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Rice is wrong Fighters for IAF |
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Ignoramuses
Maoists’ designs
Flavour in files
Pak society turning against the military Wheat imports are unnecessary Chatterati
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Rice is wrong US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has every right to comment on the relevance of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) today. She has a point in suggesting that NAM was born when the world had two rival blocs led by the then super powers — the US and the former Soviet Union. But surely she is not expecting India to agree with her point of view. She should have avoided asking India, one of the founder-members of NAM, that it should abandon the path of non-alignment because, as she thinks, “it has lost its meaning.” India as a sovereign nation knows what it should do and what it should not. It takes decisions keeping in view the country’s national and international interests. India cannot allow its foreign policy to be subjugated to the unsolicited advice Ms Rice tended to dole out on Thursday at a meeting of the US-India Joint Business Council in Washington. It is true there are no two super powers in the world now. But the world is not unipolar either. Essentially, NAM for India means the capacity to follow an independent foreign policy. It stands for taking an independent position on issues affecting India and the world. The movement has grown beyond the argument of marking distance from power blocs, old or surviving. As External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee has stated, NAM has “acquired contemporary relevance in fostering cooperation among developing nations, particularly that known as South-South cooperation”. Over the years NAM has got transformed into a movement for a more equitable world order. Also, it has no longer anti-American overtones about which Washington used to be sensitive earlier. India’s adherence to NAM does not mean that it does not want friendly relations with the United States or any other country. During the last few years India and the US have come closer to each other in many ways. They have entered into a strategic partnership, which has many ramifications in foreign policy, technology transfer and economic cooperation in a globalised world. Ms Rice’s worry about NAM may be exaggerated.
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Fighters for IAF WHAT is to be India’s biggest ever defence deal has finally got moving again with the Defence Acquisition Council giving the final go-ahead. The plan to purchase 126 Multirole Combat Aircraft (MCRA) had stalled for a while with the Defence Ministry taking a long time over finalising the specifications and sending out the formal Request for Proposal (RFP) to various interested vendors. Many of these vendors, like the American companies Lockheed Martin and Boeing, besides the Russian MiG and the makers of the Swedish Grippen, were present in strength at the airshow recently held in Bangalore. No announcement was made at that time, and the highlight ended up being the joyrides taken by Mr Ratan Tata on the F-16 (Lockheed) and the F-18 (Boeing). A key sticking point in the RFP was evidently the offset clause, which has been raised to 50 per cent from 30 per cent stated norm. This means 50 per cent of the Rs 42,000 crore value of the order has to go into Indian companies for parts and services. Even with the “great flexibility” promised by India, this is a very tall order indeed. It will require a high degree of technological capability, excellence and commitment from not only the usual suspects, the defence PSUs like HAL, but from the private sector. In fact, this is what Mr Tata’s rides were all about. Only 18 of the 126 aircraft are to be purchased outright. The remaining 108 will be made in India. HAL is already executing a 140 aircraft worth indigenous assembly order of the Sukhoi 30 MKI, and will also have to assemble some 40-odd Hawk 100 Advanced Jet Trainers (AJT) among its other tasks. It is now upon Defence Minister A.K. Antony to keep the process moving. The RFP’s should go out quickly, and the once the responses come in, there must be minimal delay. Decision making should be fast, transparent and firm. With a dwindling squadron strength, India cannot afford to repeat the AJT story, an acquisition which was spread over a staggering two decades and more. This should also be the last time India buys expensive fighters from abroad. With the 50 per cent clause operating, here is the chance to ensure that technology transfers take place, of the kind that will permanently add capability and expertise to Indian companies and aviation laboratories.
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Ignoramuses IGNORANCE about AIDS is so much that two doctors of Lala Lajpat Rai Medical College in Meerut forced the husband of a HIV positive woman to do what they should have themselves done — help her deliver a child. The woman was brought to the hospital when she was already in labour pain. The doctors feared that they would contract the dreaded disease if they touched her or cut the umbilical cord or cleaned the baby. So they forced the husband to do all the work on their verbal instructions. Fortunately, the mother and baby are fine. The moment the doctors realised she was HIV positive, their instant reaction was to ask the husband to take her to Delhi where alone, they said, such cases could be taken care of. It was the husband’s persistence and inability to take her to the Capital that forced them to agree to the delivery in the hospital premises. Chief Minister Mayawati has ordered suspension of the two doctors, who have compounded their guilt by allowing an untrained person like the husband to act as midwife. It is for the same kind of crime that a doctor couple in Tamil Nadu is now in jail. They allowed their teenaged son to perform caesarian section on a patient in the fond belief that he was a born surgeon who did not need elaborate studies to become a qualified doctor. The guilt of the Meerut gynaecologists is no less than that of the Tamil Nadu couple. As we have underscored in these columns earlier, there are a lot of myths about the spread of AIDS. It spreads only through unprotected sex or sharing of needles or blood transfusion. It does not spread through other body contacts like kissing, shaking of hands and cohabitation. Mosquitoes also do not spread the disease. Yet, fear of the disease forces common people to ostracise AIDS victims as in Kerala, where five HIV positive school children were recently thrown out of their school. It is a pity that even doctors who are supposed to treat patients and advise people against harbouring unfounded fears about the disease are themselves ignorant about AIDS. It suggests a failure of the awareness campaign on which the government has been spending an enormous sum. Also, bodies like the Medical Council of India need to spread awareness about AIDS among the medical practitioners.
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Men are nearly always willing to believe what they wish. — Julius Caesar
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Maoists’ designs
FOR the second successive year in a row, Naxalites of the Communist Party of India (Maoist) issued a call for a nationwide two-day economic blockade on June 26 and 27 and successfully imposed it in different parts of the country. Its impact was felt in their bastions in parts of Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Orissa and Chhattisgarh. In 2006, the Maoists imposed an economic blockade on June 14 and 15 in their strongholds in the forests in parts of Orissa, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Bihar. While the railways were the principal target of Naxalite violence during the recent blockade, other infrastructure, too, was attacked. Road transport came to a grinding halt in the mining belts of both Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, and commercial activity was hit in the Maoist strongholds in different states. The present blockade and destruction caused in its wake fits into the pattern and current Maoist strategy of targeting infrastructure, and could be of security concern in future too. Beginning a few hours before the blockade was to commence, and during the course of the blockade, the Maoists blasted Biramdih railway station, Purulia district, West Bengal. They blew up railway tracks near Gomia and Dania in Bokaro district, and two more stretches in Latehar district; blasted a railway engine and set another engine and 12 wagons ablaze, and seized the Jodhpur-Howrah train near Parasnath railway station, Giridih district, in Jharkhand. Among other things, they removed fishplates on the Kirandaul-Visakhapatnam line in Chhattisgarh, attacked the Panam coalmines located in Pakur district, Jharkhand, and blew up a telecom tower and made a failed attempt to destroy the Balimela hydroelectric power generation plant in Malkangiri district, Orissa. In Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Orissa and Chhattisgarh many trains were cancelled, curtailed or diverted. Road traffic was either sparse or came to a grinding halt along the state and national highways, and in the interior areas in all these States, including in Arwal, Jehanabad, Gaya, Patna (Bihar), Purulia, Bankura, Midnapore (West Bengal), Dantewada, Bastar, Narayanpur, Bijapur (Chhattisgarh), for instance. Further, commercial activity was significantly hit in all these states. While the cumulative economic impact of the blockade is yet not known, experts note that Jharkhand alone has suffered a loss of Rs 150 crore, in two days. While launching their current strategy of targeting infrastructure in the past one month in what is being described as a tactical counter-offensive campaign (TCOC), the Maoists in the Bastar region of Chhattisgarh set off explosions destroying three high tension electric transmission towers on May 31 and two more on June 2. Effectively, six districts in Bastar had plunged into darkness for one week; normal power distribution in the entire affected area was impaired for 12 days. Even as normalcy was restored, the Maoists struck once again in Narayanppur district in the Bastar region on June 24 and blasted two more high tension transmission towers, thus causing a blackout once again. The blackout in Bastar badly affected the functioning in hospitals, the communication system and rail traffic besides in iron ore mines. The National Mineral Development Corporation’s (NMDC) Bailadila mines — from where high quality iron ore is extracted for export to Japan and for internal use — incurred a loss of Rs 16 crore per day. The resultant total loss was Rs 160 crore. Similarly, work in the privately owned Essar Steels, too, was hit, resulting in a loss of Rs 2.5 crore per day, while iron ore supplies to Ispat and Visakhapatnam Steel Plant were hit. The Railways had incurred a loss of approximately Rs 20 crore. That is not all. All industrial activity and an overwhelming part of commercial activity were severely affected, if not came to a grinding halt, in Bastar. However, the blackout generated ‘unexpected’ business: small-time generator operators made a fast buck by offering to re-charge cell phones, etc. But someone did pay for it! It is estimated that the destruction and blackout caused a total loss of a whooping Rs 2000 crore! Clearly, the Maoists have proved that their destructive capacities can bring life to a near-complete halt, and that they can hold six districts to ransom, at will, for a full fortnight. Also, on May 27, in Bastar, the Maoists blasted properties of Essar Steel and damaged a railway bridge between Bacheli and Kirandul and the railway track between Bhansi and Bacheli, causing huge revenue losses to the East Coast Railways. Besides, much as on several earlier occasions, on June 11 a few hundred Maoists attacked NMDC assets once again, this time in Bacheli, and destroyed 100 metres of conveyor belt that carries iron ore. In the adjoining Malkangari district, Orissa, the rebels made a failed attempt to blast a telecom tower on June 14. On May 30, in neighbouring East Godavari district’s Donkarayi area, Andhra Pradesh, they made another failed attempt to blow up a power transmission centre, causing minor damages. The economic blockade and these repeated acts of targeting infrastructure speak of Maoist intentions: paralyse normal life, sabotage economic activity, dictate terms and allow life and economic activity on their ‘terms and conditions’. Besides, during the June 2006 blockade a majority of the markets in Dantewara, Kanker, Bastar and Surguja districts —Chhattisgarh — remained closed and vehicles kept off the road; life came to a near standstill in Orissa’s southern districts of Malkangiri, Gajapati and Rayagada; and trains were cancelled in Bihar-Jharkhand along the Barkakana-Barwadih section, Dhanbad rail division, while routes of long-distance trains running on this section were changed. Indeed, there have been no estimates of the total financial loss that this economic blockade had caused. Thus, in future, infrastructure and several proposed big industries are vulnerable to potential Maoist attacks. At stake is a proposed investment of Rs 2,639 billion in a slew of steel plants and power projects in Chhattisgarh and Orissa. Many defence, vital and economic installations and railway assets across the country are also equally vulnerable. The threat assumes greater significance in the wake of the Maoists having established a continuous string of presence across the country along both the north-south and east-west axes. The Maoists have unambiguously articulated the limits to their violent campaign: the destruction of the Indian state. But the government does not seem to have as yet set a limit to its
inertia. The writer is Research Fellow, Observer Research Foundation, New Delhi.
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Flavour in files WE are fast becoming Bengalis” was the remark made by the Governor during President’s rule in Punjab against the word “MOHANT” used by an officer on the noting portion of the official file. He had rushed to me to know about its exact implications without realising that he was contacting a “Vanaspati Bengali” as our great-grandfather had left Bengal in 1845 and moved on to Ambala Cantt. I had studied Urdu under the watchful eyes of a Muslim teacher and my knowledge of Bengali was limited except that I had learnt the Bengali version of “I love you” by heart! I explained that Bengali would pronounce his famous staple sweet as “Rosogulla” while we in Punjab pronounce it as “Rasagulla”. A wrist watch in Punjab is called “Ghari” but it is “Ghoree” to a Bengali (Now don’t mix it up with a mare). He should have spelled MAHANT and not MOHANT. The remarks were just a pun and I assured him that no harm had been done and it would not find a place in his Annual Confidential Report. I had to face another encounter about my knowledge of the language. An official communication in Bengali had been received from the West Bengal government seeking information about certain new development projects launched in Punjab. This was brought to me for translation in English. I sank in my chair but could see a ray of hope in one of the young IAS officers who had been transferred to Punjab from West Bengal, where he had worked in Bengali script and was extremely proficient in the language. People in the Secretariat were ignorant of this hidden talent and the officer was too modest to reveal this. I quietly slipped from my room and rushed to my “Man of the Match” for assistance. He took no time in giving me an English rendering which was handed over to the official with a direction that the West Bengal government be requested to invariably send an English rendering of every communication also in future. I had narrowly saved my image. Those were the days when financial and administrative powers were concentrated at the Secretariat level and had not been delegated. A proposal had been received to strike off the record books a worn-out and unserviceable “Deg”, which is an open vessel used for cooking of vegetables, etc, belonging to a district jail. Those days letters used to be typed out and carbon copies were retained. This is how the sanctioning letter read “sanction of the government is accorded to write off a ‘Dog’ belonging to district jail....” Thank God, the letter was noticed by a smart young officer who replaced the word “Dog” with “Deg” in that communication. The music that the poor typist had to face is anybody’s
guess!
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Pak society turning against the military
DAULAT NAGAR, Pakistan – Nusrat Riaz, a doctor for 17 years, has spent the past three directing a clinic that provides care to thousands of poor patients in this remote, wheat-farming village on the plains of Punjab. So Riaz was surprised this spring when he learned the government had appointed a monitor to look over his shoulder as he worked. He was even more surprised when he learned the man had no medical background, had no experience supervising doctors and was functionally illiterate. But when Riaz learned the monitor was a retired Pakistani army officer, it all made sense. “This is part of the militarisation of the entire country,” said Riaz, 46. “It is very insulting, and it is happening because of the man sitting at the top.” That man, General Pervez Musharraf, the president, has been Pakistan’s leader for almost eight years. In that time, the nuclear-armed military has quietly exerted its influence over nearly every segment of Pakistani society. Active-duty or retired officers now occupy most key government jobs, including posts in education, agriculture and medicine that have little to do with defense. The military also dominates the corporate world; it reportedly runs a $20 billion portfolio of businesses from banks to real estate developers to bakeries. And everywhere lurks the hand of the feared military-led intelligence services. Yet in a country where the military has long been immune from criticism, its extraordinary power is now drawing open contempt from civilians. A campaign against Musharraf that began three months ago, following his suspension of the chief justice, has exploded into a full-fledged movement to oust the armed services from civilian life and send the generals back to their barracks. They are not expected to go easily, and the wealth and influence they have attained during the Musharraf era helps explain why. “If the generals don’t recede, I fear a civil-military conflict,” said Zafarullah Khan, a leading Pakistani lawyer and opposition figure. “Ultimately the question is: Who gets to rule? Sixteen generals or 160 million people? Sooner or later we have to decide that once and for all.” History in Pakistan is on the generals’ side. They have ruled the country for more than half of the 60 years since independence. Even when civilians have ostensibly been in charge, they have had to bow to the military just to keep their jobs. Of the nation’s past three civilian leaders, two are in exile and one was hanged. Musharraf’s brand of military rule has been different from most. Since coming to power in a bloodless coup in 1999, he has not declared martial law. As army chief, he still wears his uniform, but just as often opts for a business suit or traditional shalwar kameez. For the most part, he eschews grand, strutting military parades. Soldiers are a rare sight on the nation’s streets. Yet the military’s imprint is everywhere. It’s by the side of the road, where men in orange jumpsuits labor for a military-run foundation that controls a huge share of the nation’s construction industry. It’s also present up and down the ranks of the civilian bureaucracy, where government workers answer to retired military men and complain that loyalty is consistently rewarded over hard work or competence. And it’s in Riaz’s health clinic, where his doctors say they take heat from army inspectors if they spend more than 10 minutes with a patient. The military’s might, Pakistanis say, also comes in much more insidious forms. The calls that wake Khan, the lawyer, in the middle of the night, for instance. “We’ve purchased your coffin,” a caller once told him at 2:15 a.m. “Get ready for Pakistan’s Tiananmen Square,” said another. Khan, a vigorous man whose office in Islamabad is crammed with classic works of history and philosophy, said he is certain that Pakistan’s elite, military-run intelligence agencies are behind the calls. And he knows the threats are not idle. Human rights groups have estimated that hundreds of Pakistanis have disappeared at the hands of the intelligence agencies in recent years. Political opponents, journalists and lawyers now fear they will meet the same fate. With Musharraf fighting for his political survival, the military has begun pushing back against what top officers call a “malicious campaign” against the state. This month, the government rounded up more than 1,000 opposition party activists and shipped them to detention facilities hundreds of miles from home to serve prison terms of undetermined lengths. Police officials said they were ordered to make the arrests by military intelligence officers. The government has since said all the activists were released, a contention disputed by party officials. “Everyone is concerned about safety,” Khan said. “But what can we do? It is our country. We have to change it.” The protests against Chief Justice Iftikar Chaudhry’s suspension started as anti-Musharraf, but lately the target has expanded. At rallies across the country, thousands of angry protesters now chant “The generals are traitors!” and “The soldiers are traitors!” Chaudhry’s attorney, Aitzaz Ahsan, told a recent gathering that Pakistan’s problem is that it has gone from a “social welfare state,” in which the government’s primary purpose is to care for its citizens, to “a national security state,” in which an all-powerful military craves instability at home and enemies abroad to justify its role. “The issue is not just Pervez Musharraf,” he said. “The issue is the military.”
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Wheat imports are unnecessary LACK of foresight and poor policy planning is responsible for the country being projected as a food-deficient nation. Inspite of a bumper wheat crop this year, the government proposes to import five million tonnes of wheat, thereby creating an impression of a food crisis looming over the country. This year, 11.4 million metric tonnes of wheat has already arrived in various mandis across the country, and wheat crop is still tricking into the mandis of Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. Comparatively, the wheat arrival last year was just 9.2 million metric tonnes. With the opening stock of wheat at the beginning of the procurement season (as on April 1, 2007) being 4.6 million metric tonnes, the government already has a stock of 16 million metric tonnes for the current season. True, the country may not have a huge pile-up of wheat stocks. At the beginning of the decade the buffer stocks were to the tune of 58 million metric tonnes. But this does not mean that there is an eminent threat of a food crisis and a need to import wheat, especially at a time when the global wheat prices are as high as $ 283 per metric ton. It is learnt that the government requires approximately 15 million tonnes of wheat for the public distribution system and its various welfare schemes like the antayodaya scheme, food-for-work scheme and the mid-day meal scheme. Therefore, there is no immediate need for wheat imports. Imports to build buffer stocks can wait till the meltdown in the global prices of wheat. Eminent agro-economist Dr S.S. Johl says that a “scarcity sentiment” has been created following a series of decisions taken by the government, including the decision to import five million tonnes of wheat. “The advance estimates prepared by the Agriculture ministry point out that the total wheat production in the country this year will be to the tune of 73.6 million metric tonnes, substantially higher than the production of 69.5 million metric tonnes last year. But inspite of a bumper crop this year, the government has allowed duty-free import of wheat and banned futures trading in wheat, thus creating a fear psychosis of a food crisis,” he adds. It is now an accepted fact that the arrivals have diminished because of farmers holding back their stocks and not because of any fall in productivity. The market arrival of wheat in the mandis of Punjab has been 78.74 lakh metric tonnes, as compared to 80.9 lakh metric tonnes till date last year. Says B S Sidhu, director, Agriculture, Punjab, “The reason for low wheat arrivals is that the high off-season prices offered by private players and corporates have sensitised the farmers. The minimum support price (including Rs 50 bonus) the farmers got was Rs 700 per quintal from the government agencies last year. Comparatively, they were offered Rs 1050 per quintal in the off season (October 2006 – January 2007), when the wheat prices in the market had touched Rs 1200 per quintal”. It is thus that inspite of recording the highest productivity ever, this year, too, large numbers of farmers in Punjab have decided to hold back their wheat stocks and sell them at a higher profit, rather than sell at the MSP (plus Rs 100 bonus), amounting to Rs 850 per quintal. Punjab and Haryana provide the maximum marketable surplus wheat in the country – a reason why the big agri-corporates were asked to keep away from the two states. On their part, the corporates, too, preferred the states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh for wheat procurement because of the high market fees in Punjab and Haryana. However, this did not deter the farmers in Punjab from holding back their stocks and on their own striking deals with private companies. In the process, both the state governments will also lose the revenue to be earned through the market fees. The solution lies in the implementation of the Food Security Mission, in letter and spirit, as conceptualised by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. There is need for a focused approach on increasing production of wheat, rice and pulses, and creation of a National Strategic Research Fund to provide more resources for regionally focused research projects to agriculture universities. But most importantly, the government will have to work out the economies of scale and offer more remunerative prices to farmers for their produce, if they want to procure the maximum amount of farmers’ produce. A level playing field has to be created for private players so that the farmer can decide where and to whom he wants to sell his crop, at a price he deems fit.
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Chatterati THE cricket board is in a mess, with an unsuccessful President, Sharad Pawar, now concentrating more on taking over the International Cricket Council. It seems Lalu Prasad Yadav is preparing to take over the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). Lalu has most probably been aiming for this since 2001, when he backed A.C. Muthiah against Jagmohan Dalmiya for the presidency of the BCCI. Pawar’s attention was so divided between his home state Maharashtra and the BCCI that the important Union Ministry of Agriculture went neglected. For this the common man has to suffer. Politicians and businessmen think cricket and Bollywood are the only routes to becoming a household name in India. When Dalmiya defeated Muthiah the first thing that Dalmiya did was to disaffiliate the Bihar Cricket Association that Lalu had headed. Hence, Lalu could not even vote in the BCCI elections. Lalu has the Bihar Cricket Association firmly behind him and in the UPA Government he will gather enough support. His opposition may come from the former BCCI Chief Rajsingh Dungarpur who is backed by the strong Maratha lobby. Another fight of power and money to watch over the next two months, as the elections are in September. The role of Mayawati will be played by character actor Pratima Kazmi while Rahul Sharma will make his film debut in the role of BSP leader Satish Chandra Misra. Jackie Shroff is playing the role of Raja Bhaiyya and Alok Nath the role of the late Kanshi Ram. The film has six songs composed by music director Ravindra Jain. The film is to be shot in Uttar Pradesh. No doubt this film will be carefully watched for the lessons one can learn from the lady’s rise to power.
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Dispute not. As you rest firmly in your own faith and opinion, allow others also equal liberty to stand by their own faith and opinion. —The Upanishads Truth is one; only it is called by different names. All people are seeking the same Truth; the variance is due to climate, temperament and name. —Shri Ramakrishna The wearer of khadi from a swadeshi standpoint is like a man making use of his lungs. —Mahatma Gandhi All are engaged in doing what God ordains. —Guru Nanak
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Behenji – The Great Sister, a film chronicling the life of BSP leader Mayawati, is being made by Ad filmmaker Kailash Masoom, with a budget of Rs three crore. Earlier, the late Gulshan Kumar had proposed to make a film on Mayawati, but the project fizzled out with his murder in 1997. Another filmmaker, Harish Kumar, had attempted the project in 2003, but this too stalled midway. The new film’s muhurat was held in January this year, and it is to be ready by November.