary responsibility to explain the policies in terms of the country’s national interest. The broad facts of the evolution of Indian nuclear policy are in public domain and are known to all scholars on the subject, both Indian and foreign. It is now established that the 1974 test was a nuclear weapon test. In 1983 Indira Gandhi attempted to conduct a nuclear weapon test and the shafts in Pokman were dug at that time. She called off the test presumably under US pressure. In 1995 Narasimha Rao again attempted to conduct the tests and was thwarted by American satellites discovering the preparations. These two attempts at testing by the Congress Prime Ministers enabled the NDA government to cover the preparations for tests successfully and carry these out without the US being able to detect them in advance. The Congress governments conducted all preparations for the tests, the United Front government defied the international community on the issue of signing the comprehensive test ban treaty and the NDA government conducted the test within seven weeks of assuming office. Narasimha Rao, Manmohan Singh, Sonia Gandhi, Inder Gujral and V.P. Singh never condemned the tests. B.G. Deshmukh, a former Cabinet Secretary, has written in his book that Rajiv Gandhi instructed the Scientific Adviser, Dr V.S. Arunachalam, to assemble the nuclear weapons in March, 1989. This was done after Rajiv Gandhi submitted his disarmament proposals to the UN special session on disarmament in June, 1988 and after his trip to China towards the end of 1988. One can only conclude that he was disappointed by the UN reaction to his disarmament plan and his assessment about China’s support to Pakistan’s nuclear weapons programme. It is time, the Prime Minister commissioned a white paper on the evolution of Indian nuclear policy and also initiated arrangements to educate the political class and the bureaucrats on international relations in the nuclear age. |
Defence notes by Girja Shankar Kaura The government is aware of soldiers being HIV positive, but they are just about 0.02 per cent of the force. The Army is providing health education on the prevention and control of HIV/AIDS through audio-visual and other media. Besides, only the HIV infection-free blood is used for transfusion to service personnel and their families. Condoms are available free of cost for service personnel. Military personnel found sero-positive are examined for HIV. A constant surveillance is done of high risk groups such as blood donors, patients of sexually transmitted diseases, tuberculosis, ante natal cases and personnel joining peace-keeping missions.
Jamming explosive devices Soldiers posted in insurgency-prone regions of Jammu and Kashmir and the North-East will get jammers to contain remote-controlled explosions. The equipment made by Bharat Electronics Ltd. will be ready for field trials by month-end and each jammer will cost Rs 1.5 crore. The DRDO has also developed a weapon locating Radar (WLR) again in partnership with the Bangalore-based BEL. The WLR, which is similar to the AN/TPQ-37 radar, has been developed at a cost of Rs 26 crore.
Molecular biology
centre The Chief of the Army Staff-designate, Lt Gen J.J. Singh, seems to have got onto the path of creating an image for himself even before occupying the hot seat at the South Block. And in that direction he has been undertaking tasks like meeting service personnel and inaugurating new projects of the Army. A state-of-art Molecular Biology Centre at the Army Research & Referral Hospital in New Delhi was also dedicated to the force earlier in the week by Lt Gen J.J. Singh. The centre, first of its kind in the defence services with a backup of a large ancillary laboratory setup, is dedicated to basic molecular biology research as well as technology development for predictive, active and holistic patient care. It will be used for detecting life-threatening Hepatitis virus, HIV, tuberculosis and numerous other diseases, including biological warfare agents. |
The people sigh in admiration. Their hearts fill with pride as the king swoops by on a mighty charger; his weapons flashing, the sunrays reflecting off his polished leather gauntlet. It is necessary for a king to appear valorous and mighty. — The Mahabharata If you keep thinking of all the ways in which others cheated you, fought with you, degraded you or angered you; your heart will forever be full of hatred. Learn to let go, and he happy. — The Buddhism Generally our ignorance clouds this glowing truth. We reconcile ourselves by blaming fate for our accidents. the learned one knows that the cause of the accident was some deed in the past; not fate He examines his past behaviour and makes amendments for the future. — The Bhagvad Gita |
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