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Practical communist Like father, like son |
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Height of bestiality
Political quagmire
A good neighbour
Comrade Harkishan US officials see Pak link to embassy attack A rights-based approach needed to help AIDS victims
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Like father, like son PRAKASH and Mandakini Amte have won the Ramon Magsaysay award for their work with the Maharashtra tribals. The award is a recognition of this doctor couple’s selfless service to their chosen cause. It also shows how tribal issues are increasingly taking centre stage. The Amtes’ approach and dedication are instructive. Whether it is the Naxalite threat or debates about development and job creation clashing with the goals of protecting and conserving the environment and forest resources, India is confronted with urgent questions about tribal lives, their rights, and their relationship with urban and rural India. This is, after all, a time when a tribal delegation from Orissa has even travelled all the way to London to protest against a corporation wanting mining rights on their land. It was in 1974 that Prakash and Mandakini Amte gave up a lucrative practice and went to live in the Hemalkasa region, amongst the Madia Gonds. The next few decades were spent, as the award foundation has noted, “enhancing the capacity of the Madia Gonds to adapt positively in today’s India, through healing, teaching and other compassionate interventions.” The Amte’s 50-bed hospital treat 40,000 patients a year for free. Their school has produced five Gond doctors who now work in this hospital. The Gonds were hunter-gatherers practising shifting cultivation — the Amtes encouraged settled agriculture, teaching them to grow vegetables, fruits and grain. Healthy practices for conserving forest resources, including the protection of wild animals, was a natural corollary. The Amtes come from a family known for its public service. Prakash’s father Baba Amte, who died earlier this year, was himself a Magsaysay award winner. Prakash and Mandakini’s children, too, are now following in their footsteps. India needs more of their ilk. They have shown both the government and NGOs that a sensitive, compassionate approach with a focus on basic rights and needs, starting with health, education and basic agriculture, will go a long way in improving tribal lives. This should be the starting point — grandiose development projects can come later, when tribals can better negotiate their stake in changing times. |
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Height of bestiality AND they still say the police is there for the protection of the citizens, especially the downtrodden! Two policemen from Moga gave a demonstration of bestiality the other day which was shocking even by police standards. A deaf and dumb teenaged girl was handed over to them to protect her from the street ruffians. And what did they do? They themselves raped her and abandoned her the next morning. Such incidents shatter the faith of the public in the entire force. It does not want to hear standard excuses that there are black sheep everywhere. It just detests the entire force. After such an incident, which woman would ever like to have anything to do with the policemen or a police station? In one fell blow, these rapists have destroyed all the image buildup that the police has been trying out over the years. To that extent, the Moga policemen have assaulted their own force. What makes the matter worse is that whenever such atrocities are committed, other officers try to protect them. An attempt is made to browbeat the victim to silence. If she does not agree, all the focus is on reaching a “compromise”. While this may be done to protect the “fair name” of the police department, it comes out as a crude attempt at derailing justice. The beasts in khaki not only deserve the harshest possible punishment that the law can give them, they also need to be black-listed by society. Only when the whole citizenry sends a clear signal that an attack on one woman would be considered an attack on the entire population would these policemen drunk on the power of their uniform would behave like human beings. Public pressure prevented the culprits in the Jessica Lal murder case from escaping punishment. A similar joint effort may be needed to rein in the uniformed criminals.
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The most effective way to restrict democracy is to transfer decision-making from the public arena to unaccountable institutions: kings and princes, priestly castes, military juntas, party dictatorships, or modern corporations. — Noam Chomsky
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Political quagmire
On July 26, the Government of Pakistan notified that with immediate effect, the ISI—considered “a state within a state” in Pakistan — had been placed under the Interior Ministry. The ruling Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) co-chairman Asif Zardari hailed it as “historic” and “a step towards the civilian rule”. However, people in the know of the ISI found it hard to believe. The ISI is headed by a serving Army General. All senior officers, decision and policy makers are on deputation from the Army. Most of the current top brass in the Army, including Army Chief General Kiyani, have served in or commanded the ISI. No Prime Minister in the past had succeeded in weaning the ISI away from ‘in practice’ Army control. Nawaz Sharif tried it in 1999. Both he and his protégé, General Ziauddin, had to suffer. Within 24 hours of the above-mentioned notification came another, reversing the last “mistake” as “the Army Chief had not been consulted”. The incident reflects the real state of civil-military relations in Pakistan today. After nine years of military rule, the fourth since inception, and a general election that has introduced political power in the form of a tottering coalition, Pakistan is standing at a crossroad. Already, there are doubts being raised on (a) the ability of the coalition partners to set aside their petty differences and focus attention on the country’s burgeoning economic and internal security problems, and (b) the prospects of a changeover from Army’s Pakistan to a democratic rule. The Pakistan Army is not in a position to step into the present political quagmire. The question, therefore, is what kind of civil-military relations can be expected in the foreseeable future? In the February elections, four parties i.e. the PPP, the Pakistan Muslim League (N), the Awami National Party (ANP), and the Jamiat-ul-Ulama-i-Islam (JUI) have emerged at the top and formed the coalition government. They are not only ideologically different but also more regional than national in character. So far, the “tainted” leaders of the two largest parties are unable to lead from the front. Their rallying point in the elections, removal of General Musharraf and re-instatement of deposed Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry and other judges of the Supreme Chief is yet to be implemented due to their internal contradictions. Pakistan confronts myriad problems; from inflation and rapidly declining foreign exchange reserves which pay for the imported fuel and foodgrains to the rising tide of Islamist violence. Any rational measures to improve this state of affairs e.g. alleviation of poverty, increase in investments in agriculture and industry to raise the employment level, improvement in HR index, and containing defence expenditure will depend upon the perceived legitimacy and political compulsions. The new government will have to perform a miracle to re-establish the viability and vitality of the state. Nine years ago, most Pakistanis welcomed Army intervention as a relief from the corrupt politicians. They see it in a different light now. Criticism of the military, once rare, has become widespread and well informed. Under General Musharraf, the Pakistan Army suffered a huge blow to its “image”. General Kiyani has advised his senior officers to stay away from politics. He has reverted 152 military personnel on deputation to public sector institutions, including six major generals working in the National Accountability Bureau, back to the Army. But despite considerable sheen off its “image” and some creeping weaknesses, the military retains a fair degree of institutional power, effectiveness, and credibility in the current dysfunctional state of Pakistan. With Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani setting the precedent of visiting the Army Chief’s office for briefing instead of calling him, this practice does not appear to have changed. In the 1980s, General Zia institutionalised the military control over three critical areas i.e. J & K, Afghanistan, and Pakistan’s nuclear weapons and policy. Since then, political role of the military has been further legitimised through the formation of the National Security Council, which includes three service chiefs. For the new coalition arrangement to endure, Pakistan’s troika, the President, the Prime Minister and the Army Chief, has to transcend personality politics and vested interests. Soon, Prime Minister Gilani’s political compulsions can be expected to create dissonance between him and President Musharraf who continues to be the civil society target. In such a situation, General Kiyani will unwittingly emerge as the centre of power. If the equation gets ruptured, there would be compelling reasons for him to assume power. I do not agree with people who believe that, since General Kiyani was a Musharraf protégé, the latter will continue to have Army support. The responsibility of commanding the Army, keeping it effective and burnishing its image is with General Kiyani now. In the past, whenever the Army has perceived that a military ruler has become a liability for its institutional interests, it has not hesitated to dump him. Generals Ayub and Yahya are two examples before us. Let us now look at the internal security and some other strategic issues! The rising tide of radical Islamic militancy is spreading from the Afghanistan border to the East. The ANP-led coalition government in NWFP has admitted that the influence of local Taliban extends to most districts, including those surrounding Peshawar. Casualties have been mounting due to an increase in the number and intensity of attacks by the militants on security personnel. Between July 2007 and March 2008, nearly 850 soldiers were killed and about 559 soldiers captured (439 released later). Local Taliban have demonstrated their capability for set-piece conventional battles involving engagement of large forces. On July 25, Pakistan’s daily News reported that “NWFP was on a fast track of breaking away from Pakistan because of Islamabad’s blind following of Washington’s war on terror.” A PPP leader is reported to have said that “the government was seriously considering handing over the situation in FATA and NWFP to the Army.” The civil government has to rely on the Army to establish the writ of the state in FATA and NWFP. Any decisive anti-militancy campaign will be a long haul and entail considerable bloodshed. That will not be possible without good rapport between the President, the Army and the civilian leadership. In effect, the Army will continue to dominate policies pertaining to external and internal posturing in FATA, NWFP and Baluchistan. Pakistan’s nuclear weapons are completely under the control of the Army. The Pakistani strategic community believes that the nuclear weapons compensate for Pakistan’s limited resources and strategic asymmetry with India. According to a Pakistani officer from Strategic Plan Division, “integration of nuclear and conventional forces is necessary…..command system at the highest level should know what both the ‘conventional hand’ and the ‘nuclear hand’ are doing”. Any change from military to civil control of nuclear assets is, therefore, unlikely. Pakistan Army’s policy to support terrorism in India has been aimed at achieving two objectives: to keep the conflict alive in Kashmir and make India bleed. It believes that the militants in Kashmir constitute its trump card without which India will not negotiate or make concessions. Islamabad also believes that the cross-border terrorism can be calibrated depending upon political exigencies. The recent spurt in violations along the LoC, infiltration attempts, violence in J & K and serial bomb attacks in different parts of India after the new political dispensation came into power indicate that either the elected government has no control over its military policies or has no difference of opinion on this military strategy. As it stands, Pakistan is far from developing a sustainable democratic system. Its politics is weaker than ever in a post-military rule scenario of the past. The Army can be expected to continue to set the limits on what is possible in Pakistan. Its key areas i.e. control of nuclear weapons, the Afghan policy, policy on J & K, hardware procurement, corporate interests of the military and organisational autonomy are unlikely to be surrendered to the civilian
regime.
The writer is former Chief of Army Staff, now associated with Observer Research Foundation, New Delhi.
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A good neighbour THE onus of inviting a few VIP guests for the consecration of the Delhi Mar Thoma Centre fell on my slender shoulders. Maybe, because the Bishop erroneously thought that I being a journalist was on first-name terms with leading politicians like Arjun Singh, who was the Human Resource Development Minister. One of the VIPs I had to invite for the function, not just to grace the occasion but to deliver a few words of felicitation, was CPM General Secretary Harkishan Singh Surjeet. There was a special reason for inviting the veteran Marxist leader, who had a few months earlier been elected to the highest post in the party. The Mar Thoma Centre is situated on Bhai Veer Singh Marg, near Gole Market in New Delhi. The Centre would not have got the prime plot on which it is located but for the kindness of Jagmohan, who later became a minister in the BJP government. The plot was adjacent to the one allotted to the CPM for AKG Bhavan, the party headquarters. While the church had great difficulty in raising resources for the Centre since the money had to come from thousands of pockets, the CPM could construct its building on a bigger plot in no time. The Centre served as both the office of the Bombay-Delhi Diocese of the church and the residence of the Diocesan bishop. In other words, the CPM General Secretary and the Mar Thoma bishop were neighbours. Though the CPM office had started functioning in the new building, Surjeet was still staying in the old party office, a vintage building allotted to one of the party MPs. Since I heard that he was not well, it was with some hesitation that I sought an appointment with him. He said there was no need for an appointment and we could meet him at our convenience. When the Diocesan Secretary, a genial priest from Kerala, and I went to meet Surjeet, he was lying on his wooden bed in his sparsely furnished bedroom. He got up to receive us. He thanked us for taking the trouble of inviting him personally. “Yes, I do not know much about the Bible but I certainly know that Jesus has taught his followers to love their neighbours as they loved themselves. Am I not correct, father?” he asked. “Yes, that is one of the major teachings of Jesus”, answered the priest. Surjeet took the opportunity to know a little more about the Mar Thoma Church, its origin and its traditions. He wanted to know the meaning of “Mar Thoma”. When I told him the Syriac words stood for “Saint Thomas”, the one who earned fame as the “doubting Thomas”, he was a little bit amused. Emboldened, I told him that the Malayalam word for a Christian bishop and a male Brahmin was Thirumeni. Since the CPM General Secretary was EMS Namboodiripad, a Brahmin, when the land was allotted to the party, the government might have thought that another Thirumeni — a Christian bishop —should be his neighbour. For a change, I found that my joke had its desired effect. Surjeet seemed to like my hypothesis. He did not let us leave till we had his “communist tea” served in earthen cups. Though Surjeet excused himself from attending the dedication function because of his indisposition, he told us that he would send a senior colleague like Politburo member S. Ramachandran Pillai to represent the CPM at the function. The CPM leader kept his word and the party did not go unrepresented at the function where Arjun Singh was the chief guest and the late Alexander Mar Thoma was the chief
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Comrade Harkishan He is one major communist leader from India who would be missed not only in China, Cuba, and Pakistan and in the Arab world, but in many European and North American cities. Count Fidel Castro and a dozen odd Chinese leaders are amongst the mourners. Russian communist leaders had come to meet him to understand the United Front experiment in India. Made of hardy peasant stuff, Surjeet, while staying resolutely with his Marxist ideology and party commitments, could make friends across the political spectrum. Surjeet’s steadfast opposition to the BJP and communalism is admired even by his worst detractors in the broad area of left movement. He was instrumental in forming a number of anti-BJP coalitions in the 1990s and for ensuring left support to the present UPA government. It was not for nothing that while tabling the motion seeking vote of confidence in the Lok Sabha on July 21, Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh paid glowing tributes to Surjeet’s skill at weaving and sustaining broad, secular-progressive anti-BJP coalitions: “If we are here after a tenure of four years, the credit for all this should go to the wise and visionary leadership of Jyoti Basu and Harkishan Singh Surjeet. They were all architects of our coalition government. It is their wisdom and sagacity that has helped the government to function.” Among Delhi’s political circles it was widely believed that if Surjeet had not been seriously sick, he would have worked out a way to sustain the UPA coalition. We can recall a similar role in keeping the Akalis together in Punjab as he believed that there were progressive elements amongst them. Always positive, forward looking and never downcast, even when he faced bullets and had to lead a tough underground life, he would have a bewitching smile on his face. After retiring from his post as General Secretary in 2005, Surjeet continued to play an active role in Indian national politics. Many times, including after the 2004 Lok Sabha election and during the 1996-1998 United Front government, his role has been that of an astute coalition builder in parliamentary politics, mending and collecting broad coalitions. He could go to his worst foe and turn him into a friend. For him, welfare of the common masses, national unity and progressive thought were the corner stones for any political arrangement he sought. His opposition to extremism, both of the right and left variety, was well known. Though he had not much formal schooling, life has been his university and he could write with felicity both in his mother tongue Punjabi and English. He was an excellent orator, always convincing in his arguments and never a rabble rouser. Born to a Bassi Jat family in Badala on March 23, 1916, Jalandhar, Surjeet started his political career in the national liberation movement when he was very young. It was the legendary patriot, Bhagat Singh who inspired him. In 1930 he joined his movement Naujawan Bharat Sabha. On the anniversary of the martyrdom of Bhagat Singh, Surjeet hoisted the Indian tricolour at the court in Hoshiarpur and he was shot two times. Later he was punished by the colonial British regime. In court he stated his name as London Tod Singh (one who breaks London). In 1936 Surjeet joined the Communist Party of India. He was a co-founder of the Kisan Sabha in Punjab and later he was its president at the national level, a tribute to his organisational skills. In Punjab, he would be long remembered for the struggle of peasants; the Betterment Levy agitation where another communist leader A.K. Gopalan played a significant role. In the pre-war years, he started publishing Dukhi Duniya and Chingari. During the war, Surjeet was imprisoned by the colonial authorities. When India became independent in 1947 Surjeet was the General Secretary of the CPI in Punjab. 12 years ago, he established Desh Sewak, a Punjabi daily from Chandigarh. Harkishan Singh Surjeet was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) from 1992 to 2005 and was a member of its Politburo from 1964 to 2008. He retired at the age of 89, yet continued to play an active political role. With his health declining, Surjeet was, for the first time, not included in the CPI (M) Politburo at the party’s 19th Congress in April 2008 in Coimbatore. He was designated as Special Invitee to the Central Committee. |
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US officials see Pak link to embassy attack American
authorities believe that members of Pakistan’s powerful intelligence service assisted the Taliban militants who bombed the Indian Embassy in Afghanistan last month, killing 60 people, a US official confirmed on Thursday. The assessment that at least some elements of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency helped those responsible for the July 7 bombing has significantly deepened US concerns over whether Pakistan can be trusted unequivocally as an ally in the US-declared war on terrorism, according to the official. That US official and several US intelligence and counter-terrorism authorities said in recent days that the subject of ISI support for the Taliban, affiliated extremists and even parts of al-Qaida was a central issue in visiting Pakistani Prime Minister Yusaf Raza Gillani’s meetings this week with President Bush and other top administration officials. The Taliban and other extremists operate out of tribal regions in Pakistan along the Afghan border, and Washington believes that the ISI in some cases helps provide them a haven there from which to plot and launch attacks. The US official would not say whether electronic intercepts linked the ISI to the embassy bombing in Kabul. But, he said, “there are indications that elements of the ISI provided support to those who eventually carried out the attack.” US intelligence officials also believe that the ISI has financed, supported and perhaps even trained members of the Taliban-linked extremist network headed by Afghan tribal warlord Jalaluddin Haqqani, and that he was responsible for the embassy blast and other attacks in Afghanistan. A US official who just returned from a fact-finding trip to South Asia said Pakistan is particularly perturbed about India’s growing ties to the Afghan government and its establishment of as many as five consular offices in the country, which it believes are being used as intelligence hubs. “The Indians set up one of these missions in Kandahar, just across its border, and that one is really driving the Pakistanis crazy,” the official said. US intelligence documenting the growing ties between the ISI and the militants also prompted the CIA to dispatch its No. 2 official, Stephen Kappes, to Islamabad last month to confront Gillani, President Pervez Musharraf and other officials. One senior Pakistani official in town this week for Gillani’s visit said he believed the CIA was leaking information about the ISI, some of it outdated or inaccurate, as part of a lobbying campaign to send US forces into the tribal areas of Pakistan to attack the Taliban and al-Qaida elements. But the senior Pakistani official also confirmed that some of the US assertions were true and that recent US intelligence shown to the Islamabad government documents specific instances of support. He said Islamabad was now investigating those links and had promised to weed out any Islamist sympathizers within the ISI. By arrangement with
LA Times-Washington Post |
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A rights-based approach needed to help AIDS victims Some
20,000 participants will gather August 3-8 in Mexico City for the 17th International AIDS Conference to explore why, despite decades of intense efforts in combating AIDS, the epidemic remains as daunting as ever. Last year, 2.7 million people were newly infected with HIV, and 2 million died from AIDS. Today, 33 million people live with HIV worldwide. The tenaciousness of AIDS stems in part from the fact that measures to counter it underestimate and even ignore the human rights context in which it thrives. Yet it is clear that the millions of people who experience human rights violations are also more vulnerable to HIV infection and more likely to die from AIDS. Indeed, abuses of human rights not only compound, but often drive, the epidemic in the first place. Such abuses include discrimination, lack of access to information and education, gender inequality, violence, poverty, and marginalization. Millions continue to die preventable deaths because their rights to life and to the highest attainable standard of health are not protected. Thus, any approach to HIV must also respond to the human rights issues fuelling the epidemic and emanating from it. This is recognized in the 2008 Report on the Global AIDS epidemic which underlines the need to address societal causes of HIV, including the failure to realize and protect the human rights essential to an effective response to HIV. A rights-based approach to HIV brings to the fore the critical protection needs of those most vulnerable to HIV. It helps to devise or sharpen remedial action to reach those who, due to neglect, intimidation, prejudice or social stigma, have fallen outside the available safety nets of HIV prevention, treatment and care. These include women and girls who experience sexual violence; young people who are denied sexuality education and information on HIV; and children who have been orphaned by AIDS. A rights-based approach offers a protection canvas also to people who are marginalised by their sexual orientation or addiction to drugs, or to prisoners who would otherwise be prevented from obtaining HIV services and commodities. This is because human rights are inalienable and thus belong to everyone, including those who come from highly stigmatized groups, or are regarded as alien by a community. Such an essential fact must always be taken into consideration when responding to HIV. In 2001, United Nations Member States agreed that “realisation of human rights and fundamental freedoms for all is essential to reduce vulnerability to HIV/AIDS.” Yet as of 2008, one-third of countries have still to enact laws to protect from discrimination people living with HIV. Sixty-three per cent of countries report laws that create barriers to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support for marginalized groups. As many as 67 countries still impose some form of restriction on entry and residence on the basis of HIV status alone. Such restrictions do not protect public health, but only serve to heighten stigma against people living with HIV. Many countries have recently adopted overly broad legislation that imposes criminal penalties on people who transmit HIV. There is no evidence that these penalties deter HIV transmission, and there is great concern that they will discourage people from HIV testing and disclosure of status. Addressing the human rights dimensions in national AIDS programmes is not difficult. It consists of funding and implementing campaigns against sexual violence as well as combating HIV stigma and discrimination. It involves “know your rights and laws” campaigns and legal aid for those vulnerable to or infected by HIV. It would put in place mechanisms to monitor HIV-related human rights abuses, as well as training in non-discrimination for health-care workers, social service providers, police, judges and prison officials. Independent national human rights institutions should also be brought into national responses to AIDS to seek redress for those harmed and to evaluate the impact of laws and their enforcement on HIV. At the International AIDS Conference in Mexico more than 500 organizations will demand that human rights be put at the front and at the center of the global AIDS struggle. Their rallying cry is “Human Rights and HIV/AIDS, now more than ever”. It is time that we heed this call on behalf of the millions who continue to be vulnerable to and die from HIV and
AIDS. The writer is the Acting UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. Courtesy:
UN Information Centre, New Delhi |
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