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No quota for AMU Private containers |
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Invasion of privacy
End-game in Kashmir uncertain
A wild, wild party
News analysis Women lead fight against ‘honour killings’ Defence notes
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No quota for AMU THURSDAY’S Allahabad High Court ruling upholding the judgement of its earlier single-Judge order which had termed the minority status of Aligarh Muslim University and 50 per cent reservation to Muslims in the institution as “unconstitutional” is a setback to both the Centre and AMU. In particular, it will be unwelcome to Union Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh who has been championing the cause of reservation to Muslims in AMU. The High Court Bench comprising Chief Justice A.N. Ray and Justice Ashok Bhushan struck down the AMU (Amendment) Act 1981 which granted minority institution status to the university and said it was ultra vires of the Constitution. It purely relied on the Supreme Court ruling in Azeez Basha vs Union of India (October, 1967) which held that AMU was not an institution which was “established” and “administered” by the Muslim minority. The apex court, then, maintained that though the Central Legislature, by enacting the AMU Act, 1920, may have established AMU as a result of the Muslims’ efforts, it did not mean that AMU was established by the Muslims nor was its administration vested in the hands of the Muslims. Justice Arun Tandon of the Allahabad High Court had ruled that this order of the Supreme Court “still holds good”. The High Court has now upheld this order, maintaining that Parliament cannot legitimise an Act invalidated by the Supreme Court. Mr Arjun Singh has given enough indication of appealing to the Supreme Court against the High Court ruling when his reaction was sought on Thursday. The Centre and the AMU authorities are entitled to do so. However, nothing should be done to rake up a fresh controversy between the legislature and the judiciary. Nor should communal passions be aroused on the issue. Though Parliament is the supreme lawmaking body and has the power to enact laws or amend them, the judiciary will have to ensure that the legislation in question does not transgress the provisions of the Constitution. It is important for all political parties and sections of the people to work for creating an atmosphere where functioning of prestigious institutions like AMU can be discussed without denominational undertones.
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Private containers RAILWAY Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav has taken a bold step by permitting private players to run container services for domestic, import and export traffic. This will end the monopoly of the government-owned Container Corporation of India and one can only hope that competition will improve its efficiency. The Railway Ministry has taken care to keep off non-serious and small players by fixing the Rs 100-crore networth criterion for obtaining a licence to operate container trains. The private operators will have to arrange their own wagons, while the Railways will provide engines and drivers and retain overall control over the container business. The decision will benefit the Railways as it will get registration fee from the proposed operators. The rail routes have been divided in four categories and the registration fee for the Delhi-Mumbai route is Rs 50 crore. The permission to run container trains will be valid for 20 years, which is extendable by 10 more years. This will help the industry too. Because of inadequate infrastructure and heavy traffic, delays had become unavoidable. The private sector participation will bring in fresh investment in this sector and ease the pressure on the resources of the Railways. A growing India needs to remove infrastructural bottlenecks, wherever possible. To maintain the present growth momentum, the economy requires fast, hassle-free transportation of goods to keep the deadlines. The export-import traffic through containers in India has been growing at 15-20 per cent a year. In the next five years the growth in terms of volumes is expected to be from the present 55 million tonnes to 110 million tonnes. Though the policy to partly privatise container operations was first thought of in 1994, no Railway Minister had shown the courage to follow it up. The Railways under Mr Lalu Yadav has improved its performance and the latest decision is yet another proof of its growing confidence.
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Invasion of privacy THE exposure of telephone tapping of politicians has once again brought to the fore the larger issues of individual freedom and the right to privacy. It is abominable, though not inconceivable, that the state or any agency — official or otherwise — should be eavesdropping on telephone conversations, intercepting mail and generally playing the Big Brother in true Orwellian form. Like all indefensible acts, these are often justified in the name of public interest and security. Hence, it is heartening that such transgressions have been disapproved of at the highest level. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh himself has berated this practice, though that has not ended the controversy given the political mileage to be squeezed out of the issue. The problem is too important to be left to politicians, precisely because it is political, and the larger issues would be conveniently forgotten once short-term purposes are served. Consider, for instance, that telephone tapping is not outlawed in either Tamil Nadu or Uttar Pradesh — chief ministers of the states that have raised a hue and cry. Their defence would be that this is done at the behest of the Union Government and no state is exempt from the practice. True, but then is their objection limited to tapping of the telephones of politicians? The politicians should fight for the principle that the right to privacy of every citizen is inviolable. In a democracy rights and freedoms cannot be selective, nor for a privileged section. Sections of civil society may rail at the state for prying and peeping, but this is exactly what the media sting operations — that exposed MPs involved in the cash-for-questions scam — were about. Again, the end — exposure of corrupt politicians — was cited to justify the means. The debate should be about the principle — of the right to privacy — and what practices should be abandoned to uphold that, and not who may or may not be targeted. Technology is value-neutral but the use of technology should be guided by ethics, where restrictions are proven, and not presumed, to be in public interest.
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If your problem has a solution, then why worry about it? If your problem doesn’t have a solution, then why worry about it? — Chinese proverb
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End-game in Kashmir uncertain WITH Pakistan coming up with “bold” and provocative proposals like “self-governance” and “demilitarisation” in the entire state of Jammu and Kashmir, the main focus of negotiations during the third round of the composite dialogue between India and Pakistan is going to be on issue of Kashmir and peace and security. Although Pakistan is yet to specify the details of the proposal of self-governance and demilitarisation, India is coming under some pressure to respond to these proposals in a somewhat positive manner. Unfortunately, India’s response is likely to depend on whether it believes the Pakistani regime to be genuinely sincere in finding a middle ground to solve the Kashmir imbroglio or whether it considers Pakistan’s proposals as yet another tactic to politically and militarily weaken India’s hold over the state. But perhaps questions over the intentions of the Pakistani regime are secondary to a more fundamental issue, which is, the general direction in which any possible settlement of Kashmir is headed. As things stand, the general approach in India appears to be a desire to return to the pre-1989 situation, after which it is hoped everything will be back to normal. But the sooner Indian policy makers realise that the past is a different country and the clock simply cannot be turned back the better. By deciding to talk Kashmir with Pakistan India has acknowledged, even if tacitly, that the solution to Kashmir lies in Islamabad. If this was not the case, then no purpose will be served talking to Pakistan on Kashmir, unless of course the idea is to buy time in the fond hope that things turn around in Kashmir in a manner that makes Pakistan redundant to the issue. But the political ground reality in Jammu and Kashmir does not admit of such a possibility. So if India has to negotiate a solution with Pakistan, then it necessarily means accommodating Pakistan’s concerns, which in turn will involve some sort of a compromise on sovereignty and/or territory. But so far the Indian position is that sovereignty is non-negotiable and borders cannot be changed. Incidentally, there is some amount of confusion over what India means by the word “border”. The Line of Control in Kashmir is at best a de facto border. The actual border is that of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir. So when India says “borders cannot be changed”, is it talking about the LoC or is it talking about the borders of the state of J&K. In case of the former, the implication is that India has given up its claim over the portions of the state under Pakistan’s occupation. And in case of the latter, it means that the entire state is open to negotiation. Unfortunately, in focusing too much on the intentions of General Pervez Musharraf’s, India seems to have ignored the direction in which the end-game is headed. Even if General Musharraf’s intentions are completely honorable and sincere (something on which the Indian security establishment harbors serious doubts), there is no way he is going to roll over and play dead and concede to all of India’s demands and desires. This means that the only solution possible under the Indian Constitution - the vacation of Pakistan’s illegal control over portions of the Jammu and Kashmir - is quite out of the question. Since India does not have military and political wherewithal to reunite the entire state under its control and end Pakistan’s occupation, the state of Jammu and Kashmir is likely to remain divided between India and Pakistan along the LoC. But the LoC cannot be converted into an international border not only because the Indian Constitution bars such a solution, but also because the Pakistanis and the Kashmiri secessionists and terrorists are unwilling to accept the LoC as a border. In any case, if India is willing to settle on the LoC with Pakistan, then why the resistance to settling the boundary question with China? After all, there is much less emotion and passion involved in settling with China, with the attendant advantages of far greater economic, political and strategic benefits as compared to any opening up of the Radcliffe line. If the LoC cannot become an international border, it then means that there can only be a management of the problem through political initiatives which are centered around the people of the state. Any such management of the problem necessarily means that there will be no permanence of any deal which India reaches with Pakistan. Every such deal will at best be temporary and will be the result of the unique conditions which operate at a particular point in time. When these conditions change, as they will with the passage of time, then the stable state equilibrium will get disturbed until another new equilibrium is attained. The challenge for India is to ensure that while entering into any temporary solutions it doesn’t make any political or military concession that in the long run compromises India’s control over the state. At the same time, for political and diplomatic reasons, India also cannot afford to be seen as being too inflexible and rigid. It is in this context that the intentions of the current Pakistani military junta become important. In the long run, unless Pakistan renounces its irredentist claim on Kashmir, it makes little difference whether Musharraf is sincere or is only playing games. Even if Musharraf is today genuinely sincere in seeking some sort of middle ground, there is no certainty or guarantee that his successors will not repudiate any understanding reached with him, especially in a situation where either an Islamist or ultra-nationalist General rules the roost in Pakistan or if India’s moral, economic, military and political hold in Kashmir weakens with passage of time. If, however, the intention of the regime in Pakistan remains wresting control of Kashmir, albeit through a change in tactics and strategy, then the political initiatives being proposed can only be to India’s detriment and their fallout will be more immediate. The activities of the jihadi militias in PoK also tend to reduce India’s comfort level in the negotiations with Pakistan over Kashmir. The strongest evidence of the continuing presence of the jihadis came when these organisations were the first off the block in relief and rescue efforts in the earthquake affected areas, which incidentally is also the area where the maximum number of terror training facilities were located. Clearly, the Jihadi infrastructure was operating with the full knowledge of the Pakistan army and in spite of the stated policy of the Musharraf regime. The reason for this according to many Pakistanis is that the Pakistan establishment will not act against the jihadi terrorists until it is convinced that India is sincere in solving Kashmir. But this means that Pakistan will continue to hold the jihad gun to India’s head in any future negotiations, something India would be loath to accept. The peace process between India and Pakistan is fast reaching the make-or-break stage. It is therefore imperative that India carefully work out not only the end-game on Kashmir (even if this is going to be temporary) but also its fall-back position for the next round of the composite dialogue. This exercise will involve striking a balance between what is desirable and what is possible, keeping in mind the political, military and strategic implications of any concessions it makes in trying to manage the Kashmir problem. Otherwise, India will be in danger of losing on the negotiating table that which it has so zealously protected on the battlefield.
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A wild, wild party NOW I know why parents are so opposed to the children’s ideas of having a wild start to the New Year. They know exactly how wild such a wild celebration might get. But I did not quite know it — not until after the midnight of December 31 when I joined lakhs of Londoners in their wild New Year celebrations, hoping to realise my long-cherished dream of ushering in the New Year on a frenetic note. I had no idea how gracious to my dream the God was going to be. Things seemed just perfect until the Big Ben struck the midnight hour triggering a 10-minute volley of fireworks across the London sky. Like others in the maddening crowd that had descended on the city’s historic Embankment to witness the show, I found myself absorbed by the hype. I even surprised myself by being a sport and by actually cheering along with the others. At the back of my mind, a certain sense of satisfaction had made home. Here I was in the thick of celebration just as I had wanted to be — with friends and frenzy both by my side. As the dazzle of the array faded into the first night of the New Year, it was time to amass the excitement and head homewards to sleep over a time well spent. But the New Year party in London was not going to be over so soon. In fact, unlike what we had thought, its wilder part was yet to come. The same unfolded in several stages, changing colours at every crossroad that lay between the Embankment and our homes. The first thing that followed the firework show was a near stampede-like situation that threw inexperienced visitors like us completely out of gear. I was lucky to be pushed away into the corner lane which seemed to be moving on its own. My friends, on the other hand, gasped for breath as drunken revellers exhibited their spirits and strength in the middle rows. It was not until after two hours that we met one another at a road which none of us had planned to hit. We had been brought there by the spirit of the party animals. Happy to be together again, we located the road which would lead us back home. But here another face of the New Year revelry awaited our attention. Soaked up in alcohol, youngsters smashed empty bottles on the roads, making it impossible for people to walk without spoiling their shoes or hurting themselves. Left with no option but to join the “party”, we moved on until we confronted another group of youngsters hellbent upon knowing our names. When one of the group members resisted the pressure and instead approached a police officer standing guard on the other side of the road, she was faced with yet another unexpected situation. The officer said, “When you leave home for a New Year party, you should be ready to take the wildness in your stride.” Humbled, we resumed our journey which seemed to take ages. It was not until the first day of the New Year had dawned that we realised how long our “wild party” had lasted! But we managed to console ourselves with the fact that we had witnessed one of the best firework shows on the earth. It was, reportedly, worth one million pound!
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News analysis
LAST month’s silver jubilee celebration of the Bharatiya Janata Party in Mumbai will go down in the party’s history as a landmark which focused on the past, but refused to take up the present and shied away from the future. The BJP did succeed to put up a gala show in Mumbai as it had a lot of sound and fury, but sadly it was devoid of content. The credit for organising such an event has to go to the man from Mumbai — Pramod Mahajan, who is undoubtedly a perfect executioner and a performer. But five days of deliberations, a public rally at the Shivaji Park and a grand display of the party’s achievements during the last 25 years, including six years of its government, were an attempt to remain in the past. The party in consultation with its mentor, Rashtriya Swyamsevak Sangh, had decided on the successor of Mr Lal Krishan Advani, who had driven the party to its peak of glory, but did not reveal the name of Rajnath Singh, fearing that he might steal the limelight during silver jubilee celebrations. After the end of the five days of meeting, the name of Rajnath Singh as the successor of Mr Advani was announced, The BJP, after it lost power in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, has been in disarray, rather directionless and now it is left to RSS poster boy Rajnath Singh to lead a party that wants to discredit the time-tested middle path and is sure that its future could be glorious if it steered to extremes. Singh has been elevated to the post with a rider that he is on a probation of 15 months. So for the next 15 months, he has to tread cautiously. He has to follow the principle of collective leadership. He has been given a chance because the RSS and former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee could not agree on former Human Resource Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi. So Rajnath Singh was chosen as a compromise candidate and is being projected as a representative of the second generation of BJP leaders. As soon as he assumed charge of the party on January 2, he expectedly announced the return of the BJP on the old agenda that had agitated the “Hindu” mind in the last century. The construction of a Ram temple at Ayodhya, the enactment of a Common Civil Code, abrogation of Article 370 and a ban on cow slaughter are going to be the BJP’s guiding lights under the new leadership. In short, the BJP is back on the RSS-dictated agenda. The party cadres were obviously consulted before the party was asked to return to an agenda that enabled the BJP to make it the single largest party in the 1996 general election. It was only after the party agreed to put the contentious issues of Ram temple, abrogation of Article 370 and enactment of a Common Civil Code that the party was voted to power in 1998. It was only after the party went into a general election with a common minimum agenda which did not have the three contentious issues, the BJP managed a tally of 181 seats in the 1999 general election, which was fought in the backdrop of the Kargil war. There was sympathy for the Vajpayee government which had been defeated on the floor of the Lok Sabha by a single vote. The people from the Hindi heartland voted for the BJP as they felt that 13 months were not enough for a government to perform. The party’s biggest asset was Mr Vajpayee’s credibility outside the BJP, but obviously the Sangh Parivar and its leaders were convinced that the party’s growth was because of them. The RSS has been reminding time again that the BJP’s electoral success was dependent on its cadres and if it directed its followers to sit at home, then the party would be out of electoral reckoning. After the coronation of Mr Rajnath Singh, time has come to test the RSS claim and the outcome of the next electoral battle in Uttar Pradesh’s assembly election will be the first show of the might of the Sangh Parivar. From available indications, the BJP would project former UP Chief Minister Kalyan Singh as its candidate to replace Mulayam Singh Yadav. Thus, the BJP would not have only a leader of a backward caste as the chief ministerial candidate, but also a Thakur from the state to lead the party at the national level. An ideal combination of castes, which in itself should be enough to get the party enough assembly seats to be in the driving seat on the road to power in the biggest state. The party would have to at least achieve the status of main opposition party in UP, if not become the ruling party in order to prove the assertion that an RSS-driven BJP can win the people’s confidence. But if it does not happen, then there would be a big question mark on the much trumpeted symbiotic relationship between the RSS and the BJP. While the BJP, being a political entity, has been under public scrutiny and a subject of popular debate, the RSS has never been brought under a microscope or debated in public realm. Is the RSS above lure of power and corruption? Is the RSS merely dedicated to social work? Does the RSS stand for excellence today? Does mediocrity not rule the roost in the Sangh? Why are the country’s youth not getting attracted towards the RSS? Nobody within the Sangh Parivar appears to be either posing these questions or debating them. The RSS’s relevance or utility for the Indian society the BJP’s future will have to be debated and discussed, and that is not happening. Hence a question mark on the main opposition party’s future.
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Women lead fight against ‘honour killings’ THESE are some of the things that can get a woman killed: wearing make-up; going to the cinema; chewing gum; drinking water in the street; chatting to a male neighbour; talking on the phone; talking to someone of a different race; having a man request a song for you on the radio; publishing love poetry; rejecting an arranged marriage; demanding a divorce; being raped; having an unsuitable boy-friend, or getting pregnant. Every year, a total of 5,000 women across the world are killed — by their relatives — in so-called “honour killings”, because they were said to have brought shame on their families. That is the official United Nations figure. Most campaigners believe that to be a vast under-estimate. There were 4,383 documented cases in Pakistan over the past four years. It is on the rise amid the anarchy of contemporary Iraq. In the UK there have been 12 cases catalogued, the House of Lords was told last month. And the Metropolitan Police are re-examining 117 other suspicious deaths. The highlighting of all this is an extraordinary success for the International Campaign Against Honour Killings, created in the past two years by women refugees and asylum-seekers. It was founded as the result of a human rights course run for refugees by Education Action International, one of the three charities being supported by The Independent’s Christmas Appeal this year. Before the group formed, police tended to take at face value reports of young girls killed by strangers or intruders, especially since the stories were vouched for by all the members of the dead woman’s family. The campaign’s director Diana Nammi, 39, an Iranian Kurd, says: “Police were not aware in the early cases how families persistently lie to protect the killer and mislead the police. If the woman had gone to a police station and said, ‘My father is going to kill me’ no one would have believed her. We told police to look inside the family.” Honour killings “are planned and deliberate”, says another campaigner, Houzan Mahmoud, 30, a refugee from Iraq. “And the killer will have the support of the rest of the family and community.” That support is often more than just tacit. “When a woman brings shame to her family they all meet in a family court and together decide that she must die and who will do it,” says Ms Nammi. “They often choose the youngest brother because they think he’ll get the lightest sentence.” Sometimes they hire hitmen. At times, even the women of the family help. In Derby, a mother sat on the legs of her pregnant daughter, Rukhsana Naz, while the girl’s brother strangled her with flex. Attempts are made to divert suspicion. Deaths by burning — “accidents” in the kitchen — are another method, a government minister told the Lords. Others are made to look like suicides (which may explain why the suicide rate is double among Asian women in the UK). Some girls have been taken out of the country to be murdered. “It’s a worldwide problem,” says Ms Mahmoud. “That is why it needs an international campaign.” The campaign is trying to change attitudes in several areas. Police now show greater understanding. So do judges. Just two years ago, a judge reduced a man’s sentence for killing his daughter from 20 to 14 years, citing “irreconcilable cultural differences between traditional Kurdish values and values of Western society”. Ms Nammi and Ms Mahmoud campaigned against that. “Culture is about language, music, food, dance, not killing,” says Ms Nammi angrily. “Everyone must be treated equally. My life is more important than my culture.” That is an attitude reflected in both more recent comments from judges and from politicians in the House of Lords debate. There have been wider changes. In Turkey, the law traditionally gave lighter sentences for “honour killings”. But after British politicians made it clear that was unacceptable in a future EU member, the law was altered. The skills the campaigners have developed were nurtured in one of 10 courses run by Education Action. Richard Germond of the charity’s Refugee Advocacy Project, says: “We set them up because we found that refugees were not just concerned about issues they faced in the UK: discrimination, lack of access to health care and housing, hostile interpretations of the law. They were also deeply worried about what was going on in the society they had fled.” After the course — which teaches campaigning and advocacy techniques, with assistance from human rights groups such as Amnesty, trade unions, faith groups and MPs — about half of the 141 graduates have concerned themselves with issues affecting refugees in the UK, and the others are focused on abuses back home. They include disappearances in Eritrea, torture in Sudan, press freedom in Ivory Coast, health rights in Zimbabwe and the detention of human rights activists in western Sahara. Not everyone approves. Ms Mahmoud, who has had threatening phone calls in the middle of the night, says: “Some men within our community have tried to stop us campaigning on honour killings, saying that we are bringing shame on the community and creating a racist backlash.” She is undeterred. As is Ms Nammi. “It is murder that brings shame on our community,” she says. “Not us protesting about murder.”
— The Independent
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Defence notes AS India emerges the favourite destination for most of the world powers to carry out exercises by the armed forces, the biggest-ever such exercise will be conducted by India and the United States of America near Ranikhet in Uttaranchal later this month. The rising importance of India can be gauged from the fact that from just 13 joint military exercises in 2003, the number jumped to 18 in 2005 — the highest number nine being in the Navy. As part of the Indo-US exercises, a company force of the US army will conduct joint exercises with a thrust on anti-insurgency operations in the mountainous terrain near Choubhatia. As part of the increasing service-to-service engagement in the coming year, the armed forces of the two countries will participate in more complex and patterned war games. According to officials here, the US Pacific Command wants to expand its military-level interaction with India over a broad front to enable the two armed forces to share experience in doctrines and higher formation-level exercises. AC coaches for jawans For years they have fought for the country without looking at their comfort or luxury. However now it has been decided to give jawans some comfort when they move from one destination to another. Recently, the Chief of Army Staff, Gen J.J. Singh, handed over 21 air-conditioned three-tier rail coaches to Major Gen V.K. Jain, Additional Director General Movement, Army Headquarters, with the idea of boosting the comfort level of jawans during train journeys. The Army believes that the improved comfort level for jawans journeying on training, relief and operational moves will go a long way in boosting the morale of troops who are required to move at a very short notice. An order for manufacturing 32 rail coaches was placed by the Additional Director General Movement with the Rail Coach Factory, Kapurthala, for exclusive use by Army transients. The remaining 11 coaches are also expected to be with the Army soon. Breeding with success The Remount Veterinary Corps, one of the oldest services of the Indian Army, recently completed 226 years. The RVC plays a significant role in not only breeding, rearing and training of quality horses, mules and dogs, but also in quality control of food of animal origin for troops. The corps also provides technical expertise in the form of treatment, breeding and management of military farm animals, thereby providing wholesome milk to the troops. RVC personnel are also part of a number of Indian peace-keeping contingents deployed in various UN missions abroad. The assistance provided by the Corps in the treatment and control of diseases by carrying out mass vaccination of animals has been widely appreciated by the UN authorities. Incidentally, the corps has seen action during both World Wars and after Independence it took part in J&K operations (1947-48), NEFA (1962) and the Indo-Pak wars of 1965 and 1971.
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From the pages of Life Insurance Companies THE Government Actuary’s review of the returns submitted by the Life Insurance Companies in India for 1920 gives interesting facts. In all, 75 insurance companies were working in India during the year, of which 51 were Indian, 17 British, 4 Colonial, one American and two established in Shanghai. At the time of passing the Life Insurance Act in India it was feared by many of the companies working and the general public that the legislation would check the legitimate business of Indian companies, but the Actuary points out that nearly one-third of the Indian companies now working were started after the passing of the Act and the rules framed since “have been very helpful to those who are anxious to conduct their life insurance business in a correct manner.” There is no doubt that the Act has compelled several companies working on unsound lines to wind up their business and induced the rest of the careful in maintaining an efficient standard of work.
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While counting and fixing auspicious day, we forget that God is above and beyond such
considerations. — Guru Nanak
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