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Simply, a disservice
Importing rice |
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Spate of terror strikes
India in Afghanistan
Sweet memories
Outgoing Administrator’s copybook
Iran’s unlovable Opposition
Al Gore denies he is ‘carbon
billionaire’
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Simply, a disservice
Although
the Services Sports Control Board (SSCB) has apologised for opting out of its Ranji Trophy match against Jammu and Kashmir at Srinagar on Tuesday and even offered to play the match on a future date, the damage caused by the thoughtless decision has been done. By this inexplicable act, the Services have given a lie to its own oft-repeated claims that the situation has become normal in the valley. As a result, what could have been a goodwill exercise has turned into a major goof-up. The Services should have been alive to the sensitivities involved. First class cricket was returning to the valley after five years. Even otherwise, the Prime Minister and Mrs Sonia Gandhi have visited the state, as have thousands of tourists. In such an uplifting atmosphere, it had no reason to spoil the party by staying away and touching a raw nerve. If there were any security concerns, these should have been raised long ago and with the BCCI, since the match schedule has been out for four months now. It should have taken the BCCI into confidence if it had received any specific tip-off that some incident was being planned against its team. By simply pulling out of the match, it has caused the country an embarrassment. Had the Services pulled out from another tournament for some reason, it could have been perhaps understood, but what they have now done cannot be popular not only in J&K, but also elsewhere in the country. The BCCI is right in banning the SSCB from this year’s edition of the Ranji Trophy. The incident cannot be explained away simply as an “administrative slip-up”. After all, the SSCB is headed by the Vice-Chief of Naval Staff. Responsibility must be fixed as to which official asked the Services cricket team not to play its scheduled match in the valley. Or is it the typical case of the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing in the government?
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Importing rice
THE Centre plans to import two million tonnes of rice and a formal decision is expected at a meeting of the empowered group of ministers on November 12. Scanty rainfall in half of India and floods in Karnataka, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh have caused a shortfall of 16 million tonnes in the country this year. The kharif foodgrain output at 96.63 million tonnes this year has been the worst since 2002-03. There is nothing to worry, however. The government has sufficient buffer stocks of both paddy and wheat. It is, perhaps, looking far ahead. Such foresight is commendable, but rare. There is no foolproof mechanism to predict drought/floods and demand/supply of food, which could help the government and farmers to make advance preparations. If farmers had known the prices of sugar, pulses and edible oils would shoot up, they would have devoted more areas to these crops. The price rise in the case of these crops is understandable because there has been a shortage. But what has stopped the government from importing more of these commodities in advance, especially when the foreign exchange position is comfortable? Food inflation has been unreasonably high and yet government intervention has been tardy. If the foodgrain prices have climbed up despite comfortable stocks, it is because ministers and government officials dither on market intervention. They would rather let foodgrains rot in the open than release them in the market and cool the prices. This mismanagement of food supplies has resulted in a situation where the growers get low prices for their produce, while the consumers are forced to pay heavily. It is the middlemen — traders and hoarders — who stand to gain. The government had not cared to accumulate sufficient stocks of sugar, pulses and other food items. Besides, low private and public investment in building storage infrastructure has cost the country dearly. Every year huge quantities of foodgrains, vegetables and fruits go waste. |
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Spate of terror strikes
AS the Pakistan Army on Monday claimed significant headway in the war against the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan in South Waziristan, 35 people were killed in a suicide bomb attack close to Army Headquarters in Rawalpindi. The incident occurred close on the heels of 92 deaths as terrorists hit Peshawar with the most powerful car bomb blast ever experienced by the NWFP capital. In October alone over 300 people lost their lives in nine incidents of terrorist violence in different parts of Pakistan. Army Headquarters, too, has not been safe from terrorists, who attacked it in an audacious manner on October 10, resulting in the death of 19 people. The responsibility for most of the recent terrorist strikes has been claimed by the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, headed by Hakeemullah Mehsud, who took over the militant movement after the death of Baitullah Mehsud in a US Drone attack. The Pakistan government has no clue about the whereabouts of Hakeemullah and his 18 close associates on whose head it has announced bounties totalling $5 million. The spate of terrorist attacks has begun to bring pressure on Islamabad to abandon the military drive against the Taliban in South Waziristan and, instead, hold dialogue with Hakeemullah and his lieutenants. The dangerous argument is that the situation is becoming unbearable and, therefore, some way other than the use of the armed forces must be found to stem violence. Any strategy that calls for talks with the Taliban killers will only embolden the terrorists. They must be ruthlessly dealt with to send a strong message that those indulging in terrorism can never succeed. This is the time for Islamabad to show firmness. It must devise a clear-cut anti-terrorism policy. Pakistan has to do more to eliminate terrorist outfits. This is in the interest of both Pakistan and the rest of the region. The elements in the intelligence networks sympathetic to the cause of the extremists must be identified and punished. Reliable intelligence gathering is the key to achieving success on the terrorism front. |
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I do not believe that friends are necessarily the people you like best, they are merely the people who got there first. — Peter Ustinov
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India in Afghanistan
ALL those working for peace and development in Afghanistan are heaving a sigh of relief with the presidential election concluding there peacefully. The Taliban had threatened to disrupt the election run-off to create more confusion in the ranks of those fighting against the extremists. The Independent Election Commission declaring the incumbent President, Mr Hamid Karzai, as the winner is obviously an upsetting development for the Taliban. The extremists would have been happier if the tussle for power between Mr Karzai and former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah had taken a turn for the worse with no clear winner at the end of the second round. Such a possibility could not be ruled out, as most voters were expected to remain indoors because of their disenchantment with the Karzai government’s functioning in the past. However, the situation changed with Dr Abdullah withdrawing from the contest. Mr Karzai not only failed to provide an effective government during his previous tenure, but also did little to prevent corruption from spreading to every level in the administration. How far he is able to fulfil his latest promise of uprooting corruption remains to be seen. He, however, appears to have become wiser as he has begun to work for stability so that he is in a position to launch a concerted drive against corruption. Mr Karzai, who is closely identified with Pushtun interests, may have to include in his government the Northern Alliance representatives who have their bases in the non-Pushtun segments of the population. It all depends on what Washington wants, but the fact remains that the new Karzai government cannot afford to ignore the interests of the non-Pushtun voters with a view to ensuring stability and legitimacy for his administration. An all-inclusive government may be successful in providing the atmosphere required for the speedy reconstruction of Afghanistan. That is why India has indicated its preference for such a dispensation. And what New Delhi says carries weight in Kabul because of India’s involvement in many development projects in Afghanistan. In January this year India handed over the 218-km-long Zaranj-Delaram highway to the Afghanistan government after completing it despite the Taliban threat to those working on the road project. The highway, a shining example of India-Afghanistan cooperation, can give a boost to trade and industrial activity in the region. The road that has taken 339 engineers to complete it in three years will provide an alternative route to supply goods to Afghanistan from India via Iran, reducing dependence on Pakistan. It will also help promote regional cooperation as Afghanistan has now got access to the sea through Iran’s Chabahar deep-sea port. The Zaranj-Delaram highway is, however, only one of the many contributions of India to the reconstruction of Afghanistan. India is involved in a big way in power supply projects like the 220-KV power transmission line to Kabul and the Salma dam project in Herat province. India has helped modernise the telecommunication networks in Afghanistan. Over 400 buses gifted by India can be seen plying in different areas in that country. India has been involved in the construction of the parliament building in Kabul. New Delhi has also been engaged in projects related to health care, education, etc. All this has helped blunt the Taliban’s anti-India propaganda. People in Afghanistan today realise how India’s “aid diplomacy” has been effective in giving them a new lease of life. India’s development strategy to win over the hearts and minds of the Afghans has become an interesting subject of discussion. During a recent visit to Brussels (Belgium) this writer was witness to how European Union officials and senior European journalists during discussions on Afghanistan made a special mention of Indian efforts in rebuilding that country despite the odds New Delhi had been faced with. The EU wants to cooperate with India in whatever way it is possible in making the Afghans leave the path of violence. There is realisation that India’s success story can help considerably in convincing the Afghans that the activities of the Taliban and those aiding the extremist movement — Pakistan’s ISI — have only made the life of the people more miserable. These elements have proved to be the real enemies of Afghanistan. India’s pledge to invest as much as $1.2 billion in development projects in the coming few years has raised its status as the sixth largest donor to Afghanistan. New Delhi cannot allow the gains of its “aid diplomacy” to get affected by developments like the Taliban attacks on the Indian Embassy in Kabul. This has not only unnerved Pakistan, which has been unsuccessfully seeking “strategic depth” in Afghanistan, but has also made the US feel alarmed. Gen Stanley McChrystal, the top US commander in Afghanistan, is believed to have mentioned in a recent confidential report that the “increasing Indian influence in Afghanistan is likely to exacerbate regional tensions and encourage Pakistani counter-measures in Afghanistan or India.” Those who are scared of India’s rising influence in Afghanistan, unfortunately, fail to realise that the war against the Taliban cannot be won unless the use of the military is accompanied by large-scale efforts to rebuild the infrastructure needed to revive economic activity. India has been of the view that war alone cannot solve any problem, as External Affairs Minister S. M. Krishna pointed out recently in the course of an interview to The Wall Street Journal. India, he said, did “not believe that war can solve any problem and that applies to Afghanistan too”. Of course, India knows that no development project can be implemented without providing adequate security to those engaged in it. The Taliban insurgents have to be tackled militarily. But the question is: who should do it? The US-led multinational forces have failed to eliminate the Taliban threat despite the investment of billions of dollars and loss of hundreds of lives. Their unending presence on the Afghan soil is being seen as one of the factors responsible for the Taliban resurgence. Doubts are being expressed about the necessity of the Obama administration preparing to send more troops to Afghanistan. There are already nearly 100,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan aiding the 200,000-strong Afghan security forces. Yet they are not sure of victory over the Taliban. The Afghans have little faith in any Western approach, as the McChrystal report says. That is why there is now talk of trying a regional approach with India playing the lead role. The Afghan security forces should be further strengthened by substantially increasing their number, equipping them properly and providing them the essential training for fighting the Taliban. No other country in the region is as much qualified as India in taking on such elements. Pakistan may obviously object to any regional strategy that gives India the most significant role to play. But the truth is that such a strategy can ultimately help Pakistan, too, in eliminating the Taliban threat to stability it has been faced with. Pakistan must accept that the Taliban factor on both sides of the Durand Line remains the most serious challenge to peace and progress in the
region.
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Sweet memories
Many of those attending the special award ceremony of the 17th annual convocation of the University of Kashmir last month did not miss the pitiable sight of the Boys Hostel damaged in a fire incident the previous week. The damaged building is separated from the newly come up gorgeous convocation complex by one of the entrance routes to the campus. Though the structure of the two-storey building stands erect, the tin roof, windows of the upper floor and part of the wooden ceiling between the ground and upper floors have been reduced to ashes in the fire. Most of the teachers, writers, scholars and politicians and senior civil and police officers at the convocation were disappointed over the damage caused to the building. The (old) Boys Hostel now known as “Sheikh-ul-Alam Boys Hostel” after some more hostels and buildings in its vicinity came up during recent years, has been host to many students for over five decades. Of them a majority of the alumni occupy varied positions in the institution, other educational institutions, different fields of life and, civil and police administration. All the 26 rooms on the upper floor have been damaged while 26 others on the ground floor are seemingly intact. “This is sad…. The hostel where I stayed during my studies has been destroyed”, moaned a civil administration officer on duty while another police officer lamented saying: “I have also lived here (as student)”. The hostel accommodating about 100 students may be repaired but the blaze has bruised the sweet memories of a long list of the alumni. I cannot be an exception for having availed the opportunity of being one among them, 27 years ago. Then it was the lone hostel building on the Hazratbal campus, while Ghani Kashmiri Hostel close to it for research scholars was under construction. Life in this hostel then was unique in many ways like the locales of the campus with its sprawling lush green lawns, and serene atmosphere away from the maddening crowd of the city. A long list of memorable incidents can be recalled. One was the shooting of a Bollywood movie starring Farooq Sheikh and Smita Patil. On a pleasant summer evening, over 20 enthusiastic boarding students ran down the central wooden stairs creating drilling sounds to watch the shooting and the stars in the nearby Botanical Garden. The announcement of holidays on the occasion of the death of the then Chief Minister, Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, months after the passing away of his close associate, Mirza Mohammad Afzal Beigh that year, became unforgettable moments for the young students. That is what Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said in his convocation address: the youth want to be free. “When in school they crave to be in college, when in college they crave to be in the university and finally be free”, he
said.
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Outgoing Administrator’s copybook
THE Union Home Ministry’s audit reports and the Central Vigilance Commission’s recommendation of a CBI probe into several deals approved by the UT Administrator, General S. F. Rodrigues, speak volumes of the way he tried to govern Chandigarh . Much of all this has already been widely reported in the media. He now threatens the media with befitting action, including defamation. He finds the Adviser to the Administrator, Mr Pradeep Mehra (who blew the whistle), to be a dirty mole. General Rodrigues has hurled accusations against two Union ministers – Mrs Ambika Soni and Mr Pawan Bansal – that they have been targeting him as he had dared expose their ‘nefarious designs’ to grab prime land for their project, Delhi Public School. Officials close to him are strangely contending that the Union Home Ministry has no understanding of the accounts and the business of administration. It remains to be seen whether they will say it again after the General leaves Chandigarh in mid-November. The report of the auditors reveals that land from the farmers was acquired at dirt cheap rates of Rs 30 lakh an acre or even less and handed over to industrialists and real estate developers at rates much below the market price – from Rs 40 lakh to Rs 2 crore an acre. All for the laudable purpose of setting up great projects. For example, close to the IT Park, the market price for 1,000 square yards is Rs 4 crore and an area of 4,840 square yards was offered for Rs 40 lakh. All rules were thrown to the winds to favour the few. Allotments without applications, fudging documents and accounts to accommodate the favourites and delaying the depositing of cheques to lose interest were the norms. The total loss is estimated at a whooping Rs 2,000 crore. The Union Home Ministry has found that the acquisition of land for the IT Park Phase III has no justification. The IT Park project was without a feasibility study. The Rs 250-crore land was given at a throwaway price to DLF to set up a mall, specifically for IT. It is now a purely commercial venture, caring little for the notices from the Administration. The audit suggested that the Theme Park bids should be called again. The potential land value was not considered for paying compensation; inadequate compensation was paid to the farmers after the land acquisition. There were serious lapses in the allotment of a five-star hotel site in the IT Park. Several cases of direct allotment at very low prices were noticed. The price for land allotment in the IT Park was arbitrarily fixed. Allotment policies were not transparent. The Government of India wants an immediate recovery of the revenue loss to the government. It has asked the administration to deposit the IT Habitat Project revenue with the government and devise an effective mechanism to check violations. The payment and accounting system should be transparent and strengthened. The Home Ministry should look into the functioning of the Chandigarh administration and appoint a Chief Commissioner to streamline it. The Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) has ordered a CBI probe into the allotment of two mega projects – the Film City and the Amusement-cum-Theme Park – approved by the Chandigarh Administration. The CBI has been directed to conduct detailed investigations into the allotments as a CVC inquiry had pointed out violations of the rules in awarding the two projects to private parties. The CVC noted that the administration had suffered a loss of Rs 250 crore. The CBI has been given the choice to first register a case against the prima facie culprits (officials of the UT Administration) and then proceed with investigation or first conduct a preliminary investigation and then register a case against the erring officials followed by their arrest. The Administration’s top brass, including the Administrator, are in the dock for allegedly favouring private companies by allotting land at cheap rates. The MHA special audit has also highlighted many obvious discrepancies. The Administration had allotted a huge chunk of land on a revenue-sharing basis to Unitech by ignoring another real-estate giant DLF, while the latter had offered 13 times more revenue to the Administration. DLF had offered a share of 13.5 per cent of its revenue to the Administration, yet it chose Unitech, which offered a paltry sum of 1.1 per cent revenue. One RTI activist had alleged favouritism in his complaint to the CVC saying that this questionable allotment of 73 acres of land in Sarangpur village is actually worth about Rs 3,000 crore. In the case of Filmcity, in January, 2007, the Administration found Parsvnath as the highest bidder and gave away 30 acres of land for Rs 191 crore on a lease of 99 years. However, last-minute changes in the conditions for the project became a bone of contention between UT Adviser Pradip Mehra and the Administrator, General Rodrigues, which brought the issue in the public domain. Complaints were also marked to the CVC. Mehra wanted Rodrigues to give a nod for a CBI probe into the entire project. Rodrigues did not approve. The Union Home Ministry has already barred the Chandigarh administration from acquiring land for any further project without its approval. The ministry’s audit report has asked for an immediate recovery of the revenue loss to the government on account of policies of the Chandigarh Administration. It has also recommended that the revenue received from the IT Habitat Project should be deposited in the government account instead of depositing it with the Chandigarh Housing Board. The audit found that the Social Engineering Project decided by the Chandigarh Administration regarding surplus land generated from the habitat project contravened the principle of government accounting. The audit took a serious note of “keeping public money out of the Consolidated Fund of India and undertaking a project without going through the budgetary process and norms as a lapse.” The Home Ministry wants an effective mechanism to ensure that the provisions are observed and no violations occur. There is a need to strengthen the pre-check, payment and accounting system. The extent of the delegation of financial, administrative and other powers under to the Administrator or the administration need to be reiterated and there should be no ambiguity. It was stated that any scheme beyond the delegated powers must be appraised by the ministry. The system of parliamentary financial control must be strictly enforced and the Chandigarh projects have to conform to the well-established budget formulations, execution and reporting process. But the matters will not rest here. General Rodrigues has publicly accused two Union ministers, Mrs Soni and Mr Bansal, who represents Chandigarh. He has alleged that “Bansal was offended when I pointed out serious irregularities in the land allotment to the DPS Society which is headed by Ambika Soni's husband… It has Soni and Bansal as vice-chairpersons and their family members as directors. This automatically put me on a collision course with both Bansal and Soni. From then onwards, I was seen as a potential threat to their business interests." Why has he taken so much time to reveal such ‘misdeeds’? Mrs Soni has vehemently denied all this and since the case is pending in the high court, she would not go into the details. Bansal was all fire and declared that the Administrator was resorting to falsehood just to “salvage” his image. It is for the first time a Governor has chosen to level serious allegations against two members of the Union Cabinet and it is also for the first time that a Union minister has used strong language against a Governor. The question remains: Why has the Governor been allowed to stay on for five long
years?
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Iran’s unlovable Opposition Iran
has been controlled since June by a hard-line clique of extremist clerics and leaders of the Revolutionary Guard who believe they are destined to make their country a nuclear power that dominates the Middle East. It follows that their opposition – a mass movement that has been marching to slogans such as "death to the dictator" and "no to Lebanon, no to Gaza" – is bound to be a more plausible partner for the rapprochement that the Obama administration is seeking. Or maybe not. The enduring nature of Iran is to frustrate outsiders who work by the usual rules of political logic or who seek unambiguous commitments. The West relearned that truth last week as the government of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad dragged a straightforward plan to swap its enriched uranium for fuel rods into a swamp of double talk and counterproposals. Ataollah Mohajerani, who has been a spokesman in Europe for presidential candidate-turned-dissident Mehdi Karroubi, came here to address the annual conference of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. The mostly pro-Israel crowd was primed to cheer what they expected would be a harsh condemnation of Ahmadinejad and his bellicose rhetoric, and a promise of change by the green coalition. What they heard, instead, was a speech that started with a rehashing of U.S. involvement in the 1953 coup in Tehran and went on to echo much of Ahmadinejad's rhetoric about the United States and the nuclear program. Mohajerani, who served as culture minister in the liberal Iranian government of Mohammed Khatemi in the 1990s, distanced himself from the current president's denial of the Holocaust and remarked at one point that Iran "should not be more Palestinian than the Palestinians." But he went on to assert, as per the current regime, that the countries seeking to freeze Iran's nuclear program themselves possess nuclear weapons, as does Israel; that Israel had contracted to supply nuclear weapons to Iran's former shah; and that Ahmadinejad's threats to destroy Israel were no different than what Hillary Clinton had said about Iran during her presidential campaign. Asked whether Israel had a right to exist, he refused to respond. As for Western support for Iranian democracy and human rights, he warned against "taking advantage" of Ahmadinejad's weak regime to strike a deal "that would not be in Iran's interest." The suggestion was that the opposition would consider any concessions to the West by Ahmadinejad illegitimate – a position that was borne out by statements last week by green-movement leaders attacking the uranium swap plan. Mohajerani's speech infuriated not just the Americans but also liberal Iranians in his audience; one of them, scholar Mehdi Khalaji, later pointed out that while Mohajerani might speak for Karroubi, he did not represent the vast numbers of younger Iranians who had joined the street protests. "The true leaders of this movement," he argues, "are students, women and human rights activists, and political activists who have no desire to work in a theocratic regime or in a government within the framework of the existing constitution." That's probably true. But the fact remains that, were Karroubi and fellow opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi somehow to supplant Ahmadinejad and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the main changes in Iranian policy might be of
style.
— By arrangement with
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Al Gore denies he is ‘carbon billionaire’ Since leaving office in 2001, Mr Gore has become a powerful advocate of government policies to limit carbon dioxide emissions. This week sees the launch of his latest book, “Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis”, a sequel to his earlier work, which was also a successful film, entitled An Inconvenient Truth. As the Copenhagen talks on a new climate-change treaty approach and the US Congress grapples with draft laws to curb emissions, Mr Gore's profile will only swell further. But as it does, so does the chorus asking if his advocacy for action on climate change is about self-enrichment as much as saving the planet. Some of his green investments were outlined on Tuesday by The New York Times. Mr Gore is a partner in the Silicon Valley venture-capital firm Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield and Byers, which has interests in companies developing alternative energy and energy-efficient technologies. He is also a co-founder of London-based Generation Investment Management, which has holdings in eco-energy companies. He defended his business activities on ABC TV and denied he was on the way to becoming a carbon billionaire. "I am proud to have put my money where my mouth is for the past 30 years," he said. "And though that is not the majority of my business activities, I absolutely believe in investing in accordance with my beliefs and my values." The new book reiterates the mantra that nothing will happen on climate change without political will. The book also explores numerous possible solutions to climate change, touching on such issues as forest management, geo-thermal energy and nuclear power generation, drawn from a series of "solutions summits" he held at his Tennessee home with experts. It was almost inevitable that Mr Gore would become a target of those unconvinced by the alarm bells about global warming, particularly on the American right. "If you really want to save the planet, put down the cheeseburgers and pick up your veggie burger," Glenn Beck, the conservative TV anchor, quipped recently, apparently referring to the dangers of methane emissions from the bovine species. Mr Gore, who earns in excess of $100,000 (£60,000) for speaking engagements reacted testily to the implication in her question about a possible conflict of interest. "Congresswoman, if you believe that the reason I have been working on this issue for 30 years is because of greed," he said, "you don't know
me".
— By arrangement with
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