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Modi haunts BJP Abominable acts |
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Maya’s blackmail
Khaki Raj
Arms and the sermon
Targeting
Kashmir’s leaders
Defence
notes
Strains in
relations with Bangladesh
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Abominable acts TWO explosions in quick succession in downtown Srinagar show how nebulous peace is in the state. On Wednesday, the militants struck when a bomb-laden car exploded in the Jawahar Nagar area killing one, injuring 45 and destroying many vehicles and shops. Even more atrocious was the attack the next day, the target being school children near the Lal Chowk area. In that grenade explosion, two women were killed and 52 persons, including several children, were injured. Only an abominably cruel organisation could have organised these attacks. By choosing soft targets, they wanted to spread panic in the state Capital, where tourists have started arriving by the droves with the mercury level rising in the plains. They do not want the impression to gain ground that there has been a turnaround in the ground situation in Kashmir. The explosions bring to light that the enemies of peace are still active in the state. Though no organisation has so far claimed “credit” for the attacks, they could have been perpetrated only by those who have infiltrated from across the Line of Control. As the Army chief, General J.J. Singh, has pointed out, infiltration has only slackened and not ended totally. What else can the mercenaries be expected to do than throw bombs, explode grenades and create panic? They are the ones who will be hit hard if normalcy is established in the relationship between India and Pakistan. Small wonder that they have been threatening to disrupt the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus service and other confidence-building measures that the two countries have been taking. They are waiting for that big opportunity when they can torpedo the peace movement through a catastrophic act. If anything, this shows that the security agencies have to be perpetually on guard. However desirable reduction of the security forces in the state may be, the militants just would not allow it to happen. Caught between the two are the common people, who have to suffer the inconveniences caused by the former and the threats posed by the latter. While any step that smoothens relations between India and Pakistan is welcome, there is, alas, no substitute for vigilance. |
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Maya’s blackmail Former
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati’s threat to withdraw her party’s outside support to the UPA government if it did not stop the ongoing CBI probe against her should be dismissed with the contempt it deserves. She was obviously stung by the CBI questioning her in the case involving disproportionate assets. Her outbursts and warning to the Prime Minister right in his presence in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday, were nothing but pressure tactics to browbeat the government and get the probe against her stalled. See the timing of her threat! In the past few days, the UPA government has been facing embarrassment due to the antics of Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav. With her 18-member group in the Lok Sabha, she perhaps felt that she could blackmail the government — just in case the government may have to seek her help to retain majority. The BSP leader has been under the CBI scanner for having amassed huge wealth and properties. According to the FIR, she has several bank accounts and fixed deposits in Delhi, plots in Lucknow and other places. The scrutiny of the bank accounts of her relatives revealed substantial sums, beyond their legitimate means. More important, following the Supreme Court’s intervention, the linkage between her assets and her role in the Rs 175-crore Taj corridor case is also being probed by the Central Vigilance Commission. When the CBI sought to peremptorily close the case due to “lack of evidence”, the Supreme Court viewed it very seriously and ordered re-investigation. It will be a travesty of justice and subversion of the rule of law if the ongoing investigations are derailed and Ms Mayawati is allowed to go scot-free. Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee’s assurance to the Lok Sabha that “the Home Minister is prepared to discuss the matter with her” raises apprehensions about the fate of the probes, even though the Supreme Court is monitoring them. Her diatribe should not be allowed to influence the ongoing inquiries. The Prime Minister, in particular, should not be cowed down by her threat. He should handle the situation with the same firmness that he had demonstrated when Mr Yadav made unfounded allegations against the Election Commissioners. |
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Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired and success achieved.
— Helen Keller |
Khaki Raj
IN Pakistan’s 58 years, 31 were spent under open military dictatorship; even the current phase is basically a military regime, only slightly camouflaged by a civilian façade. Long before the coup of October, 1999, one had counted 22 significant political developments that had the characteristics of a coup: a change of government outside the Constitution of the day. No government completed a known tenure and peacefully transferred power to an elected lot; even the three dictators who are now history were overthrown by others — and one only by God Himself. All Prime Ministers left office under compulsion; either killed or dismissed. Why is Pakistan so prone to coups? Does Pakistan’s military have a congenital itch to take over or is it otherwise determined to influencing political decision-making? Is there something deficient or defective in the people of this country? Why couldn’t they manage a parliamentary democracy such as the Indians next door could? The initial mysteries surrounding Liaquat Ali Khan’s murder in 1951 and the successions to Mr Jinnah by Khwaja Nazimuddin and Ghulam Mohammad, originally a bureaucrat, or Liaquat Ali Khan’s by Khwaja Nazimuddin remain unresolved. The story becomes even more murky since 1953 when Ghulam Mohammad suddenly dismissed Khwaja Nazimuddin, the PM and a respected President of ruling Muslim League with a clear majority. In short order, Ghulam Mohammad appointed his own nominee as Prime Minister, later forced him to reconstitute the government to accommodate Gen Ayub Khan, a serving C-in-C, in it. He next sacked him and the supposedly sovereign Constituent Assembly for which he had no title that anyone could appreciate. How could this happen? Ghulam Mohammad came to wield ultimate power, as the bureaucratic coterie’s leader, the prominent members of which were Ch Mohammad Ali, Col Iskandar Mirza, Mushtaq Ahmed Gurmani and a few others but with full support of most West Pakistani members of the Constituent Assembly. The Army was perceived to be in this coterie’s pocket through Iskandar Mirza. Which is how no one could think of opposing its actions for fear of bloodshed by the Army — an abiding threat that makes palace coups bloodless. This coterie changed governments as rapidly as it pleased, with Parliament a helpless spectator. Supposedly legal governments, responsible to Parliament, stood changed at the will of Governor-Generals Ghulam Mohammad and later Iskandar Mirza. The ground for dismissing the sovereign Constituent Assembly (1954) that had a majority of East Bengalis, all confused and frightened, was that it could not make a Constitution in nine years — although it had at last managed to agree on a Constitution and had all but enacted it before being sacked, with only a few processes remaining. The coterie’s emergence was the West Pakistani landowning deputies’ reply and by obstructing agreements over the Constitution. But this “failure to make a Constitution”, the ostensible ground, was symptomatic and many profound failures were subsumed in it. The Constituent Assembly had indeed failed to agree on a constitutional scheme. The disagreement was total. East Bengalis wanted unalloyed democracy based on one man, one vote; that it would yield a “permanent majority” of East Bengalis seemed nothing wrong to them. West Pakistani legislators, mostly large landowners, who were solidly behind the West Pakistani Governor-General or later a West Pakistani Army Commander-in-Chief, totally rejected permanent Bengali majority. Recall why the Constituent Assembly couldn’t agree on a Constitution for so long. Its Basic Principles Committee took longer to produce its first report in 1950 due to internal disagreements. It prescribed a Parliament with an East Bengali majority, the ground reality. Punjab fiercely opposed; they refused to become a permanent minority. Liaquat tasked the BPC to write another report. The second report prescribed virtual parity of representation after juggling with numbers of Parliament’s two Houses. This time Bengal exploded; why would they let go their majority if their numbers so justified. The BPC was sent back to the drawingboard a third time. An exasperated BPC’s third report went back to a Parliament reflecting the reality of East Bengalis’ majority and the government of Mohammad Ali Bogra proceeded speedily to enact it after deciding to defy the Governor-General. The latter moved first by sacking that supposedly sovereign Constituent Assembly, preempting an agreed Constitution. Going into other, and later, shenanigans of the coterie’s oligarchs would be pointless, though their significance needs to be noted. These nine years were wasted by “both” sides quarrelling over new Parliament’s composition. Despite Muslim League’s initial unity under Jinnah, after his death the Muslims of Pakistan were forced to take cognisance of ethnic differences. A permanent East Bengali PM and the parliamentary majority was simply not acceptable to the Punjab group in the Consembly. East Bengalis saw no reason to agree to any dilution of their majority which would force them to permanently remain under a government that would protect, and indeed comprise, West Pakistan’s vested interests. Honesty demands recognition of profound failures. Riding roughshod over ethnicities, mouthing Islamic rhetoric was courting disaster. Pakistanis had never had an agreed Constitution before 1970 — abortion of the 1954 one apart, 1956’s parity Constitution or Ayub Khan’s 1962 one were simple impositions on East Bengalis. A civil war ensued as a result of constitutional differences in 1971. Make no mistake: Yahya Khan was trying to prevent a Bengali majority in the Parliament-to-be. The year 1971 exemplified the final failure of Two Nation Theory; the state carved out in its pursuit broke up in mutual killings, with the state being complicit in genocidal activities under fantastic notions of making Bengalis a minority in East Pakistan. Ideologues of Islamic State, or Nizam-i-Islam, need more introspection: Islam alone cannot sustain a state. It actually could not. Enforcing any Islamic orthodoxy where pluralities exist is bound to be despotic. Nothing could be more final than the failure of Pakistan as a “homeland for Indian Muslims”. It was, and is, nothing of the kind. It is still a happy hunting ground of the civil and military oligarchs along with the co-opted successful professionals. Legacy of Pakistan (1947-71) to residual Pakistan prevents democracy; only the poisonous weed of military dictatorships grow there. Thirtyfive years of this Pakistan has known nothing but military’s supremacy, six Bhutto years notwithstanding. There was a tamasha of democracy between 1986 and 1999 in which the key elements of national policies stayed under military’s control. The fourth dictator, anxious to please the US, wants to survive in power, nominally as a democrat. He has now managed to have a constitution that protects his power and subordinates rest of the system to his will; he has the whip in his hands of Section 58(2)(b)’s power to sack the system. He needs an “exit plan” that will protect his and the Army’s powers permanently. Mr Jinnah would be turning in his grave to see this outcome of his Two Nation Theory: three separate states, suspicious of one another. The once great Muslim community, often called the Muslim India, is now divided into three parts, each wary of the other. Indeed Jinnah would freely agree that the June 3, 1947, plan has failed. A reversion to historical India in a suitable and agreed form is
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Arms and the sermon According to a news agency despatch from Stockholm, AB Bofors, the controversial arms manufacturer which has been buffeted by many scandals in recent years, is now in a “introspective” and “repentent” mood and Nobel Industries, its parent company, has retained the services of a minister of the Lutheran Church to conduct lessons in morals, ethics, religion and right conduct to senior Bofors executives, among them, company President Per Ove Morberg and Chief Jurist Lars Gothlin. Let’s sit in on a class and observe the lessons. “Per Ove Morberg, have you brought back your progress report and markssheet duly signed by your guardian?” “I’m sorry, padre, but he flatly refused to sign saying I’ve obtained disgracefully low marks in ethics and right conduct. I even offered him an under-the-table payoff, disguised as ‘payment for administrative services’ and have it laundered in the Bahamas and Panama before being deposited in secret, numbered Swiss Bank accounts under code names like ‘Lotus’, and ‘Pitco’, but still he refused.” “Okay, we’ll see about that later. Tell me, Morberg, is it ethically right to smuggle weapons of mass destruction into poor countries of the Third World is order to keep fratricidal civil wars continue
indefinitely?” “No, padre, it would be ethically wrong, because smuggling means that it’s done without the involvement of murky characters, behind-the-scene fixers and wheeler-dealers and that would be patiently unfair to merchants of death because they would be deprived of their legitimate means of livelihood. “Lars Gothlin, state some of the Ten Commandments from memory.” “Though shalt not cooperate with the Joint Committee of the Indian Parliament probing the Bofors deal. thou shalt protect Win Chadha and A.E. Services, thou shalt take shelter behind the commercial secrecy clause, thou shalt send the Swedish public prosecutor on a wild goose chase, thou shalt not reveal the identity of the final beneficiaries of secret Swiss Bank accounts, thou shalt scatter red herrings in the path of the Swedish National Audit Bureau.” “Lars Gothlin, what do you know about the Sermon on the Mount?” “Padre, Sermon on the Mount was a deeply moving call to humanity to abjure violence, hatred and war and stash away the ill-gotten gains from massive arms deals in secret, numbered Swiss Bank accounts.” “Per Ove Morberg, do you think it’s morally right to clandestinely switch labels on arms crates awaiting shipment so that they are diverted to war zones in Third World countries and middlemen and weapons dealers reap windfall profits?” “No, padre, it would be morally wrong and unjustified. The right, ethical way to do things would be to brazenly forge and fabricate customs and shipping documents right under the noses of vigilant government inspectors.” “Morberg and Gothlin, I want both of you to answer the last question in today’s lesson. Do you think it’s right ethical conduct to bribe government officials and politicians in Third World countries in order to win massive arms supply contracts?” “No padre, it would be morally and ethically wrong.” “Why?” “Because we might get caught red-handed.” “Class
dismissed!”
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Targeting Kashmir’s leaders The targeting of the traditional political leadership of Kashmir since 1989 has not been adequately analysed. Indian public opinion has been divided mainly between those whose chief focus is on the fate of the Hindu, that is mainly the Kashmiri Pandits, and those who draw attention primarily to persons killed at the hands of the security forces. These were legitimate concerns. But the annihilation of the traditional Kashmiri Muslim leadership by terrorists did not fall in either category and went by default. Ironically, with the rise of the Hindutva movement since 1989, large sections of the minorities in the rest of India, especially in Modi-ruled Gujarat, were being labelled as anti-national. On the other hand, the traditional Kashmiri Muslim leadership was being eliminated by terrorists in J& K for the opposite reason: it was considered too pro-India. Had this contrast been adequately reported and presented it could have compelled the Hindutva forces to question and reassess their own assumptions about the labelling of large sections of minorities in India as anti-national. After the PDP-Congress government assumed power in 2002, the PDP cadres became a prime target as well though NC workers did not cease to be targeted. A rough estimate by this writer suggests that that the killings of NC, PDP and Congress cadres have been under-reported in the Press. In a recent month three incidents were missed by newspapers before one got reported. In the pre-2002 elections period for diverse reasons those concerned with public affairs did not highlight such killings, then largely of NC cadres. It is instructive to examine if similar reasons apply in the case of reports on PDP killings in the post-2002 period. The media had written off the NC as corrupt and often virtually ignored the killings of its cadres. Here it failed to distinguish politics from the political process. The loosely-hurled corruption charge, even if true, could provide reason to vote a party out, but could not possibly justify journalistic nonchalance at the physical annihilation of partymen. Besides, the killings of the NC cadres had little to do with their alleged corruption or their alleged inattention to developmental issues. The killers were not participating in an anti-corruption movement. The upshot was that of the hundreds of NC cadres killed in the period 1989-2002 not one obtained even an obituary in the national press. Many of them were popular leaders. Another reason given to explain either the NC killings themselves or why these did not receive adequate national attention was that the party lost sympathy after it aligned itself with the BJP. This was untenable as the BJP-NC alliance was of relatively recent vintage while the terrorist targeting of NC cadres had been going on even prior to the NDA regime at the Centre. And neither the past nor the subsequent allies of the NC had taken much notice of or publicly empathised with the NC in relation to its political bereavements. The matter was seldom taken up in Parliament. In any case, the “wrong company” reasoning can hardly apply now to the killings of PDP cadres. Significantly, Hurriyat, which seeks involvement in Indo-Pakistan negotiations, seldom condemned the killings of NC or PDP cadres. It has seemed indifferent unless the terrorist target was a member of the Hurriyat alliance itself. A week after Musharraf’s famous speech on January 12, 2002, one Hurriyat leader approvingly said “The boys with the gun have done their duty. They have done the job by highlighting the movement. Now it is for the politicians to capitalise on it.” The real reason for the targeting of the NC and now of the PDP is that these parties represent traditional Kashmiri Muslims who have stood for a modus vivendi within a composite India. Individual annihilation as a method of politics must not be allowed to gain ground. By eliminating the traditional Kashmiri Muslim leadership they simply seek to manufacture consent for some undefined dispensation. The notion of militancy implies the existence of a popular movement within which there is a militant section working for an object similar to that of the movement. However these assassinations do not have such an appearance. It is doubtful if popular opinion in Kashmir could ever empathise with the annihilation of the traditional Kashmiri Muslim leadership in the state. This aspect of the Kashmir scene needs to be emphasised not only in India but also abroad, including the Islamic countries.
Prominent PDP workers killed Abdul Aziz Mir, MLA from Pampore, 20.12.02; Abdul Razaq Rather, Kulgam. 9.4.03; Abdul Hamid Mir, Pulwama, 20.5.03; Mohd Abdullah, Anantnag, 8.7.03; Ghulam Mohd Ganai of Frestabal, 3.11.03. Zulfikar Ali, Anantnag, 6.11.03; Haider Ali, abducted from Malganipora; body recovered 7.11.03; Ghulam Rasool Wagoora, Awantipora 9.11.03; Mohammad Ismail Khanday, Anantnag, 16.11.03; Ghulam Rasool Hajam, 22.12.03; Mohammad Yousuf Bhat, body recovered, Pulwama, mid-February 2004. Ghulam Mohd Dar, Budgam, 16.2.04; Ali Mohd Bhat, Budgam, 16.2.04; Assadullah Bhat, Anantnag, 11.4.04; Ghulam Qadir, Sopore, 10.5.04; Ghulam Mohiuddin Nigroo, Anantnag, 2.6.04. Abdul Rehman Mir and Sonaullah Paddar, Anantnag, 4.6.04; Shamim Ahmed Bhat, Anantnag, 15.6.04; Saifullah Khan, Anantnag, 6.7.04; Hilal Ahmed Khan, Anantnag, 21.7.04. Nazir Ahmed Lone, Budgam, 8.9.04; Ghulam Mohiuddin Chechoo, 1.10.04; Nazir Ahmad Raina, 3.11.04; Abdul Gani Wani, 18.12.04; Ghulam Rasool Khan 4.1.05; Ghulam Mohiuddin Mir, 8.2.05; Muzaffar Ahmed Wani, Anantnag, April 2005; and CM’s nephew Atiqullah Shah, Anantnag, 2.5.05. The writer is an advocate at
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Defence notes The recent trouble on the Indo-Bangladesh border had forced experts to raise a number of questions, including the possibility of air surveillance along the dotted line. But the government has rejected the idea of starting air surveillance while pointing out that there was no spurt in infiltration from across the border. Tension on the Indo-Bangladesh border had been on the rise following the killing of a BSF officer after his alleged abduction by Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) men. The BSF also alleging that a BDR helicopter had violated the Indian airspace in Tripura and sought investigation by the Indian Air Force (IAF). Experts feel that the government does not want to raise the pitch further by allowing air surveillance as Bangladesh traditionally remains a strategic partner for India. Besides, this would further give a reason to the BDR troops to target Indian troops. BDR has reportedly doubled its strength at Kurma in Srimangal district of Bangladesh and its soldiers were also carrying 51 mm mortar shells on routine patrols while also having dug a number of trenches along the border.
Rohtang tunnel by 2011 The prestigious Rohtang tunnel project on the Manali-Leh national highway is expected to be completed by 2011. Being built by the Border Roads Organisation (BRO), the project, which is expected to cost around Rs 1,700 crore, will be the first of its kind in the world. Being built at an altitude of 3,100 metres above the sea level, the tunnel, when completed, will facilitate regular traffic on the 450 km long Manali-Leh road for more than eight months in a year. Besides its strategic importance, the tunnel will also allow accessibility to the Lahaul and Pangi valley for almost nine months in a year. The foundation stone for the tunnel was laid by former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 2002 at Manali. However, the challenging part of the tunnel is the provision of fresh air to passengers and workers at the height of 3,100 metres beneath the 13,000 feet high Rohtang Pass. Reports suggest that 12 companies, including Konkan Railways and Delhi Metro, want to take up the project for which global tenders are also being invited.
Ban on Deendar Anjuman The government has extended the ban on fundamentalist organisation Deendar Anjuman for another two years. The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) last week extended the ban on the organisation, which is pre-dominant in the southern parts of the country. The ban lapsed on April 26 last. Deendar Anjuman hit the headlines in 2000 after it engineered explosions in nine churches, a temple and a mosque in Andhra Pradesh. |
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Strains in relations with Bangladesh Even
as the recent border tension between India and Bangladesh has been prevented from escalating in the aftermath of the killing of a BSF officer and a Bangladeshi girl, the repeated border skirmishes and their fallout on the local population dictate the need for a mature and realistic South Asian neighbourhood policy. The latest event brings to focus a similar event in 2001 when the killing of 16 BSF jawans on the Indo-Bangla border had stirred an emotional upsurge in India giving rise to the demand for an “appropriate response”. Unable to bear the hecklings of his own party MPs, the then Foreign Minister, Mr Jaswant Singh, had reportedly shot back, “What do you want me to do, bomb Bangladesh”? The crux of the matter is that when such skirmishes are not unusual along the 4002-km porous border, the need is to address the larger issue beyond border management. In the recent past, the two countries have traded charges of harbouring anti-India or anti-Bangladesh elements within their territories. Moreover, Bangladesh has charged India with illegally trying to push Bengali-speaking Indian Muslims into its territory, leading to a high alert along the borders of Rangpur and Dinajpur districts to foil any “push-in” bid. Bangladesh had also objected to the much-discussed river linking project in India, which it feels would adversely affect its river pattern and have serious ecological problems, including desertification. The troubling aspect is to look upon many of these problems in South Asia in general and in India-Bangladesh in particular, as simply a law and order problem. Rather, the issue is about governance and socio-economic pressure on the bordering states. Many of the unfortunate legacies of an artificial partition, particularly the undelineated border, continues to simmer. Moreover, the riverine nature of the area creates a shifting border, making governance a constant problem. Obviously, a better border management mechanism can help reduce frictions between the paramilitary forces and the local people. However, looking for “stereotype” options in the form of building more barbed wire fencing, in a situation where the local population on both sides has interest in breaching the porous border, is hardly another name for border management. There are at least 40 border markets along the Meghalaya-Bangladesh border where people from both sides come together to exchange produce under the age-old barter system. In other words, socio-economic development based on better governance will have to be the bedrock for an effective border management mechanism. A demand for ‘tough line’ is even weaker from a geo-strategic consideration. A tough Indian militaristic posture threatens to create an emotional nationalistic upsurge in Bangladesh, giving a handle to the dormant Islamic forces to whip up anti-Indian sentiments. Ironically, India’s inability to portray itself as the fulcrum, of stability and socio-economic development in the region has been its proverbial Achilles, heel. In effect, the legacy of historical disputes, along with our inability to carry and represent the region on the global stage has reduced our power projection capability. How can India be looked upon as a deserving candidate for a permanent seat in the Security Council with the veto power, when the “big brother”, has used its leverage to create obstacles in the holding of the annual SAARC conference?
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From the pages of Jingo clique against Kashmir
While
the whole country is permeated with an intense feeling of loyalty to the British Government, while Princes and people are alike anxious to prove their profound devotion and attachment to the paramount power, one feels disgusted to notice how a few Anglo-Indian newspaper writers, who trade upon mischief, have been trying to sow the seeds of dissension between it and a first class Native State. As an example, we shall extract a passage which appears in a recent issue of our local contemporary. “The Civil and Military Gazette” of the 31st ultimo says: “We understand that the Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir will meet Lord Dufferin, on His Excellency’s return from Rawalpindi, either at Wazirabad or Lahore. It is rumoured in the Punjab that the import of the meeting is of a serious nature; but nothing definite has yet transpired on the subject.”
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The Buddhas do but tell the way, it is for you to swelter at the task. — Gautam Buddha All spiritual disciplines are done with a view to still the mind. The perfectly still mind is universal spirit. — Swami Ramdas In actual life every great enterprise begins with and takes its first forward step in faith. — Schlegel  |
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