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Falling short Targeting media |
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The Nithari probe
Roundtable discussions
General discomfort
Develop the small towns, not new SEZs Revisiting the 1971 war Why Richard Gere was out of line
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Falling short THE Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence has once again, in its 16th report tabled in the Lok Sabha, drawn attention to the depletion of the Indian Air Force’s strength in terms of manpower, squadron levels and pace of new procurement. Pilot shortages continue to plague the force, though the IAF has recently announced that it would spare between 15 and 20 pilots periodically for absorption into Air-India. The pilots likely to be released would be seniors, who would also be given a chance to revert back to the IAF after a period of deputation. The IAF’s critical flying requirements, though, centre round its younger personnel, whose job is to keep the frontline fighters, transport aircraft and helicopters war-ready. The Standing Committee has drawn attention to the squadron levels, too, which stand at 33 as against the sanctioned strength of 39.5. In fact, with earlier types being phased out and replacements yet to come in, the force strength may well fall to 29 in a couple of years, as projected by many studies. It is in this context that the panel has severely criticised the government’s slow progress in the projected purchase of 126 multi-role combat aircraft. The committee noted that the Defence Ministry had been saying that the Request for Proposals (RFP) would be issued “soon” for two or three years now. Considering the inordinate delay in procuring the Hawk 100 Advanced Jet Trainers (AJT), a process which took a staggering two decades on this count is well justified. The IAF’s role in responding to the country’s security challenges can only intensify, and the fact that both aircraft and personnel shortages are staring it in the face does not augur well for the future. While both procurement and indigenous development of aircraft like the LCA have to be speeded up, a programme to ensure the availability of top-flight talent for recruitment into the force is essential. Managing human resources is as critical an issue as acquiring and managing the high-technology platforms of future warfare. As of now, we are falling short on both counts. |
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Targeting media THE quashing of the order of search warrant against Margadarsi Financiers by the Andhra Pradesh High Court is a severe embarrassment for Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy. Ostensibly, it was the finance company which was being investigated. But the real target was the media empire of Mr Ramoji Rao, who wears two hats. One is that of a business magnate, and the other that of a media baron, who runs the Eenadu newspaper and a clutch of TV channels. It is in his second capacity that he had fallen foul of the Chief Minister by exposing his land-grab deals and much else. His newspaper published a story as to how the Chief Minister’s men bought 376 acres of land at Rs 15 lakh an acre near Hyderabad and then sold it at Rs 10 crore an acre, making a huge pile in the process. The government decided to get even with him by going wild on his finance company. It was done in a draconian manner on the mere complaint of a Congress MP. All this despite the fact that not even one of the 2.5 lakh depositors of the company had filed any complaint over default in payment or asked for the return of his money. Still, on the basis of just an allegation, it initiated criminal proceedings against Mr Ramoji Rao, obviously to tame the influential media group. The High Court has declared that the search warrant was issued on the basis of insufficient material and the order did not “disclose application of mind”. Could there be a stronger indictment of a government? What is worse, it tried to rope in even the RBI to justify its vendetta. Such attempts to browbeat the Press are nothing new. Some politicians try to do so by registering false cases against the media organisations. Others take recourse to stratagems like stopping advertisements to newspapers or hampering their circulation. These tricks are counter-productive, because they boomerang most of the time. Still, it is necessary to have safety mechanisms in place so that politicians do not show authoritarian tendencies in the grab of doing everything in a democratic and legal manner. |
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The Nithari probe THE Nithari victims’ refusal to cooperate with the CBI in the investigation of the killings of their children will not serve the ends of justice. It will derail the process of investigation and trial of the country’s horrifying episode and ultimately help the accused to hoodwink justice and go scot-free. In a writ petition to Ghaziabad’s Special Judicial Magistrate on Tuesday, the victims have demanded a re-investigation of the killings or include Moninder Singh Pandher as an accused in the chargesheets to ensure a “fair trial”. While it is for the court to decide about the maintainability of their petition and the justification of a re-investigation, it would be unfair on the victims’ part to decide against cooperating with the investigation. If there is any proof and evidence about Pandher’s involvement in the rape and murder of some children, including Pinki Sarkar and Payal, the people should come forward and vigorously help the CBI to probe the extent of his involvement. A boycott of the probe will not help their cause, but could be used by the accused in escaping the punishment — something which even the victims don’t want. The CBI has maintained that if Pandher was not involved in rape and murder, it cannot frame him for that offence. In the first chargesheet, Pandher has been charged with criminal conspiracy, destruction of evidence, and immoral trafficking. In the second and third chargesheets, the CBI surprisingly did not name Pandher but only Surinder Koli, the other accused. While doing so, it relied on several inputs like Koli’s confession before a magistrate, Pandher’s narco analysis tests, his cell phone transcripts, passports and so on. The CBI is yet to investigate 15 cases and issue chargesheets. Therefore, justice demands that the parents and relatives of the deceased extend their whole-hearted cooperation to the premier investigation agency to ferret out the truth and bring the culprits to book. The CBI took over the probe following the people’s demand. Apparently, it needs to win the confidence of the victims’ families. |
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Power without responsibility: the prerogative of the harlot throughout the ages. |
Roundtable discussions DR. Manmohan Singh is already talking publicly about the "future" leadership of the country. His contributions to foreign policy and national security will be largely judged on two major initiatives that he has undertaken — the nuclear deal with the US and his efforts for peace and reconciliation on the vexed issue of Jammu and Kashmir. Reconciling the assurances he gave in Parliament on the autonomy of our strategic nuclear programme and on the guarantees of fuel supplies with the provisions of the US Hyde Act is becoming a vexed and seemingly intractable issue. But Dr Manmohan Singh does appear to have set the stage for a framework under which bilateral negotiations can be held with Pakistan on the question of J&K. There appeared to be no basis to reconcile the views of India and Pakistan on J&K for decades. However, as Pakistan started realising that its calls for so-called self-determination enjoyed virtually no support in the US, the European Union, Russia and even China, General Musharraf put forward proposals for demilitarisation, self governance and joint management. The Prime Minister made it clear that while borders could not be redrawn, they could be made "irrelevant". General Musharraf is evidently seeking early implementation of his proposal for "demilitarisation". He has not hesitated to get the Americans to try and persuade India to commence "demilitarisation" by troop withdrawals from three key urban hubs — Kupwara, Baramulla and Srinagar. There has also been a subtle shift in Pakistan's policy of putting all its eggs in the Hurriyat basket. Mainstream political parties like the PDP and the National Conference are being cultivated by General Musharraf to get them to join the Hurriyat in demanding "demilitarisation". It is in this context that one has to look at the shrill demands in the Kashmir valley for "demilitarisation". Indian security forces have ended all hopes of Pakistan-backed militants taking control of urban centres. General Musharraf has evidently calculated that "demilitarisation" is the only way for Pakistani-backed militants to take control of urban centres and proclaim them as "liberated zones," as India's security forces would be averse to undertaking operations in urban hubs to drive out militants, as such operations would involve heavy civilian casualties. While New Delhi has remained silent on what has transpired at "back channel" and Foreign Secretary-level meetings on J&K, both General Musharraf and Mr Khurshid Kasuri have been asserting that the issue of J&K could be resolved sooner than one imagined. Dr. Manmohan Singh has said these assertions "do not give a correct picture'. From what one can discern about exchanges with Pakistan in the recent past, it appears that India has made it clear that "self governance" has to be equally applicable on both sides of the LoC. It has also been stressed that rather than "joint management," India would be ready to consider the establishment of joint consultative and coordinating mechanisms to discuss issues of common concern like trade, tourism, education, health, the environment and water resources. The demand for "demilitarisation" has been responded to by noting that the level and nature of deployments of security forces in Jammu and Kashmir are directly related to the continued support for the infrastructure for terrorism in POK and in Pakistan itself. In the meantime, the process of making borders "irrelevant" has commenced with measures to promote trade and travel across the LoC. The talks with Pakistan on Jammu and Kashmir thus appear to have proceeded satisfactorily on the basis that "borders cannot be redrawn". The recent resolution of the Foreign Affairs Committee of European Parliament draws a distinction between the total lack of autonomy and self-governance in PoK and the Northern Areas in contrast to the extensive powers enjoyed by the government and the legislature in J&K. India should, therefore, have no reservations in proceeding with discussions on "self-governance" across the entire undivided state of J&K with a view to ensuring that the powers enjoyed by elected bodies on both sides of the LoC, from the village to the regional level, are harmonised and identical. Despite this, misgivings do persist that the government is proceeding on a "sellout" on J and K. The reasons for such misgivings are obvious. It is no secret that the Manmohan Singh government, duly influenced by friends in Washington, was on its way to a precipitous withdrawal of forces from Siachen before it was stopped in its tracks by the reservations expressed by the security establishment and by public opinion. The government's inexplicable decision to establish a "Joint Terror Mechanism," which has turned out to be a diplomatic farce and embarrassment, and the Prime Minister's astonishing statement in Havana that Pakistan, like India, is a "victim of terrorism" raised serious doubts about the government's approach to issues of national security. More imaginative efforts are, therefore, required for the government to take political parties, Parliament and public opinion into confidence on this issue. Dr. Manmohan Singh complemented his diplomatic efforts with a consultative process involving a broad cross-section of political opinion in J&K through a series of roundtable discussions. The Third Roundtable was held in Delhi on April 24. But the manner in which these roundtable discussions have been convened and held has raised misgivings. The authority and stature of the Prime Minister of India have been eroded by the manner in which a ragtag bunch of separatists from the Hurriyat Conference publicly spurned invitations from the Prime Minister to participate in the roundtables. What was the need to repeatedly go, virtually on bended knees, to invite these worthies, who would have done little more than mouth the views of their masters in Islamabad, had they participated in the talks? Further, not a single Working Group frankly stated that there could be no sustained economic or social development in J&K unless political parties and civil society organisations stopped acting as apologists for terrorists trained across the LoC and joined hands to isolate the militants. One Working Group proposed revocation of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act and advocated the maintenance of law and order "through normal laws". This reflected scant understanding of the reality that terrorists, heavily armed, motivated and trained across the LoC, are not mere pickpockets or thieves who can be dealt with through "normal laws". The Working Group on Centre-State Relations is yet to submit its recommendations. One hopes this group will show a greater measure of realism and take into account larger considerations of national unity while proceeding with its assigned task. It will take years, if not decades, for Pakistan, confronted by separatist sentiments in Balochistan and Sindh, to grant any meaningful autonomy to the Kashmir area on its side of the
LoC. |
General discomfort
SOON after I joined The Tribune four years ago, I got a call from then Punjab Governor J.F.R. Jacob inviting me to the Raj Bhavan for “a little chat and drinks”. On reaching there, I was ushered into the small but plush private drawing room of the Governor. It required some effort to get up from the soft velvety sofa that I had sunk into when he walked in with his right hand extended to shake hands. Liveried waiters laid out an assortment of snacks as we settled for whisky. The Governor was at his cheerful best and told me about his friendship with many from the journalistic fraternity. Our discussions meandered from one subject to another until I casually mentioned the 1971 war. As I am a pacifist, war and warmongering have never appealed to me. So I was not particularly sound on the military history of the war. All that I knew was that the Indian Army at that time was led by Gen S.H.F.J. Manekshaw, who was later conferred the rank of Field Marshal, and in the Eastern Sector by Lt.-Gen Jagjit Singh Aurora, who was overlooked for promotion. The only reason I brought up the subject was to keep the conversation going so that I could hold on to my one-peg regimen and he could do justice to his drinks. At one point I said something inadvertently in praise of the Field Marshal. Suddenly, I could notice a change in his mood. The Governor immediately essayed into how Field Marshal Manekshaw had nearly scuppered his plans in the Eastern Sector and how he saved the situation by taking things into his own hands. By now, it was obvious that he did not hold the Field Marshal, who once boasted that if he had led the Pakistani Army the result of the war would have been quite different, in high esteem. He made fun of Field Marshal Manekshaw’s claims about the “blunt talking” he did with Indira Gandhi just before the war. What about General Aurora’s role? He did not seem to have much to say about his former boss either. General Jacob was unhappy that the world did not know much about his contribution to the war as the No. 2 in the Eastern Sector. All the credit went to Field Marshal Manekshaw and General Aurora, who were more visibly active than General Jacob, who worked behind the scenes and made the fall of Dhaka and the surrender by General A.A.K. Niazi possible. “You need to know more about the war. I will give you a copy of my book. If you read it, you will know how the war was conducted”, he said pressing the bell. An aide arrived and General Jacob asked him to bring a copy of the book from his study. I felt happy at the prospect of getting a book from him and I even thought of requesting him to autograph it for me. As the aide went to fetch the book, he did a somersault, “Why should I gift the book to you? The Tribune is rich enough to buy a few copies and distribute them among its senior staff. I do not receive any royalty on the book as all the money goes to a charity”. Instead of the book, he gave me the address of the publisher from whom I could procure enough copies of Surrender At Dacca: Birth Of A Nation. It was not a happy ending to a convivial evening, though it provided a foray into the mind of a No. 2, and was, therefore, quite educative and
memorable. |
Develop the small towns, not new SEZs IN quite a few quarters, the Special Economic Zone scheme has been subjected, not without some justification, to vehement criticism. With equal vehemence, on the other hand, its proponents have been pressing for its early implementation. Amidst the fierce controversy, however, it has occurred to no one that there is an alternative plan which could incorporate almost all the positive features of SEZ, eliminate its drawbacks and at the same time help in bringing about healthy and productivity-oriented human settlements. Could we not go in for a ‘small and medium-size-town-centred’ development and provide SEZ type of incentives to the new enterprises to be set up in the towns which have a potential for infra-structural development? Would it be wise to create another category of human settlements in the shape of SEZ which are bound to be viewed by a large section of the people as ‘island of privileges’? Should we add to our social tensions and provide further opportunities to political agitators to exploit the weak planks of our democratic edifice? Is it not a more worthy goal to attain an overall high quality of life for all categories of our existing settlements, be they villages, towns or metropolitan cities? In view of the special circumstances prevailing in India, where massive migration to major urban centres, like Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata, has not been accompanied by decrease in population or unemployment in rural areas, and where problems of a ‘teeming country-side’ and a ‘teeming set of metropolises’ have to be tackled simultaneously, it is necessary to evolve an integrated policy for all categories of human settlements and ensure that they develop in harmony with one another and yield wholesome results in the areas of economic growth, social cohesion and environmental sustainability. We must plan and develop small and medium-size towns to serve, on the one hand, as economic and social links between them and the villages and to prevent, on the other, an unmanageable rush of rural migration to metropolitan cities. While it is neither feasible nor desirable to shut the doors of the metropolises to the migrants, the dictates of healthy urbanisation require that conditions are created in which the ruralites move largely to small and medium-size towns. At present, India has about 3400 small and medium size urban settlements and 593,643 ‘ habitated villages’. Obviously, with such a wide span of variety of sizes there is good case for consolidation of small villages, so as to reduce their number and make them viable in terms of physical and social infrastructure. The reduced number of viable villages could be effectively integrated, for the purpose of development and linkages, with small and medium size towns which, in turn, could become focal points of a new pattern urban growth. This growth should be so directed as to result in attraction of new industries and service-units to these towns which could provide employment opportunities to the persons living in the rural hinter-land. To begin with, out of the aforesaid 3400 small and medium-size towns, a few, with potential for infra-structural development, should be chosen for special growth and incentives given to the developer-company similar to those that are being extended to SEZ. In fact, to a large extent, identification of such towns already exists. Quite a few of them are located in the earmarked regional zones around the metropolises. For example, in the National Capital Region, such towns – Mansera, Kondli, Rewari, Bahadurgarh, Alwar etc. – have been identified. If they could be given incentives similar to those given to SEZ or they themselves could be declared a sort of SEZ, they would not only broadly serve the objectives similar to those that are sought to be achieved through SEZ but also help in securing town-centred urban development. These towns should undergo comprehensive re-development and expansion and become nerve-centres for the new pattern of human settlements in the country. The additional lands required for the purpose should be provided to the company concerned by the state government after acquisition, subject to the condition that every farmer/peasant whose lands, or whose interest in lands, gets acquired, would have the option to become a share-holder of that company and the value of his shares would be equivalent to the amount of compensation due to him. The company would be under a further obligation to absorb an adult member of the family in one of the spheres of town development, be it in the shape of an allotment of a shop or a job in the new industries and ‘services-units’ that would be set-up in the town. The town-centred urban development has a number of advantages. It would facilitate a more balanced distribution of our population amongst different categories of human settlements, and give a positive shape to the process of migration from the rural to urban areas, particularly in the matter of acquisition of new skills. It would also enable us to develop or redevelop our cities on a human scale. Life in large metropolises tends to become too mechanical, too isolated and socially regressive. They would serve as more enduring engines of growth in our country, where house-hold consumption is 68 per cent of the GDP as compared to China’s 38 per cent. In any case, our polity and value-system are different from those of China. To transplant Shenzen model of China to our soil may turn out to be a fatal mistake. The writer is a former Union Minister of Urban Development |
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Revisiting the 1971 war
A recent interview by Lt. Gen. JFR Jacob (retd), the Chief of Staff (COS) of Eastern Command, with Karan Thapar on CNBC concerning the Bangladesh war, compels me to set the record straight on a few aspects concerning that particular conflict. My only credentials for being able to do so is that at the time I was on the Staff in the MO1 operational section of the Indian Army’s Military Operations Directorate, tasked with the higher control of all operations in erstwhile East Bengal, with a full, day-to-day, ring-side view of history in the making and the role being played out by some of our senior Field Commanders on the ground. By now it is well known that whereas the then Prime Minister and many in her inner council tried hard enough to push for an earlier time frame for the operations, the then DMO, keeping in mind the impending monsoons, the troops and the logistics build up and the operations of the Mukti Bahni, besides a host of other operational constraints, stood his ground. Finally the Army’s view for a later schedule prevailed, and thank God for that. As the Field Commander Lt. Gen. Jagjit Singh Arora was able to achieve tremendous success on the border against the initial objectives, with very few casualties, a decision in which Babu Jagjivan Ram (the then Defence Minister and in my view a great military strategist of his time who should one day have been the Prime Minister), was successful in affecting the policy shift in the race for Dhaka. Once a decision had been taken, it became imperative that Dhaka be captured soonest lest the UN and others moved in with their own agendas. All these weighty decisions were enabled with the Commander in the Field General Arora delivering beyond his charter, a bold yet not rash DMO who would not even hesitate to speak out his mind with his boss the then Chief, General Sam Manekshaw ,and a Raksha Mantri who was smart and quick enough to seize a fleeting opportunity. The highest policy decisions were taken at the level of the Field Army Commander, the Chief, the DMO and the PM, ably assisted by the Defence Minister, and certainly not at the level of the COS of a Command Headquarters. The COS, being a Staff officer, only puts into implementation the directions of the Army Commander. No more and no less, as at least those who have worn the Olive Green know only too well. The credit for success only goes to the Field Commanders, like Generals Montgomery and Slim, the latter for his brilliant command performance in Burma. It has to be also regretfully highlighted that General Arora’s brilliant campaign, where 93,000 PoWs were taken, was completely overshadowed by his popular and dashing Chief who today is a Field Marshal ,with the former having passed away without the due recognition that the country should have afforded him. In other countries the statues of outstanding Military Commanders adorn public places . The Government of India has to my mind treated General Arora shabbily, and I wonder whether it is the civilian mind set in our country and the bureaucracy at work. In so far as General Jacob is concerned, and his comments that he had asked “his” Field Commanders to “ignore” Manekshaw’s orders for the priority of objectives, one would humbly submit that no Staff Officer can openly or otherwise defy his COAS, and in any case if a difference of opinion had emerged then it would have been for General Arora to resolve it with his boss because it is the Commanders and not their Staff whose business it is to do so. Also the subordinate Corps and other Commanders have only one leader in our case, and that is the Army Commander. The move of the Infantry Brigades from the Chinese border to which General Jacob avers is also a very controversial issue still engaging the minds of military strategists, because the uncovering of this Front could have landed the country in serious trouble had China also put pressure on us or entered the war, which fortunately for us they did not. The point to remember is that it is always the top Commanders in the field who win (or lose) wars, and it is they who receive the bouquets or the brickbats. Today when Sam Manekshaw lies indisposed and General Arora is no more with us, and more importantly, neither Jagjivan Ram nor Indira Gandhi are around, we would do well to possibly not rewrite the history of the 1971 war in Bangladesh. |
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Why Richard Gere was out of line
I am tired of listening to the media chatterati incessantly talk of all these ‘parochial’ and ‘non-modern’ elements of our society who are making a big deal of Gere’s enthusiastic pecking of Shilpa Shetty. After all, as Shetty herself admonished those aghast by Gere’s behaviour: “This was not such a big thing or so obscene for people to overreact in such manner. It was just a kiss.” Yes, Ms. Shetty, a kiss perhaps more suited for a Bollywood party than an AIDS-related event. And shame on you Richard Gere! It is difficult to judge what is worse: you not understanding Indian culture, or not understanding that there is a time and a place for your saliva attacks. Let’s put aside the fact that Gere, who, as a keen follower of Dalai Lama, is a frequent visitor to India. Usually I am the last to defend any kind of moral policing. But my objections are not because I believe that Gere usurped Indian values. My objection is that he failed to realise the significance of his demeanor at an event that informs and helps victims of a dreaded sexually-transmitted disease. Truth is, Mr. Gere should have known better. The New York Times reports that India has at least 5.1 million people living with HIV, the second highest in the world after South Africa. The country, by all accounts, is at a critical stage: it can either prevent the further spread of infection, or watch an epidemic take hold. AIDS is particularly ravaging the Indian highways. The country is in the midst of building and upgrading its highways akin to the interstate highway systems in Europe and America. But connecting these highways has allowed for the easy spread of the virus, passed by prostitutes to truckers and migrant labourers, who bring them home to unsuspecting wives in towns or villages. Because the statistics of AIDS among Indian truckers are so staggering, such charity events require somber involvement by Holly and Bollywood celebrities, not buffoonery or titillation (and Gere’s clumsy moves were a bit of both). Gere has since gone on the defensive. He appeared on the highly popular Jon Stewart show on the US comedy channel and blamed the kiss backlash on “a very small, right-wing, very conservative political party in India.” Gere explained that he was, rather embarrassingly, parodying his “Shall we dance” moves after Shetty complimented him on his performance in that film. In all his explanations, Gere failed to see that his actions took the spotlight away from AIDS awareness, a reason why, one would hope, he, Shetty and other celebrities join such causes. Of course, does all this mean that a judge in Jaipur city court has the right to issue an arrest warrant against him and Shetty? Absolutely not. Does it mean Gere’s behaviour was acceptable? Absolutely not. |
God is absolute, all powerful, and whatever he wills comes to pass. This world is but a pretext, a make-believe. — Guru Nanak Basic education links the children, whether of the cities or the villages, to all that is best and lasting in India. — Mahatma Gandhi Progress comes to those who work hard. —The Upanishads What pleases God, he does. No one can gainsay it. — Guru Nanak |
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