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Act, Pakistan, act
Silence is golden |
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Dip in exports
Mumbai mayhem
Condolence, the Indian way
Terror revisited
Leadership gap in China
Inside Pakistan
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Act, Pakistan, act
PAKISTAN has not been matching its words with deeds on the issue of stamping out terrorism. It has promised many times in the past that it will not allow its territory to be used for terrorist activity. Yet, the terrorists trained in Pakistan launched a daring attack in Mumbai on November 26, resulting in the loss of nearly 200 lives. They could not have succeeded in striking at several places at a time and keeping the security forces engaged for hours with enough ammunition to cause extensive damage to the Taj heritage hotel and Trident-Oberoi without getting proper training. India has incontrovertible evidence to prove the involvement of the Lashkar-e-Taiyaba and other jihadi elements being tolerated by the Pakistan government. Again, the Pakistani leadership has offered to cooperate in the investigation of the ghastly incident but it remains to be seen how far it goes to honour its commitment. India can no longer tolerate attacks on its interests by jihadi elements based in Pakistan. That is why it wants Islamabad to take “strong action” against Pakistan-based terrorists urgently to prevent the situation from taking a turn for the worse. The demarche served on the Pakistan High Commissioner on Monday must be taken with the seriousness it deserves. Pakistan must launch a decisive drive against terrorist outfits by destroying their networks, including training camps, to have “a qualitatively new relationship with India” as desired by its leadership. As demanded by India, it must hand over to New Delhi terrorists like Daood Ibrahim, Masood Azhar and Hafiz Saeed who are wanted in India for their involvement in terrorist incidents. These steps are essential to save the on-going peace process, set in motion with considerable efforts by India and Pakistan. No peace drive is possible under the prevailing circumstances. Terrorism cannot be eliminated by entering into peace deals with extremists, as was done in the past by Islamabad. Pakistan must keep in mind that both countries have been suffering because of its policy of taking a lenient view of terrorism targeted at India. Terrorists of all categories are enemies of peace and must be dealt with ruthlessly.
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Silence is golden
SOME politicians have an uncanny ability to talk foolish. When they get a microphone, they utter anything that comes to their mind. How else could former Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister R.R. Patil have said that the recent terrorist attack was a small incident for a big city like Mumbai. Patil, who also held the Home portfolio, went on to say that the terrorists had wanted to kill 5,000, implying thereby they killed only 200. The minister, who has been given the boot, wanted to downplay the attack most Indians see as the worst the country has suffered since it began grappling with terror. It is not the ruling party leaders alone who are capable of shocking the people. BJP leader Muqtar Abbas Naqvi has taken on women “who wear lipstick and powder” for lighting candles to mourn the dead and to “denigrate” the politician. More than anything else, Naqvi betrayed his gender bias in making this statement. Does he mean to say that women cannot even light candles and protest against the insensitivities of the politician? It was his party, which saw in the Mumbai attack an opportunity to garner votes. The distasteful advertisements the BJP released soon after the terrorists struck Mumbai still rankle all right-thinking people in the country. Probably, Mr Naqvi would like women to wear burqas and not expose their “powdered” faces and remain within the four walls of their houses. His comment reminded people about the nasty statement Janata Dal leader Sharad Yadav had once made against women who cut their hair. Insensitivity was at its height when Kerala Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan said, “If it had not been Sandeep Unnikrishnan’s house, not even a dog would have glanced that way”. The slain NSG commando’s grieving father may not have treated him and his Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan well when they went to his house in Bangalore to console him but that is no justification to use such uncouth language. It is not necessary for politicians to speak on anything and everything. They should know that on certain occasions, silence is golden. |
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Dip in exports
PRIME MINISTER Manmohan Singh has taken charge of the Finance portfolio at a time when the reality of slowdown has begun hitting the nation. The first bad news after the switchover comes from exports, which have started slipping for the first time in five years. Exports slumped 12 per cent in October. This provides a clear indication of the impact of recession in the United States and Europe on goods and services India offers the developed world. Though India’s growth is largely driven by domestic demand, exports have increasingly contributed to building the country’s financial muscle. However, compared to China, India is a small player. That also is the reason why it has escaped much of the turbulence in the global financial and commodity markets. In the past one decade merchandise imports and exports have grown from 11 per cent of the GDP to 18 per cent now. The growth in exports has been slow for various reasons: poor quality, incompetitive pricing, child labour and environment issues, among them. China has gained by creating large manufacturing hubs. India’s special economic zones are caught in wrangles over land acquisition and hit by red tape, a high cost of capital and a liquidity crunch. Like other sections of industry, exporters, too, press the government for a package. Most of the small and medium units, which employ a large work force, face the heat of high lending rates. Latest reports indicate that the government may not opt for a stimulus package for the economy but may announce relief for troubled sectors like textiles, leather and gems and jewellery. Instead of waiting just for a bailout, exporters need to do cost-cutting, technology upgradation and be competitive. No matter what crutches the government may provide, if a firm cannot sell its products at a competitive price, it won’t survive for long. |
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Someone must fill the gap between platitudes and bayonets. —
Adlai Stevenson
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Mumbai mayhem
The diabolic, well-coordinated and ruthlessly executed multi-pronged terrorist assault on Mumbai has left the nation punch-drunk. Since Mumbai is a great port city, many in the media have been looking seawards for clues, and asking the inevitable question: could the Indian Navy (IN) or the Coast Guard (CG) have done anything to stop the terror strikes? The dramatic high seas interception of two merchant ships, and their internment in a Gujarat port has added grist to the mill. Many of us are missing the wood for the trees. No set of people could have walked off a merchant ship in Sassoon Docks or stepped out of a dinghy at Machhlimar Nagar and launched these attacks. This operation called for reconnaissance, logistics, communications, local support and, perhaps, even rehearsals; all requiring time. The number of persons involved, directly or indirectly, could easily run into dozens, if not a hundred. It speaks of the abysmal depths plumbed by our police and intelligence apparatus that they failed to hear an underworld rumour or a whisper on the airwaves, or obtain any sort of warning at all. But that seems to be now “par for the course” in India. Soon after the July 2006 serial train blasts in Mumbai, which resulted in over 500 dead and injured, I attended a high-level inter-ministry meeting to discuss this issue. After presentations, discussions and brain-storming lasting a couple of hours, the final question was asked by the Cabinet Secretary: what urgent remedial and precautionary measures should we take to prevent the recurrence of such incidents? After a pregnant silence, the sole suggestion that came was voiced by a junior functionary: “We must give the SHOs at the thana level more and better quality walkie-talkie sets.” I was shaken to the core because of the pedestrian and a worm’s eye perspective that it demonstrated; not high-technology, not intelligence, not weapons, but walkie-talkies! And this was in 2006, after the nation had been experiencing bomb blasts or terrorist attacks with monotonous regularity in the wake of the horrifying 1993 Mumbai carnage. The score today, of course, stands much higher. What we have been facing for many years now is an “asymmetric war”, waged by a ruthless and imaginative intelligence agency. This war has many dimensions; aiding separatism and insurgency, attacking our economy by pumping in fake currency, inciting communal violence, and undermining the morale and cohesion of the armed forces (often through the instrumentality of the Indian media) are some other facets of this multi-pronged assault by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency on the hapless Indian State. Its most obvious manifestation has been the cold-blooded orchestration of violence amidst our civilian population. This is done through a complex and well-organized network of agents and surrogates, indigenous and foreign, who are trained, equipped and financed to wreak havoc. Mumbai was obviously a soft and undefended target, where they perpetrated mayhem with impunity. Like ostriches with heads buried deep in sand, we have refused to acknowledge this asymmetric war. And full responsibility for this situation must be accepted by Indian politicians of all hues, who in their ruthless quest for votes and political one-upmanship have systematically undermined every instrument of state, and rendered the nation vulnerable. While using it to gain electoral “brownie points” they have failed to make terrorism an issue of sharp focus for the security establishment. Our response to the asymmetric war has, therefore, remained disjointed, fragmented and disorganised for three reasons. Firstly, the netas have emasculated the police forces and made the intelligence agencies ineffective by interference and politicisation, so that they are unable to discharge their core functions. Secondly, the national security establishment has encouraged turf distribution and creation of fiefdoms, and thereby deprived itself of the benefits of holistic thinking and synchronized action. And lastly, in a system that must be uniquely world-wide, the armed forces are kept on the margins of national security management by a powerful bureaucracy, and rarely consulted or heard by politicians, even on issues in which they have exclusive expertise. Let us return to Mumbai, which is not only a metropolis, port city and financial hub but also home to India’s nuclear establishments and the Western Naval Command. There can be little doubt that the city’s porous water-front is its Achilles heel, as is the state’s long coastal belt. But Maharashtra received adequate warning 15 years ago, when in 1993 the “mafia” landed a few tonnes of arms and explosives by boat near Ratnagiri, and with police connivance transported them to Mumbai for the carnage that was to follow. Soon thereafter, all coastal states were directed by the Centre to raise marine police wings equipped with high-speed boats and communication equipment. To my knowledge, only Kerala has put together a small unit of this type, while the other states unrealistically expect the IN or the CG to undertake coastal policing functions. These two Services are meant to operate at sea, and cannot, for example, undertake patrolling of Juhu, Chowpatti, Cuffe Parade or Alibagh; which is the job of the marine police. However, that is not all. Like much else in our country, port and coastal security is in a total mess because at least 14 ministries, departments and agencies have a degree of involvement in maritime-related issues. Most of the time our security is compromised because the left hand does not know what the right is doing. Agencies work at cross-purposes, while important harbours like Mumbai remain unguarded. For years, the Navy has been pleading with the government that there is a dire need to constitute a central Maritime Commission for regulation, coordination and oversight of maritime security. That this eminently sensible proposal is languishing due to bureaucratic obduracy is proof of our political myopia and lack of resolve. India’s coastal, maritime and national security will be tremendously enhanced if the Commanders-in-Chief of the Western and Eastern Naval Commands were to be empowered. But for that we will not only need to reach a higher level of security consciousness but also learn to repose faith, confidence and responsibility in the only national institution which continues to function with dedication, efficiency and intense patriotism: the Indian Armed Forces. Every newspaper and TV channel is today reflecting how drastically the stock of the politician has fallen with the common man. If India’s polity wants to redeem itself in the public eye they must forget hypocritical vacuous statements, forget ex-gratia payments, forget commissions of enquiry; there is only one service they can perform for the nation. And that is to convene an emergency session of both Houses of Parliament, and, sinking their petty differences, show the people that for once they have not their own but the nation’s vital interests at heart. This historic session of Parliament should enact or start the process for legislation for constituting a Homeland Defence Organisation, be it a civil ministry, a military command or a combination of the two, with appropriate instruments at its disposal. There should be the empowerment of this organisation with wide-ranging authority to, inter alia, monitor the movements, search and detain, if necessary, individuals suspected of posing a threat to the nation, gain access to telephones, e-mails, bank accounts and any other information in the interest of homeland safety. Reforms should also be implemented to free the police forces of the debilitating yoke of political interference. This will be a draconian measure, but for how long must the people of India remain hostage to terror exported from the neighbourhood?n
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Condolence, the Indian way
As camera zooms in on the grieving K. Unnikrishnan, father of brave martyr Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan, slamming the door on Kerala Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan, suddenly the focus shifts from terror. Another kind of line is drawn. Drawing-room conversations as well as serious editorial conferences deliberate the matter. Many condemn the unbecoming remark of the Chief Minister. Others believe it was ungracious of heartbroken Unnikrishanan to have snubbed the poor Chief Minister who had come with the noblest of intentions — to offer condolences. But having passed through a similar onslaught let me share that in India there are many empathisers who possess an uncanny knack of rubbing it in. Often, I too have been tempted, if not to shut the door, at least scream at the top of my voice — oh please, shut up. Indeed, whoever said sorrow shared is sorrow halved knew exactly what he was talking about. The traditional Indian way, where for days relatives and friends keep streaming into your household is meant to do exactly that. As the anguished members of the family go over and over their tragedy, recounting again and again how they lost a dear one, the entire mourning exercise serves as a catharsis, where they partially purge themselves of the toxin that grief generates. And on the day earmarked for uthala which also signals the end of official mourning, once more friends turn up, to stand by you in your hour of sorrow. But in modern India, there is a whole new tribe of insensitive “sympathisers”. They can offer you the weirdest of commiserations, which if the situation wasn’t so grim would easily qualify for an SMS joke, even if a poor one. Then there are those who perhaps believe — see no grief, hear no grief and simply do not speak about it. In the days of prompt SMS and mobile phones, they remain incommunicado and invisible. Silence is their golden way of commiseration. All very well … so be it. But just when you have forgotten all about them and their grievous ways, just as you set about to get your life back in order, trying to come to terms with your very personal grief, there they are. At an official get-together, someone else’s funeral, on the roadside, in the market, even a party. And guess what, when you least expect and want it — the condolence message is writ all over them, as they seem only too eager to shed copious tears and offer fake sympathy. You resist the urge to tap them on the head — hey, sir /madam, losing a dear one is not yesterday’s weather, which can be used as a pretext anywhere and everywhere to initiate polite conversation. With your insides churning, you just about control yourself from being nasty. Instead you offer feeble answers and walk away, relieving your pain publicly once more. So dear “sympathisers”, if you don’t know, let it be known — condolence has a time, place and above all an inclination. If you do not care enough — simply keep quiet. Lip sympathy, too, can help assuage hurt feelings, provided it comes laced with some sensibility and sensitivity. Perhaps, Unnikrishnan sensed or felt that the Kerala Chief Minister’s gesture was devoid of both.n
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Terror revisited
We, in India, will never learn our lessons. This has been our tragedy from the day Prithvi Raj Chauhan allowed Mohammed Ghori to go away having defeated him in the battlefield. Prithvi Raj was to regret the day and pay a heavy price for it. The tragedy of today’s India is somewhat similar. Pakistan attacked Kashmir by sending in so-called tribesmen in 1947. We accepted that even though Pakistan itself was later to acknowledge the presence of its regular army in Kashmir. Then came the attack in 1965, again Pakistani regulars sent in civilian clothes. We let them get away from Simla with all they wanted, hoping to make friends with them! Then came the proxy war — the cross-border terrorism. When all that failed, Pakistan, once again, mounted its usual ploy sending in regulars in civilian clothes in Kargil. Kargil was also a major disaster for India’s intelligence services as also for the police forces. Kargil showcased the terrible governance that India had. It was the supreme sacrifice of our forces that saved the day for India and the enemy had to suffer yet another defeat and humiliation. Pakistan is too used to such defeats and humiliations from India. But the biggest shock that Pakistan has suffered is the fact that in spite of Pakistan trying to bleed India to the maximum, this country emerged as a regional power both economically and militarily. Pakistan, a failed state, has never been able to digest that. Several analysts had warned India that Pakistan could hurt Mumbai, because to them Mumbai represents India’s economic might. Did any one in India’s establishment take note of that? To any India watcher it was clear that random attacks of terrorism such as bomb explosions were not hurting India. Once again, what stares one in the face is the terrible manner in which India is governed today. What is the explanation for the manner in which these commandos were able to recce and stock up arms and ammunition in Mumbai well before the attack? What is the explanation that India’s intelligence services were not able to get any wind of how the enemy planned this attack and how these dare-devil young commandos were trained and where? Let us not forget that the former President of Pakistan was always very proud of his commando background. Who in India is to be held responsible for the huge loss of life and property suffered by the country? Who in India is to be held responsible for the huge damage caused to the country’s image and the ensuing losses which India’s trade and tourism will suffer? Is there any accountability for such failures in governance? The politicians are, once again, trying to take away the credit that only belongs to India’s brave hearts that saved the city at huge sacrifice. So many of our brilliant officers and men have been lost. So many of our bright businessmen, industrialists and executives and young trainees have been butchered by the enemy. Who is to be held responsible for this loss? As long as India continues to pursue the policy of unilaterally seeking friendship with Pakistan, the mayhem will continue. We must come to grips with the reality that Pakistan is run even today by its army and that army has absolutely no desire of being friendly with India. It has a vested interest in carrying on its confrontation with India, albeit via proxy war or terrorism and now via commando attacks by men to be proclaimed terrorists. What a sorry and sad display of rivalry was displayed when the country’s Leader of Opposition failed to travel with the Prime Minister to at least present a unified face of India to her brave forces fighting the enemies of the nation in Mumbai? There can be no plausible explanation for such behaviour. It remains a mystery as to who could have advised the Prime Minister to demand that Pakistan’s ISI Chief come calling and explain what his people are up to? Who ever expected that to happen was perhaps living in a make-believe world. Even if he were to turn up, what purpose would it serve? If India has clinching evidence that can prove that these commandos who attacked Mumbai via sea were trained and armed in Pakistan, then it is high time that India went to the world capitals and exposed Pakistan. That apart, if this evidence is as strong, then it is high time that we gave up any pretence of building bridges with that country. We should concentrate on finding ways and means to destroy that capability of the enemy. It is time that we have an open inquiry into the failures that led to this commando attack on Mumbai nay India. It is time that this open inquiry fixes responsibility and punishes the guilty. That is the only way we may be able to move ahead. The tall talk by some of the government leaders that we do not need any help from abroad is absurd. We need expertise from our allies, be it the US or the UK or Israel. Even if we have to hire some of their men to build a foolproof mechanism for us to fight this menace, we should not shy away. We should pay for it and get the job done. Today, in our history, a moment has come that is calling for this nation and its government to act swiftly and decisively. Any dithering or the attitude of “chalta hai” would only result in yet another attack — Kargil 3. Will the government and political establishment of India respond? —
ANI
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Leadership gap in China This should be China’s time to shine. The country is sitting on almost $2 trillion in foreign exchange reserves and may post a 9 percent growth rate this year, probably the highest of any nation. In the midst of a global financial crisis, the world has come to China’s doorstep seeking leadership. Yet China’s leaders have largely kept the door shut, arguing that Beijing can do the most good for the world by putting its own house in order. China wants to be a responsible partner, not a global leader. Many in the United States have assumed that China wants to ascend to superpower status; and what better time for Beijing to step up? China matters more to the world every day — not just on trade and finance but on climate change, food safety, nonproliferation and other global challenges. Yet China’s leaders are right: They need to focus on the home front before they extend themselves globally, for their own sake and for ours. Above all, China’s leaders need to sort out where they are going politically. It is hard to lead globally when your domestic political system is in massive transition — or, worse, turmoil. Beijing faces more than 90,000 protests annually as a result of endemic corruption and ongoing crises in public health and the environment. Exports, the lifeblood of the Chinese economy, are falling; layoffs are already in the tens of thousands, and China’s stock market has lost two-thirds of its value over the past year. Chinese media report daily on a stream of new regulations — to limit the ability of factories to fire workers, to manage state-run reporting or to restructure the public health bureaucracy. Yet all this tinkering at the margins has failed to reassure the Chinese people, or many outside the country, that the government has a clear plan for its political and economic future. And until China’s leaders address their domestic issues, we don’t want them playing a larger role abroad. Their political system is in desperate need of transparency, official accountability and the rule of law. Before China’s political institutions are in good shape, Chinese leadership abroad would probably introduce as many problems as it solves. The global financial crisis, for example, has sparked calls for Beijing to take a greater stake in the International Monetary Fund. On its face, given China’s impressive balance sheet, this makes sense. Yet Premier Wen Jiabao’s calls for IMF reform may signal a challenge to the fund’s efforts to promote transparency and accountability in the countries to which it lends; China has routinely resisted calls for its foreign assistance to be managed in a transparent manner. In addition to developing the political capacity for leadership, the time Beijing spends getting its house in order would allow China to develop the economic wherewithal to lead. Leadership means setting an example and often entails political or economic sacrifice at home for the greater good abroad. China has demonstrated little inclination toward such sacrifice, partly because it does not believe it has the economic capacity to do so. — By arrangement with
LA Times-Washington Post
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Inside Pakistan The November 26 attack in Mumbai by Pakistan-based terrorists has led to interesting developments. According to The News, “All the main terrorist groups fighting in FATA (Federally Administered Tribal Areas), from South Waziristan to Bajaur, and from Mohmand to the Khyber Agency, have contacted the government through different sources after the Mumbai bombings and offered a ceasefire if the Pakistan Army also stops its operations” against them. “As a positive sign that this ceasefire may be accepted, the Pakistan Army has, as a first step, declared before the media some notorious militant commanders, including Baitullah Mehsud and Maulvi Fazalullah, as ‘patriotic’ Pakistanis.” This shows that the escalating tensions between India and Pakistan may provide an excellent opportunity to terrorist outfits to regroup themselves to carry on their nefarious activities in a more vicious manner. They must be feeling emboldened with Army Chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kiyani making it clear that if tensions escalate, “then Pakistan has to move its troops (around one lakh) from the tribal areas to the eastern borders, and it would not be possible to continue the war against terrorism”, as The News report added. A report in The Frontier Post had it that “talking to newsmen from an undisclosed place on the telephone, Senior Naib Amir of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan Maulana Faqir Muhammad pledged that the Taliban would take up arms and fight against the Indian Army in case Delhi attacked our country.”
The terrorists and their masterminds have created a tricky situation. The talk of war suits them more than anybody else. The media, both print and electronic, is not as forthcoming as it ought to have been in telling the war-mongers that the result of such a course will be catastrophic. What a Daily Times editorial pointed out is worth mentioning here: “The media on sides has to play a role in mediating the political side of the crisis. If it showcases retired Generals on this occasion, it will tilt the scale on the wrong side. If it hits the street with a one-sided question, the people are going to say unrealistic things like ‘we are ready to fight Pakistan, we must fight India’. No one in the world should ‘be ready’ to fight a nuclear war.” The paper adds, “…the reasonable voice that says that the Mumbai attack is mounted by elements who want a conflict between India and Pakistan is being drowned amid angry statements. It could well be a plan to force the Pakistan Army out of the Tribal Areas and thus provide relief to the militants, who are seen by many to be under pressure these days. The dominant anti-American view probably favours Pakistan’s delinking from the war against terrorism that will follow an Indo-Pak standoff.” Dr Rasul Bakhsh Rais, who teaches at the Lahore University of Management Sciences, made a sensible comment in his article in Daily Times on Tuesday: “The war on terror requires international cooperation, more meaningful and institutionalised than has been forthcoming. An even bigger challenge is for India and Pakistan to cooperate with each other in fighting terrorism. It is, however, not going to be easy given the present climate of distrust.”
The controversy over the question of sending the ISI chief to India for helping the investigation of the Mumbai terrorist attack seems to have led to uneasy relations between the PPP government and the Pakistan Army. Though official circles are trying to make everybody believe that the matter has ended with the reversal of the government’s decision, the situation is not as simple as it appears on the surface. The development may have far-reaching consequences. What has been going on between the Army and the government for the past few days is not what Daily Times referred to in passing in one of its editorials: “Some media comment has dwelt on the ‘misunderstanding’ that occurred with regard to the ‘sending’ of the ISI chief to India, but that confusion has been cleared and need not be raked up.” Let us have a look at what The News says: there are “indications that the Pakistan military is not seeing eye-to-eye with the government. The military high command is said to be upset over what it believes is the civilian government’s failure to consult it on key decisions; the initial agreement to send the DG, ISI, to India, which was then subsequently withdrawn, has added to the dangerous discord.”
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