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Low Marx for UPA Monsoon effect |
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Please-all team
Diplomacy and N-energy
Best of Rest
All up in the air Caught in the Internet hate machine Chatterati
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Low Marx for UPA This is a global phenomenon: When there are problems at home, pick on a target outside to divert attention. George Bush does it all the time, as do the governments of India and Pakistan whenever it is expedient. The Congress party and the BJP, too, are adept at this. Now, the CPM, for all its aversion to globalisation, has also taken to this diversionary tactic. The party has warned the Manmohan Singh government that the UPA should not take for granted the Left support “by posing the threat of the BJP”. The CPM organ, People’s Democracy, has flayed the “neo-liberal and anti-people prescriptions” of the UPA government as precisely the kind of political and economic measures on which communal forces thrive by feeding on popular discontent. The CPM wants the UPA to correct its course or face the consequences of alienating the Left. Hard words, indeed, but they are unlikely to break any bones. The CPM is hardly in a position to speak for the entire Left, given the differences between the party and its coalition partners in West Bengal. In fact, there are sharp differences within the CPM itself and these were all too evident in the context of both Singur and Nandigram, including on the role of cadres during the police action that claimed 21 lives. The developments exposed the differences not only within the CPM and between the state committee and the CPM ministers but also the dissensions within the Left Front government the Marxists are trying to hide under rhetoric. The attack on the UPA, therefore, appears to be a ploy to turn the focus away from the unsettling issues and developments in West Bengal. The CPM has its own reasons for its particular stridency at this juncture. The elections in Uttar Pradesh, the renewed effort for cobbling up a third front and the preparatory posturing of equidistance from the Congress party and the BJP are among the other compulsions that may explain the CPM asserting that the UPA should not take the Marxists for granted. The UPA, of course, can take comfort from former Chief Minister Jyoti Basu’s assertion that -- despite the differences and the UPA’s deviation from the Common Minimum Programme -- the party will not rock the boat. Maybe, Mr Basu had not read the latest issue of People’s Democracy. |
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Monsoon effect The Meteorological Department’s first long-range forecast of only 5 per cent less rain during the June-September season should come as a relief though a clearer picture will be available only after the department’s second report in June. The uncertainty associated with monsoon prediction notwithstanding, the very fact that a drought is ruled out should be enough to cheer up farmers. The UPA government as well as the common man, already in a tight spot over high prices, should feel relieved that there would be good enough crops to keep the prices of food items under check. Although agriculture’s contribution to the GDP has declined to below 19 per cent and the population engaged in agriculture has also decreased to 60 per cent, the Indian economy cannot register a double-digit growth without farm output perking up. Despite the recent efforts of the government to strengthen the irrigation network, agriculture still depends heavily on rain. With the water table on the decline at an alarming rate, farmers cannot afford to over-exploit ground water to raise crops. The social and economic cost of depleting water resources is not reflected in the minimum support prices announced by the government. Rainwater harvest will have to be taken up. Ponds and other water bodies need to be revived to recharge ground water sufficiently. While the government is yet to wake up to the alarm signals about climate changes and global warming, weather forecast has to be made more accurate and reliable. Some critics even question the government department’s monopoly over monsoon forecast and suggest that, given its significance for the economy, the work should be outsourced to a reputed global institution. Climate changes, water mismanagement and environmental degradation are issues that have to be taken seriously. Otherwise, the cost of growth would become very heavy and unbearable. |
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Please-all team It is not about young teams or old teams or seniors and juniors. Have we selected the best possible cricket squad for the upcoming Bangladesh tour? Not quite, for in attempting a catch-all selection that tries to appease all quarters, the BCCI has again failed to travel all the distance. While rightly leaving Sachin and Sourav out of the one-day squad, the selectors have opted to retain Virendra Sehwag. A bewildering decision, which, even if it is to be put down to the Captain’s much-talked-about faith in him, displays keenness to accommodate everyone somewhere-an attitude that plagues team development. While Sehwag may indeed have a lot of cricket still in him, the best way to never see that talent flourish again is to molly-coddle it. There is a sense of inevitability about the retention of the big names in the Test squad, and that points to a serious problem. While it may sound churlish to call for the heads of those who have contributed so much to Indian cricket, teams have to be selected on the basis of current form and ability, not past performances. The need is to select winning teams not the showcase ones. If Sachin and Sourav are in because they are the best bets in the middle order, that would have been fine. Instead, we have an old boys club mentality in action protesting against their exclusion from even the one-day side. On the positive side, here is a chance for many who have languished in the wings to begin to prove their worth. A relatively less challenging opposition in Bangladesh may be just what the doctor ordered for a wounded team looking to heal and rebuild. A little healthy grudge, given the World Cup defeat they endured, can be an added incentive. Good cricket will be called for, and hopefully we will see a bit of it. As for the BCCI, it has taken some tough measures earlier, and they need to hold on to it. The temptation to lapse back into old ways, whether in team management or future selection, should be avoided. |
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Kings will be tyrants from policy when subjects are rebels from principle. |
Diplomacy and N-energy
Jawaharlal Nehru, the builder of modern India, was a recognised internationalist. He advocated that India should play an international role befitting its size, population and civilisational heritage. Though he was the President of the Indian National Congress during the Lahore Session of 1929 when the party took the pledge of Poorna Swaraj, in the wake of India’s freedom, he decided to keep the country in the Commonwealth and thereby changed the nature of the British Commonwealth itself. The membership of Commonwealth did not in any way come in the way of India’s strategic autonomy or policy of nonalignment. He had to face the compulsion of importing vast quantities of food under PL480 scheme from the US. Thereby, unlike in China where some millions died of starvation, India was spared famine deaths. He could do it without in any way compromising India’s foreign policy. When the Chinese attacked India he did not hesitate to appeal for arms aid from both Western countries and the Soviet Union. That did not compromise India’s nonalignment either. Under his leadership, Homi Bhabha vigorously opposed the creation of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Once the IAEA was established, India had no hesitation in playing a leading role in it and becoming a permanent member of its governing body. Bhabha and his successor, Vikram Sarabhai, were internationalists in respect of scientific cooperation, particularly in atomic energy and space. India was one of the first countries to accept the American nuclear reactor. India also acceptd the Canadian-built Pressurised Heavy Water Reactor (PHWR) at Kotah. Both these were under safeguards. When following the Pokhran explosion in 1974 the Canadians withdrew their cooperation, India accepted the Russian heavy water for the Rana Pratap Sagar II reactor and put it under IAEA safeguards. Thereafter came the period of technology apartheid, imposed on India by the US through its legislation and accepted by all other nations, including Russia, France, the UK and China In the last three decades all PHWRS India has built is based on the basic Canadian design improved further by Indian scientists. In this age of globalisation it is obvious that technological autonomy has its limits. Giant continental-sized communist economies like the USSR and China have given up the idea of socialism in one country and autarchic development. Advanced nations like the US are now setting up R&D centres in other countries and India is one of their favourite destinations. These developments have no precedents. Today Russia and China do not deal with the US and Western Europe on the basis of technology denial imposed on them through the COCOM regulations which The nuclear weapon is not a weapon of war but a political instrument for the exercise of deterrence. Nuclear strategy is a political strategy. This has been clearly understood in India. Once when Dr Bhabha, in his enthusiasm for peaceful uses of atomic energy, proposed that India should amend its Constitution renouncing the use of nuclear weapons, Nehru advised him to keep himself to physics and leave nuclear strategy to the Prime Minister. Declaring India a nuclear weapon state, adopting a No-First Use strategy and taking a posture of credible minimum deterrent were all politico-strategic decisions and not technical ones. The decisions to test nuclear weapons in 1974 and 1998 and refrain from testing in 1983 and 1995, though urged by the scientific community, were again political decisions. So will be the decision to carry out a future nuclear test. This responsibility cannot be passed on to the scientific establishment. They may advise that future tests may become necessary and that advice should be given full respect and careful consideration. Whether in future, if tests become necessary they can be carried out at costs acceptable to India’s national interests will be decided by the Prime Minister of the day, taking into account the prevailing international security milieu and the costs and benefits based on the Indian capabilities of that time. Unfortunately, many sections of our political establishment tend to shift this responsibility to the scientific establishment. This is extremely unfair to the scientific establishment. Similarly, it is the prerogative of the scientific establishment to advise on the civilian nuclear coopeation with the United States (123 Agreement) and other Nuclear Supplier Group countries. While on the technical aspects the scientific establishment must have its full say, the political aspects, diplomatic wording and the changed context in which the agreement is being negotiated are the appropriate domains of the foreign policy and national security establishment. Just as Jawaharlal Nehru pointed out to Homi Bhabha the domains of physics and nuclear energy and those of international relations, international and national security should not be mixed up. Our parliamentary debates tend to show that just as the legislators have, through their omissions, tended to shift their responsibility to the judiciary and then blame it, there is also a tendency in the political establishment to abdicate its responsibility and shift it to the scientific establishment. The departmental heads of the government cannot be held responsible for tomorrow’s disastrous consequences when politicians willingly abdicate their primary responsibility of negotiating treaties with profound implications for the country’s progress and international relations. Let us revive the spirit of Nehru to deal with other countries with confidence and not suffer from a sense of diffidence and fear, typical of colonial
mentality. |
Best of Rest
Rest and recreation go together. Not so in cricket, either for the players or the viewers; whether they are playing or non-playing, losing or winning. In the latest round of musical chairs -- yes, chairs, as the players have been spending more time seated than batting, bowling or fielding - the selectors have “rested” Sachin and Sourav. Rest is all that the two, and a lot of Indian cricketers, have had since Bangladesh brought us alive with some splendid recreation in the West Indies. They rested when the rest of the biggies, and a couple of smallies (‘minnows’ is strictly no-no) went in to the Super Eight. They rested when the other teams played, and they also rested when the other teams rested. More rest in a nation moving away from Nehruvian nostrums, including Aaaram haram hai, would appear to go against both our industrious and recreational nature. Rest is inseparable from recreation, never mind whether ‘recreation’ is preceded or followed by ‘rest’. In either case, Indian cricketers have had a surfeit of rest with little to show by way of recreation, either before or after rest, for themselves or their fans. Since we have got to go with what we have, and there are far too many claimants for the eleven playing spots in a team, it is time the selectors took a strategic view and went in for optimum deployment. Strategy should be based on policy. The policy should be to have three teams of eleven, each assigned one of the primary colours for their playsuits. The three teams would be Best XI, Test XI and Rest XI. The Rest XI would be no successor to the Rest (of India) XI that old timers may recall. Neither would it be a team of eleven-year-olds who are taking rest now to emerge as future Parthiv Patels or Irfan Pathans. The Rest XI team would comprise exclusively of players who are rested from Best, Test, ODIs and, even, Twenty20s. They will not be barred from playing for recreation, fundraising, exhibition matches and, of course, corporate endorsements. They can also serve as commentators and columnists, including on their own blogspots. The Best XI team would be exactly that: the best at playing cricket in all its forms - Tests, one-dayers and Twenty20s. No rest for them. The Test XI, too, would be exactly that: they would always be on test, never included either in the Best or the Rest. They will be tried and tested till they are tired of it, like Mohammed Kaif. Dinesh Kaarthick, too, is a promising candidate for Test XI if he does well. No other policy can succeed without causing heartburn. This formula will ensure the elimination of politics and parochialism. It would be too messy to attempt balanced representation to all regional and linguistic groups. It would be worse to have separate Indian teams for each country we play against. Every few years, we would have to keep adding teams. It is Ireland and Bermuda today. Tomorrow, it will be East Timor and Nauru. It will get as complicated as our foreign policy with its numerous diplomatic missions. Don’t even think about it. Balkanisation of the country was thwarted after the British left. Now, with the English almost giving up on the game, let us not lay the seeds of balkanisation of
cricket. |
All up in the air It is hardly a picture that would do the Maharaja proud: an Air India Airbus A310 pitched forward while being towed away, its collapsed nose wheel kissing the tarmac. A telltale picture of the mishap on April 9th, widely published, evoked serious public concern. The “joke” doing the rounds was: Safety Nosedives. Worse, as soon as the aircraft was towed away, another Air India airliner, this time a Boeing 767, also had to make an emergency landing. Two emergency landings on the same day by aircraft of the same airline, at the same airport - in this case the Indira Gandhi International Airport at New Delhi - are indeed a matter of serious concern. And a huge embarrassment for an airline that was once proud of its reputation and is now looking forward once again to acquire a global tag. It is in fact also a matter of concern for the civil aviation sector. The Airbus A310 flight to make the emergency landing had come from Bangkok, and the Boeing 767 flight from Dubai. Fortunately, no one was hurt and for that the pilots deserve credit. Created by JRD Tata in the early 1950s, Air India is not only India’s international carrier but also India’s brand ambassador. Its mascot, the Maharaja, created a landmark market share and a global impression, thanks to the airline’s very creative advertising effort in the 1970s. Initially Air India International, and later Air India as a government-controlled venture, the airline operated Super constellations and Boeing 707s in its early years, and then changed over to Boeing 747s to keep pace with the global environment. As times changed again for comparatively small aircraft, Air India didn’t lag behind and inducted Airbuses and Boeings of the modern generation in the mid-eighties and later. However, with the vast expansion of the aviation sector within India and globally, Air India lagged behind savagely, due mainly though to the delays in the Ministry of Civil Aviation, which controls it. At present, Air India has a fleet of 44 aircraft, 23 of which are leased. But it has too many people per aircraft on its rolls, compared to several airlines, and needs pruning both as a tool to cut expenditure as well as to make jobs responsive, responsible and accountable. As for the aircraft, an airline tries to achieve a UR (Utilisation Rate) of nearly 300 hrs per aircraft/per month as this is the optimum utilisation rate for aircraft. So, in a period 15 years, an aircraft nearly flies 54000 hours. Leased aircraft are contracted for a minimum UR of 200 hrs per aircraft/per month, i.e., a leasing company wants a minimum payment for at least these many hours. Normally, leased aircraft are 10-15 yrs Old. All forward looking airlines like Singapore, Emirates, Malaysia Lufthansa - to name a few - believe in keeping their fleet young. They anticipate and initiate their plans in a manner well in time to ensure that their fleet is preferably not more than 10 years old. They start moving out the aircraft to their subsidiaries for cargo services or dispose them off to leasing companies in the third world. Our two Government-controlled airlines may also initiate the replacement process well in time but bureaucratic and ministerial delays, particularly when different political parties come at the helm, obstruct the process of timely inductions. The grounding of Indian Airline’s entire Airbus A320 fleet by the V P Singh government for instance, caused the airline immense harm both operationally and financially. Unfortunately, politicians are never held accountable. But every thing is not well with the airlines also. It may be worthwhile to mention that the Boeing Company conducted a 30-year worldwide study on aircraft accidents covering the period 1960 to 1990. It revealed that the rate of accidents in commercial aviation is higher in South Asia, Africa and Latin America as compared to the European and American Continents. It mentioned two reasons specific to South Asia – our callous chalta hai attitude and a hesitancy on the part of individuals to point out inadequacies and shortcomings of their fellow workers. Even decision makers at higher levels are not devoid of this. Whether on ground or in the cockpit, both these attitudinal deficiencies are dangerous to flying. Unless an error is identified and remedial measures taken, a problem cannot be fixed. In the case of aircraft, it jeopardises the lives of a large number of people. The .government is now trying to merge the two public sector national air carriers. India is poised for tremendous growth in the civil aviation sector, and it is up to the Civil Aviation Ministry to ensure that the new merged entity does not fly into future on wings with lead. At the same time, managements of the two airlines have to ensure that accountability is built into the new structure at all. Certainly, no chalta hai. Unfortunately neither of our two carriers, particularly Air India, has sufficient aircraft. The shortage in numbers means that if an aircraft has a routine technical snag in one sector, the airline’s operations are hampered in another sector. It is a difficult task to ensure the integrity of their schedules. Unlike, for instance, Air France with its 300-plus fleet, or British Airways, with its 270-strong aircraft, Air India simply does not have enough planes to provide a buffer against engineering problems, routine or man-made. Naturally, delays in one sector affect departures in another. It is just as well that the government decided recently to buy new aircraft for both the airlines. But the need of the hour is to ensure speed in decision-making, and accountability in implementation of set procedures at all levels. The author is a former Director General, Safety, of the Indian Air
Force. |
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Caught in the Internet hate machine Could it possibly be that the security men who guard the frontiers of North America are supporting Holocaust denial? Alas, it’s true. Here’s the story. Taner Akcam is the distinguished Turkish scholar at the University of Minnesota who, with immense courage, proved the facts of the Armenian genocide – the deliberate mass murder of up to a million and a half Armenians by the Ottoman Turkish authorities in 1915 – from Turkish documents and archives. His book A Shameful Act was published to great critical acclaim in Britain and the United States. He is now, needless to say, being threatened with legal action in Turkey under the infamous Law 301 – which makes a crime of insulting “Turkishness” – but it’s probably par for the course for a man who was granted political asylum in Germany after receiving an eight-year prison sentence in his own country for articles he had written in a student journal; Amnesty International had already named him a prisoner of conscience. But Mr Akcam has now become a different kind of prisoner: an inmate of the internet hate machine, the circle of hell in which any political filth or personal libel can be hurled at the innocent without any recourse to the law, to libel lawyers or to common decency. The Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink was misquoted on the internet for allegedly claiming that Turkish blood was “poisonous”; this total lie - Dink never said such a thing - prompted a young man to murder him in an Istanbul street. But Taner Akcam’s experience is potentially far more serious for all of us. As he wrote in a letter to me this month, “Additional to the criminal investigation (law 301) in Turkey, there is a hate campaign going on here in the USA, as a result of which I cannot travel internationally any more... My recent detention at the Montreal airport – apparently on the basis of anonymous insertions in my Wikipedia biography – signals a disturbing new phase in a Turkish campaign of intimidation that has intensified since the November 2006 publication of my book.” Akcam was travelling to lecture in Montreal and took the Northwest Airlines flight from Minneapolis on 16 February this year. The Canadian immigration officer, Akcam says, was “courteous” – but promptly detained him at Montreal’s Trudeau airport. The immigration officer took notes and made phone calls to his bosses. Akcam was given a one-week visa and the Canadian officer showed him – at Akcam’s insistence – a piece of paper which was the obvious reason for his temporary detention. “I recognised the page at once,” Akcam says. “The photo was a still from a 2005 documentary on the Armenian genocide... The still photo and the text beneath it comprised my biography in the English language edition of Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia which anyone in the world can modify at any time. For the last year ... my Wikipedia biography has been persistently vandalised by anonymous ‘contributors’ intent on labelling me as a terrorist. The same allegations has been repeatedly scrawled, like gangland graffiti, as ‘customer reviews’ of my books at Amazon.” But this was not the end. Prior to his Canadian visit, two Turkish-American websites had been hinting that Akcam’s “terrorist activities” should be of interest to American immigration authorities. And sure enough, Akcam was detained yet again - for another hour - by US Homeland Security officers at Montreal airport before boarding his flight at Montreal for Minnesota two days later. On this occasion, he says that the American officer – US Homeland Security operates at the Canadian airport – gave him a warning: “Mr Akcam, if you don’t retain an attorney and correct this issue, every entry and exit from the country is going to be problematic. We recommend that you do not travel in the meantime and that you try to get this information removed from your customs dossier.” So let’s get this clear. US and Canadian officials now appear to be detaining the innocent on the grounds of hate postings on the internet. And it is the innocent - guilty until proved otherwise, I suppose – who must now pay lawyers to protect them from Homeland Security and the internet. I’m not surprised. There is no end to the internet’s circle of hate. What does shock me, however, is that the men and women chosen to guard their nations against Osama bin Laden and al-Qa’ida are reading this dirt and are prepared to detain an honourable scholar such as Taner Akcam on the basis of it. Put very simply, how much smut are the US and Canadian immigration authorities taking off the internet? And how much of it is now going to be flung at us when we queue at airports to go about our lawful business? By arrangement with
The Independent |
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Chatterati The celebrity wedding of Aishwarya and Abhishek is hogging the limelight. But what is surprising is how Amitabh Bachchan, with his close buddies Amar Singh and Anil Ambani, have been on the temple trail for divine intervention, which has gone into making this whole affair a success. After all, the Bachchan family collectively has been seen stepping in and out of temples ever since AB Junior fell in love with Ash. AB Senior is known to go to the shrine of Lord Venkateswara in Tirumala almost five times every year. And Amitabh went last week too – with Anil Ambani and Amar Singh, where each of them donated Rs 51 lakh, and dropped the first card into the hundi. In January, Amitabh, Aishwarya, Jaya and Abhishek visited the Shaktipeeth of Vindhyavasini temple in Mirzapur. Though ostensibly to celebrate Amar Singh’s birthday, the Bachchans are supposed to have performed a prenuptial ceremony. In November 2006, Abhishek and Aishwarya were seen with, apart from ‘family member’ Amar Singh, his daughter Shweta, while paying obeisance at the Kashi Vishwanath Temple. In the dead of the night, they went from one temple to another to perform different sets of prayers. They visited this temple too while they were on the Kashi Vishwanath trip. In November again, the family had traveled with Ash to a temple on the banks of the Ganges in Varanasi. This temple visit was meant to clear the mismatch in the stars. A ceremony to offset Ash being a manglik was also performed. AB Senior offered a tusker to Lord Krishna at the Guruvayoor temple in Kerala. Earlier, he has also trekked with family to the Sidhivinayak Temple. Forty Khadims offered prayers at the Sufi saint Khawaja Moinuddin Chishti in Ajmer for the well being and success of their marriage.
Ambani’s bash Even as Anil Ambani was so busy, big brother Mukesh Ambani was celebrating his fiftieth birthday. The competition between the two brothers is amazing. If Anil is interested in the media Mukesh is going to fund new channels. Well, as long as it is healthy it is fine, I suppose. On the other hand, it is obvious that Mr Ambani’s 50th birthday, billed as a “private celebration”, was not such a low-key affair after all. Bollywood badshah Shahrukh Khan and the other Khan, Aamir, were present. Interestingly, these two Khans are not among the invitees at the Bachchans. Besides Mukesh’s personal aircraft, Reliance chartered two Boeings to ferry guests to the venue. The highlight of the birthday bash at Jamnagar was a movie directed by Rakesh Mehra (of Rang De Basanti fame) on Mr Ambani’s life and achievements, which is commissioned by his wife Nita. The music director is Pundit Jasraj while the voice-overs are by the two Khans – Shah Rukh and Aamir. Cutting across party lines were Praful Patel, Arun Shourie, Narendra Modi, Narayan Rane and Kamal Nath. Industry was represented by Sunil Mittal, Anand Mahindra and the Godrejs. The day starts with an aarti at Krishna Temple in Jamnagar followed by a cricket match between the guests and employees of the Jamnagar facility. |
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