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The visit of USS Nimitz Profile |
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Jobs must be created for the poor On Record How best to help Punjab
farmers
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The visit of USS Nimitz
The
nuclear-powered US aircraft carrier USS Nimitz is to visit Chennai port and this will be the first visit by such an aircraft carrier to this country. As is to be expected, some political parties have protested against the Government of India permitting the visit of the carrier. They are saying that India had a long-time policy of not permitting a visit to its ports those nuclear-powered vessels and ships that would not declare that they had no nuclear weapons on board. The defence minister has justified the visit on the ground that it is part of the Indian Navy’s cooperation with the navies of other major powers, and India has had joint naval exercises with the US, Japan, Australia, China, Russia and South-East Asian countries. Indian nuclear scientists have assured the country that there is no risk of any radiation leak, and some 2,000 US sailors are on board the ship without any worry about their exposure to radiation risks. The earlier Indian policy of not permitting any nuclear-powered vessels and ships not declaring that they are nuclear weapon-free goes back to the height of the Cold War and to the times when the Indian Ocean littoral nations wanted to keep the Ocean free of super power rivalry. The US had a policy that they would neither affirm nor deny that any of their ships carried nuclear weapons. The result of this policy was that no US warship could visit any Indian port in the seventies and part of the eighties. After Indo-US relations improved as a result of the visit of Rajiv Gandhi and a memorandum of understanding was signed on defence technology cooperation, US vessels, not nuclear powered, were permitted to visit on a case-to-case basis. By the nineties, after the end of the Cold War, there were joint naval exercises between the Indian and US navies. The US warships made port calls both before and after such exercises. Meanwhile, India itself acquired a nuclear submarine, Chakra, on lease from the Soviet Union. India also started a programme to build its own nuclear submarine. In these circumstances, the policy of not allowing nuclear-powered vessels to visit Indian ports adopted at the height of the Cold War became somewhat anomalous. But there was no declared change in the policy though it was never put to test. While Chakra was returned to the Soviet Union — which decision many naval officers now regret — the efforts to develop an indigenous nuclear submarine continues. It was called the Advanced Transport Vehicle project. It is now said in informed circles that the first Indian nuclear submarine will get commissioned in the next few years. In 1998, after conducting the nuclear tests, India declared itself a state with nuclear weapons. India plans to have a strategic triad of nuclear weapons based on aircraft, missiles and seagoing vessels. While other nuclear-weapon powers have sea-based nuclear weapons in terms of strategic missiles in nuclear submarines, in India there is talk of nuclear warheads on missiles in surface ships and diesel submarines. In such circumstances, India cannot object to ships with nuclear weapons calling on its ports. The US has removed all tactical nuclear weapons from the surface ships and there are none on aircraft carriers. The US deploys dual-capable Tomahawk missiles in both surface ships and submarines and they can carry both conventional and nuclear warheads. Therefore, permission for USS Nimitz to dock at Chennai has to be viewed against this changed background and not in the light of Indian policies of the seventies and the early eighties prohibiting the entry of nuclear-propelled vessels and nuclear-weapon carrying ones. Today, India is attempting to develop cordial defence relations with all major powers of the world. During the Cold War period, India did not have such relations with any major power, including the Soviet Union, which at that time was our largest armaments supplier. This development is indicative of the emergent balance of power paradigm. India also has access presently to the armaments markets of Russia, the European Union and the US. India holds military exercises with Russia and the US and there have been discussions of holding exercises even with China. In such circumstances, ship visits by friendly countries are quite normal. India has had two previous encounters with nuclear-powered US aircraft carriers. It was the same carrier on both occasions — USS Enterprise. The first occasion was 1962 November when following the Chinese attack and the debacle at Sela-Bomdila Jawaharlal Nehru appealed to President Kennedy for help. The aircraft carrier Enterprise was available and was sent into the Bay of Bengal as a demonstration of US support. The second instance was in 1971 when Kissinger ordered the same Enterprise from Tonkin Bay into the Bay of Bengal even as the Indian troops were closing in on Dacca. This was an exercise in intimidation and it failed. It deeply angered the Indian people and created a degree of mistrust about the United States which is still persisting. Given this background, a friendly visit by USS Nimitz should be regarded as a gesture to wipe out that bitter memory. Now it is known that it was a bluff to please China and Pakistan and the captain of the task force had no operational instructions. More recently, in December 2004, the US Navy had an opportunity to work with the Indian Navy and Air Force during the Tsunami rescue operations. The rapidity of the rescue operations and professionalism of the Indian services impressed the Americans. Earlier they had exercised with the Indian Air Force. The defence cooperation framework agreement signed in June 2005 formalised the wideranging defence cooperation. The US has offered both the latest models of F-16s and F-18s (carrier aircraft) to India in response to the Indian Air Force’s bid to buy 126 multirole aircraft. Nimitz carries the F-18 aircraft as its primary aircraft system. This naval visit is an indication of the changing international security environment in the world after the end of the Cold War and the emergence of a six-member balance of power, including India. No sinister meaning need to be read into this visit, which is likely to be the beginning of an increasingly routine exchange programme. India, too, expects to acquire its aircraft carrier — Vikramaditya — in the next couple of years and one should expect that some day it would visit Singapore, Shanghai, Vladivostok, Tokyo, Hawai and US ports in the Pacific coast area. |
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Profile
Almost
five years back two former policemen were in the fray for election to the office of Vice-President. They were the then ruling NDA’s nominee, Bhairon Singh Shekhawat and the Congress candidate, Sushil Kumar Shinde. Both had started their respective careers at the low rung of the police force but the fate had willed much bigger roles for them; they plunged into the uncertain world of politics and rose like meteor. In July 2002, they were locked in predictable Vice-Presidential election as rivals. The outcome of policeman versus policeman contest was well known, given the majority the then ruling NDA enjoyed in the electoral college for the Vice-President’s elections. In sharp contrast to 2002, the majority in the electoral college in 2007 presidential election is with the ruling UPA whose candidate is Pratibha Patil and her rival, Vice-President Shekhawat, is contesting as an independent, backed by the NDA. Shekhawat’s only chance is his towering stature which, his friends hope, may prick the conscience of voters and they indulge in the “unethical” practice of cross-voting. For almost five years, Shekhawat presided over the Rajya Sabha with great competence, dignity and commendable neutrality. Those reporting Parliament know how at times some of the more boisterous members of the BJP were unhappy with him because he would not tilt in their favour. Shekhawat’s style of functioning is different from other BJP leaders as he has built up a following of his own which cuts across party lines. He has, therefore, come to be known as the BJP’s moderate face. He has as many friends in the Congress as in his own party and he gets along with them very well. Former Finance Minister Jaswant Singh is known to have been brought in politics and groomed by Mr Shekhawat and subsequently helped to enter the Rajya Sabha. Shekhawat is often heard saying: “I have all my long life made friends and not enemies. I may have political opponents but I have never made enemies”. Even though he is pitted against a Congress rival, a woman, in the presidential election and campaign has touched a new low as never before seen, he believes “friends will always remain friends”. Sources close to him say that personally he holds the view that a consensus for top posts like that of the President, the Vice-President and the Speaker will be in the national interest and in the larger interest of democracy. For almost half a century, Shekhawat has been the fulcrum of anti-Congress politics in Rajasthan and the credit of building a strong unit of the BJP goes to him. He was elected to the State Assembly for the first time in 1952 and, coincidentally, he was Rajasthan’s first leader to acquire the second highest post of the land 50 years after his debut in politics. He has faced many challenges in his variegated career but the worse crisis came in 1997 when some BJP MLAs joined hands with independents to oust him. Though he managed to tide over the crisis, Shekhawat could not withstand the shattering blow which came in 1998; BJP was wiped out in the elections and a veteran like Shekhawat was humbled by an upstart like Ashok Ghelot. Luck again smiled on the BJP veteran leader as he smoothly sailed through the vice-presidential election. It was indeed very difficult for the BJP to find a replacement for Shekhawat in Rajasthan. So towering was his personality that the second rung of leadership could not grow; critics compare him with a banyan tree under which nothing grows. In private conversation, Shekhawat agrees that the young leadership in the state has not grown because of him. Even though claiming to be “friend of everybody”, he is known to be one of the oldest anti-Congress leaders, always posing a threat to the 122-year-old party in Rajasthan. Born on October 23, 1923 in a humble farmer’s family in village Khachriawas in Rajasthan’s Sikar district, Shekhawat had personal experience of poverty and deprivation. With determination, perseverance and commitment, he could rise to become the Member of Rajasthan Legislative Assembly, the Leader of Opposition and the Chief Minister of Rajasthan for three terms. On August 19, 2002, he got elected as the Vice President with a handsome margin. Known as Ajatshatru (one who is never defeated), Shekhawat faces the toughest battle of his life. If he wins, it will be a miracle. |
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— Astronaut Sunita Williams after a record 195-day stay in space — I&B and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Priyaranjan Dasmunsi I will be changing my job next year, and it will be nice to finally have a college degree on my resume. —
Bill Gates, on getting his law degree from Harvard 30 years after dropping out of the university — Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, India’s foremost classical musician In future, every time I am offered a film role, I will ask a thousand questions. Each time there is a kissing scene, I will ask the director to justify it — why and how the kissing scene is relevant to the story. I don’t think an actor has to do exactly as the script dictates. You have to question it. — Sherlyn Chopra on her role in the film Red Swastika People are accepting hip hop music more than ever before. With young Indians visiting abroad frequently, they are coming across new genres of music. A sense of adventure is instilled in them. Hip hop music, though created in the US, now has a market across the world. It is no longer restricted to a community. — Cue Tee, Sony BMG UK’s
first Asian DJ — Abhijeet Bhattacharya, singer Tailpiece: The media said that I was like a piece of furniture. Actually they were being very kind to me. When I see my old movies, I think I was like an entire furniture
shop. — Akshay Kumar |
Jobs must be created for the poor In
the remaining years of the UPA government, there will be steady rise in the GDP growth and India will continue to impress the world with its software exports and engineers as well as the array of manufactured goods. After a long time, industrial growth has picked up and is high around 13 per cent. This means that it is only agriculture that is lagging behind. Lots of jobs are being created in the services sector and even in the manufacturing sector but agriculture is the mainstay of India’s poor. Jobs have to be created for the poor and the needy because even as the service sector boom continues it will absorb only the educated and the skilled. Unless jobs are created for the school drop-outs and less skilled and the asset-less, there is likelihood of a lack of peace among India’s one billion people. There will also be lack of happiness among millions of people who are falling outside the ambit of the growth in the restricted space of the fast growing industries. The corporate honchos are likely to get bigger and bigger salaries; they are likely to buy more branded goods and holiday and gambol in the world’s best beauty spots. Though the poor may become less visible, they will be more disgruntled and miserable as health care, housing, sanitation and potable water become scarce. Recently a brush with a big public hospital brought home the fact that it is pathetic to be poor in Delhi and to be at the mercy of doctors who are overworked, harassed and stressed out. There is no place to sit or stand comfortably, so crowded are the antechambers. Persons who are visibly sick and needing attention, are sitting awkwardly in corners. It is a miserable sight yet it is the daily plight of the sick who cannot afford to go to private hospitals. It gives one a horrible impression of the city’s health care system and brings about grave doubts about the current campaign championing ‘India on a roll’. If a city like Delhi cannot look after its sick, what is the use of all the glitzy malls and slick hotel lounges all around? At the enquiry booths in the public hospital, there was nobody in sight and one had to find one’s way in a dimly lit, chaotic and depressing atmosphere. To be in such a hospital can be psychologically draining for the sick. No wonder, so many can be seen sprawled out on the floor. The numbers are mind boggling. Why are the public hospitals so overcrowded? Being poor, they have to wait for their turn in a big Delhi hospital. It is also to do with the cost of treatment because in a private hospital, each test, X-ray or ultrasound is very costly which few can afford. Another drive through the slums of posh South Delhi where Delhi’s real service providers (household helps and cleaners) live can shake up anyone’s sensibilities. There are huge garbage mounds outside their dwellings and the sheer squalor in which people are living, is another reminder that India is waiting to be another Brazil in which violence has become the norm. Thus lots of changes have to be brought about in the next two years. Something has to be done now to make the health care and housing better. If rural areas have jobs, we would not have such a regular flow of migration to cities and people could live in dignity in their own states and in their own villages, among their own kith and kin. If there were good primary health care centres in villages, people would not come all the way to public hospitals in big cities. It all boils down to a big caveat in today’s high profile growth — it is not helping the poor to help themselves. It is not making them comfortable in their homes because there is little money in farming and other jobs are not growing. Rural development and industries are being neglected, at least in the poorest and most populous states. According to the latest employment figures from the Central Statistical Organisation, there has been an increase in self-employment which means that very few people are actually getting regular salaries. The insecurity of regular income flow is driving people away from villages into cities. By contrast, high corporate growth is making some people very rich. Yet, it is making no dent in the lives of the poor. Rising consumerism is good for business and it leads to employment but only if people are consuming more domestically produced goods and services. But today’s rich are sourcing the items of consumption from different countries. It is but natural that exposure to other cultures is increasing people’s aspirations to have the best in the world and people are not bothered about consuming only ‘Made in India’ products. (India’s imports grew at 40.7 per cent in April 2007). There is nothing wrong in people having the best lifestyle possible as long as contrasts as between a top private hospital and the big public hospital are minimised. It is also not good for the rich to be living amidst people leading subhuman lives in hovels that are devoid of all basic amenities. Surely, there is some gap somewhere because the Finance Minister is raising the allocation for health and housing generously year after year. Yet, what we see is little difference to the infrastructure of hospitals or services they are providing to the sick and the needy. Slums are also growing rapidly. Shockingly, in urban India (Delhi and Mumbai), 45 to 50 per cent of the households live in slums and squatter settlements. In Delhi alone, there are at least 1,500 shanty colonies with more than 3 million people with grossly inadequate water supply and sanitation; one latrine serves 27 households and one water pump serves 1,000 persons. Surely, high GDP growth alone is not going to help India. According to London Economist Intelligence Unit’s Global Peace Index, India ranks a low 109th among 121 nations. The most peaceful country in the world is Norway! India has to look afresh at its own high GDP growth with
concern.
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On Record
Arun Bhagat, a former IPS officer, has served in various capacities in Himachal Pradesh, Manipur, Goa and Delhi. He has headed the Delhi Police, the Border Security Force and the Intelligence Bureau. He is now a member of the Rebeiro Committee on Police Reforms and the National Security Council Advisory Board. He has been National Consultant to UNDP, India and International consultant to the High Commissioner for
Human Rights, Geneva. Excerpts: Q: Do you endorse the Administrative Reforms Commission’s recommendation to scrap the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) in Jammu and Kashmir and North-East? A: Terrorist groups and activities are active in the country. As long as the menace of international terrorism continues, the security forces would need the tools and the wherewithal to combat it. The AFSPA is one such tool. Changes in the Act should be considered to render it more accountable and reduce the scope for misuse. The AFSPA gives the armed forces a legal authority to deal with terrorism. Changes in the Act can be considered to make the Army more accountable. Provisions can be made to increase the involvement of the district authorities in searches, raids and patrols. Withdrawal of the AFSPA without making provisions would amount to surrendering to terrorism. Q: The Centre rejected the PDP’s demand for scrapping the AFSPA in Jammu and Kashmir, citing security considerations. Will the ARC suggestion increase pressure on the Centre? A: Yes, but the Centre cannot eschew its responsibility to preserve the country’s integrity. Q: The ARC wants the Centre to be vested with powers to send Central A: Law and order is a state subject. The Constitution will have to be amended if this recommendation is to be implemented. The amendment would alter the balance in the existing federal structure and is likely to be perceived Mere deployment of forces will serve no purpose. Many questions arise. Will they take over the district officers’ work? Will they only assist? Legal authority would have to be given to them. In law and order, there is no scope for concurrent jurisdictions. Responsibility has to squarely rest and vest in one authority. Q: What about the recommendation for 33 per cent women in police forces all over the country? A: Recruitment of women should be need based and not fixed arbitrarily. It will neither help women nor the citizens nor add to the efficiency of the police. The additions should also be harmonious. An arbitrary figure would ignore the requirements of a diverse country like ours. The need of the day is better responsiveness, a cultural change in the police to serve the citizens better. Q: What about tenure posting for all police chiefs? A: Fixed tenures have become necessary to stop the arbitrary transfers. Short tenures and frequent changes are detrimental to efficient performance. Separation of law and order and investigation wings would result in qualitative improvement in crime control and successful prosecution. Tenure postings for police chiefs is long overdue. The Supreme Court has approved it as well. Q: What about special kiosks for registration of FIRs as in Japan? Won’t it reduce the police clout? A: It could be tried on an experimental basis. Existing legal provisions would also have to be studied. Its implementation would entail a corresponding responsibility on the citizens’ part. Otherwise, the police could be swamped with a deluge of FIRs with not too happy consequences. We should first examine its legal and practical aspects. Citizens would have to be made aware of the laws particularly in regard to cognisable and non-cognisable offences. The workload will increase. So also the possibility of frivolous complaints. It is doubtful whether this would be in public
interest.
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How best to help Punjab
farmers
A close perusal of the Punjab Budget presented by Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal reveals that the measures for generating alternative sources for financing by levying new taxes to raise an additional revenue of Rs.460 crore are not sufficient. He should have the courage of stopping the payment of income-tax of the ministers from the state exchequer. The proposal for a levy on Change of Land Use (CLU) is appreciable, but the big relief to real estate by reducing the stamp duty on land registration from the present 6 to 5 per cent is not in tune with the government’s farmer-friendly attitude. Clearly, 43 per cent higher allocation for agriculture and 22 per cent for irrigation are well received. Punjab’s current agrarian problems are believed to be caused by the over specialisation in wheat and rice cultivation. We must critically review the present and future scenario for wheat-rice rotation in comparison to other crops from all social and economic aspects. The farmers are ready to adopt and shift to new cropping pattern, but the government’s marketing policies block the path of diversification. Farming is a vocation for the majority of rural populace in Punjab. To make agriculture a profession, it should be made knowledge intensive. We need to train our farmers in using genetic engineering for producing products like pomato (potato + tomato) to reduce perishabilty in tomato for fetching fortunes in all times to come. We need to train and motivate our farmers for using vermiculture biotechnology to increase productivity and curb debt-related suicides. The extension services of agricultural universities should be strengthened with motivated manpower to reach farmers of all kinds with a sense of commitment. This calls for incentives and higher allocation of fiscal resources. There is a case for rural industrialisation for reducing underemployment and disguised unemployment in agriculture. It means not village industries but industries with backward and forward linkages with agriculture. To ensure the survival of the struggling Punjab economy, the Chief Minister should not adopt populist measures such as free electricity to farmers which is bad economics. User pay principle must be accepted as a mantra of running the economy equitably. Farmers in India are known for their generosity of giving Gur ki Bheli in place of ganna (sugarcane) when he possesses the bumper crop. This calls for ensuring their paying capacity. Remunerative prices should be paid to them for their agro-products. This calls for reorientation and re-engineering of the Commission on Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP). Reduce the post harvest losses for making farmers pay their electricity bills. A portion of the Minimum Support Price (MSP), say, at the rate of 5 per cent, can be paid in US dollar so that the farmers can also share the country’s booming foreign exchange
reserves. The writer is Professor, Department of Economics, Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra
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Loving must be as normal to us as living and breathing, day after day, until our death. My nationalism is as broad as my swadeshi. I want India's rise so that the whole world may
benefit.
Women whether naturally good or not, whether chaste or unchaste, should always be regarded as images of the Blissful Divine Mother. |
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It’s really nice to be back. It was nice to smell that sage air, feel the desert breeze, and it was really nice to put feet on the ground... My first 24 hours after my return to earth were a little tough. But my record stay in space was important for future space flights, even travel to Mars. 
After watching Sunita William’s safe landing on earth the whole night, we have drawn a good lesson on how to keep one’s nerves cool. We are sure, Pratibha Patil will also have a safe landing at Rashtrapati Bhavan.
Ragas like Malhar, Darbari, Malkaus or Yaman give you peace. Our music is based on spirituality, religion and trust. So most listeners all over the world experience peace and tranquility while listening to us. Whatever we present comes from the heart.
I cannot forget the day I earned my first reward for my singing. It was a small amount — Rs 20 — but it was priceless.
