EDITORIALS

The best way-out
New Governor tackles a messy situation

JAMMU and Kashmir Governor N.N. Vohra has defused the political crisis in the state with the best possible decision that also meets the requirements of the Amarnath pilgrims. In his capacity as the ex-officio chairman of the Amarnath Shrine Board, he wrote a letter to this effect to Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad to withdraw the request for forestland to accommodate the pilgrims. On his part, the Chief Minister has assured him that the government would not be found wanting in providing facilities to the pilgrims. Hopefully this has restored peace and normalcy in the state. The whole controversy was avoidable. Former Governor Gen S.K. Sinha (retd) left behind a messy situation for his successor when as the Shrine Board chief, he made a request to the Forest Department for a huge chunk of forestland to “accommodate” the pilgrims. His Principal Secretary Arun Kumar made matters worse by clarifying that the land allotment was of a permanent nature.

Mr Arun Kumar’s statement raised the hackles of some groups, political and otherwise, in the state who were waiting for an opportunity to create trouble. The fundamentalist elements among them began campaigning that the autonomy of the state was under attack and the state’s demographic composition was being altered. The ruling PDP, which should have taken the initiative to assuage the hurt feelings of the people and to tell them that no efforts were being made to alter the demographic profile, found it politically expedient to join the protestors. With an eye on the coming elections, it used the fig leaf of forestland to pull out its ministers from the government. The PDP has not crowned itself with glory; it would have earned credit for having a sense of responsibility if it had acted otherwise.

Amarnath yatra is over one and a half century old. The cave in South Kashmir was discovered by a Muslim shepherd, whose successors have always played a role in the successful conduct of the yatra. Even today, it is the local Muslims who help the pilgrims by providing all kinds of services. If at all accommodation for pilgrims is required, the local community can be encouraged to provide it. There was no need to play into the hands of fundamentalists who saw in the request for land a window of opportunity for them. The Hindutva outfits in Jammu also have not acted with restraint when efforts were being made to tackle the problem. Jammu and Kashmir cannot afford the luxury of irresponsible behaviour.

Men of shame
No mercy for the Bulandshahr MLA

Another of Maya-wati’s MLAs is in deep trouble and is facing criminal charges including rape. The latest is Bulandshahr MLA Bhagwan Sharma alias Guddu Pandit for allegedly raping a research scholar from Agra. The legislator kept the victim in the dark about his first marriage, forcibly married her in a temple with his hoodlums on guard and exploited her physically and mentally. Incidentally, he is a protege of Amarmani Tripathy, former minister, who is undergoing life imprisonment for raping poet Madhumita Shukla. This is shocking and shows what kind of people are landing in Parliament and state legislatures. The ends of justice will be met only if the MLA is tried expeditiously and given maximum punishment. The Chief Minister may have ordered the police to treat the victim’s statements to the media as an FIR and arrest him, but leaders of his ilk have inflicted incalculable damage on the system.

Bhagwan Singh’s arrest comes close on the heels of the arrest of UP’s Fisheries Minister Jamuna Nishad, Water Resources Minister Raghunath Prashad Shankhwar, Food Processing Minister Anand Sen Yadav and Azamgarh MP Umakant Yadav. This proves that Ms Mayawati has packed her ministry and the state legislature with criminals and history sheeters. Worse, reports suggest that there are at least 22 BSP MLAs and MPs facing criminal charges. As the increasing malaise of criminalisation of politics is not restricted to Uttar Pradesh alone, the Centre should expedite the Election Commission’s recommendation to disqualify criminals from contesting elections. This is essential because the political parties are not voluntarily coming forward to deny tickets to criminals.

In the context of increasing cases of rape in the country, committed especially by politicians and the high and the mighty, there is a need to speed up the trial of those accused of rape in the fast track courts. Such people should be given maximum punishment. There is a strong case for strengthening the law enforcing machinery in a manner that the investigation and trial finally lead to conviction without much delay.

Wind power, sun power
India should tap these sources for energy

With the global oil price climbing to $ 142 a barrel, efforts to tap renewable sources of energy have stepped up. To encourage private investment in wind energy generation plants, the Centre has offered an incentive of 50 paise per unit of electricity for 10 years in addition to the tariff fixed by the state regulatory commissions. Wind energy is easier to generate and cheaper than solar power. States like Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Rajasthan are actively pushing it.

The potential for renewables is unlimited as India has abundant hydro, solar, wind and biomass resources to produce energy and cut its dependence on polluting, fossil-based sources of power. The high cost of exploiting alternative energy sources has been a deterrent to their fast growth but with oil scaling a new high week after week the cost factor is tilting in favour of wind, solar and hydro power. Besides, new green technologies are cutting costs and making the renewables economically viable. In less than three years Portugal has quadrupled its wind power and trebled its hydropower capacity. It hopes to beat Denmark and Japan in developing a renewables industry.

Apart from wind power, the Centre is pushing other alternatves to meet the 11th Plan target of having 10 gigawatt of renewable energy generation capacity. The government has decided to set up a solar energy mission and promote the use of solar lanterns in place of kerosene lanterns across the country. The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has been asked to prepare a workable plan in consultation with states to tap the available potential. It can focus on setting up solar and wind farms, encourage energy-efficient building designs, extraction of biodiesel from locally available seeds and generation of electricity from waste. Nuclear energy has unnecessarily got caught in a political controversy.

Thought for the day

Bigotry may be roughly defined as the anger of men who have no opinions. — G. K. Chesterton

Corrections and clarifications

n Mr Pranab Mukherjee is the minister for external affairs, not defence, as wrongly mentioned in the news-item headlined “Badal wants to cross over to Pak with defence minister in copter” (June 28). The error appeared in the first edition and it was corrected in the subsequent editions.

n The report headlined “Former spies can bare and tell no more” mentioned that “Maj Gen V.K. Singh (retd), who served in the RAW during the Kargil war, is behind bars for violating the Official Secrets Act”. He is not behind bars. It is true that the CBI has registered an FIR and filed a charge sheet but that is where the case is.

n The name of the Akali leader mentioned in the report “Pak to consider demands by Sikh pilgrims” (June 23) is Phoola Singh, not Bhola Singh, as mentioned.

n In the last paragraph of the report headlined “Nawz Sharif can’t contest election, rules court” (June 24), the sentence in which “Army Chief” is mentioned the word “bete noir” or a synonymous word is missing.

Despite our earnest endeavour to keep The Tribune error-free, some errors do creep in at times. We are always eager to correct them.

We request our readers to write or e-mail to us whenever they find any error. We will carry corrections and clarifications, wherever necessary, every Tuesday.

Readers in such cases can write to Mr Amar Chandel, Deputy Editor, The Tribune, Chandigarh, with the words “Corrections” on the envelope. His e-mail ID is: amarchandel@tribunemail. com.

H.K. Dua
Editor-in-Chief

ARTICLE

Preparing for polls
Mayawati factor in national politics
by S. Nihal Singh

The impasse over the Indo-US nuclear deal has only accentuated the period of interregnum the country finds itself in. Slowly but surely we are approaching the end of the Manmohan Singh-led coalition government. Publicly, the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party is giving the impression that it cannot wait for the general election to be held, announcing a few candidates for the Lok Sabha as part of its public relations campaign.

Essentially, all parties are planning for elections, whenever they are held - by the end of the year or early next year. The Left parties would have wanted to distance themselves from the Congress some time before the elections; they might now have to do so somewhat sooner than they had foreseen. The Samajwadi Party has been thrust into the limelight, thanks to the nuclear deal, on the assumption that it could bail out the government with its 39 MPs if the Left withdrew support.

The emerging alliances or attempts to woo other parties point to a cardinal principle of politics in India. There are few permanent friends and allies and the one party that had been painted into a corner as a pariah because of its alleged communal nature lost its taint during the Emergency of the seventies and the Janata Party government of Morarji Desai that followed, only to self-destruct.

The BJP has been loudly proclaiming that it is largely responsible for giving the country a two-party configuration, that the regional parties revolve round the two conglomerations of the Congress and the BJP. That may be so, but the clout of the regional parties is increasing and the price they ask for is considerably higher.

It is no secret that, whatever one’s views on the Indo-US nuclear deal, the Congress and its allies in the United Progressive Alliance would be far from happy if the general election were to be held this winter. The high levels of inflation, however culpable world trends might be, are hitting the proverbial common man. And, taken with terrorist incidents, the BJP is relishing the ammunition it has in painting the Congress black.

The Marxists have perhaps crossed the Rubicon by their leader, Mr Prakash Karat, publicly berating Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for creating the present political crisis. For good measure, he and his party have been proclaiming the Congress’ culpability on rising prices for not following Communist prescriptions and for raising petrol and diesel prices.

Despite its brash and confident posture, the BJP leadership is well aware that elections are not won on public relations coups — it is reportedly talking to American spin masters to devise its election campaign. True, the party won a great victory in the Karnataka assembly elections, but the rest of the South, except for pockets in Kerala, is virgin territory for it. In the North, the BJP’s recent performance in the crucial state of Uttar Pradesh has been dismal and hence the change in tone of Mr L.K. Advani towards Ms Mayawati, disregarding the fact that BJP leaders in the state were roundly abusing her yesterday.

Nor can the BJP draw much comfort from the party’s performance in Madhya Pradesh, a government mired in corruption scandals, or the recent Gujjar crisis it has weathered in Rajasthan, the two states approaching election deadlines. The short point is that political spin will take the BJP only thus far and it has a lot of homework to do to plot its moves and alliances.

Both the Congress and the BJP are seeking to guard their flocks in the United Progressive Alliance and the National Democratic Alliance. The BJP is obviously eyeing Ms Jayalalithaa’s AIADMK on the safe assumption that if one Dravidian party goes one way, the other would go to the other camp. But the fictional third front, now grouped under the tag of United National Progressive Alliance, offers pickings for the two conglomerations. Will Mr Chandrababu Naidu of the Telugu Desam Party again go into the BJP camp, despite his protestations? And what would be left of the UNPA if Mr Mulayam Singh were to walk into the Congress camp?

The Marxists themselves seem to be on shaky ground in their bastions. Recent local elections in West Bengal were a pointer to the erosion of their support and the inevitable pendulum swing in Kerala from one election to the next is compounded this time by intra-party warfare in the CP(M). If the Left parties were to lose some 20 seats between them this time around, what will be their clout in national politics?

These are early days yet, but the uncertainties inherent in the situation are making political punditry that much more difficult. Strategists know what it takes to fight a successful election but new wild cards make old tactics less effective. Two new factors that will impinge on the next general election are the four-year association of the Marxists with the Congress and the emergence of Ms Mayawati as a new factor in helping determine the winner.

However critical the Marxists — by and large the most influential of the communist parties in the country — might become of Congress policies, even outside the Indo-US nuclear deal, they cannot divorce themselves from the coalition government’s failures. After all, their support was crucial in keeping the Manmohan Singh-led dispensation afloat. Although the CPM did manage to influence economic policy on occasion, chiefly to stall certain reforms, and delay the increase in petrol and diesel prices, it went along with the general thrust of the government’s programme.

By withdrawing the support of her 17 MPs in the Lok Sabha to the UPA in the face of the Left parties’ threat to sink the government, Ms Mayawati loudly proclaimed the importance of being Ms Mayawati. By her remarkable victory in the UP assembly elections by weaving together her Dalit base with Brahmins and others, she has shown that she is a factor in national politics. To begin with, UP provides 80 MPs in the Lok Sabha and if she can replicate her assembly performance, she could become a kingmaker in Delhi.

Ms Mayawati’s performance in other North Indian states has been disappointing thus far, but she is capable of depriving both the Congress and the BJP of seats in many constituencies. A spoiler is as much of an adversary as a winner.

MIDDLE

Beasts are not rapists
by Lt-Gen Baljit Singh (retd)

NEVER mind how the dictionary explains away “beastly”, but the act of rape among humans is just not beastly. And why? Simply because beasts, that is wild animals, do not rape ever.

Rather, beasts only mate out of a sacred biological urge to perpetrate their species. Again, out of an in-born genetic instinct, beasts are governed by the law of “natural selection” in which physically the fittest among the males pair with the most receptive of females. No more and no less. The female then bears, suckles and ultimately detaches from the progeny!

In the case of birds, the annual bonding among the pair extends right till their young fledge, as a universal truth. But in the case of several species such as the sarus crane, the geese, the pigeons, etc they pair for life. Despite that, the sacredness of the act of procreation among birds is renewed each year (or more often as per the biological clock) with the joy of an act of faith by both partners. The male puts on the wooing display with ardour and total commitment, oblivious of the world around, till he wins the heart of his “fair-lady”, all over again!

Little wonder that as in the case of the sarus cranes (and many more) when one of the pair dies a natural or an unnatural death, the other partner more often pines and perishes but never re-pairs.

Of course, there are aberrations to the rule as among the chimpanzees, who even indulge freely in incest, but for all intents as though with consent and without any stigma from within the clan.

Now among the mammals, the male may pair with more than one female in the same season but always with consenting partners only. Take the case of the Asian elephants, the largest terrestrial “beast” alive today. They live in large herds but mating is performed in strict privacy by detaching from the herd. The following day the pair rejoin the herd.

The gestation period stretches to almost two years when the bull will pair again. Cows and young bulls of the entire herd shelter the pregnant cows against all harm. Shortly before birth, the herd seeks out a secluded river or any other water body. While the expecting female bathes, a few members mount guard and the rest of the herd prepare a cushion of branches and leaves as the maternity matress. They then circle the area from a discreet distance, leaving the cow to bear the calf in security and privacy.

And the birth is then signalled to the world at large with collective and joyous trumpeting. Those who have witnessed consider it the ultimate experience of a lifetime.

Man has much to emulate from the “beasts”. So, let us not belittle the nobility of animals by calling a rapist a beast. For, beasts do not rape.

OPED

When Sam was sidelined
Manekshaw will live on as a legend
by I. Ramamohan Rao

There will be stories of Field Marshal SHFJ Manekshaw’s performance as a staff officer in the Military Operations Directorate at Army Headquarters during the Jammu and Kashmir operations in 1947-48.

Many still recall how he was sidelined following the remarks made by him at the Defence Services Staff College in Wellington on the role of the then Defence Minister Krishna Menon. A Court of Inquiry cleared him and he moved on to head the IV Corps in NEFA after the Indian Army debacle in 1962
One of the most satisfying periods of my 40-odd years of career as a communicator was my tenure as a Public Relations Officer of the Army in South Block between 1969 and 1973 when the Chief of Army Staff was Gen Sam Manekshaw.

During those years, the country went through a period of turmoil, which changed the map of the subcontinent.  Manekshaw took over as the Army Chief after his successful tenure as the Chief of the Eastern Command. 

He restored the morale of the troops in NEFA, brought the underground movement in Nagaland and Mizoram under control, besides helping the administration in West Bengal to control the Naxalite movement there. 

Soon after taking over as Army Chief, Sam Manekshaw visited troops in the forward areas of Jammu and Kashmir. I was a member of his party, when he visited a battalion of the 8th Gorkha Rifles, based near Pahalgam. 

As was the practice, he inspected the battalion at the parade ground. He stopped occasionally, held a Jawan by the shoulder or by his belt and asked his name.

On getting a reply, he asked a soldier, what is my name? When the jawan looked perplexed, he said my name is Sam, Sam. The Gorkha soldier replied: 'Yes, Sam Bahadur'.

On our return to Delhi that afternoon, I released a handout about the Army Chief's programme in Kashmir and also put out a small item of his interaction with the Gorkha soldier. 

It said that the Army Chief had a new name – Sam Bahadur – and narrated the incident. As expected, the item was published as a box item in Delhi newspapers the next day. 

Sam Manekshaw was pleased no end, as it identified him with the Gorkha soldiers. From then onwards, he was called 'Sam Bahadur'. The incident also established my credentials with him as a PRO.

On March 26, 1971, Sam Manekshaw was visiting the Southern Command at Pune and one of the items in his programme was to open a swimming pool at the Armed Forces Medical College. The function remained inconclusive as Sam Manekshaw was called to Delhi.

As we were travelling to Delhi in the Air Force TU-124 aircraft, we came to know that the Pakistan Army had cracked down in East Pakistan and the Government of India was seriously considering various options. Prime Minister Indira Gandhi wanted the Army Chief's views on the subject.

Prime Minister Indira Gandhi wanted India to go to the aid of the people of East Pakistan, but General Manekshaw advised against it as India may have had to fight on three fronts, in the West, East and the North. 

The northern passes were clear during summer. In addition there would be rain in a couple of months, making West Bengal and eastern India difficult for any military movements. The advice of Sam Maneshshaw was to defer operations till the onset of winter when the northern passes would be closed due to the heavy snow.

The government accepted Manekshaw's advice.  From then on, he went on frequent tours of different formations to ensure their preparedness.  I accompanied him during almost all the tours. 

In every formation, he would address the soldiers and tell them: "The country has looked after us well. We have been fed well, paid well, and our families have been well looked after. Why? To defend the country, fight a war and defeat the enemy. You now have an opportunity. We have to be true to our salt. We will not let down our country." Sam Manekshaw would get a thunderous response.

While the Army converged on East Pakistan, crossing all obstacles, the Navy and the Air Force ensured that the Pakistan Army could not hope for any reinforcements. The para-drop in East Pakistan surprised the enemy. India also used psychological warfare operations during the conflict. The broadcast message by Sam Manekshaw had a good impact. 

The substance of the broadcast in Urdu directed to Pakistan soldiers, was: "You are living in hostile territory among a population who hate you. You are surrounded by the Indian Army. Your ports are sealed by the Indian Navy. Your Air Force in the East has been destroyed. The Mukti Bahini and the people are all prepared to take revenge for the atrocities and cruelties you have committed. Why waste lives? Don't you want to go home and be with your children? Do not lose time, there is no disgrace in laying down arms to a soldier. I assure you that we will give you the treatment befitting a soldier."

The broadcast and the accompanying surrender leaflets played a major role in securing the surrender of the Pakistani forces. On December 16, 1971, Lt Gen A A K  Niazi handed over the document of surrender to Lt. Gen Jagjit Singh Aurora, who accepted the surrender of 93,000 prisoners of war to the Allied Command, which included the Mukti Bahini.

When the surrender was announced by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in Parliament, a crowd gathered opposite South Block and carried Sam Manekshaw on their shoulders. Every Indian stood taller that day. All of us expected that Sam Manekshaw would be made a Field Marshal soon after. But he had to wait for over a year to be given the rank.

He was granted the rank 15 days before his retirement. Many were envious of him. A Field Marshal is supposed to be in service throughout his life – and Sam Manekshaw had to wait for 30-odd years to get the salary of his rank!

The writer is a former Principal Information Officer, Government of India

Oil cash may prove a shaky crutch for Iran’s President
by Thomas Erdbrink

Faced with rapid inflation and growing international concern about his country's nuclear ambitions, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is relying on huge increases in oil and gas revenue to insulate his government from internal and external pressures.

Some of the same Western countries taking steps to compel Iran to stop uranium enrichment are also the biggest consumers of its oil and gas. The European Union said last week that it would freeze the assets of Bank Melli, Iran's largest, in keeping with U.N. sanctions. The E.U. is also the leading global consumer of Iranian oil and gas.

Oil wealth, which funds 60 percent of the national budget, has allowed Iran's government to exercise its power to cut interest rates and ignore warnings from the country's Central Bank that overspending will worsen inflation.

Iran earned $80 billion from oil and gas sales in the fiscal year that ended March 20, up from $35 billion three years ago. But the increasing oil revenue is causing a widening gap between rich and poor, as some businesspeople prosper while inflation eats away at consumers' purchasing power. These developments jeopardize Ahmadinejad's populist appeal and could hurt his campaign for re-election in 2009.

Since 2005, when Ahmadinejad came to power, the annual rate of inflation has risen from 12.1 percent to 19.2 percent, according to Central Bank figures. The rate reached 25.2 percent in May, the bank said.

Ahmadinejad has long tussled with economic officials, who say the government has lacked expertise. Indeed, Central Bank governor Tahmasb Mazaheri has straightforward advice for Iran's leaders: "They should decrease the budget deficit, limit spending money and refrain from using oil revenues."

Ahmadinejad announced last week that he would implement unspecified changes in Iran's banking, taxation and import systems and blamed their leaders for being "ineffective." He also conceded that inflation was a "big problem."

Ahmad Zeidabadi, an Iranian political analyst who writes for several anti-government media outlets, said that increased oil revenue had "given the government lots of self-confidence in many fields."

"When you have plenty of money you can solve many problems," Zeidabadi said. But he also noted the danger of intertwining the country's economic fate with the fluctuating price of oil. "If the price suddenly would drop, they will not be able to provide the country with necessary imports. The oil money is this government's lifeline."

A small coterie of developers, oil traders and businesspeople with lucrative government contracts are profiting from the oil boom. Shiny new BMWs crowd the streets of northern Tehran, where real estate prices have doubled or tripled and where luxury developments can command $2,000 per square foot.

But the majority of Iranians have suffered from the inflation that analysts say is partly the result of government spending. Asgar Eskandiary, 32, a teacher, said he thanked God for the health insurance he bought years ago because it paid for a sinus operation.

Otherwise, he and his wife would have had to spend rent money on the operation and "we would have lost our apartment for sure," he said, drinking a warm Coke at a fast-food restaurant where a blackout to save energy had deterred other customers.

Every visit to the supermarket brings unpleasant surprises, he said. The price of milk powder, which the couple needs for their infant son, increased from the equivalent of $3 to about $4.30 in just over a year's time. He makes the equivalent of about $540 a month and "can barely cope," he said. "We spend all we have for our small baby."

The teacher said he saw only one solution. "I want to write a letter to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. He needs to bring back the experts, people who know about economy. The government doesn't know what they are doing."

During an interview conducted by one of his close aides on state television, Ahmadinejad acknowledged last Monday that mostly the rich were benefiting from the subsidies that Iran provides for gas, water, energy, wheat and rice. He announced the establishment of national bank accounts in which the poor would receive their subsidies directly.

But analysts feared that the move would lead to more economic problems. "Yet another direct injection of money into the society will create more inflation," Zeidabadi said.

By arrangement with LA Times-Washington Post

Delhi Durbar
Comrades turn to foreign cars

The Leftists claim to represent the working class and have traditionally led a simple lifestyle. Old-timers remember how the grand old Communist, Indrajit Gupta, continued using his rickety, second-hand white Ambassador even after he became the Home Minister in the United Front government .

Forward Bloc leader Chitta Basu was so unused to using a car that whenever he came to the Prime Minister’s residence, he would invariably get lost looking for his car and driver. But that was then.

However much Left leaders may criticise the UPA government, it is no secret that their lifestyle has undergone a visible change since they started supporting the government.

This was noticeable when CPM leaders assembled at the party headquarters for a meeting last week. They all came in chauffeur-driven expensive cars.

CPI leaders Bardhan and D Raja now travel in a Honda City while RSP leader Chandrachoodan arrived in a Toyota Innova. Similarly, other Left leaders have also discarded the old-fashioned Ambassador for air-conditioned foreign cars.

Renovating airports

A recent visit to Mumbai brought out the stark contrast between the way the GMR-led consortium and the GVK-led consortium are going about the task of renovating the two most important airports of the country in Delhi and Mumbai respectively.

While the two started work almost simultaneously, it was interesting to note that the inconvenience to passengers travelling to and from Mumbai is far less than is the case in Delhi.

There is a method in the renovation at Mumbai airport as basic amenities have been maintained at any cost unlike Delhi. The thought of a touch-down at Delhi airport makes you sweat literally.

With air-conditioning not working, it is a nightmare for passengers waiting for their baggage to come. Is anyone listening?

Hospitality – Arab style

Journalists invited to a media interaction with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad got quite agitated when they were instructed not to sit with their legs crossed and to get up from their seats to welcome the visiting dignitary.

However, their anger evaporated when the press interaction ended as the Syrian leader himself saw them off by shaking hands with each one of them. “Arabs are as hospitable as you Indians are,'' a Syrian Embassy official said as the journos made a beeline for the snacks counter.

Contributed by Faraz Ahmad, Girja Shankar Kaura and Ashok Tuteja