The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Serial shame
Government seems clueless about bomb blasts

FIRST Malegaon, and then Agartala. The contagion of serial explosions is spreading to newer and newer areas with deadly effect. Actually, the term ‘first’ has been used with Malegaon only figuratively because it is the most recent outrage, otherwise there is hardly a place where such macabre incidents have not taken place. The synchronised way in which the blasts are organised show that a lot of planning has gone into them. What a shame that the same cannot be said about the way the government has been trying to curb the menace. Leave alone appearing to be trying and failing, it seems to be clueless. That is what has emboldened the enemies of the nation to strike at will. Instead of merely reacting to such excesses, the security agencies have to play a proactive role which requires a thorough revamp of the intelligence-gathering mechanism which, unfortunately, seems to be beyond the pale of the powers that be who are engaged in vote-gathering.

The worrying part is that whenever the government is blamed for its failures too sharply, it only thinks of shortcuts, which at times lead to false encounters, and at other times sees the police laying the blame for a thousand and one past crimes on one or two persons whom it manages to grab. For a few days the impression is given that the entire terrorism network has been smashed, but the illusion is shattered along with peace within the next few days.

This never-ending cycle has gone on for too long. The public is sick and tired of stock statements being parroted that the war on terror would be fought with greater resolve. Till results - real results - are palpable, all this will be adding salt to the wounds of the public. Ironically, while the common man is asked to be not cowed down by such perfidies, the politicians surround them with more and more security guards. In the latest trend, it is the poorer lot who are being targeted. It is they who need some security, not the high and mighty who live in virtual fortresses provided by the government.

Senate backs bailout
The US has no alternative

THE US Senate on Wednesday passed the $700-billion rescue plan (74-25) after some “sweeteners” were added to the original bill. Earlier on Monday, the House of Representatives had rejected it, sending stock markets on a tailspin. The bailout, hurriedly stitched together by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve chief Ben Barnanke, does not offer a lasting solution, but the US has no alternative either. Realising this, the Republicans and the Democrats buried their differences and agreed on the bill before it was put to vote. Its unexpected rejection by the House created confusion and panic.

Instead of coming up with a mature, measured response to the biggest credit crisis in US history after the 1929 crash, the US leadership has exposed itself to global ridicule. The world at large has also paid a price for the US failure to supervise its complicated financial transactions, resulting in the sub-prime crisis. American taxpayers, it is clear, do not want to save greedy CEOs of Wall Street and want financial firms to pay for the mistakes they have made. However, consumed by anger, they do not realise that America faces a systemic collapse if no action is immediately taken to save the crumbling financial giants.

Though the primary aim of the proposed legislation is to buy up Wall Street titans’ toxic debt that have clogged the US financial arteries as well as help some six million troubled home-owners catch up in their payments, the new bill has included tax breaks aimed to please lawmakers and extend the Federal deposit insurance to cover more American savings. The modified bill goes to the House of Representatives on Friday. The panic reaction to the bill rejection, fresh enticements and the presence of both presidential candidates, John MacCain and Barack Obama, during the Senate vote may sway the House in favour of the rescue plan.

Thought for the Day

I’m a great believer in luck and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it. — Thomas Jefferson

ARTICLE

India’s leadership vacuum
Meaningless bickering must end
by Inder Malhotra

LIKE a cracked gramophone record L. K. Advani, a former Deputy Prime Minister and now the Bharatiya Janata Party’s prime ministerial candidate, has been denigrating Manmohan Singh as the “weakest” and “most unsuccessful” Prime Minister this country has had. This time around, at a public rally in Guwahati, he was more churlish than before. He attributed the Prime Minister’s lack of performance to his being “a puppet in the hands of Congress chief Sonia Gandhi”. There is twofold irony here.

First, that Advani’s statement has come at a time when the Congress party and a large section of the middle class are congratulating the Prime Minister on his “tremendous personal success” in seeing the nuclear deal with the US through and in getting the Nuclear Suppliers’ Group’s waiver. To be sure there will be vehement protests against the deal for quite a while. But taking the long view, getting India freed from “nuclear apartheid” and securing the international community’s acceptance of India’s nuclear status would ensure Manmohan Singh a place in modern history, notwithstanding his shortcomings.

Secondly, to talk of puppetry in relation to the Congress is to cheapen further the tone of the already degenerated public discourse. The wide world knows that Manmohan Singh is not the leader of the Congress party, the core of the ruling United Progressive Alliance, and that he became Prime Minister only because Sonia Gandhi decided not to accept the office that rightfully belonged to her. She chose Manmohan Singh rather than any other Congress leader for the top job. The main reason for her renunciation was the unspeakably inflamed atmosphere the BJP stalwarts and some others had created over the issue of her foreign birth.

In this context, one might ask the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, with all due respect, as to what kind of leadership is he providing to his own fractious party, leave alone the country at large. It is the saffron party’s misfortune that its only leader who enjoyed national respect, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, is too frail to be active in politics. And throwing politeness to the winds, let be it stated that during the six years when Atalji kept the BJP in power, some RSS leaders and Advani’s cohorts tried more than once to undermine his position.

That said, there is no doubt that in the midst of multiple crises of immense gravity, India suffers from a comprehensive vacuum of leadership. There is no one of the stature of Indira Gandhi or Jayaprakash Narayan around. There is a virtual decay of the political party system. Indeed, an alarmingly large number of parties have become family concerns and are run accordingly, creating the monumental paradox that the world’s largest democracy is propped up by parties most of which are run autocratically.

On top of this, the fragmentation of the Indian polity, instead of being stemmed, is growing fast. The 154 members of what was then the Janata Dal, who formed the core of V.P. Singh’s 11-month government in 1989-90, are now divided into 31 different groups. The first signs of a splintering of the Left Front are already in evidence in the shape of the Forward Bloc’s revolt against the CPM. No wonder then that since 1996 unwieldy coalition governments have been the order of the day in New Delhi and seem unavoidable for the foreseeable future.

At the same time, despite the pompous talk of coalition dharma, no coalition culture worth the name has yet evolved. Even small groups, with only a marginal presence in Parliament, hold the government to ransom. Each of the more substantial coalition partners becomes a law into itself, eroding the Prime Minister’s authority. Even the very real problem of secularism versus communalism becomes meaningless when the parties and individuals that happily joined the BJP-led Vajpayee government are equally gleefully ensconced in the Congress-led UPA coalition.

In all fairness, it must be added that Manmohan Singh’s woes are greater than those of the more skilful Vajpayee’s. The good doctor gets much greater trouble from the ministers belonging to his own party than Atalji received from his. Manmohan Singh’s sterling personal integrity remains shining. But his helplessness about his colleagues with a penchant for money grabbing is also manifest. The deference that Sonia Gandhi has for the Prime Minister, does not deter the Congress establishment from denying him the support he needs. Even over the nuclear deal the party rallied round him a tad too late.

Overriding all these infirmities of the Indian polity is the extraordinary and extremely dangerous hostility and even hatred between the two mainstream parties, the Congress and the BJP. Never before have the relations between them been so bitter as now. What a contrast this is from the days of the previous Congress Prime Minister, P. V. Narasimha Rao. He had no hesitation to name Vajpayee as the leader of the Indian delegation to the UN Human Rights Commission, where this country was being pilloried for the alleged denial of human rights in the insurgency-ravaged Kashmir valley, or to other international forums. Today the two main parties are hardly on speaking terms. Isn’t it time to bring this appalling state of affairs to an end?

Terrorism is the worst of the dangers that threaten to tear apart the fabric of national unity. Up to now, the BJP and the Congress were virtually abusive of each other over this crucial issue. The BJP accused the Congress of being “soft” on terrorism for the sake of the Muslim vote, and the Congress pronounced anathema on the BJP for being communal. The saffron party persistently demanded the return of POTA, while the Congress rejected the demand equally consistently.

Now, for the first time, there is a broad agreement on the subject. POTA is still unacceptable. But the UPA government recognises the need for a tough law and an appropriate federal agency to coordinate counter-terrorism in various parts of the country. There may still be a gap between the positions of the two main parties. But surely there is enough common ground for them to discuss the issue amicably and come to joint decisions. They should learn something from the bipartisanship that the Republicans and Democrats in the US Congress often display on even the most divisive questions. If politicians in this country cannot take a united stand against the menace of terrorism, then God help India.

MIDDLE

Oscar awards
by Amar Chandel

Oscar awards for cinematic excellence may not be coming our way in a hurry. That is why it has been decided to institute Oscar Awards for Political Excellence to be given annually to the politicians who come up with the most outstanding statements.

Needless to say that these have been named after the doyen of political innovation, Labour Minister Oscar Fernandes, who said on the lynching of a CEO in Noida that it should be treated as a warning by all bosses who follow the hire-and-fire policy.

Mr Fernandes could have been the recipient of our inaugural Rs 10-crore award but for the fact that he forfeited his right by unnecessarily succumbing to the pressure tactics of India Inc. and said sorry. But the flame lit by him will not be doused and we hope other ministers will come up with even more creative statements in the days to come. We look forward to pronouncements as good as, if not better than, the following:

Railway Minister: The express train collided with the oncoming goods train only because it was overloaded and the driver could not control it.

Minister of Agriculture: Farmers are not committing suicide because they are poor. A study conducted by us has found that hybrid crops increase suicidal tendency.

Human Resources Minister: The lynching of the Vice-Chancellor is a clear-cut indicator that the OBC students will not be content till the quota is increased to 100 per cent.

Minister of Women and Child Development: Girls who wear provocative clothes and go out after sunset are bound to get raped.

Home Minister: Naxalites killed 160 persons only because they are frustrated over their poverty. Their cases should be considered with compassion.

Law Minister: How can they arrest terrorists belonging to a community whose votes we need? No expenses on defending them in court will be spared by the government.

Defence Minister: Pakistan has been sending in terrorists only because we continue to be selfish. If we give up J and K, Punjab, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Nagaland and a few more states, most of our problems will be solved. That will be a small price to pay for world peace.

Minister of Water Resources: The state was flooded only because the people refused to vote for our party.

Minister of Mines: It is not our fault if mines got flooded and killed 400. This matter concerns the sewerage department.

Power Minister: How can we have adequate electricity supply when all the power is removed from the water at dams constructed in a neighbouring country?

Minister of Parliamentary Affairs: The terrorist attack on Parliament was an unfortunate but inevitable message that the public is tired of politicians and wants to get rid of them, excluding me. That is why the incident took place when I was on an official visit to Disneyland.

OPED

Pirates strike
Stand-off over the seized weapons ship
by Daniel Howden

Russia has dispatched a frigate to the scene of an increasingly tense stand-off between the US Navy and pirates who have seized a tanker laden with tanks and weapons in the Indian Ocean off Somalia.

The tussle over the fate of the Soviet-designed tanks captured off a failed African state has developed into an international incident worthy of a James Bond novel. Pirates are demanding a $20m (£11m) ransom and governments in the region are denying any knowledge of the arms shipment, amid fears of a new civil war in Sudan.

Russia has seized upon the crisis to send the missile frigate The Intrepid, prompting speculation that it might attempt to free hostages in another public projection of its military power.

American helicopters and warships from the 5th Fleet have surrounded the Ukraine-flagged Faina after Somali pirates boarded her six days ago and seized a cargo which includes 33 T-72 battle tanks, ammunition and heavy weapons such as rocket launchers.

The US squadron has sent helicopters low over the deck of the seized tanker and has made it clear they will not allow the pirates to land their haul, which it is feared would be handed over to Islamic insurgents that Washington believes are linked to al-Qaida. The pirates have said they will fight to the death if the ship is boarded.

Reports of a shooting match between different factions aboard the cargo ship were denied by the hijackers, who used satellite phones to contact reporters and tell them that they were holding a feast for Eid, which marks the end of the Muslim holy month, Ramadan.

“We are happy on the ship and we are celebrating Eid,” a spokesman for the pirates, who identified himself as Sugule Ali, told the Associated Press. “We are united as we were before and there was no fighting among us.”

Andrew Mwangura of the East African Seafarers’ Assistance Programme had said three Somali pirates were killed on Monday night in a dispute over whether to surrender, but later admitted he had not spoken to witnesses.

The pirates blame overfishing by foreign trawlers for destroying their livelihoods, forcing them into hijacking ships and demanding ransoms.

The most dramatic seizure yet, with its lethal cargo, has underlined a surge in piracy in the Gulf of Aden, one of the world’s busiest shipping routes. The problem has spread south to the Indian Ocean coastal waters off Somalia with 62 ships attacked this year.

The International Maritime Board’s piracy monitors say there are at least 10 vessels and 221 crew members held hostage in ports such as Eyl, east Somalia.

Pirates, many operating out of former fishing ports such as Eyl and Bosaso, are deploying increasingly sophisticated methods, including high speed launches, GPS trackers, and satellite communications, to target shipping.

They have captured some of the biggest vessels on the seas and extracted multimillion-pound ransoms from multinational companies and even the government of Spain. France sent in special forces to track pirates who took a luxury yacht in April and captured six of them. They will face trial in France.

The London-based think-tank Chatham House says piracy could see shipping forced away from the Gulf and into the longer route to Europe and North America, producing a drastic effect on oil and commodities prices.

Photographs from the scene showed a number of smaller vessels with outboard motors alongside the much larger Faina. The ship’s crew of 21 includes Ukrainians, Russians, and a Latvian. One member is said to have recently died of a heart attack.

The tanker was bound for the Kenyan port of Mombasa but the government there has denied it had purchased the tanks. US diplomats said the military material was bound for the south of Sudan, where factions are believed to be re-arming ahead of what observers fear could be a resumption of the civil war between the Christian and animist south and the Arab-led government in Khartoum. Officials in the oil-rich south said they were “surprised” to hear the battle tanks were en route to them.

Somalia is already facing the world’s worst humanitarian disaster, with 3.2 million in danger of starvation and aid groups forced to pull out after their operatives became targets for militants. Pirates have taken food shipments.

Somalia, which has Africa’s longest coast, is in a state of anarchy, with no functioning government since 1991 and a civil war between a weak and unpopular transitional government, backed by Ethiopian forces, and an Islamic insurgency.

A period of relative stability under the Islamic Courts – a loose alliance of clerics, militia and businessmen who displaced the warlords for six months in 2006 – was curtailed after Ethiopia invaded and reinstalled the interim government with tacit US backing. The Islamic insurgency has since pushed Ethiopia to the point of withdrawing. The administration has appealed for African Union and UN peacekeepers to fill the breach.

— By arrangement with The Independent

Shastri: a true ‘karmayogi’
by Sunil Shastri

My father was known as “Shastriji” all over. But at home and within the family, he was called “Babuji”. This form of address was gradually picked up by the servants in the household and soon all those close to him began to call him “Babuji”.

My father believed in the dictum from the Bhagwad Gita: “You na hrashytai, na dweshti, na shochati, na kaankshati, shubhashubha-parityagi…” (He is free from all emotions such as hatred or grief as also from desires, he is beyond consideration of auspicious or inauspicious).

This “sholaka” of the Gita inspired him so much that he always believed in duty, not in recognition. A true “karmayogi” gave importance to performance and not to trumpeting about it.

In the social sphere my father was a strong opponent of evil customs. He spent his whole life fighting traditions that militated against social well-being. Normally, it is easy to preach such values but difficult to translate them into practice, but not for him.

At the time of his marriage, the practice of dowry was very much prevalent, especially in the eastern part of Uttar Pradesh. But the way Babuji rejected this evil custom set an example. He said: “I am prepared for marriage on the condition that only a charkha (spinning wheel) is given by way of the shagun (auspicious present made to the bridgegroom)”.

Furthermore, he also refused to participate in certain rituals and customs considered auspicious for the newly married and stood firmly on his ground despite efforts to persuade him to follow the traditional rites.

How could he accept even a sum like two hundred rupees, even though it was considered auspicious? Finally, the word of the groom prevailed and my mother came into our house with only a spinning wheel.

Today there is a mass mobilisation campaign all over the country against the evil of dowry. Thousands of enthusiastic youngsters are participating in the campaign. But several decades earlier, my father showed how important it was to practise what you preach. To translate your idealism into action is a true sign of a “karmayogi”.

During his tenure as the Prime Minister of India, Kerala was suffering from a serious shortage of rice. The government was trying its best to make up for the shortfall and the difficulty it faced during that period is well known. Rice is the staple diet of the Keralites and its shortage caused pain to my father. He took a vow that he would not allow anyone in Kerala to go hungry for want of rice.

This concern of his had its effect on our kitchen. Before issuing any public appeal, he told the family: “We will not eat rice till the needs of all Keralites are fulfilled”.

This directive affected my elder brother, Hari, and me the most, for we both liked rice. But my father’s ability to convince us with his “characteristic disarming simplicity” made us go along. So we went without rice for months together.

The experience enabled us to emphathise with national problems better and to think of solutions. We realised how hard it was for the Keralites to go without rice. But more than that, every member of the Shastri family learnt something even greater: ideals should be converted into practice and not remain just words of a book.

Probably, these had something to do with his childhood. Babuji had spent his early life in difficult circumstances. Before he came of age, he had plunged headlong into the freedom movement. As such, everyday, every movement of his life was spent in the service of the nation. That is why there are many incident in our family closely related to the history of the nation.

As everybody knows, when the country was facing food shortage, Babuji wanted to go in for imports but without compromising national interest. In his perception, the imports should be paid for in money, not national honour and pride that is why he refused an offer for foodgrains from a country and appealed to the people of India to utilise every inch of land available for producing foodgrains. Before expecting others to respond to his call, he started producing foodgrains in the Prime Minister’s house.

While my father was brought up according to strict Hindu traditions, his mind was open like the sky and he was prepared to imbibe virtues of all religions. He liked many of the sayings of Lord Buddha. The Buddhist philosophy was dear to him.

At present, every effort is being made to dispel darkness from different corners of the country. The Buddhist saying, as preached by my father, could not be more relevant to us Indians. It is my good fortune thant the light of the lamp I lit at the feet of my father is showing me the way along with crores of my countrymen towards a bright future.

Delhi Durbar
Repaying a debt

Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh seems to have woken up to Bihar floods a little late in the day. He went to Rail Bhavan earlier this week to hand over a cheque for Rs 1 crore to railway minister Lalu Prasad Yadav for Bihar flood relief.

Surprisingly, the SP did not think of giving the money to the Bihar government, which is qualified enough to receive such donations. Nor did he hand over the cheque to the the Prime Minister’s Office, which has a permanent relief fund for disbursing money for calamities.

In choosing Lalu Yadav to shower his munificence, Mulayam seems to be repaying a debt to an old foe, lately turned a friend. Lalu Prasad played a crucial role in getting Mulayam on board the UPA at a critical juncture.

But the grapevine has it that the real reason to pander to Lalu Yadav was to use the Rail Mantri’s good offices with Congress president Sonia Gandhi, since Lalu’s clout with both Sonia and the Prime Minister is well known.

And Mulayam seems to need a mediator to secure a just and fair deal in seat sharing with the Congress during the coming Lok Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh.

In the dark

Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel can be credited with calling a spade a spade. Taking a dig at his own Cabinet colleagues, Patel recently complained how his ministry’s repeated pleas for cutting taxes on jet fuel had not yielded any result as the problems of the aviation industry were not being understood by them.

“It is unfortunate that other arms of the government are not understanding problems of the airline industry... unfortunately, there are some people in the government who do not understand that civil aviation is as important as any other mode of transport,” he said.

However, when asked whether he was hinting at finance minister P. Chidambaram, he was quick to respond, “I am talking of the government in totality. I am not taking any name”.

Getting popular

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s reputation appears to have soared after he won the trust vote in Parliament and then followed it up sealing the Indo-US nuclear deal.

This is most apparent in Punjab where state Congress cadres are beseeching their Delhi-based senior leaders that the Prime Minister be asked to tour the state extensively.

This is quite a sea change from the last assembly elections when party cadres were unable to muster a respectable crowd for Manmohan Singh’s rallies.

Punjab Congress leaders are now singing a different tune — they insist that it’s a different story now and that the PM will prove to be a real hit with the people.

Contributed by Faraz Ahmad, Vibha Sharma and Ashok Tuteja