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Berthright Lessons of history |
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Cricket vs hockey
Coalition dharma
Official humour
No compromise on national interest Violence on the rise in Sri Lanka Inside Pakistan
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Berthright THE Railway Ministry’s proposal to provide additional berths in between the two rows of berths in the passage of sleeper class and air-conditioned three-tier coaches is flawed. How did Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav and his mandarins in the Rail Bhavan get this idea? According to Railway Board Member (Mechanical) Rajkamal Rao, the proposal is aimed at increasing the capacity of the existing coaches. He says there is a heavy waiting list (to the extent of 300 booked tickets for every long-distance train) and that the provision of extra berths will help increase the occupancy by 12 per cent. Reports suggest that the railways have already started manufacturing a modified coach at their Lower Parel workshop to increase the number of berths from 74 to 82. There is nothing wrong in trying new experiments to provide relief to passengers. However, in the process, the authorities should not overlook the negative fallout of such experimentation. If one considers the likely hardship of those occupying berths near the passage in the new coach, demerits would far outweigh the merits. How would passengers sit between 6 a.m and 9 p.m? They will be deprived of backrest, a proper window view and, above all, adequate space to keep their luggage. Moreover, when the present four toilets are inadequate for 72 passengers in a coach, any increase in occupancy will add to congestion. Unfortunately, the railway authorities seem to pay little attention to passenger comfort and safety. The present sleeper and AC three-tier coaches are so narrow and cramped for space that senior citizens, patients and pregnant women find it difficult to sit or sleep. The proposal for extra berths near the passage needs to be shelved. Instead, ways should be explored to make train travel more comfortable and safer. If increasing occupancy is a must, measures like replacement of sleeper coaches (AC and non-AC) by chair cars, introduction of more trains in busy routes and addition of more coaches to important trains will all help. |
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Lessons of history ARMY Chief General J.J. Singh has added his voice to that of all students of modern Indian military history, whether they be academics, policy analysts, journalists, or practitioners, and called for the declassification of the official records of the 1962, 1965 and 1971 wars. Though much sought after, these records have escaped being made public after a stipulated period of time, like the thirty-year rule, and have lately resisted even various applications under the Right To Information (RTI) Act. The Henderson report on the 1962 war, in fact, has attained a mystique of its own, and there is much speculation about it. The General has rightly stressed the usefulness of such official reports and histories to those wishing to draw lessons from those wars. Defence Minister A.K. Antony must do more than merely “consider” the request for opening the old records. Western democracies have long recognised the limited usefulness, indeed, even the corrupting nature, of needless secrecy, and have made many attempts to evolve a rational declassification policy. While these by no means yield perfect results, such a mechanism forces administrators to evaluate the worth of government records and decide whether their sensitive contents would fare better with a public airing. Ultimately, this aids the security of the country, even as it advances superior knowledge and understanding. History cannot teach if we do not know it well, and mistakes cannot help but be repeated if we do not know what they were in the first place. Of course, vested interests might well benefit from hiding away embarrassing secrets. They must be fought. India and Indians have often been criticised, both by experts within the country and abroad, for being deficient both in strategic thinking and a sense of history. They both go together, and it is time we established a culture of openness and transparency, as befitting a rich, strong, democracy. It is the dust, cobwebs and mould over what is hidden away that often cause the rot. Let it out into the sun. |
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Cricket vs hockey WHEN the country was rejoicing on the return of Team India on Wednesday, hockey team chief coach Joaquim Carvalho chose to voice his concern over the stepmotherly treatment meted out to hockey and even threatened a protest over it. Apart from an unprecedented reception in Mumbai, the winning cricket team members have been given hefty cash awards by the cash-rich Board of Control for Cricket in India. As if that was not sufficient, state governments and corporates also came forward with many prizes and awards. In contrast, the Karnataka Government announced a cash award of Rs 2 lakh to each of the hockey players from the state who were in the team that won the Asia Cup recently, only after they went on hunger strike! Although every sport has its admirers, cricket arouses strong emotions like no other game in India. It was just six months ago that the Indian cricketers were at the receiving end of national outrage over their dismal performance in the World Cup. On Wednesday, lakhs of busy Mumbaikars waited in rain and humidity for hours to catch a glimpse of Dhoni’s boys. Television channels provided live coverage to the event. It is a different matter that even Ranji trophy cricket matches do not attract any crowd whereas a state-level hockey or football match attracts thousands of spectators. Corporate and media support comes only to those with “mass appeal”: film stars, cricketers or players like Sania Mirza. The rest are bound to feel left out. If the BCCI earns more cash than the Indian Hockey Federation, not much can be done about it. Maybe the government can give tax concessions to encourage corporate money into hockey and other sports. Every state government has different cash incentives for sportspersons and these, too, generate a sense of discrimination. However, within a state and at the national level there should be no bias in fund allocations for various games. To enable every child play the game of her choice, the government should build a massive network of sports infrastructure, right up to the grassroots level. |
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Let noble thoughts come to us from all sides.
— Rig Veda |
Coalition dharma
A
two-party system, howsoever desirable, is not possible now in a sub-continental democracy like ours. The days of one political party getting for itself enough number of seats in the Lok Sabha to form its own government seem to have gone forever. In this two-coalition party era, we have always been talking about the coalition dharma of the ruling coalition. This is mostly the responsibility of the leader of the coalition who is supposed to carry all the partners together through the mechanism of a minimum common programme, consensus building on issues, treating partners with consideration and courtesy, etc. This coalition dharma is many a time stretched to a breaking point, if a partner in the coalition has adequate number of seats, which he can leverage to get what he wants and threatens to leave the coalition unless he is adequately satisfied. Another problem of the coalition dharma arises when the coalition survives on outside support. This outside support is supposedly based on the minimum common programme, but can also be used to modify or even sabotage the coalition policies and programmes, especially if they are initiated by the leader of the coalition. The present controversy about the Indo-US nuclear deal is a classic example of this when the outside support almost destabilised the coalition. And here becomes relevant the opposition dharma, i.e. what policies and strategies the opposition coalition, especially the leader of that coalition, should follow. It can be reasonably assumed that at least during the foreseeable future, the leader of the two coalitions would not have more than 200 Lok Sabha seats of its own. Therefore, it would have to depend on a major partner with about 40-50 seats and/or outside support with the same number. Let us take the case of the UPA coalition to make a plausible case study. One of the partners can be BSP with say about 50 seats and/ or leftists group with the same number but supporting from outside. The UPA coalition will like to carry out crucial economic reforms as also undertake some critical strategic foreign affairs decisions or measures. If these are in the national interest, then the opposition coalition should not oppose them only for the sake of opposition. They should fully support them and even stand by the government if they are opposed by some partners in the ruling coalition or by those supporting from outside. Let us take the Indo-US nuclear deal again as an example. This deal is entirely in the national interest both from the economic and foreign policy angles. This will ensure our power needs and at the same time free us from being a nuclear pariah. The reputed English weekly The Economist, in a recent issue, has clearly brought out how India has received a favourable deal. As a matter of fact, this has rattled many nations aspiring to be nuclear powers as also nations not friendly to India. The Economist, which has a well established reputation of writing on controversial issues most objectively has, therefore, opposed the deal. We should seriously consider this position and appreciate the advantages of the deal to India. The opposition coalition should have, therefore, offered to stand by the government. This would have put the leftists in their place. The opposition coalition should not have worried that the government would then take the full credit for this deal as the BJP could have publicly argued that the whole process in this regard was started by them and the UPA coalition has taken it to its logical conclusion. Of course, there can be some minor differences but they could have been sorted out without adversely affecting the process. One more thing should be particularly mentioned here. Since, the opposition coalition has not stood by the government, the Government of India’s credibility and not the UPA government’s credibility has taken a battering in the international field. This would have serious implications for any coalition — the UPA or the NDA — which may form the next government(s) as their international credibility will have been badly bruised. The same observation can be made for economic reforms. They are absolutely necessary and essential if we have to progress adequately and fast to improve the quality of life of all people and at the same time occupy an important position on the international scene. If they are opposed for narrow and/or ideological reasons by ruling coalition partners or by those who support from outside, then the opposition coalition should stand by the government. They should not worry about the government taking full credit for this, as they can always go to the people and explain to them that but for their critical support, the economic reforms would not have materialised. We need not shed tears that we do not have a two-party system but we should try to place in position a healthy two-coalition party system where they follow their own dharma. It may be necessary for this to carry out some basic electoral reforms so that the number of political parties does not become large and functioning of coalition politics becomes stable. Till then, there is need to observe the ruling coalition dharma and the opposition coalition
dharma. The writer is a former Cabinet Secretary and Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister
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Official humour
Mention
of the word ‘office’ usually raises conjectures of a work place dry, drab and uninviting. One imagines the functionaries pushing files zombie like, enclosed by beetle stained walls and sitting below noisily whirring fans. However, those who have had the privilege — many may question this description — of having worked in these hallowed precincts know that the environment is not without its inherent lighter moments. Let us look at some examples. A notice near a rather temperamental lift reads, ‘Do not use this lift when it is not working’. And when it does work, it carries a different placard: ‘Closed; lifter out for lunch’. A petrol lorry of Indian Oil Corporation has this warning printed in bold lettering: ‘Inflammable: Government of India’. Spellings are seldom the worry of government functionaries. A peon relaxing near the phone during lunch hour had this notice for visitors: ‘Sahib out. I am maiming the phone’. A friend once narrated the story of a clerk who typed a highly classified memo without the security classification having been indicated. When this omission was pointed out, the typist reappeared with ‘Top Secret’ and ‘Bottom Secret’ typed at either extremity. A visiting politician was interacting with locals over power woes. “Power seldom comes, everything including the streets are in darkness”, complained an irate resident. The politician looked at the officials concerned for response. Clearing a hesitant throat the senior official said, “Statistically Sir, the complaint that power seldom comes is not true. In fact the power here comes every hour.” Before the import of the answer could sink in, another junior official, feeling left out of favour with the political boss chipped in, “As far as the streets are concerned Sir, there is no problem; in fact the lights remain switched on quite often even in day time.” A government bank had displayed their working hours on the front door. Noticing it a customer asked at the counter, “You do not work in the afternoons?” The official replied in a patronising tone, “No Sir, in the afternoons we are closed; it in the mornings that we do not work.” Politeness of language is an important ingredient of any official communication. A government pensioner who died received this letter. “Dear Sir, we are grieved to learn that you have passed away. May God grant peace to your departed soul and give you a happy and prosperous after-life.” The next paragraph was more business like. “In view of the latest development, we are constrained to discontinue your pension with immediate effect under rule No…” Hope and expectations doled out by the government are never in short supply. The last paragraph proves this. “In case of any change in your circumstances”, the letter concludes, “Please do not hesitate to send intimation to this office in duplicate.” The signatory then ends the letter ‘with warm
regards’. |
No compromise on national interest
It
must be granted to Prakash Karat that finally, the bottom line behind the 123 Agreement issue has been identified. The agreement, according to him, is not about civilian nuclear energy at all but a camouflage for an unequal relationship that seriously compromises India’s sovereignty. Of course, there is no mention of India’s association with the erstwhile USSR, hardly an equal relationship, which made us silent and helpless witnesses to the brutality of Soviet forces in Hungary and Czechoslovakia in the 1960s as they brutally crushed public dissent, or to the invasion of Afghanistan in 1980. Left forgotten also is the Indo-Soviet Treaty of 1971 which brought India just about as close to a military alliance with another country as was possible. Others, probably the great majority of those who have time for such things, might hold the view that close relationship with the USA serves the country’s interests. There is, therefore, ground for debate. The US economy exceeds those of the next four economies of the world put together, Japan, Germany, France and the UK. Its defence budget outscores expenditures of the next twelve countries cumulatively. It spends more on research and development than the rest of the world. Its strengths in science and technology cannot be approached, much less equaled, in the next three decades. It has most of the finest educational institutions in the world. The USA is called a superpower but it is much more than that; it is a power that is overwhelmingly superior to all others. To recognise these facts is to be wise; to ignore them or to loftily decry them is clearly foolish. No country, at least today or in the foreseeable future, can think of a relationship with the USA based on equality; none has done so in the last one hundred years. Yet, it has limitations in the exercise of political power. Some of these flow from its own weaknesses arising from arrogance as well as inability to understand the compulsions of others or the intricacies of globalized relationships. Those who are wise would want to capitalise on its strengths by engaging America to their own advantage even as they create flexibilities for themselves through other networks of relationships. So, if we are seeing India-Russia-China dialogues or our interfaces with the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, the European Union or South East Asia on the one hand or bilateral engagement of Japan and China on the other, these are appropriate measures to balance the direct interface with the USA. India has to be actively engaged in playing this chessboard with all those who matter and the USA is clearly the most important player. For the USA itself, it is not a one sided affair; the markets that we offer as also other competences minimize the asymmetry. The strongly placed population of Indian origin settled in the USA is also becoming a significant force multiplier Defence cooperation stands among the most important elements in such interfaces. This has been so with the Russians and there is no reason why things would be different with the Americans. Instead of viewing this negatively it we must exploit this situation. One reason, of course, is that they need professionally competent militaries with which they can interface and India falls in that category. For India, this provides the military opportunity to interact with another of very high standards. With non-traditional threats becoming more important, these relationships are mutually advantageous as they permit cooperation. For example, we have escorted high value US merchant ships in the Malacca Straits and ships of the US Navy have helped free Indian ships taken captive by pirates in Somalia. We have arrested a Japanese ship hijacked by pirates in Indonesian waters and would expect a similar response from that country if one of ours gets similarly affected. Interoperability, sharing of information, common procedures and doctrines are essential if cooperation is to be meaningful and regular and frequent joint exercises help in this process. There is nothing more and nothing less to them and the ballyhoo made about the recently concluded maoeuvres in the Bay of Bengal is truly laughable. Then, there is the question of military hardware. Karat contends that the US overtures are only to secure military business for US companies. This is obviously true. No one, of course, talks of the hundreds of billions of dollars worth of military hardware supplied by the former USSR and now Russia. SU 30 aircraft, T 90 tanks, frigates and submarines, the aircraft carrier Gorshkov along with MIG 29K aircraft are ensuring that Russian factories are kept in business and men employed, all by the Indian state. So, if the Americans, or any others, also want a piece of the cake, it will be all to the good. It will help us diversify our purchases rather than be dependent on one source and held to ransom by it as has often happened in the past. Our negotiating position will also be stronger. Equally important is access to high end technology. Soviet or Russian hardware is rudimentary in comparison to what the Americans can offer. In these times, technology will determine the fate of conflicts which will last just days. Really cutting edge technology is available only with the Americans. In addition, over the life cycle, their hardware is likely to turn out cheaper as times between overhaul and mean times between failures are much more than those of others. This kind of technology is not for sale in the supermarket. It flows from the totality of a relationship. Presently, India has little access to such technologies which are embargoed under dual use prohibitions flowing from the nuclear estrangement. Other departments in the business e.g. Space and Atomic Energy are similarly afflicted. One of the side benefits of the 123 Agreement will be to make access to such technologies feasible. India’s sovereignty does not come under threat by dealing with others; it comes from within and from a sense of insecurity which should have disappeared decades ago but continues to persist in some minds. We need to step out into this world and onto the playing field; running around like line referees, only waving flags, is no longer suited to our needs. There are only a handful of countries which have the potential to become global players; India is among these very few. In short, an India-USA relationship serves India’s interests in every way. Coupled with relationships with other important players on the world stage, it provides us with the kind of leverages we have never had. And, if the 123 Agreement facilitates the process, it is the right way to go. We can also add some nuclear power along the way. The writer is a former Director General Defence Planning Staff |
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Violence on the rise in Sri Lanka Violence
has been on the increase in northern and eastern Sri Lanka in the last week with Tamil Tigers launching sporadic attacks targeting both civilians and military personnel. Since Wednesday, three civilians including a Catholic priest have died and seventeen others injured in two mine attacks in the north adding to fears of an escalation in violence. The violence comes as the Government sends mixed signals about whether it plans to go for an all out offensive to crush the Tigers in the north or whether they are interested in resuming peace talks. The tough-talking brother of President Mahinda Rajapakse, Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse, recently told a public gathering honouring Navy personnel that there would be no peace in the country unless the rebels are militarily destroyed. The President however told the UN General Assembly in New York on Tuesday that the Government had launched military operations only to exert pressure on Tigers to convince them that it will not be possible for them to obtain a military victory and the government’s goal remains a negotiated and honourable end to the unfortunate conflict. The LTTE, which has been maintaining silence for the past few weeks, particularly after the fall of the east, issued a statement ahead of the UN General Assembly saying the Government of Sri Lanka must end its deceptions; halt its military oppression, ethnic cleansing, and serious human rights violations, accept the aspirations of the Tamil people, and come forward to find a resolution that is based on the right to self-determination of the Tamil people. The Government on the one hand is under international pressure over its poor human rights record and is hard pressed to please the international community, which is harping on the need for a negotiated settlement to the problem. On the other hand, it is playing tough with the Tigers which gives the Government the much needed boost to its popularity among the majority Sinhalese community, whose support is crucial at times of an election. While the Government may be counting on a further fragmentation of the LTTE amidst reports of a clash between the top leaders of the group, the LTTE seems to be marking time till the international community, on which the country is heavily dependent to finance its development projects, to tell the Government to stop the military action and get back to the negotiating table. |
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Inside Pakistan PPP leader Benazir Bhutto’s latest statement on the proliferation activities of the father of Pakistan’s nuclear bomb, Dr A. Q. Khan, has led to a fresh debate likely to have a bearing on the country’s politics. She has promised to allow the International Atomic Energy Agency to interrogate Dr Khan to go deeper into his misadventures, if she came back to power. She, perhaps, wants to expose the irresponsible role of the military, which has been blaming politicians and others for all the ills Pakistan has been suffering from. The News carried a report by Rauf Klasra on September 28 saying that “Dr A.Q. Khan is on record having said that all the top army generals since 1985 knew about the proliferation activities of his network. However, he could never find an opportunity to give to the media or the judiciary the names of the generals who were part of his network once he was put under house arrest by his captors.” “In the current anti-military mood in the country (in Pakistan), it will … sell by recasting the debate as an anti-military argument, indirectly exposing the GHQ to accountability through a UN institution” as Daily Times says. “Clearly, she wants to ride the crest of the popular campaign against military dominance in Pakistan led by the legal profession and the opposition parties challenging President Musharraf’s re-election next month…. “What is feared from an ‘outing’ of Dr Khan is not so much that he would reveal his global network, but that he might name names from the Pakistan army”, Daily Times adds. But the media has generally castigated Ms Bhutto for “playing fast and loose”. In the opinion of The Frontier Post (September 27), “She must know if there is anything that cuts across all the spectrums of Pakistani polity at this point in time, it is the popular sentiment of anti-Americanism.”
General election The presidential candidate fielded by lawyers, Mr Wajihuddin Ahmad, a retired judge of the Pakistan Supreme Court, has been praised by one and all for his qualities of head and heart. “Here is a man who could have remained a judge of the Supreme Court for several years, had he agreed to take oath under the Provisional Constitutional Order. He refused. If there is anyone I know who personifies ‘goodness’, he is Judge Wajihuddin.” This is what Shafqat Mahmood, a former member of parliament, said in his article in The News (Sept 28). But Justice Wajihuddin is likely to put up only a symbolic fight. “The PML-N is the only party to have extended support to Mr Ahmad’s proposed nomination without reservations”, as Dawn pointed out in an editorial on September 27. Even otherwise, the All Parties Democratic Movement (APDM) has announced that all its national and provincial assembly members will resign on October 2. The NWFP Chief Minister is going to recommend the dissolution of the provincial assembly. This is being done as a part of the Opposition strategy to prevent General Musharraf’s re-election as President by the present assemblies, whose term will end soon. But Maulana Fazalur Rehman, who made the announcement on behalf of the APDM, did not claim that these resignations will incapacitate the electoral college for the presidential poll. Contrary to this, ruling PML (Q) leaders now claim that the APDM’s resignations cannot come in the way of the General’s re-election. It all depends on the Supreme Court’s verdict on the petitions challenging General Musharraf’s eligibility to contest the presidential election. If the court takes the stand that the Election Commission is competent to take a decision on the issue that will mean the crisis in Pakistan entering a new phase. In such a scenario, Justice Wajihuddin may become “the spearhead of a new crusade”.
In praise of Indian cricket Most newspapers in Pakistan were appreciative of Indian cricket in their comments on India’s victory in the Twenty20 World Cup final. “If economics is the operating principle, Pakistan should latch on to the Indian system for the sake of the survival of its own game”, commented Daily Times. Pointing out that “there is no acrimony in the post-match analysis”, the paper went on to add that “In many ways, the changing face of cricket – and the changing economics of running it – could be the final solvent of all political troubles in South Asia.” “Pakistan lost a match to India; a hard fought battle of limited overs technique, strategy, grit and courage right up to the bitter end”, says Imran Husain in The Nation. But he sees a “cricketing renaissance in the subcontinent”. There is a general belief that the future of cricket lies in South Asia. |
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