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Learner at large Intolerance is not cricket |
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Maritime security
CM versus VC
After the hustings
Cotton trade with Pakistan Delhi Durbar Wolfowitz clashed often with staff
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Learner at large CONGRESS MP Rahul Gandhi suffers from the foot-in-the-mouth syndrome. Every time he makes a statement, he lands the Congress in an embarrassing situation. His latest assertion that the Nehru-Gandhi family does what it promises has created a controversy. He says the family not only got the country its freedom but also got Pakistan vivisected. The Pakistan government has rightly taken umbrage at his statement as he belongs to the “ruling family” and the “ruling party”. Earlier, he embarrassed all the Congressmen associated with the Narasimha Rao government when he said that if the Nehru family was in power, Babri Masjid would not have been demolished. All this suggests he does not have a proper understanding of history. For instance, take the case of Mr Gandhi’s reference to the creation of Bangladesh. Unwittingly or otherwise, he has repeated what General Yahya Khan and his successor Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto had alleged at that time that India was instrumental in the division of Pakistan. The young MP seems to have no clue that the people of East Pakistan had got so fed up with being second-class citizens that they gave a massive mandate to the Awami League led by Sheikh Mujibur Rehman. Instead of respecting their verdict, the ruling clique went to the extent of tricking the Sheikh to come to Islamabad only to be incarcerated in a jail where even a grave was dug for him. When the Pakistani Army unleashed atrocities against the people of East Pakistan, lakhs of them poured into India as refugees. They were provided all possible humanitarian assistance. It was only when Pakistan launched a war against India that it retaliated. This is what his grandmother had all along told the world. Mr Gandhi’s statement also amounts to showing disrespect to the people of Bangladesh, who had to sacrifice a lot to gain freedom. The role the Mukti Bahini played in the creation of Bangladesh can be written only in letters of gold in the history of Bangladesh. By ignoring all these historical truths and claiming credit for the vivisection of Pakistan, the young MP has exposed his utter ignorance. It is a different matter that the day he made this controversial statement Prime Minister Manmohan Singh extolled him as the future of Uttar Pradesh. If the future of UP is indeed in Mr Rahul Gandhi’s hands, the state rightly deserves the fullest sympathy of the nation.
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Intolerance is not cricket The way India lost to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in the World Cup was no doubt bad cricket. But the way Ahmedabad fans booed and jeered them when the team reached there for the Twenty20 tournament on Sunday was no cricket at all. Rather, it was exactly the opposite of sporting spirit. They were demanding that the cricket boys, including Sachin Tendulkar, should come to Ahmedabad only after winning the World Cup. Ironically, the boorish behaviour might only make the boys more nervous and dejected. The Ahmedabad crowd has been volatile on many previous occasions too, but this was the worst display of their unsporting nature. Ironically, it is not the only city where the fans went berserk after the defeat. At other places, they also indulged in physical violence. There was angry attacks on the houses of M.S. Dhoni as well as Mohammad Kaif. Players’ effigies were burnt. The team was so scared about its security that the players returned from the West Indies to India in small groups. Fans had no reason to get so worked up. Only one team can win and India cannot be expected to be the triumphant one every time it enters a contest. It is true that India posted some humiliating defeats but that does not mean that the players should be treated as some kind of traitors. If the fans are disappointed, so must be the players, as Sachin Tendulkar himself described so pithily. In any case, a game is only a game, not a matter of life and death, as some tend to make it. It’s a sad thing that Indians go overboard, whether it is in idolising their sporting heroes or tarring them. Perhaps they put them on so high pedestals that the prospect of tumbling down scares the players out of wits. International players are expected to handle such pressures, but one cannot go beyond a limit. Now that the Men in Blue are passing through a purple phase, the nation should sympathise with them, instead of ridiculing them. The World Cup defeat is a bad nightmare in itself. Hostile fan reception will only make it worse.
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Maritime security Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Sureesh Mehta has raised the prospect of India’s many uninhabited islands being used as “terror hubs” and launching pads for attacks against the mainland. It requires no great leap of the imagination to visualise this possibility. The many well-funded terror groups operating today, not to mention the state agencies that are often sympathetic to them, clearly have the wherewithal to launch sophisticated operations from these islands. These may range from infiltration of personnel to actual compromising of the many sea-routes, if not an actual targeting of the mainland with firepower. The Navy has often pleaded for a larger share of the defence budget in order to protect India’s maritime interests. Delays play a role here too, and while the retrofitted Russian aircraft carrier, to be christened INS Vikramaditya, is yet to arrive, the indigenous ones being built in our shipyards, both carriers and other ships, are not exactly throwing up a wake either. Defence Ministry A.K. Antony was moved to emphasise this point. While the Scorpene project is going ahead, there are reports of moves to acquire a second line of submarines. While a range of powerful sea-based assets will indeed be required, the key lies in a well-thought-out maritime security policy, with a well-integrated doctrine. India’s two main groups of islands are the Lakshadweep archipelago and the Andaman and Nicobar archipelago. While Lakshadweep has a handful of uninhabited islands, there are scores of such islands in the “Emerald Isles” in the East. Many in Lakshadweep, like Bangaram, are popular tourist destinations. The A&N islands, of course, have the tri-services command, and their resources were put to the test in the 2004 tsunami. But if the CNS felt the need to flag the danger of uninhabited islands, there are obviously gaps in the shield. India cannot afford them, for its enemies are many and varied. The Navy should do what is necessary.
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Perfection is the child of Time. — Joseph Hall
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CM versus VC THE impending exit of the Vice-Chancellor of Punjab Agriculture University, Ludhiana, is unfortunate in more than one sense. Having performed well for half a decade, his work should have been appreciated. Instead, a situation has been allowed to arise where he has decided to put in his papers and leave in a few weeks. To put it no more strongly, this is a misfortune in personal as also professional sense. Ludhiana is perhaps not only the best performing university in the state, its performance also has a direct bearing on the state of agriculture in the country. When some time ago, the Central government decided to favour it with a special grant of Rs 10 crore, it was in recognition of its performance as also its potential. That is why the change of gears in these circumstances is being described as a misfortune. The point at issue is the state of relationship between a state government and a state university. In terms of law, the state government is the overall boss. But there is a distinction to be drawn between other statutory bodies and a university. Unfortunately, this distinction is not being understood and honoured and that is why the word misfortune has been used. In regard to other statutory bodies, the state government plays two roles. One, it appoints the chief executive and, secondly, it has a considerable say in the functioning of that statutory body. The chief executive is autonomous to the extent that he is allowed to be autonomous. In the case of a university, the situation is different. He has to function autonomously if he has to function at all. This needs to be understood clearly and unambiguously. When it comes to the appointment of the chief executive of a university, he is appointed by the state government. In a substantial sense, the state government has a strong say in the matter but it is not the only voice that counts. Others, particularly that of the Chancellor of the university, also count. That is one mark of its uniqueness. The second mark of its uniqueness is that decisions made in the university by its chief executive are not influenced by the state government except marginally . For the most part, those are made by the Vice-Chancellor and his colleagues. The Vice-Chancellor is the top man in the hierarchy but he is not the only one to make decisions. In more advanced countries, the teachers, too, are powerful, of course, within certain limits. The essence of university governance is that it is self-governing in character and the Vice-Chancellor, as a part of this process, interacts and coordinates with his colleagues. There are situations when a Vice-Chancellor fails to carry the teachers with him. In those situation, as happened at Harvard recently, it is the Vice-Chancellor who steps down rather than any of the teachers. To talk of Harvard in the context in which we are operating can be described as a joke. But then why should we overlook this fact that the university is looked up to as a model in the English-speaking world? If this view is not accepted, let us stop talking about the concept of the leading universities of the world, nor feel happy about the fact that our children are able to study there. In plain words, we cannot admire such universities and, in the same breath, function in such a way that we do not follow principles like autonomy which would ultimately strengthen the performance of the universities as a system. The fact of the matter is that even after six decades there is not a single state of India which can boast of an outstanding university. One factor, and there are several others at work, is the role of the state governments. It is time to be clear about one thing. A university cannot be run like a government department. If it is sought to be run like that, it will cease to be a university. This is precisely what is happening today and that is why the word “misfortune” for what has happened at Ludhiana has been used. This university was moving in the direction of being a model institution of its kind and it is deplorable that it has got derailed. There is more to it, however, and it is time now to turn to that. What has been said so far should not be taken to mean that everything depends upon the state government or its chief executive — the Chief Minister. They are important, without question. Not only do they contribute finances for the running of the university, they also have to participate in its running to some extent, whether everyone likes it or not. Before a university can insist upon doing right things as stated above, it also has to perform as it should perform. Both the Vice-Chancellor and the teachers are not playing their respective roles if the focus is only on the working of the Vice-Chancellor. How the teachers perform is no less important. In fact, one could go beyond that and say that it is only in those countries and those institutions where the teachers perform, as required, that the universities flourish. We have been grievously underperforming in our country over the years. No wonder, the situation in our universities has become what it has become. In plain words, both the Vice-Chancellor and the teachers have to perform differently and with a sense of commitment. The Vice-Chancellor has to have vision as also academic and administrative integrity, and the teachers have to perform much more creatively than they have been doing of late. The unfortunate fact is that despite the revision of salary scales of the university and college-level teachers some three decades ago, things have not improved. In certain cases, they have worsened. One reason for it is that the profession is not attracting the right kind of people. Not many of those in the profession are proud of being teachers. Pride comes basically from a job well done. Other things like better salaries, improved facilities, social and professional prestige follow. But if the job is not well done, nothing else is going to help. Should the Chief Minister have intervened in a minor matter of getting a gate reopened? The truth is that the issue was not at all that minor. The issue is: within whose competence does the matter lie? In regard to other statutory bodies, a directive issued by the chief executive is understandable though not always defensible. When it comes to something of this kind in a university, it is plainly unacceptable. The Chief Minister ought to have realised that there was something wrong with what he was doing. A university cannot be run like that. It runs as an autonomous body. More than that, the concept of autonomy is central to the working of a university and this statement is applicable to all concerned — the Chief Minister, the Vice-Chancellor and the teachers. None of them can be exempted from that governing consideration. This is the theory of it. In practice, there is widespread deviation from that and the result is there for everyone to see. The first university in India to be given a special grant of Rs 100 crore was the Institute of Science, Bangalore, and the second such university was Ludhiana. Did the state of Punjab appreciate the distinction conferred upon it? The obvious answer is in the negative. In other words, if a university is beginning to emerge as distinctive in character and outstanding in its performance, a state government has to play a supporting role. It would not be out of place to end on a personal note. In 1979 when also the present Chief Minister was in office, I resigned after two years from the Vice-Chancellorship at Patiala. The details of why I did so and what happened are given in my book, Asking for Trouble: What it Means to be a Vice Chancellor Today. To repeat anyone of those things would not be right. But there is one additional point to be made. As explained in my book, at the end of two years of my tenure, I found myself in a no-win situation. At Ludhiana, it was an altogether different situation. It was a win-win situation. Therefore, the exit of the Vice-Chancellor is not only unfortunate in personal terms but also deprives him of an opportunity to perform in the positive sense of the word. That needs to be understood as also
underlined.
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After the hustings Recent elections — a democratic imperative — may have pleased or disappointed persons of different political hues but one is not concerned as much with politics as the sociology of it. What has really caused me to sit up is the fact that it left perceptible fissures on the social fabric — be it in the towns or in the sleepy villages of Punjab. Looking at the smallest sociological unit i.e. the family, it witnessed fierce debates between the spouses over the merits and demerits of various options in what appeared to be a “no-holds-barred” game. Some wives were legitimately agitated with their husbands as they fell prey to the easy temptation of free booze and other inducements which came their way as part of the “seasonal” benefits. We have known of persons who were on a “trip” for more than a fortnight during which they experienced various levels of “bliss” (pun intended) and rather infrequent lucid intervals. How it may have benefited their benefactors or beneficiaries is incalculable. I wish somebody comes out with the social health consequences of such temptations and see whether they are really concomitant with a sacred democratic exercise like the elections. Traditionally, one is led to believe that Bacchus has downed more men than Neptune. With the days of hustings now receding into history the scenario is slowly returning to normal. Cousins who had stopped even talking to each other are beginning to see the folly of an undeclared boycott and are now rubbing shoulders on social occasions and hug each other, even though half-heartedly. The memories of bitter antagonism are fading out — making way, hopefully, once again for the bonhomie and sangfroid characteristic of Punjab. Blood is proving thicker than
water.
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Cotton trade with Pakistan The Hussainiwala border is just 11 km from Ferozepore and 9 km from Kasur city of Pakistan. This border was the lifeline of traders dealing in clothes, dry fruits, dates, grapes, pomegranates and vegetables before 1971. But due to the collapse of a bridge over river the Satluj at this border in the 1971 war to stop the entry of the rival forces, this route was closed. Now the resumption of trade talks between India and Pakistan has again raised the demand for opening the Hussainiwala border for trade and transit. Earlier also this demand had been raised at various forums by Chowdhary Manzoor Ahmed, Pakistani MP from Kasur, Paramjit Kaur Gulshan, Indian MP from Bathinda, K.S. Jeeda, President, Punjab Cotton Growers Association, and others. Pakistan’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Mr Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri, who belongs to Kasur, has assured India of full cooperation for opening this border. Already the road from Lahore to Hussainiwala had been widened to benefit traders a lot. In fact, the overall official trade between India and Pakistan has increased from $ 345 million in 2003-04 to $ 869 million in 2005-06 and is likely to cross $ 1500 million in 2006-07. Cotton has become a catalyst to boost trade between India and Pakistan through the Hussainiwala border. It is one of the several other items in which India has a cost advantage over Pakistan. India’s global exports of cotton jumped from $ 237 mn in 2003-04 to $ 842 mn in 2006-07. Its production increased from 13.9 mn bales to 21 mn bales, respectively, during the same period. India accounted for 18 per cent of the world production of cotton during 2006-07 and has become the second largest producer in the world after China. Pakistan annually imports 1.5-2 mn bales of cotton. Its production declined from 14.3 mn bales in 2004-05 to 12.3 mn bales in 2006-07 due to adverse weather conditions. As a result, the net import requirements of Pakistan are 3.5 mn bales in the current year. With the introduction of Bt cotton in Indian Punjab officially during 2005-06, the per hectare yield of cotton has increased by 40 per cent in the cotton-belt, particularly in Ferozepore, Bathinda, Faridkot, Muktsar, Mansa, and Moga districts, which are very much close to Hussainiwala border. Punjab contributed 13 per cent in India’s cotton production in 2006-07. The per hectare yield of cotton in Punjab was 743 kg in 2006-07 as compared to 503 kg of India and 674 kg in Pakistan. Cotton surplus in the state is about 1.7 mn bales. It is relevant to mention that India’s export price of cotton to Pakistan during 2003-06 was less as compared to the rest of world. As such, Pakistan gained Rs 17 lakh during 2006-07 (April-June) for importing 764 tonnes cotton from Punjab. Therefore, there is a high potential for Punjab cotton exports to Pakistan. If India and Pakistan allow cotton trade through the Hussainiwala border, it would be beneficial to both. The signing of a memorandum of understanding at Bathinda by the President, Punjab Cotton Factory and Ginners Association, and the Chairman, Indo-Pak Cotton Ginners Association, on March 19, 2007 for free cotton trade through the Hussainiwala border has given a boom for Punjab cotton farmers, who would be getting about Rs 200 per quintal more than the domestic price. At present, cotton trade between the two countries is through the ports of Karachi and Mumbai/Kandala, which is very expensive. From the economic point of view, it is illogical to confine trade through ports, when a large common land border is shared by both countries. The transport time for goods through ports is more than seven days. The land route is cheaper, faster and safer as the carrying cost through Hussainiwala is Rs 12 per quintal only, and the transport time is half an hour only from Ferozepore to Kasur (20 km). The lack of road routes force the Indian exporters to transport goods from Delhi to Mumbai port and then to Karachi (2,274 km). Its transaction costs are 2.7 times of those in the direct route between Delhi and Hussainiwala (431 km). Further, this is also the reason for unofficial trade, which stands at more than $ 2 billion annually and results in loss of tax revenue to both countries. Pakistan needs the vast market across India and that is possible only in the framework of win win cooperation. Punjab will be a major beneficiary from the opening of this land route. The entire Central Asia can be accessed by Punjab through this land route. Similarly, South-East Asia can be accessed by Pakistan. It will fetch valuable foreign exchange. Unfortunately, Pakistan’s insistence on the settlement of Kashmir and the fear of its swamping with Indian goods have hit the interests of both countries. However, if both countries make any sincere and earnest efforts to exploit the enormous potential of cotton trade, Indian Punjab will fetch crores of rupees to Punjab farmers and both countries would gain in terms of trans-shipment costs and lower prices due to the geographical proximity. Though India accorded most favoured nation (MFN) status to Pakistan in 1996, the latter has not reciprocated this gesture and continues to restrict imports from India to 1,076 items. However, it is hoped that the South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA), effective from July 2006 and aimed at reducing tariffs for intra-regional trade, will boost trade between the two countries. Both the Indian and Pakistani leadership must transcend the past hesitations and march jointly towards the betterment of their people.
***** The writer is a Professor of Economics, Department of Management, Lovely Professional University, Phagwara.
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Delhi Durbar Former
Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh scored a point over his rivals by getting a warm welcome when he landed in Delhi after returning from a stay in London. With virtually no senior state Congress leader coming to his defence when a case was slapped against him in the Ludhiana city centre controversy, there was apprehension about the kind of response he will get on his return from abroad. Though none of his detractors in the party came to meet him in the Capital, the former Chief Minister tried to prove he had a following in the legislature party. Sensing uncertainty over the number of people who would turn up at the airport following rumours in the PCC that the party high command did not want MLAs to converge in Delhi with their supporters, the Punjab Youth Congress sent its activists. Farewell note to scribes There was certain charm and grace when V.K. Duggal demitted office as the Union Home Secretary on March 31. A Punjab cadre IAS officer, he wrote personal “thank-you” notes to scribes covering his ministry and senior editors thanking them for the support extended to him in the discharge of his duties in the Home Ministry. He had no doubt that the media will continue to give similar support to his successor and the new Home Secretary, Madhukar Gupta. The note dated March 31, however, reached the scribes by post after nearly 10 days around April 12. Mehbooba’s
advice Amidst the clamour among political parties for implementing the quota for OBCs in higher educational institutions, there is a voice in the UPA that does not quite agree with the logic. People’s Democratic Party president Mehbooba Mufti does not favour a top-down approach on the issue of social empowerment. She feels that students from weaker sections should be empowered through good education to come to the level of others rather than being made to go for concessions. Ms Mehbooba says that improving school education, particularly for weaker sections, will be far better for the country in the long term rather than the approach of handing out doles. After mango, litchi for US? After getting the nod for the export of mangoes to the US, India is now pitching hard for the export of litchi. Commerce Minister Kamal Nath, who never misses a chance to pitch for Indian exports, did well to raise the issue of litchi export at the bilateral meeting he held with visiting US Trade Representative Susan Schwab recently. Nath asserted that like in the case of mangoes India will not allow the Americans to wait for years to taste the Indian litchi. ***** Contributed by Prashant Sood,
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Wolfowitz clashed often with staff As he prepared to sign a five-year contract as World Bank president in the spring of 2005, Paul Wolfowitz sent his personal lawyer, Robert Barnett, to negotiate the terms. Barnett, whose high-profile clients have included some of Washington’s biggest political and media figures, did not mince words in his meetings with the bank’s legal team. Wolfowitz wanted more than a dozen amendments to the standard contract that had served the institution for decades, Barnett told them, including special dispensation for the books he would write and the paid speeches he planned to deliver, and a salary on par with that of the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, who was traditionally more highly paid. A final sticking point, conveyed in all capital letters in an e-mail to then-general counsel Roberto Danino, was Wolfowitz’s insistence that, while he had earlier offered to recuse himself from all office matters involving bank employee and his girlfriend Shaha Riza, he insisted on retaining “professional contact” with her – something that the executive board later determined was a clear conflict of interest under personnel rules. The Riza issue has come back to haunt Wolfowitz, as the bank’s executive board is now considering what to do about revelations – contained in documents it released Friday--that Wolfowitz resolved the issue by personally arranging a bank salary and promotions for her in a temporary State Department post. Testy exchanges and peremptory demands, similar to those made on his behalf by Barnett early in his tenure, quickly came to characterize Wolfowitz’s dealings with the institution’s staff and governors on a range of issues during his presidency, according to current and former senior bank officials and representatives of the bank’s member governments interviewed for this article, several of whom have worked closely with Wolfowitz. None would speak on the record, out of either fear of retribution or reluctance to become involved in the increasingly public controversy. Wolfowitz has clashed with the staff over pay packages and authority he gave to aides Robin Cleveland and Kevin Kellems, whom he brought to the bank from the White House, installed in senior positions and rewarded with open-ended contracts and quarter-million-dollar, tax-free salaries, despite their lack of development experience. Both staff and management also have raised concerns over what several described as Wolfowitz’s insistence that the bank accelerate its lending to Iraq and open an office there. A principal architect of the Iraq war as deputy defense secretary during President Bush’s first term, Wolfowitz has pressed the issue in the bank against strong concerns about security and poor governance in Iraq. “He was pretty aggressive about it, given that he’s generally a mild-mannered person. He was really quite hard,” said one source with first-hand knowledge of internal bank discussions on Iraq. “I don’t know how much of it was flogging for the (Bush) administration rather than his own ghosts and convictions.” Although the bank eventually opened a $500 million loan program for Baghdad, the board took the unusual step of asking to be “regularly updated” on developments, according to internal documents obtained by the Government Accountability Project, a Washington-based whistle-blower group that tracks World Bank activities. Bank interests in Iraq have been managed from its regional headquarters in Jordan. In December, after a bank official offered the Baghdad job turned it down, a committee interviewing other candidates reported that the pool of those willing and qualified was “extremely limited and particularly weak,” according to an internal memo provided to The Washington Post Saturday by the accountability group. Another signature Wolfowitz initiative was a new anti-corruption strategy for countries receiving bank loans. But at a meeting last fall in Singapore, bank governors rejected the proposal on the grounds that it would politicize the multilateral institution. More recently, they attacked Wolfowitz’s budget proposal, saying it lacked a coherent strategy. Governors have now accepted a revised anti-corruption plan, and a chastened Wolfowitz has announced the appointment of a respected bank economist to launch a strategic review of bank operations. “He arrived at the bank expecting the board to behave like the Republican Congress, and ran into a Democratic majority,” Nancy Birdsall, president of the Washington-based Center for Global Development, told the Financial Times last week. By arrangement with
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Speak the truth and realise the Lord within. He is not far from you. You have only to see Him intuitively. May your deeds be only righteous. The faithful are those who perform their trust and fail not in their word and keep their pledge to Ishwara. Your suffering is a great means of love, if you make use of it, especially if you offer it peace in the world.
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