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Kalpakkam reactor Lost civilisation? The killer brew |
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Kathmandu talks on Kashmir
The carol singers
India’s pro-active foreign policy From Pakistan
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Kalpakkam reactor The Union Government has done well to allay fears about the safety of the nuclear reactors of the Madras Atomic Power Station (MAPS) at Kalpakkam after tsunami struck. The reason for the fears, especially among the less informed, was the loss of life and property in Kalpakkam township. Understandably, when people are reeling under a devastating calamity, their fears are the more the result of feeling than knowledge. Hence, it is heartening that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh not only satisfied himself with a personal report but also fielded National Security Adviser J N Dixit to reassure the nation at large. Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Anil Kakodkar, who proceeded to Kalpakkam at the behest of the Prime Minister, deserves to be commended for taking mediapersons round the MAPS site to see the situation for themselves. This reinforces public confidence in what is officially put out. Although the fears have proved to be unfounded, the fact remains that concern on the issue was legitimate and had to be addressed, as has been done, at the highest level because Kalpakkam is sensitive. It is not subject to international fullscope safeguards; it has a plutonium reprocessing plant as well as a tritium extraction facility; and, lastly, in the matter of safeguards, it comes under the purview of the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board. Mr Kakodkar’s report confirms that although water entered some of the pumps due to the tsunami and some of the staff and their families were washed away, there is no threat of radiation from the nuclear power plant. So far, so good, and full marks to the Indian nuclear establishment for the Kalpakkam reactors being able to withstand the onslaught of the tsunami. However, as Mr Kakodkar himself said, cyclones and tidal waves have been provided for as a contingency but a tsunami has not yet been reckoned with. Well, it is time this too is taken care of based on the lessons of the havoc wreaked. |
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Lost civilisation? The stench of rotting bodies is all-pervasive in coastal areas of India flattened by Sunday’s tsunami waves. The tragedy is so overpowering that even on the mainland, enough aid is not reaching the survivors. In such a state of despair, the fate of the residents of the Andaman and Nicobar islands has not been highlighted as much as it otherwise would have been. Being closer to the epicentre of the earthquake, the group of islands suffered even greater damage. The death and destruction there has added poignancy in that some of the islands are inhabited by primitive tribes which are the only link to an early civilisation. These elusive tribesmen – Nicobarese, Shompen, Jarawas, Sentenelese and Onges —- are already on the endangered list and their numbers are extremely limited. If the casualties among them are as heavy as suspected, some of the tribes may very well be extinct. Sentenelese are anthropologically considered the most important and number less than 100. With little communication possible with them even at the best of times, the slender link has totally snapped after Sunday’s tidal terror. But so precious are these innocent men and women leading a prehistoric living in seclusion that one wants to hope against hope that being consummate swimmers, many of them might have braved the tsunami onslaught. Due to the high tide, even the Navy is not able to reach many of the islands. Even those places which are approachable present a picture of heart-rending despair. The air force station on the distant outpost has suffered massive damage resulting in the death of more than 100 personnel. Rushing aid to these remote islands is not going to be an easy task. But it has to be carried out nevertheless. Magnificent airmen have made light of their own tragedy to fly relief material to the Andamans and to bring back survivors. Many heroic tales are emerging from the debris of the tragedy. A lot more will be required to turn the tide. |
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The killer brew The 51 Mumbai slum-dwellers who died on Monday after consuming spurious liquor did not know that the “cheap kick” they were enjoying during extended Christmas celebrations would make them sleep forever. They like many others had been regular visitors to the “adda” near a police station for a long time. They had been playing with their lives because they had never thought that the “adda” owner would be allowed to sell “poison”, which is what hooch is, with police “patronage”. This is the crux of the problem. Spurious liquor trade has been flourishing all over the country, including Punjab and Haryana, because it has disguised support of the police. The reason is that those who are supposed to implement the law are mainly interested in protecting their sources of income, and illicit liquor business is one of them! So, why bother about it even if it takes hundreds of lives every year? The victims are mostly poor, who cannot afford costly but safe drink at authorised shops. They depend on illegal distilleries, which cater to the requirement of such people. These distilleries also have their network to deliver their supplies at the doorsteps of customers as was discovered in Delhi some time ago. It has been found that whenever a tragedy occurs these people are able to get help from some police personnel to go underground. Can one find a better example of the guardians of law behaving like this? The Maharashtra government has taken action against 22 police officials, including an Assistant Commissioner of Police, not without reason. Police connivance has been the cause of hooch tragedies almost everywhere. A new and more dangerous angle to this tragic situation was discovered in Kurukshetra, a “dry” area, where six labourers lost their lives after drinking spurious liquor in February this year. The affected families and others openly alleged the involvement of politicians in the illegal trade. The time has come for public-spirited people to launch a movement against the merchants of death to save the lives of the poor. |
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The king neither administers nor governs, he reigns. — Louis Adolphe Theirs |
Kathmandu talks on Kashmir
Kathmandu was a strange location for people to meet and discuss how to end violence and restore peace and security in Jammu and Kashmir. The Nepalese capital was under a virtual siege, surrounded by armed Maoists, who can paralyse life in the capital whenever they choose. But, despite the Maoist violence, Kathmandu was seen as a convenient location for persons from both sides of the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir to meet along with Indian and Pakistani security analysts, former diplomats and academics. The very fact that such a meeting, under the auspices of the Pugwash Foundation, took place was an achievement in itself. Few could have imagined that it would be possible to arrange a get-together between people like Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Mr Sajjad Lone, Mr Abdul Ghani Bhat, JKLF leader Ghulam Rasool Dar and J&K Panthers Party leader Bhim Singh from our side of the LoC and people from PoK like Sardar Attique Ahmed of the J&K Muslim Conference, Mr Abdul Majid Mallick, President, J&K Liberation League, and Khalid Ibrahim of the People’s Party of J&K. But such a Conference did take place on December 11-14. While no magical solution to the Kashmir issue could be found in such a gathering, there was agreement that it provided an opportunity for people across the LoC and the larger India-Pakistan divide to frankly discuss their concerns, look for ways to make life for people in J&K more secure and agree to meet again in the not-too-distant future. Why was such a conference necessary? The international community has long urged that any solution that emerges to the Kashmir tangle should be mutually acceptable to India and Pakistan and also to the people of J&K. Pakistan and its protégés in the Hurriyat Conference have argued that there should be tripartite talks between India, Pakistan and “representatives” of the people of Jammu and Kashmir. But who is to determine who the “representatives” of the people of J&K are? Further, is there any consensus within Jammu and Kashmir among different sections of the people about what the contours of a settlement should be? Even though Pakistan may label its protégés in the Hurriyat Conference as “genuine” representatives of the people, the international community understands the legitimacy of the PDP-Congress government in J&K, as it was elected in a free and transparent manner. There is no representative government enjoying even a measure of autonomy in either Pakistan-occupied Kashmir or the Northern Areas. Arbitrary arrests, restrictions on freedom of speech and expression and attempts at changing demographic composition by bringing in Sunni settlers in Shia majority areas are common in the Northern Areas. Despite initial skepticism in New Delhi about the conference, wiser counsels prevailed. No one from our side of the LoC was denied permission to attend. The Pakistan government, however, prevented JKLF leader Amanullah Khan from participating. The extent of repression in the Northern Areas was evident from the fact that not a single leader from this region under Pakistani occupation participated, despite the fact that leaders of popular organisations like the Balwaristan National Front (BNF) and the Gilgit-Baltistan United Action Forum have waged a long struggle for democratic rights and freedoms. Over 150 BNF workers are presently incarcerated and charged with treason, merely for demanding democratic freedoms. For too long have New Delhi and people in J&K been indifferent to the sufferings of the people of the Northern Areas, whose soldiers from the Northern Light Infantry were treated as cannon fodder and not even given honourable burials when they shed their lives in General Musharraf’s Kargil misadventure. The discussions within the conference were lively and often heated. But some positive results were achieved. There was universal acknowledgment that the ceasefire across the LoC was a welcome development and should be made permanent. There was also a demand that violence in all forms should end and that all concerned should refrain from statements and actions that incite and promote violence. There was agreement that India and Pakistan could reduce their security presence on both sides of the LoC as violence ends. It was felt that those who had been detained without trial for long periods on both sides of the LoC should be released. There were discussions on the trauma of and the need for displaced Kashmiri Pandits to return to their homes in safety and with dignity. What I found most interesting was the desire of people from both sides of the Line of Control to promote the movement of people and trade among themselves. There was an equally strong desire to promote academic, social and cultural contacts and joint developmental and environmental projects across the entire state of J&K. Some of those from our side with the knowledge of the ground situation in J&K felt that it would be possible to consider establishing border markets in places like the Neelam Valley and at Uri-Chakroti. There were others who urged that people living along the LoC would feel safer if there could be coordinated de-mining in specified sectors along the LoC. When residents of J&K from both sides of the LoC met separately, there was near unanimous agreement that the ongoing peace process should result in a peaceful, honourable and feasible solution to J&K. They called for an end to violence, respect for the rule of law and a continuing dialogue between different sections of the people of Jammu and Kashmir. New Delhi’s insistence on requiring passports for travel across the LoC appears illogical. Why should we insist on passports to travel to either PoK or the Northern Areas when we regard both these portions of J&K under Pakistani occupation as Indian territory? Surely, there could be other options suggested for facilitating such travel. If we are genuinely interested in de-freezing the situation in J&K in human and diplomatic terms, we should devise innovative measures for travel across the LoC in both the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad and Kargil-Skardu sectors. The argument that such movements would facilitate terrorism is far fetched. Terrorists do not cross boundaries with travel documents. The time has also come to facilitate and seek arrangements for trade across the LoC and examine whether the situation could be improved by contacts between academic and other institutions in Jammu and Srinagar with counterparts in Muzaffarabad, Gilgit and Skardu. For too long has Pakistan been able to isolate people of the Northern Areas from their counterparts in Ladakh and indeed from the rest of the world. The Kathmandu conference provided ideas on how to move forward in the quest for restoring normalcy and promoting contacts and harmony across the entire state of J&K. This process could be fostered if representatives of parties like the National Conference, the PDP, the Congress and the BJP participate in such efforts in future. But such efforts will be meaningless if General Musharraf persists with his policies of promoting cross-border terrorism, despite the pledge he made to Mr. Vajpayee to end such terrorism on January 6 this year. |
The carol singers
The previous week I had, what was perhaps, the most beautiful experience of my life. I was watching “Robin Hood, the Prince of Thieves,” waiting for the Bryan Adams number to come on. Instead, the soft, sweet sound of “Silent Night” stole over the sound track. For a moment I thought my TV had done what my old radio set in the fifties used to do: the needle would jump and I would get a cross-station reception. Then I realised that this was for real. I ran down the stairs and there, at my front door, was Mrs Oh and a group of my school children, their ethereal voices raised in song, their cherubic faces suffused with the sublime spirit of Christmas. It was many years since carol singers had come to my door. I listened and the beauty of the moment stirred my heart. It brought, too, the memory of other carol singers. School used to close on 1st Dec and at home, right till Christmas, in the early hours of the morning, a soft, melodious sound would steal into my sleep and stir me gently into wakefulness: a group of singers, on a “prabhat pheri,” singing Christmas carols in Punjabi and that memory, as memories always do, brought a string of other wonderful memories: of my parents, my school vacations and my friends in Jullundur. I remembered, too, the carol service on the last day of the school term in the lovely old school chapel, the exquisite stained-glass windows lit up with floodlights, and then the going with a group of other children, after the service, from door to door, singing carols and being fed cake and other delicacies by the teachers. I remembered when I returned as a teacher, urging a group of colleagues to join me in accompanying the children and I remembered on my second return as the Headmaster, going to my door to meet the carol singers and being overcome by a truly beautiful sight: each singer held a lighted candle in his hands and the light from the candles lit up their faces with a light as golden as the gold of their voices. My mind came back to the present and as I listened to the last of the carols and looked into their beautiful faces, I hoped this would now become an annual tradition: groups of my children going from door to door singing those beautiful old songs, spreading the message of Christmas, of peace and goodwill and good cheer and creating for themselves a memory which would remind them, always, of the beauty of life
itself.
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India’s pro-active foreign policy
Continuity was the main theme of Indian foreign policy in the year 2004 as New Delhi stayed engaged with the world in a pro-active manner with particular focus on neighbours like Pakistan and China. The most important foreign policy milestone, from New Delhi’s point of view, was achieved by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government on the sixth day of the year 2004 when Mr Vajpayee succeeded in extracting a written commitment from Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf that no territory under Pakistani control would be allowed to be used for terrorist activities against India. Thanks to the remarkable resilience of the democratic system, the Indian foreign policy assumed bi-partisan character as it continued on the same track even after change of government at the Centre. The most important proof of this continuity was visible in the fact that the Composite Dialogue process, that began between India and Pakistan during the NDA government last year, was carried forward by the UPA government which took office in May this year. The UPA government accorded highest priority to normalising relations with Pakistan and, as an evidence of that, added a lot more proposals in the Confidence Building Measures (CBMs) basket. By the time the two Foreign Secretaries— India’s Shyam Saran and Pakistan’s Riaz Khokhar— held their year-end talks in Islamabad, the two nuclear neighbours had an impressive total of 100 CBMs on the negotiating table, albeit the maximum CBMs having been proposed and unilaterally implemented by India. The most important CBM which showed its efficacy on the ground was the first-ever military ceasefire between the two countries which came into effect from November 25, 2003. There was not a single instance of violation of this ceasefire in the year 2004. Primarily because of this fully functional and reciprocal CBM, India was able to complete fencing along the 740-km-long Line of Control (LoC). It is an undisputed fact that India had not been able to make much headway in construction of LoC fencing because of heavy firing from the Pakistani side on the Indian workers, though the Indian fence was being built between three to five kms inside the Indian territory from the LoC. Similar continuity in foreign policy was seen in context of India-China relations. The Special Representatives-level talks mechanism, which was agreed between India and China to resolve the boundary dispute and two rounds of these talks were held during the NDA government, was adhered to in letter and spirit by the UPA government. Two more such rounds of talks were conducted by the Manmohan Singh government. India’s fast-improving ties with China were reflected in the bilateral economic ties. For the first time ever, the Sino-India bilateral trade crossed the 10 billion dollar mark this year and was poised for doubling up of this figure by 2007. The booming Sino-Indian trade became an oft quoted example for the international community which advised Pakistan to pursue the India-China model in improving its relations with India. The argument was that when India and China, who have fought a war in 1962 and had a festering boundary dispute, could go ahead in rebuilding their bilateral relationship why Islamabad and New Delhi, with a similar past, could not do the same. India reiterated its commitment for boosting trade and people-to-people contacts with Pakistan but the Pakistani leadership stuck to its broken record of “Kashmir first, trade later”. The year 2004 also saw India’s ties with such major countries as the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia and France — four of the P-5 countries— going from strength to strength and India getting into a strategic partnership with the first three of these. India’s honeymoon with Washington not only continued but was also set to continue further with President George W Bush winning second term for another four years. Indo-US relations were never so good as they were in 2004, though Washington further deepened its ties with Islamabad and granted a Major Non-NATO Ally (MNNA) status to Pakistan. As if granting the MNNA status to India’s arch detractor were not enough, Washington rubbed the point further as US Secretary of State made this announcement in Islamabad and did not take the Indian leadership into confidence on this, though he had met the Indian leaders just hours before. To placate New Delhi, there were reports in the American press that the US was willing to grant MNNA status to India as well, if New Delhi were interested. India and the US embarked on the Next Stage in Strategic Partnership (NSSP) and the first round of discussions was concluded and talks on identifying more areas of priority in the second round were held between the two sides. The NSSP envisages close coordination and cooperation between the two countries in civilian space programmes, civilian nuclear activities and high technology trade. An important highlight of the NSSP is that it takes into account the trade barriers in sensitive areas as India is not a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), it is restricted from receiving US exports of certain high technology products and services. The NSSP has not only broken this trade barrier, it has also created a never-before enhanced strategic partnership. It has also deepened the involvement of the private sector in both countries so that everyone has a much greater stake in Indo-US relations and will prevent strains that may occur from time to time from becoming political hot potatoes in the relationship. India notched up a diplomatic victory when it won the highest number of votes in October elections to the UN body ECOSOC securing 174 as against 152 by China, a P-5 country. Another diplomatic triumph of sorts for India came from unexpected quarters— Iraq. New Delhi was able to secure the safe release of its three truck drivers — Antaryami, Tilak Raj and Sukhdev Singh — held hostage in Iraq. This was in stark contrast to a large number of hostages from other countries who were killed by their abductors. |
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From Pakistan RAWALPINDI: The federal government decided on Tuesday to hold local bodies’ elections in March next year on a non-party basis, and approved certain changes in the composition of union councils and the procedure of election of nazims and naib nazims of districts and tehsils. According to an official spokesperson, the decision was taken at a meeting presided over by President Pervez Musharraf and attended by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, the four provinces Chief Ministers, National Reconstruction Bureau chief Danyal Aziz and Federal Minister for Local Bodies’ Justice (retd) Abdul Razzaq Thahim. Though the meeting agreed to keep the procedure of indirect election of district nazims intact, it decided to change the procedure of election of district and tehsil nazims and naib nazims as joint candidates. They would now contest separately. Besides, district and tehsil naib nazims, who also are conveners of district and tehsil councils, would be elected by members of the council instead of the large electoral college comprising nazims and councillors of the constituent union councils. The decision put to rest rumours that the government was planning to hold LB polls on a party basis, besides considering direct election of district nazims. — The Dawn New policy on environment
ISLAMABAD: The National Environmental Council has approved the National Environment Policy with a view to improving the country’s environment and effective cooperation among the government, civil society, the private sector and other stakeholders. The meeting of the council was held under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and was attended by Chief Ministers of all provinces, Federal Minister for Environment Maj. (R) Tahir Iqbal, and other officials of Ministry of Environment. The Prime Minister said there was a need to create awareness in public about problems relating to environment. The government has legislated laws to prevent pollution and these laws need to be implemented by provinces and district governments. He called upon Council members to discuss the issue of pollution and put up practical recommendations for creating a clean environment.
—The Nation
Law on women workers’ rights
ISLAMABAD: The National Commission on the Status of Women (NCSW) has called for ratifying the ILO Convention on Home Workers No. 177. In a consultative meeting held here under the chairmanship of Justice (Retd) Majida Rizvi, Chairperson of NCSW, participants stressed the need to formulate appropriate policies and programmes to support house-based women workers. The meeting was held to discuss the recently launched draft report of the commission on status of home-based women workers in the informal sector. Justice (Retd) Majida said that the informal sector was the backbone of the country’s economy but unfortunately it was invisible and still unrecognised due to the lack of policy. She maintained that since the majoriy of the workers in this sector were home-based women, their status and rights had been badly affected. Realising the gravity of problems, she said that the commission had initiated an in-depth study on the subject to recommend necessary changes/amendments in the laws, policies and practices for protecting their rights.
— The Nation |
It is not difficult to practice piety. Begin by speaking words of compassion of the distraught. Be a friend to the friendless and a support to the helpless. — The Buddha It is not easy to live among material objects and give up all attachment to them. The wise person is not disheartened by failures. He tries again and again till he masters the art. Perseverance and determination are facilitators to the way of success. — The Bhagvad Gita I hold flesh-food to be unsuited to our species. We err in copying the lower animal world—if we are superior to it. — Mahatma Gandhi  |
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