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Sena raj Reactors from Russia Tiger truth |
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Our Land of the Rising Sun
Valentine slap
O Jerusalem! No justifying Guantánamo Defence notes
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Sena raj THE note of hatred struck by Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) head Raj Thackeray in Mumbai is spreading far and wide and has already engulfed Pune, Nashik, Aurangabad, Beed and several other parts of Maharashtra. MNS supporters have attacked workers from North India against whom Thackeray has started a hate campaign. Fearing for their lives, such workers are leaving the state in droves. This escape may soon turn into an exodus if the MNS thugs are not reined in. Unfortunately, the Maharashtra government has been pussyfooting all this while. It has received additional central paramilitary forces but has done precious little to either control the situation or to arrest Raj Thackeray or Uddhav Thackeray. Both have been competing with each other in stoking the fire of “Maharashtra for Maharashtrians” madness. In their unholy attempt to gain an upper hand, the two cousins have been venting their spleen at the workers from outside. If men of Raj are doing it all over Mumbai, Uddhav’s supporters raided the Mumbai airport to scare away “outside workers” engaged to modernise the place. Needless to say that all this is being done with an eye on the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections. According to the limited political acumen of the Thackeray cousins, the only way to gain the sympathy of Marathi middle-class voters is by presenting all outsiders as the villains of the piece. Bal Thackeray rose to the “eminence” that he enjoys today by targeting South Indians. He modified this policy somewhat later but the new men in command are out to commit a similar folly yet again. Mr L K Advani has supported the migrants by saying that the Constitution gives them the right to work wherever they want. That is the right position indeed, but Mr Advani and the BJP would be found wanting if they do not persuade their ally Shiv Sena to see reason. Similarly, the Congress has to exert pressure on the MNS, in partnership with whom it is in control of six major corporations in the state - Mumbai, Pune, Thane, Aurangabad, Amravati and Mira-Bhaindar. By not breaking ties with the MNS, the Congress is sending out a wrong message.
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Reactors from Russia THE smooth finalisation of the India-Russia agreement for cooperation in building nuclear power plants at Kudankulam in Tamil Nadu is one more proof of the close relationship between the two countries. It could have been signed during the two-day visit of Russian Prime Minister Victor Zubko to New Delhi that concluded on Wednesday had India-specific safeguards accord with the International Atomic Energy Agency been there with a nod from the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG). It is encouraging for India that Russia, like France and the UK, has been supporting India’s search for nuclear energy through the Indo-US deal that remains to be operationalised. In fact, it was Russia that proposed a civilian nuclear cooperation agreement with India during Dr Manmohan Singh’s visit to Moscow last November. But India expressed its inability to go ahead till it was allowed by the NSG to have nuclear trade with any country. Incidentally, Russia is the only country which has been helping India in building two 1000-MW nuclear reactors at Kudankulam. The strategically significant project is the result of an agreement signed between India and Russia in 1988. Moscow is ready to go in for the construction of four new nuclear reactors as soon as India is in a position to sign a deal with it. While this will enable India to meet its increasing energy needs, Russia will get huge benefits from it in terms of trade. It is a two-way traffic, but India cannot afford to lose the opportunity because it cannot depend on the traditional sources of power forever for speedy industrial growth. India has to build infrastructure for large-scale nuclear energy generation. Russia is keen on enhancing its trade with India, which is very little compared to that with China or the European Union. Efforts are on to bring India-Russia trade to the level of $10 billion by 2010 whereas trade volume between Russia and China last year stood at $35 billion. Russia hopes to increase its business deals with India. Enhanced cooperation between the two countries in the area of nuclear energy can help achieve that goal.
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Tiger truth JUST when tiger enthusiasts were concluding that the estimates from the much-awaited tiger census had followed the king of the jungle out of Sariska, the numbers are finally out in the sun. The bad news was known, but the truth, in official garb, is still shocking. Just 1411 tigers across the country’s forests, down from the 2002 estimate of 3,642. Even arguing for poor census methods in 2002, there is no doubt that a drastic drop has taken place in the population. Even the much-touted Project Tiger was slammed by the Comptroller and Auditor-General for just about sustaining the population in its designated reserves. Poaching and loss of habitat are the main reasons — as is the inescapable fact of ill-equipped, ill-trained and generally unfit forest bureaucracy and field personnel. A few weeks earlier the government cleared funds for tiger conservation and designated eight new reserves for inclusion under Project Tiger for the 11th plan. Much of the funds are to be used to relocate displaced people from core areas — the human-tiger conflict, and indeed the conflict over how best to resolve this incompatibility, will continue to be the focus of considerable attention. But saving the tiger can only happen in concerted partnership, where every stake-holder is on board. This includes not only a revamped forest service, but local communities, tribal peoples (now on the way to getting land rights) ardent tiger conservators, researchers and academics, and the much reviled tourist and lay tiger-chaser. The common public must feel for the cause. So must the village on the edge of the buffer zone, where grieving parents bemoan the loss of a young child to a marauding leopard. So must the tribal. And poachers must be eliminated with an iron hand. Then, perhaps, there will continue to be that padded footfall on a dappled forest floor, with a passing bird shrieking at the mesmerising, unforgettable, stare of the greatest and most beautiful predator on earth.
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A child is not a vase to be filled, but a fire to be lit. — Francois Rabelais
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Our Land of the Rising Sun
A
prime ministerial visit to Arunachal after a gap of nine years need not occasion the surprise and speculation it has in some quarters. This was not a panic follow up to Dr Manmohan Singh’s recent China visit and continuing Chinese claims on Arunachal, and to Tawang in particular. Arunachal is very much part of India and if the Chinese are now disputing anything it is essentially some pockets along the unsettled boundary, though larger claims have not been formally abandoned and are reiterated from time to time. Dr Manmohan Singh had indeed planned a trip to Arunachal earlier but was unable to go because of other exigencies. His predecessor, Mr Vajpayee, has a knee problem and would have had to strain himself unduly to undertake so arduous a mountain journey. However, the omission of Tawang on the itinerary was probably fortuitous as it was his intention to visit Itanagar and travel further east to lay the foundation stones of the 100 MW Papumpare and 3000 MW Dibang hydro projects. There was no particular reason to visit Tawang in the fatuous belief that this would score a point against China. The development of Arunachal is the best antidote to Chinese claims. The programmes unfolded in this regard include a 1840 km long east-west highway which will open up new areas, enhance connectivity and foster closer integration among Arunachal’s many ethnic communities. The northern borders of the state are to be “energised” by means of solar and other non-conventional stand-alone sources that will avoid expensive transmission leads. The construction of Itanagar airport and railhead are to be expedited and the state brought within the compass of an extended Buddhist tourism circuit. A number of advanced landing grounds are proposed to be revived and, hopefully, soon activated as before. Few realise that Arunachal was far better connected by air in the 1950s and 1960s than it is today. The ubiquitous Dakota was phased out and private carriers that undertook civil air supply missions and ran an air taxi service to remote parts of NEFA withdrew, leaving the field to Indian Airlines and its subsidiaries, which could not cope. The proposed public sector NE regional air service is not the answer. There is no reason why private air carriers should not be licensed to run a regional air service with a Guwahati hub and extra-regional links. Further, they should be permitted to operate smaller aircraft of their choice and to negotiate with the IAF to take over some or all of its civil and even military air supply role in the region so that it is guaranteed a revenue base. Any perceived security or air safety threats would be mistaken. If Nepal and Bhutan can operate small aircraft with success and profit there is no reason why this should fail in the Northeast. A similar private regional air service in Jammu and Kashmir would also be very appropriate and do a world of good for connectivity, better administration and integration. The Prime Minister’s visit to Kibithu on the upper Luhit near the Chinese border must have cheered the Army jawans in that remote frontier outpost. It should be a step towards opening up border trade with the Tibetan region in this and other sectors. It is good that the government has initiated discussions with the Chinese for expanding the trade protocol via Nathu La in Sikkim, going beyond simple border trade. There are real possibilities of valuable two-way exchanges and fears of being swamped by cheap Chinese goods are exaggerated as they have been in the past. In any event, a little competition could stimulate quality and productivity in nascent Indian enterprise. Alarms about reported Chinese protests regarding alleged Indian troop movements in Sikkim are unwarranted. All that has happened is that a division that had been moved from Sikkim to the Pakistan border at the time of Operation Parakaram has been relocated from where it was initially moved. Nor is there any real cause for worry about reports of stray Chinese incursions across the Line of Actual Control in Arunachal. Such crossings are inadvertent in difficult, mountainous terrain and there is no question of Indian territory being nibbled away. The pity is that the Chinese will not exchange maps even on settled sectors of the boundary until the entire boundary is agreed upon. This has caused inadvertent crossings but to put any more sinister interpretation on such events would be unwise. The Dibang project should make Arunachal ponder what it means to do with the power generated. Export it outside the region through the grid after marginal uses within the state? That would fetch some revenue of course but forego the larger income and employment that could be generated by local value addition. If this is to accomplish alongside some flood and erosion moderation, industrialisation and capacity, Arunachal could not do better than negotiate with Assam to convert the disputed 740 km border strip between them, all precious flat lands, into a “trusteeship zone” in partnership with the Centre to be developed as an SEZ, utilising the infrastructure that needs to be developed to construct the project as a
lever.
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Valentine slap THE moment my boss asked me to do a piece on V Day, the first thing that stirred my mind was a “slap” which sent shivers down the spine some years ago. “Would you mind to be my Valentine,” I had asked my girlfriend to be, without realising that the reaction could be a violent rebuff and five fingers leaving their imprint on my face was the instant answer. How stupid it was on my part to have made a heart-throbbing proposal to a lady having fantasies of her own about the Valentine day, in such an unromantic fashion and cursed my impatience and over-confidence. Say it with rose, a voice came from within and I bought a beautiful red rose, a symbol of colour, passion and love and presented her. She was cool and her eyes seemed to smile in anticipation. Making a slow advance, I proposed to her with a chocolate followed by gifting a teddy bear. I was having a feeling of hero in me trying to show up and I scripted some romantic dialogues to make promises and it worked. As Valentine day drew near, I cleared more decks and hugged her. I went to a gift shop for getting some suitable greeting card on Valentine day and a big card with picture of eyes with one word “focussed”, caught my attention. When I opened the card everything was crystal clear as it said “On you”. I bought the card and a strange feeling gripped me. I was not able to remember how many girls had been able to get my focused attention but today I was focussing on my Valentine. Everything went as anticipated and Valentine day passed with lot of fun and promises to keep. But kiss gave me a miss. Later, surfing the net I found a strange sequence of eight days to Valentine day, each conveying its own message. I was dumbfounded when I knew that my girlfriend knew all this 10 years ago. I am looking for a better Valentine day and hopping that there would be no “miss” this time. I am told the Valentine day is falling under Venus-Moon conjunction, considered very auspicious for strengthening the love bonds, harmonising the emotional level and adding to romance in lives of couples. I find a strange coincidence in Valentine, a concept borrowed from the West and the colourful festival of Basant, which fall during the spring season. Why not look for a yellow rose covered by a beautiful Valentine day card to wish my sweetheart in style and convey that love is without bounds, I suggested to myself. “Spring will come and go but love will blossom only in loving hearts”, I received SMS from some unknown friend which explained to me the real meaning of Valentine. Suddenly my mobile rang and my girlfriend was on the line. She asked me whether I would be with her on Valentine day. I was not sure about my programme and she got upset and said some harsh words. I also lost my cool and replied the same way. Realising that the arguments were going the wrong way she put a stop to verbal dual and said “baby have some Thanda and come out of Bathinda”. I also realised that the provocation was uncalled for and told my sweetheart: “If my piece goes well in time, I will be there on
Valentine”.
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O Jerusalem!
THE Congress government in Andhra Pradesh knows how to make promises it cannot deliver. The latest in the series is its offer to subsidise the pilgrimage of Christians to the “holy land” on the pattern of the subsidy extended to Muslims who go for Haj in Saudi Arabia. It is likely to be challenged in a court of law. Obviously, it has been done to appease Christians. It is a different matter that they are unlikely to be enthused by the gesture. This is because for Christians, a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and places associated with Christ is not a religious obligation. Yet, it is true that people who can afford to go there do so at their own cost. They also go to the Vatican, the Mahim church in Mumbai, the Sardhana church near Meerut, the Velankanni church in Tamil Nadu, to name just a few. Incidentally, the first travelogue in Malayalam, Oorslem Yathra Vivaranam (A Journey to Jerusalem), was written by Parumala Thirumeni of the Orthodox Syrian Church. Penned in the 19th century, it is a gripping account of the difficulties the bishop had in getting a visa, the food items he had to carry for the sea voyage from Bombay and the language problem he faced. Such visits do not, however, make anyone a better Christian. At best, it will help him understand better the geographical descriptions given in the Bible. Unlike in the days of the bishop of Parumala, a visit to the holy land is no big deal these days. A few years ago, the mass circulation daily Malayala Manorama organised a series of trips to Jerusalem for its readers. Taking a cue from the daily, travel agents in Kerala and other places periodically organise eight-day trips that cost around Rs 50,000 per person. This includes air tickets, hotel accommodation, transfers, one night stay in Dubai on the way, and meals. By any reckoning, the tour is cheap for those who can afford to pay Rs 50,000. Tour operators make group bookings for travel and accommodation that allow them to reduce costs for the traveller. In contrast, this writer had paid over Rs 36,000 for a New Delhi-Thiruvananthapuram-New Delhi economy class ticket nearly 15 years ago. If anything, this shows how air travel has become cheaper, especially for people who travel for pleasure. Remember, there is no subsidy involved in this. Pilgrimage for Muslims is not in the same league as pilgrimage for Christians, Hindus and Sikhs. Haj is one of the basic practices of Islam. It is obligatory for all Muslims, at least once in a lifetime. It symbolises a reaffirmation of faith and dedication of one’s life to God. The person proceeding on the pilgrimage should have enough funds for it and enough for the family he leaves behind. In other words, there is no compulsion for a poor Muslim to do Haj. There are many misconceptions about the government subsidy for Haj pilgrims. It is a powerful argument that a secular government should not subsidise such pilgrimages. A committee had studied the issue and submitted its report to the government which is yet to publish it. Mr Mohammed Hamid Ansari, who is now the Vice-President of India, headed the committee. Few people know the intricacies of Haj better than Mr Ansari, who twice served as India’s Ambassador to Saudi Arabia. In that capacity he oversaw arrangements for numerous Haj pilgrimages. He says: “There are some tasks a government must carry out for its citizens. These include providing facilities for pilgrimages. Thus, whether it is at Badrinath or Vaishno Devi or Tirupati, or any other place where these facilities are required, the state is duty-bound to make the required facilities available. “This is so even when the pilgrimage requires visiting a foreign country. That requires all kinds of assistance from the government. It is in this perspective that one must understand the problem of Haj subsidy. “Earlier, Haj used to be undertaken by sea. A private company, Moghul Lines, ran the service. Then, Moghul Lines was nationalised, but went into losses and, as is the case with many other state enterprises, the government decided to subsidise the losses of its own company. “Thus, the initial Haj subsidy amounted to the transfer of its own funds from one pocket of the government to another. But when sea services for Haj ended and it was decided that air service would be brought in, it was obvious that the cost of passage would be much higher. “It was, therefore, argued that since it was the government itself which was denying sea passage to Haj pilgrims and forcing air services on them, the government must compensate the pilgrims for the additional expense they had to bear not of their own choice, but because it was a decision thrust upon them”. (Confessions of a Secular Fundamentalist, Penguin, Page 262) Mr Ansari argues that there can be no objection to the government subsidising a government company for commercial reasons but Haji, being an individual pilgrim, should not be subsidised in this manner, particularly because it discriminates against those pilgrims who go on their own as private Hajis and not on the government quota. Even at subsidised rates, it costs Rs 75,000 per person to perform Haj and if the pilgrim goes with his family, an expenditure of several lakhs of rupees is involved. So, it cannot be said that the subsidy is being given to poor Muslims. Relatively speaking, the beneficiaries tend to be the better-off Muslims. The Supreme Court is also seized of the issue of subsidy for Haj. In 2005, a total of 83,000 pilgrims from India visited Mecca. The government spent a sum of Rs 180 crore on their visit. The Haj pilgrims are flown to Saudi Arabia and back by the national carrier Air India. For an airline, getting such a large number of assured passengers year after year is a boon. On its inaugural New Delhi-New York non-stop flight early this month, more than half the seats remained empty. Air India earns a huge profit on ferrying the Haj pilgrims. In other words, the subsidy benefits the airline, more than the Muslims. Or, to use Mr Ansari’s words, money goes from one pocket of the government to another. If the Haj pilgrims were given the option of bargaining with the airlines directly, they would be able to get cheaper tickets. However, it is difficult to keep the government away from the Haj. The Saudi government decides the number of pilgrims from India who can perform Haj. It allows only 1,000 pilgrims per Muslim population of 1 million. The government cannot shy away from its duty of looking after the needs of such a large number of pilgrims. And when they reach Saudi Arabia, it is the job of the Indian mission in Riyadh to ensure that they do not have any difficulty in performing Haj. In all this, the government has been performing only its legitimate duty. This is not the case with Christians in Andhra Pradesh. They are one of the poorest in the state. They need better education and job opportunities, rather than subsidy to go to the holy land. For Christians, their holy land is India, where they are ultimately buried. Small wonder that an overwhelming majority of them may not even know what happens in Jerusalem, why it is disputed and why it is sacred for Jews and Muslims, too. It seems the Andhra Pradesh government, too, does not know these facts. It only wants Christian votes whenever elections are held. The previous Congress government in Himachal Pradesh thought it could garner Hindu votes when it enacted the anti-conversion Bill. We know what happened to the Virbhadra Singh government. The subsidy will benefit only those who campaign against the appeasement of minorities.
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No justifying Guantánamo IF George W. Bush has his way, this will be al-Qa’ida’s Nuremberg. A presidency that began with the deadliest terrorist attacks in history on American soil will end with the trial, conviction and sentencing to death of those who planned them. President Bush’s own nation, and right-thinking people around the world, will be delighted that the “Guantánamo Bay system” has been vindicated, justice has prevailed and that individuals guilty of a crime against humanity will be getting exactly what they deserved. Alas for Mr Bush, a man who likes things simple and straightforward, the trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and five others accused of a role in 9/11, will be anything but simple and straightforward. Yes, Americans (and most of the rest of us) have little doubt about their guilt; but, in this particular case, actual guilt or innocence is the least of the issues. This is now a trial about process – a process that stands tainted, probably beyond repair. In comparison, the judicial handling of the leaders of the Nazi regime was a model of clarity, fairness and openness. To start with biggest problem of all: torture. By the admission of the CIA, Mohammed was subjected to waterboarding – a technique considered torture by virtually everyone on the planet with the exceptions of Messrs Bush and Cheney. How on earth can evidence obtained in that fashion be admissible in a court of law, even a military court? We are now told that evidence will be based on “clean information” extracted by FBI and military interrogators during gentlemanly sessions at Guantánamo after Mohammed and four of the other defendants were transferred to the prison on Cuba in late summer 2006. But such evidence cannot be divorced from that obtained under duress during the years beforehand, when the five were held in CIA-run “ghost camps” whose very existence was only confirmed by Mr Bush 18 months ago. It was in these paramilitary black holes that Mohammed was waterboarded and the other four doubtless subjected to various other “enhanced interrogation techniques”. This is no vindication of the Guantánamo system. It is a monument to the way in which the Bush administration has acted outside all recognised international law. Next, the military tribunal itself which will conduct the trial. Again, we are told that the proceedings, to the greatest extent possible, will be public. But these are not civilian courts. They are controlled by the Pentagon and the White House, the same executive branch that has authorised torture and sundry other human rights violations against the detainees – and that has usually managed to suppress public airing of inconvenient facts by arguing that disclosure would damage national security. As Groucho Marx observed, military justice is to justice what military music is to music. In this case, if anything, the relationship is even more remote. Not one of the 275 people still held at Guantánamo Bay has yet been tried under the system of tribunals approved by Congress in 2006. These tribunals are virgin legal territory. Their rules are untested and may be challenged at every turn. What will be the rules of evidence admissibility? Will some evidence be kept from defence lawyers on national security grounds? Thus any trial probably may well not even have started by the time Mr Bush leaves the White House in January. Certainly, one will not have ended. Zacarias Moussaoui, the so-called 20th hijacker, offers the closest parallel. His trial, between 2002 and 2006, raised many of the same issues: the admissibility of evidence, defence access to “secret” prosecution material and its right to call imprisoned terrorist suspects as witnesses. Admittedly, it was held in a civilian court under a judge far more tolerant of Moussaoui’s antics than her military counterpart would have been. But the trial involved just one person and charges far less serious than those facing the “9/11 Six”. Even so, it lasted more than four years. “Closure”, in the jargon of American legal pyschology, is the last act of a capital case, as a victim’s relatives watch the killer die on a gurney in an execution chamber. But, for relatives of the 3,000 people who died in September 2001, it is years away, if it comes at all. By then, Guantánamo Bay itself, almost certainly, will have been closed by Mr Bush’s successor, but Osama bin Laden may still be at large. Simple and straightforward? Forget it.
By arrangement with The Independent
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Defence notes BREAKING away from the traditional approach, the Indian Army together with the Indian Air Force is set to project a ‘manoeuvre warfare doctrine’ of the Indian Armed Forces. A ‘fire and manoeuvre’ combat exercise, codenamed Brazen Chariots, is to be conducted at the Pokharan field firing range in western Rajasthan, in March. In the joint exercise, the army and the air force will put to test an array of their latest weapon system acquisitions including the state-of-the-art missile firing tanks T-90s, all-weather Air Defence Gun Missile systems, Searcher Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) and other electronic sensors and surveillance equipment. The IAF would closely support the surface forces with induction of airborne troops, provide logistical support, while its frontline fighter aircraft including the Su-30 MKI, Jaguar, MiG-27, MiG-21 Bison and armed helicopters, would unleash their firepower. The synergy with the IAF would highlight the shape of future operations, which would be “joint” and seamless. Well done, folks
India has built up a reputation for doing a good job when it comes to organising mega events like the Asian Games. This time, the directorate of public relations of the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has been lauded for the ‘magnificent manner’ in which it publicised and handled the media at the fourth Military World Games (MWG) held at Hyderabad and Mumbai in October last. The Brussels-based Conseil International de Sports Militaire (CISM), the apex body for the conduct of military sports across the world, has written a letter in this regard to Information and Broadcasting Minister Priyaranjan Dasmunsi. The publicity and promotion of the Military Games was an extremely difficult and challenging assignment,’ said CISM Secretary General Col. Michel van Meurs in the letter. The chairman of the media and publicity committee, Sitanshu Kar, who also heads the defence ministry’s PR directorate, and his team, ‘rose to the occasion and carried out a wonderfully orchestrated multimedia campaign for about a year’, Meurs said. Army oral health programme In another initiative for the families of its soldiers Mrs Kirti Kapoor, President, Army Wives Welfare Association (AWWA) recently launched a joint AWWA-Army Dental Corps programme on the occasion of the 67th Anniversary of the corps. The ‘Mother and Child Oral Health Care Programme’ is the first of its kind and entails educating the wives of the combatants about various preventive and curative measures for the better oral health of the family members. Lt. Gen. Paramjit Singh, Director General of Dental Services during the inauguration of the program, said that this endeavour will be implemented through a series of lectures during family welfare meets, free distribution of oral health pamphlets, free check-ups of mothers and children and training programmes for oral health educators.
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