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BJP’s doublespeak
Power and perjury |
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Polluters must pay
Malegaon and military
Memsahib in Cape Town
Honour status quo
Dateline Washington
Delhi Durbar
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BJP’s doublespeak
BJP chief Rajnath Singh has not done his party proud by attacking the government for arresting some suspects in the Malegaon blast case. Until the Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) of the Mumbai Police zeroed in on Sadhvi Pragya Singh, the party’s pet theme had been that the Congress-led government had been soft towards terrorists. In the meantime, the ATS has arrested a few suspects, including a serving Lieutenant-Colonel and the head of a Jammu Peeth. Initially, the BJP leadership took the right stand that terror did not have any religion and no leniency should be shown to the suspects. As investigations throw up evidence that some of them had links with other terrorist incidents like the one on the Samjhautha Express at Panipat, some BJP leaders like Mr Rajnath Singh have come up with the argument that the government was denigrating the Hindu community and the Army. This only betrays their warped thinking. If anything, the Malegaon blast shows that bigots are not confined to any particular religion. To see some terrorists as “our terrorists” and others as “their terrorists”, as some political leaders do, is to give a new dimension to the whole debate on terror. Terrorists are first and foremost enemies of the people and they deserve no mercy. If proper investigations into the blasts at Ajmer and Hyderabad are carried out, they will expose the double standards employed by the investigating agencies and some political leaders. Nobody doubts the integrity of the Army just because a black sheep in uniform was caught masterminding a terrorist attack. Similarly, the arrest of a Sadhvi or a Swami does not mean Hinduism is under attack. To make such a claim is to draw political mileage out of it. The BJP’s commitment to fight terror will remain compromised if its leaders like Mr Rajnath Singh indulge in doublespeak. Early this week, two RSS workers were blown to pieces while they were making bombs on the premises of a temple in Kannur district in Kerala. A day later, the police recovered 18 bombs from another worker’s house in the same area. Furtherance of cultural nationalism that the BJP chief is fond of talking does not require illegal bombs. Parties like the BJP and the Shiv Sena will do well to allow the ATS to investigate the Malegaon case, rather than put a spoke in its wheel.
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Power and perjury
CRICKET may be described as a “gentleman’s game” but the organisation in charge of the sport is invariably in the news for very ungentlemanly goings-on. Now there are questions whether some in the authoritative sounding Board of Control for Cricket in India were out of control with their submissions to the Calcutta High Court being less than authoritative. So it appears, with the court initiating criminal proceedings for perjury against BCCI bosses, including Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, who was president of the body before incumbent Sashank Manohar. Also in the dock are the BCCI’s vice-president, chief administrative officer and present and previous secretaries. Doubtless, the court action has been triggered by none other than Mr Jagmohan Dalmiya, who was expelled from the BCCI in 2006, a year after Mr Pawar bagged the top post. Mr Dalmiya found his way back to the Board in 2007, but his fight is far from over. For long the unchallenged head of the BCCI, Mr Dalmiya set the cat among the pigeons in 2004 when he thwarted Mr Pawar from becoming president by ensuring the victory of his own man, Mr Ranbir Singh Mahendra. As one of the world’s richest sports organisations, which is enmeshed in a complex web of high finance and power politics, the BCCI is a prized booty for those in power as well as those aspiring to greater power. As a result, much like in politics, there are no permanent winners or losers in the contests for the BCCI posts. One man’s victory is another man’s cause for revenge. Regardless of the motivations of the men involved in this battle, it has now emerged that the documents — of amendments to the BCCI’s constitution cited for easing Mr Dalmiya out — placed in court were false; that the amendments were not in force at the time as the BCCI had claimed. This is, indeed, a serious offence as it amounts to lying under oath. With the stakes thus raised in the Dalmiya-Pawar battle, the issue has a bearing on the reputation and clout of not only the two men but also the BCCI. The worst may be yet to come.
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Polluters must pay
THE indictment of the Punjab Pollution Control Board by the Punjab and Haryana High Court could not have come a day too soon. Without mincing words, the court has held the board responsible for not taking action against the polluting industries in Dera Bassi. It also rapped the board on the knuckles for its alleged collusion with the polluting industries and accused it of “organised racketing”. In Punjab, the total number of industries has registered a quantum jump over the past two decades. There has also been a corresponding increase in the quantum of pollution caused to land, air and water. The board has identified over 15,000 polluting industries. Ludhiana and Mandi Gobindgarh are considered the most polluted towns in the state. Not that the other towns, including Amritsar, fare any better. Bathinda is smothered by fly ash. Toxins flow in the Ghaggar. Unmindful of the hazardous consequences, industries continue to pump effluents into water bodies. In Ludhiana, the Buddha Nullah was once home to 56 kinds of fish. Now only industrial discharge and sewage ‘swim’ in it. Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal once asked for tightening of noose around the polluting units, but soon his government buckled under pressure. Sometime back, the board threatened to encash bank guarantees to ensure compliance by the polluting firms. But when it comes to brass tacks, the board has simply failed to monitor or control pollution. Development is an ongoing process but it cannot be at the cost of people’s health or ecosystem. Industrial growth need not be at the cost of environment. By introducing environment-friendly technologies at the planning level itself, industries can reduce the quantum of pollution they cause. As the court reminded the Pollution Control Board, it must know its dharma, which is to provide a pollution-free environment to the people of the state. Instead of being hand in glove with the defaulting industries, it must take punitive action. In other words, the board should set its own house in order.
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Bigotry may be roughly defined as the anger of men who have no opinions. — G.K. Chesterton
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Malegaon and military SINCE almost every issue in this country, even that of terrorism, has been made a football of partisan politics, it is vital that all concerned must resist the temptation to politicise the arrests of a serving Lieutenant-Colonel and a couple of retired Army officers for alleged involvement in the Malegaon bomb blast, which is believed to be linked with an earlier one at Nanded. The matter is as sensitive as it is serious, and has to be handled with utmost care. Of course, anyone guilty of terrorist activity of whatever hue, whether a military man or civilian, must be meted out exemplary punishment. But the arrest of Lt-Col Shrikant Prasad Purohit should neither be underplayed nor blown out of all proportions. For a start, it would help dispassionately to look at the record since Indepen-dence of the armed forces, especially the Army, the largest service that is also the instrument of last resort against all disasters, man-made or natural. To pretend that no one in the Army is ever affected by strong sentiment prevailing in society would be the height of naivety. To control the post-Partition communal frenzy in the nation’s capital, Jawaharlal Nehru had to send for the Madras Regiment. It wouldn’t do to argue that this happened only under exceptional circumstances. For, exactly the same regiment had to be deployed during the anti-Sikh riots in Delhi in the wake of Indira Gandhi’s assassination in 1984. In the early years of Independence, Nehru wrote to then Defence Minister Baldev Singh, to bemoan that Sikh Generals, after retirement, were joining the Akali party. Sometime later, he wrote to state chief ministers to deplore that quite a few armed forces officers had started seeking political patronage to secure promotions. In both respects, the state of affairs has deteriorated since then. The search for political godfathers has become rampant. As for post-retirement political affiliations of military officers, they first divided their loyalties between the Akalis and the Congress. After the rise of the BJP as the leader of the ruling coalition, there was a big influx of retired officers into the saffron camp. In contrast to what happened in Delhi during 1984 when virulent anti-Hindi riots broke out in Tamil Nadu in 1965 and it became necessary to call out the Army, a wise South Indian Lieutenant-General advised both the Defence Minister and the Army Chief to send only the Sikh or Mahar troops to Tamil Nadu — an advice that was accepted immediately. However, when all is said and done, the undeniable fact remains that the collective ethos and professional integrity of the Army has endured intact not only through the upheavals cited above but also amidst much worse episodes later. During the Emergency in the mid-seventies, the Indian Army simply held the ring and let the political process take its course. The Army’s role on combating and ending the horrendous Gujarat riots was even more commendable. Arguably, the heaviest strain on the Army, its discipline and traditions, came in the wake of Operation Bluestar. Soldiers at the headquarters of the Sikh Regiment shot dead the Brigadier commanding them. In several places largely fresh or junior jawans in the Sikh formations mutinied. The Army leadership restored order and normalcy with remarkable speed. Just over a month afterwards, I stayed without a whiff of worry with a Sikh Light Infantry battalion in Kashmir. The Army Chief, General Deepak Kapoor, has said that after the arrest of Lt-Col Purohit, the Army has intensified its internal checks and vigilance to ensure that there are no rogue elements within its ranks. However, an answer is needed to a gnawing question: why didn’t the arrested Colonel’s apparently suspicious activities come to the notice of the Army’s relevant authorities all these years? Especially when, according to reports emanating from the investigative agencies, the officer, formerly of the Intelligence Branch, not only allegedly trained Hindutva extremists but also procured for them deadly RDX? Without beating about the bush, let me add that investigations into bomb blasts and other terrorist depredations have all too often been distressingly dilatory and uncertain. Assertions made emphatically at one stage have had to be withdrawn later. The latest example of this is the report from Guwahati that the recent bomb blasts in Assam were the handiwork of Bodo extremists. This is a flat contradiction of the investigators’ earlier claim that the needle of suspicion pointed to the Bangladesh-based Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HJUI). Ironically, neither of the two “findings” has been presented to any court of law yet. Nor can anyone guess when this would be done, if at all. Yet the leaks keep coming and the media, especially the round-the-clock TV channels, peddling them every hour on the hour. Only the other day TV news channels went on announcing that the arrested Colonel had spent Rs 60 lakh, without raising the obvious question as to where did a middle-level officer get so much money from. Does the media realise that someone may be using it? After a case is investigated and taken to court, the judicial process also takes its time. Judges cannot be blamed if there is a shortage of judicial manpower or if the prosecution cannot produce evidence speedily. The Bombay High Court’s verdict on the 1993 serial blasts came 14 years later. Any case involving an Army officer that drags on and on cannot but spell disaster. There is already discontent among the armed forces over their pay and status after the Sixth Pay Commission’s report. Noting should be done to deepen this faultline. One fundamental question that has been neglected or avoided for decades has become very pertinent in the present circumstances. The doctrines of secularism, rule of law, and equality before the law, though basic tenets of Indian democracy, are plants of very slow growth. But who has tried to nourish these plants? The answer, alas, is: after Nehru, no one. No wonder then that the secular ideal is under heavy attack in Indian polity from extremism of all kinds, ethnic and other divides. The need to inculcate the values of equality and secularism — irrespective of religion, region, caste or creed — among the armed forces, paramilitary organisations, the police, and the investigative agencies has become acute. Unfortunate-ly, not even the most vocal champions of secular values have paid this any heed. The more agonising question is: would they do so
now?
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Memsahib in Cape Town MV. Cilicia arrived in Mumbai early January 1957 bound for Liverpool via Suez Canal. Passengers from Mumbai included students, members of diplomatic and services staff and a few businessmen. Arvind Sudhakar married to Sylvia from Portsmouth, England, was amongst those who boarded with my family from Mumbai. Sudhakar was a senior executive in Glaxo laboratories and stayed in a seaside bungalow near Worli beach with Sylvia. She was an elegant lady popular in neigbourhood where I too lived. In response to her lively nature we used to call her Memsahib. This was her first trip home to meet her parents. After two days of sailing, news came that Anglo-French aircraft had bombarded Suez Canal. We were now required to follow to South African route. We were now sailing along the east coast of Africa heading towards the port of Durban. Throughout the pleasant sailing Sylvia Memsahib was the darling amongst passengers, proud of her British origin. Just before crossing Durban our ship’s propeller struck a rock resulting in severe vibrations and loss of speed. Ship’s owners signalled that the ship must dry dock in Cape Town to replace the propeller. None of the Indian families had visa clearance for South Africa on their passports as India had strained relations with Africa due to its apartheid colour bar policy. However, under international maritime convention seafarers/passengers holding no valid visa could land provided they followed local laws. The captain invited 20 prominent passengers for consultation in his suite. He intimated that on arrival Cape Town passengers would disembark and the ship would enter dry dock for 10 days. He explained strict enforcement of apartheid laws prevailing ashore where there were separate queues for blacks and whites in post offices, banks and the railway station. There were separate hospitals, railway compartments, schools and hotels for blacks and whites. Even repairmen for ships were in black and white groups. Black and white working staff in gold and diamond mines worked in separate shifts. The captain displayed separate lists for those passengers going to stay in all-black and all-white hotels. My family and other Indians were listed for an all-black hotel “Orient” located close to the dry dock, together with Mr Arvind Sudhakar. Sylvia Memsahib was to proceed to Hotel Everest located six miles away from dry dock, alone. Next day, the taxi arrived at the jetty to carry Memsahib to white hotel. We were amazed when the white taxi driver refused to take Sudhakar with White Memsahib up to her hotel. He was even not allowed to meet his wife during the next 10 days of stay in Cape Town. She could only ring up her husband in a helpless manner to express her anguish. Ever-jovial Memsahib who had been a heartthrob of many during 20 days of her stay on board the passenger liner, now felt herself segregated from Indian friends and admirers. We felt greatly relieved when we sailed for
Liverpool.
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Honour status quo
WE are back to square one as far as the border dispute with China is concerned. Some 12 meetings held on the border issue since the two countries agreed to talk about it have been futile. China’s foreign affairs spokesman, Qin Gang, has said: “We deeply regret the Indian side’s remarks that Arunachal Pradesh is a part of India…New Delhi has not taken into account the historical facts.” Beijing, Gang says, never recognised the “illegal” McMahon Line and that the status of the border state was “never officially demarcated.” Why is the Indian government not frank with the nation? At the end of every meeting, the Indian spokesman has said that the “progress” made on the talks was “positive.” Probably, Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee who has been rebuffed by China thought he would get away with the speech he was making during his visit to Arunachal Pradesh. He said that “Arunachal is an integral part of India and that China knows about it.” This gave the impression as if the matter regarding Arunachal had already been settled. Apparently, it is not so. China must have told India that Beijing did not accept New Delhi’s stand. The manner in which China has been blocking the visit of MLAs or the Speaker from Arunachal Pradesh to its country should have been a clear indication that Beijing was sticking to its old stand. Why are we indulging in wishful thinking? This is precisely what happened before the 1962 war between China and India. The the first time this writer heard of the Sino-Indian border dispute was in the Union Home Ministry in early 1957. When he complained to a senior official about the East Pakistan border bristling with dangers, the official feigned ignorance. But his one remark, event though cryptic, was significant. He said: “Why Pakistan alone? You will have trouble with China very soon.” He did not elucidate but in reply to insistent queries, he said that there were vague reports of China building a road through Sinkiang. The Foreign Ministry had been informed of the reports many times. Lakshman Singh from UP first informed the government in 1954 about the building of Aksai Chin Road. As our Trade Representative, he used to visit Tibet every year. His contacts were wide, and he met some labourers who had worked on building the road. A couple of weeks later, the same officer, told his private secretary to put certain papers in the ‘Border File’. Asked to elaborate, he explained that since the Ministry of External Affairs refused to entertain information about China’s inroads into Indian territory, this was straightaway filed. Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru got enraged even at the mention of a border dispute with China. Laughingly, he remarked that “in our ministry when somebody dos not want to deal with a subject for a long time, he says: ‘Put it in the border file’.” This writer was to hear this euphemistic description of inactivity often after that. Another time he heard the border problem being discussed threadbare was when Chou En-Lai called on then Home Minister G.B. Pant. As Information Officer to the Home Minister then, this writer knows Pant had the habit of writing down his main speeches and briefs and then delivering them “extempore.” That time also there were scores of papers typed and re-typed, meetings with the foreign secretary and much poring over maps till Pant could remember the names of even remote rivulets. The Pant-Chou meeting, arranged at short notice, was meant to remove the impression then spread by the pro-Beijing Communists that Nehru felt personally hurt by Chou En-Lai’s actions and was therefore somewhat adamant about the terms for any settlement. The Prime Minister also wanted to show that he was not alone in taking decisions on the border issue. His cabinet colleagues had to be carried along, and all of them felt rather strongly on the issue. Probably there was also some pressure from the party which wanted somebody other than Defence Minister Krishna Menon to be associated with the discussions. Pant’s reputation was that of a shrewd person, a hard nut to crack. It may be recalled that before hostilities had broken out, a “solution” of the border was suggested by Menon, but he was overruled by Pant. Menon had told then Chinese foreign minister Chen Yi that India might accept Beijing’s suzerainty over the area in Aksai Chin where it had built the road to link Sinkiang and Tibet as well as over a 10-mile strip to serve as a “buffer” to the road. In exchange, China must official accept the McMahon Line and India’s rights to the rest of Ladakh.. China had reportedly accepted this and so had Menon who apparently had talked to Nehru. But Pant stood in the way and had the government withdraw its offer through an informal resolution in the cabinet. Even leasing out the Aksai Chin area was not acceptable to the ministers. “We can never trust the Chinese again,” said Sardar Patel. There was also controversy over the border shown in Chinese maps. Nehru raised this point with Chou En-Lai many a time but every time the latter would say that they were Kuomintang Government’s maps which his government had no time to correct. However, he was always general in his replies and never even once said that he accepted boundaries shown in the Indian maps. New Delhi’s case was that from the six century onwards it was known that the southern limits of Sinkiang lay along the Kuen Lun ranges and, therefore, the Aksai Chin Plateau and the Lingzi Tang plains were never a part of China or Sinkiang. India has produced 600 pieces of documentary evidence to establish that these areas were utilised by the people of Ladakh and administered by the governments of Ladakh and Jammu and Kashmir. And therefore they are India’s. Subsequently, China attacked India. But that is part of history. The new relationship between the two countries grew when Beijing agreed to have talks on the border. Both had agreed to honour status quo till there was a firm settlement. But Qin Gang has violated that understanding by his outburst. The two countries are too big to push each other. Beijing, more than New Delhi, should realise this.
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Dateline Washington IT will probably go down as the most-anticipated phone call in the history of US-India relations. On Wednesday, President-elect Barack Obama finally spoke to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh prompting a sigh of relief from those concerned that India may not be a priority for the incoming leader of the US. The fact that India was not on Obama’s list of Top 10 things to do since winning a tough election drew gasps of disbelief from some journalists and South Block mandarins. The Prime Minister was, after all, one of the first world leaders to write a congratulatory note to Obama. Then why didn’t the President-elect promptly acknowledge his good wishes on the phone? The Indian media went into painful contortions trying to interpret the meaning of this silence. In the US, the Washington Post reported on these anguished declarations in a story headlined, “In India, a world of hurt over a perceived Obama slight.” Sources told The Tribune, Obama had, in fact, attempted to contact Singh earlier but the latter was unavailable. The US-India relations have come a long way since the frosty days of the Cold War. Just last month, President George W. Bush put his seal of
approval on a deal that ends more than three decades of nuclear isolation for India and catapults it into a league of its own. New Delhi also has been trying to convince the world’s powers that it, too, deserves a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council. Panicking over a phone call is not the trait of a world power, but that of an insecure people. Shah controversy: Obama's decision to name Sonal Shah to his transition team has upset some liberal, left-leaning Indian Americans. An economist, Shah serves as the Director, Global Development at Google.org promoting the firm’s philanthropic work. Prior to that she served in President Bill Clinton’s administration where she got first-hand experience dealing with the Asian financial crisis. Such impeccable credentials should make her the ideal pick for a President whose first priority will be finding a way out of the financial mess. Shah co-founded IndiCorps, a non-profit organisation whose mission is to encourage people of Indian origin to reconnect with India, with her brother Anand. Vijay Prashad, Director, International Studies, Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut, says Shah’s appointment raises red flags. “The Shahs remain active in Houston’s Indian community, not only in the ecumenical Gujarati Samaj (a society for people from Gujarat), but also in the far more cruel organisations of the Hindu Right, such as the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), the Overseas Friends of the BJP (the main political party of the Hindu Right) and the Ekal Vidyalaya,” Prashad says. “Shah’s parents, Ramesh and Kokila, not only work as volunteers for these outfits, but they also held positions of authority in them. Their daughter was not far behind. She was an active member of the VHPA, the US branch of the most fascistic outfit within India. The VHP’s head, Ashok Singhal, believes that his organisation should “inculcate a fear psychosis among (India’s) Muslim community.” This was Shah’s boss. Till 2001, Shah was the National Coordinator of the VHPA, Prashad adds. He said “at no point did she deny her active connections.” There has been no word from Shah on these charges. Inauguration Day: Washington is getting dressed up for Inauguration Day. On January 20, Barack Obama will be sworn in on the steps of the United States Capitol as the 44th President. He will also be the nation’s first black president. Early this week, Obama and his wife Michelle dropped by at White House – their future home – to meet with its current occupants, George Bush and Laura Bush. The Obamas looked comfortable in the White House and even went upstairs to check out the accommodation for their two daughters. Meanwhile, a record number of requests have been made for tickets to the Inauguration. People have been told to contact their members of Congress for a ticket. Many have been put on waiting lists while others have been told that there are simply no more tickets left. So where have all those tickets gone? Late-night laughs: Barack Obama’s vanquished Republi-can opponent John McCain made his first media appearance on Tuesday night since his defeat on Nov 4. “I’ve been sleeping like a baby: sleep two hours, wake up and cry, sleep two hours,” McCain joked on “The Tonight Show” with Jay Leno. Making light of his defeat, McCain said his home state of Arizona had now produced four failed White House candidates. “Arizona may be the only state in America where mothers don’t tell their children that some day they can grow up and be President,” he quipped.
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Delhi Durbar THE ongoing controversy over the proposed appointment of three judges for the Supreme Court is not the first of its kind. Even in the past, seniority has not been the guiding factor for the selection of Supreme Court judges. Chief Justice of India Justice K.G. Balakrishnan himself has endured the pain of being superseded many a time. He had become a High Court judge in 1985, much before his three predecessors (in the post of CJI) were made HC judges — Justice Y.K. Sabharwal in 1987, Justice R.C. Lahoti in 1989 and Justice S. Rajendra Babu in 1988. Legal circles wonder why a fuss was sought to be created over the recommendation of the collegium, headed by the CJI, for the appointment of three judges, ignoring the seniority factor. The Prime Minister’s Office has reportedly sent back the collegium's recommendations.
Jaitley is in demand Now that the Assembly elections are round the corner in Delhi, the media-savvy BJP general secretary Arun Jaitley has temporarily closed shop at his official residence 9, Ashoka Road, next to the party headquarters. Instead, he holds his daily darbar at the Delhi BJP office in Pandit Pant Marg. This has become a problem for mediamen to contact him. The old age home for retired BJP leaders – 9, Ashoka Road – wears a deserted look. However, the more enterprising among them rush to Pandit Pant Marg soon after the daily briefing, just to attend Jaitley’s darbar there.
Reshuffle of envoys likely Speculation is rife in South Block that a major reshuffle of key Indian envoys is on the cards. The grapevine has it that there are differences within the foreign office over who should be the new High Commissioner to an important neighbouring country, given the sensitive nature of relationship with it. Foreign Secretary Shiv Shanker Menon, who has himself been the Indian envoy to Pakistan, may have a crucial say in the matter. The ministry is likely to name new ambassadors in some of the other world capitals in the coming days. However, the name of a woman IAS officer in the Commerce Ministry, is doing rounds for the post of Deputy Chief of Mission in Brussels. The Commerce Ministry has also sought a few more ambassadorial positions from the Ministry of External Affairs, particularly of those countries with which India’s trade and economic ties are growing rapidly. Contributed by R. Sedhuraman, Faraz Ahmad and Ashok Tuteja
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