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Sharing of Afghan waters
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Aitchison: Where students are taught to excel
On Record The legend of Bhagat Singh
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Sharing of Afghan waters APART from its eagerness to re-acquire the strategic depth against its traditional rival India, in Afghanistan, which it lost with the fall of its creation, Taliban in 2001, for Pakistan the other major cause for its continued support to Taliban against the Karzai government in Kabul is to secure waters from the western tributaries of the river Indus.
After the rebuff it received from Afghanistan in its efforts to push through a water sharing treaty, Pakistan redoubled its support to Taliban remnants to regroup, rearm and launch vigorous attacks on the NATO and Afghan forces deep into the Southern provinces of Afghanistan bordering Pakistan. Pakistani establishment feels that once the Taliban get their control over the territory in the six or seven provinces in South, it will be easy for them to negotiate a very favourable water deal with them. These Pushtun-populated provinces constitute the catchment areas of the major rivers like Kabul, Kunar, Panjshir, Gorband, Kaitur, Kochi and Gomal with their origins in the mighty Hindukush and Suleimanki ranges in Afghanistan. Under the Indus Water Treaty of 1960 with India, the waters of the three Eastern tributaries of Indus (Satluj, Beas and Ravi) have been fully harnessed by India and Chenab and Jhelum waters are utilised to the maximum by Pakistan. Thus, the major water contributors to Indus now remain its western rivers coming from Afghanistan. All these rivers are completely snow-fed and provide water bounty to Pakistan when it needs most during the summer, before the onset of monsoon. With the optimum use of available waters, Pakistan’s agricultural production has reached a hump, forcing it to import even wheat and sugar to meet the demands of rising population and this gap is likely to worsen in the future. With the high growth rate inflated by the billions of dollars of US aid received for its much-trumpeted role in the war against terrorism after 9/11, the resulting industrial and urban development has further fueled the demand for electricity. Pakistan has lined up a number of multipurpose projects including the most controversial Kalabagh, to tap the unutilised waters of the Afghanistan rivers. But before committing billions of rupees to execute these projects, it has to be sure of its share and the availability of waters for which Afghanistan’s consent is essential. The Karzai government spurned all Pakistan overtures to push through a water sharing treaty. They are busy collecting and processing the data to analyse and identify Afghanistan’s share and plan its maximum utilisation. They have plans to construct reservoirs over Kabul river near Jalalabad and Kama hydo-electric project to utilise 0.5 Million Acre Feet water to produce power for the electricity-hungry country and also irrigate additional 14,000 hectares of land. India and some other friendly nations have shown willingness to fund and execute some of these projects. Afghanistan has indicated that after making maximum use of their share of waters from these rivers, in case they find some excess waters, they will ‘sell’ their surplus to Pakistan on commercial terms, with the stipulation that they would be entitled to withdraw it at any stage. All this added to Pakistan’s frustration as during the erstwhile Taliban regime they were almost through with the deal most favourable to them. Considering the water scarcity in Pakistan as the major hurdle in increasing food production, experts say if more reservoirs are not created, the present water shortage of 40 MAF would rise to 100 MAF by 2008 and to 150 MAF by 2025. The decrease in storage capacity due to siltation of the existing dams has further compounded their worries. They estimate the reduction in the capacity of major dams - Mangla, Tarbela, Hub, Khanpur, Chashma and Simly - from 16.737 MAF to 13 MAF. The availability of the run-off water to Pakistan is 140 MAF, out of which it utilises 100 MAF and the remaining 40 MAF goes to the Arabian Sea. It draws 70 MAF as ground water making the total utilisation 170 MAF. Apart from the irrigation water shortage, the increasing power demand in Pakistan is another major crisis developing for the Pakistan federal authorities. The Pakistan Water and Power Development Authority’s generation capacity comprising hydro, thermal and nuclear is 15764 MW. WAPDA estimated a shortfall of 600 MW in 2004, forecast an acute shortage by 2015 unless the hydel projects on international rivers are taken up and executed in right earnest. A nine-member committee set up under the Pakistan Permanent Commission of Indus Waters, Lahore, in its interm report, accused Afghanistan of denying it the required data on the water availability and utilisation projects. It also blamed the NWFP and Balochistan governments for their failure to provide information on the water discharges at various locations on the rivers coming from Afghanistan. The people and the governments of the two provinces are opposing the proposed dams, fearing the submersion of their lands and villages, dislocation of population and their rehabilitation problems, while all the benefits will go to the people of Punjab. All the projects are likely to either remain on paper or will be truncated unless the shares of the two neighbours are settled for which Pakistan needs a pliable regime in Afghanistan and their best bet is the Taliban.
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Profile Recall May 2006 elections in West Bengal. Led by Buddhadeb, Marxists romped home for the seventh time on an entirely different poll plank. It was solid economic benefit that flowed to under privileged in a reformed Communist system. Promoting his economic agenda was natural in his second term in office but first Singur and then Nandigram came as big road blocks. March has indeed been a cruel month for Buddhadeb and eventful for the state’s industrialisation. Singur, the site of Tata’s Rs 1-lakh car plant, is hardly a two-hour drive from Nandigram. Fourteen people died in the police firing on March 14, forcing the Marxists to retreat on its plan to locate a chemical hub there. In sharp contrast to brutality let loose in Nandigram, economics appear to be trumping over politics in Singur. Reports from Kolkata say that members of the Trinamool Congress — a party which opposed the Tata project — run at least three of the six syndicates that supply, besides construction material, about 2000 labourers who have been working throughout the week. Each syndicate constitutes 10 to 30 local residents whose land was acquired. They have pooled their compensation funds and secured contract from the Tata-appointed contractor for the plant’s civil work. Most daily-wage earners at the site are landless who had worked as illegal sharecroppers on the acquired land and joined the anti-industry campaign. They now get assured wages. At an average wage of Rs 70 a day, an estimated Rs 10 lakh, is being paid as wages each week. After becoming Chief Minister six years ago, he began the process of liberalisation of West Bengal’s economy, having attracted huge foreign investment. Many new industries and IT related services emerged under his leadership. He is generally seen as a Communist leader who is open to reforms but his critics in his own party accuse him of taking farmlands to build industries. Born in 1944 in north Calcutta, Buddha is the nephew of the revolutionary poet, Sukantya Bhattarcharya who was his mentor. After graduating from Presidency College in 1964, he joined the CPM as a primary member. He took part in the food movement and supported Vietnam’s cause in 1968. Subsequently, he was appointed state secretary of the Democratic Youth Federation, the CPM’s student wing, now called the Democratic Youth Federation of India. In 1977, he was elected MLA for the first time from Kashipur. When the CPM led Left Front had come to power, he became Minister for Information and Culture. He made significant contribution to Bangla theatre, movies and music. After losing the 1982 Assembly election from Kashipur, he shifted to Jadavpur in 1987 and won from there. In 1996, when the Marxists won the elections for the fifth time, Buddha became minister with the same portfolios and additional charge of Home (Police). Chief Minister Jyoti Basu looked after the personnel wing of the Home portfolio. Not only did he and Basu became closer during this period, Buddha matured as a politician. He acquired the image of a leader who is both moderate and efficient, can manage both the hardliners and liberals in the party. That was the reason why after 1996, he was considered a viable alternative to Basu. Some facets of Buddha’s personality also came to the fore. He emerged as an incorruptible leader. His habit of calling a spade a spade was often mistaken as arrogance. As a result, many in the CPM called him ill tempered though he is suave and cultured. He has a flair for literary activities and he feels more at home in the company of writers, poets and intellectuals. He has authored several plays, composed poems and translated Russian writer Mayakovshy’s works into Bangla. One of his much acclaimed plays is Dushamay (bad times) which he wrote after he resigned from the Basu government for sometime. That was a bad time for him. Buddha’s real political guru was Pramode Dasgupta, one of the founding fathers of the Communist movement in India. |
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Aitchison: Where students are taught to excel NOT many people may know that Aitchison College, one of the oldest Boys’ School in South Asia, was started for the young Sardars of Ambala (then Umballa) district as the Government Wards Institution, Ambala City, in 1868. It has since done signal service in spreading education in the subcontinent and has produced many luminaries including heads of state.
Two decades later, it was renamed Punjab Chiefs College to groom the wards of Chiefs of Punjab into future rulers. The same year, the school was renamed Aitchison College after Sir Charles Umpherston Aitchison, who was the then Lt-Governor of Punjab. The college then started accepting bright lads who were potential leaders. To this day, Aitchison is first and foremost involved in producing “Gentlemen” stressing moral, intellectual, physical, emotional and social development. “I don’t let anyone interfere in admissions and school discipline. Seven students have had to leave for fighting on campus this year. It breaks my heart when I have to expel a student, but the decision is not tough as it is in the interest of the institution. Each student who passes out of this school is ready to face the world in every way”, says Principal Shamim Saifullah Khan. The College’s motto, ‘Perseverance Commands Success’, is followed by every student. Aitchison has produced statesmen like Pakistan President Sardar Farooq Ahmed Khan Leghari and Prime Ministers Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali, Sir Malik Feroz Khan Noon and Mir Balakh Sher Mazari. In sports too, it has given four Pakistan and one pre-Partition Indian Cricket Captains. Even in India, there are many Aitchison alumni. These include Maharajas Bhupindera, Bhalendra and Yadvinder of Patiala, Nawab Mansoor Ali Khan, of Pataudi, Maharajas of Kapurthala, former Chief Minister Harcharan Brar (incidentally an Aitchison Rivaz Gold Medal recipient) and legal luminaries like Chief Justice S.S Sodhi, to name a few. Students at Aitchison College proudly remember that out of the 12 boys who enrolled in the Chiefs College, six were Sikhs from prominent families of the time, five Muslims and one Hindu. Except two, the remaining 10 were wards of the court (whose estates were managed by the government while they were minors). The first batch at Aitchison was as illustrious as each successive batch. It included Mumtaz Hussain Ali Khan, son of the Nawab of Pataudi, Balwant Singh of Bir, Ludhiana Muhammad Ali Khan, Yusaf Ali Khan and Zulfikar Ali Khan the three sons of Nawab of Maler Kotla Ram Narain Singh, Bachattar Singh and Shiv Narain Singh of Shahabad, Umballa, Jagjindar Singh of Buria, Ludhiana, Harnarian Singh Anandpur (Hoshiarpur), Ghulam Kasim Khan son of Nawab Tank D.I. Khan and Autar Singh son of the Sardar of Manauli (Umballa). The college is spread over 186 acres in the heart of Lahore on the Mall Road. Considered an architectural marvel, its exterior was designed jointly by J. Lockwood Kipling and Bhai Ram Singh of the Mayo School of Arts at Lahore (now the National College of Arts). Progressive in its outlook, the school campus has a gurudwara, mandir and a mosque built in the pre-partition days. “You wait for the 2009 ‘O’ level and 2011 ‘A’ level results, 17 boys from here will break all world records. The students are so well rounded that at least six of them could graduate even today”, says Principal Khan. Aitchisonians who believe in maintaining close bonds have formed alumni groups in almost all top educational institutions like Harvard, Stanford, Cambridge, MIT, National University Singapore, Yale, etc. School bursar Iftikhar Ahmad Malik says, “There is hardly an international institution that does not have an Atchisonian”. While Senior House Master of Kelly House, Major Mazhar Pervez Akhtar (retd) adds, “Students from diverse backgrounds live together producing leaders who define success in their fields and contribute to their communities by serving as models of excellence, integrity and compassion”. Aitchison is so strict on its intake that it has made separate arrangements for the 600 wards of the school staff. At the same time, the school, with a very high fee structure for most Pakistani families, offers free education to the top 20 students. “We are adding another 30 scholarships this year”, says Principal Khan. The college has a lady on its board and the mother of the best leaving student automatically becomes an ex-officio member of the Board of Governors for a year. While the Partition deprived India of this invaluable gem, it is a matter of great pride that the college continues to maintain high standards and fondly remembers its Indian alumni. Aitchison now is inviting old students to help it complete its historical and alumni records and share pictures or other documents that they may possess. |
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On Record NOBEL Laureate Prof Wangari M. Maathai was in India recently to receive the Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding. The first woman from Africa to receive the award, she also delivered the Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Memorial Lecture 2007 on “The Role of leadership in Environmental Protection”.
In the past 30 years, the now legendary mother of the Green Belt Movement in Africa has been responsible for mobilising women to plant 30 million trees in Kenya alone. In the pursuit of her grassroot environmental efforts, she faced persecution, intimidation and even physical violence. Her next target is to mobilise the plantation of one billion trees by the year end. Excerpts: Q: What are the origins of your love for environment? A: I grew up in the countryside when the land was very pristine and there were no cash crops like coffee or tea. The crops I grew up seeing were corn, millet, pumpkin, sweet potato. Rivers were very so clean that we could drink straight from them. There were no fertilisers, no agro-chemicals. After I grew up, I was able to see the difference, the land beginning to degrade, river water overloaded with silt due to excessive logging and the upstream forest being cleared. Q: Why did you face insults and humiliation in your endeavour? A: I was moving into an unchartered territory about which people did not know anything. People were suspicious as to why was I trying to do something about the environment. Q: Did you feel hopeless any time? A: I was lucky because I was an educated woman. I had the confidence that I was right and they were wrong. They were angry because they were irresponsible and were not doing their duty. I was exposing them (the government) and they were angry. Q: What is the impact of globalisation on environment? A: Globalisation is a threat to environment for poor and underdeveloped countries. It can be very destructive for them. Many countries open their doors to corporations and put very few restrictions on them. Our planet is very small and is the only home that we have. Q: What would you say about SEZs? In India, there is a hue and cry about them. A: We have some in Kenya which are believed to be “good” as they generate employment. Governments are trying to generate jobs but environmentalists say SEZs exploit local people and resources. Governments have to make a choice. Only responsible governments are able to grow as they make a choice for the good, the common good. At the same time, the government is confronted with poverty and unemployment. In India, for example, we are very impressed with the development rate but we also hear that many people are very poor. The government is trying to raise their quality of life. This is a difficult task. The government should initiate dialogue to explain the terms and reduce tension. Q: How is the situation in your region? A: The African leadership is changing. In the past, it regarded civil society as its enemy. African heads of states are inviting members of civil societies to be an advisory organ. This signifies a new willingness to embrace the people and give them better leadership. Q: What about UN reforms envisaging greater role for Africa? A: The UN reforms are looking at Africa as a block. They are asking Africa to produce two seats. There are 53 countries in Africa. Africa should move towards reducing fragmentation which has been a part of its weakness. It has been much easier to deal with a fragmented Africa. African Union is the way out and the Union has been holding discussions towards a more united Africa which is positive. A united Africa will have a much stronger voice in the UN than a fragmented one. Q: Which is the best city in the world? A: Delhi because I have never seen a city so green. It is so well laid out, roads are lined with trees. I am told that it is a beautiful time to come to Delhi because there are flowers everywhere. Other cities should emulate Delhi. Many cities are like concrete jungles. Here, looking out of my hotel room, all I can see are trees. |
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The legend of Bhagat Singh Asked by the Military Tribunal what he meant by Inquillab, he replied that his revolution was neither the cult of bomb nor the pistol, nor even the philosophy of vendetta, nor a dead mental principle nor an empty political vow, it had social and economic roots. By revolution he meant the establishment of a new order based on social justice and economic equality. The Tribunal sentenced him to death by hanging. And thereby hangs a tale. As a creative political thinker, Bhagat Singh has been denied his rightful position in the political history of India. A close look at the Constitution of the Hindustan Republican Association which he proclaimed with Chander Shekhar Azad and others from the rampants of Ferozshah Kotla Grounds on August 8, 1928 will convince students of history and political thought that he was a serious political thinker who gave his country a new charter of freedom, a modern-day Magna Carta where there is no exploitation of man by man, where the strong are just and the weak secure. “Gandhi’s utopian non-violence will give us only an Indian Viceroy, may be Sir Tej Bahadur Sapru, but my revolution will establish the dictatorship of the proletariat. Bhagat Singh knew Das Capital and the Communist Manifesto by heart. He was a Communist before the Communist Party of Indian was born. By revolution, he meant the “ultimate sovereignty” and the inalienable right of the exploited mankind. No Marx or Lenin or Angles could have written better on what constitutes revolution. Bhagat Singh spent 716 days in different jails at Delhi, Lahore, Mianwalli and Sarghoda. He could have easily escaped. “I don’t want to die as an exile. If I run away, mothers will not ask their children to become Bhagat Singh”. Bhagat Singh was ahead of his times. He anticipated India of 50 years hence. He gave a new idea to the visible concept of freedom. For him freedom meant something beyond Independence; it includes social and economic freedom. The real Bhagat should be brought out — Bhagat Singh who was one visionary who dreamt of a new India for he had the madness of a Spinoza, the restlessness of a Shivaji, of Kamal Pasha, of Riza Khan, of Garibaldi, of Laffayette. Bhagat was not a man, he was a movement. |
Whatever God wills come to pass; For, there is no other Doer except Him. Everybody has something good inside. Some hide it, some neglect it, but it is there.
—Mother Teresa It was the cowards who died many times before their death Don't find fault with anyone, not even with an insect. As you pray to God for devotion, so also pray that you may not find fault with anyone.
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ONE may agree or not, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee will go down in the history of the Communist movement in India as one who changed the inflexible believers in Marxist ideology to keep pace with changing times. Nandigram notwithstanding, Buddhadeb has ushered in second revolution in Marxist ideology in India. 
Artists are not reformers or thinkers. We have to draw from the wonders of the visual world. It is really fascinating. The strength and power of tribal art lies in the fact that they have non-conditioned minds. The moment a painter becomes a philosopher, art is dead.
Like Pakistanis, Indians are very warm and hospitable; there is very little difference between us as people. When I tell people in India that I'm a Pakistani, I'm always treated with familiarity and love. We have to build bridges between our two countries, not bombs.
Why must Iranian women have lesser rights than men? Why are young women not permitted to go abroad for studies unless they are married? Why should women be stoned for alleged adultery? Why can they not question polygamy? Why can they not have custody of their children after divorce?
Belly dancing is a very beautiful form of expression. I’ve been belly dancing since I was a child and it came very natural to me. I guess it’s in my blood.
Do I look like someone who knows anything about style and fashion? I was quiet surprised to learn that a lot of my female fan following was because of my long locks. Now that I have cut my mane, I guess I will have to start all over again.
Tailpiece: I had always learned from listening to the older players. There were two versions of how to play cricket. Sir Everton Weekes would always say to keep the ball on the ground so that no one could catch you. Lord Constantine said if you need to get quick runs, hit in the air. There’s nobody there to stop it. But you must make it sure you clear the boundary. 
THIS is Bhagat Singh’s birth centenary year and 76th year of his martyrdom. During this period, he has suffered at the hands of both admirers and detractors. It is time to assess his revolution anew in the light of new information and research. My own book on Bhagat Singh is 26 years old.