 |
|
BJP gets a chance Deadly protest |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Nargis in Myanmar Cyclone relief hit by politics IT is a matter of great relief that UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon has succeeded in persuading the military junta to allow foreign aid workers to provide relief to the desperate survivors of the cyclone Nargis. At least, 1.33 lakh people are feared killed or missing in the calamity that destroyed the entire Irrawaddy river delta on May 2.
Grand reconciliation
Home delivery
Trilateral diplomacy ‘Mobile use while pregnant can affect baby’s personality’ Chatterati
|
BJP gets a chance IT was a hard-won battle and the Bharatiya Janata Party has emerged as the clear winner in the Karnataka Assembly elections. It is poised to form its first government on May 28 in the south of the Vindhyas. In the 224-member House, it got 110 seats, three short of a simple majority. It claims the support of four Independents. The Congress and the Janata Dal (S) have secured 80 and 28 seats as against 65 and 58 seats, respectively, in the previous House. The people have taught a fitting lesson to former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda for his toppling games. They expressed their strong dissatisfaction over the manner in which he sought to promote his sons, Mr H.D. Kumaraswamy and Mr H.D. Revanna, and had betrayed the people’s trust and confidence. When the 2004 Assembly elections threw up a hung House, he tied up with the Congress and a government headed by Mr Dharam Singh assumed charge. However, he toppled it in no time, fearing that the increasing popularity of the Congress might cut into the vote bank of the JD (S). Far worse was the “great betrayal” of the BJP by the JD (S). Clearly, the voters have punished the JD (S) for its political chicanery and brinkmanship. Though both parties entered into a 20:20-month power-sharing agreement, the JD (S) chickened out after its time of 20 months and reneged on its commitment to transfer power to the BJP. Following a hue and cry, it allowed BJP leader B.S. Yeddyurappa to form the government, but refused to support it on the floor of the House. The one-week-old government fell after the BJP rejected the humiliating conditions imposed by the JD (S) for continuation of its support. The BJP, on the whole, organised its campaign successfully and has reaped a rich harvest. It could convince the people that it deserved a chance to govern the state. The Congress, however, failed to catch up, after a good start in the campaign. Factionalism, lacklustre campaign, underestimating the BJP’s popularity, failure to name its chief ministerial candidate, too many contenders for the top post and Mr S.M. Krishna’s late return to the state were all responsible for its failure to secure a majority. Karnataka is in dire need of political stability for good governance. Sunday’s victory of the BJP will hopefully ensure this.
|
|
Deadly protest Rajasthan, which is still recovering from the recent Jaipur serial bomb blasts, has been forced to shed more tears and this time for those killed in the violent Gujjar protests at Bayana in Bharatpur on Friday in support of their demand for Scheduled Caste status instead of the OBC tag. Despite the Chief Minister’s call for talks, on Saturday the raging fire continued to spread to other areas in the state, with the toll going up to 38. It is unfortunate that the agitation took such a violent turn. If the rampaging protesters showed no respect for law and order – lynching a policeman and uprooting a railway track over 3-km length – perhaps, the police, too, did not display as much restraint as the sensitive situation demanded. But then, Gujjar protests were equally violent last year also. As many as 26 lives were lost in the police firing and the subsequent protests. In fact, Friday’s agitation came just a week before the first anniversary of that horrifying incident. The Gujjars had suspended their agitation after the state government promised to form a panel to study their case. The panel later rejected their demand but recommended special assistance. With so many deaths, there is a very real danger of a severe backlash, not only in the Gujjar-dominated districts of Rajasthan but also in other neighbouring states. It would be disastrous if various parties use the “opportunity” to play their usual games instead of dousing the fire. Whether it is Rajasthan or any other state, each has enough day-to-day problems to take care of and would be better off if not saddled with such law and order problems The competitive demand for more and more reservation benefits by more and more castes is a genie which cannot be put back into the bottle. Under the circumstances, the only thing that can be attempted is not to let the crisis simmer till it boils over but to try and resolve the issue before it explodes in more violence and loss of lives. In Rajasthan, the elections are barely six months away. The beleagured Chief Minister, Ms Vasundhara Raje, will have to do a bit of tight-rope walking to find a way out of the tricky situation.
|
|
Nargis in Myanmar IT is a matter of great relief that UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon has succeeded in persuading the military junta to allow foreign aid workers to provide relief to the desperate survivors of the cyclone Nargis. At least, 1.33 lakh people are feared killed or missing in the calamity that destroyed the entire Irrawaddy river delta on May 2. Many lives could have been saved if the international aid agencies had been allowed easy access to the affected areas. Even now it is difficult to believe that the regime, which is deeply suspicious of the outside world, will not put obstacles in the way of relief operations. The UN chief’s claim of the top general of Myanmar, Gen Than Shwe, having agreed “to allow all aid workers, irrespective of their nationalities” to the devastated delta has not been confirmed by anyone representing the military rulers. However, the UN chief’s mission holds out the hope that the military junta will now keep politics aside and accept with open arms the foreign assistance necessary for effective relief. US ships loaded with relief material have been waiting for clearance for many days without success. Relief supplies should be allowed to come in from all sources, particularly when there are no strings attached. In the absence of full-scale relief operations, the situation appears hapless in the entire delta area. The attitude of the ruling generals has not been humane. The Myanmarese regime has been refusing visas for foreign disaster management experts, whose help could have definitely alleviated the misery of the cyclone victims. On May 24, the regime even went ahead with holding the referendum on the new constitution which is believed to be a ploy for perpetuating the military dictatorship. The scale of devastation required the regime to postpone the referendum regardless of its objective. At a time of such crisis, all the resources available should be used to save the cyclone-hit, who are suffering from disease, hunger, lack of water and shelter, etc. It is a pity that relief has reached hardly 50,000 of the 2.4 million victims after more than three weeks.
|
|
There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it. — Edith Wharton
|
Grand reconciliation
A
“grand (Indo-Pakistan) reconciliation” that Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and Pranab Mukherjee ventured to project in Islamabad last week is no utopian ideal. India wisely put aside recent negatives such as Pakistani infiltration attempts and firing across the LoC while Qureshi said Pakistan was open to “innovative ideas” that can resolve the J&K tangle, thereby bypassing the Pakistan Prime Minister’s rhetorical brushing aside of the Manmohan-Musharraf road-map for J&K as “half-baked” and a departure from the past UN resolutions. Further, the Pakistani side agreed that opening up economic relations, including trade and investment, should not be hostage to a J&K settlement but could, rather, create mutual stakes in goodwill and cooperation that would promote reconciliation. These are positive signals that demand early responses and bold initiatives taken in consultation with the government and the opposition both in Delhi and Srinagar so that all relevant players are kept in the loop, not excluding the Hurriyat. It would be fatal to listen to old diehards who fear an outbreak of peace as this would be treading unfamiliar ground and would make them redundant. If India takes the lead, Pakistan is likely to follow. The internal and external situation there is such that a rapprochement with India offers it the best hope of political and social stability, reform and lasting development. It was said at Islamabad that Dr Manmohan Singh would visit Pakistan this year “after sufficient progress” has been made. True enough, summit meetings yield best results, given due preparation which can be done through internal dialogue at home and back channel consultations with Pakistan. But since India-Pakistan “preparations” can go on forever and Pakistan faces some tricky post-election coalition and political issues, a unilateral Indian initiative should not be ruled out. It could set the tone and basis for further advance and compel Pakistanis to confront the fact that good relations with India can play a hugely significant part in resolving their constitutional, ideological, religious, military and economic problems at home. Just take General Kiyani’s latest pronouncement (through an aide) that while the Army is now apolitical, “the nation has an aspiration on (sic) Kashmir and the military will play a role to fulfil it as per the UNSC resolutions”. This is nothing but playing politics and underlines the fact that the raison d’etre for the Army’s bloated size and overweening influence is to be Pakistan’s shield against “India”. Likewise, religious fanaticism, witness the threat by Salahuddin, chief of the United Jehadi Council, to “wage war in Islamabad and Lahore” if there is any “retreat” on Kashmir. How can Pakistan be rid of this conjoint incubus unless it settles with India. What can Dr Manmohan Singh do? Without waiting for the abortive Autonomy Task Force to report, it should take up the National Conference’s J&K autonomy report of 2002 and the more recent PDP “self-rule” paper to promote dialogue within the state and in the rest of the country. There is nothing particularly radical about Mehbooba Mufti’s formulations about re-designating the Chief Minister as Sadr-i-Riyasat, who should be elected by the state legislature or establishing a regional council representing both sides of J&K (in due course and whose role and powers could be suitably defined with strict reciprocity vis-ŕ-vis the other side). Nor about the use of both Indian and Pakistan currencies in all of J&K (an arrangement partially akin to what subsists with Nepal and was earlier extant between India and the Gulf region). After all, Pranab Mukherjee and Qureshi have been talking about cross-LoC trade and investment in J&K while both sides are committed in principle to moving through SAFTA towards a South Asian Community and common currency. This may be a distant ideal but could be realised more readily in J&K. After all, Jawaharlal Nehru and Sheikh Abdullah had propounded the idea of a “confederation” under twin sovereignties for J&K in 1964. Dr Manmohan Singh has also spoken of possible joint cooperation in developing the further potential of the Indus basin as a single system to optimise mutual benefits (at a time of mutual uncertainty and peril with climate change). Why not now concretise this is suggesting a joint study of the Kishenganga/Neelum Valley projects being formulated by Pakistan and India in J&K and their twinning for enhanced benefit? Add to this the offer of extending the Udhampur-Baramulla railway to Muzaffarabad — and then down the Jehlum valley to Pakistan. Initial consultations among the Prime Minister and Vajpayee/Advani, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Farooq Abdullah and Mufti Sayeed and a few others on such an agenda could set the ball rolling. The back channel too could be activated. But India should not hesitate to declare its hand in due course, if necessary, and compel wider debate on both sides so that the world knows where it stands and where the impediment, if any, lies. Pakistan has one well to enter into a peace agreement with the Taliban in the NWFP and Swat, where a NAP-led coalition is in office. This may have its perils but could yield larger gains. No military solution is possible or will be popular. The Americans/NATO forces are fighting the wrong war in Afghanistan too and threaten to reduce that country into another Iraq. A more promising answer to the Afghan imbroglio lies in Pakistan, India, Iran, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Russia and China, with UN, US, EU and Japanese participation as observers, taking a lead in forging a regional solution for peace, stable governance, development and modernisation in which the Iran-Pakistan-India and TAPI gas pipelines could play a catalytic role, displacing poppy cultivation and drug-running, abductions and extortions as economic drivers. Tajik hydro-power could also be fed to Afghanistan and Pakistan. Karzai may not be unwilling. Transit for India to Afghanistan and joint investments in this new SAARC member could be part of
the package. The gain for Pakistan would be returning tranquillity in Afghanistan and the withdrawal of American forces from Pakistan. All this constitutes a hard nut to crack but has a far better chance of success than
continuing mayhem. This could be the kind of road-map that India should now be working on. Some might suggest that this is not the right time for such “adventurous” thinking with general elections approaching in the country and within J&K. Indeed, this makes such an initiative more urgent so that the country might unite on a broad national/J&K consensus on the way forward and not vitiate the atmosphere further through divisive and fractious electioneering in and over J&K and India-Pakistan
relations.
|
Home delivery HIS age was difficult to guess. He could have been either remarkably well-preserved for an old man, or prematurely old for a young one. He came round to the house once or twice a month. Yasin was his name and he was an itinerant seller of kababs and a criss-cross paratha, cooked in asli ghee, which Dilliwalas know as sheermal. The kababs were chilli-hot and the sheermal could lie heavy on your stomach. But at that age our innards seemed to be lined with asbestos and we could have digested elephant steaks had they been garnered with laces of raw onions. One winter morning Yasin appeared with an assistant in tow. He was a lad of about my own age, which at the time was 12 or 13. The boy was introduced to us as Usman and as he looked vaguely like Yasin. My mother asked the latter if he was his son. In the ‘tehzib’ of Delhi, Yasin replied ‘yeh aap hi ka bachha hai’ (He is your child). I can still remember my mother doing her best to control her laughter at my father’s obvious discomfiture. A year later Yasin, accompanied by his fast-growing son, turned up wearing a white muslin cap on his head and week’s growth of beard on his face. He said he was about to make good his one great omission in life, the pilgrimage to Mecca. “Then who will bring us our kabab-paratha?” we cried in distress. “Do not fear” said Yasin “Insha Allah my son Usman will serve you.” This he did faithfully till his father came back, this time wearing a green turban and a henna-dyed beard. For a time the father-and-son partnership continued and then, one day, Yasin came with a hired “chokra” carrying his paraphernalia “what’s happened to Usman” I asked. “Oh he is in school now” said Yasin. “I want him to do at least his 8th class so that he can get a “sarkari naukri” the old man must have been sorely disappointed when his son, instead of becoming a babu, got himself apprenticed to a tailor in Kashmere Gate. The years rolled on. Yasin was gathered to his ancestors. In 1946 when I last set eyes on Usman he was a portly, grey-haired man, the owner of the tailoring shop in which he had learned his profession. It was a couple of years after partition when, on a visit to Delhi I found myself in Kashmere Gate. I decided to go and see how he was getting on. He wasn’t there. In the shop sat a sardarji selling motor parts. He had acquired it as compensation for what he had left behind in Rawalpindi. I walked away wondering if they had treated my friend Usman equally well, assuming that he had crossed the border in
safety.
|
Trilateral diplomacy Multilateralism,
regionalism and sub-regionalism are increasingly becoming the trend and norm of geopolitics and an integral aspect of international relations. There is a perception that the trilateral diplomacy of India, China and Russia, though in a very embryonic stage, offers great potential for regional stability and cooperation. The first ever summit level meeting of the three countries held in June 2005 in Vladivostok, Russia, had aroused considerable interest among observers. Analysts believe that the dialogue may be acquiring a strategic dimension. After the first summit meeting, the Foreign Ministers of these three countries have met four times and exchanged views on issues of common concern, the latest being in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg on the sidelines of the Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) meeting held on May 15. The second meeting had been held in New Delhi in February 2007 and the third at Harbin in China in October 2007. The importance of the trilateral initiative can be attributed to the fact that India, Russia and China, as countries with growing international influence, can make substantive contributions to global peace, security and stability. It is increasingly felt that cooperation rather than confrontation should govern approaches to regional and global affairs. The fast growing economies of these countries offer very good opportunities for cooperation in many areas such as energy and fighting the menace of terrorism, which was emphasised at the meeting. The three countries together encompass approximately 40 per cent of the world’s 6.5 billion people. The objective of the trilateral cooperation has been very clearly articulated, stating that the trilateral cooperation is not directed against the interests of any single country and on the contrary is aimed at promoting international harmony and to facilitate a multi-polar world. As India, China, and Russia enjoy economic growth and development never seen before in their history earlier, they appear to be raising a louder voice on the world scene. Putin, who demitted the office of the President and is currently the Prime Minister of Russia, has been articulating a vision for a multi-polar world. Russia believes that multilateral diplomacy based on international law should manage regional and global relations. In his Munich speech earlier last year, Putin had said that a “unipolar world had failed to materialise and that the new international system has not one but several leading actors and their collective leadership is needed to manage global relations.” He said further that this multipolarity encourages the use of the network of diplomacy as the best way for states to achieve shared objectives. India is of the view that trilateral cooperation would help in contributing to peace and development in the region and the world at large. Articulating the ideal and objective of the trilateral configuration, Mr. Pranab Mukherjee, India’s Foreign Minister, said at the meeting that the troika sent a message to the world that the three leading economies having common views on regional and global issues was of the “utmost importance and has its impact on the overall international situation”. Russia is of the view that as the three countries uphold the concept of a multi-polar world and frequently take similar stands at multilateral bodies, they could utilise the synergy to promote their domestic economic development. China feels that the three countries could join hands in several fields, including trade, energy science and technology, to broaden strategic ties with each other. In this context, the trilateral meeting assumes significance because the forum of Foreign Ministers could be useful to chalk out a concrete road-map. Trilateral cooperation would help in contributing to peace and development in the region and the world at large. Besides economic cooperation and fighting the scourge of terrorism, the three countries of the region have a convergence of outlook and approach to many regional and international issues like development in Myanmar, the Iran nuclear issue, Afghanistan
and Kosovo, etc. India’s opposition to impose sanctions against Myanmar and advance political reforms and national reconciliation in that country, find support from both Russia and China. India believes that the initiative taken by the U.N. Secretary-General Ban-Ki Moon to open dialogue among the various stakeholders in Myanmar should be encouraged. This was articulated by Pranab Mukherjee, earlier at Harbin after the end of the third stand alone meeting of Foreign Ministers of India, China and Russia. This position is shared by both Russia and China. The convergence of approach of these three countries on Iran’s nuclear programme is well known. Reiterating India’s stand on Iran’s nuclear issue Mr Mukherjee said at the meeting that India supported Teheran’s right to peaceful uses of nuclear energy provided it fulfilled its international obligations. The imperatives of multilateral cooperation through a regional and sub-regional configuration is the need of the hour to harness and synergise the regional strength for the enlightened national interests of the countries of the region, for their mutual benefit and for global peace and prosperity. Prosperity has to be shared and should not be allowed to be
monopolised.
|
|
‘Mobile use while pregnant can affect baby’s personality’ WOMEN who use mobile phones when pregnant are more likely to give birth to children with behavioural problems, according to authoritative research. A giant study, which surveyed more than 13,000 children, found that using the handsets just two or three times a day was enough to raise the risk of their babies developing hyperactivity and difficulties with conduct, emotions and relationships by the time they reached school age. And it adds that the likelihood is even greater if the children themselves used the phones before the age of seven. The results of the study, the first of its kind, have taken the top scientists who conducted it by surprise. But they follow warnings against both pregnant women and children using mobiles by the official Russian radiation watchdog body, which believes that the peril they pose “is not much lower than the risk to children’s health from tobacco or alcohol”. The research – at the universities of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and Aarhus, Denmark – is to be published in the July issue of the journal Epidemiology and will carry particular weight because one of its authors has been sceptical that mobile phones pose a risk to health. UCLA’s Professor Leeka Kheifets – who serves on a key committee of the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection, the body that sets the guidelines for exposure to mobile phones – wrote three and a half years ago that the results of studies on people who used them “to date give no consistent evidence of a causal relationship between exposure to radiofrequency fields and any adverse health effect”. The scientists questioned the mothers of 13,159 children born in Denmark in the late 1990s about their use of the phones in pregnancy, and their children’s use of them and behaviour up to the age of seven. As they gave birth before mobiles became universal, about half of the mothers had used them infrequently or not at all, enabling comparisons to be made. They found that mothers who did use the handsets were 54 per cent more likely to have children with behavioural problems and that the likelihood increased with the amount of potential exposure to the radiation. And when the children also later used the phones they were, overall, 80 per cent more likely to suffer from difficulties with behaviour. They were 25 per cent more at risk from emotional problems, 34 per cent more likely to suffer from difficulties relating to their peers, 35 per cent more likely to be hyperactive, and 49 per cent more prone to problems with conduct. The scientists say that the results were “unexpected”, and that they knew of no biological mechanisms that could cause them. But when they tried to explain them by accounting for other possible causes – such as smoking during pregnancy, family psychiatric history or socio-economic status – they found that, far from disappearing, the association with mobile phone use got even stronger. They add that there might be other possible explanations that they did not examine – such as that mothers who used the phones frequently might pay less attention to their children – and stress that the results “should be interpreted with caution” and checked by further studies. But they conclude that “if they are real they would have major public health implications”. Professor Sam Milham, of the blue-chip Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, and the University of Washington School of Public Health – one of the pioneers of research in the field – said last week that he had no doubt that the results were real. He pointed out that recent Canadian research on pregnant rats exposed to similar radiation had found structural changes in their offspring’s brains. The Russian National Committee on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection says that use of the phones by both pregnant women and children should be “limited”. It concludes that children who talk on the handsets are likely to suffer from “disruption of memory, decline of attention, diminishing learning and cognitive abilities, increased irritability” in the short term, and that longer-term hazards include “depressive syndrome” and “degeneration of the nervous structures of the brain”.
By arrangement with The Independent
|
|
Chatterati Psephologists
are in vogue once again. Most of their answers are simple – hung assembly or hung Parliament. But there is one who is supposed to be close to M. Venkaiah Naidu and
L.K. Advani, who had predicted the BSP sweep in UP. The BJP leader was a bit put off but was impressed once the results were known. The same psephologist is also supposedly Narendra Modi’s guy. He has been accompanying B.S. Yeddyurappa when he was travelling the length and breadth of Karnataka. Some time ago, Advani called this professional to his residence to give a Power Point presentation. Wonder what he told the leader of Opposition…But Advani sure is more aggressive since then.
Soft state The Jaipur carnage still haunts the mind of the common man. He wonders why such attacks cannot be stopped. He wants to know what is being done to protect the common man on the street. What kind of democracy do we have if our state and central governments cannot come together even on the critical issue of national security? What a sorry state of affairs to see a well-meaning Prime Minister talking about the need for a federal agency to tackle terrorist cases throughout the country and the states not agreeing to it! The Department of Homeland Security newly created in the USA has even gone to the extent of scrutinising some classes of visa applications but bothersome as they are, the government has backed them. What matters is that no terrorist action has taken place there since 9/11. In our country the judges announced their verdict on the Mumbai blast accused after 14 years. Why are we soft on terror? Is this a reflection of our mental make-up? We accept things as they come and in fact even try to justify them or give a rationale for them, rather than taking them head-on. Economic growth would become meaningless if national security concerns are not addressed. An aspiring world power cannot afford to be seen as a weak state against acts of terror. All developed nations are taking strong steps to prevent terrorist acts. It is about time we did too.
Money and booze Money and liquor as usual were the buzz words during the Karnataka elections. In one constituency a Congressman was wary of ambulances. He felt the ambulance was a ploy of the opposing candidate, who is a mine lord, to smuggle in liquor and money right under the Election Commission’s (EC) nose. No one stops ambulances to check. Suspicions first arose when too many ambulances were seen making unusually high numbers of trips. Congress’ respected former deputy chief minister M. P.
Prakash, stopped one such ambulance but the vehicle was empty. After checking with the hospital, Prakash filed a complaint with the EC against his opposing candidate. Acting on a tip-off, over 4000 crates of Indian Manufactured Foreign Liquor (IMFL) and Rs 10 crore in cash were seized, in just one haul. Many seizures amounting to tens of lakhs of rupees were also made. But locals in many places insist that money is flowing. They say that Rs 500 per vote was given. If voters are not at home, workers multiply the amount by the total number of voters in the family, wrap the money in the party pamphlet and toss it into the house. Some candidates’ helicopters were allegedly used to bring in cash.
|
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Letters | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
