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Time to talk Killings in Manipur |
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No
smoking, please
When China dominates
A school
for sledging!
Strategic destiny Mahila lok adalats
can aid women in distress Resurgent German Left
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Time to talk The
Dalai Lama’s explicit readiness to talk to the top Chinese leadership for resolving the conflict in Tibet is a welcome development that should be seized by Beijing to end the violence and defuse the situation. By seeking a dialogue with Beijing a day after he threatened to retire from public life if the violence by Tibetans did not stop, the Tibetan spiritual leader has shown maturity in understanding the gravity of the situation. The ball is now back in the Chinese court and, given the international opinion, Beijing should respond positively. The Tibetan protests, which erupted in Lhasa on March 14, have spilled over to adjoining provinces and drawn a heavily armed response with more Chinese troops pouring into the Tibetan region. The killings and arrests have caused an international outcry, including calls for a boycott of the Beijing Olympics later this year. The Dalai Lama, for his part, has reacted with characteristic restraint and shrewdness. He has called for an end to the violence, including by the Tibetans, as he does not want any of his people to perish in this unequal confrontation with Chinese military might. Equally, he has opposed the call for boycott of the Olympics and wants that the games should not be put at risk in any way. This is to underscore his commitment to the Tibetan region as a part of China, but at the same time emphasise that his campaign for cultural autonomy will continue undeterred. The Dalai Lama has scored in diplomatic and political terms over Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao — who expressed willingness to resume negotiations — by stating that he will talk to President Hu Jintao. Because it has agreed to talks, the Chinese leadership cannot turn down the Dalai Lama’s offer to travel to Beijing for a dialogue; and, irrespective of whether he meets the head of state, his visit to Beijing itself would amount to making a point. Whatever the demands of protocol and regardless of who scores in the one-upmanship game, it is essential that both sides end the violence, de-escalate the conflict and begin moving towards meaningful negotiations. When both parties are willing to talk, the impediments of detail should be overcome. If the talks cannot be agreed upon to take place at the highest level, the Dalai Lama and the Chinese government can nominate senior representatives to start the dialogue for resolving the differences.
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Killings in Manipur The
brutal killings of 14 non-natives in Manipur over the past couple of day, highlight not just the poor security situation in the distant northeastern state, but the spreading virus of regionalism. Manipur, along with Assam, actually saw a rise in militant incidents and fatalities last year. These states are not only subject to regular violence, but the militant groups impact everyday life with extortion demands and various decrees, enforced with the threat of punitive attacks. Militant groups have imposed a ban on Hindi movies, and in October last year, a ban was announced on tobacco products and betel leaves, clearly targeting outsiders. Several attacks were then carried out in Thoubal, Bishnupur and Imphal valley districts. Another group in November banned use of Bengali-script textbooks in junior classes in the Imphal valley. The latest killings of labourers have happened in the Imphal valley and Thoubal. The campaign against outsiders has thus been going on for some time, and it is a pity that the large security presence in the state could not prevent these outrages. While the security forces have had some successes, like in the recent Operation Samtal-II, militant groups continue to spread terror. While Manipur witnessed over 400 fatalities last year, neighbouring Assam also saw an increase in civilian fatalities attributed to targeted attacks against Hindi-speaking people and other “outsiders.” Both these states are struggling to contain the activities of insurgent cadres, who operate from the thick forests and retreat under fire to camps across the border in Burma. While Army operations have had some success, reports indicate that they are not adequately supported by the state police. Police forces in Manipur are in desperate need of modernisation. While paying more attention to the security situation in Manipur, the Centre should also come out with a holistic approach to the dangers of parochial, region-based violence. If it is allowed to happen in Mumbai, it can only be more difficult to contain in economically backward, insurgency- ridden areas. The fire has to be put out before it is too late.
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No smoking, please There
is absolutely no doubt that the state has a moral responsibility to severely discourage smoking, given not only the deleterious effects on the tobacco addict himself, but also on passive smokers who have to suffer for no fault of their own. Health minister Anbumani Ramdoss’s initiatives in this regard, however, are frequently misdirected, and his latest idea appears to be more of the same. If individuals are caught smoking in their offices, he proposes that the employer pay the fine – at the rate of Rs 5000 per smoker. Many a non-smoking boss might well be already fuming, at the possibility of having to pay up for the defiance of his staff. Clearly, the drive against smoking needs practical, focused measures, and not un-implementable grand-standing. Unless Mr Ramadoss is planning to set up a massive anti-smoking force that will police all offices across the country, this one will be a non-starter. It makes more sense to ask employers to take disciplinary action on their own against those violating the smoking ban. Appropriate legislation to back up employers in this regard can also be considered. In addition, employers should be asked to initiate educational programmes, and consider methods to help their people kick the habit. And in the interim, providing a demarcated smoking area for those still struggling with the weed, may well be a legitimate demand from smokers. Countries world-wide, especially in the European Union, are increasingly enforcing bans on smoking in all public places, and France has even been reported to have deployed 1,75,000 “cigarette police” to sniff out offenders and fine them. What the government here should consider, however, is to further increase taxes not only on finished tobacco products, but on the growing of the crop itself. Tobacco should no longer be seen as a source of revenue. Other measures should also be pursued simultaneously, including the statutory printing of graphic warnings and visuals on packs, and educational and motivational programmes. Those selling tobacco around schools should be dealt with severely. Even smokers are increasingly accepting the need for such measures, and children and passive smokers will be the first to thank the government for it.
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Bite off more than you can chew, then chew it. — Ella Williams
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When China dominates
China
seems to be everywhere these days. Apart from Japan, which is seeking to counter it with the US alliance, China’s political and economic pre-eminence in Asia-Pacific is now well-established. True, the US is still the dominant military power regionally and globally. But the Asia-Pacific region is quietly adjusting itself to China’s new and rising status. China is not only looming large in its Asian neighborhood; it is also establishing its presence in Africa, the Middle-East, Central Asia, South Asia and South America, hunting for resources (oil, gas and raw materials) to fuel its economy, selling its wares, making investments and accumulating political capital. It has indeed emerged as the United States’ biggest foreign lender, buying its treasury bonds and securities with its more than one trillion worth of foreign currency reserves (and rising) amassed, in large part, from the US growing trade deficit. In other words, it is lending a good part of what it earns from its US exports back to the United States, thus enabling its consumers to continue buying Chinese goods. China is now in a position to bring down the mighty US dollar by shifting its dollar holdings into other currencies, and create panic in international markets. In practice, it might not do this for fear of losing heavily on its dollar assets. There is no way it can dispose of its dollar assets quickly enough to escape heavy losses. Besides, a significant depreciation of the US dollar will affect China’s exports to the US market by making them dearer. But that is another story. The point is that China’s rise is a great challenge for the world, especially the United States, as the former has ambitions to overtake it as the world’s only superpower. With the US mired in Iraq and elsewhere, China has used its time and resources well to expand its political and economic clout, even right into the US backyard in southern America. One would hope that the US is aware of China’s rearguard action. But being already over-stretched, it is keen to maximise the area of political cooperation on Iran, North Korea and elsewhere. Washington is, therefore, inclined to overstate the mutuality of interests, and underplay differences and concerns from China. But this situation is unlikely to last as China becomes even more ambitious and the US starts to clearly see the danger. China believes it can carve out a new role with new strategies to overcome strife and conflict, both internally and externally. In a Foreign Affairs article, Zheng Bijian called these strategies as China’s “three transcendences”. The first strategy, as he puts it, “is to transcend the old model of industrialisation and to advance a new one…based on technology, economic efficiency, low consumption of natural resources…low environmental pollution, and the optimal allocation of human resources…” Going by the state of China’s environmental degradation, this strategy is apparently not working. The second strategy “is to transcend the traditional ways for great powers to emerge (like Germany and Japan in the past) as well as the Cold War mentality….” China, on the other hand, “will transcend ideological differences to strive for peace, development and cooperation with all countries of the world.” However, if the grab for South China Sea islands (Spratly islands, for instance) is any indication, China is behaving no different from the ways of the old powers (Germany and Japan) by seeking to use a mix of coercive strategies to have its way. The only difference is that China has been relatively successful so far in not having to use military means. But as its power grows and it faces resistance to its coercive diplomacy, China will be as ruthless in pushing its way (even including the projection and use of power) as the old powers. Which is already happening with Taiwan, with hundreds of Chinese missiles targeted in that direction. The third strategy, according to Zheng, “is to transcend outmoded models of social control and to construct a harmonious socialist society.” Again, going by the reports of recurring unrest in different parts of China, the so-called harmonious society is either sheer propaganda or sheer delusion, which is even more disturbing. Therefore, all these claims that China has somehow found the Holy Grail of peaceful rise and development are fanciful—to say the least. In other words, China’s rise is bound to cause turbulence and strife in the years to come, with the US seeking to hold its position as the reigning superpower. There is, however, a view that China can be accommodated peacefully in the world order, because the existing system has been kind to it as evidenced by its economic growth and growing political status. Therefore, it will have no reason to subvert or sabotage it. But with China’s growing ambitions, it is unlikely to be satisfied with incremental benefits accruing to it from a system that was devised by others to maintain and sustain their supremacy. Beijing will like to put its own stamp and to maximise its own goals and ambitions of global supremacy. In a recent Foreign Affairs article, Professor G. John Ikenberry argues: “The United States cannot thwart China’s rise, but it can help ensure that China’s power is exercised within the rules and institutions that the United States and its (European) partners have crafted over the last century…” This is based on two implicit assumptions. First, China will continue to see the existing international order as largely to its advantage. Second, if it doesn’t and seek its radical transformation, it will find the US-European order strong enough, by virtue of its combined power, to deter China from challenging it. If China manages to remain stable and continues to grow (a big if, considering its multiple problems), it will also have the potential to play power politics with the global system, including between the US and Europe. The idea that China will play its role within an existing international order crafted and controlled by dominant Western powers seems a bit overdrawn, if not an outright case of wishful thinking. It would make more sense to treat China realistically as a new power keen to reshape the global order by putting itself in the centre. As its power grows, this is the direction China will
take.
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A school for sledging! We
offer several interesting courses to all those engaged in competitive work. Budding employees, politicians and cricketers will be given preference. Raja Shalya of the Mahabharat fame is our revered guru. Shalya tooled the great Karna’s chariot during the crucial battle but wanted to help the pandavas. As the “sarathi”, he kept reminding Karna of his failures and faults — while extolling the powers of Arjun during the battle, thus demoralising Karna and contributing to his destruction. This is the origin of the famous phrase “shalya-sarathyam” used in such contexts. The concept of sledging is not new to us! The idea, as we know, is to irritate and confuse the opponent, not letting him concentrate on his job. Suppose you have a rival for a plum post in the office. Don’t quarrel with him. Get extra pally with him. Find out his weaknesses, soft corners — keep discussing them with him. For instance, he has painful spondylitis — bound to have it, if he is a hard working guy. You wouldn’t have such ailments, since you are a fiddler — never at the desk for long, but wanting to progress through the backroom window. Ask him two or three times daily about it. Tell him how someone known to you had cervical cancer that went undetected till too late. Inform him about bone TB symptoms. Take him personally to different quacks, astrologers and sadhus famous for wangling political patronage. Make him feel he had so far thoroughly mishandled his health, falling victim to file-work! Slowly make him forget the promotion and get messed up in body-aches etc. Suppose his in-laws are difficult people, making demands on his and wife’s time and resources, leading to frequent quarrels between the couple. Dig up neighbourhood tales of similar harassment. A story a day would do. Tell him how it all led to a bitter divorce (“after all, a girl finally trusts her parents more than her husband”, etc), legal battles, big holes in his finances… Pour sympathy into his now small wounds, make them big! Promotion, vomotion bhool jayega! There are many advanced techniques — quite different from the recent sledging in cricket matches in Australia. A bit of Gandhigiri helps. Suppose their batsman has just clobbered us for a six. Our team, all the eleven players, will surround the rival batsman. He is hugged, praised, even kissed profusely for playing such a marvellous shot. His prowess will be attributed to his mother’s milk he drank as a child. His father’s intelligence will be recalled. His sister’s beauty and winsome ways will be sung in fully respectful tones. Which umpire or a match referee can object to setting up of such high standards of conduct in the gentlemen’s game? Jai Munnabhai! Similar treatment for the Raj Thackeray kinds. Long queues of migrant north-Indians should line up with flowers daily to thank him for fanning their dormant love for the states they had come from. They should seek his guidance on how to treat the migrants in those different states, and urge him to lead those agitations also. Urge him to become a national leader… Who
knows!
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Strategic destiny Bharatiya
Janata Party leader L.K. Advani’s reference in his autobiography to senior cabinet ministers of the NDA government urging Prime Minister Vajpayee to separate the two posts of National Security Adviser (NSA) and Principal Secretary to the PM, then held jointly by Brajesh Mishra, has attracted headlines. Advani writes, “In my view, the clubbing together of two critical responsibilities, each requiring focused attention, did not contribute to harmony at the highest levels of governance.” He clarifies that “Atalji however had a different view and did not implement this recommendation (of the Kargil Review Committee)”. The Committee recorded, “Whatever its merits, having a national security adviser who also happens to be a principal secretary to the PM can only be an interim arrangement. The committee believes there must be a full time NSA and it would suggest a second line of personnel be inducted into the system as early as possible and groomed for higher responsibility.” I was the chairman of the Kargil Review Committee and I had voiced this view even before the Kargil report was written, primarily to Brajesh Mishra himself. He did not disagree with this view. In a TV interview to Vir Sanghvi, he said that such a bifurcation of the two posts was inevitable and would come about in due course. He told me that the PM wanted that both posts should be held by him since he had complete confidence only in him. My advice to him was, in those circumstances, he should get more deputies to enable him to discharge his onerous responsibilities as effectively as possible. Today the NSA, without being burdened by the responsibilities of principal secretaryship to the PM, has three deputies. I was critical of the way in which Brajesh Mishra functioned as National Security Adviser, though I had the highest admiration for the way he steered India into its due global role during the NDA period, by enhancing India’s relationship with the US, Russia, China and the European Union. My criticism was that he did not pay adequate attention to the institutionalisation of the National Security Council organisation, procedures and other issues. Today, four years after he demitted office, on further reflection, I still consider my criticism as valid. I am not now sure, however, whether he was not functioning under the compulsions of his environment and perhaps did the best that was possible under the circumstances. He was able to advance the ‘Next Steps in Strategic Partnership’ with the US rapidly. Its conceptualisation in which he played a vital role, encompassed civil nuclear activities, civilian space programmes and high technology trade. This formed the basis for further enhancement of the Indo-US cooperation envisioned in the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh-President George Bush joint statement of 18th July, 2005. While attention has been focused only on nuclear cooperation, it is about three vital areas. Obviously the aim was to liberate India from the comprehensive technology denial to which it had been subjected since 1974, and to enable India to take its due place in the emerging balance of power system. Rising above party politics, it has to be admitted that Prime Minister Vajpayee, by conducting nuclear tests, by improving relations with the US and other great powers, sustaining a reasonable economic growth rate which led to a higher growth rate in the subsequent UPA period, gave a new direction to Indian strategic progress. In this, Brajesh Mishra was his primary instrumentality. In retrospect there is no denying he made the right choice. What distinguishes Brajesh Mishra from others is his open mind. He objected to the Indo-US nuclear deal on the basis of certain perceptions. Once they were explained to his satisfaction, he has come out in support of the agreement and has not allowed party politics or personal prestige to stand in the way of his objective assessment of national interest. Vajpayee was running a coalition government and he was attempting to carry out very major directional changes in the country’s strategic thrust. While he was a charismatic leader, a very intelligent man and a visionary, he was not a workaholic and a man applying himself to details. Further today, we do not have very many political leaders who would be prepared to listen to advice from multiple sources and then make up their own mind. International politics and strategy of the type in which India found itself after the nuclear tests and as the multipolar world was emerging, were not familiar subjects to the NDA leaders, or for that matter the entire Indian leadership. So it was natural for Vajpayee to trust Brajesh Mishra, one man in his circle who had a vision about the world and India’s place in it. Though things have moved in the direction I had advocated, in recent times. In terms of institutional build-up, the NSC has a long way to go. But I shall be the first to admit that my advocacy of structures and procedures were based on organisational and procedural logic and perhaps did not take into sufficient account the Indian political reality on the ground. Brajesh Mishra should be judged by what he achieved. I am aware how much he was resented at that time by cabinet ministers. The question I ask myself is whether the Vajpayee government could have achieved all that it did (I am no unalloyed admirer of the NDA government) without that Vajpayee-Brajesh Mishra equation. In institutional and procedural terms I am still a critic of Brajesh Mishra. However, I must in all fairness, reserve my judgement on a cost-benefit analysis of Brajesh Mishra combining the two posts. My prima facie judgement is the benefits outweighed the costs enormously.
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Mahila lok adalats can aid women in distress Mohinder Kaur
from a village in Sangrur was only 30 in May last year when she consumed a pesticide and killed herself. It was not her time to die, but the trauma surrounding her existence ensured her premature departure. Harassed by her in-laws for dowry – a word taken so much for granted – Mohinder was fed up with her emotional crisis, compounded by the strains of the legal battle for justice. She had been away from her husband and only son for four years before she committed suicide. Her friends in the village say she was keen to go back home – as keen as her husband was to have her back. But between the two of them, there was no connect except an impregnable wall of legal wrangles, which became worse as days went by. Eventually, a life was sniffed out. Mohinder is not the only one caught in this mess marked by a growing number of disputes related to marriage and family matters, crimes against women and cases of female foeticide in Punjab. It’s a vicious trap that is hard to break. An analysis by the Punjab State Commission for Women of crimes against women report covering April to September 2007 reveals distressing facts. Within those six months, 104 women in Punjab committed suicide; 79 met dowry deaths and 86 were murdered – taking the death tally of women to 269 in six months. In this period, 549 cases under Section 498-A of the IPC (dowry) were registered, according to data submitted by Punjab additional director general of police. Add to that the burden of family disputes involving women – 90 per cent of which end up in reported or unreported violence or in recourse to normal court proceedings, which exacerbate the situation. Unlike in most metropolitan cities like New Delhi, where family courts refer sensitive family disputes involving women to voluntary organizations for resolution, Punjab has no such practice. Although the state home department had in 2003 notified two family courts – at Ludhiana and Amritsar – they could not be made functional as the Punjab and Haryana High Court did not post presiding officers. The initiative had been taken in the wake of insertion of Section 89 in the Civil Procedure Code from July 1, 2002. The insertion made it mandatory on all civil judges in India to try alternative modes of dispute resolution before formally taking up any civil cases. In Punjab, however, the potential of NGOs as an alternative dispute redressal forum remains unexploited despite the Punjab Women’s Commission repeatedly writing to the authorities and deputy commissioners to organize Parivarik Mahila Lok Adalats (PMLA) for timely reconciliation of disputes. An early thaw in such disputes, the commission believes, can change to some extent the way women perceive their lives, and the way society looks at the girl child and her desirability. PMLAs were first started in 1995 by the National Commission for Women, which viewed with seriousness the reigning pendency of court cases related to marriage and family matters. The idea was to supplement the efforts of District Legal Aid and Advise Board (DLAAB) constituted to coordinate free legal services and organize lok adalats within their districts. Since 1995, over 80 PMLAs have been organised with success in different districts. The concept works simply – with the NGO approaching the DLAAB for a list of pending family disputes; the DLAAB listing cases admissible in lok adalats and referring them to trusted NGOs for settlement through PMLAs instead. At least 40 per cent of the cases received from DLAAB are required to be disposed of on any given date of PMLA. In Punjab, this model, with a major social work potential, has not yet been tried - this despite the best efforts of Punjab Women’s Commission which in December last even took up the matter with the government through its chief secretary Ramesh Inder Singh. In a letter to Singh, the commission’s member secretary Sarvesh Kaushal observed: “The need to take the PMLA initiative has become imperative because an analysis of the monthly returns abut crimes against women submitted by Additional Director General of Police has revealed shocking statistics. It appears these statistics have so far failed to evoke the required sensitivity in the department of social security and women and child development and deputy commissioners to take a sound affirmative action like PMLA for alternative disputes resolution with a view to address the strain and stress encountered by the women in Punjab’s society.” To inspire action on the part of deputy commissioners the commission even suggested to the Punjab government to include the subject as one of the targets for annual performance appraisal of the
DCs.
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Resurgent German Left BERLIN – Nineteen years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the old East German Communist Party is making a comeback. Known these days simply as the Left, the ex-communists have broadened their appeal by playing to Germans’ anxieties about globalization, wealth distribution and welfare cuts. After scraping along for years, the Left now draws the support of one in seven Germans, some polls show – making it the third most popular party in the country and a potential kingmaker in next year’s federal election. The Left’s rebound has stunned Germany’s mainstream political parties, which had written off the ex-communists as a relic of the Cold War and long treated them as untouchable extremists. Instead, the Left has upended Germany’s once stable political system, increasing the odds that it could come to power in a coalition government. “After reunification, many pollsters predicted they would fade away,” said Manfred Guellner, head of the Forsa research institute, a leading German pollster. “I’ve never been more uncertain about the future of German politics and the parties than I am now.” Most supporters of the Left live in economically struggling eastern Germany, where nostalgia remains strong for the years of communist rule. In the past several weeks, however, the party has won seats for the first time in regional parliaments in the western states of Hesse and Lower Saxony, as well as the city of Hamburg. Its unexpected strength has led to gridlock in Hesse – home of the nation’s business capital, Frankfurt – because no other political party has been able to scrape together a majority coalition without the resurgent Left. It’s a scenario that analysts said could be repeated in September 2009, when national elections are likely to be held. After years of ridicule, the Left’s leaders are being taken seriously as a political force. But even they aren’t sure how far they can go or whether their current success is a flash in the pan. “The ultimate outcome is still a question mark,” acknowledged Dietmar Bartsch, the Left party’s general secretary and a member of Parliament. Since 2005, Germany has been ruled by what people here call a “grand coalition,” a partnering of the two biggest parties: the Christian Democrats and the Social Democrats. The coalition has proved unwieldy. The prime beneficiary has been the Left, which has stepped into the void as the country’s leading opposition group. The biggest loser has been the Social Democrats, whose approval ratings have plummeted. The party has historically drawn its strength from labor unions and other groups supportive of a welfare state. Although the Social Democrats have pledged never to form an alliance with the Left on the national level – a reflection of how the communist label still repels most Germans, especially in the western part of the country – analysts aren’t convinced. The Left calls for a full restoration of welfare benefits that have been cut in recent years, a shorter workweek, a minimum national wage and a “wealth tax” on the personal assets of rich people. On foreign policy, the Left calls for closer ties with Cuba and Venezuela and has harsh words for the “imperialist” United States. By arrangement with
LA Times-Washington Post
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