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Tackling future Headleys
Everyone’s Sachin |
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Nuclear power for Punjab?
Changing political reality in UP
The eavesdropper
America may lead India into unequal climate pact
Castro’s long goodbye Chatterati
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Tackling future Headleys
India must consider itself fortunate that the arrest of US citizen David Coleman Headley and his Canadian associate Tahawwur Hussain Rana by the American FBI has unravelled the huge dimensions of the conspiracy against this country with active Pakistani involvement. That the Indian investigating agencies were until recently unaware of the possible role of these two operatives of the Lashkar-e-Toiba in plotting the 26/11 terror strikes in Mumbai a year ago is cause for concern. It now emerges that Headley had checked in at least twice into Mumbai’s Taj Mahal Hotel more than a year before it was targeted by the Lashkar’s attackers and Rana, who is of Pakistani origin, had left Mumbai five days ahead of last year’s audacious strikes by the LeT. It is also clear to the investigators now that instructions to the duo were coming from Pakistan as they were making regular calls to that country. It is shocking indeed that Headley ran a visa facilitation agency in Mumbai for three years without even a routine inquiry by a policeman. His antecedents were not verified even when he rented a place. In Delhi, Kochi, Pune, Lucknow and Ahmedabad which Headley visited, he stayed in hotels but the policemen on beat duty did not collect details from the hotels which they are supposed to do in regard to foreign nationals. The conclusion is inescapable that being a US national, he managed to indulge in sleazy activities without arousing suspicion. All this exposes the chinks in our intelligence armour and shows how gullible our sleuths have been. There are useful leads to be followed and it is to be hoped that FBI investigators will co-operate with India in unmasking the whole gamut of the actions of Headley and Rana. Besides going deeper into the conspiracy at the Pakistani end, the Indian connection in the activities of these two LeT operatives needs to be probed thoroughly. At the same time, the intelligence-gathering mechanism should be strengthened and the mandated checks on foreign nationals must be made more thorough. There are lessons to be learnt which we can ignore only at our peril.
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Everyone’s Sachin
Twenty
years ago, a 16-year-old Sachin Tendulkar tiptoed into the international cricket arena and the heart of everyone. Since then his place in both has been growing bigger and bigger. He has made runs like a machine, broken every record that was there for the asking and has yet remained the quintessential neighbourhood boy whom everybody loves to love. His batting is as copybook as his conduct on and off the field. Surviving in the rough and tumble of the highly competitive cricket world for two decades is in itself an achievement; being there right at the top for so long is even more so. Not letting this success and adulation go to one’s head is simply phenomenal. To that extent, one has to pinch oneself to believe that he is for real. However, his dream run is indeed true and that is why the whole country — nay the world — is united in toasting him on the completion of these two magnificent decades. For Indians, he is all the more special because he lit the fire of becoming the world beaters in millions of hearts. In him, everyone has found an ideal role model, who makes his exploits seem so easy that they appear doable. The way he has been encouraging youngsters makes one hopeful that many of these will be emulated. Not only that, he has played a tremendous role in making cricket a gentlemen’s game again. At a time when some misguided people from his home state Maharashtra are talking in narrow regional terms, he stands tall as a world-class Colossus, proud of his roots and even more proud of his being an Indian. If the country has to pick one brand ambassador, he may well be a unanimous choice, not only for his talent but also for his exemplary behaviour. Such legends are born once in a century. Australia had its Bradman. We have our Sachin. It is a privilege to be seeing him in flesh and blood.
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Nuclear power for Punjab?
Though the Akali Dal-BJP coalition had voted against the Indo-US nuclear deal in Parliament, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal has now favoured a nuclear power plant in Punjab. The UPA had vigorously pursued the nuclear deal and projected it as a major achievement. However, Congress leaders in Punjab are divided on the issue. Capt Amarinder Singh is opposed to the location of a nuclear plant in the fertile, densely populated border state of Punjab. Their contradictory statements may again create misgivings and confusion among the public about the suitability of such a plant in Punjab as it did in 2001 when the proposal to set up a plant of this kind at Patran was dropped by Mr Badal as Chief Minister after villagers had campaigned against it. The location of a nuclear plant is the critical issue as doubts about safety standards are natural, especially after the Chernobyl accident. Some suggest the plant site near the border as a deterrent to Pakistan. The world over nuclear power has regained acceptance because of its being cleaner and cheaper than coal-generated power. India had lobbied hard for having US nuclear cooperation and now nuclear power plants are being set up in various states. Haryana is also pushing its case for a nuclear plant. If it is suitable for Haryana, it cannot be that harmful for Punjab. However, the final decision should rest with atomic energy experts, who should look into all aspects and address public fears. Punjab’s power crisis has only worsened as the gap between demand and supply has reached 2,379 MW and the cash-strapped state is forced to buy power at exorbitant rates every year. Given the rising cost of transportation, unreliability of coal supplies and its being environmentally unfriendly, thermal power is not the answer to Punjab’s needs. Ideally, the state should collaborate with Himachal Pradesh to tap the hill state’s potential for hydroelectric power.
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We are all of us sentenced to solitary confinement inside our own skins, for life! — Tennessee Williams
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Changing political reality in UP Caste
and community-oriented politics is slowly but surely losing its appeal in Uttar Pradesh, which has given eight of the 14 Prime Ministers the country has had since Independence. There is renewed interest in the Congress, the party that had ruled UP for decades before it was rendered irrelevant in the wake of the regional outfits like the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Samajwadi Party (SP) occupying the centrestage. Look at the Firozabad parliamentary constituency from where Mr Raj Babbar of the Congress was elected to the Lok Sabha in the November 7 byelections. It is not just one seat the SP has lost to the Congress. A deeper study of what has happened makes it clear that people are losing interest in the regional parties. These parties cannot feel comfortable with the emerging political scenario. Firozabad has a large concentration of Yadav and Muslim voters, considered SP supporters, yet the party has been rejected. In the April-May Lok Sabha elections this year SP candidate Akhilesh Yadav, son of Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav, had won the Firozabad seat with little difficulty. The Congress could get only a little more than 6,000 votes. But in the latest byelection its candidate has inflicted a crushing defeat on the SP candidate, Mr Mulayam Singh’s daughter-in-law Dimple Yadav, by over 85, 000 votes. The Congress has snatched away from the BJP the prestigious Lucknow-West Assembly seat, too, which has been going to the saffron party for a long time. The vote share of the Congress in seven of the 10 other Assembly constituencies, which went to the polls on November 7, has also gone up considerably. That its candidates have lost their deposits in some of the constituencies is understandable in the view of the fact that the Congress organisational structure has weakened over the years. Strengthening its district units requires concerted efforts to enable it to emerge as a replacement for the ruling BSP. In any case, the spectacular performance of the Congress in the April-May parliamentary polls and the November 7 byelections shows that the party is on the way to becoming a major force in UP again. It is not difficult to notice the beginning of a large section of the voters shifting their loyalties to the oldest party of the country. The Congress is gradually regaining the support of its former vote banks, those who have given strength to the BSP and the SP — particularly the Dalits, the Muslims and the OBCs. The efforts of the young general secretary of the Congress, Mr Rahul Gandhi, are bearing fruit. There is enough proof of Congress revival in the state. The BSP, the SP and the BJP — the three parties occupying the centrestage in UP for many years — have to suffer with the Congress revival, as can be seen today. If the SP has lost the Firozabad seat, the BJP is down in the dumps in Lucknow-West with the Congress being the gainer. It is not correct to see in the BSP’s victory in nine of the 11 Assembly constituencies which went to the polls on November 7 an improvement in the party’s position after the 2009 Lok Sabha elections. The BSP has, no doubt, won even the seats considered SP bastions. One of the reasons is that those Muslim and OBC voters who wanted to express their disappointment with the SP’s style of functioning had no better alternative than the BSP. These voters showed pragmatism and resorted to tactical voting. The party in power in the state is bound to be favoured when the people are fully aware of the implications of rejecting its candidates. This helped the BSP in both the August and November Assembly byelections when Ms Mayawati’s party did unexpectedly well. It is true that the BSP leader has been concentrating more on her core vote bank — the Dalits — than others after the reverses her party experienced in this year’s Lok Sabha polls. Yet she was not sure that the BSP would get two of the four seats for which the byelections were held in August and nine of the 11 seats contested during the November polls. That is why she could not gather courage to go to any of the 11 constituencies to campaign for her party candidates. She did not want it to be interpreted as a decline in her following in case the results went against the BSP. Ms Mayawati assigned the job of ensuring her party’s victory to 40 of her ministers. They were clearly told to get ready for losing their ministerial berths if they failed to produce the desired results. The strategy has worked to her satisfaction. And she, being the party leader, is hogging the limelight. This, however, does not mean that people are happy with the functioning of the BSP government. There are clear signs of erosion in the following of both the SP and the BSP. Many of those who have been voting for them now have no love lost for these two regional parties. The ranks of those disenchanted with the SP and the BSP may swell in the coming months and years, benefiting the Congress if it continues to focus on UP as it has been doing for some time. The SP has suffered mainly because it has been taking its supporters for granted. Mr Mulayam Singh did not bother about the sentiments of his Muslim supporters when he began to be seen in the company of discredited former BJP Chief Minister Kalyan Singh. The SP chief gave a senior position in his party to Mr Kalyan Singh’s son, Mr Rajvir Singh. As a result, the Muslims have been punishing the SP in every election for some time. Mr Mulayam Singh admitted his mistake on Saturday in Lucknow when he declared that he had nothing to do with Mr Kalyan Singh, who headed the government when the Babari Masjid was demolished on December 6, 1992, by vandals. The revolt by Mr Azam Khan, one of the SP founders, against Mr Mulayam Singh added to the party’s declining popularity among the Muslims. The BJP, too, which ruled UP for some time, is having the worst kind of experience because of the follies of the party leadership. It has suffered the most humiliating defeat in the just concluded byelections, with all its candidates losing their deposits. It had performed equally hopelessly in this year’s Lok Sabha polls. But this is not surprising, as BJP senior leaders could not spare time for campaigning in the November 7 byelections. They were busy in the unending squabble in the party which threatens to destroy it from within. Again, it is the Congress that is gaining from the BJP’s shrinking base in UP. The BJP has virtually compelled a big chunk of its upper caste supporters like the Brahmins to shift their patronage to the Congress. Enough proof of this can be found in the Firozabad parliamentary constituency. The Brahmins no longer detest the company of the Dalits and the Muslims, and this is true in the case of the latter groups too. This may be one reason why the Congress is reportedly thinking of projecting its state unit chief Reeta Bahuguna-Joshi as the party’s chief ministerial candidate in the coming Assembly elections. If the Congress is successful in realising its dream of emerging as the largest party in UP after the 2012 Assembly polls the state may have a Brahmin Chief Minister
again.
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The eavesdropper I
think it does everyone good to come to a halt sometimes, to have no further aim at the moment than to just sit still. That was exactly what I was doing the other evening as I sat on a bench in the park near my house. I was admiring the lawn, fresh and green, after a shower and a few flowers, taking new life as a prelude to another winter. But peace is for the birds, not for the likes of us. I had hardly been there five minutes before a couple came and sat down beside me on what was left of the bench. There would have been nothing wrong in that if they, like me, had been content to gaze at the pastoral scene before us. But they were having a heated argument in which the husband seemed to be getting the worst of the deal. They spoke a South Indian language, breaking every now and again into English so that I could get a hang of what was going on. The dispute concerned the forthcoming marriage of their daughter on which, it seemed, the husband was not prepared to spend more than what was absolutely necessary. This being a purely domestic affair, perhaps I should have left the place. But the couple didn’t seem to notice my presence and I found the arguments on both sides so intriguing that I decided to stay put. “How can you call me a miser?” said the man, “you have forgotten how much we spent on Nalini’s wedding. I have hardly recovered from that.” “Not my fault,” parried the wife, “if we have two daughters instead of two sons. Think of the disgrace in the community if Sharda doesn’t have sufficient clothes and jewellery to take with her. Look at the Iyengers. Their daughter’s marriage was the talk of the town for months.” “Bah, Iyenger!” said the man. “Don’t talk to me about the man. Everyone knows that he lives beyond his means. I wouldn’t be surprised if he takes bribes. Do you want people to say that about me?” “You have no right to make such an accusation,” said the wife, “just because the man saved every paisa he could to give his daughters a decent wedding instead of squandering money on changing cars and buying fashionable clothes for himself like you have done.” “So now you have appointed yourself his guardian,” said the man. “And who rode in the cars and encouraged me to go to the best tailors?” The retort to this was in Tamil, or may be Telugu. Suddenly, the couple turned round and looked at me. I felt embarrassed but I have no doubt that they felt more so. They quickly got up and walked away leaving me in contemplation of my surroundings but without the peace with which I had begun
it.
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America may lead India into unequal climate pact Minister for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh’s letter to the Prime Minister last month seeking a reversal of India’s stand on carbon emission norms has galvanised opinion seeking the maintenance of the status quo. Non government organisations and activists with a clear backing from influential sections of the establishment are lobbying the government to stand up to the developed countries when negotiations on carbon emission norms get under way at Copenhagen next month. Fears that the IMF-World Bank axis in the echelons of power may come out of hibernation to unhitch India from its long bond with the G-77 countries into an unequal relationship with the Group of 20 are raising old shibboleths dating back to the Indira Gandhi era. Suddenly the carefully cultivated mirage of India as a super power woven by the proponents of globalisation is losing its sheen as reality strikes about the impact of India succumbing to pressure from the developed nations. The old ghosts of the imperialist forces donning the climate agreement garb to hobble a resurgent India are beginning to look life-like. The argument in India’s favour is that the per capita carbon emissions by the world’s second largest nation are microscopic as compared to the Western countries. Not only have carbon emissions by the developed nations curbed as envisaged in the Kyoto protocol of 1997, these have actually increased. This has thrown up new terminology in the green lexicon: Climate injustice. The data painstakingly put together is aimed to cobble a winning coalition of the country’s left and the right meeting at the middle. “The current per capita emissions of the US is almost 20 times higher than India’s,” says Sunita Narain of the Centre for Science and Environment, who is a strong proponent of tough talk by New Delhi at Copenhagen. Emissions by one US citizen equal that of 107 Bangladeshis, 134 Bhutanese, 19 Indians and 269 Nepalese, says Narain in a presentation ahead of the summit. Among the Indians, the feeling is getting around that carbon emissions in the developing world would increase as they follow the Western model of getting rich by pollution followed by a mechanism to clean up. “But such (cleanup) technologies are expensive and that’s why even the rich world have still not made the transition,” says Narain. The Indian argument is that poverty and lack of capital resources have already forced the adoption of renewable energy resources. “The way the Indian society is structured results in lower energy use. (For instance) Indians use public transport more than people of countries like the US. We have 12 vehicles per 1000 people as against 800 vehicles in the US. A large section of the Indian population still uses chulhas which is a renewable energy resource,” says Girish Sant, who heads the Pune-based NGO called Prayaas. Data from the International Energy Agency which states that India accounted for just 4 per cent of the global energy emissions even with a population share of 17 per cent is being used to shore up the country’s argument. Of particular concern is the US which is seen as a major mover to force India into an unequal climate agreement even as it makes little effort to provide free access to clean mitigation technologies. Attempts by that country to portray us as a global obstructionist could only harden nationalist sentiments here as the feeling gains ground that the climate talks were only a tool to prevent India’s economy from catching up with the West. But the economic argument still does not take away the fact that countries like India, Brazil, South Africa and Mexico would emerge as the major emitters of carbon emissions and thus the major cause of global warming as they get richer. “Black carbon from diesel and burning of biomass emitted by developing nations like India would have a negative impact on climate change,” says V Ramanathan of the Scripps Institute of Oceanography, who has studied the subject for more than 30 years. The issue then simply boils down to who will pick the tab for the economic development of countries like India. "The rich have to reduce their emissions so the rest of the world can grow,” says Sunita Narain of
CSE.
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Castro’s long goodbye On
July 27, 2006, Fidel Castro nearly died during emergency intestinal surgery to stem internal bleeding caused by chronic diverticulitis. Since then, Cuba-watchers and obituary writers have been on high alert awaiting his demise. A state-of-the art convalescent suite has been installed in his principal residence, Punto Cero, where he is surrounded by family and Cuba's finest doctors. On his good days, he entertains well-wishers -- among them, Harry Belafonte and Oliver Stone. And he continues to intervene in the thorny politics of Cuba. In 2007, while still hospitalized, Castro began a transition from being Cuba's commander in chief to its pundit in chief, penning columns he calls "Reflections" in the state-run newspaper, Granma. Late last year, he offered some personal introspection. "I have had the rare privilege of observing events for a very long time," he wrote. He then acknowledged the gravity of his illness. "I do not expect I shall enjoy such a privilege four years from now – when President (Barack) Obama's first term has concluded." But until Castro is in the grave, we will be hearing from him. While his brother Raul and the Cuban army are running the day-to-day affairs of the country, Castro retains and exercises veto power. And Cubans continue to feel the strongman's sting. In March, more than a dozen of the most senior members of the Cuban regime were purged from the government. While Raul Castro had initiated the internal coup, Fidel was quick to weigh in and assail its casualties, all former members of his inner circle. The men had succumbed to "the honey of power," he wrote in his column. Their replacements have dodged the limelight and tread far more carefully. Castro's reluctant leave-taking – with its periodic near-finales – fits into a long tradition of Hispanic "caudillos" or dictators. Consider, for example, the life – and death – of Francisco Franco, Spain's dictator of almost 40 years. Both Castro's father and Franco hailed from the rugged northern countryside of Spain, a region renowned for its fierce and stubborn citizenry. And notwithstanding divergent political ideologies – Franco was a zealous anti-communist – the two men had a good deal in common. Both were willing to forge unpalatable and unpopular alliances with totalitarian states to shore up their power – Franco with Nazi Germany and Castro with the Soviet Union. And Franco's shrouded last days neatly foreshadowed Castro's. Franco became grievously ill in 1974 and was forced to turn over his rule – "temporarily," he insisted – to Prince Juan Carlos. Castro also initially ceded control to his brother only "temporarily." Like Castro, Franco had an unexpected recovery, although his lasted only a year before he died at 82. Although it is generally believed that Franco died days earlier, his death was announced on Nov. 20, 1975, the same day on which Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera, the founder of Franco's fascist Falange party, died 40 years earlier. Some people assert doctors kept Franco alive under orders from the dictator that he would live until the ordained date. But Franco's scheming to die with gravity and splendor backfired, and his protracted departure became a joke that would long outlive him. "Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead," Chevy Chase would intone with mock solemnity on "Saturday Night Live" as a running gag for nearly two years. Castro's long goodbye is proving equally irresistible for late-night comedians. "He ran Cuba for almost 50 years," began Jay Leno in one riff. "And political analysts are now debating what kind of changes the Cuban people will hope for. I'm gonna guess: term limits." Castro's untidy leaving also has kept the news media in an indefinite state of high alert, as they formulate and reformulate coverage and obituaries. The veteran Spanish Civil War reporter Martha Gellhorn found herself in a similar pickle three decades ago. In 1975, she accepted an assignment from New York magazine to write about post-Franco Spain. "This thrills me, the sort of journalism I love," she wrote her son. "I am waiting for the old swine to die; but obviously he is being kept breathing (no more) while the right tightens its hold on the country." When I asked Castro in a 1994 interview when he would retire, he snapped: "My vocation is the revolution. I am a revolutionary, and revolutionaries do not retire." ^Bardach is the author of "Without Fidel: A Death Foretold in Miami, Havana, and Washington" and "Cuba Confidential: Love and Vengeance in Miami and Havana."n —
By arrangement with LA Times-Washington Post
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Chatterati 10 Janpath, they say, can work wonders. One recent example is Congress MP Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy, son of the late Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy. Before his visit to 10 Janpath he was the problem child and his supporters impetuously tried to hoist him to the CM's chair. After his visit to the Congress President's residence, it is a mellowed Jagan. He is now willing to do exactly what the High Command would expect from its soldiers in the field. Even the MLAs who opposed Hooda in Haryana and Ashok Chavan in Mumbai are sitting very quiet after their visit to No. 10. Looking at these transformations someone said “Ajit Pawar should also be sent to 10 Janpath.” Udhav Thackeray has asked Shiv Sainiks to patrol Mumbai's parks and streets to protect morning-walkers. This will not only help him win the people's hearts, but also reduce the bloated waistline of the Sainiks. They have been reduced to couch potatoes ever since Raj Thackeray's men took over the streets to clean up the malaise afflicting Maharashtra. But Udhav Thackeray now has five years to prove himself once again. Even though his brother, Raj, is supposedly the charismatic one, Udhav is hopeful of a comeback. After a long wait, no doubt! Raj Thackeray wants all MLAs in Maharashtra to now converse in Marathi keeping in view the slogan of “Marathi Manus”. Modi is angry Narendra Modi is a perturbed man nowadays. Only because he is so angry with his staff. The swine flu had grounded him but he wants to know how the press got to know of it? If the buzz is to be believed, Gujarat's “mard mukhyamantri” did not want the world to know that he could be confined to bed, which doesn't go well with his tough image. In fact, when it was suspected that he could have the bug, his swab samples were sent under pseudonym to a laboratory. A furious Modi ordered that cell phone records of his officials be checked to pinpoint the “culprit”, who leaked out the secret to the media. Clothes on rent Have you ever wondered how Delhi college students always manage to be so impeccably turned out – without ever repeating clothes? Odds are they might be "renting" clothes from a neighbourhood dhobi or presswalah or even the dry cleaner. It’s amazing! For regular kids, and those with “right contacts”, the colony's dhobi is a limitless source of funky new clothes. And if he lives in an area infested with paying guest accommodation, he's a girl's dream come true. A dhobi “rents” out clothes for anywhere between Rs 20 and Rs 100 for a few hours, but may even work out a monthly rental. Students build personal equations with their dhobis. Most often girls borrow trendy tops, denims and T-shirts and are careful to ensure that they are returned unharmed. For those who want wear-n-return options for parties or weddings, the source is often a small-time dry cleaner. Girls ask for renting lehengas or saris for their freshers' party or farewell. They deposit security money that is returned only after the dress is returned stain-free and intact. So, it works
wonderfully.
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Yet, more than three years later, Castro soldiers on, approaching his mortal end with the same zeal he lavished on his life. The 83-year-old appears to have adjusted to his medically mandated retirement, enduring various surgeries and their attendant complications.