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Crime
syndicates Farce in
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Jailed
innocence
The arc
of instability
Pottering
around PGI
Continued
instability in West Asia The
Burmese people’s struggle goes on Delhi Durbar
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Crime syndicates Last
week UP Chief Minister Mayawati introduced in the state Assembly the long-awaited Uttar Pradesh Control of Organised Crime Bill, 2007, with a view to eliminating organised crime root and branch. Modelled on the law enacted in Maharashtra — MCOCA —which virtually broke the backbone of the gangs of criminals there, UP’s latest piece of legislation is mainly aimed at crushing the crime syndicates and mafias having the support of politicians. That is why some opposition politicians are saying that the law may be used to settle political scores. The political connection of the “bahubalis” has been coming in the way of taking on these criminals effectively. Their activities led to what Ms Mayawati had been describing as “goonda raj” during the previous regime headed by S.P. chief Mulayam Singh Yadav. Growing lawlessness in UP was one of the major factors that worked in favour of Ms Mayawati’s spectacular electoral victory this year. With her party, the BSP, having an absolute majority in the Assembly, nothing can stop the law from becoming a reality. But how she will succeed in establishing the rule of law remains to be seen. Dealing with toughs like Amarmani Tripathi (now in jail), D.P. Yadav, Raja Bhaiyya, Madan Bhaiyya, Mukhtar Ansari, Akhilesh Singh and Dhananjay Singh is not an easy task. But with unflinching determination, she can definitely make them behave as law-abiding citizens or rot in jail. After all, she will have full support of the people in this noble task. The voters rejected most of these “bahubalis” in the latest Assembly elections. Such a law is needed in Bihar, too, where “bahubalis” function as law unto themselves. Though two such well-known characters, Shahabuddin and Anand Mohan Singh, are in jail, there are many like them who continue to pose a serious threat to law and order in Bihar. They have been behind a spurt in kidnappings in the state this year. A tough law can be of great help to put the law-breakers behind bars. But the law can be made into an ass if politics is not totally detached from crime. Besides tough laws, there is also need for people’s initiative like the UP Election Watch to eliminate crime syndicates and mafias wherever they exist.
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Farce in Karnataka It
is a miracle that former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda and his ex-Chief Minister son Kumaraswamy don’t get indigestion despite eating their words so often. But then the “humble farmer” always had a phenomenal appetite for opportunism which helped him occupy the highest political office in the country — although most consider him the “Chief Minister of India”. His tried and tested formula is proving to be self-defeating in the slugfest currently on in Bangaluru. He and his son are becoming butts of all sorts of jokes — not only in Karnataka — because of the almost daily flip-flop in their stand. After confronting the BJP with a comprehensive set of 12 conditions, Mr Kumaraswamy has now veered round to the view that his party is actually extending “unconditional support”. As usual, it is the media which has been blamed for projecting his grand vision wrongly. But by hitting out thus, the only person he has managed to convince is himself (and his dear father, of course). The father-son duo’s foolhardy attempt to keep one foot in the BJP boat and the other in the Congress one is the root cause of most trouble in the state. It is high time they realised that in the process, they are coming out as power-hungry wheeler-dealers whose activities are neither constitutional nor ethical. But then, theirs is not the only reputation that stands badly besmirched. Governor Rameshwar Thakur, too, has not covered himself in glory by trying to squash chief ministerial aspirations of the BJP’s B. S. Yeddyurappa. If only he had read the Supreme Court guidelines in the Bihar assembly dissolution case, he would not have let the embers simmer so long: “If a political party with the support of another political party or other MLAs satisfies the Governor about its majority to form a stable government, the Governor cannot refuse formation of the government because of his subjective assessment that the majority was cobbled by illegal and unethical means of horse-trading and allurements. No such power has been vested with the Governor”.
Touche!
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Jailed innocence It
really doesn’t matter whether you are a high-tech worker or a housewife; you could be jailed without even having committed a crime merely because the police believes that you are the person who did it. Lakshmana Kailash K was an ordinary young man living a simple life as an IT professional in Bangalore until he was arrested by the Pune police. After spending over 50 days in jail, he was released - the police has now arrested the “real culprits”. The 26-year-old Lakshmana had been arrested for defaming Shivaji on the Internet networking site, Orkut. A posting in Orkut had led to riots in Pune in November 2006, and the police asked the telecom provider to provide it with the IP number and the address of the person who had posted the objectionable material. While Lakshmana professed his innocence vociferously, the police lent him a deaf ear and put him behind bars. What is even more shocking is that they kept him locked up for days even after they had arrested the alleged perpetrators of the crime. Being jailed because of mistaken identity is distressingly common. In another case, Karnal-based Santosh Kumar, wife of Surjit Kumar, had to spend 14 days in Burail jail recently. It took her husband and the family that much time to prove that she was not Santosh, wife of Jeet Singh. Lack of due diligence on the part of the police is obvious, and there are times when it even leads to death, as the recent conviction of 10 policemen, including a former Assistant Commissioner of Police, in Delhi shows. They had gunned down two businessmen from Haryana in an “encounter”. It was a case of mistaken identity; the policemen thought that one of the victims was a gangster. They have been finally punished now. Effective steps must be taken to ensure that the erring police officers are adequately punished and substantial relief given to those who have been wrongly arrested. Also, administrative systems must be strengthened in order to make sure that such snafus do not occur. Even one such case is one too many.
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Most people ignore most poetry because most poetry ignores most people. — Adrian Mitchell
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The arc of instability American
war colleges delight in playing computer war games, sometimes to the consternation of countries that are posted as enemies. But recent developments in Pakistan are too close to the bone to play games with. They conjure up in the American mind a nightmare that stretches from Iraq, Syria, Bahrain, Iran, Lebanon, and the occupied Palestinian territories to Afghanistan and Pakistan. Waist-deep in the Iraq morass and breathing fire and brimstone on Iran, the last thing President George Bush wants is a new domestic crisis in Pakistan that will detract from the US administration’s “war on terror”, which has an immediate impact on fighting Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. The anti-insurgency operations are now being conducted under the NATO hat although Americans, as usual, retain their separate command and operations. Washington has few illusions about Pakistan and any number of western books and essays have traced the source of much militancy in the world to Pakistan. Everyone is acquainted with the history of how the US Central Intelligence Agency and Saudi Arabia bankrolled and supplied arms to the jehadis through the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan. The Soviets having finally departed, Americans packed their bags and left. Pakistan was left to cope with drugs and mountains of Kalashnikovs and other weapons and an assortment of jehadis from the Arab world and elsewhere without jobs, and millions of refugees. The jehadis the ISI employed as instruments of Pakistan’s policy in Afghanistan and Kashmir, but the immense problems left over by a proxy war the United States had conducted were left at Islamabad’s door. Pakistan did its own engineering by fathering and helping the Taliban, which achieved spectacular results in Afghanistan until Washington woke up to the dangers, thanks to Nine Eleven, the terrorist acts on American soil in September 2001. The Taliban were playing host to Osama bin Laden and his crew and Afghanistan had become a jehadi-producing factory, its tentacles spreading far and wide. Afghanistan became a new area of American operation and Pakistan was commandeered to help, despite its role in fathering the Taliban. The Taliban were engaged and mercilessly hunted down, but the Bush administration’s concentration wavered. A macho Bush administration sought the bigger Iraq prize of toppling Saddam Hussein. As the Bush administration exulted over a quick victory in Iraq, Osama was allowed to escape and even as the US tried to shore up its collapsing Iraq venture, the Taliban resurfaced. America and NATO have had to fight the Taliban all over again. The Bush administration had fastened on to General Musharraf because of Pakistan’s strategic location and the Army’s ability to deliver. President Musharraf, it must be said, had no real choice but to cooperate with America’s “war on terror” although he fought the “war”, if it can be so described, on his own terms. Basically, they were to deliver enough Al-Qaeda leaders and operatives to the US to keep them quiet while leaving the jehadis the freedom to operate in Kashmir to fight Indian security forces. India learned the hard way that America’s “war on terror” was a selective undertaking. The life of a military regime in Pakistan or most other parts of the world is not infinite, and as President Musharraf became more and more unpopular at home — Pakistanis, true to form, tiring of a military dispensation after initially welcoming it — the Bush administration put its thinking cap on. Thanks to Ms Benazir Bhutto’s own efforts and desire to re-enter her country’s political arena, Washington hit upon the idea of marrying Musharraf’s military regime with the veneer of a civilian leader, perhaps as prime minister. The script said that the other former prime minister, Mr Nawaz Sharif, should not be allowed to return to spoil the party. Mr Sharif came and was immediately deported, the Supreme Court’s orders notwithstanding. Ms Bhutto arrived to the welcome of thousands of enthusiastic supporters until terrorist bombs killed and maimed her supporters. And as a Supreme Court, revitalised by the successful fight of the Chief Justice, Mr Iftikhar Chowdhry, opened up the prospect of rejecting Mr Musharraf’s re-election in uniform, the President decided to pre-empt an adverse verdict. He imposed virtual martial law. This leaves the US out on a limb. As its muted reaction to the imposition of the emergency reveals, it has little option but to sit out the new domestic turmoil. Washington is seeking parliamentary elections in mid-January on schedule without any idea of how they will be held, if at all, in a fair manner. The Bush administration is still holding on to General Musharraf — until another general takes over. But the people are unlikely to be equally patient. India’s circumspect reaction to Pakistan events underlines its concern over the prospect of instability in a key neighbouring country. The new turmoil in Pakistan is particularly unwelcome, coming as it does in the wake of new uncertainties in the other neighbours — Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. It is unlikely that Ms Bhutto’s deal with General Musharraf can withstand the imposition of the emergency. She cannot be seen to be cooperating with a General who has, in effect, mounted a second coup and it is not even clear that he would be interested in pushing through the original deal, except on terms humiliating to the PPP leader. The patience of the Pakistani people has been sorely tested in recent times and they will not wait long to express their displeasure. Some of the Arab countries and the United States have been expressing concern over the Shia arc spreading its influence, given the accretion of Iran’s strength in Iraq, thanks to the American invasion of Iraq, the disadvantaged Shia majority in Bahrain, the Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Shias in the oil-rich eastern Saudi Arabia and the sprinkling of Shias in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Perhaps the US and its Arab friends should worry more about the arc of instability in the Muslim world, whether of the Sunni or Shia
variety.
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Pottering around PGI
I
stand
for ever in a queue. But at the end of it, I know, I will have access to the finest medical care in the country. I could jump the queue thanks to doctor friends. So why don’t I, I am often asked by an irrate spouse. Let me encapsulate it by saying that I like pottering around the PGI. It’s gratifying, as an individual, to see that in a sifarish-driven country such as ours, there is an establishment that honours queues. It’s inspiring, seeing doctors examining diverse patients ranging from migrant labourers from Uttaranchal to the UT Administrator himself, without letting the difference impact their prognosis or treatment. The PGI (Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research) is frequently in the news, usually for the wrong reasons. Inter and intra-departmental rivalries and a very strong union, facilitate leaks to the press. These unfortunately make news — eulogies from patient to doctor or innovative stem-cell treatments and pioneering surgeries don’t. But to see a first-rate physician, who is lauded internationally, laptop perched on a broken table, multi-tasking as he examines scores of OPD patients per day, or a surgeon operating, undaunted by a wasp sting, delivered straight in his eye in the Operation Theatre, is to see the Hippocratic oath being lived. There probably are doctors, nurses and staff who err, but their individual errors cannot undermine the institute’s accomplishments in nurturing the legions to good health. Team working is manifest in every aspect of the working of this humungous institute: a mini city within a city. Patients in their hundreds descend in the early morning to the new OPD to get their tests done. Doctors collect samples with assembly line precision and hand it over to the pathology department who have the reports ready by the evening. The logistics are scary, but the systems work, and the PGI laboratories deliver the most accurate results in the city. However, what truly personifies team working is the conduct of surgeries in the ailing operation theatres. Different departments interact seamlessly on the basis of archaic, hand written notes on ubiquitous plain vanilla PGI cards and files. It also helps that the hospital provides victuals at a nominal price to facilitate and fuel patients and attendants alike on their travails on its sprawling green campus: the best elaichi teas and coffees are available in the new OPD, bread pakoras in the advanced eye-care and pediatric centre buildings, cream biscuits, and muffins outside the Nehru block to be washed down with pista milk, custom-bottled for PGI . What also raises the bar in this institute are the good Samaritans: the security man who helps the tottering senior citizen, the staff cutting short their lunch to assist an illiterate patient fill out a form. It’s a place where the energy is positive, medicine is still a vocation and the human spirit triumphs over limitations in infrastructure. Is it any wonder then that one wants to sing hosannas to the PGI and its team. Partap Singh Kairon must surely be happy.
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Continued instability in West Asia The United States, the only external power with decisive presence and influence in the region, has suffered a major setback in Iraq. While the US remains much more powerful than any other external power in the region, there is a widespread perception that its position has been weakened. A number of political forces have rejected an US role as the overseer of peace in the Middle East. Since the 1990s, this “alliance of resistance” has consisted of Iran, Syria, Hizbollah and Hamas , supported by other popular Islamist opposition groups in various Arab countries. This “Shia” strategic alliance plays a significant part in the political situation in the Middle East today . Since the fall of Saddam Hussein’s Sunni regime in Shia-majority Iraq in 2003, there has been widespread concern in Arab countries, and particularly among Arab leaders, about the rise of what Jordan’s King Abdullah has called a “Shiite Crescent” of political power in West Asia. The alliance, however, is far from uniform in terms of political goals, ideology and strategies. Iran’s Shiite fundamentalist regime has little ideological concurrence with Syria’s secular Baath Party. Syria sees its alliance with Tehran as a bulwark against US pressure , but is wary of the effect of Iran’s influence on Syria’s domestic Islamist opposition groups . Hizbollah has received a great deal of help and backing from both Iran and Syria. But it has not by any means become a tool of these countries and has its own interests and agenda, principally focussed in Lebanon. Hizbollah has gained much credibility for its long armed resistance against Israel in southern Lebanon and, particularly, for fighting the Israeli army to a standstill in 2006. Iraq’s neighbours all seek to avoid a divided Iraq for their own reasons. Each of the major factions in Iraq also has an interest in preventing civil war .Arab states fear the break-up of Iraq which historically has not only balanced Iran in the Gulf, but has been one of the poles in Arab politics, often competing with Egypt for Arab leadership. Iraq is no longer a major regional power. This has inevitably increased the power of Iran, which, for the present, is balanced primarily by the presence of American forces in the Gulf region The popular fixation on American misdeeds in Iraq has resulted in significant benefits for Iran at the level of Arab public opinion. Arab governments, of course, especially in the Persian Gulf region with their substantial Shia minorities, remain concerned about rising Iranian influence and are worried about the intensifying Shia-Sunni divide. If America goes to war with Iran, many are not in a position to oppose it. Despite their frustration with the regional disruption caused by US failure in the Iraq War, Gulf Arab governments remain heavily dependent on the United States, especially in the face of rising Iranian power. Syria is not viewed by these states primarily in terms of its dominant Shia Alawite minority which controls the regime Syria’s principal objective has always been to obtain satisfaction in an eventual settlement with Israel, particularly the return of the Golan Heights and to normalizing relations with the US. Syria has no irrevocable commitment either to Iran’s objectives, or to opposing the US. Before 2005 , the Syrians saw their presence in Lebanon not only as a means of punching above their weight on the back of their historical connections, but also as strategic space for defending themselves in case of war with Israel or a regime change push by the US. It is doubtful if threats from the US alone could have made Syrian troops leave Lebanon in April 2005 after a 29-year stay. Syria might well have withstood American pressure, if Europe and key Arab states had not backed Washington after the assassination of Hariri. This led to US-European (especially US-French) cooperation at the United Nations Security Council, with a real threat of sanctions. Reduced leverage and internal vulnerability have brought Arab states friendly to the United States to work together. Central to this coalition is Saudi-Egyptian coordination, with support from Jordan Nowhere is the reduced Arab weight more evident than in Egypt . Egypt played a key role in the1990s because it could argue that its influence with the United States and Israel could help Arabs, especially Palestinians, by delivering on Arab-Israeli peace. Since the collapse of the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations in 2000, however, it has been clear that Arab leverage broadly, and Egyptian leverage in particular, has not been able to deliver. Egypt”s economic power has also suffered a sharp relative decline; its GDP today is less than that of the UAE. Turkey has benefited from the relative decline of Arab power. Its reputation in the Arab world has been enhanced by its opposition to the Iraq War. Turkey’s help and logistical facilities have been crucial for the US presence in the region. The US has been leaning heavily on Turkey to prevent a Turkish military incursion into the Kurdish region of Iraq. This now seems likely, and would be almost inevitable if Iraq breaks up and a separate Kurd state results. The Iraq war has also widened the gap between governments and publics in Iraq, Lebanon and the Palestinian territories. Central authority has been significantly weakened since the war and non-state militant actors have correspondingly been strengthened. It is ironic that the US argument of spreading democracy to justify the Iraq war led to results that were most troubling for the US in the three most successful cases of democratic elections – Iraq, Palestine and Lebanon. Al-Qaeda, defined broadly to cover Islamic fundamentalist terrorist groups and not only those associated with Osama bin Laden, has been far more active in the Middle East after the Iraq war, and its ability to draw recruits into Iraq has been demonstrated. But the organisation has failed to attract wide support for its Taliban-like agenda in the region, despite the Muslim public’s anger with the United States .Al-Qaeda’s relations with Hizbullah and Hamas have been troubled. The political environment seems likely to remain unstable for the foreseeable future. Iraq is too weak to be a major regional power any time soon. Much will depend on developments on the Arab-Israeli conflict, which remains the key lens through which Arabs view the world. All the elements of a comprehensive settlement relating to borders, Jerusalem, settlements and Palestinian refugees have been negotiated by the parties directly concerned in minute detail. But the divisions among the Palestinians, the US preoccupation with weakening the adversarial Iran-Syria-Hizbollah-Hamas alliance, and the conflicting interests of regional and external powers have not allowed the taking of the final step. The US seems to be making a determined last minute push to get the Palestinians and Israelis to an agreement at the forthcoming US sponsored peace conference in November 2007, with hitherto skeptical Arab countries like Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan on board. But the chances of a breakthrough at the conference appear low in a situation where Syria, Iran, Hamas and Hizbollah, whose interests would not be accommodated, will try to scuttle any agreement emerging from the conference. For a country like India, the complexity of the situation creates its own difficulties. India is committed to supporting the Palestinians morally. But Fatah in the West Bank, supported by the US, EU and the moderate Arabs is currently trying to strangle Hamas, which controls Gaza, supported by Iran and Syria. Also, India would naturally wish to maintain its defence supply relationship with Israel and its strategic partnership with the US. But the US is getting increasingly bellicose towards Iran which has its own strategic importance for India as the neighbour of India’s most difficult neighbour . The rise of both Sunni and Shia pan-Islamic sentiment in the region makes India uncomfortable. But should it try to cultivate special relations with Syria, the only secular regime in the region, when it is a supporter and patron, even if for good realpolitik reasons, of extremist Hizbollah and Hamas, both of which undeniably enjoy substantial popular support? India’s priority interest in the region is in Gulf oil and gas, trade and investment and peace and stability in the region which will ensure the well being of the four million odd Indians living there. Conflict in the region would hurt these interests. The days when India had to worry about Iran or one or more of the Gulf Sheikdoms providing strategic depth to Pakistan in a conflict may be over. But there are other conceivable contingencies in a fluid and developing situation which may require an Indian power projection capacity reaching the area. The writer is a former Indian Ambassador to France and Spain
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The Burmese people’s struggle goes on In
August, the Burmese people began to write a new chapter in their determination to find peace and freedom. Burmese monks peacefully protested to bring change to our long-suffering country. As we marched, hundreds of thousands of Burmese and our ethnic cousins joined us to reinforce our collective demand: that military rule finally give way to the people’s desire for democracy. Video and the Internet have allowed the world to witness the brutal response directed by General Than Shwe, Burma’s de facto ruler and military leader. Than Shwe unleashed his soldiers and the regime’s thugs, who attacked us. Hundreds of our monks and nuns have been beaten and arrested. Many have been murdered. Alarmingly, thousands of clergy have disappeared. Our sacred monasteries have been looted and destroyed. As darkness falls each night, intelligence units try to round up political and religious leaders. Than Shwe and his fellow military leaders have sought to portray this uprising as a singular event, now over. A veneer of quiet has replaced the sounds of gunfire on city streets. Unfortunately, many in the international community buy in and actively support this propaganda. At the United Nations, China and Russia continue to block the Security Council from facilitating a dialogue between democratic forces and the regime. Within our region, senior officials of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations have condemned the regime’s actions but have done little else. Perhaps most disappointing, the world’s largest democracy, India, continues to provide military assistance and trade deals that help finance the regime’s war on its people. The recent steps by U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and his special adviser, Ibrahim Gambari, to open a dialogue with Burma’s generals are welcome and necessary. The United Nations can help bring peace to Burma. However, the Security Council is the proper forum. Since August, I have seen my country galvanized as never before. I have watched our 88 Generation leaders bravely confront the military. I have watched a new generation of activists join to issue an unequivocal call for freedom. And I have watched as many in the police and military, sickened at what they were forced to do to their countrymen, give so many of us quiet help. The primary tools wielded by Burma’s senior generals, a climate of fear and the use of violence, are no longer working. On Wednesday, more than 200 monks staged a protest in Pakokku. They stared military officers in the face. Their spirit and determination are a warning to the regime and those that prop it up. Burma’s Saffron Revolution is just beginning. We have taken their best punch. Now it is the generals who must fear the consequences of their actions. We adhere to nonviolence, but our spine is made of steel. There is no turning back. It matters little if my life or the lives of colleagues should be sacrificed on this journey. Others will fill our sandals, and more will join and follow. The writer is a leader of the All-Burma Monks Alliance By arrangement with
LA Times-Washington Post
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Delhi Durbar Panchayati Raj Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar had an interesting story to tell about how Neemkhera village in Mewat came to have an all-women panchayat, the first in Haryana and possibly in the country. The village, most of whose residents belong to the minority community, was to have a woman elected as sarpanch as per rules but this was not to the liking of the men. Not wanting to serve under a woman, the men decided against fighting the panchayat polls which led to the all-women panchayat coming into being. But it was not easy for the sarpanch and his team to go about their task as men put up resistance in several ways. Frustrated by their attitude, the panchayat members even comtemplated resigning. The matter reached the ears of Congress president Sonia Gandhi who asked Aiyar to intervene. The Haryana government was approached and necessary support was provided to put things on the right track.
BJP’s problems An exodus of anti-Narendra Modi leaders from the BJP is on the cards in Gujarat where the assembly elections are due next month. In addition, the party appears to be in for a setback in Chattisgarh where Dilip Singh Judeo may bid adieu to the saffron brigade after having been sidelined for quite some time now. Similarly, the situation for the BJP in UP is beset with problems. The small number of brahmin leaders left in the party in UP might also change loyalties with the community now being wooed by the BSP, which at one time in the not too distant past had detested them.
Norwegian model With no consensus still on the demand for 33 per cent reservation for women in legislatures, political parties having reservations over the move can take a cue from Norway, where the majority of ministers in the federal government are women. The Nordic country, which is in the top league in the human development index and gender equity, offers high standards of services to its citizens. The people tolerate high taxes to pay for public services. According to the Norwegian Minister for Local Goverment and Regional Development Magnhild Melveit Kleppa, who was in the capital recently, local government expenditure is 20 per cent of the country’s GDP.
Missed chance It is quite astonishing that the company which has Vishwanathan Anand as its brand ambassador, made little use of the latter winning the world chess championship. Any company would have gone gaga over the development, but surprisingly, even several days after the champ returned home, many of the computer teaching institutes of the company in Delhi did not have any message or photograph to hail their “champion ambassador.” Contributed by Prashant Sood and
S. Satyanarayanan
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