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Brake on SEZs Settle through talks |
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Cricket conundrum
Trial by fire
Contented living
Forsyth falters on facts Lighting up the hills Defence notes Mars’ mystery “face” decoded
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Brake on SEZs Commerce
Minister Kamal Nath has said that special economic zones (SEZs) will not be allowed on prime agricultural land. The Board of Approval will not clear proposals of SEZs coming up on fertile land. This follows Mrs Sonia Gandhi’s caution, delivered at Nainital, against the diversion of farmland for non-agricultural uses. The idea of taking industry to undeveloped areas is laudable but industry has its own requirements. It needs a congenial environment and basic facilities to grow and survive stiff competition. The government decision is more election-driven than aimed at developing backward areas. Farmers at Amritsar and elsewhere had protested against the government move to forcibly acquire their land at cheap rates for setting up SEZs. Since Punjab is going to the polls early next year, the Congress leadership has responded to the farmers’ protests. The virtual ban on SEZs on fertile land will hit the growth of industry in Punjab. The decision has put a question mark on the future of the proposed SEZ at Amritsar. The SEZ proposals for Mohali and Dera Bassi may not get approval since these are to come up on prime agricultural land only. Land prices had risen steeply in these towns in expectation of the SEZs. Punjab has very limited barren land. The government will have a tough time in convincing industry to relocate their projects in the backward areas. The wisdom behind locating SEZs on non-agricultural land cannot be challenged. But industry comes up where infrastructure is sufficient and modern life is possible. Education and health facilities are adequate. State governments lack funds and the will to develop remote and backward areas to enable industry to grow. This may slow down the expected 8-10 per cent GDP growth, which hinges largely on the China-type clusters of industry coming up with flexible labour laws and tax concessions. The country’s food security is also necessary. Punjab and Haryana, the main contributors to the Central kitty, may have to continue with the wheat-paddy cycle.
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Settle through talks THE Supreme Court has advised the chief ministers to resolve inter-state river water and boundary disputes among themselves through dialogue and discussion. The court does not want the chief ministers to knock on its doors time and again. The problem with the chief ministers is that, without any exception, they seem to be abdicating their responsibility in this regard for petty political considerations. Instead of finding solutions to such problems, they prefer to pass the buck to the court by seeking adjudication. Far worse is the fact that these states try to overreach themselves by enacting legislation with a view to short-circuiting the court orders. By doing so, the states question the very authority and legitimacy of the judiciary in the constitutional scheme of things. Punjab’s role in the Sutlej-Yamuna Link Canal issue is a typical example of how a state government can go to any length to circumvent the apex court’s orders. Just two days before the expiry of the court’s deadline to the state to start construction of the canal, the Punjab Assembly, at a special session on July 13, 2004, unanimously passed the Punjab Termination of Agreements Bill, 2004. Consequently, it nullified its approval of the landmark tripartite river water-sharing agreement with Haryana and Rajasthan on December 31, 1981. Suffice it to mention, a similar ordinance passed by the Karnataka Assembly in the Cauvery river waters dispute 15 years ago was struck down by the Supreme Court as null and void. Any dispute — be it the Sutlej-Yamuna Link Canal, the sharing of the Cauvery river waters between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu or the Godavari river waters between Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh — can be resolved through talks among the respective chief ministers in a spirit of give and take. As the apex court has said, adjudication is not the best means of settling such disputes. Mutual agreement through negotiations is the best course. One should also not lose sight of the fact that courts will take years to adjudicate and, still, would find it difficult to satisfy both parties.
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Cricket conundrum Cricket
may be a game of glorious uncertainties but it is also a game of inglorious controversies. If there is no controversy, then someone takes it into his head to rake up one, for reasons good or ill. Right now, there’s nothing to get worked up about over Greg Chappell, Sourav Ganguly or Jagmohan Dalmiya; not even a breeze over which of the two Indian cultures — agriculture or cricket — keeps Big Boss Sharad Pawar more busy with. When we can’t get a good, homegrown controversy going, we simply ‘import’ it, the ‘foreign’ of every kind being a national favourite. This time around, the balloon floated is whether foreigners should be allowed to play domestic cricket. And, of course, on any “issue”, or non-issue, the opinion is evenly divided in this country with two people having three opinions. First surfaces a media report that West Indies paceman Jermaine Lawson has agreed to play for Maharashtra in the Ranji Trophy. Then the question is posed to an official of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). The BCCI official reads from the book that this is not allowed, though it is more of an understanding than an inflexible rule. It is too important a non-issue to be ignored, so all that is required is to ask, pick and purvey the opinions of other BCCI officials and we have the news that the BCCI is split over the issue of whether foreign cricketers should play in Indian teams. True, cricket is a ‘foreign’ game, which Indians have mastered much like the English language, and India is leagues ahead of the country from where it got the game. In fact, India and its ex-colonial neighbour Pakistan are to international cricket what the US is to the global economy. There is no dearth of cricket talent in India as selectors are confronted with an embarrassment of riches. Instead of asking whether we need to import foreign cricketers, it would be more relevant to ask whether we should cash in by exporting the probables who don’t make it to the playing eleven as often as they should.
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Hush! Hush! Whisper who dares!/Christopher Robin is saying his prayers. — A. A. Milne
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Trial by fire
I
have confronted death and defied it several times in the past because destiny and fate have always smiled on me.” “… unlike most leaders, I am also a soldier, Chief of the Army Staff and Supreme Commander of my country’s Armed Forces. I am cut out to be in the midst of battle-trained, prepared and equipped. Fate and confluence of events have seen to it that Pakistan and I are in the thick of the fight against terrorism, caught right in the middle. My training has made me constantly ready for the assignment.” This is how General Musharraf describes himself in his filmy style narration in his book, “In the Line of Fire”. His self-centered bluff and bluster, Kashmir obsession and anti-Indian mindset (“Not even my dead body would be landed in India”) would surprise only those who do not know General Musharraf. The General is a master of fabrication. Starting his book’s Chapter 11, “The Kargil Conflict”, he writes, “1999 may have been the most momentous year of my life, assassination attempts notwithstanding. The events of that year, and the fall of 1998, dramatically catapulted me from soldiering to leading the destiny of the nation…It is time to lay bare what has been shrouded in mystery.” And then reveals the “mystery” as “Indian plan of an offensive was pre-empted….The initiative was wrested from them… finding a solution to Kashmir is owed to the Kargil conflict.” General Musharraf claims that after taking over as Pakistan Army Chief (October 9, 1998), he learnt that India had reported five “make-belief attacks” in October-early November, and that the Indians were on the verge of attacking the Shaqma sector (opposite Dras-Kargil) in the summer of 1999 because (a) India had been “creeping forward” across the LoC ever since the Simla Agreement, (b) had not moved two reserve brigades out of Kargil-Ladakh during winter 1998-99, (c) procured large quantities of high altitude equipment and special weapons, and (d) Mr George Fernandes was visiting Siachen and Kargil frequently. Based on this logic, he approved a “defensive maneuvre” by Pakistan 10 Corps/FCNA for “plugging the gaps” in mid-January 1999. (So much for our own intelligence brass who keep insisting that they had informed the government about the impending attack in June 1998!) General Musharraf states, “The troops were given special instructions not to cross the watershed along the LoC”. Subsequently, he boasts that by May 15, the “freedom fighters occupied over 800 sq km of Indian occupied territory….I was kept informed of all movements of freedom fighters from March 1999 onwards….Our maneuvre was conducted flawlessly, a tactical marvel of military professionalism.” Will the Indian political establishment note General Musharraf’s acknowledgement that the Pakistan Army had (has) full control over jehadis operating in J and K? During the Kargil war, the Pakistan Army brass, masters in operating behind smoke-screens, kept insisting that their regular troops were not involved in Kargil conflict. They also insisted that the LoC was vague, and Pakistan Army patrols, if any, were in “no man’s land”. General Musharraf has now lifted the veil over the mujahideen façade and acknowledged that Pakistani troops occupied Indian territory, thus deliberately violating the delineated LoC. While the credit for “a flawless tactical marvel of military professionalism” during the initial part of the Kargil intrusion cannot be denied to Pakistani soldiers, such “military professionalism” is obviously not mujahideen’s cup of tea! Lieut-Gen Nadeem Ahmad of Pakistan, while briefing an American team in January 2003, had confirmed that “there were no jehadis or mujahideen operating in concert with the Pakistan Army”. General Musharraf’s narration conveys as if he was unaware of the preparations for the Lahore talks. He paints a poor picture of his own intelligence and others’ naivety. India neither had two reserve brigades north of Zojila nor was planning any offensive across the LoC. He remains silent on the tele-conversation between him and his Chief of General Staff of May 29-30, 1999, tele-conversations and the meeting of the DGMOs, and on abandoning hundreds of dead bodies of Northern Light Infantry soldiers in Indian territory. He does not talk of poor logistical planning for Pakistani troops; some of them, when captured, had been without ration and water for days, or his own inability seen through the strategic implications of this commando-like operation. In passing the buck of his fiasco entirely to his political boss, General Musharraf claims that Mr Nawaz Sharif was briefed right through January to July 1999. On dealing with Mr Sharif, whom he later ousted, he portrays himself as an unbelievably weak and timid Pakistan Army Chief. The “Prime Minister asked me several times whether we should accept a ceasefire and withdraw. My answer every time was restricted to the optimistic military situation, leaving the political decision to him. He wanted to fire the gun from my shoulder, but it was not my place to offer it.” And then writes, “As the Chief of the Army Staff I found myself in a very difficult position. I wanted to explain the military situation, to demonstrate how successful it had been, and point out the political mishandling, which had caused so much despair. But that would have been disloyal, and very unsettling for the political leadership.” He expresses “consternation” about Mr Sharif flying to the US on July 3, 1999, and writes “…the military situation was favourable: the political decision has to be his (Sharif’s). He went off and decided on a ceasefire. It remains a mystery to me why he was in such a hurry” and ignores evidence to the contrary. Gen Anthony Zinni, commander-in-chief of the US Central Command, a close friend of General Musharraf, who visited Islamabad on June 24-25, 1999, has written in his book, “Battle Ready”, “The problem with the Pakistani leadership was the apparent national loss of face…. What we (the US) were able to offer was a meeting with President Clinton, which would end the isolation that had long been the state of affairs between our two countries, but would announce the meeting only after a withdrawal of forces. That got Musharraf’s attention: and he encouraged Prime Minister Sharif to hear me out.” Mr Sharif told Raj Chengappa (India Today) that General Musharraf asked him: ‘Why don’t you meet Clinton? Why don’t you ask him to bring about a settlement?” General Musharraf’s factually incorrect and unconvincing narrative on the Kargil war is an attempt to whitewash a dark chapter of the Pakistan Army under his leadership: of taking a military initiative that went horribly wrong - militarily, diplomatically and politically. Besides the loss of face on the battlefield, his foolhardy isolated Pakistan, with its credibility touching an all-time low. Politically, it became yet another humiliation. When truth about the Kargil intrusion filtered out in Pakistan, those responsible for the catastrophe were vehemently condemned. A trenchant volley of criticism and agony came from senior retired military officers, top-notch journalists and political leaders, which are well recorded in the Pakistani media. At one place, General Musharraf states, “On our side, I am ashamed to say, our political leadership insinuated that the achievements of our troops amounted to a ‘debacle’. The Pakistan Army was called a ‘Rogue Army’ by some.” This, in fact, was the language used in the Pakistani media. “In the Line of Fire”, General Musharraf comes across stingy on truth, a bluff master, and a megalomaniac. That raises the question of trusting him. Like in the case of many Pakistanis, I don’t. The writer was the Chief of Army Staff during the Kargil war
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Contented living HOW does one assess the honesty level of any person? I posed this question to a retired judge who often met me during morning walks. He opined that one quick way of concluding whether a person is of greedy mind or not is to measure his yearning for worldly belongings. Normally certain traits can be checked in daily life of a person and this question mark continued to linger in my mind. One of my neighbours hailing from Kashmir had taken voluntary retirement from a multinational company in a senior appointment. His family enjoyed prestigious position in social service organisations as well as in corporate circles. We were quite close to them for the past 35 years. Now time had come to marry their two computer engineer sons. Offer from suitable higher placed prosperous and wealthy girls started pouring in. These included postgraduate girls having Dubai and Singapore based parents with considerable landed property in India. Boys’ parents declined such offers and selected just professional middle class family girls. Simple invitation cards were sent to about 1500 relatives and friends for the common reception to be held in a marriage hall located on Zirakpur-Panchkula road. The invitation cards specifically stated that no gifts of any description were to be brought for newly wedded couples. Well-wishers were just to bless the couples. Some guests who brought expensive gifts were politely asked to take these back to their vehicles. The embargo was also on bouquets or garlands. On persuation, however, parents of bridegrooms consented to have just one rose flower stem to be presented to the newly weds. In contrast what happened in a marriage reception hosted by a senior politician of Chandigarh attended by about 5000 persons? It is said that presents from guests included many amounting to several lakhs of rupees. Besides there were presents of jewellery from many relatives. Above all, there were gifts from persons who sought favours. The reception scene convinced me that there were around us contended families with no greed to collect valuable gifts. Perhaps, it was a clear answer to my quest for those striving to live a contented life resisting a craving for more and more. Certainly it requires a lot of courage of conviction and determination to deny oneself a lot of easy
gain!
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Forsyth falters on facts
I WAS inspired to buy Frederick Forsyth’s latest offering, The Afghan, by my friend and Malayalam writer N.S. Madhavan’s column in a mass-circulation Malayalam daily. The desire was solidified by a front-page report in The Indian Express which dealt with the book’s India connection. Forsyth is a master of the crime thriller, whose books are known as much for their contemporariness as for the meticulous research that goes into their writing. Both qualities are in evidence in The Afghan (Corgi Books) though a pacifist would find the killings, the slashings, the bunker-bustings and mass murders described in detail in the book wholly loathsome. But, then, loathsome is the subject of the thriller, which revolves around the chance discovery of a Toshiba laptop that belonged to a senior Al-Qaeda financier by a British and US intelligence group. Every byte in that computer is analysed to understand how the shadowy Al-Qaeda operates. Thus they come across an Arabic word, Al-Isra, which the sleuths are certain is a code signifying a major terrorist attack in the works. Five eminent scholars of the Quran are brought together to decipher the Arabic text found in the laptop. They do not have to scratch their head to remember that Al-Isra refers to a revelation in the life of the Prophet. “In his dream he was transported from the depths of modern Saudi Arabia across deserts and mountains to the city of Jerusalem, then a holy city only to Christians and Jews”. In other words, Al-Isra is central to the Islamic faith. While the scholars of the Quran have no clue that the Al-Isra in the Al-Qaeda laptop referred to a planned attack, the intelligence authorities are certain that what is planned is an operation of the kind the world witnessed on 9/11. The ability of the intelligence is in preventing terrorist attacks but the question is how to prevent Al-Isra. To plant a spy in the upper echelons of Osama bin Laden’s organisation has always been the dream of Western intelligence agencies. A casual comment made by one of the Quran scholars in an unguarded moment that his brother, Col Mike Martin, a veteran of war zones around the world, who is dark, lean, born and raised in Iraq could fill the bill, opens a window of opportunity to the CIA. Planting a mole in an ultra-secret organisation like the Al-Qaeda is easier said than done. It calls for elaborate planning. Finally, they zero in on Izmat Khan, a five-year prisoner of Guantanamo Bay and former senior commander of the Taliban. That Mike Martin knew Izmat Khan as a lad and a fighter in the war against the Soviets makes the latter’s task easier. He can pass off as Izmat Khan. Mike Martin who speaks many Arabic dialects is able to memorise most of the verses in the Quran and is taught not only to pray five times but also lead a congregation in prayer. His transformation is so complete that he is able to withstand the endless grilling by a Kuwaiti, Western-educated, highly-radicalised and close confidante of Osama bin Laden. At the end of the questioning, he is admitted to the small group formed to execute Al-Isra. But the Afghan does not know what exactly Al-Isra is till in a split second he averts a major catastrophe that would have put 9/11 in the shade. I refrain from giving an inkling of how the book ends for fear that it would deprive the reader of the pleasure of reading The Afghan till the end. The details of the sophisticated equipment and technology that the intelligence agencies employ which the author gives are breathtaking. But none of his characters has life; they are like the powerful but lifeless machines they operate. Small wonder that Mike Martin’s love affair and eventual marriage to a young lady is described in half a sentence. Mike Martin’s maternal grandmother was an Indian, Indira Bohse from Darjeeling, who fell in love with a British tea garden official. The book does not have many details about them except that in order to cover up their torrid affair, the Englishman was transferred to Assam. When the war broke out, he left for the war while “she returned to her culture”, whatever that means. And she died during the Partition disturbances! Ever heard of any person in Darjeeling having died during Partition riots? Forsyth refers to the Bhopal gas disaster and says it was caused “by dioxin, a deadly weedkiller” when everybody knows the killer gas was methyl iso-cynate (MIC). Again, Karachi is in Sindh, not Baluchistan. He makes a sweeping statement which is far removed from reality when he states, “He was not aware that the radicalisation of Indian Muslims has been just as vigorous as in Pakistan, or that Kerala, once the hotbed of Communism, has been particularly receptive territory for Islamist extremism”. Kerala is as much a “hotbed” of communism today as it was in 1957 when the Communists first came to power through the democratic process. As regards “Islamist extremism”, the people in the southern state will laugh at the comparison Frederick Forsyth makes. All this, however, does not detract from the readability of The Afghan for those who like this genre of books.
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Lighting up the
hills IT is a dream come true for residents of at least 420 remote and mountainous villages in the border areas of Jammu and Kashmir, where the traditional watermills (gharats) have started generating electricity to light bulbs in the households. The task has been accomplished by the Army under its Operation Sadbhavana. The army has identified 1000 watermills in far-flung and inaccessible areas for being converted into micro-power houses. Just a few, minor, mechanical modifications are required in these traditional mills for this purpose, that have so far only been grinding corn. Residents of the villages where each watermill has started generating 2 to 3 kws of electricity are full of joy as they never imagined that they could have a bulb in their house. Every household was allowed to install one bulb and in certain villages the streets have also been lit. The Hillkaka village in the forward area of the Poonch district, which was three years ago under the virtual captivity of terrorists, now has its own electricity generating watermill. Residents of the Nilgrar, Barsada and Kolale villages were thrilled to see the bulbs light up their houses. The army had started converting these watermills into power houses just a year ago and as many as 420 villages and hamlets have been lit. The financial back up is also provided by the ministry of non-conventional energy sources (MNES) and under the Border Area Development Programme (BADP). Of the 420 projects commissioned so far, 289 were under Operation Sadbhavana, 95 under the BADP and 52 supported by the MNES. The highest number of 435 projects was being supported by the MNES which has already provided a grant of Rs.8.70 crores for the purpose. According to sources in the MNES, 100 villages in Ladakh, 550 in Kashmir and 350 in Jammu will be lit by constructing micro-power projects. The project has been taken in hand under the prime minister’s reconstruction plan that provides for constructing 1000 such power houses in the remote areas of the state. The government has now realized that the mini and micro power projects were the answer to remove darkness from the far-flung villages. The big power projects were not only time consuming, but have also failed to supply electricity to the border areas in the past 60 years. However, red-tape in the bureaucracy continues to delay execution of the 10 mini-power projects that chief minister Ghulam Nabi Azad had himself cleared eight months ago. According to a spokesman of the army, the technology kit for upgrading the watermills to perform multi-utility functions have been devised in consultation with a Dehradun based NGO. Apart from performing the traditional function of corn grinding and cotton combing, the watermill would generate 1 to 8 kilowatts of electricity and also run the lathe machine.
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Defence notes THE Indian Air Force (IAF) is planning to arm its Jaguar deep penetration strike aircraft with long range anti-ship missiles, to boost its maritime warfare capability. The force has already issued the Request for Proposals and Boeing and the French-led European consortium MBDA are among the competitors bidding for the contract. The Indian order for these missiles could be large, as the same missiles may be deployed on long range maritime reconnaissance aircraft to be acquired by the navy. Boeing is offering the Harpoon missiles, and the French, the Exocet. The Navy has also floated international tenders for purchase of eight advanced Naval spy planes. Boeing, with its new P-8, and Lockheed Martin, with its P3C Orions, are the main contenders for the Navy’s order.
Exercises with RAF After holding much publicised air exercises with the US and French Air Forces, the IAF will now match skills for the first time with British Royal Air Force (RAF) fighters, for a week in the skies over Gwalior and Agra air bases from October 6. The IAF would be deploying its Russian acquired Sukhoi-30 MKI’s, upgraded Mig-21 Bisons and ground attack Mig-27 jet fighters against the Royal Air Force’s Tornado F-3 fighters. The RAF would also be deploying its Airborne Early Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft, the E3-D, and VC-10 mid-air re-fuellers in the exercises. Royal Air Force Chief Air Chief Marshal Sir Glenn Torpy would also be visiting India and viewing the manoeuvres over Gwalior.
Attrition in the forces There has been a major outflow of technical persons from the Indian Armed Forces in the last few years. As per the details available, as many as 174 pilots have left the IAF in the last two years, while the outflow from the Navy has been 28 pilots. The Army has lost three pilots and the Indian Coast Guard three. A large number of doctors have also left the armed forces. As many as 71 doctors have left the Army Medical Corps while two doctors have left the Army Dental Corps. Amongst the engineers, it the Army which has seen the maximum outflow with 167 leaving in the last two years. The navy has seen 112 engineers leaving and the Air Force 106.
Special abilities The Army Wives Welfare Association (AWWA) celebrated 40 years of its existence by dedicating an evening to the special children of its Asha Schools. The children presented dances and skits with great dexterity, proving their “Ability beyond Disability”. An exhibition was also organized by AWWA to showcase its mandate of ‘Reaching The Unreached’, which is a joint effort of AWWA and the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment (to include the Artificial Limb Manufacturing Corporation), to reach out to the local population of remote areas of the
country.
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Mars’ mystery
“face” decoded THE best images ever taken of the much-discussed “face on Mars” have conclusively established that it is an unusual formation of mountains, valleys and landslides. Cameras on the European Space Agency’s Mars Express satellite cut through the atmospheric dust and haze in July to provide clear images of the “face” in the planet’s Cydonia region. Project scientist Agustin Chicarro said the photos “not only provide a completely fresh and detailed view of an area famous to fans of space myths worldwide but also provide an impressive close-up of an area of great interest for planetary geologists.” The “face on Mars” became a sensation in 1976, when the Viking 1 probe sent back distant images of a Martian landscape that appeared to include a gigantic human face. A NASA news release at the time said the formation “resembles a human head,” setting off speculation that it was created by intelligent beings. NASA scientists had already concluded the “face” was actually an optical illusion caused by the unusual play of light and the formation’s surface, but public speculation continued even after a later Mars probe sent back more detailed pictures in 1998 and 2001. Based on the new photos, scientists said the “face” has many landslides of rock debris and a developing “debris apron.” But even as it debunked the notion of a formation created by intelligent beings, the ESA noted that a “naturally skull-shaped structure” was also seen in the Cydonia region. By arrangement with
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There are many oceans in this world. Their water lap the shores of may lands, very different from each other. Yet wherever they may be, their water taste salty. So is it with love. — The Buddha There is sickness in their hearts, and God has made them sicker, and theirs is a painful torment, because they were in fact lying. — The Koran
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