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Herd of
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Rahul’s
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Fashioning
a policy for Myanmar
Poles
apart
The
battle of the Kurds Punjab’s
fractured governance Delhi Durbar
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Herd of MLAs POLITICAL leaders have feet of clay. This has been borne out, once again, by former Karnataka Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy spiriting away Janata Dal (Secular) MLAs to a resort in the outskirts of Bangalore. This has been done to ward off threats from Chief Minister-aspirant M.P. Prakash who, he fears, would win them over and form a government with the support of the Congress. The point to be noted is that the JD (S) leader is not sure of the allegiance of his MLAs. Such tactics have routinely been employed in states where a party does not enjoy majority. It was not for any principle that Mr Kumaraswamy refused to honour his word to vacate the post of chief minister after holding it for 20 months with the support of the BJP. The former Chief Minister also knows that similar personal interests can force his MLAs to switch sides. That is why he thought of ferrying them to a resort. In doing so, he does not show any respect whatsoever to the personal likes and dislikes of the MLAs concerned. Since they have also made many compromises in their political life, the MLAs know that they have no moral right to resist. Small wonder that it does not occur to them that in allowing themselves to be coerced into becoming part of a herd, they are losing their self-esteem. But in the craze for power, who bothers about such qualities? The leader is so paranoid that he will employ any trick to keep the MLAs from poaching by his rival. This has happened in state after state. In Haryana where the aya-Ram-gaya-Ram phenomenon had its genesis, a picture that is etched in the public mind is that of an MLA, who was detained against his wish, using a drainpipe to escape from captivity. In the South, the late N.T. Rama Rao proved he was equally adept in herding the Telugu Desam MLAs to secure destinations. In crisis situations political parties prefer to ferry their MLAs to the safety of states that are ruled by the party. Thus, the Goa BJP MLAs were best safe-kept in Rajasthan and the Jharkhand BJP MLAs in Madhya Pradesh. MLAs are elected representatives, whose primary job is to enact laws but it is a pity that they are no better than a herd of cattle for their leaders.
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Towards flashpoint THE efforts to defuse the Iranian crisis through dialogue suffered a major setback when the US imposed fresh sanctions on the Persian Gulf nation last week to force it to give up its nuclear ambitions. The latest punitive measure is harsher than the one announced by Washington in the wake of the 1979 US Embassy hostage crisis in Teheran. The US has delinked from its financial system 20 Iranian entities, including the powerful Revolutionary Guard Corps, accused of aiding terrorists and causing destabilisation in Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon and the Palestinian Authority-controlled territories. The tightening of the screws on Iran seems to be changing the European Union’s attitude, too, which has been doing all it can to defuse the crisis with a view to protecting its business interests in Iran. Now the UK and France have expressed their readiness for tougher sanctions. Germany and Italy are the two key EU members still opposed to this coercive approach, but their stand may not matter much if most EU countries decide otherwise. However, the EU is scared of another Iraq-like situation in its backyard. It is difficult to believe that Russia and China, two of the five Security Council veto-wielding powers having their huge economic interests to protect in Iran, will be able to do anything beyond denouncing the US sanctions. The US-Iran tensions may have an immediate impact on the ongoing dialogue between the two countries over Iraq. The dialogue is unlikely to be carried on under the circumstances. The Americans know it better than anyone else that it is not easy to quell the insurgency in Iraq without Iranian cooperation. Yet, there seems to be a change in the US strategy with regard to the region. Reports suggest that the US may launch armed intervention anytime now to prevent Iran from going nuclear. The situation is getting alarming. The world community must prevent the opening of another Iraq-like front in the interest of peace and stability in the region and beyond.
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Rahul’s role THE dropping of Rahul Dravid has set off a wave of debate and concern about one of India’s finest cricketers. The debate is not new - the tone, the tenor and the parameters are similar to those about Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly. Except the circumstances are very different. And there will not be a public reaction anywhere close to that experienced when Sourav was left out. Or if the same decision is taken with regard to Sachin. While that may reflect the way the Wall chose to play his cricket - with less swagger and raw crowd appeal - no one can doubt that his contributions were on par. He could play a dominating innings as well as anyone, but opted for a different approach to his career with which he could maximise not just his own chances but that of the team. He quit captaincy, talking about wanting to concentrate on his batting. His batting in the one-day games in England was excellent, with strike-rates as good as anyone else’s. But the runs dried up against Australia, and he discovered, that without the cloak of captaincy, he was suddenly very vulnerable. Though he led India to two away-Test series victories, achieved after a gap of decades, his captaincy decisions would startle and confound. But there was no call for him to quit. That he did so, for reasons which are still not clear, must be considered a matter of regret. None of this is to suggest that anyone is above being dropped. In fact, Indian cricket agonises a little too much about stature. There is no reason why a Sachin or a Rahul should not be dropped for cricketing reasons. We should do so more often, and our game will benefit. There have been reports that differences with the Chairman of Selectors contributed. If true, the BCCI should ensure that this kind of thing does not happen. In any case, Rahul will be sorely missed, even in the shorter version of the game. Indian cricket will want him back soon.
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Had laws not been, we never had been blamed;/ For not to know we sin in innocence. — William D’Avenant
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Fashioning a policy for Myanmar
The
brutal crackdown in Myanmar in recent weeks has quelled protests but has stirred the international conscience. The monks who took to the streets were voicing the popular anguish of an impoverished people against a sudden 500 per cent rise in fuel prices that affected their lives and livelihood and equally appealing to the military junta to review its guiding policy that is going nowhere. The Indian government has been criticised for upholding non-intervention and stating that it is for the people of Myanmar to determine their future. This is not to show unconcern but implies that it is not for sanctions or adventurist policies of regime change. Sanctions against Myanmar have not worked. They have operated harshly against the ordinary people and isolated the otherwise popular NLD by arousing a sense of xenophobia that the regime has used to its advantage. Were India to join the sanctions bandwagon, it would not merely render management of its troubled and porous eastern border that much more difficult in combating cross-border insurgency and crime in the Northeast but would drive Myanmar further into the arms of the Chinese, something that even Yangon and certainly ASEAN do not desire. Despite sanctions, western oil companies do good business in Myanmar even as their governments prop up sundry dictatorships around the world. Delhi has been employing quiet diplomacy to persuade the SPDC to relent and think afresh. It has also provided hospitality to thousands of Myanmarese refugees and dissidents and given them a certain latitude to function. Nevertheless, it does need to explore new avenues for promoting dialogue, reconciliation and a return to democracy in Myanmar. Any instant solution is most unlikely. One has to be prepared for the long haul. However, certain basic facts need to be understood. After 40 years of military rule, sanctions and self-imposed isolation Mynamar has been effectively de-professionalised and remains utterly reclusive. The education system has collapsed, civil governance has crumbled and any kind of administration over vast ethnic minority tracts has become minimal. Professional services are run down, the media has been throttled, economic activity has slowed and HDI indices and living standards are down. Very little civil society has survived or been allowed to flourish. The only exception is the Tatmadaw (armed forces) who are privileged, educated, trained, professional and empowered. They administer and run the country. Were Aung Saan Suu Kyi miraculously to assume power tomorrow she would have to call on the military to help run the country, at least for some time. This is the grim reality. Therefore, while the military is the problem in Mynamar it has to be part of the solution, certainly in the short-to-medium term while civilian cadres are built up and gain experience and the diaspora returns. Equally, the junta must realise that Suu Kyi cannot be wished away. If anyone represents the conscience of Myanmar and the popular will, she does. Excluding her does not work. Some will argue that she made a mistake by taking the NLD out of the national convention, sham though it was. Yet, without the NLD it has not worked and will lack credibility. That is why the seven-stage road map of the SPDC has gone on for ever, promising jam tomorrow. Another truth is that Myanmar has from the days of its nationalist struggle been a civil-military partnership. U Nu handed over power to General Ne Win. In keeping with an unhappy Asian tradition, the Tatmadaw believes that the military has a legitimate role to play in ensuring stable civil rule on the lines of the Turkish, Indonesian, Thai, South Korean, Pakistan model, from which many have yet to graduate. Yet again, no solution in Mynamar can ignore the ethnic minorities, many of whom have a ceasefire arrangement with the regime. This has brought about an armed truce that eludes peace and denies development and dialogue, an untenable status quo. India has high stakes in Myanmar, a huge, under-populated, resource-rich and strategically located neighbour. Its interests are human (some 400,000 Indians live there, many still denied citizenship), economic, ethno-cultural, strategic, regional. Yet it cannot go it alone. It must seek an Asian solution, working in concert with ASEAN, China, Japan and the UN. It could take the initiative to call a conference with these countries jointly to approach the junta to release Suu Kyi and other political detainees, allow refugees to return home, invite the NLD, representatives of the diaspora and national minorities to an accelerated process of national consultation and constitution making on the basis of federalism, with considerable autonomy for the ethnic minorities and an agreed role for the military over the next decade or more, and a crash economic reconstruction programme with UN and bilateral assistance. India could help with scholarships-cum-training to equip Myanmarese civil society to resume the reins of governance. It could also usefully expose the latter to varying models of autonomy for and engagement with ethnic minorities in the Northeast which, for all its problems, has been a great laboratory in nation-building and has some outstanding successes to its credit.
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Poles apart
If
women were from the Venus and men from the Mars, the latter should certainly be a satellite of the former. For, it's the fairer half of the species that makes the men's world go round. And for the same reason, I subscribe to the thesis that this earth would have been a paradise had women ruled over men, outside the homes too. Fortunately, more and more countries — most recently Pakistan — are realising this. Still I could never resolve this mystery as to why my wife's tastes and habits are so fundamentally different from mine. Sample this: my favourite TV programme is “Biography” of the History channel, hers is “Jhalak Dikhla ja”. She thinks Salsa is a dance, I say it's gymnastics in pair. For dessert, I prefer gulab jamuns and besan laddus while she can repeat vanilla ice cream with hot chocolate,dinner after dinner. My favourite munch is raw carrots and cucumbers and hers? Well, no prize for guessing this - kurkure! Then, though I speak loudly, I prefer to listen to music at low volume. She does it the other way round. She believes that left to themselves children would go to dogs. I believe dog is man's best friend. Well, the list is so long that it is a miracle that we have stayed together for nearly two decades now. The greater irony, however, is that my daughter's friends often ask her if her parents' wasn't a love marriage? When actually our union is the greatest social adventure: a classical Indian arranged marriage. As we grew up in more or less similar environments (though hers a bit more refined), I believed only one thing could explain our dissimilarities — genetics. More so, because my wife's tastes are so similar to our daughter's. I, therefore, felt somewhat vindicated the other day when I read the recent report in a scientific journal that men are genetically different from women. To set at rest my wife's pet grouse -why I cannot be like her, I broke the news to my family. My daughter's reaction was, predictably, feministic. "Papa,it only confirms what I always say. Women are superior to men." Well, I had no problem with that but what really broke my heart was wife's response. "It may be true. But in our case it's not the genetics but the generation gap!" She said. This when I am just four years senior to her. But perhaps she is right. For, a wise old man once told me that after a certain age, each year is like five
years.
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The battle of the Kurds
MARDU, Iraq — It is a land of resistance, the mountain peaks and winding valleys where Iraq’s own Kurds battled Saddam Hussein for decades. Now another generation of guerrillas are bunkered down there waving the flag of Kurdish nationalism in the Qandil mountains, this time in a fight against Turkey. Iraqi Kurds and members of the Turkish separatist Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, live together in this vast mountain range that straddles Iraq, Turkey and Iran. The safe haven provided to the Turkish Kurd rebels here infuriates Ankara, which has been locked in an intense conflict with the Kurdish separatist movement that has cost thousands of lives since the 1980s. With as many as 100,000 Turkish troops poised to march across the Iraqi border to attack PKK camps, a military response to a rebel ambush in southern Turkey last week that killed 12 soldiers, Iraqi Kurds may now pay a steep price for ignoring the problems caused by the PKK presence in the north. “Iraqi Kurds generally sympathize with PKK fighters. It is a force that has been demanding and fighting for the rights of Kurds in Turkey for tens of years now, and the Turks have been very harsh to their Kurdish community by forbidding them from rights, “ said Asso Hardi, editor-in-chief of Awena, an independent newspaper in Sulaymaniya, a city in Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdistan region. “On the other hand, many Iraqi Kurds view the PKK as an entity which has caused many problems to the relatively stable Kurdistan area of Iraq, especially with neighboring countries.” Up winding switchbacks lies Mardu village, northeast of Sulaymaniya. Kurdish farmers tend livestock and harvest peaches, apples and grapes. A few houses dotted by oak trees serve as an impromptu headquarters for the PKK. Male and female fighters, dressed in billowing traditional salwar pants and olive combat tops, walk freely. Local Iraqis openly support them, and some Iraqi Kurds have left their families and city life to become soldiers with the Turkish Kurd rebels and their Iranian sister movement, Party for Free Life In Kurdistan, or PEJAK. The villagers toast the Turkish guerrillas as champions of Kurdish rights. They claim that they are willing to endure sacrifices as the price of their association with a movement that is fighting to establish Kurdish self-rule in Turkey and Iran, where they believe their minority’s basic privileges are denied. “Three times I lost my house, but I never scorned the Kurdish movement. The PKK and PEJAK have been in our village for years,” said 64-year-old farmer Mohammed Wasso, whose property was destroyed during the Iraqi Kurds own hard-fought war with Saddam. Some describe the PKK as a vital trading partner and protector in a lawless area. Hussein Rashid, 45, regularly hauls gasoline and kerosene from Iran to sell to the guerrillas. He warned, “If the PKK is not here, then this will be a place for terrorism and Iran will send Ansar Al-Islam,” a Sunni extremist group with links to al-Qaida. Shereen Sulaiman, 39, the mother of three children, worried about what Turkey might do to the PKK. “They respect the people and serve the area. They even supply the area with electricity. I don’t want them to be hurt,” Sulaiman said, wearing a red dress and her hair covered by a black veil said. “They are Kurds like us.” Kurds speak a distinct language and have a separate culture from that of Turks, Iranians and Arabs. They are believed to be the world’s largest ethnic group without a state, with a total population estimated at 25 million to 40 million. During the 20th century, Kurds were embroiled in bloody conflicts against governments in Turkey, Iraq, Syria and Iran, countries that at times have destroyed Kurdish villages and executed Kurdish political activists for treason. Saddam slaughtered tens of thousands of Kurds to quell a rebellion in the 1980s. In the Qandil mountains last week, PKK fighters from Syria, Turkey and Iran stood in their green combat fatigues by a well, busy washing their clothes. Others cleaned rifles with rags and brushes. They had hiked from across the mountains to the spot for two or three days of classes on the party’s ideology and worldview. Diyar Swrani, a blue-eyed, pale and thin 25-year-old, was one of the fighters. He had opted for the Spartan life in the mountains to liberate southeastern Turkey for the Kurds instead of staying at home with his family in the thriving city of Sulaymaniya. “When I see Kurdistan at the mercy of the enemy’s weapon, we must move if we love Kurdistan and call it a country of the Kurds,” Swrani said, holding some flowers he had picked in the mountains. He had left his home in Iraq three years ago. He was casting about after graduating secondary school when he started reading Kurdish nationalist literature and the PKK’s founder Abdullah Ocalan seized his imagination. His uncle had friends who had fought for the PKK. They told him to drive to the Qandil mountains, past the last of the Kurdish government checkpoints into the remote terrain that no government controls. He drove up the switchbacks on hillsides to the guerrilla checkpoints marking the vast territory under nominal PKK control. When Swirani answered their questions satisfactorily, the PKK let him stay, and he entered a rigorous six-month training period, which included political and social studies in a mix of Kurdish history and leftist ideology. Swirani’s squad leader stood near by. Sheera Kurdistani, from Iraqi Kurdistan’s Zakho mountains, joined the PKK when she was 19, mesmerized by the stories of PKK fighters who sought refuge in her village. At 33, she is a hardened veteran in dusty fatigues, slinging a rifle, with a leathery face and her hair pinned tightly in a bun. She supervises a roadside checkpoint. She expresses no regret over her sacrifices to the PKK. “We have given up our personal lives until we become martyrs or we have reached our aims.” Times staff writers Raheem Salman, Salar Jaff and Said Rifai contributed to this report. By arrangement with
LA Times-Washington Post
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Punjab’s fractured governance PArkash Singh
Badal, the fourth time chief minister of Punjab is indeed a lucky man. He has fought many a battle over the span of 40 years and survived to lead the state. He is a seasoned and cool politician. I have observed him in jail and out of jail, hiding and plotting; he remains most of the time unruffled. He is cold in his calculations and even foxy. He has failed as often as he has succeeded. For him at times it has been very lonely at the top. For the past couple of weeks he has not only been upset with his colleagues and coalition partners, but perhaps with himself too. This is why he has begun blaming the media for the ills of his government. His Akali Dal could not win power on its own. In fact, it just matched the Congress. It faired badly in the Malwa, the traditional Akali base and secured just 49 seats. BJP, the coalition partner with 19 seats snatched the victory from the Congress that had won 44 seats and helped . Badal to form the government. Now it wants its pound of flesh and is no longer prepared to tolerate the overbearing attitude of the chief minister or his colleagues. Currently a war of words is on. This may not threaten the existence of the government, but fissures do hurt the credibility of the government. There is also less cohesion among the Akali ministers. There are too many power centres emerging all around, sending confused signals to the officials and the public. There is Sukhbir Singh Badal, the only son of the chief minister and currently acting president of the Akali Dal, eagerly waiting to step in. He is not letting any occasion go take over from his father. Badal perhaps feels that ‘kakji’ is yet not equal to the task and should groom himself more to claim the top position. Nevertheless, the junior Badal as referred in the state secretariat runs a parallel system of his own. BJP has said no to this kind of inheritance. All these influence badly the decision making and the functioning of the government, leading to disenchantment of the people. The Akali BJP government, principally the chief minister Parkash Singh Badal is being pinched not by the opposition, the Congress party, but his own cabinet colleagues and the BJP. The issue is fiscal management. Punjab by now has incurred a debt of over 52,764 crore and it is rising every day. It spends nearly 76 per cent of the taxes it collects on salaries and pensions. Tax collection system is not only corrupt but tardy too. This government has no clue how to take the desperate farmers out of the agrarian crisis. Punjab is not expected to cross 6 per cent growth during the next five years when the country is poised to cross nine per cent. School and higher education as everyone knows in Punjab is in hodgepodge state and health service is deteriorating. Cities and towns are rotting like putrefied wounds. As . Badal rightly points out, the canal system to irrigate to a respectable level the fields needs an urgent doze of Rs 4,000 crore in next three years. Electricity generation and distribution besides roads and other infrastructure need another Rs 8,000 crore. Badal whose head is full of dreams; world class airports, state of the art Adarsh schools in each block, new universities and sports complexes besides first rate air conditioned bus service all over Punjab. In day dreaming the father son duo has no match. But sadly have little clue to get the state out of the fiscal rot. The attempt instead is to isolate those who might have ideas to get the state out of the present chaotic position. . Badal’s nephew and finance minister. Manpreet Singh Badal is currently the focus of attention. In newspapers interviews, he has clearly spelt out the present regime of subsidies as untenable. He may sound bitter when he says, “ideally we should cap it at the present Rs 4,000 crore annually or better still halve it. But I find our coalition partner, the BJP, is more responsive to capping subsidy than my own party. If we carry on the same way for another couple of years, bankruptcy will anyway force us to do away with freebies. Tax collections, which in a consumer-driven state like Punjab, should be Rs 15,000 crore annually, is just about Rs 5,000 crore. So this too needs attention.” The government has increased the rate of electricity supply, which is always in short supply and is erratic. BJP has raised serious objections and its ministers have repeatedly made their resentment public. Their objection is that urban consumers are being penalised and rural consumers who get free power for their farms are enjoying at their cost. They find it unfair. There should indeed by one yardstick for all classes. BJP fears its support dwindling as has been adequately demonstrated during the municipal elections. But it also wonders why, with adequate numbers, it should be denied the position of the deputy CM. Its leaders no longer wish to be just poor urban cousins of the rural commanders.
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Delhi Durbar Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who has been at the receiving end of the Left parties ever since the formation of the UPA government, has a sympathiser in his 16-year-old grandson who apparently has two obsessions: Blueline buses and the Communists. Needless to say that when the young boy was asked by his school teacher to write an essay on his vision of what India would be like in the year 2040, he was quick to zero in on the Left parties. The CPM, he wrote, would be headed by its present secretary general Prakash Karat’s grandson and added on an almost gleeful note, “And then the CPM would be dead.”
Sanctions man West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya rolled out the red carpet for US treasury secretary Henry M. Paulson recently at a time when his party is battling the UPA government for its growing proximity to the US. Ironically, the CPM had issued a strong statement against the US administration’s decision to impose sanctions against Iran, a few days prior to Paulson’s visit. Maybe, the Communists forgot or deliberately chose to ignore the fact that as treasury secretary, Paulson was directly responsible for the economic sanctions announced against Tehran.
Open door When the Janata Dal (S) and the BJP buried their differences and decided to form a government in Karnataka, embarrassed Congress leaders in Delhi, who were clearly caught off-guard by the turn of events, were quick to blame home minister Shivraj Patil. In his report to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, AICC general secretary in-charge of Karnataka, had recommended that the assembly should be dissolved once President’s rule was imposed in the state. Chavan was, however, over-ruled by Patil who quoted the Bommai judgement to emphasise that an assembly had to be placed under suspended animation as a dissolution was not legally permissible till Parliament had approved the imposition of Central rule in the state. Now that the JD (S) and the BJP have used this opportunity to regroup, Congressmen are grumbling about Patil’s style of taking legalistic and not political decisions.
Force one India is clearly the international flavour of the season in view of its remarkable growth story. This was even evident on the Formula One race track when the controlling body FIA recently gave its approval to the new name “Force India” for the Spyker team bought over by the high-flying businessman Vijay Mallya. This fact did not go unnoticed by those commenting on the the final race of the season in Brazil. They were not only all praise for the name “Force India” but went as far as to say that a team owned by an Indian will give a great boost to Formula One. Contributed by Anita
Katyal, S. Satyanarayanan and Girja Shankar Kaura
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