O P I N I O N S

EDITORIALS

Dialogue with Dhaka
Tackle terrorism, enrich economic ties
Bangladesh Prime Minister Khaleda Zia’s first visit to New Delhi after she assumed office in 2001 has brightened the prospects for better relations between the two countries.

Free the rupee
The economy is ready for it
THE country seems all set for full convertibility of the rupee. Conversion of the rupee means people would be free to exchange their dollars and other foreign currencies with the Indian currency; and those having rupees would be able to exchange them with any currency they desire without seeking official permission.

• Thought for the day

ARTICLE

Pugwash message
Concentrate on areas of common interest
by G. Parthasarathy
IT would have been inconceivable even a year ago to think of a gathering in which politicians and academics from both sides of the Line of Control in J&K would get together to discuss ways to address aspirations of the people of the state and foster cooperation in areas that benefit their day-to-day life.

MIDDLE

All fingers and thumbs
by G. S. Battu
Raised finger of the Indian coach raised quite a ruckus. Even though God kept fingers at the arms length from the body, they irrefutably play a very vital role in every day activities.

OPED

Indian maths genius’s role in digital age to be filmed
by Leonard Doyle
Srinavasa Ramanujan, whose ideas underpin the internet revolution, was a poor Indian college dropout who nearly starved to death before he ended up at Cambridge in the early 1900s. Now acknowledged as a mathematical genius, Ramanujan, who died aged 33, is known as the most esoteric mathematical genius of the 20th century.

Nitish Kumar consolidates hold on Bihar
by Ambarish Dutta
AS the ruling NDA completed 100 days in office last week,Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is firmly in the saddle and has established his supremacy both in the party and the government. Known for his sagacity, Mr Nitish Kumar’s selection of JD(U) nominees for the ensuing biennial Rajya Sabha was indeed a political masterstroke.

From the pages of

EDITORIALS

Dialogue with Dhaka
Tackle terrorism, enrich economic ties

Bangladesh Prime Minister Khaleda Zia’s first visit to New Delhi after she assumed office in 2001 has brightened the prospects for better relations between the two countries. Her talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday reflected realisation that it was time for Dhaka to shed intransigence on sensitive issues like terrorism and help create a climate for building “cooperative relations”. This was evident in Bangladesh agreeing to join hands with India to fight terrorism, which has been posing a major threat to stability and growth in the region. It is a different matter that Dhaka continues to deny that it has been allowing anti-India terrorist outfits to have their bases in Bangladesh. The convergence of views to some extent on a subject on which the two sides have had altogether different perceptions may be helpful in the efforts to eliminate the menace.

Their discussions covered a wide range of subjects, including trade, illegal migrations, border security and water sharing, besides terrorism and sanctuary to anti-India insurgents. Though no agreement could be signed on the major concerns of India and Bangladesh, they revised their pact on trade (the one reached in 1980 had expired) and entered into a fresh one for preventing illicit trafficking in narcotics and psychotropic substances. More significant than this was the discernible desire to accommodate each other’s concerns with a view to improving their bilateral relations.

India did not outrightly reject Bangladesh’s demand for a fresh river water sharing arrangement. It was agreed that the Joint Rivers Commission would meet frequently to discuss the water-related disputes between the two countries. New Delhi also sympathised with Bangladesh’s concern for reducing their trade deficit. Of course, it is unable to allow duty-free import of goods from across the border, as sought by the other side, but India suggested that this asymmetry could be tackled by promoting Indian investments in Bangladesh. Such a process could begin with the implementation of the $2.5 billion Tata group investment proposal, which Dhaka has agreed to examine afresh. It is, no doubt, in India’s own interest to do whatever it can to spur economic development in Bangladesh. Generation of employment avenues will not only curb illegal migration from Bangladesh, but also make it difficult for the terrorist outfits to find fresh recruits. This can, however, be possible only when Bangladesh addresses India’s concerns on the issue of terrorism.

Free the rupee
The economy is ready for it

THE country seems all set for full convertibility of the rupee. Conversion of the rupee means people would be free to exchange their dollars and other foreign currencies with the Indian currency; and those having rupees would be able to exchange them with any currency they desire without seeking official permission. In 1992, the then Finance Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, had allowed current account convertibility, which meant currency exchange for trade purposes only. At that time it was decided not to go in for capital account convertibility because the country’s economy, particularly the foreign exchange position, was not as comfortably placed as it is today. Then a committee was appointed under Mr S.S. Tarapore, a former Deputy Governor of the RBI, to study the issue and draw up a road map.

The issue was revived by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Mumbai on Saturday when he disclosed that he had asked the Finance Minister and the RBI to revisit the concept of capital account convertibility. On Monday Mr P. Chidambaram said the convertibility issue was delinked from the 2006-07 Budget as it would have sidelined other fiscal announcements. So, it was not out of the blue that the Prime Minister raised the issue in Mumbai. The policy-makers had been working on it quietly and they were right in going slow on the issue. The Tarapore committee had suggested a three-year time-frame for full convertibility by 1999-2000. But the currency crisis that erupted in East Asia soon thereafter made the government shelve the issue.

Now, the RBI has appointed another committee under Mr Tarapore and asked it to submit the report by July 31. If the rupee is allowed full float, it would attract greater foreign investment when the economic climate is conducive. The country’s growth prospects are bright; the capital market is in boom and the forex reserves stand at $143.92 billion. Fears of any sudden cash outflow are negligible. India has reached a stage when it can confidently go in for capital account convertibility. With the exception of China, all major economic powers allow free conversion of currencies.

Fighter crashes
Improve training and maintenance

THE Indian Air Force is clearly losing too many valuable human lives and aircraft to crashes, notwithstanding valid claims of a decline in the accident rate per 10,000 hours of flying. Two pilots went down in a MiG in Rajasthan, and the incident follows the loss of two top pilots in a “Suryakiran” – a tragic first for the aerobatic team. The MiG series, the MiG-21 in particular, has been the most visible face of this malady. It is of course the series the IAF flies in the largest number, but it is also the type that poses the stiffest maintenance and training challenges. In a written reply in Parliament last month, it was revealed that out of a total number of 793 MiG-21s inducted since 1963, 330 Migs have been lost.

The IAF admits to problems with spareparts and other maintenance issues, and the fact that it is too difficult an aircraft for a novice to fly without prior supersonic experience on a trainer aircraft. It has also insisted that it is a good aircraft that has served the nation well. Veterans still rave about its stunning rate of climb, testimony to its origin as a first rate interceptor designed to tackle high flying US aircraft invading Soviet territory.

It is clear though, that there is a serious maintenance and training gap that has been inadequately addressed by the plethora of committees and boards of enquiry. And it is not just the MiGs. We have lost Jaguars and Mirages too. Though IAF pilots have already begun to train on the Hawk 100 supersonic trainer in the UK, it will be a while before the full complement of 66 aircraft are inducted. HAL’s IJT trainer programme, intended to replace the Kiran Mark IIs, is also taking time. But they won’t automatically solve the problem. A serious, holistic effort should begin now, towards augmenting maintenance and training, if we are to minimise these recurrent tragedies.

Thought for the day

Persuasion is the resource of the feeble; and the feeble can seldom persuade.

— Edward Gibbon

ARTICLE

Pugwash message
Concentrate on areas of common interest
by G. Parthasarathy

IT would have been inconceivable even a year ago to think of a gathering in which politicians and academics from both sides of the Line of Control in J&K would get together to discuss ways to address aspirations of the people of the state and foster cooperation in areas that benefit their day-to-day life. But such gatherings have indeed taken place in Kathmandu, New Delhi and Jammu in recent months. These interactions have thrown up ideas that could move the India-Pakistan dialogue process forward. It is also evident that there is no political consensus within Jammu and Kashmir on either the contours of an eventual settlement or even on measures that could ease the current tensions and problems.

The Geneva-based Nobel Prize-winning Pugwash International recently organised an interesting get-together in Islamabad to focus primarily on “self-governance” in Jammu and Kashmir. Such initiatives have been frowned upon by the security establishments in both Islamabad and New Delhi. This was the third occasion in which I had participated in such an exercise.

Participants from our side included Mr Omar Abdullah of the National Conference, Maulvi Iftikhar Ansari of the PDP, Mr Abdul Ghani Bhat of the Hurriyat Conference (who seems to have made Islamabad and Muzaffarabad his home over the last several months), Mr Yaseen Malik of the pro-independence JKLF, Mr Sajjad Lone of the J&K People’s Conference and senior representatives of the Congress, the CPM and the BJP. The representation from POK was largely made up of pro-Pakistan personalities, though veteran leaders like Sardar Qayyum Khan and Mr Amanullah Khan of the JKLF voiced different views. While New Delhi denied Syed Ali Shah Jilani permission to travel to Islamabad, the Pakistan government ensured that no individual invited from the Shia-majority Northern Areas (Gilgit and Baltistan) participated in the conference.

General Musharraf gave considerable time to all participants and also met persons like Mr Omar Abdullah and Mr Yaseen Malik separately. He repeated his ideas on demilitarisation, self-governance, dividing the state into regions and joint management, but acknowledged that he had not thought through precisely what “self-governance” would involve in J&K. He ruled out independence for J&K as a viable option and appeared hesitant on proposals bringing together and promoting cooperation between people in Kargil and Ladakh with their compatriots in the Northern Areas. He also candidly acknowledged that no single leader or grouping could credibly claim to speak for the people of the entire state.

Thus, while Pakistan and the Hurriyat will continue to tango with each other, we will now see a wider cross-section of Kashmiri politicians engaging people in Pakistan and in POK. While Mr Omar Abdullah presented the NC’s proposals on autonomy and expressed strong reservations about Pakistani jihadi outfits like the Lashkar-e-Toiyaba, there were constructive interventions from the representatives of the PDP, the CPM, the BJP and the Panther’s Party. Mr Yaseen Malik also spoke eloquently about the need to support the dialogue process and associate the people involved in the diplomatic effort. The Hurriyat, however, could do no more than echo General Musharraf’s proposals.

New Delhi’s interests will be ill served if it chooses to remain silent on what General Musharraf has laid on the table. It will find itself criticised internationally and reach a political impasse on some of the bold initiatives that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has taken in promoting a dialogue with a wide cross-section of people within J&K, if it does not move proactively in the coming months. There should be surely no dearth of ideas on promoting “self-governance” across J&K with people on both sides of the LOC enjoying the same rights and privileges on such issues.

There can be no question of extensive “self-governance” on India’s side of the LOC, while POK and the Northern Areas are administered by the Ministry of Kashmir Affairs and priorities and policies are dictated by unrepresentative “Councils” headed by Pakistan’s Prime Minister. While India has rejected any division of J&K on communal and sectarian lines as proposed by the New York-based Kashmir Study Group, there is surely political space for Regional Development Councils to be constituted. Similarly, while “joint management” can be construed as eroding state sovereignty, there can surely be mechanisms or commissions comprising representatives from the Governments of India and Pakistan and from both sides of the LOC in Jammu and Kashmir to address issues of common concern.

The discussions in Islamabad showed that there are several areas of common interest like economic cooperation, tourism, environmental protection, trade, agriculture, education and media where coordinating mechanisms can play a useful role. As India has a sovereign right to deploy its armed forces in any part of its territory, any talk of “demilitarisation” is a non-starter, though troop levels can be regulated depending on the levels of violence and terrorism. Given the absence of any political consensus in J&K, these are issues that need to be looked at closely by academic institutions in the country, including in J&K.

The next round of the composite dialogue process is to commence shortly. Discussions I had with friends in Pakistan showed that at the public level there is recognition of the need to end sterile competition and build bridges with India. People in Pakistan appear to be far more concerned about the escalating food prices and the situation in Waziristan and Baluchistan than in pursuing mirages of “parity” with India. But has the mindset of the ruling military establishment changed? Following President Bush’s remark that “Pakistan and India are two different countries with different needs and different histories,” General Musharraf proclaimed that his country should end its “India-centric” approach to foreign policy. But a few days later he described the India-US nuclear deal as “disturbing,” adding that the deal adversely affected the balance of power in the region.

Thus, if Pakistan spared no effort in 2005 to sabotage India’s quest for permanent membership of the Security Council, it will spare no effort in 2006 to subvert moves to implement the Bush-Manmohan Singh nuclear deal. National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan has already warned of moves by the ISI to encourage terrorist attacks like those that have taken place in Bangalore, Hyderabad, Ayodhya and Varanasi . While one had heard former ISI chiefs speaking of “weakening India from within” or making the Kashmir issue an “issue of faith” for Indian Muslims, one was amused to learn recently of another former ISI chief asserting that there can be no transparency in Pakistan’s defence policies “till India disintegrates like the Soviet Union”. The challenge we face today is to display the strength, resilience and commitment to communal harmony to thwart such moves, even as we proceed with our diplomacy and political initiatives imaginatively.

MIDDLE

All fingers and thumbs
by G. S. Battu

Raised finger of the Indian coach raised quite a ruckus. Even though God kept fingers at the arms length from the body, they irrefutably play a very vital role in every day activities. In fact, going anatomically, thumb has the distinction of largest representation in the brain, area wise, may be because of extraordinary mobility and range of motions it possesses.

Thumb starts playing an important role right from the infancy. Next to the mother and the bottle, it’s the best implement that fits into the mouth, like a custom-made candy, to soothe the ruffled psyche of the kid.

If one manages to reach adulthood circumventing the education system, thumb impression helps to circumvent the hassles of putting down signatures. Thumbs up means all set to go and thumbing the nose means no go.

Even the little finger plays some major roles. Throughout life, raised little finger would excuse one for nature’s call, raised two fingers would mean more urgent one. Ring finger is thought to be connected straight to the heart. Based on this credence, it is the chosen one to be the foundation of holy alliance with the chosen spouse. That the heart may rebel and flutter later on, in non compliance to signals from this finger, is another story.

Index finger comes handy while accusing other people. It’s thought to be the most sensitive finger and is used by various professionals to feel things according to their needs. It is the most important digit for surgeons, gynaecologists and trigger happy people. Touching of tips of index fingers in Michelangelo’s The Creation of Adam denotes something entirely different.

If fingers are so important individually, wait till you see them act in tandem. Combinations of thumb and index fingers are most persuasive. Join their tips in a circle and move hand to show your admiration. Pickpockets and bottom pinchers depend solely on these fingers for their respective sadistic pleasures. Add in middle finger and you see beautiful outcome of pen pushers and artists. Join them all in fist and witness strength in unity.

But the middle finger alone? It stands taller than others, protected by two on either side, may be that is what makes it arrogant. All that outrage caused by a fleeting gesture? May be for once, we can really blame it on a foreign hand.

OPED

Indian maths genius’s role in digital age to be filmed
by Leonard Doyle

Srinivasa Ramanujan, a mathematical genius, excelled in number theory and modular functions Stephen Fry, who learnt about Ramanujan at Cambridge

Srinavasa Ramanujan, whose ideas underpin the internet revolution, was a poor Indian college dropout who nearly starved to death before he ended up at Cambridge in the early 1900s.

Now acknowledged as a mathematical genius, Ramanujan, who died aged 33, is known as the most esoteric mathematical genius of the 20th century.

His contribution to the digital age is to be finally recognised in film now that the writer and TV presenter Stephen Fry and India’s leading writer-director, Dev Benegal, have decided to collaborate on a feature film on his life.

Born in rural India, Ramanujan’s life was extraordinary. By 13 he had mastered advanced trigonometry, and by 14 his teachers would stand dumbstruck in admiration at his mathematical prowess. Nicknamed “the man who knew infinity”, Ramanujan excelled in number theory and modular functions. He also made significant contributions to the development of partition functions and summation formulas involving constants such as pi.

But as a schoolboy he could not concentrate on other subjects besides maths and flunked his secondary school exams. He was poor and was often pushed to the point of starvation.

Working as a clerk in the port of Madras, he wrote letters to Cambridge mathematicians in 1912 and early 1913. On his third attempt he found a sympathetic G H Hardy, who was keen to help the poor and disadvantaged over the “confident, booming, imperialist bourgeois English”.

Initially Hardy thought Ramanujan’s 10-page letter, containing more than 100 statements of mathematical theorems, was a prank. He later realised that the “results must be true because, if they were not true, no one would have the imagination to invent them”.

Hardy, one of the pre-eminent mathematicians of the day, said that they were so advanced that “not one [theorem] could have been set in the most advanced mathematical examination in the world”. Hardy said of the theorems that “many of them defeated me completely; I had never seen anything in the least like them before”.

He later recalled of Ramanujan: “I remember once going to see [him] when he was lying ill at Putney. I had ridden in taxi cab number 1729 and remarked that the number seemed to me rather a dull one, and that I hoped it was not an unfavourable omen. ‘No,’ he replied, ‘it is a very interesting number; it is the smallest number expressible as the sum of two cubes in two different ways.’”

Stephen Fry came to learn about Ramanujan and G H Hardy while at Cambridge. The director Dev Benegal’s passion to tell this story dates back some 20 years, to when he travelled the entire length of the river Kaveri in a small round boat made of dried palm leaves and came past the towns of Erode and Kumbakonam, where Ramanujan was born and studied. The story has haunted him for years, but never found any interest among the Indian film community. A chance encounter in 2005 led to Fry and Benegal discovering their shared passion.

Benegal told the BBC: “What is amazing is that two people from two completely different backgrounds found a common language in the world of numbers and maths.

“For me, Ramanujan’s work and ideas are the DNA of what powers digital technology today. When your automated teller machines divide and arrange your money before coughing it up, they are all using Ramanujan’s partition theory.”

— The Independent

Nitish Kumar consolidates hold on Bihar
by Ambarish Dutta

AS the ruling NDA completed 100 days in office last week,Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is firmly in the saddle and has established his supremacy both in the party and the government.

Known for his sagacity, Mr Nitish Kumar’s selection of JD(U) nominees for the ensuing biennial Rajya Sabha was indeed a political masterstroke.

Of the three JD(U) candidates, the most crucial choice was the low-profile, Md. Ali Anwar, a former journalist and leader of the Pasmanda Muslim Mahaj comprising backward Muslims.

Apart from the selection of the JD(U) nominees, obviously sidelining party President George President and party’s Parliamentary Board Chairman Sharad Yadav, at least in matters relating to Bihar, Mr Nitish Kumar also made a calculated move, welcoming the fielding of Ranjan Yadav as the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) candidate for the sixth Rajya Sabha seat.

The selection of candidates for the Rajya Sabha poll, where Mr Nitish Kumar even persuaded the BJP to compromise with just one candidate by renominating the former Union Minister Ravishanker Prasad, clearly confirmed his pre-eminent position in state politics.

Besides, in the administrative front too the Chief Minister seems to be fast consolidating his grip. Despite over 102 kidnappings and 300 murders in first three months of NDA rule, there is a palpable change in the attitude of the police and the administration in terms of accountability.

Much to the satisfaction of Mr Kumar, there has been least violence during Holi celebrations this year, perhaps the most peaceful Holi in the recent past in a state where last year there were over 20 murders on a single day. There has been a sharp decline in the crime graph too in the past fortnight.

For the first time in the past two decades, the people of Patna were amazed to see an over-active administration bulldozing an illegal car showroom run by an influential politician-turned-businessman, Amar Pandey, on the Dak Bangalow road.

The Nitish Kumar government also talked tough with the erring doctors by conducting raids and catching over half a dozen prominent doctors for female foeticide.

And above all, after more than a decade the state Assembly has experienced the presentation of a full-fledged budget and not a vote-on-account as had been the practice during RJD rule backed by the Congress and the Left.

Patna this time missed a “kapda phar Holi”(tearing clothes), a brand associated with Mr Lalu Prasad, as the new incumbent at 1 Anne Marg, Mr Nitish Kumar, did not believe in such media-centric gimmicks.

The clarion call by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the NRI conclave in Hyderabad in January this year urging them to come forward to invest in Bihar and open accolades showered on Mr Nitish Kumar as the best parliamentarian by Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee have only confirmed his credibility.

The increased allocation in Plan expenditure for Bihar for 2006-07 by the Planning Commission, from a litle over Rs 5,000 crore in last fiscal to over the Rs 8,000 crore in the coming fiscal, also cannot be overlooked.

One can also not ignore the “government-at-doorstep” programme, conceived by Chief Secretary G.S.Kang, to tackle the problems of underdevelopment in the 16 Naxal-affected districts, to bridge the gap betwen the public and the administration.

From the pages of

March 25, 1931

BHAGAT SINGH AND SUKHDEV EXECUTED
Dead bodies secretly disposed of

LAHORE, March 23: Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Raj Guru were executed at about 7.15 p.m. on Monday.

About that time loud and continued shouts of “Inqilab Zindabad” emerged from inside the Central Jail, and these shouts made the people in the locality suspect that the executions were taking place.

Earlier in the day, two petitions, filed in connection with their case, had been rejected by the High Court. Counsel telegraphed to the Viceroy to stay execution as they were moving the Privy Council against the order of the High Court.

Unfortunately, owing to certain conditions imposed by the jail authorities, the relations of the prisoners could not even interview them.

Bhagat Singh’s letter to Governor

Bhagat Singh and his comrades while refusing to make any petition for mercy, in the course of a letter to the Governor of the Punjab, asked to be shot dead. “The only thing we want to point out, they said, is that according to the verdict of your Court we are said to have been waging war and are consequently war prisoners. Therefore we claim to be treated as such, i.e., we claim to be shot dead instead of being hanged. It rests with you now to prove that you seriously meant what your Court has said and prove it through action. We very earnestly request you and hope that you will very kindly order the Military Department to send a detachment or a shooting party to perform our executions.” (March 25, 1931)

Executions and after

Few mistakes made by the British Government in India in recent years are comparable either in their magnitude or their seriousness with its failure to commute the death sentences of Bhagat Singh, Raj Guru and Sukhdev. No criminal case within living memory had made such a tremendous sensation in the country, and in no previous case had so strong and so universal a demand been made for the commutation of death sentences. The Sholapur case affords the nearest parallel, but while the demand for the commutation of the sentences of the Sholapur prisoners was confined to the intelligentsia in one Province, the agitation in the present case was nation-wide and was participated in by hundreds of thousands of people in the Punjab and by a very large number of people in other Provinces.

The reason is not far to seek. The circumstances of the case, the succession of hunger strikes, the martyrdom of Jatindranath Das, the protracted and more or less farcical proceedings in the Special Magistrate’s court, the part played by the police and the Executive in those proceedings, the Ordinance, the ex parte proceedings before the Special Tribunal constituted under it and one or two extremely regretable incidents in that court, and all the rest of them, not excluding the well-known fact that the three prisoners had to the last refused to make any petition for mercy, had invested the case with a peculiar character… (March 26, 1931)