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Partnership with Europe
Independents’ Day |
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Another mishap in HP
Kashmir hopes rise above terror
That man in white
How serious is West Bengal in tackling Maoists?
Chatterati
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Partnership with Europe
The 10th India-European Union summit, held in New Delhi on Friday, was very fruitful in the sense that it resulted in the signing of a civilian atomic energy cooperation accord between the two sides and taking forward the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations, continuing for a long time.
The agreement on nuclear power generation will go a long way in helping India in its efforts to ensure energy security, though it is basically aimed at facilitating India’s entry into the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) project. The 10-billion-euro fusion reactor, the costliest project of its kind, will become operational by 2016 with the participation of the EU, the US, Japan, China, India, South Korea and Russia. India will share 10 per cent of the cost like China, Russia and South Korea. The EU will bear the maximum — 34 per cent of the total cost — whereas the US and Japan will contribute 13 per cent. The joint statement issued at the end of the talks, which included summit-level discussions between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and EU President and Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, reflected the understanding between India and the EU that their cooperation will in no way undermine the cause of nuclear non-proliferation. India has an impeccable track record in the area of non-proliferation, which helped in the signing of the civilian nuclear deal with the US. The EU can help India considerably in wind energy generation, too, though it was not discussed during the summit. It is encouraging that India and the EU have succeeded in putting their negotiations on a fast track for signing the FTA between the two sides next year. There is immense potential to increase bilateral trade to $200 billion by 2013 from what it is at present —- less than $100 billion. India, however, does not want non-trade issues like child labour and environmental laws to be brought in during the next round of discussions on the FTA. The 27-nation European bloc must understand India’s sensibilities on non-trade issues, one of the factors for the FTA having failed to become a reality despite seven rounds of discussions so far. |
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Independents’ Day Coalition politics has returned to Haryana with a bang and has changed the whole dynamics of government formation. When Team Hooda was sworn in on Saturday, the largest chunk of the pie went to the Independents, whose support is crucial for the survival of the government.
\All of the precious seven have been accommodated, one as Cabinet Minister, three as Ministers of State and three as Chief Parliamentary Secretaries. In the process, the small state has for the first time is saddled with as many as nine Chief Parliamentary Secretaries. Out of the 40 MLAs that the Congress has, five have got Cabinet rank while six have become Chief Parliamentary Secretaries. The Haryana Janhit Congress has not yet fallen in line and to facilitate the process, four Cabinet berths have been left dangling, ready to be gifted. The chances of inclusion of heavyweights like Kiran Choudhry, Savitri Jindal, Dr Raghubir Singh Kadian and Sampat Singh are slim if the ministry has to accommodate the HJC at the same time. What is remarkable is that all the posts have gone to those said to be Hooda loyalists while his detractors have been left out in the cold. That this exclusion can cause a lot of disquiet in future is another matter. The end result is that only two ministers from the previous Cabinet figure in the present one, with the six-time MLA, Capt Ajay Yadav, being the virtual number two. He has got important Finance, Irrigation, Forests and Environment portfolios. With the focus firmly on appeasing the allies, the practice of giving representation district wise has been given a go-by. Many districts like Jind, Hissar, Ambala, Yamunanagar, Kurukshetra, Karnal and Bhiwani have no representative in the Council of Ministers. But the community and caste matrix has been taken care of considerably. That is an odious way to carry out the selections, but that is the way politics works in Haryana with caste getting preference over merit and experience. |
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Another mishap in HP Once again, a bus accident has taken place in Himachal Pradesh. The people die. There is a routine inquiry and the announcement of a sort of compensation. There the matter ends. The state government — irrespective of which is the ruling party — seems to have little concern for the frequent loss of human lives. It seems to have become shock-proof.
Preventive measures are almost unheard of. Preliminary reports say the cause of the latest accident near Haripur in Kangra district on Friday is rash driving and overcrowding. These two factors are quite common and responsible for many accidents in the absence of law enforcement. Checking by the traffic police is almost non-existent in Himachal — certainly outside Shimla. Since roads are narrow and ill-maintained, traffic is growing at an alarming pace and the mountainous terrain is treacherous, vehicle driving in a hill state like Himcahal is risky and requires extra care. Still drivers can be callously indifferent to passenger safety, often speeding and fiddling with music instruments while driving. Although government buses and drivers are not above blemish, private bus owners in particular care little for the traffic rules. Driven by greed, they often employ untrained and unqualified drivers at low salaries and disregard the road worthiness of the buses they deploy to transport people. The practice is to pack as many passengers in a bus as possible and others are asked to climb on to the roof. Such lawlessness is often responsible for frequent bus mishaps in Himcahal. According to official figures, 4,000 persons have died and 45,000 injured in road accidents in Himachal Pradesh in the past eight years. This would have made any government sit up and do something effective. Since the government refuses to learn any lessons, courts will have to come to the rescue of the harried commuters. They should fix responsibility for negligence and make the erring government and private bus companies pay exemplary compensation to those who lose their family members. |
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And once sent out a word takes wing beyond recall. — Horace
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Kashmir hopes rise above terror
The contrast could not be more striking. Pakistan made a further descent into chaos and terror recently, with its Interior Ministry ranting wildly against India even as Dr Manmohan Singh spoke in firm but conciliatory tones in Srinagar about pushing for reconciliation and development in J&K through dialogue.
He separated “humanitarian” from “political” issues while keeping open the door for Pakistan to join the process by abandoning cross-border terrorism. The horrendous Peshawar carnage is a message Pakistan must heed, namely, those that play with fire risk being incinerated. The very future of Pakistan is today the core issue, with “Kashmir”, a long irrelevance, becoming an albatross around its neck. The Prime Minister spoke of facilitating enhanced trade and movement across the LoC in J&K with the provision of banking and trade facilities, trade fairs, an expanded list of tradable commodities, quicker travel clearances and speedy release of prisoners on either side who have completed their sentences. This is what people want, not jihadi hate and terror perpetuated by vested interests who desire conflict in the name of barren ideology. He also referred to creating conditions to encourage a reverse brain drain to J&K and creating constructive openings for talent and energy through better connectivity and the guarantee of more firm power during winter. Restoration of the Mughal Road and further extension of the Anantnag-Qazigund railway, just inaugurated, were also mooted. Not mentioned but worthy of consideration would be liberal operationalisation of the Srinagar international airport and broadband connectivity to promote the development of two or three new growth poles along the valley’s railway corridor and in the Jammu region for returning Pandits and Muslim youth who fled the state and went to study and work in other parts of India in the 1990s to avoid forced marriages and extortion or being press-ganged into militancy. FICCI has just taken a group of high-powered industrialists to the valley to showcase possibilities of investment and joint ventures that could give a boost to employment and income generation in the state. IT-assisted services and agro-processing hold out great promise, and there is no reason why such ventures or special economic zones should not receive counter-guarantees in respect of certain heads and for a limited period in order to provide the initial stimulus. This should be accompanied by training facilities for upgrading technical and managerial skills. Prior to the Prime Minister’s visit to J&K, the Union Homer Minister announced the government’s intention to promote quiet talks with all sections of opinion in J&K that abjure violence so as to build a consensus leading to an internal settlement in J&K. The emphasis on quiet talks is important as previous deliberations under the full glare of publicity have short-circuited the talks and led to futile grandstanding and blackmail by ideological spoilers at home and terrorists and Pakistani agencies across the LoC. These elements will, of course, need to be confronted as soon as the ground is well prepared. The Hurriyat has been invited to talk and can no more equivocate or claim a veto. Pakistan can have no role in these internal talks, which could cover issues of human rights, reconciliation, disappearances, compensation and justice where due, centre-state relations and regional autonomy. Pakistan’s own constitutional relationship with Pak-Administered Kashmir, let alone the newly designated Gilgit-Baltistan region, is abysmal and blatantly colonial as a reading of the two constitutions imposed on them by Islamabad amply reveal. But it is up to Pakistan to order its own relationships with the areas under its control across the LoC. As far as an international settlement is concerned, busybodies must be firmly told that there is no “dispute” over J&K other than UN-admitted aggression by Pakistan. The US, too, should be reminded that it has recognised India’s sovereignty over all of J&K (refer Warren Austen in the Security Council), a position unilaterally changed by it after Pakistan became a “frontline” state around 1949, and further compounded by its gratuitous cartographic fiddling in the Siachen area post-1967 through the US Defence Mapping Agency. The framework of an international settlement has in principle been agreed to in the Manmohan-Musharraf formulation “making boundaries (the LoC) irrelevant” without derogating from either country’s sovereignty. An extension of the LoC beyond NJ 9842, the last point demarcated under the Karachi Agreement of July1949, “thence north to the glaciers” without admitting of any no-man’s land, constitutes an unambiguous and sanctified delineation of the northern terminus of this boundary. The highly glaciated area beyond Pakistan’s fictitious latter-day “claim line” from NJ 9842 NE to just the west of the Karakoram Pass, and the region west of the Indian AGPL up to K2, should then be converted into a Peace and Science Park for international glaciological, hydrological and meteorological studies in order to study potential impacts of climate change and take appropriate counter-measures. Participation in two recent high-level Track II dialogues with Pakistan has once again shown how empty and uninformed their rhetoric is about India’s alleged evil designs on their share of Indus waters and the Indus Treaty generally. The future now lies in moving to joint cooperation in the investigation, development and management of projects in the upper three western rivers of the Indus, whose headwaters lie in India, under Article 7 of the IWT. The way forward is clear. J&K is not an “Islamic” problem and the OIC has absolutely no role to play. More jihad over J&K may hurt India but threatens to destroy Pakistan which confronts an
endgame. |
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That man in white
I was nervous as a well-built, imposing man in white glared at me and at my application in the Indian Express office. He fired one question after another at me. Why would a student of literature want to be a journalist, he asked. I told him I was a student of the English language. He smiled, baring his upper jaw, and again glared at me.
I had begun to feel he was finding something of interest in me. List your favourite authors, he asked, probingly. None, I said. Surely, men and women of eminence could not be seen as "favourites", could they? Only parrots, purses, watches or dogs could, may be. He smiled indulgently, looked at News Editor D. N. Singh and scribbled something on a piece of paper. From a distance, I could make out the noting was bilingual, in his typical half-Hindi and half-English. "When can you report for work, Singh Sahib?" This was a pleasant surprise. Clearly, I had met a man who, without editor-airs and without much ado, accepted that there could be just another point of view. By and by, I discovered much more about him. Prabhash Joshi was a grand motivator. His man-man-management skills and sharp intelligence made sure everybody walked with him. It was because of him that "Singh Sahib" would be present in office, sometimes as early as 9 am — the shift started at 12 — and got down to sorting heaps of copy and hand-editing, sitting in the open outside the editorial long room on winter days. Often, he would walk by, look at me, say a cheerful "Good Morning!" and lope his way toward his office. No ado, no airs. Yes, no airs indeed. SMA Kazmi , now with The Tribune, saw a stranger sitting all by himself behind half-cut grass, absorbed in watching a friendly cricket game between schoolboys at the CSIO grounds. No one knew who the lone spectator was. After the match, he left as quietly as he had come. It was only five years later that Kazmi was called for an interview and recognised the man who sat in front of him. Prabhash Joshi said he had gone to watch his son, Sandeep , play for his team, Government Model School, Sector 19. (The boy later played in the Ranji Trophy.) Ever the self-effacer, he said nothing more. We quite liked the way Prabhash Joshi was. Today, away from us, he is the same, we are sure, that he always was — a big man with a big heart, in his trademark white, the spotless white of cricket that he dearly
loved. |
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How serious is West Bengal in tackling Maoists?
Is the West Bengal government serious about tackling the Maoists or is it just big talk and a public charad? That was the key issue Karan Thapar explored with senior CPM politburo member and Rajya Sabha MP Sitaram Yechury in CNN-IBN’s Devil Advocate proramme on Sunday. Here are excerpts: Karan Thapar: Mr Yechury, let me start with a blunt question. Is your government in West Bengal serious about tackling the Maoists? Sitaram Yechury: Very serious. Karan Thapar: In which case, how do you account for the pusillanimous deal that you have done with Kishanjee to secure the release of Atindranath Dutta? Both The Indian Express and The Hindu report that your police forces were surrounding and closing in on the Maoists when inexplicably the government called them off. Your government, at a critical moment, threw in the towel? Sitaram Yechury: No. That is not the fact of the matter. In fact, the people whose release was obtained were actually, if you look at the photographs – which the same papers have published – were middle-aged hapless tribal women and not hardened Maoists for which any deal has been done. Karan Thapar: I will come to the people who were released in a moment’s time but first come back to my opening point. Two newspapers, which your government has not contradicted so far, have said that in fact your forces had surrounded the Maoists at a time, when suddenly and inexplicably, they were called off? Sitaram Yechury: See, no government will contradict or affirm when operations of this nature are going on. The media can speculate. Karan Thapar: But this is an embarrassing revelation. Sitaram Yechury: It is no revelation, it is just speculation. Karan Thapar: It is not speculation. Top police officers confirm that they had surrounded the Maoists squad that had abducted Atindranath Dutta. Then they got a call from Kolkata to call off the operation. Sitaram Yechury: Who? Who are those top police officers? The fact of the matter is that many a time in such operations we have seen such red herrings being put forward, and the media also--honestly--need to cooperate in dealing with such dangers. Karan Thapar: The media also needs to expose the government. When senior police officers are going out of their way to tell the press that the government was in a position to surround the Maoists before the Chief Minister called it off, that is embarrassing. Sitaram Yechury: Who are these officers? Karan Thapar: Officers don't give their names as they are worried about their jobs but they are revealing, like whistle blowers, the truth. Sitaram Yechury: No. Why is it that only these two newspapers have done it? In case there are other officers who have been going around and giving such information, then why other media has not picked it up? Karan Thapar: Okay. That's your ground: why haven't more newspapers reported this, therefore I don't believe it? It is a dubious explanation but I will accept it and I won't argue with it? Sitaram Yechury: It's not dubious at all. Karan Thapar: For the simple reason that your government has not contradicted what the two newspapers have said, the police officers are not contradicting it, that is why it stands? Sitaram Yechury: There is no need for contradiction. The logic is you do not contradict such things when operations are on. That's precisely what we told (not clear what is said). Karan Thapar: Let’s go beyond the operations. Lets move a step beyond. It's not just that you are perceived to have thrown in the towel, what is even worse is the message that you sent out to the Maoists. That every time they are under pressure all they have to do is kidnap a government official, the government will buckle and that will lead to a blaze of publicity. Sitaram Yechury: That Chief Minister has said it very, very clearly and he said that it was only in this particular case. This is not going to happen again. Karan Thapar: But there is no guarantee that it won't happen again. There was no need for it to happen here, therefore it can happen again. Sitaram Yechury: There was a need because these were hapless tribal women – taken, kidnapped virtually to be used as shields. We rescued them. Karan Thapar: Let's come to that issue then. This is the second time you are raising this claim that this was done to secure the release of what you called hapless tribal women. Sitaram Yechury: Of course, the same newspapers you pointed published photographs of them. Karan Thapar:Let's come to those people then. These Maoists sympathisers, the Chief Minister says, it doesn't matter that they were released (a) because the charges against them were minor misdemeanors and secondly he says they would anyway have been granted bail in 15 days. Both those points are not true: they were actually charged with waging war against the state and attempted murder--a far more serious charge than he admits--and secondly bail was no means likely. So the Chief Minister is misrepresenting the situation. Sitaram Yechury: If that is the case, you have to ask the state government, I don't know any such details. Karan Thapar: So you are backing off now. Sitaram Yechury: No, I am not backing off. I don't think that is an issue at all. Karan Thapar:You made it the issue. Sitaram Yechury:The issue is these people were used as shields, they are continued to be used as shields in order to procure whatever demands the Maoists want. Karan Thapar: I am going to quote FIR No. 137/ 2009 and FIR No. 78/ 2009 of September 3. These 22 Maoists sympathisers were accused of waging war against the Centre and the state and also attempt to murder. Secondly, and this is equally important, the public prosecutor, Chandicharan Mahapatra, had on two separate occasions refused bail. He said he was against bail and he said he has strong evidence and suddenly he then had to change his position because your government forced him to. Sitaram Yechury: Why should the public prosecutor change positions? Karan Thapar: Because they come under pressure from your government. The government wished to withdraw the case. Sitaram Yechury: I have been charged with sedition, acting against the state on a large number of incidents when I was in student politics. So this is not something unnatural and you know attempt to murder, acting against state, dacoity – Karan Thapar: But these are not minor misdemeanors, as Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said. Sitaram Yechury: This is the nature and manner how police works. For a student demonstration you charge me with dacoity? Karan Thapar: This is not a student demonstration. These are people who are accused of waging war against the state Sitaram Yechury: I am giving you that illustration only to prove the point that they are ways in which the Indian Police acts under the Indian Penal Code. Karan Thapar: In which case please explain to me, why the defence lawyer, the one man whose interest is to act on behalf of these 22 Maoists, he said when the bail was granted: "even I was surprised the district court granted them bail". The only reason it happened is because your government inexplicably and suddenly wished to withdraw charges. Sitaram Yechury: Again you are jumping to conclusion without any basis. If the defence lawyer makes that statement, from there to conclude that the government put pressure and therefore this was done, I think you are letting your imagination take hold of you. Karan Thapar: It's a fanciful defence you have put up. Let the audience hear it and judge for themselves whether what you are saying is credible or less than credible Sitaram Yechury:Yes, please. Karan Thapar: Meanwhile the problem with the attitude of the Marxist government of Bengal to the Maoists goes much further back than what happened last month. West Midnapore police records show that since 2002 – that is seven years ago – over 170 people have been killed by Maoist death squads. Sixty-six per cent of those are in fact CPI-M cadres, and yet not one Maoist operative has been shot dead and no one of significance has been captured. Your government has given them a free-hand. Sitaram Yechury: We are tackling the Maoists. Their main leader (Chhatradhar Mahato) is arrested. Karan Thapar: He is not a Maoist, he is of PCPA – there is a distinction. He said so himself. Sitaram Yechury:Who told you? Why are you advocating for them? Karan Thapar: Let's come back to the fact how you handle the PCPA, which is a clear proof of how pusillanimous you been. In November –. Sitaram Yechury: Now you’ve come to the conclusion that there is clear proof. Karan Thapar: Ok, let me give you the proof. In November, the PCPA demanded that police posts and police camps be shut down. You shut down 13 camps on November 27 and two camps on December 1. Both of those happened on deadlines set by the PCPA – they demanded and you gave in. Sitaram Yechury: No, I am sorry. The operations that are being conducted jointly both by the Central and the state forces – if you want to discuss the details of those operation no state is ever going to give it to you.n
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Chatterati George Bush, former President of America, was in the capital recently. At one time the most powerful man of the world was quite a pleasant change from when he was the President. More relaxed, a good sense of humour and looking much younger. Friendly to all and making wisecracks even at himself. Addressing the nation's who's who at The Hindustan Times Summit, he made the right noises. Right from "Namaskar India" to calling Manmohan Singh his buddy. He praised the nation and was really politically correct for a change. Bush had a one-to-one luncheon with the Prime Minister. As he sauntered across to the home of his pal, Manmohan Singh, who famously declared this nation's "deep love" for Bush. At the friendly lunch, Bush clearly reciprocated in full measure. Singh was as "chirpy" as Bush. The conversation was light and sparkling. There was a lot of laughter and banter. So when Singh talked about how much he appreciated the huge gesture of the nuclear deal, Bush quipped, "Yeah, it was a big deal and to get it we had to break a bit of China". Bush is a health freak and very careful with his diet. He made his own coffee and heated his own milk in the morning. He asks everyone: "How are you guys today?". Right from the durbans to the lift operator. He also asked about the 26/11 victims and their families. He said he had been brought up by a strong woman, his mother. He has a strong wife and now has two very strong daughters. So he has a lot respect and admiration for women of all ages and nationality. At the outset, Bush disarmed all by thanking them for coming to see a "retired guy". Rahul takes on Mulayam Congress heir apparent Rahul Gandhi went head on to Mulayam Singh Yadav's bastion, Ferozabad, seeking votes for Raj Babbar against the SP chief's daughter-in-law. This is a significant political move. Rahul is the first in 32 years for taking on the Yadav chieftain directly. He astutely slipped in a long-term strategy for UP as he focussed on the next assembly elections, a good two years away. A byelection would not really matter but Mulayam has chosen to field his apolitical "bahu" against Raj Babbar, who was a part of the SP at one time. The Congress has chosen the development plank, realising that direct attacks on Mulayam's family could prove counter-productive. Rahul played to the script. And then of course, Amar Singh pointed it out that the Samajwadi Party never fields a candidate against Sonia or Rahul. Halloween is here The capital celebrated Halloween at pubs and restaurants having Halloween-theme parties. It may not be as big as Diwali or Holi, but Halloween, primarily an American festival, is certainly becoming a big business here. Shopkeepers were not even aware of Halloween till last year but this year the demand for costumes is so high that they had to order more products. Even schools are celebrating and parents are ordering horns, long nails and masks. Restaurants had corpses and coffins at the entrance, creepy sounds and bloody red cocktails. Dishes were named angry prawns, sticky ribs, snakes on the sticks and mud and worms. They also had gory body paint, fortune tellers, contests, stalls with Halloween merchandise and screens showing horror films. Many had vampire balls and the place was turned into a Gothic castle.n |
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Is the West Bengal government serious about tackling the Maoists or is it just big talk and a public
charad? That was the key issue Karan Thapar explored with senior CPM politburo member and Rajya Sabha MP Sitaram Yechury in
CNN-IBN’s Devil Advocate proramme on Sunday. Here are excerpts:
