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The best CBM Loose cannon |
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Return to Earth
Nuclear accord with US
How not to become a millionaire
Indo-US security ties on a new high Journalist in jail, but for what cause? Iran ignores US warnings
From the pages of
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The best CBM THE second round of the India-Pakistan composite dialogue process has concluded on a satisfactory note. The two neighbours have reached an understanding on the proposed agreement on pre-notification of flight-testing of ballistic missiles and agreed to operationalise the hotline between their Foreign Secretaries. The idea is to enhance “mutual confidence” and “transparency of intent”, and bring about strategic stability in the region. This is not a small gain keeping in view the history of the relations between the two countries and the efforts of terrorists and their masterminds to vitiate the atmosphere. Besides the nuclear confidence-building measures, India and Pakistan have agreed to uphold the continuing ceasefire at the Line of Control, to upgrade the existing hotline between the Directors-General of Military Operations on the two sides and facilitate the quick return of those who inadvertently cross over the border. These were among the various proposals agreed to by the two sides during the expert-level talks held in an atmosphere free from rhetoric. However, it seems the Pakistanis are scared of allowing the sharing of views between think-tanks and seminarists and sports-related
exchanges they showed little interest in India’s proposals on these subjects. The talks could not have been successful had India not maintained its cool despite the Ayodhya incident, the Gurez infiltration attempts and the rise in terrorist killings in Jammu and Kashmir. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has, however, made it clear to General Pervez Musharraf that the peace process would get impaired if Pakistan fails to rein in the jihadis. By now Pakistan should have removed all traces of terrorist infrastructure had the rulers there been sensitive enough about India’s concerns. Even now nothing is lost. Pakistan must launch a genuine crackdown on the Kashmir-centric jihadis for an end to the infiltration from across the border and wound up the 50-odd terrorist training camps. The jihadis are capable of causing a collapse of the whole edifice of the dialogue. They must be eliminated before they stall the peace process. Ending support to terrorism is the best
CBM. |
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Loose cannon AGE usually mellows a person. But, not Tehreek-e-Hurriyat Jammu and Kashmir chief Syed Ali Shah Geelani as was clear from the tenor and text of his speech at Srinagar on Sunday. He was so carried away by the crowd assembled on the occasion of the first foundation day of his party that he resorted to his trademark rhetoric. He was unmindful of the reality that even a demagogue has to temper his speech to make it convincing. But he showed no such restraint with the result that at the end of his verbal assault, nobody is any wiser. His frustration was apparent, as he has been reduced to a non-entity in the state with his own creation —All Party Hurriyat Conference — keeping him at a distance. Like an empty pot that makes a lot of sound, the rollicking leader made noise so that he could get some media attention. If Geelani has his way, he will not settle for anything less than self-determination. He does not even want to talk to the government except on the conditions laid down by him. He lives in his own world. But a politician has to be realistic, while being optimistic. Nobody denies that there is a problem in Kashmir. What needs to be found out is how best it can be resolved. The people want a solution so that they can lead a peaceful life. But Geelani does not want any thaw in India-Pakistan relations. He is against people-to-people contacts, the Muzaffarabad-Srinagar bus service and all other confidence-building measures. He would, perhaps, be happy if the guns boom perpetually in the state, people observe hartal every other day and life becomes hellish. Pakistan President Musharraf may have publicly rebuked him but he still has his mentors across the border, whose advice is gospel truth for him. They may not know that under, what Geelani calls, the “forced occupation” of India, J&K has been found to have the least poverty in the country. It is they who advise him to keep his rhetoric in full blast so that the chanting of “azadi” is at the highest pitch. It is pointless to blame Syed Ali Shah Geelani alone when he is just his masters’ voice. |
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Return to Earth THE tension and excitement surrounding the landing of Discovery belies the fact that in two decades of flying space shuttles, orbiters have landed 61 times at Kennedy Space Centre, 49 times at Edwards Air Force Base (EAFB), and once in White Sands. From the launch to the dramatic space walks to the nail-biting landing at EAFB, it has been nerves all the way for the `Return to Flight’ mission. It has taken NASA more than two years to get the shuttle into space after the tragic burn up of its sister ship Columbia during re-entry in 2003, killing all seven astronauts including Karnal’s celebrated Kalpana Chawla. Of course, no mission of such complexity can ever be taken as a routine, and for NASA, the crew, and their families, it is time for relief and celebration. There are several questions however that are bound to be asked, and the future of NASA’s prestigious shuttle programme does remain in doubt. Even in the run up to launch, there were numerous false starts, indicative of just how nervous NASA’s directors were. Nobody wanted a repeat of Columbia where a small piece of foam debris hit the shuttle’s wing and damaged it enough for the craft to disintegrate during re-entry into the atmosphere. This time too, an even smaller, 0.9 pound piece of foam hit an external tank two minutes into the launch 14 days ago. Ceramic coated fabric `gap fillers’ were removed from in between the tiles of the heat shield in Steve Robinson’s unscheduled space walk. The shuttle is now grounded pending another inquiry. NASA is already exploring other ways of getting humans into space, or at least keeping their ships out of the way of falling debris. But for now, there are smiles on the faces of Commander Eileen Collins and her crew and space enthusiasts around the world, and the light of the stars in the eyes of the children of Kalpana Chawla’s school at Karnal. |
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I am more religious upon a sunshiny day. — Lord Byron
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Nuclear accord with US FOLLOWING the Indo-US joint statement of July 18, 2005, not only were there accusations in India that Dr Manmohan Singh sold off India to the Americans, there were also equally vehement charges in the US by the non-proliferation fundamentalists that India got all it wanted and President Bush made all the concessions and got very little in return. If both sides feel that their leaderships did not get a fair bargain, then who gained out of it? Perhaps the Chinese. This is a very legitimate question because the Americans, who are attempting to mount a crusade against India on the issue, are those who during the time they were in office looked away as the Chinese proliferated to Pakistan and through Pakistan to other countries such as Iran, Libya and yet another Arab country. Even while lamenting President Bush’s concessions to India (which has an impeccable record on proliferation), they had nothing to say on the Chinese nuclear proliferation in the early eighties and the continuing sustenance of it till today. In fact, those Americans appear to share the worldview of many of our leftists that China can do no wrong. In spite of its continued proliferation, China is able to import nuclear reactors from France and Russia, and export reactors to Pakistan, which is still to account to the NPT community for the proliferation activities of Dr A.Q. Khan. This does not hurt the sentiments of the European, Latin American and African adherents of the non-proliferation community. So argue the American non-proliferation fundamentalists. Nor have the fundamentalists raised the issue of Western European countries dealing with Dr A.Q. Khan in the black market and proliferating. Some of the nuclear Ayatollahs have raised the issue that those countries which adhered to the NPT should be rewarded, and the present Indo-US arrangement robs the NPT adherents of such a reward. Countries like Germany, Italy, Sweden, Japan, South Korea, Canada, Australia and others joined the NPT because they gained nuclear security without costs during the Cold War, under the US nuclear umbrella. That was their reward. South Africa gave up the weapons and joined the NPT because the South African whites did not want a black nuclear weapon state. Germany and Israel, which sustained the South African weapons programme through clandestine proliferation to the apartheid regime, had no interest in supporting a black nuclear weapon state. Nearly 150 UN members were in no position to make nuclear weapons. Therefore, those who joined the NPT did not require any great inducements but did so in their own national interests. The Sinophile Americans tend to overlook that no other country was placed in the situation India faced of a proliferating China on the one side and proliferating Pakistan on the other, both in an alliance with each other. The US looked away at this proliferation because the non-proliferation crusaders decided that getting Pakistan’s support for anti-Soviet mujahideen campaign which sowed the seeds of Al-Qaeda was more important than preventing Chinese and Pakistani proliferations. Now they are shedding tears about President George Bush bringing India into the mainstream non-proliferation regime through a straight-forward agreement. The Sinophile American crusaders for non-proliferation, the leftists in India and those Indians who advocate large nuclear arsenals for this country are all living in the Cold War mindset. Both President Bush and Dr Manmohan Singh have looked at the development of nuclear technology not from the proliferation angle but from the point of view of future energy requirements of large nations like the US, China and India. President Bush and Dr Rice have repeatedly asserted that for future large-scale energy requirements hydro-carbons do not provide solutions. The US is, therefore, focussing on reviving nuclear power. Secondly, the US President and the Secretary of State appear to understand that the NPT regime was damaged beyond repair when the China-Pakistan combine carried out proliferation and the European countries failed to check the black market linkages between their companies and Pakistan and China. This was connived at by the Sinophile US officials at that time. Thirdly, the President and the Secretary of State also recognise that to strengthen the non-proliferation regime vis-a-vis non-state actors, which is beyond the scope of the NPT, India’s help and cooperation will be
helpful. While non-proliferation Ayatollahs like Mr Strobe Talbot and Mr Robert Einhorn with their pro-China-Pakistan orientation have been weakening the NPT regime, President Bush seeks to strengthen it by bringing into the NPT mainstream India with its impeccable record on non-proliferation. The crypto-proliferators have attempted to club North Korea, Iran and Pakistan with India. Pakistan is not a responsible state given its proliferation record. Iran and North Korea joined the NPT and participated in the legitimisation of nuclear weapons for the five nuclear weapon powers in 1995 and accepted all the obligations under the NPT and then reneged on through clandestine means. The very clubbing of India with these states highlights the extreme prejudice these crypto-proliferators have vis-à-vis India. The NPT regime lost its basic norms in 1995 when, contrary to its fundamental principle enshrined in Article 6 of the treaty, the NPT nations legitimised the weapons in perpetuity. Those who carried out such destruction of non-proliferation norms are now attempting to mobilise themselves when President Bush is trying to rectify the damage done by the Ayatollahs of non-proliferation. This is to be expected. This is a new era when nuclear weapons are losing progressively their role as the currency of international power and nuclear power is gaining in its utility as a source of clean energy. Just as religious extremists are addicted to time-worn outdated dogmas and go to great lengths to propagate them, so do the non-proliferation fundamentalists. The Indo-US agreement has much less to do with nuclear weapons and more to do with the global energy and economic future. Fortunately, Dr Manmohan Singh, President Bush and Dr Rice appear to be far in advance of outdated thinking on the nuclear question and understand this basic issue on the energy future.
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How not to become a millionaire
I
am one of those fortunate few who has never felt want — I have always had a roof over my head, enough food in my stomach and warm clothes to keep the winter out. For most of my life I have been content. But once in a while the urge to become a millionaire has been so strong it has compelled me to act in that direction. The first time was after my daughter’s marriage. With all the pinching and scraping and begging and borrowing, I still had to make compromises that hurt to make. I was determined not to make these compromises when it was the turn of my other two children. I had heard stories of overnight fortunes made on the stock market. I marshalled all my resources and, through a sub-broker friend of a friend, built up a respectable portfolio. Every morning I would sit down with the newspaper, a calculator and a pencil and paper. On the days I gained I would be on cloud nine and on the days I lost I would be grim and sombre. After six months I decided I could not cope with these mood swings. I sold my shares. I signed the transfer certificates: the money would come after the yearend book adjustments. The yearend came and went and so did the sub-broker. No one knew where he had gone, not even his wife. She also said she had nothing to do with his business. Fortunately I had a letter signed by her as a partner. Fortunately, too, the amount involved was not considerable, by stock market standards. Using the letter, a police officer friend was able to “influence” the family to make a payment. It was short of my investment but I was grateful. I put the money in a fixed deposit and forgot all desire to become a millionaire. Then, a few years ago, I went to visit my daughter in Pune. The train was six hours late. “Why don’t you travel by air?” my son-in-law said. Yes I should travel by air, only I could not afford it. Once again the desire to cross the line between being well-off and being rich, returned fierce and strong. “All the money is in real estate,” everyone said and a friend transferred his membership of a housing society to me. Every alternate month I paid a huge instalment. When I had paid 60 per cent of the cost of the flat without seeing even a single brick on the site, I panicked. I spoke to people and another friend agreed to bail me out. My membership was transferred to him and my investment was reimbursed, minus a fairly large amount, deducted as administrative charges. But at least I could sleep again. I met my friend after a year and a half. He had just sold his flat at a premium of over a 100 per cent! I am convinced now that I was just not destined to be a millionaire. |
Indo-US security ties on a new high AT the face of it, the Manmohan Singh-Bush agreement augurs well for the country. For the first time Americans rightly understanding our peaceful nuclear track record. What will be an enduring and stable defence strategy for India in the present times? Safeguarding the international borders and ensuring adequate internal security of the Indian landmass will, of course, be the primary task, but ensuring that we have as few enemies or adversaries as possible should actually form the bulwark of our grand strategy. The US can help in equipping our forces better, provide us with better night-vision devices and the latest in radar surveillance systems for deployment along the LoC. On the recent nuclear pact with the US, I feel that we are in a win-win situation. The difference today in the US approach is starkly vivid. In the earlier days the US was insistent that India join the NPT regime. Now without being a part of this set-up, the opening up of the latest nuclear technology transfers for peaceful purposes stands assured. Our separately certifying the peaceful use and the weapon grade nuclear installations and opening up the former for international
inspection, in no way jeopardises our national security. Unfortunately, the communists and the BJP full well knowing that a viable nuclear
deterrent (as our military experts deem fit to size) is even today with us as an asset, and that the pact with the US does not preclude our increasing this arsenal dependent on the latest threat perceptions, still go on and on playing their rusty and out-of-tune bagpipes for political advantage. lt is now well known that after our first nuclear test, Pakistan had begun to rapidly speed up its own nuclear programme with China’s help. Today Pakistan is nuclear armed and China was a nuclear power well before that. It is in this context that the Bush-Manmohan nuclear agreement is historic. The Indian imperative to match up to the joint Pak-China ballistic missile power regime, with the Pak Shaheen and Gauri and the Chinese well entrenched within easy hitting reach from the Tibet plateau where rail communication is available (as opposed to India’s shorter nuclear reach and
range, and the nearest railhead only in far-away Assam), can only be ignored by the unwise. One fails to understand the opposition to this agreement with the US when we are not signing the NPT, the FMCT or any other regime in the UN which could impinge upon our nuclear military options and R&D. India must also now start looking seriously at the Bush National Missile Defence (NMD) option, as this saves on considerable duplication of effort in research and weaponisation. The civilian mind in our government must understand that India will always have to plan for one and a half or even two front war in
future, the former being a case where Pakistan is active and China a passive partner in their war
response, and the latter case where both these countries are involved actively. That China after 1962 has not attacked India does not mean that that our defence planners skip any future ground reality. It is in this context and our need to beef up our nuclear strength, especially in the IRBM and ICBMs category, that the Manmohan Singh-Bush agreement will stand India in good stead. It is imperative that with our “no first use” imposition, the Indian second strike is totally devastating and thereby a big deterrant to those who could mean trouble. Furthermore, Pakistan with its nuclear track record will now either have to join the NPT club or face
American sanctions in due course if matters start getting out of hand for Gen Musharraf in Pakistan and the radicals gain the upper hand. The Bush-Manmohan agreement has finally brought India out its nuclear isolation and ensured better cooperation with the other major world powers. A viable nuclear deterrant very often leads to the lessening of wars, and more peaceful frontiers with neighbours like Pakistan. A calm and collected Manmohan Singh-Sonia Gandhi combine has the chance today to usher in durable peace in South Asia, the likes of which even Jawaharlal Nehru could not even dream of in the haydays of the Non-Alligned Movement. The visit has also in a way brought India out of the earlier Soviet and now the Russian shadow of over-reliance for defence equipment on one particular block ever since Nehru’s days. Today not only the US, but also Israel, a close ally of the Americans, is providing India high quality defence
equipment, especially in the surveillance field. In any case, even the Russian T 90 tank project for India does not appear to be getting off the ground in any meaningful measure, and even spare parts for the earlier Soviet armour are today not that easily forthcoming. So a major refiguration in the equipment holding policy of the Indian mechanised forces becomes an imperative with our looking elsewhere. Our R&D has been found wanting in research or development of a main battle tank. In the 1962 war with
China, it was the US which came to our assistance and the Soviet Union had maintained silence. We would, of course, be carefully watching that the US delivers what it has signed up for in the present
agreement, and then also stand by our commitments. The US has given India a nuclear edge. It is for us now to push through this very
vital, strategic link with the United States. |
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Journalist in jail, but for what cause? WRITING about the recent jailing of New York Times reporter Judith Miller, Tribune’s
(July 9) editorial makes a strong point, “Journalism is all about the public’s right to know and to have access to information. The freedom of the Press depends upon the ability of the reporters to protect their sources.” It all began with an opinion piece that former American Ambassador to Gabon, Joseph Wilson, wrote in New York Times in 2003. In February 2002 Wilson had been assigned by the CIA — Wilson claims at the request of Vice President Dick Cheney — to investigate if Iraq was trying to acquire uranium from Niger. He reported back to his superiors that there was no basis for the claims. But in January 2003, to Wilson’s amazement, President Bush made the same discredited claim in hyping the nuclear threat posed by Saddam Hussein. In the Times editorial Wilson wrote that the President had ignored the intelligence information to make his case for the Iraq war. There is a simple rule in politics: kill a story before it kills you. Thus began a “smear campaign” by the White House political machine against Wilson, a man they regarded as a dangerous provocateur. The Bush team spread word to reporters that Wilson was a Democrat, a supporter of Bush’s political opponents who was sent on an inconclusive mission that people in power knew nothing of. Columnist Robert Novak was the first to publish a story in which he named Valerie Plame, Wilson’s wife, as a CIA operative who — not Cheney — had suggested sending Wilson to Niger. Novak quotes “two senior administration officials” in his column as his sources. The two people are now widely believed to be Karl Rove, President Bush’s senior aide and Lewis “Scooter” Libby, Vice President Cheney’s chief-of-staff. After Valerie Plame’s name was published, pressures from the CIA forced the Congress to appoint a special prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald, to investigate if any crime had been committed by senior administration officials by disclosing Plame’s name to members of the Press. According to the Intelligence Identities Protection Act, intentional disclosure of a covert CIA agent’s identity is illegal. Fitzgerald sent out subpoenas to several journalists, including Judith Miller. Miller remains the only reporter who has refused to testify regarding her sources. Tim Russert of NBC and Walter Pincus of Washington Post negotiated and provided partial information to the prosecutors without breaking any confidentiality agreement. According to Washington Post columnist David Ignatius, “Post and NBC finessed the issue while the Times preferred a wreck.” Good journalists know that not all confidential sources are heroic whistle-blowers. Sometimes they are government officials who are hoping to spread information that will embarrass their political opponents or promote a particular agenda. Media ethicists have told us for a long time that journalists ought to grant confidentiality to those who are relatively powerless or who might face serious retribution if his/her identity is disclosed; the story that they are telling is of overriding public importance and not let anonymous sources use the cloak of anonymity to attack other individuals or organisations. The Times and Miller’s position fails to meet these standards. |
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Iran ignores US warnings IRAN resumed uranium work at a key nuclear facility on Monday, ignoring warnings from Washington and European capitals that such a move could land the issue of Tehran’s nuclear efforts in the UN Security Council, which has the authority to impose economic sanctions or an oil embargo. In a strongly worded letter to the governments of Britain, France and Germany, Iranian officials also formally rejected a European offer that held out promises of better relations with the West in exchange for Iran’s decision to dismantle much of its nuclear program. The letter and the decision to restart a uranium conversion facility in the town of Isfahan came ahead of an emergency meeting of the 35-member board of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Tuesday in Vienna to discuss Iran’s program. It also threw into turmoil more than two years of negotiations between Tehran and the three European countries aimed at resolving suspicions about Iran’s nuclear energy program, which includes technologies that could be diverted to atomic weapons work. The Europeans have said the negotiations would be terminated if Iran resumed any part of its nuclear program that had been on hold. Diplomats met in Vienna Monday to draft a resolution urging Iran to shut down the conversion facility and return to talks with the Europeans. The Bush administration, which has argued for more than two years that the Iran issue belongs in the Security Council, is looking for a toughly worded resolution that would move the matter directly to UN review in New York if Iran continued with the conversion work. State Department spokesman J. Adam Ereli said Washington was consulting allies “about how we should respond to this action.’’ Ereli also suggested the United States could deny a visa for Iran’s new president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to attend a U.N. summit in New York next month. Ereli said Washington will support European efforts “to get this process back on track,’’ but added, “I don’t want to predict an outcome of what will happen and when.’’ In Vienna and Washington, diplomats who spoke on the condition of anonymity said it was unlikely the IAEA board would immediately refer the matter to the Security Council because Iran’s actions do not violate any international laws. Britain, France and Germany have said they would support Security Council referral if the diplomatic process appears exhausted, but they were working diplomatic channels to coax the Iranians back to negotiations before the crisis escalates. “Negotiations are not off the table and can always be resumed,’’ said M. Javad Zarif, Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations. “But nothing can reverse the resumption of work at Isfahan.’’ Iran agreed in November, after months of talks with the three European countries, to suspend its nuclear program while the four parties discussed the possibility of a final agreement. On Friday, the European trio offered Iran a package of incentives in exchange for a legally binding commitment by Iran to permanently forgo much of its nuclear program. Iran, which claims to be exercising its legal rights to a nuclear energy program under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, has said it would not give up the program.
— LA Times-Washington Post |
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From the pages of DO PLANTS REASON
An enterprising young lady of Mexico has made it an object of her life to solve the strange but interesting question whether plants have any reasoning power or not. She has been making a series of experiments for some time past and making the results public. The most decisive result obtained as yet has been from an experiment made with a morning glory plant. At some distance from its tendril she drove a nail in the wall, and the tendril began, she says, immediately to grow toward the nail. The nail was shifted, but the tendril most emphatically refused to leave its company and shifted and five times the lovesick creeper declined to give up hopes of reunion. She simply wouldn’t. At last a process of tempting was resorted to by hanging up a cord at an equal distance, to which the tendril shifted its course, leaving the nail from which it had been found so difficult to separate it. “How did the plant know that the nail was there?” asks the naturalist. |
The king should study the mental makeup of the commander of his armies. If he is a man easily swayed by rumours, he must be kept busy so that he has no opportunity to be distracted by rumours. — The Mahabharata Joy increases as you give it, and diminishes as you try to keep it for yourself. In giving it, you will accumulate a deposit of joy greater than you ever believed possible. — Book of quotations on Happiness The man who understands the significance of the Bull (as told in the fables) carrying the weight the whole world as righteousness, supported by patience and harmony is a true man. — Guru Nanak Ten Perfections (paramis); Generosity (dana); Morality (Sila); Renunciation (nekkhamma); Wisdom (panna); Energy (viriya); Patience (khanti); Truthfulness (sacca); Resolution (adhitthana); Loving-Kindness (metta); Equanimity (upekkha) —The Buddha You ask me again and again why you cannot see the Omnipresent. Tell me, sitting here can you see your brother who lives in another town? Then how do you expect your eyes to transverse the distance to the Omnipresent. — Book of quotations on Hinduism A King is not determined by the parentage alone. He must prove his skill and prowess to win the respect of his people. The king must be well skilled and well versed in the art of leadership. — The Mahabharata
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