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Manmohan Singh again The spirit of democracy |
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Cops on the mat
The Afghan imbroglio
Goodbye, Guru
Helping farmers Making more Bindras bloom Chatterati
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Manmohan Singh again CONGRESS President Sonia Gandhi’s statement that Dr Manmohan Singh will be the party’s candidate for Prime Ministership after the parliamentary elections hoping that he will hoist the national flag on next year’s Independence Day has removed a lot of uncertainty about the party’s plans. Some months ago, when speculation was rife about an “impending” change in the leadership, she had to clarify that he would remain Prime Minister till the end of the present term. Friday’s statement will silence the coterie in the party which has been busy spreading rumours that he would not remain at the helm after the next elections. The coterie even used Rahul Gandhi’s name as a possible contender for the highest post, but apparently it was without authorisation. The BJP has already announced that its prime ministerial candidate is Mr L.K. Advani. Of course, UP Chief Minister Mayawati is a self-proclaimed candidate. The voters have now a clear idea of the kind of leadership the nation will get if either of the two main parties is elected to hold power. Last time the Congress fought shy of projecting anybody as its leader and it had to pay a price for this lapse. It is a different matter that circumstances helped the Congress to form a government in collaboration with several other parties. During the over four years of his prime ministership, Dr Manmohan Singh has steered the country with a vision it needed as an emerging economic power, given a new thrust in foreign policy and handled tricky situations often faced by his government. In his own undemonstrative ways he has outshone some of his senior ministers who have been nurturing prime ministerial ambitions. The Congress has a lot more to do if it has to ensure that the party comes back to power. Party units in many states are in a moribund state with party leaders busy fighting one another, instead of putting up a joint front against their principal political rival like the Akali Dal-BJP in Punjab. A semblance of order and unity has to be introduced in their functioning. The party will do well if it announces its parliamentary candidates for the next elections early so that they can begin their informal campaigns. The resort to last-minute announcement of candidates has lost its utility when the people want more time to know the candidates. Although with Dr Manmohan Singh at the top, one can have some idea of what kind of policies the Congress will follow when it comes to power again, still it is time the country was told much in advance where the Congress and other political parties and their leaders stood on various issues of importance.
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The spirit of democracy NOW that Nepal’s Constituent Assembly has voted in Prachanda as the Prime Minister, the leadership of the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (CPN-M) must lose no time in getting down to the task of building a truly democratic republic. The challenges facing Prachanda are many, but the priorities in one of the world’s poorest countries are all too obvious. The first and foremost task is to carry forward the peace process. This requires the Maoists to adopt parliamentary democracy in the fullest sense, carry all the political parties along and abandon their extra-parliamentary props. The CPN-M must disband the Maoist army, end the paramilitary activities of the Young Communist League and return all properties seized by the party during the period it waged a “People’s War”. These steps are necessary to reinforce the credentials of the CPN-M as a parliamentary party. The CPN-M should, in consultation with the other parties, initiate the process for drafting a new constitution without any delay. Once the Maoists are able to secure the widest possible agreement on this, there should be a firm timetable so that the statute is ready in time, before 2010, when a new parliament has to be elected under the republican constitution. The political vision of the constitution, needless to say, must create the impulses for a new and inclusive model of economic development that ensures security, equity and justice to all sections. This will be a critical test of how the world’s first elected Maoist government can meet people’s needs and aspirations. To create the right climate for economic development, Prachanda’s government would be required to maintain the best of relations with India, and the international community. It is an accepted fact in Kathmandu as well as New Delhi, that Indian investment in Nepal is essential if the country is to attract capital from elsewhere in the world. Strengthening Nepal-India relations would be not only a test of political and foreign policy but also the basis of economic cooperation. As Prime Minister, this is Prachanda’s hour of reckoning. It can be his finest hour if he leaves behind the rhetoric and charts a new course to come to terms with the realities of building a New Nepal.
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Cops on the mat THE Calcutta High Court has deprecated the shoddy conduct of the Kolkata police led by the then Police Commissioner, Mr Prasun Mukherjee, in the Rizwanur case. Rizwanur Rahman, a computer graphics teacher, who married industrialist Ashok Todi’s daughter, Priyanka Todi, against his wishes, was found dead under mysterious circumstances near Kolkata’s railway tracks in September 2007. Justice Dipankar Dutta took the police to task for behaving in a patently biased manner. Summoning Rizwanur and Priyanka for questioning to the police headquarters at a time when they were seeking help against their harassment by the Todis was “illegal and unconstitutional”, he ruled. In their eagerness to bail out Mr Todi, the police officers turned a deaf ear to the letter by Rizwanur and Priyanka seeking help. While they summoned Rizwanur “as if he had committed an offence”, false and frivolous complaints were lodged against him. This was the starting point of the episode in which the police conduct was not only suspect but also the very investigation of his death was vitiated by money power, muscle power and communal considerations. The police swung into action only after the Todis approached them, the court ruled. This, despite the fact that the local Karaya police station had inquired and validated Rizwanur’s marriage with Priyanka to be legal. Worse, the former Police Commissioner’s words and actions after Rizwanur’s death were “irresponsible and added fuel to the fire”. Justice Dutta has charged Mr Mukherjee with “suppressing facts” from the High Court. He did not file the affidavit on what advice he gave to Mr Pradeep Todi, Mr Ashok Todi’s brother, in their meeting. In view of the High Court’s stinging criticism of Mr Mukherjee’s dubious role in the case, the CBI would do well to file a charge-sheet against him in addition to other senior police officers, Mr Ashok Todi and others as directed by the court. The ends of justice will not be met if the big fish get away scot-free because of their powerful connections. If the Police Commissioner himself behaves in a partisan manner and betrays the trust and confidence reposed in him, it will send a disturbing message down the line in the police establishment. Therefore, Mr Mukherjee’s trial is vital to unravel the mystery behind Rizwanur’s death and uphold the rule of law.
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A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on. — John F. Kennedy
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The Afghan imbroglio THE ISI is in the eye of a storm. The US, Afghanistan and India have all accused the ISI of aiding and abetting the Taliban in Afghanistan. As usual, Pakistan is demanding evidence which has reportedly been provided by the US, but Islamabad continues to play the cat and mouse game. As violence subsides in Iraq, it is surging in Afghanistan. NATO forces may be winning battles but the Taliban is still poised to win the war. Their commanders say while the Americans have the watches, we have the time. During the last three months, the Taliban has inflicted more casualties on US forces than Al-Qaeda in Iraq. The Taliban has changed tactics, combing massed assaults with suicide missions. Earlier in the year, a German-born Turkish citizen blew himself up near a US post, the episode immortalised by Al-Qaeda on a DVD currently in circulation. Last month, 200 Taliban activists stormed the US post in Kunar province near the Paksitan-Afghanistan border, forcing the US to abandon the post. Other Taliban hits this year include the fifth assassination attempt on President Karzai in Kabul, the daring and deft jailbreak in Kandahar, and the precision suicide bombing of the Indian Embassy in Kabul, the ugliest ever in Afghanistan and the ninth this year in the capital. Suicide attacks have risen dramatically from none in 2002 to two and three in the following two years, 17 in 2005, peaking to 123 in 2006, 117 in 2007 and this year already beyond the 100 mark. There were no suicide attacks against the Soviets in the 1980s; only face-to-face combat was witnessed. Most of the martyrs are non-Afghans, including children, the majority of them ill trained. Until recently suicide attacks in Afghanistan were not effective as attrition of unintended civilians was eight times more than targeted combatants. As Al- Qaeda commanders now believe, the war in Afghanistan, not Iraq, is winnable, the suicide brigade is being diverted towards Kabul. The psychological impact of the human bomber on civilians and soldiers alike is devastating. Worse, there is no antidote. American Gen David Mckieman is the new Commander of the US-led 40-nation ISAF of 52700 soldiers. Roughly 100,000 Afghan military and police personnel trained by the West, capable of undertaking autonomous operations, are in support. The security situation has suffered a further setback. Even provinces close to Kabul like Vardak, Ghazni and Logar are no longer safe. Kabul is on pins and needles following the bombing of the Indian Embassy. The opium-rich Helmand province remains the bone of contention between NATO and the Taliban. Last year, while more than 8000 persons died, the maximum since 2001, this year 2400 have died so far. Casualties have been mounting by the day. Between 2001 and mid-July, 14080 civilians died. Another 2350 Afghan military and police personnel and 3680 Taliban insurgents have been killed. NATO losses include 115 British and 570 American soldiers. The dramatic rise in violence is attributed by NATO to a 40 per cent increase in infiltration from the tribal areas across the Pakistan border following on and off peace deals between Pakistan and the Taliban. Pakistan’s revised strategy was operationalised soon after the new civilian government took office in March this year. Inherent in the peace agreements is a quid pro quo: the Taliban will cease acts of violence inside Pakistan if Islamabad will turn a Nelson’s eye to its cross-border activities in Afghanistan. Though this strategy resembles Pakistan’s acquiescence of cross-LoC forays by Kashmiri and Pakistani terrorist groups, it has put the US in a quandary over managing its relations with its frontline ally on counter-terrorism. US commanders have been warning Pakistan that cross-border attacks would become inevitable when fires emanate from across the border. President Pervez Musharraf has said that no fresh NATO attacks in the country’s tribal areas will be tolerated, adding the warning that Pakistan reserves the right to retaliate. This is the first time anyone in Pakistan has indicated reprisals. Islamabad has consistently denied any attacks against NATO forces from Pakistani soil. On the other hand, it has repeated that a stable Afghanistan is in the interest of Pakistan. Both these assertions have been contested by Mr Karzai, who has threatened hot pursuit. Pakistan, as everyone knows, is the key to a stable Afghanistan. But over the years, it has spawned jihad on both its flanks. The Pakistan Army has little urge to fight the Taliban on its soil. Instead, its nostalgia for a Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, providing it strategic depth, is the key driver of a failed policy. The cost of this unwinnable war, besides the colossal human tragedy and 5 million refugees in a country of 32 million, is staggering. The US alone is spending $100 million a day and has invested since 9/11 more than $ 172 billion. International aid since 2001 amounts to nearly $ 50 billion while another $20 billion was committed by donors in June this year at Paris. There is no dearth of funding though priorities and projects are becoming haphazard. Development assistance must be applied in provinces where it can be sustained and not in places like Helmand and Kandahar is one view. The classic theory is that only development will wean away the people from the Taliban, and, therefore, defence and development should go hand in hand. Afghanistan is questioning this tenet of counter-insurgency. The other problem is that part of the aid gets ploughed back to the donor countries. Kabul reported that of the $3.5 billion utilised in 2007, $1.3 billion was spent on international consultants, some being paid $1000 a day. Add seepage and corruption, there is little to show on the ground. This month, aid agencies confirmed that security had deteriorated and that they would have to review the feasibility of projects. Nineteen aid workers have been killed this year, more than the total lost in 2007. Despite such massive military and economic investment, indicators of success are few and far between. Everyone involved in Afghanistan is agreed that it is going to be a long haul. British historian-diplomat Olaf Caroe, a veteran of the Great Game, observed: “Unlike other wars, Afghanistan wars become serious only when they are over.” Shifting the focus to Iraq was indeed a big folly. Yet, Prime Minister Gordon Brown has emphasised: “We will never again allow Afghanistan to be a failed state”, referring to the first ever takeover of Kabul by a non-state actor. The resolve of the British is next only to the US, the authors of the invasion of Afghanistan. While there is little hesitation among Western allies about their economic support to rebuild Afghanistan, few are prepared to keep soldiers fight the Taliban. While the US and the UK are in the vanguard of operations, Canada, Australia and the Netherlands have also figured in the Order of Battle though most others have opted to be left out of the battle. Given this unequal burden sharing and increasing body bags, it is a matter of time before the West calls it quits. Some Western diplomats are arguing that despite massive investment since 2001, Afghanistan is close to being a failed state. The US-led Western alliance in Afghanistan has to rethink its politico-military strategy, and devise a new one that allows political accommodation of the Taliban in Kabul. It is clear that as long as Pakistan plays footsie with the Taliban, the latter cannot be marginalised militarily. Only when the ISI is muzzled can Kabul breathe normally. This would require US-Afghanistan-India
networking.
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Goodbye, Guru HE lived life like the play he scripted, “Zindagi kabhi retire nahi hoti.” Aditya Prakash, eminent architect, associate of Le Corbusier for the Chandigarh project, recently passed away on way to Mumbai to stage another performance of his popular play. The child-like excited actor-director was only 85. His lust for life made most people feel like fossils. And the show went on. His theatre group — as he would have wanted —notwithstanding the tragedy, went on to perform courageously. Quite like his mentor Corbusier — Prakash too was a “total man” with creative callings going beyond the lines of architecture. He was a painter, a theorist, an educationist and a communicator par excellence: both in writing and lecturing. You could disagree with him but never dislike the man; his hallmark hearty guffaws and self-mocking humour killed most dissent. I was privileged to have been his student and junior colleague in the Chandigarh College of Architecture - which he conceived, and headed with great distinction for 14 years. After his retirement, he was impassioned with his myriad professional, creative and intellectual adventures. In the college, once he had taken our class for an on-the-spot sketching session of one of his bold but somewhat controversial buildings. Many of us were grumbling on having to do the assignment on a hot and sultry afternoon like that. Unwittingly I remarked to my classmate, “Why the hell do we have to sweat out documenting this odd building?” Suddenly from behind, rang his booming voice, “Han ghatiya hae, magar is se zada seekho-gay!” Petrified, I was quite sure that I would flunk the test after such a silly uttering on the Principal’s work. But to my shock he awarded me the highest marks in my assignment. It was the best lesson in tolerance that I ever got. Later, after having joined the faculty, on a beautiful mist-laden day, some of us asked him quite audaciously, that we wanted to play truant and go to Kasauli for a picnic. He said O.K., and then pointing towards me said, “But you must bring back a sapling of a pine tree, plant it in the college campus and ensure that it grows.” This was in the context, that I had then recently started a course in Landscape Design in the college. He always nurtured his juniors to grow and bloom. Among his other various interests was that of watching the night sky as an amateur astronomer. I remember joining him on some clear nights for star-gazing sessions, identifying major planets and constellations in the sky in the wide expanse of his campus bungalow. I have a feeling that he has just changed his address now; from the mundane earth to the heavens above. Glittering like a star at night; and during the day painting rainbows for
Chandigarh.
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Helping farmers THE statement of Dr. T. Haque, ex-Chairman, Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP), regarding the interference by the central government in the matter of fixing the minimum support price (MSP), puts a question mark on the intentions of the government towards the farmer on the issue of remunerative prices. Washing the dirty linen in public on July 25, 2008, at a press conference of the BKU at Chandigarh, he spoke in no unequivocal words, blaming the various ministries and committees for unnecessarily poking their nose in the functioning of the commission and putting pressure on it for reducing the prices of certain commodities like sugarcane and cotton instead of raising them, which forced him to put in his papers. In view of the most secretive and complicated formula of the commission for fixing the MSP, he, perhaps, is the first one to reveal inner realities and unmask the real face of the government, which otherwise leaves no opportunity to present its farmer-friendly stance. The issue of unremunerative MSP has been an contentious one for the past many decades and a majority of the farmer agitations revolved around it from time to time. Given the fact that 59 per cent of the farmers in our country plough less than 2.5 acres of land and another 32 per cent between 2.5 and 10 acres, it becomes evident that being small and marginal farmers they do not enjoy the economies of the scale and hence have more input costs. Thus the pricing should be done keeping in view their cost of production and not by taking other theoretical factors. Taking the average yield in Punjab, which is 16 quintals and 22 quintals per acre for wheat and paddy, the cost of production works out to Rs. 1,463 per quintal for wheat and Rs.1,041 per quintal for paddy. If a 50 per cent margin is added as per the recommendations of the Swaminathan Committee, the per quintal MSP for wheat and paddy should be Rs 2,194 and Rs 1,561 respectively. The suggested MSP for paddy is lower by 33 per cent as compared to the international price, which hovers around $ 546 per tonne (Rs. 2,347 per quintal). In these circumstances it is beyond comprehension, why the government deliberately denies the farmers their due. The ill-intention of the government towards the farmer further gets highlighted from the fact that to the farmer’s disadvantage, it banned the export of non-basmati rice and maize, pulling down their prices in the domestic market. The disallowing of future trading in wheat, paddy, urd and some other crops also aims to deny the benefits of free market and globalisation to him. On the other hand, the government allowed the import of cotton by removing the 10 per cent customs duty and another 4 per cent counterveiling duty on the commodity, whose prices in the domestic market had gone up in the wake estimates of a low crop this year and was to benefit the farmer. This double stance of the government clearly shows its leanings towards industrialists and the food processors, which have a strong lobby and want to profit from the cheap raw material, a classic case of robbing Peter to pay Paul. This reminds one the famous words of Nani A. Palkhiwala, which he wrote in his book, “We the Nation” that to come in power, the Indian politician takes votes from the poor and money from the rich, assuring both to protect them from each other. Another anti-farmer stance of the government is the issue of subsidies, which are not directly given to the farmer but circumvented, a very little of which reaches him and benefits the others more. The proposal of giving fertiliser subsidy direct to farmers, which has gone to Rs. 90,000 crore this year, six times up from Rs.15,799 crore in 2004-05, by the union FM was shot down by none other than the Chemical and Fertilisers Ministry, obviously, to benefit the fertiliser lobby at the cost of the farmers. In the year 2007-08, the government procured 22.44 million tonnes of wheat and 44.6 million tonnes of paddy, for which the total payment made to the farmers of the country based on the declared MSP works out to be Rs. 54,106 crore, (Rs. 22,440 crore for wheat and the Rs 31,666 crore for paddy). The amount of subsidy on fertilisers alone exceeds this procurement payment by Rs. 35,894 crore! Costwise, the fertilisers account for 11 per cent of the total cost in case of wheat and 5 to 6 per cent in case of paddy. If this huge amount of fertiliser subsidy is diverted to farmers, they will hugely benefit even if the rates of fertilisers are hiked two to three times. Considering these facts, it is time the government should seriously think to formulate a farmer-friendly agro-policy by rationalising subsidies and making the CACP an independent, broad-based and transparent body instead of keeping it infested with textbook economists and bureaucrats. Such a policy should ensure remunerative prices to farmers, which in turn, will add to the growth rate of the country and ensure the much-needed national food security. The writer is a teacher at NJSA
Government College, Kapurthala.
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Making more Bindras bloom AS I was glued to the TV set watching Abhinav Bindra’s final shot live, I recalled the first lesson in shooting shouted loud by the weapons instructor at the Officer’s Training Academy, Pune decades ego: “Firm up the objective. Place the rifle on your shoulder and grip it firm. Align the eye, sight, aperture and target on straight line. Focus. Press the trigger.” Abhinav did precisely that and hit the bullseye winning India’s first individual gold medal in modern Olympics. His objective was firm — winning that gold medal. Everything else followed. Governments, corporates and institutions are falling head over heel showering him with praise, money and gifts. None of them had anything to do with the success of this youngster except, perhaps, the National Rifle Association of India and Raja Randhir Singh, Secretary General, IOA, who had a special love for this sport. Indeed, none of these entities, now hoping to bask in some reflected glory, had lifted a finger to promote Olympic sports in the country, the cause of which has been going abegging. This was evident during the days of India’s humiliating exit from the Olympic hockey qualifying round when there was a Twenty20 avalanche by Shah Rukh Khan, Vijay Mallaya and DLF with full media blare! In its wake I wrote to Mr. K.P.Singh, Chairman, DLF, complimenting him on his cricket bonanza and wondering whether “this interest of DLF would extend to the Olympic sports also.” I had also sent him a plan, which I had forwarded to my distinguished former colleague, Dr. M.S.Gill, Union Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports. My plan was to bring excellence in Olympic sports through a public-private-participatory mechanism which has already become the in-thing in India. The model is simple and capable of implementation within a short period of time. We have Central Government institutions and undertakings like the Army, the BSF, the CRPF, the Railways, ports, banks, insurance companies, ONGC, IOC and other oil companies, NTPC, BHEL, BSNL, SAIL, coal companies, airlines and others with fairly good infrastructure and a manpower base. There are large business groups like the Tatas, Reliance, the Birlas, the Mahindras, DLF, Wipros, Infosys, L&T, private banks and insurance companies, automobile, cement, textile, information and communication technology, real estate and construction companies, all of whom are making big money in a booming economy. “Autonomous federations” for each sport functioning under the Olympic charter have the role of laying down the rules, conduct high-class competiton, select players on merit, train them meticulously and field them against the world’s best. Several state governments either have reasonable sports infrastructure or are capable of developing these in a short time. The Union Ministry of Youth and Sports is charged with the responsibility of co-coordinating sports development in the country at all levels and extending support through specific schemes and programmes so that the country’s youth have creative and competitive activities in which they can excel. I had suggested the formation of PPP consortiums comprising these entities and allocating them specific sports and responsibilities within the Olympic charter with a mandate to rejuvenate these at all levels and produce “champions who can win gold medals” if not in 2012, at least in 2016 Olympics. While I received a polite reply of regret on Mr. K.P.Singh’s behalf, Dr. Gill has not found the letter even worth acknowledging! Abhinav had the support of his family with means and resources and a father who had the tenacity to persist. Others are not that fortunate. Even my own son was not. Under 12, he was adjudged as among the most potential tennis talent in the country. Tennis legend Ramanathan Krishnan had evaluated him as world class! I had the tenacity to persist, but lacked the means to back it up. The All India Lawn Tennis Association was a den of inbreeding mediocrities, incapable of grooming excellence. Hundreds of young boys and girls, who like Abhinav, have the talent and the dream of winning an Olympic gold but continue to languish amidst a cabal of mediocrity. They are also not as fortunate as China’s gold medallist Guo Wenjun in the 10-metre air pistol competition, who had been deserted by her parents soon after her birth, but found sanctuary in the country’s system of grooming talent and excellence. At the 1980 Olympics India and China were on a par — at the bottom of the table. In 2008, China has climbed to the top while India continues where it was, having only replaced a team gold (hockey) with an individual gold (shooting.) If Bindra’s bullseye could trigger a culture of excellence, his Olympic gold would have served its purpose.
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Chatterati Sometime
back the Bhartiya Janata Party released its first list of candidates for the Lok Sabha elections. Nothing followed thereafter. For quite sometime it seemed the process had been put in a limbo. Now a search committee headed by Sushma Swaraj is in the process of identifying the right candidates. But after the fiasco of the trust vote, which saw as many as eight members of Parliament belonging to this “highly disciplined party with a difference” scooting to the other side, the BJP is quite upset. A whole lot of its leaders are seeking greener pastures and entering into deals with other parties while several others are scared to face the wrath of anti-incumbency. Some senior leaders have told the party’s Generation Next to forget the Rajya Sabha. And instead fight for the Lok Sabha. No backroom boys now. But they are afraid of defeat. As the Generation Next has proved its incompetence in managing even a parliamentary vote, the senior leaders are not so confident. So they want them to come out of the closet and say so. For those who opt out, no loss will be greater than that of their faces.
Amar Singh, Mayawati and MYTH Several myths surround Samajwadi Party General Secretary Amar Singh. But there can be, perhaps, no greater creation than having a common platform for MYTH: Muslim, Yadav, Thakur, Harijan. The proof is that Amar Singh managed to get Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav, former Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav and Ram Vilas Paswan
to eat from the same plate, that too hurriedly at a press conference. Relations between Lalu Prasad and Paswan have deteriorated in the recent times. Each refuses to acknowledge the other at the meetings of the Union Cabinet of which both are members. What has brought them together is the common M (Mayawati ) factor. The MYTH factor accounts for about 35 per cent of the votes in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, the two largest states in the country. If it works it would be a
powerful group, which would not only dictate the formation of the next government at the Centre but also demand the best
possible portfolios. And that’s no myth.
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