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Time for action Proxy suspended |
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Sectarian threat
What next in
Bangladesh?
Those carefree days
NATO launches new
Afghanistan offensive Delhi
Durbar Harm and waste
plague China’s mega projects
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Proxy suspended There
is no element of surprise in the suspension from the Congress of MP Kuldeep Bishnoi, although he himself has feigned great astonishment. The son of former Haryana Chief Minister Bhajan Lal had been almost deliberately needling the Central leadership, including party president Sonia Gandhi. Voicing one’s opinion is one thing, but this freedom cannot be stretched beyond a point. After all, party discipline has to be maintained. Rather, it is a surprise that the action came so late. Mr Bhajan Lal had a lot to do with this leniency. Mr Bishnoi was issued a show-cause notice last year also but his father assured the leadership that his son would stop criticising party policies. He never kept his word, going hammer and tongs over several issues like the Gurgaon lathicharge and the Reliance SEZ. The penal action had to come sooner or later. It is obvious that Mr Bishnoi was carrying on his father’s fight. The latter was sulking ever since Mr B.S. Hooda pipped him in the battle for Chief Ministership. Although the other son, Mr Chander Mohan, was made the Deputy Chief Minister, the self-styled Ph.D. in art of politics was never placated. He responded by organising rallies at many places where the state government was criticised in none too veiled a manner. But the push came to a shove when Mr Bishnoi and others started taking the central leadership head-on. The suspension of Mr Bishnoi in itself is not big news. What it portends is far more important. All eyes are on the reaction of his father. The general consensus is that the friction has reached a point of no return and it is a matter of time before the father-son duo float a regional outfit. The rally that they are planning will be a precursor. Interestingly, they are building bridges with another dissident K. Natwar Singh. The development will have considerable impact on Haryana politics, since Mr Bhajan Lal has sizeable support at various levels. Another point of curiosity will be the course charted by Mr Chander Mohan in the days to some. Right now, he has batted straight by saying that Mr Bishnoi should have raised various issues at party forums instead. Either Mr Bishnoi is ignoring his brother’s advice, or it is a party of family theatre. |
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Sectarian threat Hardly
a day passes without many innocent people getting killed in sectarian violence in Iraq. The maximum loss of lives on a single day in sectarian killings was reported on Tuesday when at least 120 Shia pilgrims died in two suicide bombings in Hillah, near Baghdad. On Wednesday again 11 people (seven Sunnis and four Shias) were done to death in retaliatory attacks. Post-Saddam Iraq is faced with a terrible situation with the two Muslim sects having no love lost between each other. Initially, the US-led multinational alliance, which toppled the Saddam regime, tried the policy of divide and rule with its tilt towards the majority Shias. This, however, fuelled Sunni insurgency, as the Sunnis were already angry at the US and other occupation forces for having deprived them of their status of belonging to the ruling segment of the population. What the world sees today in Iraq — a civil war-like situation — is actually a result of a wrong policy of promoting the interests of one section and ignoring those of others. Today entire West Asia is threatened with destabilisation, a fallout of Iraq becoming ungovernable. That is why Saudi Arabia, the leader of the Sunnis, and Iran, which wields considerable influence over the region’s Shias, are engaged in a joint drive to prevent the sectarian fire from engulfing the whole region. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz seem to have established contacts between themselves for the purpose. Their appreciation of each other’s efforts could be noticed last Saturday when the Iranian leader visited Riyadh not only to devise a common strategy for peace in the region but also for putting his stamp of approval on the Mecca deal between the two warring Palestinian factions signed at the behest of the Saudi ruler. Whether the Saudis are working with the Iranians for Shia-Sunni conciliation on their own or with the US consent is not known. But it is clear that all three need peace in West Asia to safeguard their interests. If Saudi Arabia and Iran succeed in extinguishing the sectarian flames in Iraq it will help the US, too, in its efforts to find an exit route. In any case, it is a welcome move to bridge the sectarian gulf. |
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Conscience: the inner voice which warns us that someone may be looking.
— H.L. Mencken |
What next in Bangladesh?
NO news, it is generally believed, is good news. But there always are exceptions to every such rule of thumb. Absence of any reports of the usual strikes, violent clashes and street agitation from Bangladesh, for example, does not mean that the situation in that country that ought to have gone to the polls two months ago is normal and satisfactory. To be sure, Bangladesh is back from the brink where it teetered for several weeks largely because of the chronic, hate-filled and apparently irreconcilable enmity between Begum Khalida Zia and Sheikh Hasina, leaders respectively of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and the Awami League (AL), who have alternatively ruled the country since 1990 when the last military ruler, Gen H. M. Ershad, was forced to quit. Ironically, this became possible only because of the first and last popular movement the “two Begums” had led jointly. The return to order of sorts is doubtless welcome. But it is miles away from normalcy. Indeed, the volatile country is under virtual military rule. The generals are calling the shots from behind the camouflage of the interim government, headed by President Iajuddin Ahmed. Since January 11, under an Emergency proclamation, all political activity is completely banned. Mass arrests add up to a whopping 60,000. Above all, there is still no knowing when the elections will be held. Military rule is always baneful. Even so, for the present, there is support for most of the army’s actions, particularly for the reorganisation of the Election Commission and the Anti-Corruption Commission. A former Army Chief now heads the latter. Prominent politicians, including former ministers of both the mainstream parties, are among those behind bars, with BNP adherents outnumbering AL’s. The Emergency regime has not yet reacted to Sheikh Hasina’s demand that there should be no deviation from due process of law. Alarmingly, the Islamic extremist party, the Jamaat-i-Islami, that shared power with the BNP, has been left practically untouched. Yet, absence of discontent with sweeping arrests is due largely to these being spread over countless villages. The army has picked up grassroots workers of the two main parties who inevitably include thugs and criminals. The villagers are therefore pleased, rather than angry. The fact that Begum Zia’s government spent the last five years systematically manipulating and gerrymandering all institutions and planning to rig the elections is recoiling on the BNP. But she remains unrepentant, in fact, defiant. She is emphatically denying all allegations against her government and herself. She is obviously encouraged by the fact that, despite the “clean up” of the administration and the purge of tainted elements, there are still enough BNP partisans holding high positions in the administration. The party is also flush with money. However, her credibility has been eroded seriously, especially after the arrest of her elder son, along with that of the son of her archrival, Sheikh Hasina. For, some of her associates are speaking out, to her great embarrassment. In the last week of February, Begum Zia’s former private secretary -- in a sensational interview he gave to the country’s largest circulation daily -- accused her of allowing her “opportunistic coterie, including her two sons, to loot state assets on a massive scale”. Such revelations cannot but have an adverse effect on her future prospects. Meanwhile, a significant, if unexpected, development has been the entry into Bangladeshi politics of Mr. Mohammed Yunus, who has just won the Nobel Prize for his laudable efforts to provide micro-credit to the poor people, especially women, through a network of grameen banks. He has formed a new political party called Nagorik Shakti or Citizens’ Power in the hope that this would, at the very least, force the parties of Begum Zia and Sheikh Hasina to “behave better” than they have so far, if not to displace them. At first there was much excitement over this, and some non-party people even suggested that there should, for a period of five years, be a national government, headed by the Nobel Laureate. But nothing came of this. On the contrary, judging by newspaper comments, especially letters to editors, the prevailing mood is that the much-respected Mr. Yunus should confine himself to the service he has been rendering, and steer clear of the “cesspool of politics”. He should, his admirers say, stick to his own earlier opinion that all Bangladeshi “politicians are corrupt”. In any case, the impact of Mr. Yunus or of the two Begums can be tested only by elections that are not only free and fair but also seen to be so. The key question, therefore, is when exactly would such elections be held, and to this there is yet no clear answer. Under Bangladesh’s constitution, the interim and impartial government is empowered only to pave the way for elections the fairness of which cannot be questioned. But the present army-dominated regime has set itself several objectives that, while being highly desirable, are beyond the limited mandate and would necessarily take time. These include reform of the banking sector, setting the power sector right, and overhauling the working of the solitary port of Chittagong. More to the point is the army’s plan to issue photo-ID cards to all voters. Its own estimate is that this would take between eight and ten months. This, judging by Indian experience, is a gross underestimate. Consequently, the elections could get delayed unduly. Already, the Awami League has started demanding that these must be held within six months and full political activity should be revived immediately. Instead of issuing photo-ID cards, it suggests, photographs could be affixed to the fresh electoral rolls that are being drawn up to replace the old, doctored ones prepared by the BNP government. The Election Commission’s response is still awaited. During his one-day visit to Dhaka recently in connection with the forthcoming SAARC summit in Delhi, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee had publicly stated that India was committed to the democratic process and free and fair elections. This is a message that needs to be delivered to all sections of the Bangladeshi society with greater vigour and in a friendly manner. There is little point in Indian ministers and officials going to Poland or Sweden to partake of the US-sponsored Democracy Initiative. This country’s efforts in this regard should be focused more on its immediate neighbourhood, if only for the reason that anti-democratic or undemocratic developments in these countries easily spill over into India. The trouble, however, is that New Delhi seldom pays adequate attention to neighbours other than
Pakistan.
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Those carefree days
THAT was my first visit to the United Kingdom in 1948. My colleague Rohan too was in the same group which arrived Chatham to take over our first cruiser. Since Chatham was a small town we used to travel to London and return the same evening. Since it was our first visit to an advanced country many things we saw enamoured us. Here in India we were not used to throw away even week-old newspapers and magazines. However, during our rail travel from Chatham to London we could see young and old discarding new beautiful magazines as they alighted from the trains. Empty seats were almost full of them as we used to enter the railway compartments. At first we were shy but slowly we got used to converse with young girls who were not averse to young strangers provided they spoke English well. One of the girls aged 18 was a frequent traveller from Chatham to London to attend her college. Normally we used the same train to go to London whenever we went on short leave. Precisely how my friend Rohan got acquainted with her in the train has never been clear to me. But they got familiar and could be seen in deep conversation during the 1˝ hour long journey from Chatham to London. Strood was the main midway station between Chatham and London and had two beautiful parks where young couples could be seen chatting intimately. Rohan used to call his new-found girlfriend Blondy because of colour of her. Both of them availed of the opportunity of coming back from London by the same return train. Slowly this return train became a late evening train. They used to alight from the return train during dark evenings and Rohan started arriving at Chatham by midnight. This made me anxious and suspect whether he was indulging in drinking and smoking with her. I decided to speak to Blondy before talking to Rohan on such a sensitive matter. It was not difficult to find out Blondy’s parents’ address from Rohan. One day under the pretext of visiting main post office in London, I proceeded to visit Blondy’s residence. First I met Blondy’s father Mr Smith who was serving as a professor in Oriental studies in a local college. Blondy joined from outside after an hour. Mr and Mrs Smith were a gentle, forthright liberal, honest thinking and jovial couple who had regard for India and Indians. Deeply religious and church going they had books like speeches of Vivekananda and Gandhiji’s autobiography on their bookshelves. I was surprised by their hospitality and care for a stranger like me. They spoke of Rohan as a fine lad whom they had accepted as boyfriend of Blondy. They revealed that he was on their persistence that Rohan used to stay with them sometimes overnight and used to enjoy English dishes prepared by Blondy. Addressing Rohan as their son they invited me to join for dinner with Rohan. My worst fears were found totally
unfounded! |
NATO launches new Afghanistan offensive
KABUL, Afghanistan - NATO forces have launched the alliance’s largest offensive yet against insurgents in southern Afghanistan, marking the start of what both sides predict will be an intense round of fighting over the spring and summer. The operation, centered in volatile Helmand province, will eventually involve 4,500 NATO troops and about 1,000 soldiers from the Afghan national army, military spokesmen said. Commanders declined to specify how many troops took part in the initial push, or elaborate on the fighting that had taken place so far. The offensive almost immediately claimed a NATO casualty, with a coalition soldier reported killed in combat in the south on Tuesday. The soldier’s nationality was not immediately disclosed, nor were any Taliban casualties initially reported. NATO has been vowing for months to root out thousands of fighters from the Taliban, who together with foreign militants have ensconced themselves in Helmand, the world’s largest producer of opium poppies. Taliban and other militants have for some time been able to move freely in and out of the rugged province, which borders Pakistan. Alliance troops, however, lately have managed to kill several important insurgent figures in pinpoint raids in Helmand, including Mullah Akhtar Mohammed Osmani, slain in a U.S. airstrike in December. Drug revenues are believed to be funding the strong comeback by the Taliban militia, which had been left scattered and demoralized after the Islamist movement was toppled in 2001 by U.S.-led forces. The allied offensive in part was aimed at disrupting the drug trade, Western military officials said. Col. Tom Collins, a spokesman for NATO’s International Security Assistance Force, said the offensive was centered on “improving security in areas where Taliban extremists, narco-traffickers and foreign terrorists are currently operating.” NATO spokesmen said securing the area would pave the way for the resumption of reconstruction projects, which have been largely paralyzed in much of the south by spiraling violence. Helmand province has proved a particularly difficult venue for the alliance. Last spring, the U.S. poured nearly 11,000 troops into the province’s north, an engagement that ended with a declaration of victory, followed in subsequent months by a steady re-infiltration of militants. The province is now thought to contain the greatest numbers of insurgents inside Afghanistan. In early February, Taliban fighters overran the town of Musa Qala, where a British-brokered accord had halted fighting. Many townspeople fled when the insurgents arrived, but those left behind reported being terrorized by the militants, particularly if they were suspected of having ties to the Afghan government or friendly contacts with NATO forces. The allied offensive, dubbed Operation Achilles, is open-ended, according to coalition commanders. American, British, Canadian and Dutch troops were taking part in the fighting. The US contingent eventually will total about 1,500 troops, spokesmen said, but the number taking part in the offensive’s initial phase was not specified. Until now, British troops have borne the brunt of fighting in Helmand. As the weather has warmed in Afghanistan the two sides have claimed to be set to seize the offensive this spring. Taliban commanders have boasted of having thousands of suicide bombers and other fighters at the ready. NATO, for its part, has vowed to take the fight to insurgent strongholds. “I do no think you would be wrong if you were to characterize it as the start of ISAF’s major operations for 2007,” Collins told journalists in Kabul. Senior Western commanders sought to put the spotlight on Afghan troops involved in the operation, even though nearly five times as many NATO soldiers will take part. The alliance’s southern commander, Maj. Gen. Ton van Loon, said: “We need to make sure the government of Afghanistan, with our support. . . . secures the area.” Afghan defense officials took a decidedly lower-key approach, confirming only that the operation had begun and Afghan troops were involved. Taliban commanders predicted the NATO offensive would quickly founder. “They will resort to bombing that kills innocent people,” Qari Mohammed Yousuf, a militia spokesman, told Reuters news agency. Afghan officials said Monday that nine civilians died in a U.S. airstrike north of Kabul. The strike obliterated a compound where U.S. officials said insurgents who attacked an American firebase had taken shelter. Azimi reported from Kabul, and King reported from Istanbul, Turkey. By arrangement with
LA Times-Washington Post |
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Delhi Durbar If
there is one political party which has perfected the art of “ killing softly”, it is clearly the Congress. A few days before Lok Sabha member Kuldeep Bishnoi was suspended from the party, he was spotted in deep conversation with the Congress president’s political secretary Ahmed Patel, arguably one of the most powerful persons in the UPA government. Patel especially sought out Bishnoi at the Congress Parliamentary Party meeting, asked the Haryana MP to sit with him and reproached him for not sharing a cup of tea with him. Party onlookers who thought Patel was trying to mollifty the “angry young man” were taken aback when they learnt of his suspension. Talk about “smiling assassins”.
Feuding on Former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Digvijay Singh’s political rivalry with the late Congress leader Madhavrao Scindia has now been extended to his son Jyotiraditya Scindia. The two leaders addressed a series of public rallies in each other’s areas of influence over the past several months, where they did not hesitate to take potshots at each other. It was only after the party’s Central leadership stepped in that they cried off. However, there appears to be no end to their ongoing battle. Reports trickling into Delhi suggest that Digvijay Singh despatched several “loyal” party workers to Gwalior to ensure the victory of the BJP candidate Yashodharaje Scindia in the coming Gwalior bypoll, after he learnt that Jyotiraditya’s
vigorous campaign against his aunt had brightened the Congress party’s prospects.
One more channel Ever since the high-profile Peter Mukherjea quit as top honcho of STAR TV, there has been considerable speculation that he was teaming up with a well-known editor of a national daily to launch a news and entertainment channel. The news has now been confirmed as the two dropped in to meet information and broadcasting minister Priyaranjan Dasmunsi in his Parliament House office earlier this week. The plans have apparently been finalised and the new venture is awaiting government clearance.
Girl-child’s day At a time when most South Asian and Middle Eastern
societies show a marked son preference, it is heartening to hear of instances where the birth of a girl child is celebrated. Morocco is a case in point. It is currently celebrating the birth of “Her Royal Highness Lalla Khadija” born to their King, Mohammed VI. In fact, the Moroccon embassy in Delhi kept a Golden Book at their premises this week for people to record their good wishes and “express
congratulations on this happy occasion.” This certainly made for a refreshing change and was also well-timed, as the embassy’s decision coincidentally came during the week when International Women’s Day was being celebrated. Contributed by Prashant Sood and Anita Katyal. |
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Harm and waste plague China’s mega projects Criminal
neglect of the environment in the country-side and massive superstructures of steel and glass in metropolitan cities of mainland China are two developments that strike even the most casual visitors to China. The Art centres, theatres and opera houses in the various cities reflect the mania that seems to have gripped the state administrations and local officials of craving for things big and foreign regardless of their utility and their prohibitive maintenance costs. These mega projects have virtually become white elephants that look good out side the palace stables but are not easy to maintain, and thus ultimately become symbols of unnecessary extravagance and wastage of resources. The People’s Daily singled out the Shanghai Oriental Art Centre for severe criticism after an intense interview with the manager of the Centre who claimed that he was hard put to find the daily maintenance expanse of 90,000 Yuan (One Chinese yuan is about six rupees). He has to maintain the 1.14 billion Yuan super structure including a 20 million Yuan Organ Chamber that is rarely used. The Union Ministry of Culture confirmed that Chongqing, Wuhan, Zhen Zhou and Hang Zhou have also gone in for construction of similar mega structures. The civic authorities can and do boast of their rare achievement of the construction of the National Theatre next to the great Hall of People in Beijing. But the three billion Yuan investment on its construction has been wasted as it has become a butt of jokes about its structure, that resembles a traditional Chinese tomb. Its utility is minimal but its maintenance demands 330,000 yuan a day and the manager cannot find such a colossal sum as it was used only on rare occasions in the last five years. However, more pathetic is the disregard for the environment care that has been displayed over the last fifty years in the country side. The three-way canal project that is underway to carry waters from the south of China to the northern plains is the ultimate symbol of extravagance both in terms of expenditure on the project and the neglect of the environment. The diversion scheme was a great dream of Mao Zedong in 1952 who had thought that excess waters of the south could be utilised in the rain parched north provinces. The work on diversion to construct three routes began in 2002, fifty years after Mao had conceived it. The diversion is expected to carry 50 billion cubic metres of water from the Yangtze northwards each year through the western, central and eastern parts of the country. The eastern and central routes are under construction and are expected to cost 220 billion Yuan. The construction of the western route is yet to begin. The officials who favour the scheme advocate its completion as inevitable for the soaring economic development of the north, even though they also admit that the environmental cost would be irrevocable and phenomenal. The attitude of overlooking the environmental costs in the past had ensured that there was no criticism voiced in the official media. However, President Hu Jintao had taken a different perspective when he advocated a theory of harmony and a balance between economic growth and the environment. It provided an opportunity to the academics and officials to pile up pressure on authorities to pay more attention to the environmental costs. They have also demanded that Beijing must intervene and scrap the scheme for construction of the western route that was costliest of the three routes and was estimated to cost 304 billion Yuan, and take fifty years to complete. This was technically the most difficult as it would call for tunneling of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and mountains to draw water from the Yalong, Dadu and Jinsha rivers. The academics fear that since this route would have to traverse through the seismically sensitive and earthquake prone zone, it could end up in doing irreparable damage to the environment and to Tibetan culture. They also point out the results obtained from the half-completed works on two other routes after a group of delegates to the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference recently made an inspection tour along the Han and Dan rivers, the two main sources of water for the central route that is designed to carry waters to Beijing and Tianjin before the 2008 Olympic Games. “Stinging industrial pollutants, filthy human waste and yellow sand are flowing into the Dan and Han rivers…” The delegates noted that there was enough provision of money for the scheme but little attention was paid to environment protection as thousands of factories operate along the route without the efficient and effective water treatment facilities for their effluents. |
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