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Terror returns Nine-day wonder |
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Tryst with eternity
Iraq mess five years on
Bird flu
Tame the money-lender Roots of Tibetan anger run deep Delhi Durbar
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Terror returns THE relative lull witnessed for the past few months in the Valley had made many hope against hope that things might be on the mend finally, after so many wasted years. But this optimism has been shattered yet again by a powerful blast in the heart of Srinagar, which has left at least one dead and some 20 injured. That is a grim reminder that while the water may be quiet on the surface, the old turbulence is very much present right below it. The number of casualties is not large. What is alarming is the location of the blast. It occurred on the busy Jahangir Chowk damaging a flyover overlooking the High Court and Civil Secretariat, that too in broad daylight. The flyover is not only frequented by a large number of persons, it is also closely monitored by a big posse of security men. The success of terrorists in targeting it must set alarm bells ringing. Normally, terrorist organisations do not own up responsibility for those incidents in which there are large civilian casualties. But this time the Hizbul Mujahideen has been rather quick to do so. That goes on to show that the group is not bothered about the extreme public reaction. Apparently, the men for whose sake it is ostensibly fighting this battle mean nothing to it. Its sole aim is to carry on with their destructive plans. It is ironic that as soon as security forces manage to get a good grip on the situation, through painstaking efforts, clamour starts building up for their removal. It is just not realised that the terrorists have piped down their activities not out of compassion but out of compulsion. This ill-thought-out demand was being made in Kashmir also of late. Precious lives have been lost and property damaged in Wednesday’s explosion. But the incident will at least silence the well-meaning but ill-formed critics of the security forces. Their presence is necessary unless one wants to promote the presence of the terrorists who take their orders from across the border. Vigil against the militants may have to be stepped up instead.
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Nine-day wonder THE delay in swearing in the Meghalaya Progressive Alliance ministry with Donkupar Roy at the helm could well have been avoided had the Congress party not resorted to its usual questionable tricks. That the MPA has the support of 31 legislators in the 60-member House was never in doubt from the moment the results were in. Nor was there any doubt about the legitimacy of its claim to be sworn in. Unfortunately, the Congress-led Meghalaya United Alliance (MUA) exploited the hung verdict to manoeuvre its way into office with D D Lapang as the Chief Minister. The Congress had argued that as the single largest party, its claim should take precedence over that of the MPA, which was a post-election alliance. Even after Mr Lapang was sworn in, it was clear that he would have to resign without a floor test. And, that is precisely what he had to do after the Congress-led alliance failed to ‘acquire’ the required numbers by using the advantage of a dubious office. Although there is no constitutional ground for making a distinction between a post-election and a pre-election alliance, the Governor bowed to the Congress party’s demand. Whether he anticipated the Centre’s wishes or was influenced by the UPA Government is not established, and not relevant either, to the effect of the avoidable farce. The chief effect of the charade is that the Congress party has humiliated itself, as it had done on earlier occasions in Bihar and Jharkhand because of the decisions of the governors. For all the machinations that would have gone on behind the scenes with the Congress-led MUA trying win over independent MLAs, the ranks of the MPA were not breached. Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party with 14 MLAs and the United Democratic with 11 were able to ensure that there was not a single defection from the 5-party MPA, which includes two independents. It is heartening that the mandate in Meghalaya could not be undermined at the bidding of the Congress high-ups.
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Tryst with eternity Arthur
C Clarke was quintessential 20th century, looking beyond to unmapped space and time, into what could be, in terms of technology, and what could be out there, in terms of alien life forms. Both capture the imagination like no other, and for generations of science-fiction fans and techno-buffs, Clarke’s fiction was salvation for an explorer’s soul. In his books, technology did humankind’s bidding, and the earthling searched for his destiny somewhere beyond the stars. A favourite Clarke quote among his fans is that there were two possibilities — “either we are alone in the universe, or we are not. Both are equally terrifying.” He is credited with technological prescience, exemplified in a 1945 technical paper where he elaborated, with diagrams and equations, the possibility and usefulness of a geo-stationary orbit some 36,000 kilometres above the earth. There, a satellite could match the earth’s 24-hour rotation and thus stay relatively stationary above a fixed point on the earth. This is the orbit that has been officially dubbed the “Clarke Orbit” by the International Astronomical Union, and it is used by most communication satellites today – including ISRO’s INSAT series of satellites. While the idea was not new even in 1945, his piece did what he always did best – make the possible real, in more ways than one. In fact, it is this dalliance of the impossible and the possible that is at the heart of his three famous “laws,” which have been discussed as often as his books. The first holds out that when a top scientist “states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right, and when he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong”. To discover the possible you have to go beyond the impossible, advocates the second law. The third sums it all up — “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic”. The impossible and the magical was thus his realm, and the source of his enduring appeal lies in that he made it all very real. The future may well answer to him.
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First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do. — Epictetus
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Iraq mess five years on
EVIDENTLY because of the tremendous turmoil in Tibet and our own diversions, few have taken note of the fifth anniversary of the American invasion and occupation of luckless Iraq. Within the United States the unpopularity of the seemingly endless war is on the increase. The “coalition of the willing” has been cracking up; Britain is even holding an inquiry into its participation in the invasion of Iraq. And no one can dispute that America’s “neo-conservatives” went to war for “fraudulent” and “demonstrably false reasons” such as Saddam Hussein’s Weapons of Mass Destruction and the so-called link between him and Al Qaeda. According to the best available estimates, the next US president, even if determined to withdraw all American troops from Iraq, would need the best part of his or her first term to do so. “And should the process not be completed within the first term, the president would never be re-elected”. The cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan has soared to three trillion dollars. The impact on America’s economy and that of the world is already clear. To be sure, the Bush administration and the few lingering supporters of the Iraq war are drawing comfort from the results of the “surge” in the number of US troops in Iraq, ordered last year by Geroge W. Bush. In fact, the hardliners are feeling encouraged to ratchet up their rhetoric against Iran, arousing more than considerable alarm. They are also keeping up the chorus that a “premature” withdrawal from Iraq would give terrorists a “free hand”, create havoc in the entire Middle East, and allow Iran to However, the ground reality is that although the situation in Baghdad is not as violent as it used to be, it is far from being normal. In recent weeks there has indeed been a steady increase in bomb blasts and resultant casualties. This has to be viewed in the context of more than 4,000 American soldiers killed and nearly 30,000 wounded already. About 200 American civilians have also been killed. No one seems bothered about the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis. Worse, the long expected political reconciliation in Iraq has not taken place, nor is it showing any sign of materialising any time soon. No wonder the American hope of cornering Iraq’s massive oil resources — the principal objective of the likes of Vice-President Dick Cheney — remains a distant dream. The Turkish military action against the Iraq-based Kurdish militants constantly troubling that country has aggravated the difficulties of Iraq’s Kurdish region, the least unstable so far. Add to this the latest report of the International Committee of the Red Cross, revealing that the Iraqi people are in a much worse plight than they were under Saddam Hussein, and America’s shameful performance becomes manifest. On top of all this, the worst casualty of the Iraq war has been America’s pompous boast that the regime change there would convert it into a “beacon of hope” for the spread of democracy in the “Greater Middle East”. No American mentions democracy these days, and it is of no use whatever for America’s allies in the region, such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt. Typical of the mindset of the “neo-cons”, still ruling the roost in the US, and their expressed wish to exploit the Iraq war to take some military action against Iran, on one pretext or the other, is the virtual sacking only the other day of the chief of the US Central Command, Admiral William Fallon. He has been advising his superiors to “draw down” the troops in Iraq at a faster pace than at present, devote greater attention to Afghanistan and Pakistan where the Taliban and Al Qaeda are gaining strength, and avoid any entanglement with Iran by opening yet another front. Though unwelcome to the Bush White House, this sage advice did not have an adverse reaction for as long as it was tendered in private. What seems to have precipitated the admiral’s forced resignation was a recent article in the magazine Esquire in which he was quoted as saying, “Where five or six pots are boiling over, our nation can’t be mesmerised by one more problem”. Stating that the US must not “stumble” into yet another conflict, this time with Iran, Fallon recommended that “patience” and “engagement” ought to be America’s policy towards Iran. But instead of heeding him, the Bush administration angrily asked him to put in his paper. Defence Secretary Robert Gates did so more gently than his over-indulged predecessor, Donald Rumsfeld, had sent packing the Army Chief of Staff, General Eric Shinski, even before the start of the Iraq misadventure. Shinski had only told Congress the simple truth that to deal with the aftermath of Iraq’s conquest would need no less than 400,000 troops, as against the 140,000 the Pentagon was sending. There has been very little discussion about Iraq or, for that matter, any other West Asian problems in this country. The government may have taken a vow of silence over issues that can possibly displease or embarrass the US because it thinks that the Indo-US nuclear deal, vigorously opposed by both the Left and the BJP, may be at stake. However, must the media and the academia also remain tight-lipped and callously shut their eyes to the goings-on? Remarkably, it is the Americans themselves who, to their credit, have pointed to the coincidence of the fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq with the 40th anniversary of the My Lai massacre, unquestionably one of the darkest moments in the Vietnam war that ended 34 years ago. In the unspeakable My Lai outrage innocent Vietnamese villagers were butchered in cold blood by American troops. Only one American, Lieutenant Calley, was convicted of the barbarous killings. The question no one wants to answer is whether Abu Ghraib in Iraq is any different from My Lai. Interestingly, two eminent and powerful Americans chose to arrive in Baghdad around this time. Senator John McCain, who is assured of the Republican nomination for the presidential race, was the first to come, and announced that he was on a fact-finding mission. More
surprising was the subsequent arrival of Vice-President Cheney, a principal architect of the disastrous war and therefore much disliked, not by the Iraqi people alone. Neither of them said a word about the fifth anniversary of the Iraq War or the 40th of My
Lai.
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Bird flu IF bird flu basically means chicken influenza Punjab has always been in the grip of a variation of it. If chicken mortality is the indication of the disease then again I would add that Punjab has experienced this “pestilence” for innumerable years. All India Radio keeps announcing alarming mortality figures day in and day out little realising that some unfortunate chicken are born to die. They die everyday as martyrs to the gastronomical necessities of chicken devourers always waiting to ingratiate themselves at their cost. The chicken sympathisers would be shocked to realise that more of them die in an ostentatious Punjab wedding in a day then the death toll in the 13 districts of West Bengal through avian flu. The hapless brood looking pensively through the cages during transportation do not evoke any sympathy in the heart of the waiting devourer who would take minimum time to dress them up for ultimate crucifixion on the grill. Strangely for the English language a “dressed” chicken is an “undressed” one. The shivering avian fraternity looking downcast on a wintry night waiting for the fateful hour stand on their frail legs that will turn them into delectable drumsticks perhaps the next day. I am amazed at the saviours of the chicken who are culling (killing) them by the thousands to keep some others alive — a strange logic of death and survival. I am told the merchants of death have their due pound of flesh in rearing them at a price at which they can sell remuneratively for eating. For them bird flu is a godsend as they shall be able to maintain the preferential price level by creating an artificial scarcity. Both nature and man seem to be working at tandem at the economics of making chicken a profitable business. Bird flu is a boon to these merchants of death. They do not want them to die a natural death when the unnatural one is more profitable. The pleasure city of Las Vegas at one time boasted of one million chicken eggs consumed in a day. If all these eggs were allowed to incubate chicken would have been the largest species among living beings. Perhaps a mysterious Malthusian force is at play for these hapless creatures. My sympathies for
them.
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Tame the money-lender THE budgetary proposal for waiving loans worth Rs. 60,000 crores to small and marginal farmers has been received cheerfully by a section of the farmers and even more so by a section of politicians. The loan advanced to the agriculture sector by the banks, however, is miniscule as compared to other sectors. The total amount stood at Rs. 2.3 lakh crores out of the total bank credit of Rs. 17.9 lakh crores, a mere 12.8 per cent on 31st March 2007. Out of this, a very small amount is advanced to small and marginal farmers, due to the tedious procedures and lengthy paper work of the banks. According to an NSSO survey in 2003, only 27 per cent families engaged in agriculture were getting loans from formal sources like banks and financial institutions, where as another 22 per cent were getting it from the informal sources, like the moneylenders and ahratias or commission agents. The remaining 51 per cent have no access to credit at all. The majority of this deprived segment are small and marginal farmers or landless labourers, who have no collateral to offer for securing loans from banks. Furthermore, the exhaustive loan process of banks breeds corruption and the lucky few who manage to get bank loans in rural areas end up paying about 10 per cent of their approved sum in the form of bribes to the sanctioning authorities, in many cases. These hardships, illiteracy and inadequate collateral makes these poor farmers ineligible for bank credit pushing them to the traditional moneylender, who charges usurious interest rates ranging from 2 to 3 per cent per month! Due to this, a majority of small and marginal farmers owe more to moneylenders than to banks. For example, in Punjab, where the total outstanding debt of the farmers is estimated to be around Rs. 26,000 crores, nearly Rs. 16,000 crores is owed to the traditional moneylenders and ahraties (commission agents) and majority of borrowers from them are the small and marginal farmers. Moreover, the number of small and marginal farmers in Punjab on record is very less and was 2.95 lakhs as per the 2001 census, just 29.7 per cent of the total farmers in the state, thanks to the joint holdings. Their total outstanding loan towards banks is in the range of Rs. 1300 to 1500 crores only. The real thorn in flesh is the outstanding loan of moneylenders and ahraties, which has not been considered in the waiver scheme. The problem of indebtedness due to usury has deep roots and needs to be deracinated with long terms solutions in mind. There were numerous examples during the Raj, where generations had to keep themselves employed with the lender just to pay off the interest of a loan taken by their forefathers. Jim Corbett and many other English writers quoted similar cases in their writings. Looking into the seriousness of the problem and the farmers agitation against this practice, the first attempt to offer relief was made in 1918 with the passage of the ‘Usurious Loans Act 1918’, which authorised the courts to do away with the excessive rate of interest, which they felt was ‘usurious’. But this Act failed to define exactly which rate of interest was to be termed as ‘usurious’ and hence could not do justice to the borrowing farmers. Then followed the great depression of the 1920s, which further worsened the economic conditions of the farmers and pushed them into a debt trap. This again led to an agitation of farmers and by the special efforts of Sir Shotu Ram, a new act, namely, ‘Punjab Relief of Indebtness Act-1934’ was passed, which removed the shortcomings of the earlier ‘Usurious Loans Act 1918’ and became applicable in the whole of India from 1938. In the new Act, agricultural loans were clearly defined and all those persons were brought in its preview, who earned their livelihood from agriculture, directly or indirectly. It also fixed the interest rates at 6.25 per cent or ‘Anna-Rupaia’ per annum, on a simple basis (without compounding). The concept of ‘Dam-Dupt’ was enshrined in the Act, whereby no borrower could be forced to pay more than double of that what he borrowed from the lender. No defaulting farmer could be arrested under the provisions of this act nor his property could be forfeited. The courts were fully authorised to intervene in the event of dispute and do justice to the farmer. This Act proved to be a great breather for the farming community and helped them to come out of the debt trap of the moneylenders. But alas, the passage of the Banking Regulation Act in 1949 and its subsequent amendment in 1984, debarring the courts from interfering between the borrower and the lender in the matter of interest rate and compounding, gave a silent burial to this farmer friendly legislation. At one stage, the amendment was declared ultra-vires by the Andhra Pradesh High court, but was again upheld by the Supreme Court of India. Thus, once again, the food producer of the nation was thrown at the mercy of moneylenders and bankers. Now, looking into the gravity of the situation and the high suicide rates of the farming community, some concrete steps need to be taken to permanently fix the problem of farmer indebtedness, instead of announcing these kinds of ill-directed waivers. The real cause of farmer indebtedness is usurious interest rates charged by moneylenders and it’s compounding every six months. This practice has to be checked. For that, the passage of a similar legislation like the one enacted in 1934 is the need of the hour to tame the moneylenders, whose books are beyond the scrutiny of any law. Such legislations and schemes have been passed in the past which gave huge financial benefits to the ailing industrial sector, and allowed them to rejuvenate and revive. A legislation to free the farmer from the debt trap in the short-term, and cost-based or index linked remunerative prices in the future, shall be a long-term solution to agricultural debt. The writer is with the NJSA Government College, Kapurthala
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Roots of Tibetan anger run deep BEIJING – The public schools Tibetans attend give short shrift to the Tibetan language, emphasizing Chinese instead. Ethnic Chinese hold most jobs, and Tibetan civil servants can be fired if their homes contain the traditional Buddhist shrine: a Buddha statue with incense sticks in front. Portraits of the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan leader who has been in exile since 1959, are prohibited. Tibetans have compiled a long list of grievances since 1951 when the Chinese Communists invaded their Himalayan-area homeland. Those grievances are the backdrop for the violence that has come bursting to the surface the past week in protests across China and the world. The Dalai Lama, the Tibetan leader who fled into exile in 1959, repeatedly has accused the Chinese of “cultural genocide,” suppressing language, faith and customs, while simultaneously flooding traditional Tibetan territory with ethnic Chinese. Less than half of what Tibetans consider their historic homeland lies within the bounds of what is now called Tibet in western China. The rest of their lands are within China’s Sichuan, Qinghai and Gansu provinces, where Tibetans are a minority and treated as second-class citizens. “It is not a genocide like World War II, but there is just no attempt to preserve our culture,” said a 29-year-old student living in Beijing, who asked that her name not be used for fear she could lose her residency permit. The Chinese Communist Party claims to have invested billions trying to lift a feudal society into the 21st century. The most ambitious component of that was a $4 billion railroad extension that opened in 2006, linking the isolated Tibetan capital of Lhasa to the rest of the country. But Tibetans say that the Qinghai-to-Lhasa rail line, billed as the highest in the world and the first to link the remote Himalayan region to the rest of China, had only served to bring more Chinese entrepreneurs, migrant workers and tourists into their lands, further diluting their culture. The vast majority of the 4 million tourists who visited Tibet last year were Chinese, who nowadays are using their new-found wealth to discover what they see as China’s exotic “wild west.” The hotels, travel agencies and restaurants they patronize are Chinese. Even many of the souvenir stalls selling traditional crafts in front of the main Jokhang Temple are owned by Chinese. “All the jobs are held by Chinese. The businesses on the main square in front of the most sacred Tibetan temple are Chinese. You can imagine the resentment that generates and how it can manifest itself,” said Donald S. Lopez, Jr., professor of Tibetan Studies at the University of Michigan. While exact figures are hard to come by, Lhasa’s urban population of about 270,000 is already between 70 percent and 80 percent Chinese, said Kate Saunders, communications director for the London-based International Campaign for Tibet. She added that at least 100,000 migrant workers come from nearby Sichuan province alone. “The Sichuan dialect is now the most commonly heard in Lhasa, and there is a saying Lhasa is the backyard of Chengdu,” Saunders said, referring to the provincial capital of Sichuan. “Although we have seen years of investment in Tibet, the vast majority of Tibetans are severely disadvantaged both socially and economically by inadequate education and healthcare so that they cannot compete with the growing number of Chinese migrants coming in,” Saunders said. Tibet in the past was basically a theocracy with Buddhist monks not merely the spiritual leaders but the politicians, landlords, and bankers. When the Communists arrived in the 1950s and confiscated the monasteries’ lands, they “threw Tibet into an economic chaos from which it still hasn’t recovered,” said Lopez. The Cultural Revolution from 1966 to 1973 saw wide-scale destruction of the monasteries by the Red Guards and harassment of the monks. Under Deng Xiaoping in the 1980s, the monasteries were rebuilt and religious practice restored, but under tight supervision. To this day, monks are forced to undergo what is called “patriotic education,” sitting through lectures by Communist Party cadres about China’s virtues and the dangers of religion. Most offensive to the monks, they hear tirades against the Dalai Lama and are forced to denounce him. The Dalai Lama, 72, is revered as a prophet by Tibetans and insults toward him elicit a visceral response – not unlike the violent response of some Muslims to perceived slights against Mohammed. In October, when the Nobel laureate received a gold medal from the U.S. Congress, Tibetan monks who tried to stage a celebration with fireworks were arrested. Probably the biggest complaint of the Tibetans is the continued absence of the Dalai Lama. People fear that if he dies in exile, they would be left without spiritual or political leadership. In 1995, a 6-year-old boy considered a possible successor was detained by the Chinese and his whereabouts are unknown.
By arrangement with LA Times-Washington Post
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Delhi Durbar Finance
minister P. Chidambaram is better known as Dr. No among his Cabinet colleagues. The minister never hesitates to shoot down their proposals at Cabinet meetings and invariably gives very sound, logical reasons to tell them that their suggestions are not economically viable. Since Chidambaram is extremely articulate and is very thorough with his homework, the others are in no position to argue with him. Union minister Santosh Mohan Deb always pleads the case of reviving every sick factory in the country on the grounds that it will benefit them politically, but always faces tough opposition from Chidambaram The only time that the finance minister is forced to relent is when Deb brings up the cases of sick units in West Bengal. Then there is all-round panic and even Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who generally endorses the finance minister’s veto, has little choice but to take a different view in these cases.
Keval Hindustani Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Rao threw a dinner party the other day, which was spiced up with typical Maharastrian food, and a surprise guest. The food offered included delicious favourites like vada pav and misal, while the guests included most Maharashtrian leaders like Sushil Kumar Shinde, Sharad Pawar, Murli Manohar Joshi, Hema Malini. But the surprise package was Amar Singh – considering that only recently, Biharis and UP-ites have been the target of an anti-North India tirade in Maharashtra. A Bal Thackeray article even targeted MPs from these states. But all the leaders declared themselves to be good friends, and Amar Singh said: "Uttar hindustani ka baath chodo, ham sab keval hindustani hai." That’s all very well, but will someone tell that to the Thackerays and the goons on the road?
PM gets tough Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh is not known to loose his cool. But the irrepressible minister for panchayati raj Mani Shankar Aiyar has managed to do the impossible.
Apparently the PM flew off the handle when Aiyar circulated a note from UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi to all Cabinet ministers in which she endorsed his suggestion that a jamboree of five lakh panchayati raj members be hosted in the Capital. Aiyar then followed it up by referring to Gandhi’s wishes in the opening para of his Cabinet note. There was all-round panic as these notes form part of official records. Aiyar was apparently asked to take the note back but when he showed no signs of doing so, the PM intervened to state politely that “the minister wishes to withdraw his note.” Contributed by Anita Katyal and Tripti Nath
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