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Reining in prices Power sans responsibility |
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Victim of arrogance
Drive for nuclear deal
Pargat’s predicament
Displaced humanity An epidemic on wheels Inside Pakistan
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Reining in prices THE cabinet committee on prices has scrapped the import duty on crude palm and soya oils and banned the export of pulses and non-basmati rice in a bid to contain prices. Duty changes and curbs to discourage exports and encourage imports of food items will have a limited impact. In fact, votaries of free trade complain that such tariff barriers raise prices in global markets. The government is also considering a ban on the futures trading in potatoes and edible oils though similar curbs on wheat, rice and pulses imposed last year have not reduced their prices. Surprised by a sudden jump in inflation to a 13-month high, the government has been trying every available option to suppress the price rise. The Left has asked the government to bring down prices by April 15. The BJP has threatened an agitation from April 7 on the same issue. These could lead to panic buying or hoarding of essential commodities, thus aggravating the crisis for the common people, especially the poor, whose cause they are advocating. To its credit, the UPA government has so far effectively managed prices. Indians pay less for food items than people in many other countries. The Indian food price index went up only 5.1 per cent compared to the global food price index’s rise of 25 per cent in 2007. Fresh wheat arrivals will start soon. Oil, too, has cooled to $102 a barrel. Other commodities, too, are on the retreat. These are, however, temporary breathers. The Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) has predicted that high agricultural commodity prices are here to stay due to the increased demand from India, China and Africa, higher disposable incomes, changing consumption patterns, rising oil prices and the diversion of sugar, maize, oilseeds and palm oil for making biofuels. The government has to realise that short-term measures may yield only short-term benefits. It has no alternative except to rejuvenate agriculture through measures suggested by the National Farmers’ Commission headed by Dr M.S. Swaminathan. There is almost unanimity among experts on the need to strengthen rural infrastructure, institutional lending and the irrigation network.
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Power sans responsibility NEVER before did the CPM have it so good as during the period since May 2004. It more or less controls the ruling UPA at the Centre. At the same time, being an ally and not part of the government, the Marxists are the principal opposition to the Congress party and the UPA. While this served the Congress to deprive the BJP of visibility as the main opposition, the price demanded and paid has been heavy. All too aware of the leverage the party enjoys, the 19th Congress of the CPM has stepped up the offensive against the UPA. Expectedly, it has taken a hard line on economic issues and set April 15 as the deadline for effective measures to bring down prices of essential commodities. The CPM has reiterated its opposition to the Indo-US civil nuclear agreement and any strategic partnership between New Delhi and Washington. Politically, the resolution to isolate the BJP-RSS combine is true to form. Of more significance is the fact that, despite its avowed policy of equidistance from the Congress party and the BJP, it has stopped short of taking a position that could have been a call to the UNPA. Such an approach suggests that the CPM, for all its explicit opposition to the neo-liberal propensities of the UPA, is intent on keeping the ruling coalition on a tight leash if only to dictate the direction of economic and foreign policy. This high ground vis-à-vis the Centre apart, the CPM’s review of its own performance reveals a record that is far from flattering. There is a dissonance not only between its policy and practices in West Bengal and Kerala but also between its line for the country and for the states it rules. The Left Front government’s role in Nandigram came in for criticism at the party Congress. The CPM is at odds with its Left Front partners, though the CPI has little choice but to tag along. On the issue of membership, like the CPI, the CPM, too, is confronted with erosion in its ranks. It might be worthwhile for the CPM to ponder why, for all its power and influence, it is unable to retain and attract members. The answer might provide clues to policies and directions that might be more rewarding.
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Victim of arrogance THE manner in which the Maharashtra Assembly sentenced the state election commissioner Nandlal to a two-day imprisonment for “contempt of the House” is unprecedented. No one questions the powers and privileges of the legislature. But was it proper for the House to inflict such a humiliating punishment on a sincere officer like Mr Nandlal? The reason for the sentence -- the officer’s failure to appear before the privileges committee of the House despite summons served on him -- is too specious to warrant such a deplorable treatment. As Mr Nandlal is holding a constitutional office, the House should have exercised due restraint while dealing with the matter. It is clearly a mala fide, arbitrary and arrogant exercise of power as is borne out by the fact that the police took him straight to the jail from his office. They refused to heed his requests to help him move the Bombay High Court, speak to Speaker Babasaheb Kupekar and fetch some clothes from his house. Mr Nandlal has charged Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh with settling political scores with him. An IAS officer of the 1969 batch, he is known for his integrity, uprightness and administrative acumen. Some of his decisions as state election commissioner have not been palatable to the chief minister, who even believed that he would no longer be able to contest from Latur, now a reserved constituency. Moreover, last year, Mr Nandlal took him to task when he misused official machinery during the local body elections. It is said that the Chief Minister had mobilised the legislators’ support to fix Mr Nandlal after he decided that it was the SEC -- and not the state government -- which should hold the local body elections in the state in accordance with Article 243K of the Constitution. As the punishment meted out to Mr Nandlal is questionable and a flagrant violation of the Constitution, the Election Commission needs to inquire into the matter and take suitable measures so that state governments are prevented from harassing upright SECs in the exercise of their constitutional duties. Clearly, the Maharashtra Assembly should not have treated a constitutional functionary in this manner.
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Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes. — Oscar Wilde
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Drive for nuclear deal
There’s
a flutter in nuclear dovecots! Several observations by former US Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbot during his recent visit to India have given a new tenor to the debate on the Indo-US nuclear deal. Mr Talbot’s latest utterance in this regard is that the former BJP-led government would have been “astonished” if similar terms as contained in the Indo-US nuclear accord had been offered to them. For, according to Mr Talbot, the BJP-led government would have jumped at even half the beneficial terms contained in the present nuclear deal. Even more significant is an observation that has largely been missed. The Indo-US civilian nuclear agreement, says Mr Talbot, has been “brilliantly negotiated by the Indian side”. In other words, the Indian scientists who teamed up with India’s Foreign Secretary and top diplomats extracted the optimum terms from American negotiators in the course of protracted, multi-layered negotiations that preceded the finalisation of the nuclear accord, specially the 123 Agreement. It is worth recalling that these Indo-US negotiations were spread over a full year and a half. Most interesting of all, they covered all issues that are presently being raised by leaders of the CPM and the BJP - Mr Prakash Karat and Mr Sitaram Yechury on one side, and Mr L.K. Advani on the other. The full story of these negotiations has unfortunately remained under wraps, surfacing in bits periodically. These were heavily bargained negotiations. One might recall that several times the push and pull from both sides on critical issues was so big that the negotiations appeared to be on the verge of a breakdown. The final outcome was a treaty - the 123 Agreement - that met all critical and substantive concerns raised by the Indian side. It is this point that Mr Talbot refers to as “brilliantly negotiated by the Indian side”. What precisely were the issues in dispute when the Indo-US nuclear accord was negotiated and how were they resolved? On the Hyde Act - it might come as a surprise to CPM stalwarts - there was sharp interaction at the very inception of negotiations on the terms of the Indo-US nuclear accord. When the provisions of the Hyde Act surfaced, there was a strong reaction from the Indian nuclear establishment. Dr Anil Kakodkar described the Act - and several other propositions being put forth by the American administration - as “shifting the goal posts”. It is then that the jarring provisions of the Hyde Act were thrashed out to India’s satisfaction. New Delhi made it clear to the Bush administration that the Hyde Act was “in conflict with the letter and spirit of the Bush-Manmohan Singh declaration” on lifting sanctions on Indian civilian nuclear trade and scientific cooperation with the international community, without effecting the Indian military programme. The upshot: the American administration assuaged Indian concerns with the stipulation that it is the terms of the 123 Agreement alone that would be binding on the Indian government, not the Hyde Act. Thus, long before the Hyde Act’s jarring provisions were raised by the Left leaders, New Delhi obtained a clear statement from the American administration - that the terms of the Indo-US nuclear agreement that would be applicable were only those defined in the bilateral Indo-US treaty - the 123 Agreement. Mr Boucher, the American Deputy Secretary in the State Department, has now repeated this declaration of the American administration unambiguously, leaving no room for doubt on this issue. Several critical issues that arose during the formulation of the 123 Agreement are worth recalling. The issues raised during these negotiations ranged from (a) the ‘separation plan’ that spelt out the civilian nuclear facilities to be placed under safeguards by the IAEA; (b) nature of the India-specific IAEA safeguards; (c) full autonomy of India’s military-related facilities; (d) assurance of life-time nuclear fuel supplies for reactors - domestic and imported - under safeguards; (e) India’s right to reprocess spent nuclear fuel and recycling of plutonium and depleted uranium obtained from reactors, including fast breeders; (f) full autonomy and non- interference in India’s nuclear R&D and the indigenous three-phase power plan; (g) terms of cessation and termination of the Indo-US accord: why and how? On every one of these issues there were divergent positions, the ensuing discussions often hard-bargained. It is to this character of the Indo-US nuclear deal discussion that Mr Talbot refers when he observes - “brilliantly negotiated by the Indian side”. The Indian side had its way all along the line. Let us have a look at some of these issues. On the separation plan, one of the hard-fought points was the non-inclusion of the Fast Breeder Test Reactor, now in operation, and the upcoming 500 MW Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor in the safeguards list. The American side contested this, but India insisted on keeping both these high-technology plants outside the safeguards list. Primarily because the prototype fast breeder was a developing high-end technology in which India would not brook interference. More so because the fast breeder technology development was key to the success of India’s long-term three-phase thorium plan. Eventually, the Indian side won. India conceded future fast breeders being placed within safeguards. This suited India’s interests for it ensured the mixed plutonium-uranium fuel for future fast breeders. Likewise was defining the India-specific IAEA safeguards unambiguously. Indian insistence was on two points. One, the separation plan must keep all facilities and R&D centers related to India’s weapon capability outside safeguards. Thus, implicitly recognising India’s weapon status. What constituted civilian and military nuclear facilities was for India to define. India was also free to develop any new facility to support its military capability. Two, the safeguards must not interfere or ‘peep’ into Indian nuclear R&D, keeping Indian indigenous technology development unfettered. Two other critical issues negotiated to India’s satisfaction were: assurance for nuclear fuel for life-time of reactors placed within safeguards, and India’s right to reprocess spent fuel from indigenous as well as imported reactors. This later issue created a great deal of heart-burning, the American side insisting that American law did not permit advance acceptance of reprocessing for any project outside NPT member-states. Eventually, a way out was found, Indian scientists undertaking to build a dedicated reprocessing plant for enriched uranium fuel such as American and other imported reactors used. When all was said and done, two Indian concerns remained. And tackling them was a great achievement. These related to the ticklish issue: what happens if India conducts another test? In the event of either side wanting termination of the Indo-US nuclear accord, what would be the procedure? What happens to the nuclear material and facilities supplied by the US, which according to American law it could recall? On Indian insistence, it was accepted that if either side wanted termination, the issues involved could be sorted out by joint discussion after the party concerned gave a year’s notice. In other words, no arbitrary excuse could be used for termination. There was no unilateral abjuring by India of another test. In other words, India’s security concerns had to be taken into account if other powers resorted to fresh tests. As for American stipulation to claim return of nuclear facilities it had provided, the formula accepted for such return was that adequate and agreed compensation had to be provided for such nuclear facilities that it wanted back. On the sidelines of these discussions, it was also made clear to the American side that Indian purchases of its reactors could be conditional on similar terms as were provided for reactor purchases by other countries such as France and Russia. That obviously served as inducement to work out viable commercial terms for American reactor sales. The Indo-US nuclear accord as it finally emerged in the 123 Agreement is substantially different from what the Bush administration had envisioned and proposed at the inception of the negotiations. It is possibly the best negotiated treaty from India’s point of view - thanks to the superiority of the Indian scientists - on the complex and critical area of nuclear energy and nuclear security. Why then is the fructification of the treaty still being blocked? Is it a case of lack of knowledge of the worth of the treaty for India’s economic and scientific development? If so, it is a tragic conflict between science and egoistic politics? But, hopefully, the last word has still to come. May be, a different picture will emerge from the scrutiny of the draft IAEA safeguards agreement by the Left parties, even if this scrutiny takes a month, as Mr Karat has
hinted.
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Pargat’s predicament
I
write this piece with the express permission of Pargat Singh, the famous hockey Olympian from the Punjab Police. In the mid-90s of the last century I was heading Punjab Police Academy at Phillaur when Pargat as a newly appointed Deputy Superintendent of Police was undergoing probationary training under my supervision. Pargat Singh was found as keen and industrious in the parade ground and the classroom as he was at the astroturf. One fine morning I received a telephonic call from the IHF chief in his second avatar as the Punjab Police chief to terminate Pargat Singh’s police training and to direct him to report for the hockey camp. My professional instincts impelled me to point out to him that withdrawing Pargat Singh from training when he was not even half way through it would make him a half-baked police officer. Besides, the ex-Olympian himself was in all fairness to himself quite reluctant to return to the trials when his performance had of late registered a downslide after a very successful climax. But the “yours-is-not-to-reason-why” type boss would have none of my nonsense and the brief conversation ended up abruptly with the words “these are my orders”. Pargat Singh having been pronounced the judgement clicked his heels dutifully and saluted me with all the gusto at his command but not without a discernible smirk on his face. Back to the Officers’ Mess he packed his bags and reported to the IHF chief and DGP at Chandigarh the next day. Much to his chagrin the former Olympian and national skipper was ordered to practise in the ‘B’ team to be promoted later in the ‘A’ team if his performance so warranted. When the three-time Olympian protested that he had not only played in the ‘A’ team before but had also captained the national team in many international fixtures he was slammed with the litany of same words “these are my orders”. There was no alternative for the player but to swallow this unconscionable humiliation. The Hobson’s choice of either acquiescing in his own downgradation or quitting the coveted police service compelled him to exercise the former option. It goes to the credit of the great Olympian that he strained every nerve to get back into the ‘A’ team which he led subsequently with the equal distinction. He resumed his police training only in the year 1998. I am narrating this incident to epitomise on the one hand the unenviable predicament of one of the legendary players of hockey and on the other the imperious attitude of the top brass to exemplify the present state of Indian Hockey to leave you to draw your own conclusions on one of the causes of its perdition. There may be many
more.
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Displaced humanity A fact finding team of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights to Dantewada in Chattisgarh, affected by civil unrest, and Khammam District in Andhra Pradesh, where some of the 30,000 tribals displaced from Chhatisgarh, are living, has expressed concern about the health, nutrition and education of the displaced children. Tomorrow on Thursday, the Commission is holding a follow up meeting in Delhi with the concerned secretaries of the two state governments. Dr Shantha Sinha, chairperson of the NCPCR, Dr. J.M. Lyngdoh, former Chief Election Commissioner and Mr. R. Venkat Reddy of the MV Foundation, Hyderabad, travelled through the two districts from December 17 to 19 last year for an assessment of the status of those displaced by the conflict between the Naxals and Salwa Judum. Dr Sinha has written to the chief secretaries of both States about the team’s findings and various steps that should be taken to ameliorate their lot. The displaced tribals of Chattisgarh are also living in Adilabad, Warangal and East Godavari. The Committee recommended that public distribution system ration cards should be given to all the displaced people living in Andhra Pradesh. Adults should also be given job cards, so that they can apply for work under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act. The children from Chattisgarh, Mrs Sinha has pointed out, are not getting admission to schools in Andhra because they did not have school-leaving certificates and they cannot comprehend Telugu, the language of instruction in Andhra. The Commission recommends that all displaced children, now in Andhra, must be given admission in schools at the earliest. ‘Dropouts have to be given education and arrangements made in residential bridge courses to reintegrate them into formal schools.’ During the visit to the Dantewada region, the team was struck by the enormous tragedies of the tribals and their families. “This is indeed unfortunate. We strongly feel that the State has an obligation to extricate them from the unusual circumstances they have been caught in and ensure their security and fundamental human rights,” says Dr Sinha “With conscious effort for protecting children and their rights there is hope of harmonising society. Giving every child an access to education up to class ten and investing in providing all that is necessary to make education happen can ensure a secure freedom for these children and their families and even deepen democracy,” the team has pointed out. The NCPCR has identified core areas of concern, which require comprehensive strategies and time bound implementation plans to address the impact of violence, deprivation and disruption on the lives and rights of children and their families affected by conflict in the region. The NCPCR team has recommended the establishment of Child Rights Cells in the offices of the Dantewada and Khammam District Collectors with members from the community, officials and non-officials. It has offered to facilitate the training of functionaries of institutions dealing with children. All those running schools, hostels, ashram shalas, anganwadi centres will be educated on child rights issues. Recognising the special role of police in protecting child rights, the NCPCR has also offered to train SPO volunteers on child rights. At the Block and District level the team has recommended social audit of children’s rights by trained people. The NCPCR committee has also sought inter-state collaboration for protecting the entitlements and rights of displaced children and families on a priority basis. It has suggested that on the basis of a survey a register be maintained of the families who have shifted to Andhra. This data should be shared by the state governments to ensure basic social services to the families. On education both governments have been asked to collaborate to ensure education for children who have fled from Chhattisgarh. This includes issuing transfer certificates and other documents to children who have dropped out of schools; assistance for readmission into the new schools, supply of Hindi textbooks and deputation of Hindi-speaking school teachers to Andhra Pradesh to enable integration of these children into their new schools. Schools, the Committee has said, should be identified as ‘zones of peace.’ This means schools cannot be used for anything else but education. They have to be kept separate from the camps and programmes introduced for the psycho-social needs of the children. Pleading for re-building of disrupted education and health services/infrastructure affecting children in camps and villages, the fact finding committee has sought a rapid assessment of food security and child malnutrition levels in camps and villages along with provision of meals through schools and anganwadis. Concerned about the near invisibility of adolescent children, the committee has requested gender based data on camps and schools, ashram schools, residential schools, hostels etc. The NCPCR committee has also called for adherence to the UNHRC guiding principles in cases of internal displacement, in particular principle 13 that prohibits recruitment of children in armed forces and participation in hostilities. It has also referred to principle 23 of the guidelines that emphasis the right of displaced children to education Equally important, it has said are the principles regarding their right to be informed about their missing relatives and re-unification with dispersed family members. Internally displaced persons should also be protected from forcible return to re-settlement in any place which places their life, liberty, safety, health etc at risk, the UN has said.
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An epidemic on wheels Last
year, 965 people lost their lives in air crashes around the world. But more than 3,000 people will die on the world’s highways TODAY. More than 1.2 million people die each year from road traffic injuries, a toll comparable to the number of people killed by malaria or tuberculosis. For every death there are at least 20 serious injuries. This is an epidemic in every sense of the word. Yet it is a hidden epidemic. It doesn’t make the news because these deaths occur one or two at a time; because nine out of 10 fatalities occur in the developing world; and because in many countries we don’t have accurate statistics to measure the problem. But mostly it doesn’t make the news because we are numbed by a sense of fatalism, by a feeling that these are just accidents, unpredictable and unpreventable; we see them as a fact of life, an accepted side effect of our modern mobility. As a result, highway safety rarely appears on the agendas of international meetings. Many governments and public authorities in the developing world are desperate for assistance to deal with rapidly rising death tolls on their roads, but they find little organized response. This can begin to change. The UN General Assembly is set to vote on Monday on a plan to hold the first-ever global ministerial conference on road safety. If approved, it will be a major step toward raising the political profile of this epidemic and providing the action needed by governments worldwide to reduce traffic-related deaths and injuries. There is no time to lose. Without sustained action, road deaths in some developing countries, such as India, are projected to climb through the middle of the century. It took the United States about 40 years to reverse a trend of increasing traffic deaths. It took time for us to build safer roads and require safer cars, and for safer behavior to evolve on the part of drivers and other road users. We are still losing 43,000 lives in the United States every year, but we have learned many painful lessons. The best-performing nations in terms of highway safety, such as Sweden, the Netherlands and Australia, are adopting a “safe systems” approach that is similar to the philosophy governing aviation safety. These nations are showing that road deaths are preventable through sustained political commitment to the use of seat belts and motorcycle helmets, to curbing speeding and drunk driving, and to investment in safer road and vehicle designs. It is an approach that can be applied in any country, rich or poor. We must share what we have learned. The gap in road safety between developed countries and transitional countries is widening. If current trends continue and we leave developing nations to turn this around by themselves, as many as 100 million lives worldwide could be lost to road injuries before this epidemic begins to reverse course. Countries struggling to meet the U.N. Millennium Development Goals cannot afford the losses in human and economic potential that these deaths represent, especially when the means to stop this disaster are at hand. By arrangement with
LA Times-Washington Post
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Inside Pakistan Most commentators have appreciated Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gillani’s understanding of the problems facing Pakistan. His odyssey is not only historic but also full of challenges. He has been offered support eve by the Opposition, yet it will be a Herculean task for him to come up to people’s expectations. As Business Recorder said, he has “set the ball rolling for a post-military rule … Given that the Opposition appears sympathetic and the public at large fully conscious of the fact that the crises he faces are not of his making, he would have a smooth sailing, at least in the first year or so. What he talked about on Saturday was more by way of giving hope to a demoralised people than grappling with the reality of the situation.” He has to tread cautiously. Populism or offering quick solutions for Pakistan’s numerous problems will not do. The Frontier Post has taken him to task for scrapping the Frontier Crimes Regulation without offering a credible alternative to bring about order in the tribal region, where people have been experiencing chaos for a long time. In the opinion of the Left-leaning daily, “the Prime Minister’s agenda, as it exists now, is (full of) at best half-baked ideas, needing a lot of meticulous thinking to firm up into workable and result-oriented plans and schemes. Presently, it is strikingly more of populism, in which, incidentally, the food-inflation-afflicted citizenry found no place at all, leave aside the new administration’s anti-terrorism strategy, which barely got a short-shrift in his announcement.” ‘No’ to finance portfolio “There is a lot that needs to be done on an urgent basis to set some of the political and administrative wrongs right, not the least of which is the lingering case of the judiciary, but of equal importance to the public will be measures aimed at giving economic relief and setting the tone for recovery in the months ahead.” These comments made by Dawn in an editorial on March 30 should be seen against the backdrop of the reality that Pakistan’s economy is passing through a very difficult period. It will not be an easy task to meet people’s expectations, as they are not only suffering from skyrocketing prices but also an acute shortage of essential items like atta. That is why the PPP has shown little interest in the finance portfolio, which has gone to the PML (N). As Daily Times commented, “The mainstream parties, the PPP and the PML-N, have found it easy to give the finance plus trade ministry to the PML-N’s Mr Ishaq Dar. It doesn’t need much detailed analysis to understand why the choice has been made although in normal circumstances the Prime Minister would have preferred to give the ministry to someone from his own party. The first speculation is that the PPP wants to share the responsibility of correcting the dangerously listing ship of the national economy. It doesn’t want to be the lone target of public anger in the coming days when miracles of restoration are not produced.” It is a different matter that the finance portfolio will help the PML (N) to consolidate its base in Punjab, where it has its own government. Punjab needs liberal flow of funds which would have been difficult to manage had the portfolio been with some other party. Plight of women Pakistan’s parliament (National Assembly) has a unique position. No other House of the people in the world has as much representation of women as in this country. They occupy 74 of the 342 seats in the Assembly, including that of the Speaker. But women in general are leading a wretched life in different parts of Pakistan, particularly in the tribal areas. As The News commented, “Pakistan may have a female Speaker of parliament but this surely doesn’t mean that there is not a lot that needs to be done if women are to be seen as equals by society and treated as equals under the law. While these achievements are more than welcome, a paper published recently by a Peshawar-based female academic reveals how women in FATA (Federally Administered Tribal Areas) might as well live on another planet (which is effectively what they do), a planet that is not even orbiting the same star as Madam Speaker.” They have never participated in elections. In fact, they have nothing to do with what happens elsewhere in the world. There is a Ministry for Women Development and NGOs like Rozan are working for their emancipation, but the situation remains unchanged. Women are also the biggest sufferers of unending terrorist violence. According to Dawn (March 30), “Many among our women have led defenceless lives without a context – a sad fault of social mores that have governed their right to choice and freedom.
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