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The El Dorado farce Industry grows |
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Plight of children
Sri Lanka’s defence needs
Pakodas in Prince Rupert
Afghan women’s journey of broken promises Boys and girls need their clubs Taj Corridor case: Betrayal of high office
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The El Dorado farce The
high-ups in the Congress party and the UPA would not mind a bit of monetary loss to the country even if the CBI has got another egg on its face in the Quattrocchi affair. Close on the heels of having lost its petition seeking Ottavio Quattrocchi’s extradition to India, the CBI has now been told to shell out what is essentially the taxpayers’ money to meet the legal expenses of the Italian businessman. It is a matter of disgrace for the CBI to face this predicament only because of its failure to do proper homework. Not presenting a proper case before the Argentina court for his extradition could not be inadvertent. If reports from El Dorado were to bear scrutiny, the CBI presented only “half the papers” relating to the case before the court. This suggests that the CBI was hiding the vital papers and trying to do half the job to protect Quattrocchi somehow. The general public is entitled to know what prompted the CBI officials from botching up the investigation and the extradition proceedings. There is no doubt that the CBI, having lost its independence long back, has been reduced to an instrument in the hands of whatever the ruling party and the Centre. It works at the behest of the bosses and is least bothered about its duty to protect the public interest. Though a red-corner notice has been pending against Quattrocchi for quite some time, it has made no sincere effort to bring him to India to face trial. Doubts have also been raised about its role on the issue of defreezing Quattrocchi’s accounts. It is yet to come clean on the charge that it did not prevent him from siphoning off the funds after getting the two bank accounts defreezed. The CBI’s bane is that political interference continues to dog its day-to-day functioning despite the Supreme Court’s ruling in Vineet Narain vs Union of India that sought to insulate it from “extraneous factors”. |
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Industry grows The
13.6 per cent industrial growth in the first quarter of the current fiscal year is apparently contrary to the forecasts made by most observers that the economy would slow down following the RBI interest rate hikes which were meant to suck liquidity from the system. The growth rate has kept up momentum due to the heavy demand for industrial goods. Manufacturing has accelerated with continuous expansion and capacity additions. The power sector too has brightened the industrial scenario. Electricity generation rose by 8.7 per cent over last April. However, the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) figures, released by the Central Statistical Organisation on Tuesday, also throw light on some dark spots. While the slowdown in the demand for consumer durables was expected with the three hikes in the interest rates in quick succession, the output of capital goods, textiles and paper has also dipped. Mining too has performed poorly. The IIP figures have got a boost from a 92 per cent increase in the production of woods and wood products. What has come as a surprise is the whopping 55 per cent growth in food products, which account for about 12 per cent of manufacturing. Although inflation has dipped below 5 per cent, partly due to the appreciation of the rupee against the dollar, price rise remains a main worry for the common man, who is not enthused by such figures of industrial growth. For him the day-to-day necessities matter more. Essential commodities like wheat, pulses and oilseeds are still priced high. There are reports of the government toying with the idea of raising the prices of petroleum products. If petrol, diesel and gas become dearer, as the Petroleum Minister would like them to be, this could have a cascading effect on the prices of essential items. The ordinary citizen should then brace up for fresh trouble. |
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Plight of children Even
the harsh statistics showing children suffering from a range of abuse cannot convey the tragedy of how society has abdicated a key responsibility — to care for its young, to nurture them till they grow up, not only strong and healthy in mind and body, but are also able to fulfil their potential as human beings. Instead, we have an unending series of horror stories, from lack of access to schooling and malnutrition to outright physical exploitation ranging from child labour to sexual abuse to deployment in violent conflict scenarios. We see it all around us, but we continue to blink and turn away, and any number of commemorative days come and go with the situation unchanged. A report last year on the “Focus on Children Under Six” (FOCUS) made it clear that the numbers of underweight children is not going down. Government schemes like the Integrated Child Development Scheme, the National Child Labour Programme, and the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan have periodically had their funding allocations increased. While these efforts have no doubt reached many people, there are lakhs who are clearly outside the net. India has the lowest child immunisation rates in South Asia. It has been much publicised that “backward” Bangladesh has done much better on arresting infant child mortality than India. Child welfare experts have repeatedly stressed the collective nature of the responsibility with regard to child-care. Governments, on their part, have to augment the resources being made available to these programmes. Reach and implementation efficiency has to constantly improve, and both state and Central agencies should work with more accountability in this regard. And as the FOCUS report stresses, “government policy is an outcome of democratic politics”. The involvement of all strata of civil society is a must if all our children, without exception, are to have a decent childhood and a shot at a better future. And that will be a day to look forward to. |
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A man who has nothing to do with his own time has no conscience in his intrusion on that of others.
— Jane Austen |
Sri Lanka’s defence needs
A
friend of mine from a neighbouring country recently remarked: “India is behaving like a regional bully.” My friend was alluding to comments about our policies towards Sri Lanka by National Security Adviser (NSA) M.K. Narayanan. When I asked him what he felt were the characteristics he had observed which led to his labelling India as a “bully”, he said: “Like all bullies India growls at its smaller neighbours like Sri Lanka and grovels before its large neighbour, China.” My friend was outraged by Mr Narayanan’s response to a question on India’s reaction to Sri Lanka’s arms purchases from Pakistan or China. The NSA had responded: “We are the big power in the region. Let us make this very clear. We strongly believe that whatever requirements the Sri Lankan government has, they should come to us. And we will give them what we think is necessary. We do not favour their going to China, Pakistan or any other country. We will not provide the Sri Lankan government with offensive capability. That is our position.” Mr Narayanan’s statement is untenable apart from being undiplomatic. Under what treaty obligations, bilateral or international, is Sri Lanka required to acquire weapons exclusively from India? If we are the “big power” in the region, which demands that our neighbours must follow the newly enunciated “Narayanan Doctrine” on arms acquisitions, has he forgotten that our own IPKF was compelled to use offensive helicopter gun- ships and tanks to deal with the LTTE? What right have we to ask Sri Lanka not to use similar offensive capabilities when the LTTE is much better equipped today than earlier? Finally, why should Sri Lanka undermine the effectiveness of its armed forces by buying weapons exclusively from India if it can get better weapons from elsewhere? It has taken India years to persuade even anti-Indian parties like the JVP that India stands fully committed to their country’s unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity. Sri Lanka is a neighbour with whom India enjoys extremely good relations. Mr Naryanan’s comments have provoked outrage and anti-Indian sentiments in Sri Lanka. The Pakistanis have proclaimed that these comments are yet another manifestation of India’s “hegemonistic” designs. By making unwarranted comments described as “growling” by outsiders, India has eroded its capability to influence Sri Lanka on the credible devolution of powers to Tamils. In contrast to India “growling” at Sri Lanka, how have we handled our relations with China recently? Just on the eve of President Hu Jintao’s visit to India, China’s envoy to India, Sun Yuxi, proclaimed: “In our position the whole State of Arunachal Pradesh is Chinese territory. And Tawang is one of the places in it. We are claiming all of that. That is our position.” New Delhi developed cold feet and avoided a formal protest. China has subsequently firmly endorsed its envoy’s claims by denying a visa to an IAS officer from Arunachal Pradesh, claiming that since he belongs to a part of China, he does not need a visa to accompany over 100 of his colleagues being sent to China on an official “training” visit. China had earlier refused to issue visas to the then Arunachal Chief Minister Gegong Apang and to the Speaker of the Arunachal Assembly. China now appears to feel that it can afford to be more aggressive and tough in its postures on the border and other issues of concern to India. Article VII of the April 2005 “Agreement on Political Parameters and Guiding Principles” to resolve the border issue states: “In reaching a border settlement the two sides shall safeguard populations in border areas.” But when meeting Mr Pranab Mukherjee in Berlin on June 6, China’s Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi is reported to have stated that “mere presence” in populated areas would not affect China’s claims on the Sino-Indian border. China was thus repudiating the provisions of Article VII of the 2005 Agreement on guidelines the Special Representatives would observe in addressing the border issue. Its apologists would, however, claim that it was merely giving its own interpretation of that agreement. The lone Lok Sabha member from Arunachal Pradesh, Mr Kiren Rijiju, says that New Delhi’s weak response is alarming for the people in Arunachal Pradesh. Rijiju avers that Arunachal Pradesh is the only state in our northeast where there are no separatist movements and people proudly proclaim that they are Indians. He adds that when the Chinese repeat their territorial claims and New Delhi fails to respond, people get demoralised and start doubting New Delhi’s determination to protect the country’s territorial integrity. Even as Mr Narayanan was meeting his counterpart Dai Bingguo during the border talks in January this year, the Dalai Lama, speaking in Tripura, endorsed India’s claim to the whole of Arunachal Pradesh, including Tawang. This totally punctures China’s claims to Tawang on the ground that it was making the claim in view of strong Tibetan spiritual and cultural links with the monastery town. Surely, the Mandarins in Beijing, who show scant regard for Tibet’s cultural and spiritual heritage, cannot claim to be more concerned about Tibetan sentiments than the Dalai Lama! China has recently taken positions on Pakistan-sponsored terrorism that have serious implications. When the Lashkar-e-Taiyaba changed its name to the Jamat-ud-Dawa the United States moved the UN Security Council to declare the Jamat-ud-Dawa an international terrorist organisation under UN Security Council Resolution 1373. China has blocked the passage of this resolution. China also does not accept the widely endorsed position that incidents of violence in J&K are acts of terrorism. At the same time, China’s assistance to Pakistan’s nuclear, missile and conventional build-up continues unabated. In these circumstances, one wonders how our Prime Minister could honestly tell President Hu Jintao that the people of India regard China as their “greatest” neighbour. New Delhi has to respond firmly to China’s strategic containment of India. We should invite ministers from Taiwan and establish Joint Mechanisms to promote economic ties with Taiwan, in line with the policies followed by many Southeast and East Asian countries. New Delhi should also facilitate wider publicity for the Dalai Lama’s views on the Sino-Indian border. Strategic ties with Vietnam should be strengthened with military supplies, including Brahmos and Prithvi missiles, apart from a Plutonium Research Reactor. A similar approach should guide our relations with all countries that have maritime border disputes with China. Finally, the India-Russia-China triangular cooperation has to be complemented by strengthening the proposed US-Japan-India partnership. China respects power and firmness. It has contempt for actions perceived by others and especially our neighbours as Indian “grovelling” while dealing with its powerful
neighbour.
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Pakodas in Prince Rupert When
you notice that welcome signs at the Vancouver airport are in Punjabi too, and your passport is stamped by a lady Sikh officer looking resplendent in traditional headgear, you cannot help feeling that you are not very far from home, despite having jetted across the globe. This impression is further strengthened when you come to Surrey, a picturesque locality of Vancouver, which is popular with Punjabis. The ambience is not much different from Phagwara or Amritsar. Young men may be working or studying in top institutions and speaking English in the typical Canadian accent, but the older lot is still in the Punjab mode. They wear the tamba-kurta-parna the way they did back in the villages and speak the rustic lingo with gusto. The most thrilling experience is to see them all together in a park during the evening game of cards. The loud laughter can be heard across many blocks. That shows the Punjabis can make any place their home. But we did not expect such a homely atmosphere when we moved 1500 km further North to Prince Rupert, a stunningly beautiful seaport town on the way to Alaska. The town of 14,000 happens to have about 80 Indian families, most of them from Punjab. If Harjit Basanti from Ludhiana knows everybody because of running taxi a in town, his wife Balraj is a feted head chef at a top local restaurant. He recalls that when he came here in 1988, houses did not have locks. There were no thefts. If a guest came to an unlocked house, he would open the house, wait patiently, may be even have a drink or two, and then leave after writing a note that he was here. There are two gurdwaras for this small community, which attract huge crowds on weekends. The gathering provides a perfect support system. The Indians are not living in ghettos but are spread over all localities. They have fairly good relations with Canadians and aboriginals alike. This intermingling was at its best during the annual Sea Festival which culminated on Sunday, June 10, with a community festival on the waterfront. What is remarkable about this place is that you can take a dip in the Pacific right next to snowclad mountains where skiing is still on. While children played bullhead derby and adults ran a race in boats made by them on the spot, almost the entire town was there to cheer. Stalls selling eatables were doing roaring business. Anju Sharma from Sangrur sold home-made biryani and shahi paneer; a charitable stall run by a local gurdwara had samosas and pakodas on offer. There were queues 20 deep to savour the delicacies. Mind you, the buyers were not Indians. The goras were the ones relishing the fare. Samosas at $2 sold out within hours. Imli chutney provided the perfect accompaniment under the name "sweet sauce". Preparations were a little easy on chillies, but were not at all devoid of them. The way goras ate them by hand while trying to hold back their tears was a spectacle to behold. We were told that they have shed their bland food for this lip-smacking fare. No, the town has not been christened Little Punjab
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Afghan women’s journey of broken promises LASHKAR GAH, AFGHANISTAN: In a filthy corner of a clinic in Lashkar Gah, a heavily-pregnant 12-year-old lies wailing at a curt, dismissive doctor. Down the road some of the thousands of widows in the area beg in the mud. In the local hospital, women lie recovering from the horrific burns of failed suicide attempts. The brave new world promised by Prime Minister Tony Blair, President George Bush and Afghan President Hamid Karzai appears not to have reached the women of Helmand. When asked whether life was better now than under the Taliban, Fowzea Olomi, 40, director of the women’s centre, simply laughs: “The Taliban have gone?” Life now, she says, is worse. Pointing to her burkha flung to one side, she added: “I never used to wear that before, just a scarf. But now we are all scared of the Taliban because of kidnappings and suicide bombers and shooters.” Olomi, who defied the extremist regime to keep teaching in secret, believes that fewer young girls are now receiving an education. Although most females are at school in Lashkar Gah, capital of the southern province, in the remoter towns and villages, too many parents are afraid to send their children to classes. Teachers, like doctors, are being kidnapped and beheaded with impunity. And just yesterday, gunman sped past a school on a motorbike firing into a crowd of female pupils, killing two girls and wounding six. Wounded girls run the risk of being abandoned in Afghanistan where women are seen as a commodity to pay off debts or settle disputes. Take eight-year-old Malay. An Afghan army vehicle ran over her arm and she was flown to the British field hospital at Camp Bastion where doctors explained to her uncle that she might have to have it amputated. He turned to leave. He no longer wanted his niece because without an arm she could never be married off. Today Malay is still at the base and her arm has been saved. “She is adorable. The staff love her and she has learned to say ‘cheeky monkey’,” said Lieutenant Gill Pritchard, 25. Across Afghanistan, the statistics make desperate reading for women. There are around two million widows with no rights or state support. Despite a new law passed recently that girls should not be married off until they are 16, it has made little difference. They are still forced into wedlock as young as nine, pregnant with the first of a dozen children within a few years, of which twenty percent are likely to die before their fifth birthday. While the women of Afghanistan are most certainly victimised, they are not victims. In Lashkar Gah, Ms Olomi and her friends battle on despite endless death threats, either by phone or the now infamous night letters. Norzia Mahboobsami, head of the women’s council, receives daily threatening telephone calls. “I simply tell them they have a wrong number,” she explained matter-of-factly. Last year, Ms Olomi’s driver dropped her off at the women’s centre and then set off on another errand. He was shot through the car window as Afghani policemen stood by. Ms Olomi, who still carries his picture in her purse, was not deterred and the centre reopened in the governor’s compound. Today it is an oasis in a desert of oppression. Beautiful, big-eyed young girls learn their ABCs, while their mothers are taught everything from English to computer training But the past five years has proved an endless journey of broken promises for the women. Near the British camp, an ice cream factory lies empty. Last year an NGO promised to fund a project to open it up and provide jobs for the widows, a vital lifeline for an estimated 4,000 women around Lashkar Gah. whose other alternative is to beg on the streets. But the funding for the project never materialised and now the wafers bought to go with the ice cream are about to go out of date. It is just one example, Ms Olomi explained, of hope created and dashed. And one of the reasons why, aid workers – now too frightened to enter the province – believe that the practice of self-immolation is on the increase. At Lashkar Gah’s Bost Hospital, where suicide bombers have been thwarted twice in the past year, Dr Abdul Aziz Sediqi said at least a fifth of the 150 patients admitted each month were women who have set themselves on fire. Countless others never even make it to hospital. Afghan women may have a ministry dedicated to their affairs, but as far as they are concerned it is making little difference outside Kabul. Women fall far below security and counter-narcotics when it comes to funding priorities. Yet with the few dollars that have reached them, small projects have sprung up. Squashed cheek by jowl in a couple of mud huts, widows work away at old fashioned, hand-wound sewing machines, creating beautifully embroidered clothes to sell at market. And graduates keep their machines, allowing them a revenue stream and a way to feed their children. By arrangement with
The Independent |
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Boys and girls need their clubs
IT is probably a great scandal, what will be going on next month at the 125th gathering of the Bohemian Grove club. Some of the world’s wealthiest and most powerful men will be meeting in the redwoods of northern California. There will be millionaires, defence chiefs, bankers, media magnates, heads of university and, a recent innovation, one or two artists and musicians. In the past, George Bush and Dick Cheney have attended. Richard Nixon was a guest, but found it “the most faggy thing imaginable”. Every year the keynote speech is made by Dr Henry Kissinger who, by hilarious tradition, is interrupted by a Mexican band as he starts to speak. Bohos, as they call themselves, talk about world events, but also are known to run about naked in the woods, get drunk, appear in shows wearing women’s clothing. At some point, a Druidic ritual known as the Cremation of Care will take place involving the burning of an effigy, which represents the cares of the world, in front of a concrete owl. This year, the Bohos have been trying to reach the 1976 Miss Wales Sian Adey-Jones to ask whether she could send a message of support. A poster of her has been on the wall of one of the cabins for the past 27 years. Ms Adey-Jones would not be able to attend herself since the Bohemian Grove Club is all male. How should we feel about the most powerful men in the world running about naked and playing silly games in California? Personally, I rather like the idea. It seems a harmless way to let off steam, and, maybe, their ritual care-cremation in front of the Boho owl has a beneficial effect. When men get together, they quickly become embarrassing. It is, perhaps, for this reason that the eminently sensible Ruth Kelly will introduce this year the Single Equality Bill, which will be designed to make English, Welsh and Scottish men and women mingle more equitably than at present. Tidying up the fag-ends of prejudice, the legislation will formally grant women the right to breast-feed in public, while clubs will be obliged to grant both genders the same facilities. Post-Kelly, a young mother will have the right to suckle her infant in the Members’ Bar of the Garrick Club. For all its sensibleness, there is something nigglingly interfering about this legislation. The Government has not quite the nerve to take on single-sex clubs but is moving in that direction. The underlying assumption behind the legislation is that it is unnatural for men to hang out with men and women with women. Each gender becomes more evolved and civilised, the thinking goes, when it mixes with the other. It makes sense, of course, to wallop sporting establishments, notably those drearily backward-looking golf clubs which prevent women from playing when they like and drinking at the bar, but to confuse that issue with social clubs is an absurdity. But unlike a sporting club that has control of specific facilities – perhaps the only ones in the area – a social club offers little more than a choice of company. Far from being a paradise of equality, the unisex world of New Labour paradise sounds like a nightmare. In a feminised world, some men like to be blokeish just as some women enjoy the opportunity to be girlish together. Now and then, each sex deserves to be freed from the disapproval of the other, even if the way they then behave may be undignified. Like the naked Bohos in California, they are having fun and adding to the colour and variety of life. By arrangement with
The Independent |
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Taj Corridor case: Betrayal of high office What the CBI discovered from the official records on the Taj Corridor case, maintained by the UP Government under Mayawati, during her previous term as Chief Minister, was: (a) Unauthorised funds from the public exchequer, worth crores, were squandered by Mayawati; (b) official files were tampered with to conceal the unauthorised waste of public money; (c) This resulted in large scale tampering and interpolations in the official files, which were not only detected but also established by forensic labs; (d) Investigation into the misutilisation of public money and interpolations/ tampering of official files was conducted by the CBI under supervision of the Supreme Court; (e) Consequently, after fully examining the records, the Supreme Court on 18-09-2003 directed the CBI to register FIRs against Mayawati and her minister Naseemuddin Siddiqui and some officials. The Supreme Court also directed the Income Tax Department to examine if violations of revenue laws had taken place. The CBI found that there was a prima facie case to proceed against not only Mayawati and her Minister Naseemuddin Siddiqui, but also several officials, who now occupy important positions in the Uttar Pradesh State secretariat under Mayawati’s patronage, after her win in the 2007 polls. The New York Times of US in its issue of 6th June, 2007 reported: “Lewis Libby Jr., the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney and one of the principal architects of President Bush’s foreign policy, was sentenced Tuesday to 30 months in prison for lying during a CIA leak investigation that became part of a fierce debate over the war in Iraq. The judge who delivered the verdict said, ‘People who occupy these types of positions, where they have the welfare and security of the nation in their hands, have a special obligation to not do anything that might create a problem.’ ” The “materialists” of the West invoke value laden political norms whereas the “spiritualists” of our lands practice different standards, depending upon whether one is wielding power or is out of power. The lawyer who had tied himself to Mayawati’s bandwagon should have remembered what the Supreme Court said in the Delhi Transport Corporation vs DTC Mazdoor Congress case (1991). “...in society pledged to uphold rule of law it would be both unwise and impolitic to leave any aspect of life to be governed by discretion when it can be conveniently and easily be covered by the rule of law, for it is a complacent presumption that those who occupy high posts have a high sense of responsibility.” The writer is a senior advocate |
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