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SAD state Respect ceasefire |
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Trip wire
Go ahead with gas pipeline
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Shaken lives Why Australia should sell uranium to India Delhi Durbar
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SAD state IT is almost a clean sweep by the Shiromani Akali Dal in the panchayat elections in Punjab, the results of which were announced on Wednesday. Any party would have been proud of such an achievement but for the fact that the Akalis ruined the celebrations for themselves by posting this victory with the help of unprecedented violence and arm-twisting of the Opposition. They gave a new definition to the term “fighting elections”. The credibility of most of the victories is in decimal points. It is only the Election Commission which can say that elections were held in a free and fair manner. That assertion casts doubts about its own efficacy and impartiality. As it is, panchayat elections are not meant to be along party lines. But that ideal has already been blown to smithereens not only in Punjab but almost all over the country. The poll violence has made the bad situation worse. The trouble is that the virus of polarisation along party lines remains in the body politic far longer in rural areas. The battle lines have become stronger due to the fisticuffs and worse that the supporters of various parties exchanged during the elections. The police stands as much discredited as the ruling party. In the bargain, the Akali Dal has even lost the faith of its traditional partner BJP. Don’t be misled by the photographs of top leaders hugging each others tightly. They may have patched up for political reasons. But the grassroots workers who had to bear the brunt of the violence are at daggers drawn. The bad blood that has been spilled through election rigging may continue to rankle for a long time. The most worrying part is that such strong-arm tactics are not the monopoly of the Akalis alone. What if some day in future, some other party comes to power and tries to repay them in kind? Such tit-for-tat would be bad for the state and democracy. SAD leadership should not only try to assuage hurt feelings but also eschew such methods because these only bring it a bad name. They should also run the panchayati bodies in a non-partisan manner. |
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Respect ceasefire HEAVY firing by Pakistani troops across the LoC in the Tangdhar sector in north Kashmir on Tuesday is a “worrisome” development, as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh described it on Wednesday. What happened in Tangdhar was different from the firing by the Pakistan Rangers in the Samba sector to facilitate an infiltration attempt by militants. The Tangdhar firing is a clear violation of the ceasefire agreement signed by India and Pakistan in 2003. Pakistani denial notwithstanding, the matter is going to be raised during the coming talks between External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and his Pakistani counterpart Shah Mahmood Qureshi in Islamabad. After all, the ceasefire was a major confidence-building measure, which must be respected to prevent the peace process from getting derailed. Even the Pakistan Rangers indulging in cover firing to enable militants to cross over to India cannot be ignored. Peace talks and aiding militant infiltration cannot go together. Perhaps, some elements in the Pakistan Army are worked up over PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari saying that the Kashmir question cannot be allowed to come in the way of normalisation of relations between India and Pakistan. These elements must have been upset with the success of the composite dialogue process in lessening the tension between the two countries. In fact, with increased people-to-people contacts, the peace constituency in both countries has increased considerably. But this does not suit the interests of the Pakistan Army, though the peace process was set in motion when the then Chief of Army Staff, Gen Pervez Musharraf, controlled the reins of power in Islamabad. The anti-peace sections in the Pakistan Army, it seems, are now bent on indulging in their old game with a popularly elected government being in place in Pakistan today. Whatever be the truth, it is the Pakistan government’s responsibility to see to it that no further ceasefire violation takes place from their side. A repeat of such incidents may destroy the atmosphere for peace that has come about after concerted efforts. Terrorists like Jihad Council chief Syed Salahuddin, who has openly opposed the peace process, will be the happiest persons if India and Pakistan are back to square one. |
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Trip wire THE five-ODI ban handed out to off-spinner Harbhajan Singh for the offence of hitting a fellow player would have seemed light but for the sting the disciplinary committee’s order had in the tail -- any further offence, even as light as verbally abusing someone, would invoke a life ban. One official has been quoted as saying that he is on “very dangerous ground, and has to be very careful.” The question of a double punishment was being raised when the Indian Premier League had already punished him with a 11-match ban, but as a contracted player with the BCCI, the latter cannot be faulted for initiating separate disciplinary proceedings. In the end, the committee has done the right thing by handing out a brief ban to the contrite player, while ensuring that he would take disciplinary issues very seriously indeed. The ban, the maximum under a specific rule that the BCCI invoked from its own regulations, will mean that the cricketer will miss a tri-series in Bangladesh and the beginning of the Asia Cup in Pakistan. Sreesanth, the victim of the slapping incident, has been appropriately sent a letter asking him to improve on-field behaviour. The pacer would do well to focus on his bowling and forget about those inane and puerile engagements with batsmen. Harbhajan Singh has been in controversies before, and it almost came to a head in the clash over his alleged racist remarks in Australia. The players, the board, and indeed the nation stood by him, and the BCCI was criticised worldwide for bullying tactics in his defence. With the IPL taking off to worldwide acclaim, and with its international flavour a key ingredient in the mix, it was important for the BCCI to seem professional, non-partisan and completely fair. It has done the right thing by being tough on Harbajhan while not going overboard. The talented off-spinner should now put it all behind him and focus on the game on his return. |
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Deliberation is the work of many men. Action, of one alone.
— Charles de Gaulle |
Go ahead with gas pipeline
The debate on the Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) gas pipeline has generated more heat than light. There has been a wide chasm between rhetoric and reality, with little informed public debate. It is indisputable that the booming but energy-starved Indian economy needs to tap every possible source of power that is economically viable, with its security and continuity suitably guaranteed. By 2020, India's demand for natural gas is expected to rise threefold to 270 million cubic meters daily, with 200 million cubic meters coming from the existing sources — domestic and foreign. India currently has only one significant contract with Qatar for importing liquefied natural gas (LNG), which is at present for five million tonnes per year, with an additional two million tonnes annually being available from 2009. In June 2005, India signed a $22 billion deal with Iran for the supply of five million tonnes of LNG annually, with Iran agreeing to consider the supply of an additional 2.5 million tonnes annually. Iran unilaterally repudiated this agreement and demanded higher prices, calling into question its credibility as a reliable energy supplier. Talks are on to renegotiate this agreement. But India should have no doubt that despite sentimental rhetoric about "civilizational ties" with Iran, the Iranians are not given to sentimentalism, merely because our officials claim that we have a large population of Shias in India. In today's global scenario, three countries — Russia, Iran and Qatar — account for 58 per cent of the global gas reserves. Japan imports LNG primarily from Australia and its neighbours. With natural gas meeting 20 per cent of its power needs, the growing US demand is being met largely from Canada and to a lesser extent from West Asia. Russian strategic analysts would like to use their energy resources to make Europe extensively dependent on Russia, to counter NATO's inroads into Russian strategic space in former the Soviet republics like Ukraine and Georgia. Russia would, therefore, support Iran's quest for markets towards its East in countries like China and India. China's state-owned Sinopec signed a $60 billion agreement in 2004 to buy 250 million tonnes of LNG for over 30 years from Iran and develop the giant Yadavaran gas field. Iran is also committed to exporting 150,000 barrels per day of oil to China for 25 years. Given Russian strategic interest in dominating the energy markets of the European Union, Russia has a substantial interest in Iranian gas being sold increasingly to Asian economies rather than European markets. Should India worry about US pressures over the IPI pipeline? In August 2006 the US Congress unanimously passed the Iran, Libya Sanctions Act (ILSA), which provides for the imposition of US sanctions on companies, irrespective of their "corporate nationality" that invest more than $20 million annually in the Iranian oil and gas sector. Despite this legislation, Iran has attracted more than $30 billion of foreign investment in its energy sector since the sanctions were imposed. The European Union has opposed the ILSA sanctions and passed a resolution on November 22, 1996, directing its companies not to comply with the sanctions. A number of European companies, including TOTAL of France and Italy's ENI, have ignored the sanctions as have Petronas from Malaysia and the Russian energy giant GAZPROM. In these circumstances, there is no reason for India to hesitate to proceed with the IPI pipeline, merely because of apprehensions of the adverse impact of possible American sanctions. If Washington expresses displeasure, it can be politely told that given our need for environmentally friendly sources of energy, we have no option but to seek access to natural gas to meet our energy requirements. According to Russian estimates, the 2700-km IPI pipeline will have a capacity of 54 billion cubic metres of gas per annum, with 32 billion cubic metres supplied to India and 22 billion cubic metres to Pakistan. The project is estimated to cost $7.6 billion. China has not yet expressed its interest in extending the IPI pipeline to its Xingjian province. Despite Pakistani advocacy, the economic viability of such a pipeline through the high Himalayas is questionable. President Ahmedinejad exuded optimism that negotiations on the ISI pipeline could be finalised in a matter of months. Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon, however, noted that much work needed to be done to ensure that the IPI project was commercially viable and financially acceptable, and India's security concerns were addressed. In 1996, the then Pakistan President Farooq Leghari told Indian High Commissioner Satish Chandra that it was entirely conceivable that Pakistan could cut off supplies at times of tensions, nonchalantly adding that as conflicts between India and Pakistan seldom lasted more than a few weeks, India should not be unduly concerned about temporary dislocations in gas supplies! Moreover, the pipeline will traverse through both Iranian and Pakistan’s Baluchistan. Over the past three years Pakistani pipelines have been systematically blown up by Baluch separatists. In Iranian Baluchistan, a shadowy Sunni organisation (believed to be US-backed) called Jundullah has been attacking Iranian government targets. The new government in Pakistan appears to be more realistic in dealing with Baluch aspirations than General Musharraf. But would it be prudent for New Delhi to become heavily dependent on a pipeline through Baluchistan till it is clear that issues like royalty payable to the province are sorted out and Baluch aspirations addressed? Financially, given the spiralling costs of oil and given that gas prices are linked to the prices of oil, at what stage will gas-based energy plants become uneconomical for India? Finally, any agreement has to provide penalty clauses for non-delivery and for gas reserves to cater for disruptions in supply. These are issues that need to be sorted out in discussions with Iran and Pakistan. At the same time, India's interests require that a major power like Russia is involved in investment in and construction of the pipeline as a guarantor of the continuity of supplies. GAZPROM would be an ideal partner to play such a role. GAZPROM could probably be persuaded to agree to undertake an undersea pipeline from Iran bypassing Pakistan, which would substantially meet concerns of energy security. Moreover, New Delhi should show caution in proceeding with the proposed pipeline from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan and Pakistan for the supply of gas to India. The situation in southern Afghanistan, where the Taliban controls vast tracts of the countryside, is far too turbulent for the requirements of energy security to be met. The Manmohan Singh government has been less than transparent and forthcoming in explaining such issues to the public in India. In the absence of informed public debate, demagogues voicing the empty rhetoric of the Cold War inevitably dominate the public
discourse. |
Come, join us
You
are cordially invited to pitch in with your ideas for a new TV channel we propose to launch shortly. Unfortunately, most other channels show frivolous stuff like murders, rapes, kidnappings, divorce cases, corruption etc. So there is a pressing need for in-depth coverage of serious matters that affect our daily life in this country. I will give here a few samples so that you may think along those lines and get back to us. You have seen the precious TV cameras chasing Aishwarya Rai, Abhishek and the “Big B”. But, sadly, they keep missing out minute details. Why has the papa B used the handkerchief of another colour today? Has his astrologer advised him to do so? What exactly did he whisper into his bahu’s ears? After all, it may be of considerable importance to the masses and their future. We will give equal importance to Kareena- Saif relationship. The camera will actually (yes, actually!) show the dishes on their plates — both before and after they have eaten. This will give the serious minded viewer a golden chance of evaluating their tastes and follow the example in his own life. On the political front, we won’t focus merely on “breaking” news — these days, it is as easy as breaking wind after a heavy lunch. News will “break up” and then “break down” on our channel regularly — so that the viewer can digest the stuff easily. We will also go behind the scenes. For instance, when a minister makes an announcement, we will conduct live in-depth interviews with his servants, childhood friends and class- fellows. Just to understand the “roots” of that announcement. Questions will be like: “What soap does he use?” and, “in which subjects did he score well?” Politicians will have to face intelligent questions from our all-knowing anchors. For instance, the Petroleum Minister will be asked: “ Are you scared of match-sticks? Have you ever considered wearing fire-proof clothes?” Oh, yes. No bulletin can be complete without the latest on Mr Tendulkar’s elbow, knee etc. We promise to show x-rays of his joints regularly and get a panel of doctors to analyse them twice daily. If the public demands, we will also consider a regular bulletin on his family’s health — after all, his family’s health affects his own, which in turn affects the moods of the public. Other cricket stars will also get a lot of coverage. Please suggest a suitable name (and also some other ideas) for our channel and win a prize. Send your entry accompanied by a demand draft for Rs 100 only, today. Don’t lose a golden chance. Our
address... |
Shaken lives XINGFU, China – On Sunday, Liu Li received a simple Mother’s Day present from her only child: a basket of red, pink and white carnations wrapped in purple rice paper. That afternoon, the 15-year-old returned to boarding school knowing he had made his mother the happiest woman in their village. Liu and her husband never thought about defying China’s one-child policy. They already had everything they could hope for in a son. Meng Hao was not only a good student and star athlete, he was even the tallest kid around. On Wednesday, the Mother’s Day flowers were still fresh in the family’s living room, next to rows of certificates of merit from Meng’s school years. But Liu’s beloved boy was dead.
“When I heard he was gone, my whole body went numb,” she said. “I felt the sky falling.” As the death toll rises from the worst earthquake to hit China in 30 years, Sichuan province has become a valley of sadness. Schools were among the most badly damaged buildings, and some of the most grief-stricken residents are parents who lost an only child. Liu, 38, slumped Wednesday into a chair in a makeshift tent here among the wheat fields. Not only are parents mourning the loss of a cherished child; the next generation is expected to look after their parents in old age in a society where the safety net is disappearing. And many in Chinese society regard people in their late 30s or early 40s as too old to have another child. In Sichuan, China’s most populous province, the one-child policy is strictly enforced among poor farmers.
“I’d say 90 percent of the people around here have only one child,” said Wang Xia, hugging her 5-year-old daughter close. “It takes a lot of money to raise children, we farmers have a hard time even supporting ourselves, how can we afford to pay fines to have more?” The name of this town, Xingfu, means Happiness. But it has become hell for parents who first thought they had escaped the tragedy. When disaster struck Monday, Meng’s parents raced to the nearby school and helped dig through the rubble. First there was good news. After being trapped under broken concrete for eight hours, Meng was rescued alive. “He kept saying ‘I am OK, I want to go home,’” said his father, Meng Daoling, 44. “When he was buried under all that debris, he told me he kept thinking of his parents. He held on for eight hours so he could see us again,” said his mother, tears streaming down her face. To their shock, a few hours after their brief reunion amid the wreckage, their son died about an hour away in the hospital in Chengdu, where he was rushed for treatment.
Like so many people here, Meng’s parents had done everything they could to give him a good education. His father drives a tractor. In addition to toiling in the family field, his mom works long hours at a local factory making bottle caps. Boarding school costs a bit more than a regular school, but in rural areas it is too far for children to travel to school and many have dormitories on site.
“Everybody knew him,” a villager said said of Meng. “He was nearly 6 feet tall. He wanted to go to college and be a pilot.” One of Meng’s schoolmates who escaped the falling building said he is alive because his teacher told them to run from the first-floor classroom when the 7.9 magnitude earthquake struck.
“There were 66 students in our class, all but seven or eight made it out alive,” said Ba Cong, 14. He thinks he probably survived because he sat in the second row. “I sat in the front because I am near-sighted. The people who didn’t make it sat in the back.” Meng was in a third-floor classroom. Most of the students in that room were trapped. “He told me his teacher told them `don’t run, duck,’ “ said his mother. Parents say the school was built in the early 1990s, which is old by Chinese standards, and that students were to move into a new building next year. Bitter villagers suspect shoddy construction was partly to blame for the school’s collapse. “Even our humble rural homes built by hand didn’t collapse completely,” said villager Gong Fuzhong. “How can a big school building collapse? Something is definitely wrong here.” Across an open field filled with makeshift shelters, another mother, Zheng Hongqun, 40, is so paralyzed by grief that she has not been able to get out of bed to face the world.
The body of her 15-year-old son, Wen Zheng, was pulled out of the rubble about 24 hours after the earthquake. “His father is a migrant worker far away in northeastern China so his son can have money to go to school,” said neighbor Wang Xia. “We only told him he is still being rescued. We don’t dare tell him the truth.” Outside their temporary shelter, a plastic tarp wrapped over sticks, Wen’s grandparents were surrounded by neighbors trying to distract them from the tragedy. It wasn’t working. “The child is gone. We can never see him again,” Wen’s silver-haired grandmother sobbed. “It should have been us.” By arrangement with
LA Times-Washington Post |
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Why Australia should sell uranium to India Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s declaration that his freshly minted Labor Government would have Australia play an even larger role on the world stage provides Australia with a second chance to profoundly re-cast its ties with an emerging 21st century superpower – India. India, with over a billion people and the world’s largest democracy, a nuclear power and strategically located in South Asia, is a country that is on the move. It is a country whose people now sense that India’s emergence is an “idea whose time has come”. New Delhi’s expectation – justifiably – that it should occupy a permanent seat on the UN Security Council is further confirmation. Average growth rates of 7-9 per cent over the large five years have given India a respect that had eluded this South Asian giant. But inextricably linked to India’s capacity to grow its economy and reduce its rates of poverty, is the reliable supply of affordable energy. As Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh eloquently put it in a 2006 speech: “If we need to improve the lives of our people, we need adequate energy at a reasonable cost……if we have to free them from drudgery and ill-health, we need to address the issue of access to energy” India’s huge dilemma, however, is that she simply cannot meet her energy demands from current sources of oil, gas or coal. The clear alternative is imported uranium – a source for 17 per cent of the world’s electricity and as much as 23 per cent for the OECD countries. The Indian Government’s policy position is crystal clear. India’s uranium deficit has led to India’s own brand of “Energy Diplomacy” – a policy that has India’s foreign and diplomatic activities orientated on securing reliable supplies of uranium from friendly countries like the United States and Australia. This is where an Australian Government with vision has an opportunity to cement enduring ties with this re-emerging superpower. Like the Bush Administration, we can and should acknowledge India’s role in the world’s changing architecture by calling for an exception to compliance with the Non Nuclear Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Holding 40 per cent of the world’s uranium, we are uniquely positioned to be a reliable supplier of yellowcake at a time when India is clearly in search of such supplies. The environmental reasons alone make the case compelling. Electricity, generated from nuclear reactors, has zero emissions and has the capacity to supply large population centres. The IAEA calculates that nuclear power annually avoids more than 2 billion tonnes of CO2 emissions that would otherwise have been required from fossil fuels. Expansion of nuclear power could further reduce greenhouse gas emissions in 2050 by between 1.9 and 2.9 billion tonnes of CO2 according to the IAEA. This rests on predictions that the world’s demand for nuclear energy grows by up to 120 per cent by 2050. India’s global emissions are on target to be third in world rankings within a decade. India is primed for such energy producing infrastructure that does not compromise emissions reduction policy. Add to this the unequivocal moral imperative of supplying crucial energy to 800 million people in poverty, and the case for uranium sales is difficult to rebut. As for the economic returns of selling uranium, tens of billions of dollars in earned exports for the country should focus the mind. If uranium for Australia is oil to Saudi Arabia, then Australians must demand Rudd return to the Howard Government’s policy settings. The Howard Government had travelled down this path before signing off in August 2007, on a deal to sell uranium to India for conversion to domestic energy usage only. Regrettably, for entirely party-political purposes, the Rudd Labor Government has now fully reversed the Howard Government’s decision. The irony of it all is that the Rudd Government has absolutely no qualms about selling our uranium to China or Russia. This is intellectually, politically and strategically indefensible.
The sale of Australian uranium to India in their hour of need would create the essential pre-conditions for a future security framework with India for the 21st century. Inter-state tensions of tomorrow will invariably arise from hard energy deficits and soft resource deficiencies. Australia’s energy collaboration now with India could be a bedrock for international stability.
Kevin Rudd now has a unique opportunity to showcase his much feted diplomatic skills in assessing the historical opportunity that beckons in our India relationship. If he is up to it, the time to act is now. The writer is an Opposition Whip in Australia’s Parliament |
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Delhi Durbar Although
released with great fanfare, BJP leader L.K.Advani’s memoirs “My Country, My Life” has become a real source of embarrassment for the party rank and file. First, former defence minister George Fernandes contradicted Advani’s statement in the book that he did not know that the then external affairs minister Jaswant Singh would be personally escorting dreaded terrorists to Kandahar, when the hijacked Indian Airlines flight was diverted to Afghanistan during NDA’s regime. More recently, Jaswant Singh himself has publicly declared that this decision was taken by the cabinet committee on security and Advani was one of its key members. Since this book has generated so much controversy, a panic-stricken BJP leadership does not want to land itself in another mess. It has, therefore, politely asked Jaswant Singh to postpone the release of his new book on Jinnah till after next year’s Lok Sabha elections. Jinnah, particularly, is a sensitive subject for the BJP which has still not forgetten the storm kicked up by Advani’s “Jinnah is secular” comment.
Bihar tussle Since there is no let-up in the rebellion against Bihar deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi from the BJP’s state unit, the party’s central leadership in Delhi is seriously toying with the idea of withdrawing its ministers from Nitish Kumar’s government. In a recent ministerial reshuffle, Nitish Kumar had dropped both BJP and Janata Dal (U) incumbents. The BJP ministers who were shown the door, belonging to upper castes, have trained their guns on Modi, who, they say, did not plead their case. Nitish Kumar told BJP leaders that he had consulted Modi before he decided to axe their ministers. The BJP leadership, however, does not want to send a negative message to backward castes and that is why it is thinking of withdrawing all its ministers from the state government. However, it will not withdraw support to the government as it will ensure that Nitish Kumar is rendered more vulnerable and is forced to accept the BJP’s demands.
Keenly sought post With Petroleum Secretary M.S. Srinivasan tipped for an assignment with the World Bank, there is a long list of contenders jostling for his post. From the non-IAS brigade, Sarthak Behuria, present Chairman of IOC, and Upendra Dutta Choubey, CMD of GAIL, are emerging as front runners. The IAS brigade of hopefuls include civil aviation secretary Ashok Chawla and power secretary Anil Razdan, who has had a stint with the petroleum ministry as an additional secretary. Not to be left out, health secretary Naresh Dayal and food and consumer affairs secretary T. Nand Kumar are also learnt to have put in a bid for this position. Subhas Pani, a senior Orissa cadre IAS officer and former state chief secretary, presently with the Planning Commission, is also said to be in the race. Ministry sources say that the top job in the oil ministry has become increasingly sought after as there are many more private players in the oil sector now, domestic and foreign. Contributed by Anita Katyal, Satish Misra and Bhagyashree Pande |
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