O P I N I O N S

EDITORIALS

Uncertainty in Pakistan
End of the President in uniform
PRESIDENT Pervez Musharraf’s plan to retain both uniform and presidency has suffered a setback with the Supreme Court asking him to choose between the two. Though he had given a commitment to give up the uniform by the end of 2007, he has been silent on the issue giving rise to speculation that he has no plan to keep his promise.

Shahabuddin’s record
Tainted MPs a blot on the system
The sentencing of Rashtriya Janata Dal MP Mohammad Shahabuddin to 10 years’ rigorous imprisonment for the attack on the then Superintendent of Police of Siwan, S.K. Singhal, is the latest among a long list of convictions.

Time to save Punjab
Stop self-destructive policies
The 2007 state-of-environment report prepared by the Punjab State Council for Science and Technology presents an alarming picture of the environmental damage caused over the years by wrong agricultural practices and government policies. The Punjab soil has developed a nutrient imbalance due to the paddy-wheat cycle.

• Thought for the day

ARTICLE

Re-emergence of Putin’s Russia
India should have a balanced approach
by G. Parthasarathy
In a televised address on July 17, President Vladimir Putin proclaimed: “There are forces both in Russia and the US that abide by 20th century thinking, rather than the 21st century, those who love and feed on ideas of the past competition. While protecting our national interests we can always find solutions to problems through compromise, rather than confrontation”.

 

MIDDLE

Quirk of fate
by Manmohan Kaur
SHIMLA, the Queen of Hills, has charismatic charm which characterises its ever standing invitation to host people big and small, rich and not so rich. I also was charmed by the Queen’s calling and landed in Shimla one sultry afternoon. Oh! The place was crowded, the Mall, Mecca of every tourist, was bursting at it seams. Massive rushes made it difficult to move.

 

OPED

The front door to the UK is open,the backdoor is closed
by Sir Michael Arthur
Migration is a global phenomenon and, for most, a life enhancing experience. This is how it should be. As my time as British High Commissioner in India nears an end, I find myself marvelling at the very large numbers of Indian nationals travelling to the UK and UK nationals coming here, for family visits, business and study. Two-way migration is a key aspect of the India-UK bilateral relationship and one that we continue to promote actively.

Asian partners tangle with China on quality
by Ariana Eunjung Cha
After hearing about dangerous Chinese products elsewhere, Indonesia this summer began testing popular Chinese-made items on its own store shelves. What it found has added to the list of horrors: mercury-laced makeup that turns skin black, dried fruit spiked with industrial chemicals, carcinogenic children’s candy.

Govt should intervene to stop turban frisking
by Himmat Singh Gill
A very peculiar situation has arisen the world over for Sikhs with the recent enforcement of US Homeland Security Department rules giving full powers to screening officers at their airports in ordering a deliberate security check of turbaned Sikh passengers.

EDITORIALS

Uncertainty in Pakistan
End of the President in uniform

PRESIDENT Pervez Musharraf’s plan to retain both uniform and presidency has suffered a setback with the Supreme Court asking him to choose between the two. Though he had given a commitment to give up the uniform by the end of 2007, he has been silent on the issue giving rise to speculation that he has no plan to keep his promise. Now he is under compulsion to give a firm date on which he would give up the uniform. He would not be able to contest for Presidency while being a serving General. Misfortune never seems to come alone for the beleaguered president. The twin-blasts close to the Army Headquarters in Rawalpindi in which 24 persons were killed on Tuesday could not have but shaken the foundations of his regime. The attack came in the wake of the abduction of 150 Pakistani soldiers by the tribal militants in the Waziristan area.

These are part of a series of attacks against the military since his soldiers stormed Lal Masjid in Islamabad to eject the fundamentalists holed up there. Tuesday’s blasts show that whoever is behind them is capable enough to cause sleepless nights to the President. General Musharraf has never faced this kind of challenge since he came to power through a bloodless coup about eight years ago. Today, even his strongest supporters doubt whether he would be able to brave the storm, given his fast dwindling popularity. Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is expected to return to Pakistan shortly to try his luck at the hustings. The military regime has vowed to arrest the former Prime Minister. Given the combative mood of the Supreme Court, it is unlikely to take kindly to such an undemocratic action.

Cornered as the General is, he sought to impose Emergency on the nation as a last-ditch attempt to save his Presidency. But US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice stopped the attempt in its track through a midnight telephone call to the President. It is also doubtful whether civil society in Pakistan will let him succeed with such an idea, given the bold manner in which it fought against his effort to gag the judiciary. In a country where a significant section of the population does not have a good opinion of the US, it is dangerous for General Musharraf to be considered close to Uncle Sam. Of course, the US has every reason to be worried about the possibility of extremists gaining control of the state and thereby control of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal. It is a dreadful situation against which, unfortunately, the world can do little. 

Shahabuddin’s record
Tainted MPs a blot on the system 

The sentencing of Rashtriya Janata Dal MP Mohammad Shahabuddin to 10 years’ rigorous imprisonment for the attack on the then Superintendent of Police of Siwan, S.K. Singhal, is the latest among a long list of convictions. Shahabuddin and his two police guards have also been given seven years’ rigorous imprisonment (both sentences to run concurrently) under the Arms Act. In May 1996, Singhal, now the DIG of Bettiah, was attacked in full public view. Shahabuddin is involved in so many cases of murder, abduction, rioting, rigging and booth capturing that he let loose a reign of terror in Bihar. Incidentally, he is a fourth-time Lok Sabha MP since 1996. He was a legislator for two terms in 1990. After his victory in the 2004 Lok Sabha election from the jail on the RJD ticket by a margin of one lakh votes, nine party workers of the nearest candidate, Om Prakash Yadav of the Janata Dal (United), were found murdered.

Shahabuddin’s ascendancy to Parliament has only brought the worst in him. In May this year, he was given life imprisonment for killing CPI-ML activist Chhotelal Gupta. In June, he got three years’ jail for a vehicle theft. And in March, he got two years’ rigorous imprisonment for attacking the CPI-ML office in Siwan. The Siwan MP has been in the jail for almost a year. With over 55 cases pending against him, the dice is so heavily loaded against him that he will have to spend his whole life in prison.

Clearly, criminals like Shahabuddin should have no right to sit in Parliament. Despite their threat to the polity and governance, political parties like the RJD may refuse to dump criminals like him in the elections. Yet, the presiding officers of Parliament and the state legislatures can bar tainted representatives from attending the sessions. In a way, this would also help resolve the menace of tainted ministers at the Centre and in the states. When the Prime Minister and the Chief Ministers realise the fact that tainted persons, as a matter of policy, are barred from attending the House, it would also prevent their inclusion in the ministries, the compulsions of coalition politics notwithstanding.

Time to save Punjab
Stop self-destructive policies

The 2007 state-of-environment report prepared by the Punjab State Council for Science and Technology presents an alarming picture of the environmental damage caused over the years by wrong agricultural practices and government policies. The Punjab soil has developed a nutrient imbalance due to the paddy-wheat cycle. The use of fertilisers and pesticides, the highest in the country, to correct the nutrient imbalance has contaminated water resources. Paddy cultivation, encouraged by Central policies to meet the country’s food requirements, has led to a sharp decline in the water table.

The report points out that 103 of the 137 blocks in the state are “over-exploited” by tubewells drawing groundwater. Farmers “use water irrationally” and “over-irrigate their crops”. This is partly due to the fact that they do not have to pay for power. The supply of free power not only leads to the excessive use of groundwater, but also puts a Rs 2,400-crore burden on the exchequer. While fixing the minimum support price of paddy, the loss of the state’s resources is not taken into account. Since the government diverts power from the industry, which pays for electricity, to the non-paying farm sector during the paddy season, the resultant loss of industrial production is also not factored in the MSP and the industry is not compensated. Besides, the cash-strapped state has failed to take advantage of Central grants and World Bank aid because of populist policies.

Given the environmental and economic health of the state, the government will have to take urgent measures to arrest the deterioration. There are right-thinking people in the government who are aware of the dangers. Only they are in minority and their voice is not heard. First Mr Parkash Singh Badal and then Capt Amarinder Singh lost the elections despite giving free power and other freebies to voters. There is no alternative to good governance. What needs to be done is well known. What is lacking is the political will to restore Punjab’s lost glory.

Thought for the day

One who looks for a friend without faults will have none. — Hasidic saying

ARTICLE

Re-emergence of Putin’s Russia
India should have a balanced approach
by G. Parthasarathy

In a televised address on July 17, President Vladimir Putin proclaimed: “There are forces both in Russia and the US that abide by 20th century thinking, rather than the 21st century, those who love and feed on ideas of the past competition. While protecting our national interests we can always find solutions to problems through compromise, rather than confrontation”. Precisely a month later, Putin announced: “At midnight today, August 17, 14 strategic missile carriers, support and refuelling aircraft took off from seven air force bases in different parts of the Russian Federation and began a patrol involving a total of 20 aircraft. Such patrols will be carried out on a regular basis. The patrols are strategic in nature”.

As Russian aircraft spread out across their borders, resuming a practice ended in 1992, NATO jet fighters in Europe scrambled from their bases to deal with a totally new situation. Significantly, this development followed Moscow’s decision to develop strategic nuclear capabilities to counter the US decision to deploy anti-ballistic missile defences in Poland and the Czech Republic, despite Russian concerns.

Ever since the Soviet Union collapsed, the Russians have witnessed American and NATO measures to contain their influence and encircle them militarily and diplomatically. These measures included the admission of former Warsaw Pact members and Soviet Republics like Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania into NATO, coupled with various forms of associate arrangements between NATO and former Soviet Republics like Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. No effort was spared by NATO members led by the US to influence oil rich Central Asian Republics like Kazakhstan to build oil pipelines bypassing Russia, to meet the energy demands of the west. Moreover, continuous efforts were made to replace pro-Russian establishments in Kyrgyzstan, Georgia, Ukraine and elsewhere by pro-western governments in the name of promoting democracy, even while an authoritarian dynastic leadership in Azerbaijan, willing to play ball with western oil companies, was warmly welcomed into the western fold.

For nearly a decade, the Russians, led by the occasionally sober Boris Yeltsin, watched these moves with little resistance. But in eight years, Vladimir Putin has transformed Russia, which has shown a sustained growth of 6.7% annually over the past eight years. With a budget surplus of 9% of GDP, foreign exchange reserves that have grown from $ 12 billion in 1999 to $ 315 billion in 2006 and vast reserves of oil, natural gas, minerals and metals, combined with reforms in banking, tax and labour sectors, Putin has built Russian power to an extent where he can be far more assertive of developments in its neighbourhood and the world at large.

He has made it clear that Russia will no longer quietly accept western dictation, particularly in its neighbourhood. But even Putin realises that while he can assert Russia’s relevance on international issues like the Middle East, he has to strike deals with Washington on issues like the Iranian and North Korean nuclear programmes. He knows that earning Washington’s wrath, except on key issues to Russia like independence for Kosovo, or developments in its immediate neighbourhood, is not wise, given Moscow’s own vulnerabilities on issues like its admission to the WTO.

Moscow has steadfastly stood by us in moments of crisis. Despite its opposition to our nuclear tests in 1998, Russia did not impose sanctions on us, or halt its cooperation with us on crucial issues of national security. Even today, it is Moscow’s assistance that enables us to keep the nuclear reactors in Tarapur running, thanks to its airlift of uranium stockpiles. Moreover, Moscow is an indispensable partner in our efforts to build a secure satellite global positioning system for the country. Further, the Russians have honoured commitments made to us in the 1980s and gone ahead with cooperation for the construction of nuclear power plants in Kudankulam in Tamil Nadu, despite earlier American objections. Russia has been forthcoming in inviting India participation in the energy sector through an investment of $ 2.7 billion for the development of the Sakhalin 1 oilfield.

But, Russia realistically acknowledges that unless Washington eases nuclear sanctions on India there is little prospect for further cooperation with India on issues of nuclear power. Hence, Moscow’s interest in seeing that the Indo-US Nuclear agreement is implemented. Sadly, our learned leftists show little understanding of such realities of international politics.

It is crucial that defence agreements like the purchase of 126 fighter aircraft, where options of buying from countries other than Russia may well be exercised, should be implemented with utmost transparency, to avoid misperceptions in Moscow, that we may have been motivated by anything other than considerations of what is best for our armed forces and our defence industry. We should undertake joint collaboration in the development of advanced weaponry like Cruise missiles, fifth generation fighter aircraft and naval technologies, with Russia. Moscow, in turn will, no doubt, recognise our genuine concerns on their pricing and supply of spare parts and their inability to stick to delivery schedules on crucial equipment like SU 30 fighters and the “Gorshkov” aircraft carrier. But, for the foreseeable future, Moscow should remain the major partner in our defence procurements and industry, collaborating where needed, with France and Israel.

Responding to the expansion of NATO across their borders, the Russians have developed a military alliance-the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO)-bringing together Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Following these developments, the US now has military facilities for operations in Afghanistan, in Kyrgyzstan alone, in neighbouring Central Asia. The Russians are also endeavouring to develop security cooperation between the CSTO and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (CSO), linking Central Asian States to Russia and China. It was in this background that large-scale military manoeuvres of SCO members led by China and Russia were held recently in the presence of Presidents Putin and Hu Jintao in the Ural Mountains.

India should ensure that these developments are not utilised by China to strengthen its policies of “containment” of Indian influence across Asia and in the Asia-Pacific Region.

A major challenge that India will face in coming years is on how to fashion its approach to relations with NATO on the one hand and the CSTO, on the other. But, even as we evolve our approach to these developments, measures need to be taken to strengthen our economic, academic and people-to-people ties with Russia, without which the bilateral relationship will be unsustainable, in the long term. At the same time, Moscow will have to be persuaded that India’s growing ties with the USA will not be at the expense of Russian interests, particularly in its immediate neighbourhood.

MIDDLE

Quirk of fate
by Manmohan Kaur

SHIMLA, the Queen of Hills, has charismatic charm which characterises its ever standing invitation to host people big and small, rich and not so rich. I also was charmed by the Queen’s calling and landed in Shimla one sultry afternoon. Oh! The place was crowded, the Mall, Mecca of every tourist, was bursting at it seams. Massive rushes made it difficult to move.

Mercifully, there are no vehicles on the Mall. It therefore, is free for all. Men, women, young and old with eats in hand were talking away to glory. Some were seen pushing and shoving at the pastry shop, another place to ponder. Burgers in one hand and toys in the other, the children were not to be left behind. There was not a shop which did not have people buying or bargaining.

Policemen were having a hard time directing human traffic by saying “please walk on the left” to make way for the people coming from the opposite direction.

We somehow braved through to our destination, the Grand Hotel, for a cup of tea. It was a great relief for the dining room was almost to ourselves and silence prevailed. After having our well-earned tea, as we got up to walk back, I noticed an air of excitement and my friend’s eyes brightened up. She suddenly remarked “the passage of life is unpredictable. I am very happy — happy beyond description and imagination”. We had hardly covered 200 metres when my friend shook my hand.

“This is the place where the lady luck smiled at me”. Before I could ask her to unfold the mystery, she said it was here last weekend that she saw huge cars shining with metallic paint of all hues and colours indicative of the rich and the mighty. A little further, some people were busy having refreshments.

Curious as she is, my friend walked up to the counter to obtain more information. Shooting of a film was on: Karina Kapoor and Shahid Kapoor were there, came the reply. She (my friend) resumed her journey. Before she could be out of the restricted area, a man came running to her: “madam please come back, our director wants to meet you”. She was surprised and hesitated, but not sounding rude or arrogant she went back.

The director received her very warmly and over a cup of tea offered her a role, in the film, that of a nun and a teacher of Karina Kapoor. “I could not believe what I heard, it looked like a beautiful dream to be offered a role at my age of 70 years.” She accepted the offer without a second thought. “It was an exhilarating experience. I felt recharged. Immediately telephone calls, SMSs were sent to friends and relatives.”

Messages of congratulations poured in. The telephone kept ringing all the time. Children who saw her with the heroine asked her to get them autographs of Karina Kapoor. “I became important overnight. My confidence level was high. Life became more meaningful I felt needed”. How small things become of paramount importance in the eve of life. Is it possible to use the experience of senior citizens in supplementing/complementing community services?

OPED

The front door to the UK is open,the backdoor is closed
by Sir Michael Arthur

Migration is a global phenomenon and, for most, a life enhancing experience. This is how it should be. As my time as British High Commissioner in India nears an end, I find myself marvelling at the very large numbers of Indian nationals travelling to the UK and UK nationals coming here, for family visits, business and study. Two-way migration is a key aspect of the India-UK bilateral relationship and one that we continue to promote actively.

In June of this year, the UK Government issued a new strategy that reinforced the UK’s longstanding approach to migration. We want to work with other countries to keep the door open to legitimate travellers yet close it firmly to those who seek to enter illegally. These twin objectives are supported by the UK Government’s activities, including its longstanding intention to use biometric technology in the issue of visas worldwide by mid-2008.

As part of this strategy, the UK Government remains committed to boosting Britain’s economy by bringing in the right skills from around the world and ensuring that the UK is easy to visit legally. India is a key source of those skills. We also want to encourage tourism, business and education between the UK and India. This is happening at unprecedented levels. It is amazing to think that last year almost one fifth of the demand for visas for the UK world-wide came from India. In 2006, UKvisas issued more than 366,000 visas across India to travel to the UK. In addition, the Indian community in the UK of more than 1million is a particularly strong, successful and entrepreneurial one.

So the door is wide open for legitimate travellers. With our commercial partners, VFS Global, UKvisas is committed to making the visa application process as straightforward as possible for our customers. VFS currently operates 11 visa application centres across India, two of which are located in Punjab – in Chandigarh and Jalandhar. All the information and forms that our customers need in order to make a visa application are available at these visa application centres or on the VFS website (www.vfs-uk.co.in). The British High Commission’s website, www.ukinindia.com provides general information about visas for the UK.

The visa application process is a simple one. Completed application forms and supporting documentation are submitted to the visa application centres where trained staff check that the correct documents are enclosed. For a small fee, VFS staff will also provide assistance to complete the application form. Of course it is open to applicants to seek the assistance of an independent agent, but they should be alert to the possibilities of high fees and the making of unrealistic claims about getting a visa or facilitation of travel to the UK. Only the British High Commission’s entry clearance officers can make decisions on visa applications. No-one else. If you think that you have been cheated by agents, then the best course of action is to report the matter to the police. We work closely with the Punjab police on a number of issues, including migration, and we know that they want to hear.

The UK Government is planning a new system that will make it easier for people to understand and navigate the visa application process. A new points-based system is being developed to manage visa applications to the UK for work, study and training. Applicants will need to have sufficient points to obtain a visa to the UK in one of these categories. The aim is to make the rules and selection criteria easier to understand and more transparent. Not everyone can qualify for a visa, but the new system will allow people to assess before making the application whether they are likely to be successful.

There is a negative side to the migration phenomenon and this is felt acutely here in Punjab. For too long now unscrupulous agents have promoted myths about the ease of migrating illegally and the rewards to be obtained on arrival in other countries. These stories no longer stand up to scrutiny. At the same time, there has been a tendency to sweep under the carpet the exploitation and the personal financial and physical losses associated with illegal migration.

I see it as a healthy sign that things are changing – that people are beginning to talk about the dangers of putting their lives and those of their sons into the hands of ruthless people-smugglers, travelling across the world in a lorry, walking hundreds of miles on foot and losing contact with their families. Some will be abused, starved, imprisoned and will perhaps even die in their attempts to cross many countries on their journeys to Western Europe.

Even the lucky ones who reach the UK will find that the rewards that perhaps existed once are no longer there. Their lives will remain difficult and they will never recoup the money it cost them and their families to make the journeys. People need to understand that illegal migrants are denied the benefits and privileges that others enjoy as a result of living in the UK, such as working, studying, housing and other support. Furthermore, the UK Government is working well with the Indian Government to ensure that record numbers of illegal migrants are being returned to India every year.

The UK Government is committed to promoting legal migration from India to UK and to making processes as easy to understand as possible. But the UK Government is also working harder than ever to ensure that the country is a much harder destination to reach and in which to remain for those who attempt to use the backdoor.

I personally see it as our responsibility to continue to raise awareness about the legal migration possibilities to the UK and to caution against illegal migration. My parting message for those who are thinking of travelling to the UK is that you are welcome but the only way is the legal way. So please come through the front door.

The writer is the British High Commissioner in India

Asian partners tangle with China on quality
by Ariana Eunjung Cha

After hearing about dangerous Chinese products elsewhere, Indonesia this summer began testing popular Chinese-made items on its own store shelves. What it found has added to the list of horrors: mercury-laced makeup that turns skin black, dried fruit spiked with industrial chemicals, carcinogenic children’s candy.

The Chinese government called up in August saying it had a possible solution. Husniah Rubiana Thamrin Akib, head of Indonesia’s top food and drug safety agency, was pleased and welcomed her counterparts to her office.

But according to Husniah, the Chinese suggested Indonesia lower its safety standards. Husniah said she was “very upset and very surprised.” “I said to them, `I respect your standards for your country. I hope you respect ours,’ “ Husniah said.

In dealing with product safety complaints from the United States, China has sought to convince a concerned American public that it has reformed itself and is doing all it can to ensure the safety of its products. But its dealings with other, less-developed countries or those in vulnerable political positions are a different story, according to Husniah and officials in the Philippines and Malaysia.

Indonesian officials accuse China of pushing shoddy products and inferior standards on poor countries that have no choice but to depend on it for cheap goods, aid and investment. They say that China, in closed-door meetings, has refused to share basic information, attempted to horse-trade by insisting on discussing disparate issues as part of a single negotiation and all but threatened retaliatory trade actions. The Chinese respond that their products have been the victim of unfair trade actions.

In the Philippines in July, a Chinese state-owned company threatened to sue for defamation after the Philippine government released a public warning saying a popular brand of candy was contaminated with formaldehyde. In Hong Kong, China pushed the territory to reconsider its recall of toothpaste contaminated with a chemical that other countries said might be poisonous but that China argued was present at levels safe for human consumption. It then ordered Hong Kong to submit a report on how and why it called back the toothpaste.

In Malaysia, a ban on fungus-infested nuts and dried fruit with a carcinogenic sweetener from China was met with a Chinese alert on litchi-flavored yogurt from Malaysia that it said didn’t meet labeling requirements.

Malaysia has long had a history of food safety issues with Chinese products. With each alert from Malaysia, the Chinese Embassy requests an explanation. “When they call us, we have to accept they are coming to us,” said Abdul Rahim Mohamad, director of food safety and quality at Malaysia’s Ministry of Health.

Chinese food-safety officials argue that the recalls and bans by other countries amount to technical trade barriers that attempt to legitimise what would otherwise be unfair trade practices.

“I don’t really believe that Chinese products fail to meet their basic standards. That’s not true. There is competition between Chinese products and those from their countries,” said Gao Yongfu, a law professor who is the assistant to the president of the Shanghai World Trade Organization Affairs Consultation Center.

This is a powerful argument in Asia, where many countries are not only big customers of China but also its competitors. Last week, China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, in a meeting in Manila, agreed to strengthen product standards by increasing communication.

The food-safety conflicts in Asia provide a window into how big a role science, or standards, play in trade politics. China’s recent conflicts with Southeast Asian countries began with the recall of White Rabbit milk candy in the Philippines in July. Sold in more than 40 countries, White Rabbit candy is one of China’s famous old brands, an honor that gives it special protection under Chinese law.

When Weng Mao, general manager of Guan Sheng Yuan, based in Shanghai, which makes the candy, heard about the recall, he said he couldn’t believe it. Weng said that the products must be counterfeit and that the Philippines was damaging the brand by making false accusations. He threatened to sue.

Malaysia, Singapore, India and other countries also investigated White Rabbit candy, but after seeing a report from a third-party testing service that inspected the candy at the manufacturing plants, they kept the candy in stores.

By arrangement with LA Times-Washington Post

Govt should intervene to stop turban frisking
by Himmat Singh Gill

A very peculiar situation has arisen the world over for Sikhs with the recent enforcement of US Homeland Security Department rules giving full powers to screening officers at their airports in ordering a deliberate security check of turbaned Sikh passengers.

This would include a patting down of the turban with the use of the electronic detector, the touching and feeling of the turban for any suspicious objects, and in some cases a removal of the ‘pugri’ itself in a private enclosure and its examination for non-metallic threats including explosives.

In theory and now in practice, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Gen J.J. Singh the COAS, Sikh MPs, the SGPC Chief, Sikh dignitaries in bureaucracy, Judiciary and Armed Forces, and certainly the common Sikh turbaned air passenger, are all in line for a possible removal and physical check of their turbans at American airports.

The matter has already been raised in the Rajya Sabha by Punjab MP Dr MS Gill with External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, the Sikh watchdog organisations in America, and more recently by the SGPC Chief himself. But no one from the Central government has yet taken it up at the highest level with the Americans, busy as they are with the Left and the nuclear deal and other matters that are considered politically more profitable in their eyes.

The turbaned Sikh by now forms an integral part of the American social and political landscape and the question that needs to be posed is why, with an extremely popular and visible PM who has been featured on the cover of the Time magazine, and with the Americans having one of the largest embassies in the world in New Delhi, their Administration has still not understood that for the Sikhs a turban is not just a ‘headgear’ but an integral part of the Sikh’s personality, psyche and religion itself.

The Sikh turban surely does not look like a turban tied in Iran or the conventional Arab headgear. It is tied differently, and is respected by the Sikh as his whole being and ‘izzat’. It is also not understood as to how America, the most advanced country in the world technologically, cannot detect metallic and non-metallic objects hidden in the turban without virtually carrying out a strip search of the highly embarrassed individual concerned.

Can not the screening officers differentiate between a Jewish skull cap, a Muslim head scarf or an Arab overwear, so many years after 9/11,and if that is the case then the Indian government needs to educate them on this. The Sikh’s turban is an article of faith for us and everything that goes with it.

Regrettably, the Sikhs, due to their own in-fighting within the SGPC, the Akali Dal/s interplay with each other, being Punjab-centric in their thinking, and the marked propensity of some Sikh scholars, who, because of small assignments of profit dangled by the government of the day in Punjab, choose to restrict or cannalise their views, end up in a situation where the just cause of the Sikh community suffers.

Is there a solution to this impasse? Yes, and here I believe the Sikhs themselves should have little objection to the suggested proposal. As often happens at our airports in India at Security clearance time there is no physical touch or handling of the turban and a detector is carefully passed around it, with the dignity of the passenger fully preserved.

If the SGPC agrees to this, then the MEA needs to take up this matter expeditiously with the American government for a similar procedure for the turbaned Sikh traveler. However, if the authorities at an American port have definitely identified a suspicious object in the turban with all the means at their disposal, then quite clearly the person would have to be taken in into an enclosure and not in the open for a fuller check.

We Sikhs too may wish to think it over that if we are to travel internationally in this global world, then some security measures, but enforced with due respect and dignity, may have to be accepted. If this matter is not resolved soon at the highest government level then I fear that other countries in the world, especially in Europe, may follow suit with the American example, and therefore the Sikh leadership would need to unite and take up its case most expeditiously.