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The endgame Shaming the errant |
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Glacial damage
Challenges in the skies
Gutsy girlie
Call against terror Germany to restore the Iron Cross? Inside Pakistan
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The endgame It looks like the UPA-Left cookie is beginning to crumble over the Indo-US nuclear agreement. The Congress, more than any other constituent of the ruling UPA, appears determined to go ahead with the deal. That is as it should be, given the advance made towards resolving differences between New Delhi and Washington. The Left, for its part, is equally determined that the deal should be scuttled. Opposition from other quarters — such as the BJP, the UNPA or even constituents of the UPA — does not really count any more. The BJP has been exposed, more recently by Mr Strobe Talbott, as a party that would have settled for less than half of what is offered now. The UNPA falls between two stools; and, the Congress party’s allies have little choice but to go along with the Prime Minister’s commitment to meet the deadlines for the agreement. It is now clear that the Left and the UPA may at worst be headed for a parting of ways on the issue. After faltering for some six months — and buying time through the UPA-Left joint committee on the nuclear deal — the Congress is now set on an irreversible course to clinch the agreement. The Left is no longer in a position to restrain the Congress with the “deal or government” threat. Having decided to go ahead now, the Congress, like the Left, is all too aware that the deal can only shorten somewhat the UPA’s term; and, elections, due in 2009, would get advanced by a few months. This will hurt the Left more than it damages the Congress party. Apparently, the Congress party has already reckoned with a scenario where the moment it meets the deadline to put through the deal, the Left will withdraw support. By then, the budget would have been passed and the effect of provisions like the farm loan waiver will be felt. Even after the Left pulls the plug, the UPA will have six months to prepare for the general election. It is the Left that will find itself at a disadvantage. In the event, the Congress will get the deal and get to keep the government, too, for more than four-fifths of its term. So it may be time for the party and the Prime Minister to call the Left’s bluff.
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Shaming the errant Rajya
Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari may be a relative newcomer to the rough and tumble of proceedings — rather, the lack of it — in Parliament. Yet, he has started a practice that can be adopted by the Lok Sabha to rein in unruly members who keep disrupting the business of the House. In an unprecedented move, the names of Rajya Sabha members who rushed to the well of the House on Tuesday, were mentioned in the daily bulletin. Stung by the so-called Shame List, the members protested even more loudly, requiring the House to be adjourned repeatedly. However, the Chairman stayed his ground. As a result the offending members were forced to express regret to have their names deleted from the list and expunged from the record. The fact that Mr Ansari refused to be moved by the protests of members, including that of Parliamentary Affairs Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi, shows that a presiding officer will have to come up with innovative deterrents to ensure that MPs desist from disrupting proceedings. In this instance, the names on the list were of members belonging to the Samajwadi Party and the TDP. When the allegation of these members that they were being selectively targeted had no effect on the Chairman, they had to back down; and, Mr Amar Singh expressed regret for the behaviour of his party members. The salutary effect of mentioning the names of errant MPs in the daily bulletin is something that the Lok Sabha also needs. Mr Chatterjee has a difficult time in the Lok Sabha almost every day. Times without number, he has chas5tised MPs for creating disturbances in the House. He has gone so far as to say that MPs are endangering democracy and Parliament, and that there is a serious risk of the parliamentary system becoming dysfunctional if they continued in this manner. But, to little effect. Perhaps, he should introduce a similar list for the Lok Sabha and see if this has a sobering effect on the members. Publication of the list of errant MPs in the Lok Sabha will help the voter to know what their representatives have been doing in Delhi. This will be particularly useful before they choose new MPs in the next election.
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Glacial damage The
accelerated melting of glaciers in the Himalayan region is clearly one of the most ominous long-term environmental threats looming over the region. But the running theme of the statement made in Parliament by minister of state for environment Namo Narain Meena appears to be the variability in the figures, the lack of enough studies, and the low feasibility of interventionist projects. While all this is true enough, it sounds suspiciously like government-speak, and should not serve as an excuse to just throw up our hands. In fact, the priority should be to closely monitor the rate of retreat, and commission scientific studies to study the phenomenon and its environmental impact. Existing studies have estimated that almost half of the thousands of glaciers in the Himalayan region are retreating at the rate of 10 to 20 metres a year. The massive Gangotri glacier, in fact, has been shown to be retreating at a much faster rate. With such melt rates, the immediate impact is an increase of water in glacial lakes. When they can no longer hold the load, they are discharged in flash floods. Such melt rates are also associated with increased sediment in the waters, and amongst its various effects is to impact power generation stations. India has already experienced all three problems. In the long term, water security will be affected, and droughts will become a regular feature. The Himalayan glaciers hold the world’s largest supply of fresh water, outside the polar icecaps. They also feed the densest population regions. Increased human activity in the region and global warming have been identified as key culprits. Collective action is mandated on the latter front. For the world, and the region, to be pushed into taking serious measures, rather than merely debating the problem, rigorous data will be required. The ministry should set up a dedicated monitoring and environmental impact agency on glaciers.
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The cosmos is neither moral nor immoral; only people are. He who would move the world must first move himself.— Edward Ericson
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Challenges in the skies
The
global strategic environment has been continuously changing with countries seeking new alignments in line with their envisioned national interests. As India’s economic clout grows with huge market, major powers like the US, Russia and Europe have begun to gravitate towards it. The world is in fact converging on to India and seeking strategic alliances as never before. If this trend continues, India will soon find itself jostling amongst the world powers that really count. The chances are that this may also impinge in some way on India’s strategic autonomy, unless it is able to stand firm in this milieu. That’s where the armed forces, the other pillar of national prowess, particularly the air force and the navy, the two strategic arms and important tools of country’s security strategy come in. The growing strategic aspirations and obligations in the future will therefore necessitate simultaneous growth of air force’ strategic potential so as to stay in tune with country’s growing strategic dimensions. Besides, there are hostile states, both in immediate and distant neighbourhood that do not come face to face directly but sponsor security related problems all the time. Also, the nature of threat has changed with the time from long-drawn conventional wars to limited wars (because of the nuclear threat) to sub-conventional wars where the enemy is invisible and strikes at a place and time of his choosing without any notice. In a recent case of an attack on Orissa police by the Maoists inflicting heavy casualties, the employment of air power in locating and pursuing them in thick jungles has turned the tables on them. Air power characteristics of long reach and flexibility can only deter such variety of adversaries There are other challenges too. As India grows in strength and stature in the comity of nations, geo-political compulsions as well as international obligations will require it to respond to the regional developments. Recent event of tsunami and earlier developments in Maldives and Sri Lanka demanding India to respond are just a few examples of what may lie in store in times to come. Ironically, India is surrounded by countries that are either politically unstable or lack democratic dispensation. Insurgency and succession are widespread in the region, posing multiple challenges and requiring expeditious responses. India being the largest country in the region with adequate resources cannot escape its responsibility towards its lesser neighbours. As a growing power, India’s sphere of influence will gradually extend well beyond its borders to as far as the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Malacca. Need for application of air power far beyond its usual area of operations would require a versatile air force with a comprehensive strategic potential. Primacy of air power can no longer be overlooked these days. It’s the air force that now shapes the battlefield for the navy and the army to execute their plans. Fortunately, the air force entered the 21st century after a significant operational engagement in Kargil which offered it an opportunity for self-appraisal and consequent remedial measures. Also, some major developments around the world towards the end of the 20th century helped the process of self-appraisal further. Extensive use of air power by the western countries in Iraq, Kosovo and Afghanistan where new weapons, concepts and doctrines were tried out spurred many air forces, as also the IAF, to review their doctrines and potential in light of their own threats. As the 21st century rolls on, the air force will have to contend with ever-changing strategic environment The IAF is on the way but not yet on target so far as its capabilities to respond to these strategic challenges are concerned. It is still way short of the composite technological competence. In other words, the IAF has yet to add more force multipliers, improve C4I structure and modernise its air defence and offensive capabilities further. Long-haul air lift capabilities, in-flight refueling, air borne warning and control system (AWACS) and multi-role combat aircrafts capable of long-range interdiction and strikes are some of the integrals required by the air force. Since developing aircraft indigenously or acquiring new ones from abroad is a rather expensive and time consuming process, technology upgrade of the aircraft already in use to make them more lethal and survivable in modern day dense air defence environment is the only way. “Air Dominance” is the buzz word in air warfare these days. Network centric environment, an essential feature in warfare, has to be created without further delay, so as to have a multi-function information distribution system for real time situational awareness. Command and control centre as well as the pilot in the air need to have instant information on the dynamic combat situation. This can be had from an array of sensors like airborne warning and control system, satellites, UAVs, and aerostats through high speed digital data link in the form of speech, data or imagery. Network centric warfare may be new for us but it has been in use in the west for long. We can catch up with the west easily, since it’s not difficult for us to create network centric infrastructure in the light of our recent IT revolution but the real challenge lies in its assimilation. Space is also fast emerging an important medium for military operations. It is no more a peaceful sanctuary as hitherto. Weaponisation of outer space has become a matter of concern. In fact, space warfare has already become a distinct possibility. Despite periodic protestations against weaponisation of outer space in world bodies, countries like the US and China have continued with their research and development (R&D) works in this area. A few months ago, China demonstrated its capability to destroy a low-orbit satellite in space. The Americans too have done the same a few days ago by shooting down their supposedly wayward spy satellite before it hit the earth. There are strong suspicions that the Americans have in fact tested their anti-satellite missile system under this pretext. China and Russia have both expressed their concerns in this regard. Space can help obtain real time situational awareness by linking ground-based radars and communication network over the entire country. It can also be used for ballistic missile defence, surveillance, real time intelligence in regard to enemy’s missile launch, aircraft and space-borne assets, jamming and destruction. Realising the utility of space in the near future, the IAF has been pressurising the government for the formation of an Aerospace Command. After years of perseverance, the government has at last yielded to air force pressure by agreeing to it in principle. The air force has been asked to define the concept and the command and control model. Really speaking, the third largest air force in the world has yet to build its strategic capabilities adequately. Its airlift capabilities for induction of troops and equipment over long distances and in-flight refueling for long range interdiction and strikes for prompt response to developments in near and distant neighbourhood have to be strengthened further. IL-76 mounted Phalcon AWACS is another force multiplier that is still in the offing. Presently, these capabilities are rather modest but are expected to be built substantially during the next two five year’s plans, that is by 2017. Whilst economic clout is important, power projection capabilities are no less important in today’s strategic culture. Together these two make a nation power capable. If the western powers are converging on to India, it’s only because it has come of age in many
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Gutsy girlie My orthodox, hard-boiled Haryanvi grandmother would have committed suicide on hearing the news about Bhuri Kalbi’s daughter, surviving a premature birth, slipping through the toilet bowl of a running train near Ahmedabad, in Gujarat. Also, she would have been not at all pleased with tidings from Bangalore about three-year-old Laxmi, surviving a surgery involving separating two of her extra limbs, around Divali last year. “It’s only the chhoras (boys) whom death and disease like to visit and not chhoris (girls)”, was her eternal lament. My grandmother would also have caught by the neck Dr Alexander Jacob, the Director of Kerala Police Academy I visited recently, for how dare he take pride in boasting, “Out of the sixteen-hundred women recruits, we have 400 postgraduates, including 47 doctorate holders and the rest 1200 are graduates.” The in-flight experience on my way back had a weakling in me exposed inside out on my “gender sensitivity” — sensitisation can be taught. Minutes before the takeoff, the air hostess manoeuvred hard to close the door when it swung swiftly off the latches. The engineer, a young Sikh, was sent for, who fixed the door. Only thing required was to use some extra muscle and a hard push. Leaving instructions with the airhostess, he went out to see if she could close the door herself from inside. She could not; but was undeterred in her resolve to do the job trying umpteen times. Foolishly we kept fastened to our seats. Lending a helping hand to the damsel might also not have been appropriate for she had to learn to be enough plucky. When she finally closed the door, all passengers on board clapped. After about an hour of being airborne, the plane hit turbulence. The passenger occupying the window seat in our row indulged in a kind of self-reassurance saying, “Shouldn’t he have stabilised the plane by now?” “It is not a he, but she! Didn’t you hear the Captain’s announcement in a sweet voice?” I quietly whispered into his ears. All through the flight this man kept praying with his seat kept in upright position and making restless body movements. Having touched down at New Delhi and the plane being in taxi mode, I had a mischievous but mild dig at my friend, “Was it not a very smooth landing!” “That’s alright but could she have shown enough mettle and grit in case, God forbid, the plane was hijacked?” “Have you washed off your memory the sacrifice of Neerja Bhanot, a flight purser on a Pan-American flight, who laid down her life in 1986, rescuing three children and was posthumously awarded the prestigious Ashok Chakra?” I reminded him. Shame was writ large on his face when he looked at me,
grinning.
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Call against terror SOON after the failure of uprising in 1857, it was clear that freedom would be a long haul. The British took India’s reins into their own hands from the East India Company. A group of radical Muslims did not reconcile to the development of living under a foreign rule. They founded at Deoband, near Saharanpur, a small Arabic school, Arabic maktab, to keep the spirit of defiance against the British alive. A few years later, the school was converted into an institution of high learning, Dar-ul Uloom which is now housed in a stately building. The ethos of higher learning did not in any way make them deviate from their original path: ousting the Raj, while imparting Muslims the finest religious education. Embedded to the Indian soil, the Deobandis, as they came to be known, were opposed to the two-nation theory and joined hands with the Congress to oppose Partition. They were for a united India. However, the majority of Muslims rejected them and supported, instead, the demand for the formation of Pakistan based on religion. Maulana Fazlur Rehman, head of the defeated Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) in Pakistan, is a top leader of the Deobandis, even in India. He has won the seat of Bannu in the National Assembly and this assures him his role. Once I asked him whether his hold over the Deobandis in India was intact. He smiled in assent. Yet his record in the NWFP has been far from good. The government he planted in the state banned music and ransacked DVD shops. He was suspected to be a supporter of the Taliban. Naturally, his reaction to the Deobandis’ call that terrorism was un-Islamic is being awaited. I believe that the Fatwa they gave against terrorism was after consultations with him. Why should he be hesitant to stand by the side of the Deobandi? His association would make all the difference and strengthen them, his alma mater, the Dar-ul Uloom, in their endeavour to spread the view that the Islamic world should “reject all forms of terrorism.” At a gathering of some 5000 clerics from different Islamic schools of thought which met a few days ago at Deoband, the declaration (or fatwa) given out was: “Terrorism is completely wrong and an un-thoughtful act by whoever commits it, irrespective of his association to whatever religious community and class. Terrorism negates completely the teachings of Islam as it is a faith of love and peace and any terrorist activity which targets innocent people directly contradicts Islam’s concept of peace.” There was no dissenting voice. The gathering included clerics from the more moderate Barelvi sect, the Islamic school of Nadwatul and the Sufi order of chistis of Ajmer Sharif. Bashir-ud-din, the grand mufti of Kashmir, supported the declaration. This must have created a piquant situation for the Jaish-e-Mohammad which is operating in Kashmir and which avows its loyalty to the Deobandis. The Jaish-e-Mohammad is not bothered over the call to give up terrorism because this is what keeps the flock together. What action does the Dar-ul Uloom take against those terrorists who do not obey the call will be watched with great interest. The fatwa by the clerics at Deoband has thrown down the gauntlet. It is up to the Taliban or other terrorist groups to pick it up. But how do they please their ideological masters, the Al-Qaida, is their problem. The Deoband fatwa says that targeting innocent people directly contradicts Islam’s concept of peace. Most of the people killed by the Al Qaida were innocent Muslims. Did the Al-Qaida ever show repentance? True, America is most to blame for their birth, their progress and their post 9/11 activities. But they are working in the name of Islam, and whether they admit or not, they are harming Pakistan, a Muslim state. Scholars and religious heads at Deoband have kept quiet for a long time, without speaking against acts of terrorism by individuals or groups when they know that Muslims are being equated with terrorists. The Deobandis have a point that Indian Muslims, particularly those associated with madrassas, live under the fear of being picked up by the police. This is wrong but the authorities get a reason to do so. It is an unending exercise. In the same way, the Naxalites are indulging in a futile exercise, however sincere they are. Their killings deter people, not influence them. There is no doubt that the Naxalites can be a force if they join the mainstream. This will strengthen the Parliamentary system which is benefiting the upper half. The Taliban too could be a real force if they were to abandon violence and fundamentalism. By and large, Muslims in India have acquitted themselves well despite the demolition of the Babri Masjid and the planned killings in Gujarat. Not a single Muslim responded to the Taliban’s call to participate in the jihad in Afghanistan. None of them went to Kashmir from the rest of the country when the fighting against the state in the valley was at its peak. These things show that Muslims in India are in no way less than Hindus in knowing and defending the country’s interest. Once Abul Kalam Azad, a tall Muslim leader who participated in the freedom struggle, said that he was proud to have inherited Islam’s glorious traditions of the last 1300 years and he was equally proud that he was an essential part of the indivisible unity of Indian nationhood. He wanted the Indians to inculcate in their lives both the culture of the Quran and that of the Gita. He said that the ability of the Hindus and the Muslims to live together was essential to the primary principles of humanity within us. His was not a lone voice. The concept of pluralism came to be accepted in India because of persons like him. By destroying values, both the Taliban and the Naxalites do not give people a chance to rise above their prejudices and parochialism. Azad’s advice can retrieve them if they were to realize that human life could not be sacrificed at the altar of bigotry or extremism.
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Germany to restore the Iron Cross? Germany
has launched an anguished and widening debate over proposals to reintroduce its most famous military insignia, the Iron Cross – virtually in its original form – as a military decoration that could be awarded throughout the armed services in recognition of “outstanding bravery”. Its role has been reduced to that of a black and white emblem on the aircraft, tanks and warships of the post-war armed forces. It was dropped as a medal in 1945. Adolf Hitler claimed it was the happiest day of his life when he received the familiar black and silver cross and, although banned as a medal for the past 63 years, any Second World War film would be unthinkable without the decoration appearing on the tunic of some jackbooted general. Ernst-Reinhard Beck, who is a conservative MP in Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government, an army reserve colonel and president of the Army Reservists’ Association, said reintroducing the cross was justified because of Germany’s new military role abroad. He conceded that “terror and fear” had been inflicted on nations under the sign of the Iron Cross during the Second World War, but added that the symbol was now a “sign of help and solidarity” as a result of the German army’s presence in the Balkans and Afghanistan. He said the desire to see the return of the cross was widespread in the armed forces. Soldiers felt that existing military medals were not good enough as many were simply awarded for length of service. More than 5,000 Germans signed a petition last year which called for a return of the Iron Cross. Although its reintroduction is opposed by the Greens and many Social Democrats, supporters point out that the emblem is not synonymous with Nazism. The award was introduced in 1813 by King Frederick Wilhelm III as an outstanding-bravery medal for Prussian soldiers engaged in a “war of liberation” against Napoleon. The medal was awarded during the subsequent Franco-Prussian war of 1870-71 and during the First World War, when its most infamous recipient was Private Adolf Hitler, decorated with the Iron Cross second class for bravery as a dispatch runner in the trenches. Although the medal fell out of favour after 1918, Hitler revived it in 1939 – albeit with a Nazi swastika embossed on its middle. Franz Josef-Jung, Germany’s conservative Defence Minister, said yesterday he was in favour of introducing a medal for “extraordinary bravery”. However, politicians from the other parties were less enthusiastic. Rainer Arnold, a leading Social Democrat, dismissed bringing back the cross. “Given the legacy of Hitler and the Second World War, the medal is too burdened by the past for it to be reintroduced,” he said. Whether German soldiers will soon be sporting the Iron Cross again remains an open question. Although proposals for a medal to reward outstanding bravery were officially sanctioned by President Horst Köhler, the Defence Ministry’s position was unclear. “We have not decided what the new medal should look like,” a spokesman said, “However at no time did we consider reintroducing the Iron Cross that was awarded during the Second World War.” By arrangement with
The Independent
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Inside Pakistan There
is no end to suicide bombings in Pakistan. Lahore’s Naval War College was targeted by terrorists on March 4. The Lahore incident occurred after 13 suicide bomb blasts in different parts of Pakistan in 2008. The increased use of human bombs in terrorist violence inside Pakistan came about early last year, after the Lal Masjid episode in Islamabad. Today the situation is so horrifying that militants seem to be in a position to cause death and destruction, anytime anywhere. As The News mentions in an editorial (March 5), “But this is not a state of affairs that can be permitted to continue. The consequences are simply too horrendous to contemplate. It is clear the extremists believed to be behind these attacks have made symbols of state – the army, the police, the navy – their principle targets.” In an article in The Nation (March 7), Ijaz Ahsan says, “One feels General Musharraf’s methods (for fighting the terrorist menace) have been tried long enough. He ought now to retire and let someone try perhaps a different approach to the matter… The supply of suicide bombers is, to all appearances, endless. It, therefore, does not seem that these bombings are likely to end anytime soon. “The (NWFP) Pathans’ most important cultural tradition is revenge, even for slight insults, what to say of the massacre of their people. They are taking revenge, and will continue to do so as long as our (Pakistan’s) effort is to solve the matter by military might alone.” The tribal people (Pathans) in Pakistan’s areas bordering Afghanistan have been hit hard in the military drive against terrorists. The escalation in suicide bombings may be their way of putting pressure on the new government that is going to be formed in Islamabad that it will not be allowed to continue with the policies pursued during President Pervez Musharraf’s regime. Change of guard in NWFP The PPP and the ANP that together won a majority of the provincial assembly seats in the NWFP have devised a formula for power sharing. According to a report in The Frontier Post, the ANP, basically a provincial party, will lead the coalition government with 12 ministries. Nine ministries have been given to the PPP. Since these parties along with the PML (N) will be sharing power at the federal level, too, it will be interesting to watch how they go about redressing the grievances of tribal people. According to Daily Times (March 7), “The NWFP under the PPP-ANP coalition will be well placed to decide how the matter of royalties pending with the centre is going to be tackled. Peshawar says the centre owes it over 12 billion rupees as arrears on the assets that produce electricity. The centre pays Rs 5 billion and needs to enhance the sum in addition to what the province gets under the NFC award which decides the percentage and principle of sharing the federal pool of revenues.” Whither war on terrorism? The outcome of the February 18 elections is seen as a verdict against terrorism and extremism, besides other things; yet the new regime in Islamabad will have to tread cautiously as any ill-thought-out step can destabilise not only the federal government but also that in the NWFP. As Ahmad Muaffaq Zaidan says in his article in The Frontier Post, “The next government faces tough options in this regard i.e. either to continue with the same policy and face similar law and order situation, or enter into negotiations with militants to diffuse the volatile situation. In the first case, it would mean that the people who had voted for the sake of improving law and order will be disappointed and frustrated and that would generally affect the PPP and in particular the ANP in the NWFP, who will risk losing their vote-bank.” The Swat valley in the NWFP has special significance for the ANP, which has won most of the National and Provincial Assembly seats from there this time. This never happened in the past. The ANP will obviously want the situation in the valley to be handled very carefully. An article in Dawn (March 4) by Khadi Hussain says, “The crucial issues that the elected representatives of Swat will confront in the near future include the restoration of peace, reclaiming the erstwhile status of the valley as a tourist resort, development planning for the area, and rehabilitation of the internally displaced.”
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