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Mutiny tour |
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In Ram’s name Wheat fiasco
As Iraq bleeds
Home is here
Political instability hampers Tibetans fear further marginalisation
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Mutiny tour INDIA is in the midst of celebrating the 150th anniversary of the First War of Independence, also called the Great Uprising, against the British. The focus of the celebrations has been Lucknow, where the Residency complex saw the maximum action. But now the City of Nawabs is in the news for a different reason — the proposed visit by members of the British Association of Cemeteries in South Asia. A 43-member team from Britain wants to visit the Residency, which has graves of some British soldiers killed during what they call it, the Mutiny. The BJP and some Muslim leaders have expressed their opposition to allowing the British tourists inside the Residency, arguing that they are here to “glorify” those who perpetrated untold miseries on Indians. The British team’s visit to Meerut, Agra and Ghaziabad last week also sparked off protests by BJP activists. They even vandalised the graves of some of the British soldiers who died in 1857. The BJP, it seems, has found an opportunity to demonstrate that no party can compete with it when it comes to showing off its love for those who died for the country’s freedom. Obviously, this is an emotive issue which can easily be exploited for political gains. There is no logic in opposing what is merely a tour programme organised by the British Association of Cemeteries. After all, we have always had friendly relations with the UK. What happened in the past cannot be erased. What is the harm if some Britons want to see the places and buildings associated with their forefathers? If they fought for the British empire as Britons, they honestly did their duty. India showed its large-heartedness even in 1947 when it asked Lord Mountbatten to accept the position of the Governor-General of the country. Today when India is set to become a major global player, nothing should be done to disparage the country’s image in the comity of nations. Exploiting people’s sentiments cannot help the BJP expand its following in UP, where it finds itself in the third position after the ruling BSP and the Samajwadi Party.
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In Ram’s name THE emotive nature of the Ram Sethu issue is manifest in what has happened in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu during the last few days. For no other reason than that Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi made some statements about Ram, some activists of the Sangh Parivar attacked the house of his daughter. They also attacked a Tamil Nadu bus in which two innocent passengers were killed. None of the victims had anything to do with the Sethusamudram project. The only good thing is that the Karnataka government has taken timely action against the guilty. But to make matters worse, Ram Vilas Vedanti, a Sangh Parivar leader, spoke about beheading Mr Karunanidhi for committing blasphemy. He has, now, clarified that all he had said was that the scriptural punishment for blasphemy was beheading. It was as good as the chief minister saying that the Valmiki Ramayana contained disparaging remarks against Ram. Mr Karunanidhi’s supporters have, possibly at the instance of State Electricity Minister Arcot N. Veeraswamy, given a “fitting reply” to Vedanti’s “fatwa” by attacking the BJP office in Chennai. Whether the DMK would be paid back in the same coin is what is worrying the people. If that is allowed, it will lead to a chain reaction from which there will be no escape. This is all the more reason that the political parties concerned should refrain from making provocative statements. As for Mr Karunanidhi’s stance, the BJP should have known that neither he nor his party has ever been worshippers of Ram. This had not prevented the BJP from cohabiting with the DMK in the NDA for five long years. Be that as it may, the state governments concerned cannot but take strict action against all those who take the law into their own hands. Instead of expending their energies on calling each other names, the BJP and the DMK would do well to impress upon the Central government, which has obtained three months’ time for giving its considered views on the Sethusamudram project to the Supreme Court, with facts and figures to buttress their claims. It is pointless to argue about the historicity of Ram Sethu when what is important is whether the Sethusamudram project is cost-effective and environment friendly. The project should neither end up as a white elephant nor cause any divisions among the people. |
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Wheat
fiasco THE government move to import 13 lakh tonnes of wheat at almost double the minimum support price of Rs 850 a quintal offered to the Indian farmer has exposed it to criticism from the BJP. The CPM suspects foul play and has demanded an inquiry. There may not be a scam as global commodity prices are all widely known. It is more a case of poor planning and bad judgement as the government had rejected the initial tender quoting a price of $263 per tonne, saying the rate was too high. Later, it bought wheat at a much higher rate of about $365 a tonne. The government imports wheat when it feels domestic stocks are inadequate to meet the needs of the public distribution system (PDS). In the absence of a clear demand-supply picture, a perception of shortage is created and traders holding wheat stocks exploit the situation. High food prices are politically unacceptable. In order to artificially suppress the prices, the government resorts to imports, thus benefiting foreigners and causing heart-burning among local farmers. The government should import wheat whenever prices dip and build a buffer. The global wheat prices shoot up the moment it becomes known that India intends to make imports. Since the demand for wheat is rising and domestic production almost stagnating, the government should pay the market price to local farmers to encourage them to grow more and mop up sufficient stocks for the PDS. If farm prices are not suppressed and farmers are allowed to profit, the government can, if need be, phase out subsidies on farm inputs. The PDS needs an overhaul, restricting its benefits to the needy and effectively plugging the loopholes, especially after the recent reports that foodgrains worth Rs 31,500 crore meant for the PDS have been sold in the open market in the past three years. Besides better food management, the country needs latest inputs and farming techniques to bolster foodgrain production. |
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This is the sort of English up with which I will not put. — Winston Churchill
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As Iraq bleeds
Beyond
the rhetoric, congressional hearings and the parading of the US Iraq commander and US Ambassador, the central question haunting the George Bush administration is how to extricate American troops from Iraq with some semblance of dignity. That is not easy and there seems to be every indication that the President will kick the problem to his successor to resolve as best as he or she can. In Washington, there is much talk of the “consequences” of a precipitous withdrawal, of vital American interests in the region, of the hurt it would cause to US prestige, of the commitment to Iraq. The truth is that most Americans want their troops to leave Iraq and there is no way the US administration can meet its commitments at a politically acceptable price at home. As for costs, America’s super power status, enhanced by the end of the bipolar world, gives it the luxury of surviving a failure in one venture. The US has neither its heart in the Iraq quagmire nor the temperament to stay there for decades for nation building. America has expended treasure and blood in the Iraq war and occupation, but the country lies bleeding, with every day bringing a fresh bloodbath. And the US administration has taken a token number of Iraqi refugees while two of Iraq’s neighbours, Jordan and Syria (much maligned as it is), are feeding and caring for some two million Iraqis who are taxing their economies and society. Thus far, hubris has won out in President Bush’s America, and it is surely ironical that the other great blunder of a past era, the Vietnam war, was recently evoked by the White House to warn the nation against a hasty withdrawal. But the Vietnam misadventure had some purpose in the misconceived theory of a communist Vietnam having a domino effect. In Iraq’s case, it was entirely a war of choice fought as much for ideological reasons as for oil and perhaps to settle a personal score with Saddam Hussein who had miraculously survived his defeat at the hands of a US-led coalition, which chased his troops out of Kuwait and mowed down battalions in the desert sand. The picture of the last Americans being pulled out of the US compound in Saigon by helicopter remains with the American consciousness, as did the so-called Vietnam syndrome. But the present President’s father exorcised the ghost of Vietnam in the first Iraq war. In any event, the end of the Cold War and the disintegration of the Soviet Union gave America a new halo and it needed the impetuosity and ideological blinkers of a new occupant in the White House to show Saddam and the world who is the greatest. The campaign for the next presidential election is already in full swing — the election season in America is getting longer and longer, much to the delight of TV channels and public relations firms — and “Who lost Iraq?” has now become an election issue. But Americans venerate the military as much as the flag and the institution of presidency. Therefore, the Republicans, who remain loyal to the President, the flag and the military, stymie the Democrats, now in a majority on Capitol Hill. The outcome of the Vietnam war was decided, in part, in the sitting rooms of America as television brought gruesome pictures of the war home. The Bush administration has learned the Vietnam lesson: there are no gruesome pictures of Americans even as Iraqis are shown being slaughtered every day and there are no body bags; by decree, they are distributed to grieving families almost surreptitiously. And Ameri-cans have found the answer to candid reporting that disturbs folks at home by beginning the institution of “embedded” reporters. The Iraq unrest, the media are told, is simply too dangerous for journalists to go about reporting on their own, with the result that we have had the narrowest reporting to date of any modern war, with embedded reporters disseminating their worm’s eye view of the conflict. Indeed, in technical terms, the Bush administration has brought off a brilliant public relations coup. But even the brightest public relations exercises begin to pall. The figures of US soldiers killed keep mounting — the number of Iraqi troops killed is astronomical by comparison — and the greater number of American wounded soldiers are tucked away in hospitals across the land, until peeling wall paper and broken toilets bring them to public consciousness. More and more Americans now want their troops out. What of bleeding Iraq? A United Nations US administrations treat with disdain more often than not is requested to play a larger role. The newly empowered majority Shia political parties and paramilitary forces seek to buttress their growing share of power, the nation being progressively cut into three parts, with the Kurds in the North the best organised, the Shia factions in the South testing the waters to claim a larger share of power and the Sunnis in the middle, uncertain of their future, bitterly divided. The Americans have found a new role for cooperating Sunni sheikhs by co-opting them in the fight against Al-Qaeda — one of them has paid the price of such cooperation with his life. President George W. Bush has, of course, been Iran’s greatest beneficiary by empowering the clerical regime in the region. But Tehran has been decreed to be part of the American “axis of evil” and hence Washington’s enemy. Iraq did not possess the weapons of mass destruction the US administration said it had but Iran is the new object of attack for its nuclear ambitions. The UN Security Council said it must suspend its enrichment programme it refuses to do and as American frustrations mount and the International Atomic Energy Agency comes in Washington’s crosshair, there is belligerent rhetoric from France, among other Western nations, on going to war. The Iraq bloodshed has proved no impediment to wanting to start another war in the region. Iraq continues to bleed a little more each day, the American “war on terror” increases militant ranks, Iran sits pretty to celebrate the provident growth of a Shia crescent, with the majority Shias ruling modern Iraq for the first time in history, and, in all the twists and turns that are taking place, peace in West Asia is farther away than it was. Welcome to the White House, the next
President.
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Home is here
Hello, sir and madam. How are you?” I recognised the voice, even though 50 years ago the inquiry in regard to the sahib and memsahib’s health would have been worded in Hindustani. He was speaking to me from the IGI airport just before boarding a plane for London, which has been his home for nearly five decades. He had come to us in Jalandhar, a raw youth from a village near Pathankot. “Can you cook?” my wife asked him. “Only simple food” he said. “Sabzi, dal, chapati, but I’ll learn anything you teach me. Give me a chance.” We did, and he was as good as his word. While his “phulkas” remained superb, he soon picked up Mughlai and basic European cooking. He was particularly useful to me on tour, being quick in packing and unpacking my things and organising impromptu meals whenever we had to stay in a dak bungalow in Punjab or J&K. From Jalandhar he accompanied us to Kolkata, to Delhi, then back to Kolkata for a longer stay. We lived there in a block of four flats, the other three being occupied by Europeans which, sad to say, lead to our parting with the boy from Jalandhar. Associating with servants earning much more than he did, he (naturally) wanted to better his own prospects. But, as we were unable to match the wages of the other servants in the block, we had to let him go. Needless to say, I gave him an excellent reference which enabled him to get a job with an Indian diplomat about to leave for the UK. A servant without family encumbrances suited him down to the ground. Thereafter, we received a Christmas card from him every year. The diplomat, his term in the UK over, wanted to take his servant back with him. But the latter expressed a strong desire to stay on in England. His master, being a kind-hearted man, helped him to get a job in the kitchen of the India Club. In due course, he acquired UK citizenship. About 30 years ago, he came to India to marry the girl his parents had chosen for him in a neighbouring village. On his way back to the UK with his bride, he phoned me and asked if he could bring her to meet us. “Only please don’t tell your servants that I once worked for you as a cook.” We didn’t and the shy girl from the Kangra valley, unable to speak a word of English, was entertained by us in the drawing room. The years rolled on. He bought himself a semi-detached house in north London. His wife learnt English and got herself a job. She presented her husband with three children. When my wife visited them in 1990 she saw a house as clean and tidy as any middle-class Hinglish home. For old times’ sake, he had cooked a chicken curry with his own hands. Normally, he didn’t cook at all, only supervised the kitchen in a large London hospital on a salary, then, of 200 pounds a week. Ten years ago he phoned me again from the airport. He had been building a house in Pathankot costing Rs 3.5 lakh, just for one floor. “Who is going to live in it?” I asked. “Can’t say, saab,” he said. “To begin with, my parents. Then, we may want to come home. The children are old enough to look after themselves. Life is good over there, but home is here!” |
Political instability hampers Though India is far from an island of calm itself, it has for long been surrounded by instability. Afghanistan, Myanmar, Nepal and Sri Lanka have been plagued by ethnic tensions, fundamentalist terrorism and political dissension for many decades. Now, both Bangladesh and Pakistan are saddled with internal instability and political turmoil. These developments do not augur well for regional stability, especially for the future of the India-Pakistan rapprochement process that has been floundering for over one year and is in serious need of early resuscitation.
Really meaningful gains like the demilitarisation of the Siachen Glacier conflict zone and the final settlement of the Sir Creek maritime boundary dispute continue to remain elusive. The only substantive gain during the meeting of the two foreign secretaries at Islamabad in March 2007 was the signing of an agreement on nuclear confidence building measures (CBMs) and risk reduction measures. This agreement has finally taken the CBMs enumerated in the Lahore Declaration of February 1999 forward to their logical conclusion. However, for some reason best known to the two foreign ministries, the contents of the agreement have not been made public. The two defence secretaries met at Islamabad in April 2007 to discuss the Siachen issue but failed to break the deadlock over the physical demarcation of the present line of defences along the actual ground position line (AGPL) that India maintains is a pre-requisite for demilitarisation. Pakistan views the Indian presence at the Saltoro Ridgeline as “illegitimate aggression” and violation of the Shimla Agreement and wants the Indian Army to vacate its positions without demarcation. This deadlock can be resolved only at the highest political level. Among recent CBMs is the graceful though perhaps reluctant acceptance of the World Bank adjudicator’s award on the Baglihar power project by both the sides. However, there has been no progress in the discussions on the construction of the Tulbul navigation project, which Pakistan calls the Wullar Barrage, and the Kishanganga Hydel project. Other CBMs include the opening up of several crossing points along the LoC to permit civilians to cross over to meet their relatives; the resumption of long-suspended rail communications along the Munnabao-Khokrapar route in Rajasthan-Sind; continuation of the Delhi-Lahore Samjhauta Express rail link despite a terrorist attack; and, completion of a joint survey in Sir Creek by a team appointed by the two Surveyors General. Trade volumes have also been looking up and both the sides have agreed to further prune their lists of restricted items. There has also been some progress in easing the daunting Visa regimes and reporting restrictions that are prevalent at present. The direct passage of transport trucks carrying goods across the Attari-Wagah border is now being discussed. At present these trucks are unloaded well short of the border; goods are carried up to the zero line manually by Indian labourers and are handed over to Pakistani labourers. The cartons or sacks are then re-loaded into trucks on the other side for the remaining journey and vice versa! Transport trucks may also soon ply along the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad route, enabling trans-LoC trade in Kashmir after over half a century. Tourist traffic to the Valley is continuing to increase. The Kashmiri people have also begun to enjoy family picnics to the Chashm-e-Shahi and the Shalimar and Nishat gardens. The Indian government acknowledges that infiltration levels and incidents of violence in Jammu and Kashmir have come down. Pakistan recognises that India has begun to gradually reduce troop levels in the hinterland. The Indian Army has vacated many orchards and other civilian properties that were being used as campsites. Counter-insurgency operations are now being conducted very selectively based on confirmed intelligence and are designed to avoid causing harassment to the people. The government’s talks with the political parties and other groups in Kashmir, though stalled at present due to the intransigence of the Hurriyat Conference, show some promise of achieving a convergence of views in the long term. In case the conditions continue to improve, a cease-fire is a distinct possibility. The real enigma in India-Pakistan relations is the long-term view that the Pakistan Army will take, of the advantages of setting aside past hostilities. Also, much depends on whether General Musharraf will survive the present crisis and, if he does not, whether the successor regime will have the political strength and the Pakistan Army’s backing to see through substantive policy changes vis-à-vis the relationship with India. Clearly, only big-ticket agreements, such as the demilitarisation of the Siachen conflict zone and resolution of the maritime boundary dispute in the Sir Creek area, can provide the impetus that is necessary to carry the rapprochement process to the next level. Pakistan continues to insist that there must be tangible progress on settling the Kashmir dispute for the rapprochement to gather both depth and momentum. India constantly reiterates that it is necessary to first build confidence and overcome distrust by resolving relatively less intractable problems. The current turmoil in Pakistan and the question mark that looms large over the future of the Musharraf regime, have resulted in the Indian government adopting a wait-and-watch attitude that has further slowed down the fragile process that had been described by both the sides as irreversible only two years ago. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is also facing political instability and may opt for a mid-term poll early next year. Hopefully, a more politically secure Indian Prime Minister will travel to Pakistan after the elections in both the countries to sign agreements on Siachen and Sir Creek to once again give a fillip to the peace process and the normalisation of relations. The author is Additional Director, Centre for Land Warfare Studies, New Delhi
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Tibetans fear further marginalisation Known
for its remoteness and inaccessibility, the mystical and mysterious land of towering Buddhist monastaries and robed lamas, Tibet today stands on the cusp of change. Described as the roof of the world and perched at an altitude of 3,600 metres above sea level, the Tibetan capital Lhasa is no longer an unattainable destination and certainly not immune from the frenetic pace of modernity. Further change is on the anvil with the arrival of the year-old Qinghai-Tibet railway, an engineering marvel which cuts through the Kunlun mountains and promises to open up this old historical state to the rest of the world. As it happens, Lhasa today presents a typical picture of tradition and modernity and continuity and change. The awesome white and yellow 13-storey Potala Palace, once the winter palace of the Dalai Lama and now a world heritage site, is a constant reminder of Tibet’s unique culture and identity. But the brightly-lit new television tower in the background and the modern monument, commemorating 50 years of the “peaceful liberation” of Tibet, located just opposite the famed Potala Palace, are key pointers to the future path being charted out by the dominant Chinese population for the Buddhist Shangri-La. The same juxtaposition of the old and the new, past and future, can be witnessed in the orderly row of obviously newly-built houses, the neat rows of glitzy stores, internet cafes, shopping malls, karaoke bars and
restaurants which suddenly give way to poorer neighbourhoods selling Tibetan artefacts and trinkets. The presence of Baku-clad women and maroon-robed lamas, twirling their prayer wheels and prostrating before the Potala Palace and the famed seventh-century Jokhang Temple, suggests that Tibetan culture and identity has not been completely wiped out despite the vice-like grip of the Han Chinese on this region. But conversations with the local Tibetans tell a different story. Given their affinity with Indians, they do not shy away from expressing their apprehension and anger over the growing attempts by the Han Chinese to keep them confined to the margins and gradually reduce them to a minority in their own homeland. Whether it is Dolma or Tikila or Tashi, they will all tell you that the development of world-class infrastructure and a booming economy has not brought them any real happiness. “What is the point when you cannot speak and move about freely,” remarked a young Tibetan girl, pointing to the constant discrimination they have to endure at the hands of the growing numbers of Chinese who control the levers of power and economy. The Dalai Lama, according to them, is persona non grata in Tibet and nobody is allowed to keep his photograph in their homes though most of them do so secretly as he remains their revered guru. Given half a chance, most Tibetans here would sell all their belongings for one “darshan” of the Dalai Lama but they are unable to travel to India as passports are not easily issued by the Chinese authorities. When I asked a young, friendly Tibetan shopkeeper if she had such a picture in her house and if she would like to see him, her demeanor immediately underwent a change. “Who are you and why are you asking these questions,” she asked suspiciously and quickly turned her back on me. Since Tibetan is taught as a second language, the local Tibetans here are forced to study Chinese if they wish to acquire skills which will open up employment avenues for them. Parents wishing to educate their children in the Tibetan language smuggle them out to India to enable them to study in the schools run by the “Tibet government in exile” in Dharamshala. Ask any Tibetan about how the new train will change their lives and the spontaneous response is: “More Chinese”. Though these fears are understandably not being voiced openly, Tibetans are worried the train will only facilitate the movement of more outsiders (read Chinese) into Tibet who are better educated and will, therefore, end up grabbing the bulk of jobs. The introduction of the train and plans to extend the road and rail network further in Tibet, is believed to be part of a larger Chinese strategy to exploit this region’s rich mineral wealth. Besides, it has also fuelled fears that the influx of people will adversely impact the Tibetan plateau’s pristine environment and hurt the cultural identity of its people. On the flip side, it is argued, the train has not only brought in more people but also provided access to more information and cheaper goods. According to Ma Zhidie, vice-editor-in-chief, Tibet Daily, there has been a 70 per cent increase in tourist arrivals since the train was flagged off last July. This, he said, has proved to be a boon to the economy with tourism revenue touching a high of half a billion dollars. As for fears that the Tibetans would loose their unique cultural identity, Ma said this was incorrect as local people were now getting an opportunity to showcase their culture before the visitors through live performances. “In any case, we cannot remain frozen in time...we have to change with the times,” said a young Tibetan
shopkeeper, who decided to return to Lhasa from India because of the better economic opportunities here. But this was clearly a minority view. |
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Delhi Durbar Are the cracks in the BJP party organisation widening? That is the question doing the rounds in the wake of a host of National Executive members skipping the party’s National Executive meeting in Bhopal last week. Several leading lights have opted to give the National Executive a miss which has not gone unnoticed. Only former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpyee’s absence appears to have had a genuine alibi – his doctors advised him against attending the meet. Then the former union minister K.C. Pant, whose proximity to Vajpayee is well known, also decided to follow suit and stay put in the capital. Both Maneka Gandhi and her son Varun Feroze Gandhi, who was admitted into the BJP with much ado, also steered clear of the party National Executive on one pretext or another. Then there are leaders from Gujarat opposed to Chief Minister Narendra Modi who have suddenly made a beeline to their constituencies. It is apparent the dissidents from Gujarat are sending a signal to the BJP high command.
Left thawing on nuke deal? Are there indications that the Left will by and by relent from its hard stand on the Indo-US civil nuclear deal? This assumes importance as certain senior Left leaders like veteran Marxist Jyoti Basu and West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya are quietly veering around to the Congress-led UPA government’s view that the Indo-US nuclear deal is necessary for generating nuclear power for meeting the burgeoning needs of industry. Basu observed in Kolkata that the “Indo-US nuclear deal is for nuclear energy. There is a need for nuclear power plants and with industries mushrooming, the demand for power will increase.” This comes on the eve of the CPM’s Politburo and Central Committee meetings in the Eastern metropolis from September 28 to October 1.
Getting poll ready With the possibility of early Lok Sabha polls sinking in, the Congress has begun making an assessment of its prospects in various states and informing its workers of the party’s position on various contentious issues. The Congress recently released a booklet on the Indo-US nuclear deal for its office-bearers and workers which explains the salient features of the agreement and seeks to remove any doubts. The booklet also touches on the role of successive Congress Prime Ministers in building India’s nuclear programme and the party’s commitment to national interest. With an eye on elections the party has begun taking back leaders who had been knocking at its doors and waiting for their re-entry. The first test for the Congress is in the upcoming Gujarat assembly polls where it has a formidable foe in Narendra Modi. Unfortunately for the Congress, the Ram Setu issue has come as a bolt from the blue.
Contributed by S. Satyanarayanan,
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