 |
|
PM applies balm |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
In a violent mode Need to be tough with ULFA The United Liberation Front of Asom is once again showing that it has no compunctions using extreme violence as a negotiating instrument. It is a matter of regret that despite warnings, as many as 17 explosions since August 6 targeting oil pipelines, a gas grid, railways stations, power transformers, security installations and even a bus stop could not be prevented.
Iran under scanner
Doubts over N-deal
Mahatma’s spirit
Human
Rights Diary Big oil firms make
big money Delhi
Durbar
From the pages of
|
|
In a violent mode The
United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) is once again showing that it has no compunctions using extreme violence as a negotiating instrument. It is a matter of regret that despite warnings, as many as 17 explosions since August 6 targeting oil pipelines, a gas grid, railways stations, power transformers, security installations and even a bus stop could not be prevented. Five people are dead, the police are on tenterhooks, and worse is feared with last year’s ID parade blast fresh in the memory. ULFA’s stated reason for stepping up violence is the “delay” in the Centre’s initiation of peace talks. ULFA Chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa had brazenly warned of an intensification of the “armed struggle.” The Centre had sought a formal reply from ULFA to its offer of talks, but when ULFA finally responded, it demanded that the “core issue of sovereignty” be discussed and that several of its leaders be released from jail. In the meantime, there was no let-up in attacks. It was just a couple of months ago that the North-East Council had optimistically declared that the prospects for peace in the region were high. ULFA’s counterpart, the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB), had then signed a comprehensive ceasefire agreement. A few weeks on, ULFA is indulging in unbridled violence, the Supreme Court’s repeal of the Illegal Migrants Act has again brought the foreigners issue to the forefront, the Naga talks have yielded only a six-month ceasefire and Manipur is reeling under internecine strife. Clearly, there is no coherent North-East policy, which is mandatory if one has to deal with dangerous groups repeatedly talking about “sovereignty” and freely resorting to violence. New Delhi should be bold enough to make its intentions known, and decisive action should follow a clearly articulated policy. In the absence of both, peace prospects in the North-East are in serious danger of unravelling before our eyes. |
|
Iran under scanner Despite
the American threat to take the matter to the UN Security Council, Iran has reportedly resumed uranium enrichment operations at one of its nuclear energy plants near Isfahan. Teheran has removed the seals placed by the International Atomic Energy Agency, but what it has started doing cannot be described as indulging in “dangerous activities” because of the uranium enrichment now being at the preliminary stage (UF4). Its more sensitive units that produce uranium called UF6 —- which can be used for bomb making after a little more enrichment —- remain sealed. That is why the Isfahan development can be interpreted as another bargaining tactic. But it has definitely unnerved the world community. Iran argues that it has held discussions over its nuclear facilities with the European Union (which means Britain, Germany and France) for months together but nothing concrete has come out so far. It can no longer keep its nuclear plants closed, but the negotiations, it says, can continue. The talks with the EU-three have failed to produce the desired result because, perhaps, Iran does not find their offer —- to buy enrichment uranium from European suppliers, etc —- satisfactory enough. Hence its insistence that it must be allowed to exercise its right to produce enriched uranium, which is not of weapons grade, as a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Iran faces the threat of what it calls its peaceful nuclear programme being referred to the Security Council, which may lead to crippling economic and other sanctions. Yet it is not as much perturbed as it ought to have been because of the Russian and Chinese stand that the Iranian crisis does not warrant UN sanctions. These two of the Big Five have hinted at using the veto power to prevent such an eventuality. Russia and China have their massive economic interests to protect in Iran. The Iranian knot is, therefore, too difficult to untie. But the situation is definitely becoming trickier than before. |
|
Opportunities look for you when you are worth finding. — North American proverb
|
Doubts over N-deal FIERCE controversy over the Indo-US nuclear deal, signed by the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, and the US President, Mr George W. Bush, has had an invaluable outcome. Both Parliament and the people have discussed it threadbare. Indeed, not for a long time has any policy of the government been put under the scanner so thoroughly as on this occasion. The nuclear doctrine, brought into force five years ago, has never been debated by Parliament. At times the debates in Parliament, on TV, in the print media and at numerous gatherings of the strategic community did look like a classic example of the dialogue of the deaf. But they have served the useful purpose of giving the good Doctor leading the United Progressive Alliance government ample opportunities to answer point by point every single objection, doubt or misgiving about the nuclear deal, including those articulated in the Lok Sabha by the former Prime Minister, Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The Prime Minister is no orator. But he speaks lucidly and his sincerity about whatever he says is so manifest that he usually carries conviction. Interestingly, there were some doubts and concerns also among the Congress leaders, including at least once senior Union Minister, Dr Singh and his colleagues — the Foreign Minister, Mr Natwar Singh, in particular — took care of these, persuasively and privately. Even CPM General Secretary Prakash Karat’s statement, to the effect that his party still had “some reservations” about the July 18 joint statement, has to be viewed in the context of the most respected Marxist leader, Mr Jyoti Basu’s earlier observation that what Dr Singh had agreed to was “broadly all right”. Mr Basu had spoken to the media, it must be underlined, after a long meeting of the CPM politburo. In any case, regardless of the heat and dust and rhetorical excesses of parliamentary and non-parliamentary discussions, three overall conclusions are inescapable. Let me take them up in the reverse order of importance. First, the quality of the debate has not been very high and, at times, there has been a shocking display of ignorance of nuclear affairs even on the part of those speaking on the subject with great vehemence. To give only one instance, a usually sensible Left Front MP, in the course of a noisy TV debate, made the astounding statement that the production of nuclear weapons by this country was “illegal” because the Atomic Energy Commission Act did not authorise this. Someone should tell this innocent soul that every country has a sovereign right to produce all the weapons it needs for its defence, and this requires no legislation. Far more disturbing than the MP’s faux pas was the contribution of Mr Brajesh Mishra, Principal Secretary and National Security Adviser to the Prime Minister during the Vajpayee years. This distinguished civil servant should have known better than to state blandly that “weaponisation” of the nuclear programme was “authorised” by Rajiv Gandhi. He was obviously implying that the BJP had nothing to do with the production of nuclear weapons though it was only too happy to test them 54 days after coming to power, and claim all the credit for making India a nuclear weapon power. This leads one to the second point — that in all its presentations the BJP has been long on partisanship and woefully short on fairness. Till today the saffron camp has not come clean about what the Vajpayee government was prepared to concede during the marathon talks between the then US Deputy Secretary of State, Mr Strobe Talbott, and the then Foreign Minister, Mr Jaswant Singh. Mercifully, Mr Talbott has published all the details of the secret discussions in his book, “Engaging India: Diplomacy, Democracy and the Bomb”. These, coupled with whatever little the Congress party has disclosed in response to the BJP’s barbs, show clearly that the Vajpayee government was willing to concede to the US a lot more than what Dr Manmohan Singh has done. This, incidentally, includes an agreement to put “some nuclear power reactors” under IAEA safeguards in return for nuclear fuel for Tarapur alone. The present deal envisages the supply of enriched uranium for not only Tarapur but also for all those reactors, present and future, that India, at its own discretion, chooses to place under safeguards. Surely, what was sauce for the BJP goose ought to be sauce also for the Congress gander. A major point of dispute that lingers is whether putting power reactors under IAEA safeguards would practically “cap” our credible minimum deterrent. Some critics even add that India’s peaceful and weapons programmes are so inextricably integrated that it would be “impossible” to separate them. I have no technical competence to pronounce on these issues. But were the critics accurate, would the father of the Indian bomb, the late and great Raja Ramanna, have advocated, year after year, that our power reactors should be put under safeguards to break out of “nuclear apartheid”? Would Dr Manmohan Singh and the Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, Dr Anil Kakodkar, knowingly sign on anything that would even remotely impinge on our nuclear autonomy? And this brings us to the third and most important conclusion: the time for debate is over; that for action has come. The Washington agreement — that is far wider than the mere nuclear deal on which all concerned have concentrated — has now to be implemented as speedily as possible. Doubtless, the first step has to be taken by the US. President Bush has to persuade the American Congress to agree to suitable adjustments in the relevant laws to accommodate “full nuclear energy cooperation with India”. Some of the agreement’s critics here have gleefully predicted that Mr. Bush would not be able to carry the Congress with him. Assuming that this is correct, it cannot be the end of the matter. For, the July 18 deal also requires the US President to persuade his allies in the Nuclear Suppliers Group to relax its existing rules in India’s favour. Two leading NSG members, France and Russia, are anxious to sell this country reactors, technology and fuel for nuclear power stations. None of them has national laws standing in the way of this cooperation, which would be possible, however, only after the NSG rules have been amended with American cooperation and encouragement. Without the NSG’s nod even a friendly country like Niger would not give us natural uranium of which this country is very
short.
|
Mahatma’s spirit
When
the plane landed at Kampala, President Musaveni and his charming wife were waiting to receive us. The friendly couple not only treated us as their special guests, they took pains to accompany us throughout the stay. Starting the day with a long drive to Jinja, where the river Nile emerges from the vast Victoria Lake, they showed us the point where Gandhiji’s ashes, brought by Inder Singh Gill, were immersed in 1948. Close by, on the other side, Gandhiji’s bust which had been installed there by the prosperous business community adorned the place. When my husband unveiled it in the presence of public gathered there, his emotional remarks were quite touching: “The eternal Nile and eternal Gandhian impact and philosophy are inseparable”. The Government of Uganda extended a heart-warming gesture of friendship by issuing a special postage stamp on Gandhiji. The Prime Minister from Gandhiji’s land could not have expected anything better. In Pretoria my husband unveiled the bust of Nehruji in the presence of an impressive gathering of diplomats and some leaders of the Indian community. Driving back straight to Johannesburg’s Fort we saw the narrow dungeon- like cell where Gandhiji was incarcerated twice in 1908 and 1910. In the same cell, Mandela was subsequently incarcerated. Our Ambassador narrated the most barbaric episode about the rulers’ inhumane treatment. Mahatmaji was made to walk from the railway station to this Fort. On proceeding to historic Tolstoy Farm where Gandhiji shifted the headquarters of his weekly Journal ‘Indian Opinion’, his own residence and of his Ashram mates from Phoenix Farm, we found it emotionally upsetting that it was now completed desolated. Next day was the most memorable day of our journey. The signing of the agreement at Mandela’s office, a landmark in the history of our bilateral relations, elevated the spirit of all delegates. Reaching Durban we fully realised the cunning tactics of the apartheid rulers. To create a breach between the intelligent enterprising Indians settled there and locals in that Zulu province, they set up a university exclusively for Indians. They could not visualise that the lean-looking suave barrister Mohan Gandhi could perform a miracle! “Phoenix Farm” was now in a shambles. No trace of the Ashram building. Only a few squatters occupied the place. On behalf of India, the Prime Minister presented them a cheque for $100000 to reconstruct and set up a permanent exhibition of Gandhi era along with a vocational training centre for all age groups. Later, when we visited the university built for Indians, it was announced to set up a Gandhian chair, there. Next day after a successful formal meeting with the envoys of 10 countries, the P.M. suggested that we should drive straightaway to the Petermartizbue Railway Station where Gandhiji was thrown out of the “White Only” compartment in 1894. A plaque on the entrance gave a brief introduction of the incident. In a corner of the wall we noticed a long poem eulogising the great man. The Mayor presented us a replica of medallion posthumously awarded to Gandhiji. In the evening back to Durban after a 60-mile drive, we spent some time with the leading members of the Indian community and then participated in the dinner hosted by Ambassador Gopalkrishna Gandhi. He and his wife had endeared themselves to the people of all communities and all walks of life. Ambassador’s cousin, Mani Lal’s daughter settled there, seemed equally popular. This made our trip all the more educative. We came back home seeped in the fragrance of Gandhiji, loaded with love and goodwill. |
Human Rights Diary This
is a story of 15-year-old tribal girl, Anita, who is abducted from the comforts of her home at Chindwara in Madhya Pradesh and taken to the rigours of U.P. The modus operandi is familiar. A group of men and women, hailing from the neighbouring district of Narasinghpur in Madhya Pradesh, lures Anita to wear fancy clothes and get her photographed for display. Five months later, she is sold at Agra for marriage. The family to which she goes is apparently embarrassed because of the age difference. However, it defends itself on the ground that the husband is giving “a good life to a poor girl”. The case would have remained unnoticed as many others have. But this one catches the attention of Mercy Mathew, popularly known as Daya Bai (Lady of Mercy), who has been working in the tribal belt of Madhya Pradesh for years. She takes the initiative to inform the police whose reputation is not to find abducted girls. Only a few months ago did the police reach a dead end when it could not trace a minor girl, Chottibai, who was kidnapped by her close relation on the pretext of taking her on a pilgrimage. Yet another case is that of Buribai, another 15-year-old tribal girl. A man much older than her kidnapped her. The police did not entertain the FIR even when the parents personally went to the thana. Also, a man of social strata took one tribal girl who does not want to reveal her name. She is back with her parents but does not want to file her complaint with the police. Abduction of minor girls from the tribal regions of India is increasing steadily. Touts are picking up gullible girls, buying some and kidnapping some. The police is conniving at their activity because many in the force are getting a regular payment. There is no dearth of laws but there is dearth of action. Anita’s case has woken up many parents whose girls are missing. But the authorities are far from bothered. There is a nexus of policemen, bureaucrats and politicians. Only a few persons like Daya Bai speak out. I met her the other day at a press conference in Delhi. I seldom go to a press conference because that phase of my journalism is over. But her good work took me to the conference. She looks every inch a tribal woman. She has a master’s degree in social sciences and recently did a correspondence course in law. I think what she wanted to achieve from the press conference was some attention to what is happening to tribal girls. But journalists did not wake up from their slumber of ignorance. This was clear from the coverage in the Press. Only one paper had reported the press conference. Our problem is that we are impressed by big names, not by dedicated workers. Hundreds of human rights activists are working in different fields, but there is hardly a word about them in the Press. If Daya Bai was ignored, it was not surprising. Nandita Das, whose commitment to human rights, pluralism and such other values is unfaltering, has told me about the background of Daya Bai. She has sacrificed all to work in the tribal areas. At the press conference she mentioned what she was doing: “It is horrifying for the villagers of the region to know that people can take away their girls (who are minors) to far off cities and then sell them. It was unheard of. “Only now they have started getting to know that girls are brainwashed, hypnotised and made unconscious and then kidnapped. The adolescent girls are often threatened to keep their mouth shut and forced to tell a lie in front of the police, if at all the case reaches that far.” The girls are sometimes shown blue films, drugged and gradually prepared for prostitution. These heinous cases of child abuse have to be opposed in clear terms. She has taken up the work of tracing their young girls. Nandita describes a visit to Daya Bai’s house thus: “I went to her village last year. Her mud house was cool and welcoming under the hot summer sun. I spent a week with her and her extended family of chickens, cows, some cats, a little pony and her dog called Athos.” “To my surprise, she talks to them about everything and they seem to understand it all and respond with all their affection. Her possessions apart from basic knick-knacks of a minimalist, are a bright red solar cooker, a self-made compose pit for biogas and a small well. She has a small farm where she grows wheat, pulses and a couple of vegetables that seem to grow happily. One day I even heard her talk to her tomatoes!”. 50 million disable? The National Human Rights Commission has told us through a manual that India is home to the largest number of persons with disability in the world. The 2001 census of the country estimated their number at 22 million. However, according to many observers, the actual number of Indians with temporary and permanent disability could be as high as 50 million. Although the Constitution of India guarantees persons with disabilities the full range of civil, political, economic, cultural and social rights, the arrangements necessary to translate the constitutional guarantees into reality have been conspicuously absent. I was a member of the parliamentary committee appointed to get the disabled their due. The private sector apart, the public sector was guilty of not paying any attention to the constitutional guarantees. What was shocking was the attitude towards persons with disability. There was an element of pity and blatant discrimination. We did submit some reports to the government but there was no improvement. However, at the suggestion of one member, we associated trade unions with the work to get the disabled decent jobs and humane behaviour. This worked. I am aghast that society’s attitude towards the poor also suffers from the same sense of discrimination as is towards the disabled. This is a subject for a full article.
|
|
Big oil firms make big money When
oil prices spiked — and oil profits soared — 26 years ago, virtually every newspaper intern in America (including me) was dispatched to gasoline stations to collect quotes from irate motorists. Big Oil was viewed as public enemy number one: Congress convened hearings to skewer oil industry execs, regulatory agencies investigated pricing, and some news organizations rented helicopters to scour the waters (in vain) for signs of oil tankers floating offshore just waiting for prices to climb higher. In recent months, oil company profits have soared again as international crude oil prices hit new highs. Yet public reaction has been more muted. And that has probably emboldened Congress — which, instead of investigating oil companies, just handed them (by various estimates) anywhere from $1.4 billion to $4 billion in tax breaks in the new energy bill. Isn’t there something wrong when firms profit so richly from the misfortune of the U.S. economy and American consumers? There’s no question that the drain on the average American’s pocketbook has been a gusher for the big oil companies. Just look at the financial statements issued at the end of July. Exxon Mobil Corp.’s second quarter earnings climbed 35 percent from the second quarter of 2004 (after excluding special items) to $7.64 billion. BP PLC, the world’s second-largest publicly traded oil company, said its net income increased 29 percent, to $5.59 billion. At Royal Dutch Shell PLC, second-quarter profits rose 34 percent to $5.24 billion. ConocoPhillips, the third-largest U.S. oil company, reported an eye-popping 51 percent jump in earnings, to $3.14 billion. What’s behind those numbers? When oil prices rise, petroleum companies that have long-term contracts or own oil reserves get a huge windfall. After all, they may have invested and developed those oil fields when prices were anywhere from $10 to $25 a barrel. Suddenly prices spurt upward and the companies are awash in profits. Prices for North Sea Brent crude oil averaged $51.63 a barrel in the second quarter of this year, 46 percent more than the $35.32-a-barrel average a year earlier, BP told investors last month. In the United States, crude oil prices have been running about five times as high as 1998 levels, according to Energy Department statistics. OK, but what about the companies that refine crude oil and market gasoline? If their raw material (oil) costs more, shouldn’t that squeeze their earnings? That’s often the case, but not this year. Americans haven’t really altered their driving habits, and that has made it easier for firms to raise pump prices for consumers without worrying about losing business. Exxon Mobil’s second-quarter earnings show how these dynamics work. More than half of the company’s profit surge came from bigger earnings on the 2.5 million barrels a day of oil and 8.7 billion cubic feet of natural gas that Exxon Mobil produces itself, the so-called upstream earnings. More surprising was Exxon Mobil’s ability to pass along those increases to consumers. Exxon Mobil (like other oil companies) was actually able to boost margins for what the industry calls “downstream’’ operations of retailing and refining. Profits in those operations, after excluding a special charge for the settlement of a lawsuit, were $2.2 billion, up 47 percent from 2004, even though the amount of petroleum products the company sold rose less than 3 percent. — LA Times-Washington Post |
|
Delhi Durbar It
is probably for the first time that an Indian lawyer of the Supreme Court has filed a petition with the Lahore bench of the Supreme Court of Pakistan. The co-petitioner is the Chairman of the Pakistan chapter of the World Punjabi Organisation Fakhar Zaman. The issue raised by Ms Sood pertains to a Lahore High Court judgement delivered in 1924 during the British Raj that Punjabis are liars as they also name their enemies in their dying declaration. Ms Sood and Mr Zaman have prayed in the petition that this highly demeaning and defamatory observation be expunged. Former Prime Minister Shujaat Hussain of the ruling PML and several other prominent Punjabis, including the Governor and the Chief Minister of Punjab in the neighbouring country have offered to take the issue with Ms Sood to the International Court of Justice and the United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva. Giving this information, the protocol officer to the Chief Minister of Punjab in Pakistan, Agha Imran Ali Khan, notes that Ms Sood has also written a letter to the President of Pakistan Gen Pervez Musharraf, in this regard. Nepal’s terms for support Indo-Nepal ties are, once again, facing turbulence, thanks to King Gyanendra reneging on the Himalayan Kingdom’s support to India’s determined bid for a seat in the United Nations Security Council. Nepal had earlier committed its support to India. Now the King of Nepal has put conditions. Sources aver Kathmandu now wants India to supply arms to Nepal for its vote. Nepal wants India’s support for its own candidature in the UNSC in the non-permanent category. New Delhi is unlikely to oblige the King on arms supplies as there is no discernible movement on the restoration of democracy. Married to Sikh women The Union Cabinet, which approved the Action Taken Report (ATR), had three men who have Sikh wives: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh himself, Petroleum Minister Manishankar Aiyer and Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister Ramvilas Paswan. The question being asked in the corridors of Parliament is: how did they take the UPA government’s ATR on the Nanavati Commission report? Maruti staff for Mumbai The Maruti-Suzuki factory in adjacent Gurgaon has rushed no fewer than 80 engineers to Mumbai to repair and put back on the road various models of Maruti-Suzuki cars rendered immobile by the raging flood waters in the western metropolis. A large number of cars had remained submerged in six to eight feet of water for several days. There was an SOS from Mumbai and the Maruti-Suzuki management despatched the engineers. Contributed by Prashant Sood, Rajiv Sharma and Gaurav Choudhury. |
|
From the pages of The Khaki fashion
It is not only every dog that has his day: every word, it seems, also has its day. Who could have ever imagined that the humble Persian adjective “Khaki” — dusty, dust-coloured, of the dust — would one day become the watchword of New Imperialism? The present General Election is said to be proceeding on Khaki lines. It is on the strength of their Khaki policy that the present coalition Ministry rightly count on returning to power with an overwhelming majority. It is for their lack of the proper Khaki spirit that veterans of the Gladstonian School are regarded as Khaki-robes (outcastes), and termed Little Englanders, by the majority of the English. It is for his masterly manipulation of the new born Khaki element in politics, and for his skill in giving everything a Khaki hue, that Mr Joseph Chamberlain is worshipped as the avtar of British Imperialism. No British politician, be he a Liberal or Conservative, or of any shade between the two, unless he would bend his knee to the Khaki God, has any chance of obtaining a hearing in England to-day. |
Life isn’t supposed to be an all or nothing battle between misery and bliss. And when it comes to happiness, well, sometimes life is just okay, sometimes it’s comfortable, sometimes unpleasant. When your day’s not perfect, it’s not a failure or a terrible loss. It’s just another day. — Book of quotations on Happiness It is better to be a failure at something you love, than to be a success at something you hate. — Book of quotations of Success |
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Mailbag | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
