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Island of discord Terror in Bangalore |
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Plug the loopholes
India's year of shame
Generous
borrowers
Metro on the fast track India, Pak
nukes a serious threat Delhi
Durbar
From the pages of
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Island of discord The Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse urging New Delhi to take a more upfront role in the peace process should be understood for what it implies: An acknowledgement that no solution to the Tamil-Sinhala ethnic conflict would be implementable without India’s support. This is a political reality, and reiteration of any plea premised on this does not mean that New Delhi is expected to involve itself in reviving the peace process. Regardless of the present excellent relations between India and Sri Lanka and the need for a shared view of carrying the peace process forward, there is nothing to warrant a shift in New Delhi’s position. The Indian stand has been that the conflict must be resolved in a way that recognises and respects the aspirations of the Tamil minority without diluting the sovereignty and integrity of Sri Lanka. In keeping with this position, New Delhi has consistently sought to prevail on the Government of Sri Lanka to walk the extra mile in negotiations; and, at the same time, making it unmistakably clear that the LTTE”s terrorism and armed struggle will not be countenanced. The LTTE is a designated terrorist organisation and its chief V. Prabhakaran is wanted in India for the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. Besides, there is no love lost between New Delhi and the LTTE. Therefore, it is obvious that New Delhi cannot be part of any process that involves any negotiation with the LTTE; not even as a co-chairman, along with the U.S., the E.U., Norway and Japan, of the conference to support the peace process. The solution to the conflict has to be found within Sri Lanka, and one pre-requisite is a consensus among the Sinhala majority, which Mr Rajapakse is striving for. The other, equally important pre-requisite, is the willingness of the LTTE to give up its demand and armed struggle for a separate state. The LTTE’s continued intransigence on this score is what has wrecked peace initiatives so far. It can wreck it again. |
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Terror in Bangalore The terrorist attack at Bangalore on Wednesday indicates that the symbols of India’s economic growth remain high on the target list of the enemies of the nation. Bangalore, the IT capital of India, where some sensitive defence establishments are also located, had been in the news for quite some time as one of the possible targets of terrorists. The annual convention of the Operation Research Society of India at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) provided them an ideal opportunity to strike when a large number of the country’s best brains were there along with 36 foreign delegates. It could have been worse than what happened, resulting in the death of a professor emeritus of the IIT, Delhi, M. C. Puri. The horrifying incident appears to be a clear case of security lapse. Neither the Centre nor the state government can deny that they did not really realise that, after Delhi and Mumbai, Bangalore could be the next in the terrorists’ scheme of things. Security agencies have confirmed that they had warned the officials concerned about the possibility of anything like what occurred at the IISc. Not only that. The police in Jammu and Kashmir had unearthed a Lashkar-e-Toiba network which had made a study of the IISc and the IITs to implement its unholy designs. Hyderabad too was visited by Lashkar-linked terrorists. Then why was not effective security arrangement made at the IISc? To say that no specific input was available about this premier centre of scientific learning is no excuse. Reports have it that there are no dependable security arrangements in Bangalore, which has at least 1500 high-tech multinational companies, besides India’s software giants like Infosys and Wipro. This is a cause for concern. The nation cannot afford to be lax in providing foolproof security at its prestigious centres of learning and research like the IITs and the IIMs. Those associated with these institutions are highly valuable assets of the country. We have to think beyond providing security cover to ministers, bureaucrats and police officers. No information regarding possible terrorist strikes should be taken lightly. There is urgent need for launching a fresh drive to destroy terrorist networks. |
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Plug the loopholes Reports of large-scale irregularities in the distribution of voters’ photo identity cards in West Bengal are cause for serious concern. One cannot question the authenticity of these charges because these have been brought out by the special team of the Election Commission. The commission has promptly directed the West Bengal Chief Electoral Officer to probe the matter further and fix accountability on all those involved in the distribution of the cards. It has fixed January 5 as the deadline for compliance of its directive. The commission is bound to feel disturbed over the issue because it would be very difficult for it to hold free and fair elections in West Bengal if the identity cards are not accurate. The state is due for elections in June next. Why, then, do the government officials rush through the distribution of 92 per cent of the identity cards? Where was the need for violating the commission’s guidelines on this and hurrying up things? According to the findings of the EC team, these cards were distributed in bulk to some people and not to individual voters after due verification, in accordance with the guidelines. The commission also has problems with the way disputes over electoral rolls are being settled in the state. Why can the state not exercise special care while accepting or rejecting a claim for inclusion or deletion of names in the electoral rolls? While conducting elections in Bihar, the commission got a free hand because the state was under President’s rule. Moreover, as law and order was the main problem, the commission deployed adequate paramilitary personnel there and kept a tight rein on the criminals. But West Bengal is a complex state and the Election Commission needs to be extra vigilant to ensure free and fair elections in the state. Unfortunately, the commission is facing problems because of the state government’s opposition to its plans like deletion from the voters’ list of the names of those against whom non-bailable warrants of arrest have been pending for the last six months. In the interest of parliamentary democracy, the state government must heed the commission’s directives and extend all cooperation to it in holding free and fair elections. |
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Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
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India's year of shame
AS the first anniversary of the tsunami trauma reminds us, the year now mercifully drawing to a close had begun with a monumentally destructive disaster. Others followed, most notably the earthquake, far more catastrophic in Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (POK) than in our own Jammu and Kashmir state.
A More recently, Chennai and other parts of Tamil Nadu were almost literally drowned by the downpour. Cold wave is currently killing the ill-clad, ill-fed poor in the North. Even in the midst of these dire tragedies, there were some bright spots, of course. This country’s armed forces won international acclaim by brilliantly combating the havoc wrought by the tsunami, not just along India’s shattered shores but also in the devastated neighbouring lands. Unfortunately, rehabilitation of the tsunami sufferers didn’t match the speedy relief to them. Roughly, the same holds true for the Kashmir earthquake. The duly elected state government in Srinagar, with all the necessary help from the Centre, had done better in providing succour to the hungry and the homeless than the military regime in Pakistan where the Army continues to be under attack for its failures. Yet, on both sides of the divide these days, the poor in remote areas are freezing under inadequate shelter in Arctic-like weather conditions. A major plus point during the year surely was that, under the able stewardship of Dr. Manmohan Singh, the deservedly derided Hindu rate of growth has become history. With the GDP rising at the rate of more than 7 per cent during 2005, and expected to rise further, India’s is now among the fastest growing economies. But, while more than 250 million-strong upper crust is neck deep in an unending orgy of conspicuous consumption, as many as 350 million cannot be sure of even getting two meals a day. The end of the 15-year Lalu-Rabri rule in Bihar, thanks to the Election Commission’s laudable success in holding free and fair elections, is also something to celebrate. But, sadly, such plus points have been overshadowed completely by the disgraceful manner in which this country is ending the year, and which ought to make us all, a billion plus Indians, hang our heads in shame. Man’s villainy, I had ventured to say on this page only some weeks ago, can be much worse than nature’s fury. But I had failed to anticipate the abysmal level to which things could degenerate. During the first 57 years since Independence, only one member of the Lok Sabha was found to be accepting money to raise questions in Parliament. He had the decency to resign on his own as soon as his misconduct began to be discussed in the House. In the 58th year, as many as 11 MPs have been caught on camera, as a result of a sting operation by an enterprising TV channel, accepting wads of currency notes in exchange of duly signed but otherwise blank forms for tabling questions. What followed was as brazen as it was disgusting. However, before discussing it, let the backdrop to it be delineated very briefly. Corruption, let it be said even at the risk of sounding repetitive, has been an integral part of India’s life at least since the times of Kautilya who had enumerated 40 different ways in which the king’s minions were “bound to cheat him of the revenue due to him”. By now, the scourge has become a galloping cancer without cure. Months before the “MPs’ Eleven” was exposed there had been the infamous case of diversion of huge sums of money from the flood relief fund in Bihar. Among those arrested for this prodigious embezzlement is an IAS officer then considered as a bureaucratic icon and a relative or close associate of the Chief Minister during the relevant period. The spotlight was thus turned on the foundations on which the entire Indian system rests. Criminals and crooks are powerful enough to “eliminate” those who dare to blow the whistle. And look at two other revealing coincidences. First, while the recipients of cash for questions were being meted out their just deserts, Delhi’s MLAs, belonging to both the Congress and the BJP, were protesting loudly against the High Court-ordered demolitions of illegal mansions and malls in the nation’s capital. Why? Because most of them are guilty of owning illegal homes and shops. Secondly, while the outrage over the cash-for-questions was on, a second sting operation revealed that a lot of MPs — again cutting across party lines — were pocketing heavy “commissions” on the award of contracts from the funds the Indian State gives each of them for “local areas’ development”! Obviously, those elected to make laws believe that they themselves are above the law and should be. Many of them, especially those caught red-handed, also think they can insult the intelligence of their countrymen. Only cretins could have expected to be believed when the claimed claiming that there was a conspiracy to “trap” and “frame” them — honest, innocent servants of the people. This was followed by demands that those who had conducted the sting operation must be investigated because their motives were ulterior. Exactly the same thing had happened after the explosive Tehelka expose in Atalji’s time. Unfortunately for the moneymaking MPs, the bulk of their colleagues took a different and proper view of their sleaze. The Rajya Sabha quickly kicked out the solitary member of the Upper House involved in the scandal. Its chairman, Mr Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, its Ethics Committee and the BJP leader, Mr Jaswant Singh, were agreed on punishing the corrupt. Against this backdrop it was shocking beyond belief that, in the Lok Sabha, the BJP took a crass and craven position, obviously to protect the wrongdoers in its ranks whose number was as high as five, including three parcharaks of the high-minded RSS. Nothing better could be expected from the likes of Mr V. K. Malhotra. But surely Mr L. K. Advani ought to have refrained from making statements that were shameful. According to him, the penalty of expulsion from the House was disproportionate to the crime of those arraigned. He then took recourse to the ridiculous argument that the money-grubbers were guilty of “stupidity”, not of venality. Were they stupid because they violated the eleventh commandment, “Thou shalt not be caught”? Mr Advani’s not exactly voluntary exit from his party’s presidency was settled long ago. As the New Year dawns, he would have plenty of time to ponder the legacy he is leaving
behind.
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Generous borrowers
I was at Mahendra College, Patiala, in the late 50s for my post-graduation in English literature. A frequent caller at my hostel room was a contemporary who had self-styled himself Prince. On one occasion, he came hotfoot and panting. After narrating a fanciful tale, he asked for a loan. I dragged my feet to the cupboard and obliged. If he was liberal in borrowing money, he was even more so in throwing it away. I often berated him on this count. He brushed me off: “Once you give me the money, it no longer belongs to you. It’s mine.” I kept my counsel, fearing argument might make him not return the loan. Wishful thinking. Once, I ran into him at “Green” and found him in high spirits. The way the waiter saluted him, after presenting the bill; I sensed Prince had heavily tipped him. Next day, I asked him the reason. He chuckled, “I tossed a tenner to the waiter after borrowing from my companion of the evening.” I was reminded of poet and novelist, Oliver Goldsmith, who loved to squander money. Once, the only money he had, earned by way of tuition, was thrown away in buying a horse! Very logical. Horse comes before the cart! When Boswell threw a dinner for Dr Johnson, Goldsmith borrowed a flashy suit from a tailor for the occasion. He was honest, sincere and frank. He confessed that he borrowed money from every place he had visited. Was a borrower ever trusted so much? Borrowers devise deft ways to sponge money. Readers may recall their own experience of spongers whom they shun meeting for this reason. I recall one who I had dubbed lord of loan. If I got a one-line, marked “urgent” postcard from him, it would cost me a hundred rupees. If he came calling, it would cost me five hundred. I preferred his
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Metro on the fast track The New Delhi metro has set the benchmarks for the successful handling of a
complex mega-project, without time and cost-overruns, and has become a model for other such projects in the country. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will today dedicate the Rs 3,000 crore Line-3 to the nation by flagging off the metro from Rajiv Chowk station on its 22.8 km journey towards Dwarka. It will take just 41 minutes to pass through 22 stations in some extremely crowded commercial and residential areas like Karol Bagh, Rajouri Garden and Janak Puri. For those who have not traveled abroad, or ever hope to do so, Delhi Metro means one regret less in life. With clean, modern stations, coaches, escalators, on-the-dot punctuality and other infrastructure, the Delhi metro has brought the Capital on par with cities like Hong Kong, Paris, London, Singapore and New York. As Line-3 of the Phase-I gets commissioned, several busy roads will become decongested and the average speed of vehicular traffic increase. Together with transport infrastructure like flyovers and other modes of mass transport like monorail, it is expected that by the Commonwealth Games in 2010, when Phase-II of the Metro also gets completed, 2,500 buses and thousands of small private vehicles will go off the roads. By the end of 2020, 22 lakh people will use metro services everyday. This longest line of the Phase-1 has many unique features. It will travel both underground as well as above ground and has been built completely with indigenous expertise, including quality and safety control. Only the viaduct designs have been provided by SYSTRA. The Barakhamba station is the first underground station to be built by an Indian contractor and this is the first Metro line in the country to use steel bridges – as many as six with the highest being at Raja Garden, All coaches for Line 3 have been manufactured by Bangalore-based Bharat Earth Movers Limited. The stretch has been completed in a record time of 30 months and with the commissioning of this line, the majority of Phase-1 gets completed three years ahead of schedule. Now only the 2.81-km stretch between Barakhamba and
Indraprastra and 6.5-km extension between Dwarka and Dwarka sub-city have to be completed by March and June 2006, respectively. Going by the way things function in this country, this is nothing short of a miracle. The Phase-1 began on October 1, 1998, and the government gave the DMRC a 10-year implementation time, with the scheduled deadline being September 30, 2008. The DMRC’s determination for proving that even difficult projects can be wrapped up in time has now assured the Centre’s assistance for introducing similar projects in other cities. The DMRC set its internal targets, reinventing the entire meaning of work culture followed by government institutions. The Delhi metro’s is an example now being emulated by other cities. Even at the risk of this article reading like an ode sung in praise of DMRC Managing Director
E. Sreedharan, it is not possible to write about Delhi Metro without highlighting contributions made by this former civil engineer of Indian Railways, without whom the Delhi metro would not have taken its present successful shape. Dr Sreedharan treated the metro project like a challenge, defying an impossible-looking deadline and strong adversities like red-tapism, financial, technical and countless other difficulties, a fact acknowledged by all political leaders. These days Dr Sreedharan is mostly out of Delhi on weekends, supervising work on metros in other cities. Interestingly, Dr Sreedharan was all set to pack his bags this year and had even urged the Delhi Government to relieve him of his charge when his tenure ended two months back. In an interface with The Tribune earlier this year, he said, “I am 73 years old and now want some peace and quiet”. Obviously the government didn’t think so and extended his contract till 2008; by which time the Phase-II will safely be on its way. Today the metro is making an operational profit of Rs 6 to 7 lakh per day, which no other metro, except Honk Kong, is being able to do. The ridership on the Line 1 between Shahdara and Rithala and Line 2 between Central Secretariat and Delhi University is above three lakh per day. With line-3, more than 6.5 people are expected to use the metro daily. Behind Dr Sreedharan stands an equally dedicated and committed workforce, hand-picked by him. The Delhi metro has only 45 persons per km as per international standards, which is less than metros of Hong Kong, London and other advanced countries. Our very own Indian Railways has 113 persons per km. Besides giving the country the latest railway technology, the DMRC has shown that government organizations can be run like corporate offices. What is more, it was all managed without inconveniencing residents, damage to buildings, disrupting traffic and while preserving the architectural heritage of old Delhi and the character of Lutyen’s Delhi. |
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India, Pak nukes a serious threat THE Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) is against the nuclearisation of India and Pakistan and their arsenals of weapons of mass destruction. Our party opposes the policies of some Western democracies in giving nuclear technology to India for civilian purposes. We fail to understand how the military side of India’s nuclear programme will be stopped from acquiring nuclear knowledge once the civilian side has the methodology? Both India and Pakistan have no command and control nuclear systems which instil confidence. Our party stands for the complete destruction of the nuclear weapons of both India and Pakistan. Both Pakistan and India have weak democratic systems, which lack institutions such as free judiciaries, rule of law, principles of natural justice, accountability and transparency. Corruption is a creed. Nuclear
technology can be purchased for a price in both countries, Pakistan and India. India has not signed the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, but developed a nuclear weapons arsenal, which does not conform to the goals of this treaty. It has also violated bilateral pledges with the US to not use US-supplied nuclear materials for weapons purposes. The Indian subcontinent is a powder keg, waiting to be lit by a spark. Would responsible Western democracies and the Nuclear Suppliers Group want to do just that and destroy the Sikh race in its entirety? How will India expose its nuclear reactors to the International Atomic Energy Agency? Or, voluntarily place its civilian nuclear facilities under IAEA safeguards? Or, sign and adhere to an Additional Protocol? Or, continue its unilateral moratorium on nuclear testing, when in the past it hasn’t? Or, work with the US to conclude the multilateral Fissile Material Cut-Off Treaty? Or, refrain from the transfer of enrichment and reprocessing technologies to States that do not have them? Or, comply with the Missile Technology Control Regime and Nuclear Suppliers Group guidelines? What will stop other nuclear weapon states from making their own deals with their favourite clients? India is amongst the poorest countries of the world. Starvation, famine and poverty are endemic. A nuclear strategist of the former Clinton administration suggests that the US Congress should modify the law to permit nuclear cooperation with states which have not signed the NPT but are “responsible nuclear powers”. I am sure one day we would have people who supervise blood banks say, “Dracula could also be engaged to guard such banks”. Napoleon said, “God marches with the biggest battalions”. Our party does not refute this wisdom but to give India nuclear technology at this juncture to do so would be the
greatest blunder. The writer is president, Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) |
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Delhi
Durbar The question doing the rounds in political circles is, who will be the country’s next External Affairs minister? A worry for the Congress is the absence of a senior Muslim leader in the Cabinet. Speculation has it that Salman Khurshid might be in the race. At the same time many believe that minister of state for External Affairs E Ahamed of the Indian Union Muslim League could be the dark horse as he is also making a strong pitch. Ahmed is credited with using his persuasive skills in getting Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah to be the chief guest at the Republic Day celebrations.
BJP worst hit in scam The BJP is extremely worried that the largest number of MPs caught in the cash for questions scam in Parliament and sent packing from both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabhahas, six in number, belong to the BJP and have sullied the party’s image. It can no longer boast that the BJP is a party with a difference and that its MPs are more principled than their counterparts in other parties. The RSS might have been quick to pounce on the BJP for deviating from its ideology but the irony is three of the six of its MPs caught in the sting operation were former RSS pracharaks. That has given some food for thought to the holier than thou RSS.
MPs unhappy with expulsion Cutting across party affiliations, most MPs are not happy with the manner in which the eleven Parliamentarians belonging to the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha were expelled in the wake of the cash for questions scandal. A bird tells us at least two senior ministers in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s cabinet felt that the MPs should not be expelled without going through the motions of natural justice. The reason primarily being that certain intelligence agencies had information that certain big fish politicians are also allegedly involved in such misdemeanors.
MEA and its missions abroad The Comptroller and Auditor General has taken exception to the Ministry of External Affairs dilly-dallying in constructing its own missions abroad. It feels that Indian diplomacy believes is being very generous to various countries at home but lacks the initiative and drive when it comes to its own embassies abroad. After Ethiopia was provided land for an embassy in New Delhi on a reciprocal basis, India was accorded encroached land in 1958 which has not been cleared till date. The same appears to be the case with Algeria which received a prime plot in Delhi but in turn offered India land in a down town area in Algiers.
Congress and Raj Thackeray The Congress is not enthusiastic about drafting into its ranks Raj Thackeray, the nephew of Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray, who has made a clean break. While former Maharashtra chief minister Narayan Rane was wooed and feted by the Congress and given audiences with party president Sonia Gandhi, Raj Thackeray has virtually been left to himself. The view is to let Raj Thackeray weaken the Sena from outside. —
Contributed by Prashant Sood, R. Suryamurthy and S. Satyanarayanan |
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From the pages of On the 31st March the Congress entered upon its new phase of existence with a new creed and a new constitution. Hereafter the declared ideal of the Congress will be the attainment of Swaraj by all peaceful and legitimate means. According to the new constitution, the District and Provincial Congress Committees will be representative bodies and their members will be elected by the city, village and the taluqa Congress Committee, or the District Congress Committee, as the case may be. This would necessarily involve a greater and wider organisation of the Province for Congress purposes, which would not have been an easy matter in case but which has become particularly difficult on account of the enforcement of the enforcement of the Seditious Meetings Act in certain important districts of the Punjab. |
The man who knows, who understands, who is self-controlled is like one who has climbed the terraced heights of wisdom and now stands at the pinnacle looking down upon the jostling, sorrowing crowds. — The Buddha The earnest person is like fire. Fire burns away everything big or small. The greatest man the smallest are equally consumed by fire. The fire of earnestness demolishes all the vanities, passions and terrors of life. — The Buddha When one leaves this life, all one’s false ties are snapped. |
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