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Persuading Congress Uniformed thieves |
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Jumbo 500
The road less travelled
White beauty
Growing India needs a permanent establishment Saintly crusader Chatterati
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Persuading Congress AS promised under the Indo-US nuclear deal, the George W. Bush administration has initiated the process for its implementation. It not only submitted to two Congressional committees its proposal for an amendment in the 1954 Atomic Energy Act on Thursday, but also launched a full-scale drive to counter the critics of the historic agreement. The legislative requirement has been necessitated by certain provisions of the Act, prohibiting any trade in nuclear technology and material with a country like India, which has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty as a matter of principle. President Bush has made it clear that the change in law will be India-specific and no other country will be allowed to use it to advance its interests in the future. While Mr Bush met US lawmakers to seek their support for the nuclear deal, the White House issued a fact-sheet to emphasise how the new relationship, which will help India to meet its fast-increasing energy requirement, is essential for promoting the long-term US interests. The US non-proliferation ayatollahs should see India’s unblemished record as a responsible nuclear weapon state. India’s joining the non-proliferation mainstream will only promote this noble cause. It is wrong to believe that the Indo-US understanding will fuel nuclear race in South Asia. The Bush administration, obviously, must have calculated how it will go about the implementation of the deal. That is why its campaign has been flawless so far and has resulted in a surge of support for the administration’s efforts for building a strategic relationship with India. As Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Richard Boucher said on Thursday, questions are bound to be raised in this regard. But most of the members of both Houses of the US Congress know it well that “the new relationship with India is very, very important.” This means that President Bush should have little difficulty in getting the deal through the Congress. Once the success is achieved on the Congress front, it will be easier to persuade the Nuclear Suppliers Group for getting its rules amended to enable India to import nuclear material and technology from its members.
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Uniformed thieves EXCEPTIONS may be there, but a typical policeman is never averse to indulging in illegal
activities. Rather, a bit of moon-shining is considered a legitimate perk. But even in such a dismal scenario, one cannot help feeling shocked at the organised way in which some of them from Punjab had been stealing cars and disposing them of. Theirs was a national network and only they know how many persons they deprived of their cars. Seven of them have been arrested by the Chandigarh Police and there is no guarantee that the list is complete. On the contrary, there are reasons to suspect that there may be many more such “police modules” elsewhere in the country, which are in “active service”. No wonder, leaving a car unattended is considered a high-risk proposition. When the persons engaged to stop thefts themselves indulge in them, there is no redemption. The malaise hits society in multiple ways. One, many thefts remain untraced. Being well-versed in the intricacies of police investigations, these insiders can easily hoodwink the law. That is how they evaded detection for such a long time. Second, the criminals who join hands with them lose all fear of the law. Senior officers may not know what their men are doing, but such happenings are common knowledge in the underworld. Which crook worth the name is going to be afraid of a policeman when he knows that many colleagues of the latter are his accomplices? Worse, the common man loses all faith in the government. Since the word has travelled far and wide that policemen themselves double up as thieves, who is going to respect them? No doubt, there are many honest ones also in the ranks but nobody has the independent means to investigate and separate grain from the chaff. That is why the policeman is an object of hatred at best and ridicule at worst. Nobody feels like sharing any clue or lead with the cops. Steer clear of them is the conventional wisdom. The police must weed out all such elements in its own interest. Such black sheep are not only enemies of society but of the police force as well.
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Jumbo 500
A DEADLY “Jumbo” delivery doesn’t necessarily hang in the air tantalisingly, bamboozling batsmen with its flight. Again, the ball, after hitting the deck, does not necessarily beat them with prodigious turn. But it does things, as the batsmen have discovered time and again – 504 times fatally to date. For a leg-spinner who “doesn’t turn the ball” Anil Kumble packs quite a punch. The bat comes down inside or outside the line, and the quick, whizzing deliveries take their toll. And they do a little more. They win matches. For someone who has been left out of the side several times, even had his skills disparaged, the man’s track record as a match-winner leaves others way behind. Forget the big occasions, like the 10 wicket-in-an-innings haul against Pakistan, Kumble has taken part in 35 Indian wins, taking 240 wickets at a stunning 18.7 run average. His successes on home soil were not matched by his performances on away games, but he again stunned his detractors, and an Aussie opposition, with 24 wickets in a three-Test series down under in 03-04. Kumble is nothing if he is not about sheer tenacity. A few months ago, Kumble became the second Indian bowler after Kapil Dev to play 100 Tests. On Saturday, with the sun shining over a rain drenched Mohali ground, he rapped Steve Harmison on the pads to become the first Indian to take 500 wickets. Only the day before, he had got aficionados agog when he castled Paul Collingwood with a beauty of a leg-spinner. Kumble is now the second fastest to reach the 500 mark, in terms of matches, after Muthiah Muralitharan – ahead of the likes of Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath. Glenn may have sent down a few hundred overs less to get there, but the simple fact is that a great servant of Indian cricket now takes his rightful place among the world’s best.
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The natural term of the affection of the human animal for its offspring is six years. — George Bernard Shaw
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The road less travelled THE Indo-US agreement should see a turning point not only in India’s position in the world but also in its perception of itself. It is time to shed the diffidence and nostalgia evident in some of the perceptions and debate that marked the hard negotiations along the way since Dr Manmohan Singh’s visit to Washington last July. Here is hint of a change in the world order, no less. Quite apart from the nuclear accord that permits India to maintain and even further develop its credible minimum nuclear deterrent, the agreement ends an era of nuclear apartheid and dual-use technological denial going back to the first Pokhran test in 1974. This removes a major roadblock to accessing a wide spectrum of cutting edge technologies that can accelerate growth and lift the economy to a more sophisticated level. The strategic partnership forged with the United States clearly recognises India as an emerging global player. This is no one-way street. Both India and the US are important for the other. The fear that the agreement will tie India to America’s apron strings betrays lack of confidence in the country’s fibre. India is today far stronger than it was in the 1980s and 1990s when it withstood international sanctions and single-handedly opposed a discriminatory CTBT against the entire world. There is no reason to suppose that India will vote on Iran or any other issue except in the light of its own best interest, which may not always coincide with that of the US. Democratic nations can agree to disagree without straining their relationship to breaking point. So, one must expect hard bargaining in interpreting and implementing the fine print of the agreement as it goes to the US Congress, the IAEA and the Nuclear Suppliers Group. President Bush explained the US raison d’etre for wooing India as a singular new partner in a changing world. He sees its size and population as representing a huge and growing market. Its insatiable energy needs are putting pressure on global hydrocarbon supplies and prices. This is also accentuating global warming from burning greenhouse gas-emitting fossil fuels, some of which could be substituted by clean civil-nuclear energy. Further, it stands out as an exemplary democratic, multicultural society; a reliable partner in fighting terror and a mutually compatible knowledge society. These are interests and values India shares with the US but does not imply acceptance of absolute market determinism. Nor does Mr Bush’s call for India to speak up for freedom in Iran, Libya, Cuba and Myanmar (Burma) suggest that this country must accept his list of rogue states. It will not forego its national interests in engaging such states and seeking to influence them without demonising them or threatening regime change. Another common interest that some American commentators have speculated is balancing China’s growing power. This is not an Indian priority. Indeed, these two Asian giants have a common interest in working together to promote peace and stability in the near and medium future even as they compete in various fields. The Sino-Indian boundary question is on the way to being settled. Differences are narrowing and, in any event, this is no more a flashpoint. An improved relationship with the US does not entail antipathy towards others or placing all one’s eggs in one basket. . Some of the violent protest and opposition to the agreement has been clearly partisan, politically expedient or electorally motivated. The “Muslim” grievance whipped up on the US position on Iran or the Iraq war was extraneous to the US President’s visit to India and Delhi’s known stance on these issues. Likewise, the linkage to the Danish cartoons was a complete misjoinder. Hopefully, critics will learn to be more mature in future. Intellectual debate is one thing, rabble-rousing another. President Bush’s remarks in Islamabad signal that Pakistan and India are now perceived as belonging to two separate categories with “different histories”. The US is not going to mediate on Kashmir. The Prime Minister’s roundtable on J&K and the composite dialogue with Pakistan must both move forward purposefully towards an internal and external resolution. The Indian Government should take the initiative and leave it to Pakistan, the Hurriyat and other dissenters to engage in constructive talks or wallow in irrelevance and isolation. Whatever his failings and foibles as seen from Delhi, it remains in India’s highest interest to give President Musharraf an honourable exit from the situation in which he has mired himself. Equally, India must explore bold initiatives in repairing its relations with Bangladesh and coaxing the King, the political parties and the Maoists in Nepal to make a fresh start. Both the monarchy and the Maoists have indicated their willingness to chart a new path. A peaceful and friendly South Asian neighbourhood is inseparable from India’s quest for a place at the international high table. There will also be post-election opportunity to think of new initiatives in the Northeast and on tackling the socio-economic grievances underlying the Naxal movement, which is more than a law and order problem, being rooted in crass denial of land and forest rights and entitlements, gross social exploitation and assaults on human dignity. The national economy also matters. Continuing high growth will surely lift all boats; but this does not mean that matters can be left to chance or for benefits to trickle down. The Budget identifies some of the requisite thrust areas. Reform and good governance too cannot be allowed to drop off the national agenda. India is a big country and an emerging great power but will only truly become one through its own exertions. It must abandon old shibboleths and mindsets, think boldly and creatively and act its size. It cannot cling to the past if it wants to grasp the future. It is time for a quantum leap in higher learning, with new curriculum, more centres of excellence and far more lively policy research. Think tanks can stimulate new strategic thinking backed by informed debate that can break out of traditional moulds. Robert Frost wrote: Two roads that diverged in a wood, and I – I took the one less travelled by, And that has made all the
difference.
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White beauty SHE came into our life exactly 13 years ago. But nowadays there is a lot of pressure from various quarters that I should replace her —- or pronounce “talaq”. It is not because she deserves this treatment. She has never given me trouble except on occasions when she has been neglected for a long time. These occasional episodes have been because of my faults. It will be unfair to blame her for those few unhappy memories. Of course, she has become old. She no longer remains the ravishing white beauty she once was. But that is nature’s law. The truth is that I get upset whenever anybody tells me that it is time for me to part company with her. No one knows what the future has in store for us. But you never think of losing “somebody” so dear to you. My attachment to her increased manifold yesterday when I was reminded of the date (March 12) she came to our house. I had forgotten such a significant event. The date was mentioned in a congratulatory SMS on my mobile phone. It was from the “clinic” where I take her whenever she has any “medical” problem. It is so pleasant to remember that auspicious morning when she became a part of our household. A friend and colleague (now retired) gave me some useful tips about how to take care of her. I have been following some of those tips religiously. The result is that she remains perfectly fit even after having tolerated me for these 13 years. During this period I have visited the national Capital and many other places along with her several times, and almost every time it has been a hassle-free journey. In fact, I cannot think of going to Delhi without she being in tow. The reason is that she is very helpful while visiting relatives, friends and acquaintances. Her presence gives me inner strength and removes the fear of moving on Delhi’s serpentine roads, full of flyovers. She provides me a kind of motivation to make even long-distance visits. One can rarely find so comforting a companion. Her obedience is also matchless. Recently she needed to be admitted to the “clinic” for getting her cured of certain serious illnesses she had developed because of my carelessness. I did not have the required funds at that time. The estimate was far more than what I have been spending on her previous visits to that “clinic”. I had to borrow from a source where one rarely goes for funds because of exorbitant charges. But I had no regrets. I could not see my companion in ill health, particularly when she has been so helpful, so dependable. Thank God, she is again fit as a fiddle. My wife had vehemently opposed the entry of this entry-level thing in our household. But she too has developed great liking for her over the years. Ironically, it is she who gets uneasy more than me whenever anyone asks us when we are going to dispose of “this old thing”. Wish you all the best, my M-800. May you live longer in our midst. A car is truly like a family
member.
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Growing India needs a permanent establishment IN the wake of the domestic fracas on the Iran vote at the IAEA, Dr. Manmohan Singh recently bemoaned the lack of an “establishment” and a strategic culture in India that takes a long-term view of India’s interests. This statement of the Prime Minister raises quite a few questions: What is an establishment? Does India need one? If it does, do we have one? If it does not, why it does not? And finally what should be its character and form? Simply put, an establishment is a group of individuals/organisations, essentially though not always outside the government, who can dispassionately take a long-term view of a nation’s interests and are able to then exercise influence to steer the course of government and national policies towards those interests irrespective of the party in office at that point of time. In Western democracies, the establishment has tended to consist of senior military, intelligence, diplomatic and political figures in conjunction with captains of the defence/nuclear/strategic industries, atomic scientists and strategic thinkers whose views on issues of national security have a certain common minimum consensus. Moreover, as defence manufacturing in most of these nations tended to be or is in the private or public-private domain, there was a strong convergence of economic interests which created mini-oligarchies and banded them together. The Pentagon- Military Industrial Complexes combine with the recent co-option of the oil industry funded neo-con think tanks and the Wall Street-MNC combine are two examples of establishment in the U.S. at the opposite ends of the national ideological paradigm. They are not essentially large private interest groups but institutions that tend to best represent and promote the U.S. worldview with both balancing each other. The same pattern is there in Great Britain and France with the security establishments being dominant to a greater degree while in Russia and China because of the totalitarian background the establishment still consists primarily of the in-house atomic, intelligence, security and defence establishments. In India with defence manufacturing being totally in the government arena and think tanks a recent phenomena, the establishment is really the status-quoist in-house or at best some retired military-diplomatic personnel. Most of these retired officers are also forever looking for post-retirement sinecures and, therefore, tend to align their views with that political group which is best placed to employ them. In that sense of the word, the Prime Minister is right India has no establishment worth the name. Does India need a truly non-partisan and independent establishment and what should be the shape and character of this establishment? Would it evolve on its own or does it need to be mid-wifed by the government? Given the increasingly fractious nature of national politics and the decline of national party systems (howsoever undesirable it might be) juxtaposed with global challenges and India’s own “great power” aspirations, a permanent establishment is a pre-requisite now. What would be its nature is something that needs to be widely debated. In India today business is perhaps the only driving force in the Indian social milieu. However, it is still tiny and nascent by global standards. If an establishment has to emerge in India the defence Industry needs to be opened up to domestic players in the first instance so that a convergence of strategic and economic interests emerges in the medium term. Think tanks and research organisations not tied to the umbilical chord of the government need to be listened to seriously by the government when they make policy recommendations. Big Business by Indian standards, especially in the core and strategic sectors, needs to be co-opted into the process. In other words, a grand coalition of forces has to be marshalled to act as a counterweight to the fractious and at times lunatic pulls of domestic politics that seriously threaten and undermine India’s long-term interests. This is necessary to bridge the gap in terms of time that it would for a genuine, respected and influential establishment to evolve and
emerge. The writer is an advocate of the Supreme Court and Secretary, AICC
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Saintly crusader
IT is a comment on our times that even the informed intelligentsia bat their eyelids in ignorance at the mention of the name Siddhraj Dhadda. Well, who’s this guy and what’s he about? Dhadda is no extinct dinosaur. He died on March 9, fighting till the last of his 98 years for the greatest of causes — the people and their democratic rights for survival and freedom. He was a political saint, if ever there was one, as devoted to the common weal as to his daily routine of puja and yoga. A man of rare honour: an uncompromising critic of successive governments, regardless of political colours and personalities, for their subjugation of the common people. An indefatigable crusader: from the Quit India Movement, when the British jailed him, through the Emergency, when also he was put behind bars, to his impassioned campaigns against communal fascism and surrender to capitalist globalisation. Three years ago when Dhadda rejected the Padma Bhushan, many likened it to Tagore spurning a knighthood to protest against the Jallianwala Bagh massacre and Gandhi returning the Kaiser-e-Hind. He was deeply embarrassed by these comparisons in the media, which he found focused only on his opposition to globalisation while ignoring other, equally weighty issues that he unrelentingly championed. True, one reason he gave for rejection of the Padma Bhushan was India’s surrender of sovereignty to global capital and the neo-liberal economic policies that did not address poverty. But, the other reason, expressed with no less vehemence, was to protest against the violent communal hatred being fomented by the then BJP-led government and the Sangh parivar. Dhadda was a true radical activist. Friend, guide and mentor to the likes of Magsaysay Award winners Aruna Roy and Rajendra Singh, his dedication to democratic rights often found him on the side of Naxalites and others under siege from the state. A Gandhian who pursued the Mahatma’s ideals for a decentralised democracy and a prominent figure in the Sarvodaya movement, age did not wither his infinite vigour nor custom stale the variety of causes he fought for. He was Rajasthan’s first Minister for Industry and Commerce. Such office meant little to the man who opted for a mass line in his political and economic campaigns. He was a ‘nationalist’ in the finest sense of the term. A devout Hindu, anti-communalism was a crusade for him. Only last month, he had demanded Central intervention to curb attacks on minorities in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. A year before, he asked former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to answer the charges levelled by former President K R Narayanan on the collusion between the Gujarat government and the Centre in the post-Godhra violence in Gujarat. And an internationalist, too. In 1960, as Secretary of the World Peace Brigade, he joined the Peace March from Delhi to Peking along with Jayaprakash Narayan. In the last three years he was in the forefront of anti-war protests at home against the invasion of Iraq.
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Chatterati ON International Women’s Day the capital celebrated it as champagne owners flew over to host high-flying women achievers at the Oberoi. There were voices from Adivasi women in the Capital too. A unique demonstration of thousands of men and women, including fishermen, Dalits and tribal people, marched in solidarity with the community of sex workers, transgenders and sexual minorities on this International Women’s Day to be recognised as workers and to be an integral section of society. Another march was against weak laws which have failed to fight foeticide. There are only 814 women against 1,000 men in Delhi. Despite several existing laws, female foeticide continues. On the other hand, one is amused to see that on a day when womanhood was being celebrated, men staged a dharna against the dowry laws. The harassed husbands were joined by mothers-in-law, who complained against their respective daughters-in-law claiming that dowry laws were misused. International Women’s Day also saw food fests, exhibitions and talks on issues ranging from fashion wear for pregnant women to colour therapy and breast cancer. Well let’s face it, Indian women are on the go. Whether it was the Prime Minister’s wife attending an International Women’s Day at FICCI or women activists on the road, women were making their voices heard one way or the other. When I look around in my empowered women circle, I do still see somewhere a huge imbalance of gender in the workplace and I still encounter dinosaur concepts of women’s role and, women chained to feudal concepts. Bomb blast and politics The BJP seems to be making the best of the Varanasi mishap. VIPs flew into Varanasi, causing confusion among officials and the public there. A time for all political parties to try and get mileage out of this bomb blast. If this has given Advani a platform to take the Rath Yatra to pitch on Hindutva, it is a sad and sorry state of affairs once again. This fourth time yatra of Advani may be his last attempt to hold on to the last straw of power. Leaving Raj Nath Singh to cool his heels, he hogged the limelight. With the coming elections, all political parties have set an aggressive agenda. Hopefully, people hurt in this bomb blast will also get the healing touch. All in name
of cricket It is a known fact that there are only three ways a person can become a household name in India — Bollywood, politics and cricket. Obviously, people like Sharad Pawar who are in politics and cannot be in Bollywood, chose cricket to be a more secure household name. In Delhi recently we saw a high-profile page 3 party to honour Sharad Pawar. Page 3 parties and cricket are a platform which is shared, by all, cutting across party lines like Sharad Pawar, Arun Jaitley and, of course, Rajiv Shukla with R. K. Anand. The ones who know nothing of the pitches or the bat and ball but are always pitching to be on board. Pakistan cricket board official Shaharyar Khan along with Sri Lanka board officials were all happily mingling with one another. Is it cricket in politics or politics in cricket? The cricket board guys want to get into politics and politicians who come into cricket want to use this platform to become a household name. Dining and wining, it is a game of speculation where the board decides the players and the coaches. Sadly, please note, not a single player is a member of the board.
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From the pages of Moonje-rajah pact WE are sincerely pleased to learn from a Delhi telegram that a pact has been signed between Dr Moonje, representing the All-India Hindu Mahasabha, and Mr M. C. Rajah, representing the All-India Depressed Classes Association, agreeing to the representation of the depressed classes through joint electorates with a reservation of seats on a population basis, and that this agreement has been cabled to the Premier under the joint signatures of the two leaders. It would have been much better if the depressed classes had not insisted on a reservation of seats even with joint electorates, but a reservation of seats with joint electorates is any day immensely better than separate communal representation.
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You clamour to see God? Did you not see him in the person who helped you carry a load? Or in the person who told you how to solve a problem. — Sanatana Dharma From him rises the sun and in him sets the sun. Bask in the glory of the great omnipresent. — The Upanishadas The clever king grants wealth and domains to his mighty friend to arouse his gratitude. And in return, he seeks only friendships. It is this friendship which will bring his mighty friend to fight on his side during times of adversity. — The Mahabharata There is no enemy greater than a mis-directed mind. No enemy can do us greater harm than our mind when it travels in tortuous, evil and sinful paths. — The Buddha
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