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Justice at last! Lalu’s laugh —
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Jail or rest house? Criminal laxity at Kot Bhalwal A jail may be a reformation centre for an ordinary criminal but when it comes to noted criminals and even militants and terrorists, it is no more than a rest and recuperation centre. This shocking fact has been underlined yet again by the riots that broke out at the Kot Bhalwal jail near Jammu housing many notorious militants, including several from Pakistan and Afghanistan.
N-deal unfair to
India
Leaves of memory
Pakistan not doing
enough against rebels: US intelligence Lankan refugee
pressure increases in Tamil Nadu Delhi
Durbar
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Lalu’s laugh — not the last MORE than the acquittal of Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav and his wife Rabri Devi in the disproportionate assets (DA) case, it is the setback the Central Bureau of Investigation has suffered that is noteworthy. It was unable to prove that the high-profile couple, which ruled the state for more than a decade, amassed property worth Rs 46 lakh beyond their known sources of income. The CBI has announced it will appeal against the verdict but this does not deter from the fact that it did a shoddy job in its investigation. Given the kind of claims made by Mrs Rabri Devi that she derived a huge income by selling milk from the cattle she reared at the official 1, Anne Marg, Patna, residence, it should not have been difficult for the premier investigating agency to pick holes in the claims. Of course, Rs 46 lakh is small change for a politician like Lalu Yadav, who would have spent much more on the marriage reception of his second daughter. However, hearsay is not admissible in court where clinching evidence has to be provided. It is on this score the CBI has failed. The acquittal raises questions about the fodder case against the Railway Minister. After all, the case about wealth in excess followed from the CBI investigation into the fodder case, which began when it was detected that huge sums of money were being paid to fictitious suppliers of fodder. The chance discovery of the racket at Chaibasa, which was then part of Bihar, led to the finding that it involved hundreds of crores of rupees and it had been going on even before Lalu became Chief Minister in 1990. Doubts have arisen about the sincerity of the CBI in pursuing the fodder case against the minister, particularly after a superintendent of police-rank CBI officer investigating the case suddenly sought voluntary retirement when he was transferred to New Delhi. The Jharkhand High Court had to intervene and stay the transfer. Whether Mr Lalu Prasad Yadav is proved guilty of possessing wealth beyond his means or not will ultimately depend on the outcome of the investigation in the fodder scam by the same CBI, which regulates the speed of its inquiry on the convenience of the party in power at the Centre. |
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Jail or rest house? A jail may be a reformation centre for an ordinary criminal but when it comes to noted criminals and even militants and terrorists, it is no more than a rest and recuperation centre. This shocking fact has been underlined yet again by the riots that broke out at the Kot Bhalwal jail near Jammu housing many notorious militants, including several from Pakistan and Afghanistan. They were resisting search operations launched in the jail following the recovery of cellphones and SIM cards. This was much more than a security lapse. The militants had been given VIP treatment by the jail staff itself. The prison, which has earlier housed the likes of Masood Azhar, who was escorted to Kabul to secure release of hijacked passengers of IC-814 flight in December, 1999, was clandestinely providing VIP comfort to militants, including TV sets and video games. This was almost a replay of Chandigarh’s Burail jail which the alleged killers of the then Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh had virtually taken over and ultimately found their way out of it simply by digging a tunnel. Discipline should have been absolutely strict at Kot Bhalwal, but it was as good as non-existent. The then Jail Superintendent, Sheikh Rashid, who seized two cellphones from the prisoners, was not only transferred last month but also placed under suspension. Now that even the Director-General (Prisons) speaks of “possible nexus” between the jail staff and prison -mates, it is mandatory to pay heed to Sheikh Rashid’s allegations. He has named three senior officers, including one Under Secretary in the Home Department. He may have been wrong in going to the Press on the matter, but there is no reason why the government should dismiss his allegations out of hand, now that the real picture of what is happening in the high-security jail has come to light. At last, the government is thinking of shifting some of the trouble-making prisoners to other jails. This should have been done much earlier. In any case, they will be able to foment trouble in other jails too if they get equally pliable staff there. It is a matter of extreme shame and concern that even the most dangerous militants are allowed to have such a long rope and their accomplices in the jail administration go unpunished. |
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Three hours a day will produce as much as a man ought to write.
— Anthony Trollope |
N-deal unfair to India The
Indian system does not require parliamentary approval of the treaties the government of the day enters into, but the sharp divisions the Indo-US nuclear deal has caused among opinion-makers represent a danger signal for the Manmohan Singh coalition. The overarching Hyde Bill passed by the two Houses of US Congress is so patently unfair to India in the restrictions it seeks to impose and so far from the assurances given by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to Parliament that it scarcely deserves a second look. Yet the arguments advanced by government spokesmen are obfuscating the issue, instead of clarifying it. First, it is important to distinguish between the highly desirable aim of building good relations with the US, the sole surviving super power, and accepting a faulty deal. India’s desire for a nuclear deal stemmed from its objective of moving out of the nuclear apartheid imposed upon it after the first test in the seventies and in particular to tap nuclear energy for a higher rate of economic growth. The country is short of the fuel needed to keep power reactors going and commission new ones. The American effort to build a closer relationship with India was a starting point. The July 18, 2005, joint statement of President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh struck what was generally viewed as a fair bargain in setting out bench marks for nuclear cooperation. This was followed in 2006 by an agreed separation plan to designate civilian nuclear plants subject to strict international inspections after some haggling. What then transpired were a succession of intense negotiations at the official level to try to agree on the contours of a US legislation that would precede a bilateral treaty. Instead of walking away from the Bill after it emerged out of a reconciliation committee of the two Houses because it contained unacceptable provisions, New Delhi prevaricated. It advanced the specious argument that the country should wait for the bilateral 123 Agreement that has yet to be negotiated and signed. It is ridiculous to suggest that any bilateral nuclear agreement would not be within the compass of the Hyde Bill or escape US Congressional scrutiny. Why is the Hyde formulation so offensive? Judging by the debates within and outside the US Congress, the US and India were following very divergent aims. The main American objective was how to constrain India’s weapons programme and bring the country into the non-proliferation regime. India’s energy needs were made subservient to US geo-political goals. In the process, the Bill strikes at virtually every assurance given by the Prime Minister to his country. The whole objective is to bring India into the US orbit and bind it hand and foot to a nuclear regime that seeks to cap India’s nuclear weapons programme, make it a virtual signatory to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Washington itself has refused to sign, convert New Delhi’s voluntary commitment not to conduct future tests into a treaty commitment and keep any nuclear plants the country might obtain subject to minimal fuel supply, which would depend upon annual certifications by the US President. In fact, the character of the Hyde effort, as it has finally emerged, is so blatantly tilted against India that the government’s attitude of pretending otherwise is jarring. It is putting logic on its head to suggest that the proposed bilateral treaty will undo the wrongs of the main legislation passed by the US Congress. Far from treating India as a nuclear weapons power in all but name, it has been specifically placed in the non-weapon category to be made subject to the intrusive Additional Protocol reserved for non-nuclear weapon powers. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s determination to proceed with Indo-US nuclear cooperation must be ascribed to political reasons. Obviously, New Delhi would like to utilise the rather new American interest in coming closer to India to promote the country’s interests. The July agreement last year elevated nuclear cooperation to a high symbolic level denoting a new era in what has been a troubled relationship. The problem is that the onerous and subservient terms offered would help to create new resentments, rather than cultivate closer relations. Although the injection of new technology and extra fuel is highly desirable, India can live with its indigenous nuclear programme if necessary. In any event, the projected share of nuclear energy in the country’s power basket is a mere few percentage points in the foreseeable future while current domestic research in thorium technology is at an interesting stage. To sacrifice the country’s autonomy in the nuclear field and become a virtual client state of the United States does not make sense. On the domestic political plane, the Bharatiya Janata Party has opposed the nuclear deal on the basis of publicly expressed reservations of a group of nuclear scientists involved in nuclear research and development in the past. The main Left party, the CPM, has also objected to it in somewhat more ambiguous terms. The Left is, of course, very conscious of the fact that it can bring the coalition government down, perhaps to the benefit of the BJP. The Manmohan Singh government’s more benign attitude towards nuclear cooperation with the United States perhaps also stems from America’s publicly expressed desire to make India a major power in the 21st century. This flies in the face of reality because no outside power can make another country great. It is true that for the first time since Indian independence there is a realistic chance of working in tandem with Washington to secure national goals. But the answer surely does not lie in becoming a client state. In short, India’s problem then boils down to deciding when to walk away from a proposed unequal deal. The longer the government prevaricates while trying to build support at home, the more painful the ultimate decision will be. Apart from the time and energy the Bush administration has expended on the deal, it has formed the leitmotif of the Prime Minister’s interactions with world leaders, including, most recently, Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Besides, India is compromising itself further in negotiating with the International Atomic Energy Agency. America has decreed that New Delhi must take its negotiations with the IAEA to a conclusion just short of signing before it will give its stamp of approval. The sooner the Manmohan Singh government realises that the nuclear deal is not worth the candle, the better it will be for placing relations with the United States on an even keel. Subservience does not
pay.
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Leaves of memory Beautiful
people have a way of wafting in and out of our lives. When Uma, who had been studying English and American literature at North Carolina in the US, came to Ambala to deliver a lecture on Henry James, celebrated American author, were we thrilled! Uma’s absorption in her subject was inspiring. My excitement at such a beautiful exposition on the author brimmed over when, conversing with Uma over a cup of tea after the lecture, I blurted out: “I’ve fallen in love with Henry James!” Being a trifle Americano, Uma must have felt relieved that she was with us while discussing the works by the author. Uma and I struck up a friendship. On a brief visit here, she was staying with her parents at Kurukshetra. Her father, Dr M.R. Tewari, the then Chairman of the Department of English, Kurukshetra University, was an expert on William Wordsworth and a scholar in his own right. It wasn’t the age of mobile phones or emails. So we kept in touch by writing to each other. Thanks to the art of letter writing, I still have Uma’s thoughts and ideas with me — frozen in time. Later I visited Uma and her parents at their beautiful home on the campus of Kurukshetra University. Uma was ready, with her exhortation, “Come and benefit from the ‘pleasure of our company’ and bask in the warmth of my radiant and charming personality for a few days. We can do all the walking that I haven’t done for the last few months.” Sometimes, to my confusion, there would be weeks of silence. Then all of a sudden, Uma would make amends. On one such occasion, she wrote, “Yes, indeed, I know and understand what it means to wait. In fact, I’m such an impatient person that waiting in any form and for anything fills me with disgust, anger and helplessness.” Uma’s spells of silence, however, only increased. She was drawn towards the study of philosophy, religion and metaphysics. “I’m passing through a rather strange phase of my life. Have you ever wondered why things happen the way they do? Is there a fixed plan and a distinct pattern behind the seemingly haphazard happenings of everyday life?” On April 13 of that year Uma got married to Rajan, a doctor in the US. She broke the news to me by saying, “I sometimes wonder if people ought to be congratulated when they take such a big step. In fact, good wishes ought to be the right thing for marriage is such a gamble — one never knows.” Later, Uma got a teaching assignment at Monash University, Melbourne, and she and Rajan chose to settle down in Australia. I knew I wouldn’t be able to see them for a long time. To quote Ahmed Faraz, the legendary Urdu poet of Pakistan, in a similar context, “Ye jaan kar bhi ke dono ke raaste the alag, ajeeb haal tha jab us se ho rahe the alag” (Even though I knew that our paths were distinct, strange was my plight at our
parting)”. |
Pakistan not doing enough against rebels: US intelligence
With
new fighting expected to break out this spring in Afghanistan, the Pakistan government will soon have to decide what it can do about the tribal authorities who have not been living up to their agreement to prevent Taliban and al-Qaida fighters from moving back and forth across the border, according to Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte. “Sooner or later the government will have to reckon with it,'” Negroponte said Thursday at a lunch with Washington Post editors and reporters. But with Pakistan elections coming, the United States understands that President Pervez Musharraf “has a domestic political balancing act to perform,” he added. In September, representatives of the Pakistani government signed agreements with tribal elders in North Waziristan that they would not allow border crossings “for any kind of militancy.” In return, the Pakistan army units withdrew from that area. Negroponte said Thursday that “tribal authorities are not living up to the deal” and that travel back and forth by the Taliban and others “causes serious problems.” While Negroponte said the growing Afghan insurgency is “no threat to the central government in Kabul,” he said it was unclear whether NATO forces are large enough to handle renewed fighting expected this spring when the weather clears. His downbeat assessment was supported by a recent report by Anthony Cordesman, a former Pentagon official who has just returned from Afghanistan where he received briefings from the U.S. embassy team, including U.S. military commanders. The Afghan insurgency grew this past year because of financial and military aid from a near-sanctuary in Pakistan, while the weak Kabul government has not received enough military and economic support from NATO and the U.S., according to Cordesman. “Patience, a long war strategy and adequate resources can make all the difference,” said Cordesman, who holds the Arleigh Burke Chair in Strategy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He said he came away from Afghanistan believing the effort could be successful, but that “development of effective government and economy will take at least five to ten years. ... No instant success is possible.” He told reporters Wednesday that a plan, approved by both the State and Defense departments, is now before the Office of Management and Budget from the U.S. embassy team in Kabul that calls for a two- to three-fold increase in aid to nearly $6 billion. But he added that even if it is included in a supplemental budget that will go to Congress in January, “it won't make a difference for at least a year.” Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice confirmed Thursday that a “big commitment” to Afghanistan is under consideration with emphasis on “the reconstruction side.” After 75 years of warfare, she told Washington Post reporters and editors, the country has no infrastructure and no basis for an economy other than poppy production financed by the drug trade. Cordesman said that “a major al-Qaida and Taliban presence is building up in both Afghanistan and Pakistan” for a new offensive next year. “These groups have de facto sanctuary in Pakistan, a major presence in the east and south and a growing presence in Western Afghanistan.” Based on declassified intelligence briefing he received, Cordesman said, the U.S. and NATO forces are “insufficient” to secure the south and west and that an added American and more special forces are needed in the east where forces “are spread very thin.” From sanctuaries in western and southern Pakistan, where the government has ceded border area control, he said, al-Qaida and Taliban cadres provide both financial and manpower support to insurgent groups. “This is a two-country war,” he said, and the problems “are ultimately as dangerous to Pakistan as to Afghanistan and the U.S.” Militarily, Cordesman said that “we are winning tactically but losing strategically.” He pointed out that during the Taliban offensives last fall it was air power that led to the success in killing many insurgents but that afterward there was no follow-up on the ground. Even the air war was more intense than most people realized, he said, noting the U.S. had “flown as many sorties in Afghanistan as in Iraq” during that period. He said what is needed is a U.S. and NATO commitment “that will extend to 2013 or longer and provide the necessary support and resources.” In addition, at least five or more years will be necessary to create an effective Afghan government that can provide security and services to the country. “Political legitimacy in Afghanistan,” he said, “as in most of the world does not consist of how a government is chosen, but how well it is perceived to govern.” “We cannot afford to lose two wars: in Iraq and Afghanistan,” he said. By arrangement with
LA Times-Washington Post |
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Lankan refugee pressure increases in Tamil Nadu The
plight of Sri Lankan Tamils has become a tool in the hands of politicians, particularly those belonging to the Dravidian parties in Tamil Nadu. After storming into power in the May Assembly elections Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi has again taken up cudgels for the Sri Lankan Tamils, thousands of whom are arriving each day at Rameswaram, the closest point to Sri Lanka from India. He said that the time had come for the Indian government to rethink its stand on the Sri Lankan Tamils issue, following reports that 65 Tamils were killed in a bombing on a refugee camp at Batticaloa. Stealing the show from his former ally who is a staunch supporter of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Mr. Vaiko of Marumallarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK)
Karunanidhi said, “I wish to bring to the notice of the Central Government a pertinent question which has arisen as to how long India is going to remain patient. The time is ripe to rethink and find an answer.” Expressing shock, Mr. Karunanidhi said apart from aerial bombing, Sri Lankan armed forces fired missiles, resulting in the death of hundreds including children. Even the Norway peace delegation was attacked. Only a few months ago had the Lankan Army killed innocent children by indiscriminate bombing at Sencholai, he recalled. However, he had been cautious in making his statements about the happenings in the island nation as he had maintained that his government would stand by the Central Government in respect of foreign affairs, was consistently cautious in reacting to the happenings in the island nation. Though Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh has assured Mr. Karunanidhi that the Centre would take up the issue with Sri Lanka, if the violence which again erupted recently continues and the flow of refugees increase the not all be well within the United People's Alliance (UPA) government at the Centre. The Centre to will not want to antagonize either the Sri Lankan government or the LTTE and prefer to stay clear from the happenings there. The LTTE has been fighting the Sri Lankan troops since 1983 for a separate Tamil homeland. So far, other than Mr. Karunanidhi, all have kept quiet on this issue. The question of former Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa espousing the cause of Sri Lankan Tamils does not arise as she is known to be a strong opponent of the LTTE and considers them as terrorists. The present position of Mr. Vaiko is strange. He spent 18 months in jail under TADA during Ms. Jayalalithaa's regime for openly supporting the LTTE. But he cannot open his mouth now since he switched sides just before the Assembly polls and joined hands with her. With the talks continuing between the LTTE and Sri Lankan government with Norway and Japan as a go-between there is neither formal war in Sri Lanka but with large number of killings on both sides nor there is peace in the island nation. During the ceasefire the LTTE has regrouped and strengthened its navy known as the Sea Tigers. It has recently caused much damage to the Sri Lankan Navy and each day the battle continues on the sea. Going by the LTTE's recent statement by its spokesman late Anthony Balasingham in London regarding the assassination of India's former Prime
Minister Rajiv Gandhi it is clear that they do not want India to interfere any more as it did in 1988 by sending peace keeping forces which were butchered by the LTTE. Mr. Balasingham had gone to the extent of saying that India should forgive and forget the past thereby indicating the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi. While situation is deteriorating each day in the war-torned nation the DMK will certainly impose pressure on New Delhi to curb Colombo to prevent the influx of hordes of refugees. In such a case, New Delhi will be in a spot as it will not like to experience what it did in 1987 when the Indian Peace Keeping Force went to Sri Lanka to fight the LTTE. There are already 112 refugee camps in Tamil Nadu housing 71,000 Sri Lankan Tamils, 16,200 of whom came this year, who had been residing there since the last two and half decades. If the number increases because of the present hostility it will be a financial pressure not only on the Tamil Nadu government but many LTTE cadres might also infiltrate in the garb of seeking shelter. |
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Delhi Durbar MPs rushing to the well of the Lok Sabha, noisy protests and frequent adjournments, could irritate many but that's the way Parliamentarians act to catch the attention of voters back in their constituency. Lok Sabha Former Lok Sabha Speaker P A Sangma, at a function, related his antics to gain the spotlight. He recalled that when he contested his
first election to the Lok Sabha, his opponent was a tall man. At every rally the rival candidate would pass adverse comments on the small stature of Sangma and ask how he would seen in Parliament. To counter his opponent's claim, Sangma insisted that he would be heard in the House. After he won the seat, Sangma made it a point to intervene on each available occasion but he could not get into print. When his voters questioned his claims, Sangma planned that he would hog the headlines in the very next session. “I stood on the bench and I was on the front pages of the newspapers. My voters in my constituency believed that I was active in Parliament. But that was the first and the last time I resorted to such an act,” he recounted to the amusement of those present. President’s day
in the sun Call it security concerns or what you may, the First Citizen used to do most of his work in his office under electric lights as the curtains of Rashtrapati Bhawan were drawn all the time. As a result not a ray of sunlight entered his office in the erstwhile Viceregal Lodge. Now A.P.J. Abdul Kalam gets to do most of the work in natural sunlight which has facilitated the saving of power, coupled with the opportunity to look around and enjoy nature. During his walks in Rashtrapati Bhawan he saw the beautiful sunlight all around and wondered why all the doors and windows had their curtains drawn perpetually, thus making the rooms dark. “Now sunlight wafts into my office room and I find it sufficient for my work,” Kalam noted at the Asia-Pacific Conference on Housing and Human Settlement. For good measure, he impressed upon the assemblage to plan houses in an energy efficient manner. Credibility and accountability Are MPs really accountable to their respective constituencies? Well, former Union Minister of State for Home Harin Pathak tried to impress upon the media that it was so. The BJP MP from Ahmedabad released a book which was a compilation of correspondence pertaining to various development works initiated, approved and implemented in his
constituency. Though Pathak claimed that he was not publicity crazy and that his attempt through the book is to remain accountable to the people, he failed to give a convincing reply as to why he needed to take this route of publicity if he was confident of having done good work in his constituency all though his political
career. Contributed by R Suryamurthy and S Satyanarayanan |
God’s writ runs over all things and all things merge in His will. — Guru Nanak An angry man cannot think coherently. Incoherent thoughts lead to wrong decisions. Wrong decisions lead a man astray. — The Mahabharata The atman is desireless, lacking nothing, fears no death; the atman is ageless, immortal and every youthful. He knows so becomes Brahma and as fearless. — The Vedas Friend hope for the Guest while you are alive, jump into experience while you are alive! Think.. and think.. while you are alive. What you call 'salvation' happens in the time before death. — Kabir |
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