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Rein in prices Woes of exporters |
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Anything for China!
A temple too far
A walk across time
Gandhigiri against China’s dadagiri Undo injustice done to defence forces Chatterati
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Rein in prices THERE is a clear lack of urgency in the Union government’s approach to tackling inflation, which has soared to 7.41 per cent -- the highest in 40 months. The resort to rationalisation for the galloping rise in prices of food items, rather than take recourse to drastic measures for providing relief to those hit by inflation is evidence that the UPA government is dithering on the issue. The unprecedented, and sustained, high growth of the last five years has created a complacency that bodes ill for the economy. The gathering economic crisis — inflation compounded by falling growth and industrial production — finds the government either unprepared or unwilling to take the hard decisions necessary to mitigate the rising distress level of the common man. Prices of food grains, particularly pulses and vegetables, are high and are rising further. In fact, the official figures don’t reveal the real extent to which household incomes are depleted by the price rise. Union Minister for Science and Technology Kapil Sibal has come up with the gem that soaring inflation is a global phenomenon. Since prices are rising worldwide, the inflation is explained as being “imported”. The government, he says, has no magic wand to bring down inflation. If the government claimed credit for the sustained growth rate as being the result of policies pursued since May 2004, then the government ought to take responsibility for the crisis of inflation, too. What his remarks betray is the helplessness of the government. A government that despairs of delivering on a survival need —food — inspires little confidence about its ability to manage the economy. The Centre needs to act, without delay, for protecting the aam aadmi from rising prices, and there are many ways in which this can be done. Inflation, for instance, is accompanied by hoarding of essential commodities. A good beginning could be to crack down on hoarding and involve the state governments in the process. There are a number of prescriptions, for example, supply of food items at controlled prices through the public distribution system, for mitigating the effects of inflation. The government needs to take a hard look at such options for early implementation. Otherwise, the economic situation will extract political and electoral costs.
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Woes of exporters THE final-year supplement to the Foreign Trade Policy (2004-09) comes at a critical time when high inflation is driving the government to impose export curbs. Already hit hard by an appreciating rupee, the exporters can land deeper in trouble if the government listens to the advice tendered by expert inflation-controllers to allow the rupee to appreciate further to ease the burden of costly imports. There are restrictions on the export of wheat, non-basmati rice, pulses and edible oils to meet domestic requirements and cool their prices. Incentives on the export of cement and primary steel have been withdrawn. Besides, high interest rates, skyrocketing oil prices and a general slowdown in the US, Japan and other Asian countries are factors working against exports. In this grim scenario, it was expected of the government to extend the duty entitlement passbook scheme and income-tax relief to exporters, especially when they had, despite odds, almost achieved last year’s target. The textile sector is particularly in bad shape and a large number of workers have reportedly lost employment due to the slowdown. Yet, it was encouraging to see Commerce Minister Kamal Nath set a more ambitious export target of $200 billion for the current fiscal. The FTP supplement has also tried to remove some of the hurdles exporters face like cutting down transaction costs and simplifying procedures. All this is understandable. However, what Minister of State for Commerce Jairam Ramesh has said about “political exporters” requires attention. There are export-oriented units which are essentially unfit to compete in the global market but survive largely on government largesse, which they enjoy due to political influence. Companies are known to manipulate the media to project their case before the powers-that-be and have managed to corner sops year after year. Besides, they try to export what they produce, not what the outside world requires. Such exporters need to close shop as they are a drain on limited resources.
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Anything for China! ONE state from which the Tibetans would have expected some sympathy was West Bengal, what with its pro-proletariat CPM-led government. But then the Marxists are more pro-China than pro-people. So, the state known for never-ending bandhs and agitations for the smallest of causes has gone to the extent of banning protest rallies by Tibetans against the Chinese occupation. No wonder, China is pleased and its consul-general has said it in so many words. But the fatwa which has been lauded by the Chinese masters may be despised by lovers of democracy and freedom which the Marxists otherwise swear by. It is very much the right of the government to maintain law and order but it is in the wrong when it tries to do so by curtailing basic freedom. Needless to say that the retrograde step will tell upon its people-friendly image and the carefully crafted credentials as champions of independence. Ironically, it did not show the same alacrity in banning protests by hooligans targeting Taslima Nasreen. Not only were they allowed to hold boisterous protests, the West Bengal government even made the Bangladeshi writer pack her bags and leave. All that proves that the government has two entirely different sets of rules, which it applies depending on considerations of convenience, not principles. In Taslima Nasreen’s case, even the Union government had turned coy. But as far as the protests by the Tibetans are concerned, the Centre has refused to toe the Bengal line. It must go a step further and show the mirror to the comrades extending support to it from outside. Nothing will be out of the ordinary in that. After all, the communist parties have been criticising it all this while and issuing threats to pull the rug on an almost daily basis.
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My faith demands that I do whatever I can, wherever I am, whenever I can, for as long as I can with whatever I have to try to make a difference. —Jimmy Carter
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A temple too far Since
Mr L.K.Advani has been reading Freud, as he told a magazine recently, he may be able to detect the Freudian slip he made during the interview . “I was hopeful that the Ayodhya issue would be resolved”, he said. “After all, everyone realises that Ayodhya cannot be built again”. Sensing the surprise of the interviewer, Advani quickly added: “No, I said the masjid cannot be built again, not that Ayodhya will not be built again”. So, nearly two decades after he had set out on his Somnath-to-Ayodhya rath yatra, the end result of the Ramjanmabhoomi movement has boiled down to this — that the masjid cannot be built again. There was not a word about the temple. Nor of the “liberation” of the Varanasi and Mathura sites which used to be very much on the saffron agenda. Twenty years down the line, the whole project of demolishing mosques and building temples seems to have been abandoned. Hence, the inadvertent observation: “Ayodhya cannot be built again”. Formally, of course, the temple was put on the back burner as early as in 1996 — only six years after the rath yatra — when the 13-day Atal Bihari Vajpayee government resigned after failing to secure a majority in Parliament. It was then that the Hindutva warriors realised that unless the temple project was shelved, no anti-Congress “secular” party, such as the Janata Dal (United), would join them. Those 13 days proved two things to the BJP and the Sangh parivar. One was that the demolition of the Babri masjid and the condemnation of Muslims for desecrating temples in the past would not bring the Hindu community rushing to the saffron camp. And the second was that the lure of office would not persuade the non-saffron parties to side with the BJP and the Shiv Sena unless certain basic concessions were made. So, the BJP had no option but to dump the three major issues on its agenda — building the temple, scrapping Article 370 of the Constitution and introducing the uniform civil code. For more than a decade, therefore, these issues have been gathering dust. Clearly, the Ramjanma-bhoomi agitation, which the saffron brigade was in the habit of comparing with the struggle for independence, has fizzled out. Since the success of any fascist outfit depends on whipping up nationalistic fervour directed at a targeted enemy, it can be argued that the BJP has already exhausted the utility of this sectarian card. The party and the parivar may now try minor variations on the theme, like raising the Ram sethu issue or linking Islamic terrorism with Indian Muslims or attacking Christians, as in Orissa, etc. But these are unlikely to give the party as much of a boost as the Ramjanmabhoomi agitation did when emotions ran so high that Mr Advani set out on his rath yatra with offerings of bowls of blood. Besides, it is now obvious that for all the hype that was generated at the time, the political usefulness of the movement was limited even at the beginning. This was evident when within a year of the destruction of the Babri masjid, the BJP lost the UP assembly elections to the Samajwadi Party-BSP combine. It is another matter that this backward caste-Dalit coalition broke up when the Samajwadi Party tried to undercut the BSP, compelling Ms Mayawati to form an unlikely alliance with the “Manuvadi” BJP. But the fact that the BJP could lose a Hindi heartland state so soon after the riots of 1992-93 was a clear sign that communal politics couldn’t take it far. Since then, its successes have been based more on the failures of the Congress in states like Madhya Pradesh, Chhatisgarh and Rajasthan than on the use of the pro-Hindu card. Only Gujarat has proved to be different but, even there, Mr Narendra Modi has made a conscious effort to distance himself from the Pravin Togadiyas and focus on development to woo the voters. What all this indicates is that the heart of Indian politics remains secular, much as the saffron lobby may deride the concept. The effort which the BJP made to communalise the atmosphere by demonising the Muslims during the Ramjanmabhoomi agitation was only momentarily successful. True, the boost which the movement gave to its tally of Lok Sabha seats has persisted. But there hasn’t been any increase of late, much to the dismay of the RSS. And even the earlier gains were more the result of the failure of the BJP’s opponents than an achievement of its own. As the success of the Samajwadi Party and the BSP in UP in 1993 showed, it was possible to stop the Hindutva juggernaut by an effective electoral combination. Not surprisingly, the UPA-Left alliance in 2004 confirmed that the unity of the secular forces could keep the BJP and its allies at bay. When the Jan Sangh merged with the newly formed Janata Party in 1977, it had to suppress its predominantly communal outlook for the sake of unity among the non-Congress parties. But when the Jan Sangh re-emerged as the BJP in 1980, it had to find a new, preferably non-communal, philosophy. It chose the vacuous concept of Gandhian socialism. But its irrelevance as a political plank was highlighted when the BJP’s strength in the Lok Sabha fell to two seats in 1984. The temple issue, floated by the VHP in 1985, was a godsend in this regard, for it gave the BJP an ideological direction by combining old-fashioned communalism with the direct targeting of mosques, which the Jan Sangh (or the Hindu Mahasabha) had never tried before. Hence, its jump from two seats to 86 in 1989, 120 in 1991, 161 in 1996 and 182 in 1998 and 1999 — the party’s highest point. In 2004, however, the BJP’s number of seats dropped to 138. But, apart from the temple card, there is another explanation for the BJP’s growth in the nineties. It simply filled the space vacated by the Congress’s decline and the failure of the other “secular” parties to step into the breach. While the Left couldn’t extend its influence beyond its three strongholds of West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura, the Janata Party of 1977, once touted as the much needed alternative to the Congress, splintered into many caste- and state-based outfits. In the last few years, the Congress seems to have partly recovered its position, but not enough to challenge the BJP single-handedly. However, the BJP itself cannot hope to regain its earlier momentum if only because the temple card has become nearly as useless as its earlier credo of Gandhian socialism. All that the party can expect is to benefit from the anti-incumbency factor affecting the Congress at the centre. But such routine changes of guard are part and parcel of the normal political process. The BJP and its mentor, the RSS, depend, however, on a surge based on a pro-Hindu agenda. Fortunately, that phase of essentially hate-driven politics, with which Mr Advani was associated, seems to be
over.
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A walk across time IT was early spring morning of Baisakhi 13th April, 1940, at Dharmsala and Dhaula Dhar hills were full of fragrance of wild white roses. I was 16 years old and had appeared for my matric exam from Govt Inter College, Dharmsala . We were living in my father’s official residence of District Engineer. It had 22 rooms (including 6 servant rooms) with 2 acres of sprawling garden around. That morning I ran up the hill and came bouncing back nine miles after a hurried bath at Bhagsu Nag spring. Returning back, I saw my father leaving for Palampur tour, not by bus, but on foot via Yol Chamunda, a distance of 24 miles. When father asked me to accompany him, I jumped at the idea, forgetting my 9 earlier miles. After completing matric from DI Khan, my father, Lok Nath Bajaj, did one year’s pre-engineering at DAV College Lahore and then passed from Thompson College on 13 Dec, 1913. In 1910, at Roorkee, he developed two healthy addictions. One was daily fast walking of 10 miles on the banks of Ganga Canal and other was reading The Tribune. Both habits lasted till his life time. During this walk my father told me how he was posted during 1919-1923 as SDO Military Engineers at Wanna in South Waziristan. The job meant design and road extension deep into Pathan territory. He was provided with four armed horsemen as his guards. Almost every day a stray bullet missed his head. In early March 1924, my father came from Waziristan, to get instructions from his Garrison Engineer at Rawalpindi. There he saw an advertisement in The Tribune for a job of District Engineer, Kangra, at Dharmsala. That Tribune advertisement became the biggest turning point of his life. From most dangerous place on earth, Waziristan, he came to most peaceful place on earth i.e. Dharmsala. On 17th Nov 1924, Monday, he took charge as District Engineer of Kangra Distt and retired after 22 years of distinguished service in February 1947. During this 24 miles walk I deeply drank at the fountain of my father’s knowledge. I got to learn his two open secrets of happiness and success — he had zero tolerance for dishonesty and took very long walks in the backdrop of natural surroundings of trees and forests. I imbibed this wisdom and passed it on to my children and grandchildren. On 20th Jan 1965, I walked for sheer enjoyment 70 kilometres, from Dharmsala to Nurpur and 66 Baisakhis later, on 13th April, 2006, my son Ajeet Bajaj, left his advance base-camp Svalbard, in Norway, and started skiing towards North Pole. He reached there on 26th April 2006 and became the first Indian adventurer to do so. He was felicitated by Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh and later by President APJ Kalam on 18th April 2007. All this happened entirely due to great inspiration I gained from my Dharmsala-Palampur walk of Baisakhi
1940.
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Gandhigiri against China’s dadagiri With
each passing day, all those who believe in the values of human dignity and democracy are aghast at the way the Chinese government is dealing with the Tibetans. The Dalai Lama has said a number of times that he is more than prepared to go to Beijing for a dialogue. He is not demanding independence for Tibet. All that he is saying is that the Tibetans must be given autonomy within China so that they preserve their culture, history, environment and political institutions. However, all these pleas of the Dalai Lama and various world leaders have gone in vain. India, the country which is most affected by any unrest in Tibet – after all, it houses the Dalai Lama and his followers and all those who are forced to migrate from Tibet into India because of the Chinese oppression – is being insulted by China. The Chinese authorities summon lady ambassador in Beijing at 2 a.m. in the night. The Chinese ambassador in Delhi threatens our home minister that China may not allow the Olympic torch to pass through India on its way from Athens to Beijing, the venue of this year’s Olympics. All this proves that China, which has made rapid progress over the last 40 years and aspires to be the next super power of the world, is increasingly becoming an arrogant power. The theory, hither to propagated the most by American analysts, including President George Bush, has been that as China reforms its economy and develops, there will be inevitably more room for a democratic and responsible Chinese regime. This is certainly not working. On the contrary, the Chinese Communist leaders, who operate under a one-party system, have become stronger and more arrogant. In China, state dominance has meant that the ‘princelings,’ relatives of leading Communist Party members, have gained control of some of the nation’s most powerful companies. Even a Chinese government study admits that of the 3,000 of the nation’s richest businesspeople, a significant majority are related to top officials. What is worse, the world is increasingly becoming helpless in countering this Chinese arrogance. Because, in what could be called reverse –colonialism, the Chinese leaders are flexing their economic muscles in achieving their objectives everywhere. First, China has become the third-largest economy in the world. China’s foreign currency reserves are now the largest in world economic history, having multiplied more than six-fold since the end of 2001. Secondly, in partnership with other major East Asian central banks, the People’s Bank of China effectively controls American interest rates and the value of the dollar, the currency on which the global financial system continues to be dependent. Thirdly, in order to pressurise the American economy, on which the stability of the global economy as a whole is also dependent, the Chinese have established control of the formerly American-owned Panama Canal. A Hong Kong tycoon regarded as a Beijing surrogate has bought the key ports at either end. He also controls ports on Mexico’s Pacific coast that are playing an increasing role in shipping Chinese goods to the American market. Fourthly, the Chinese and their business partners now largely control the network of satellites and undersea cables that makes up the international telecommunications system. The system had been under American control until the high-technology stock crash, when dozens of American telecommunications companies on the verge of bankruptcy were bought by China-controlled enterprises. In fact, over the past 25 years, while keeping firm control over its economy, China has adopted many of the tools of capitalism – ceding some operational power to a Western-trained executive class, inviting foreign investment and partnerships, and buying and selling on the global open market. Beijing has also selected a range of strategic industries to develop, from oil to elecommunications to automobiles. Economic power always contributes to a nation’s political power. That explains why the world is being forced to tolerate Chinese misdeeds. But how long can the world afford to do so? After all, it needs to be realised that China is an authoritarian country. And as history has shown always, authoritarian states rarely use their power responsibly. The leaders in these countries are not accountable for their actions to the people. That being the case, it is time that the rest of the world, particularly the democratic world, did something to restrain Chinese power. The main component of rising Chinese power is its economic strength, particularly its foreign exchange reserve, that is, dollars. And this the Chinese have earned through export of their goods, which they produce cheaply by their cheap labour, in markets all over the world. In fact, for the most part, the Chinese enjoyed a system of “one-way free trade” in open markets of the Western countries while protecting its own market against western goods under some pretext or the other. As a result, the balance of trade was always in favour of China, and, that, in turn, endowed it with more and more dollars. This is the case even now. In this age of the WTO, which ensures free trade, there cannot be any ideological ground to stop Chinese goods entering any country. But what we can do here is to adopt the Gandhian tool of boycott. Let us pledge ourselves not to buy Chinese goods. Once this Gandhian practice gains momentum, that is, if more and more people in the world, particularly in the United States – the biggest market for the Chinese goods, voluntarily stop buying Chinese products, it will have a salutary impact on the Chinese rulers. The lopsidedness of the Chinese economy is so acute that an overwhelming majority of the Chinese people themselves continue to be too poor to buy their own country’s products. Once the Chinese rulers are unable to find buyers for their goods, their economic power will decline and their arrogance will evaporate. Let “Gandhigiri” prevail over Chinese
“dadagiri”.
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Undo injustice done to defence forces Two
dead bodies of soldiers are arriving at airports everyday. Many young officers and men who were to get married in a few months, have laid down their lives. “Yeh Dil Mange More” were the words of Captain Sunil Batra in the Kargil war and the next day, in an attack on an another mountain feature across the Line of Control, he laid down his life. Hundreds of soldiers in military hospitals have suffered amputations due to frost bite after return from High Altitude areas. Many find themselves incapable of living normal family lives, with temporary impotency. The long separations, lack of education opportunities for their children, inadequate accommodation, scores of social and family worries -- the list is endless - take their toll. Everyone in the country demands the services of the forces to tackle difficult situations, whether it is taking out a child from a well or countering a terrorist attack in the train or market, disaster management after a railway accident, floods, fires, natural calamities, riots, etc. But alas! Government after government has neglected the welfare of the armed forces. Consequently, the youth of the country, who have to provide the future leadership to the forces, has stopped opting for the Armed Forces as a career. A country of over a billion people cannot not fill up the vacancies at NDA and IMA. One hoped that the Sixth Pay Commission would suitably address all aspects of a defence career and recommend an attractive pay package. The assurance given to the three chiefs of services was that the concerns of Armed Forces personnel would be suitably addressed. This has not been done. Even their strong pleas to have a member from the Armed Forces on the pay commission was ignored. There is deliberate attempt on the part of the bureaucrats to suppress the armed forces on a misplaced notion of civilian supremacy. Due to this, there has been a constant degradation of rank and file of the armed forces for many years. They need to know that the civilian supremacy in this context is that of the elected representatives of the people and not of the bureaucracy over the Armed Forces. The major anomalies noticeable in the 6th pay commission are as follows: The meager amounts of Military Service Pay from Rs 1000 to Rs 6000 is a joke. Many anomalies of the 5th pay commission have not been addressed at all. A large number of anomalies in the integrated pay scales, compensation value, other terminal benefits have been introduced. In fact, this report is not implementable. Many court cases will get filed. One Rank, One Pension: This long awaited demand has been rejected without any valid justification. Recommendation of handsome pension above 80 years of age will only benefit the IAS and other civilian services. A study has revealed that a majority of ex-service personnel are dying between the ages 69 - 79 due to ruptures in their bodies arising frem stresses and strains of the profession. The pay structure of the middle level officers from Major to Brigadier, which constitute 90 percent of the officer cadre, has been ridiculously reduced. The reason given is civilian supremacy. What an absurd logic! The existing pay relativities are based on the ceremonial order of precedence as derived in 1986. This pay commission felt that it was an aberration. They feel a Brigadier with over 30 years of service cannot draw more pay than a joint secretary with 17 years of service. Pay and allowances of personnel below officer rank (PBORs) have not been suitably compensated. Equivalent compensation with civilian employees is greatly unjustified for the PBORs category also. Remedies: The recommendations of the 6th Pay Commission in respect of the Armed Forces in its existing form should be outright rejected. As an interim measure, 50 per cent increase in emoluments should be granted to all Armed Forces personnel. A separate pay commission for the Armed Forces, including Ex-Servicemen, should be constituted at the earliest (with 3 Ex-Chiefs, 1 Serving Chief, 1 Ex-Def Secretary as its members) with a directive to submit a report within six months, Thereafter, the government should bring forth a suitable pay package for all defence personnel. Lateral induction to other government departments, PSUs and the corporate sector should be introduced. The Armed Forces’ share of 28 percent on deputation to other services should be strictly enforced. The writer is a Senior Vice President of the Ex-Servicemen Organisation
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Chatterati Last week, on a visit to Srinagar, I felt the same kind of calm I did when I lived there decades ago. There were smiling faces of locals and kids in school uniforms running around, while the elderly once again took to their evening walks. My visit coincided with the visit of the UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi. She had flown in to inaugurate the Tulip Garden which is literally the passionate nature lover Chief Minister Gulam Nabi Azad’s baby. An amazing yet amusing gesture from Mrs Gandhi took everyone by surprise. At the entrance, she took out a crumpled fifty rupee note to buy her ticket. How it stumped the accompanying Union Defence Minister and dignitaries, who obviously are not used to buying tickets anymore! The PCC President present had to dish out Rs 150 for his colleagues. Of course, the state officials present at this function were thrilled at this gesture. Did her womanly instinct work that she carried her ticket money or was this a deliberate signal for all that there is no free way to this garden however powerful they are? She spent her time walking around the whole garden and she knew each plant’s history. What stamina! She thoroughly enjoyed the ‘wazwan’ for lunch. This ‘Tulip Garden’ in the valley is a sure sign of militancy going down. Development is on the rise in every nook and corner. New buildings, the Haj Ghar, the new International Airport, the colourful signs of billboards and of course the clean new town. Well, guess who was the next V.I.P. who visited the Tulip Garden. None other that ‘Laluji’ with his Rabri Devi and eleven children. Dual jobs Delhiites are talking about the reshuffle of the Union cabinet. The omission of Sachin Pilot will have a backlash in Rajasthan, again a state going in for elections. Sachin is a Gujjar with a huge vote bank in the state. Suresh Kalmadi, of course, can’t stop smiling now that Mani Shankar Aiyar had to give up his sports portfolio to M.S. Gill. Party guys cannot fathom how some are holding dual charges as General Secretaries in-charge of states and while being Union Ministers in the centre. To top it all, the Congress also has Union Ministers as PCC chiefs. How they will do justice to either of the jobs is a million dollar question. Some General Secretaries are looking after five to seven states. Well, this reshuffle settled speculation about Maharashtra CM Vilasrao Deshmukh. The UPA chairperson announced that the government there is stable and no changes will be made in the leadership of the state. In Mumbai, Guru Das Kamat’s resignation being accepted saw, on a billboard, a portrait of his along with a slogan saying: “He saw, He conquered and He left”. Wow! This bill board culture of the Congress is hard to beat.
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