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SP without Amar Singh
LCA on the anvil |
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Heritage renewal
Dilemmas of dialogue
Is begum really be-gum?
Diplomat Menon can handle security as well
Collapse of agriculture in Punjab
Health
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SP without Amar Singh
THE
expulsion of Mr Amar Singh along with Ms Jaya Prada from the primary membership of the Samajwadi Party (SP) as also the suspension of four of its dissident MLAs was only waiting to happen. After Mr Amar Singh resigned as the SP’s General Secretary, Parliamentary Board member and spokesperson, the distance between him and party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav had been increasing with every passing day. Of course, it was a difficult task for both to party ways, as the SP, founded on the ideals of socialist icon Rammanohar Lohia, had come to be identified with UP’s Jodi Number One. That is why Mr Yadav took 11 days to accept Mr Amar Singh’s resignation “with a heavy heart”. Mr Amar Singh had been under attack from within the party after the SP lost the recent Ferozabad parliamentary byelection to the Congress. The loss of the prestigious seat, which was earlier held by the SP’s Akhilesh Yadav, highlighted the Muslim alienation from the SP. The party’s poor performance in the 2009 elections was also attributed to this factor. Mr Amar Singh was primarily held responsible for the virtual end of the SP’s affair with the minority community. The Muslims’ disenchantment with the SP began with the induction in the party of former BJP Chief Minister Kalyan Singh, accused of being mainly responsible for the demolition of the Babri Masjid. Mr Kalyan Singh left the SP later on, but this did not end the troubles of Mr Amar Singh because of his political gamble. Whether the minority community will shift its loyalties back to the SP after the exit of Mr Amar Singh remains to be seen. Mr Amar Singh may have made serious mistakes leading to the crisis in the SP, but it was he who earned for it the support of many corporate houses and gave the party a glamorous face, enlarging its following considerably. He had brought to the SP top film personalities like Ms Jaya Bachchan, Ms Jaya Prada, Mr Sanjay Dutt and Mr Manoj Tiwari. They will no longer be a part of Mr Mulayam Singh’s party. The disappearance of the crowd-puller faces from the SP may erode the party’s support base. But, in the ultimate analysis, only time will tell what difference the exit of Mr Amar Singh and his retinue of celebrities makes to the fortunes of the SP and to its policies and
programmes.
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LCA on the anvil
Defence
Minister A.K. Antony’s renewal of commitment to the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) programme, following a demonstration of the aircraft’s prowess in Bangalore, marks a shot in the arm for the project that dates back to 1983, and has cost Rs 4,800 crore. The announcement of the additional funding of Rs 8,000 crore is heartening considering that it has been bedevilled with delays and broken promises. The world’s smallest war jet, built indigenously in India, is expected to be the nation’s frontline combat aircraft by 2020. The Indian arms industry has a mixed record in developing armaments; the main battle tank Arjuna became the bloated, ungainly symbol of what not to do. On the other hand, the Prithvi, Agni and Brahmos missiles have been successful, as have some light combat aircraft and the multi-barrel Pinaka artillery system. On balance, there is need for a close look at the way the system functions. Why is there lack of initiative and innovation among personnel at various levels? The over-bureaucratisation of the scientific and engineering establishments is an obvious answer, but the Indian armament industry needs to do a lot in order to come up to the expectations of the end-users. The Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA), which designed and developed the LCA with HAL as its principal partner, was given a major challenge when it was told to develop a fourth-generation fighter aircraft indigenously. It has done so, with varying degree of success, in providing the digital fly-by-wire flight control system, landing gear, airframe and undercarriage, etc. The engine, however, is imported from General Electric. The ADA’s gains have been impressive, and while it is too early to celebrate, ADA deserves congratulations for delivering the LCA. At the same time, we must remember that there have been cost overruns and delays, the indigenisation is not 100 per cent, and it will be years before full certification is given. However, it is closer to delivering on its promise than it has ever been before. |
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Heritage renewal
Asadullah Khan Ghalib
may be one of the greatest poets that the country has ever produced, but that has not stopped us from neglecting and ruining even his tomb in Nizamuddin Basti of Delhi. In all fairness, it should have been declared a national monument. Mercifully, the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC) has stepped in to restore it to its original splendour. The work started in November last year is now nearing completion. The replacement of concrete pavement with marble inlay and hand-chiselled sandstone paving has brought back the Mughal-era look after a century. Mazar-e-Ghalib is set to be thrown open to the public soon. Mushairas will be held in its courtyard enclosure in a well-landscaped setting so that the words that continue to live a century after the poet’s death can be read where he rests. The Chaunsath Khamba nearby has also been restored and will soon witness qawwali performances. Vice-President Hamid Ansari visited the centrally protected monuments on Tuesday and expressed satisfaction over the work. Taking good care of such buildings serves a dual purpose. One, the national legacy is preserved. Two, it gives a more pleasant, clean and presentable habitat to the residents of the area. For instance, along with these two historic buildings, the Municipal Corporation’s Pratibha Vidyalaya in Nizamuddin Basti was also revamped with the help of a multi-disciplinary team. As a result, the number of students in the school rose by over 50 per cent within one year. Delhi is dotted with hundreds of such priceless monuments. If we talk of the country as a whole, the number is in thousands. Most of them are in a pitiable state of disrepair. A concerted effort to preserve them for posterity is the least that we can do to honour the creators of these once-magnificent edifices. Their neglect and defacement, on the other hand, is an insult to their sacred memory. |
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Out of the crooked timber of humanity no straight thing can ever be made.
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Dilemmas of dialogue
New Delhi’s
India International Centre (IIC) has the reputation of being a location for quiet dialogue and discussion. Yet, at a widely publicised conference on India-Pakistan relations at the IIC on January 10-12, raw emotions got the better of reasoned dialogue. The police had to be called in, as people who had been forced to flee their homes in the Kashmir valley by terrorist organisations, which were allegedly led by some of those participating in the dialogue, gave vent to their emotions and disrupted the proceedings. Sentimentalism in sections of our media about “Aman ki Asha”, disregards the prevailing realities about public anguish and anger at Pakistan-sponsored terrorism. India’s Army Chief Gen Deepak Kapoor recently revealed that some 700 militants from Pakistan were waiting to infiltrate across the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir. General Kapoor added: “The terror infrastructure across the LoC is very much intact and all-out efforts are being made to push inside as many infiltrators as possible”. On January 12, India’s otherwise soft-spoken Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao told an audience of American and Indian academics in Delhi: “We have to face hostile forces across our borders with Pakistan, although we have consistently stressed our support to the advancement of democracy, growth of civil society and economic development in an atmosphere of peace in Pakistan”. She added that groups which directed attacks against India continued to receive the “patronage of powerful forces and institutions in Pakistan. It is vital that this support must stop at once. Any viable process of dialogue with Pakistan is essentially dependant on this requirement, since it is unrealistic to think otherwise.” While the Foreign Secretary was laying out the prerequisites for a “viable dialogue process”, there has, in fact, been a continuing dialogue between the two countries at the highest levels. During the past two years, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has met President Zardari twice, at New York and Yekaterinburg, and Prime Minister Gilani on three occasions. The Foreign Ministers of India and Pakistan met in Islamabad, New Delhi and New York. While India has continued to engage and talk to Pakistan whenever a suitable occasion arises, a resumption of the “composite dialogue process” will be counterproductive. Pakistan has used the dialogue to divert attention from its promotion of terrorism within India by expressing dissatisfaction with India’s approach to issues ranging from Jammu and Kashmir to Siachen and differences over the demarcation of the international boundary in the Sir Creek area. The “composite dialogue process” was resumed in January 2004 only after President Musharraf assured then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee that “territory under Pakistan’s control” would not be allowed to be used for terrorism against India. Despite this clear linkage between an end to terrorism and the resumption of the composite dialogue process, Pakistan was encouraged and emboldened to step up terrorist activities against India by ill-advised statements by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that the dialogue process was “irreversible” and would not be affected by acts of terrorism sponsored by Pakistan. At the Havana Nonaligned Summit in 2006, some people even acted as apologists for Pakistan by suggesting that cross-border terrorism was really the work of “non-sate actors”. While our policies should seek to build constituencies for peace within Pakistan, the hard reality is that policies on India are decided in Pakistan not by the democratically elected rulers in Islamabad but by the military establishment led by Gen Ashfaq Pervez Kiyani in Rawalpindi. The longest meeting that US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had in Pakistan was with General Kiyani and ISI Chief Shuja Pasha, and not with the country’s elected leaders. General Kiyani is known to have had long-standing links with terrorist groups like the Lashkar-e- Toiba from his days as the Commander of the 12th Infantry Division in Murree over a decade ago. He is recorded to have described Afghan Taliban leader Sirajuddin Haqqani, who masterminded two terrorist attacks on the Indian Embassy in Kabul, as a “strategic asset”. Thus, little purpose will be served by talking to Pakistan’s civilian leadership on issues of cross-border terrorism, about which they have little knowledge and no control. What is needed is “back channel” and unpublicised dialogue with Pakistan’s real rulers — its military establishment, including the ISI. The Home Minister, Mr P Chidambaram, is scheduled to visit Pakistan for a SAARC conference. His visit comes just after an astonishing statement by Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, a long time protégé and apologist for his country’s military establishment, that his government cannot guarantee that there will be no further terrorist attacks on India, emanating from Pakistan territory. As this would be a violation of the assurances given by General Musharraf on January 6, 2004, which led to the resumption of the composite dialogue process, Mr Chidambaram could remind his hosts of those assurances, which constituted the basis for the resumption of the dialogue process. India has also demanded that Pakistan will have to dismantle the “infrastructure of terrorism” before the dialogue process can be resumed. What precisely should we tell Pakistan is the minimum we expect Pakistan to do, to establish their sincerity? The first step would be for Pakistan to get away from living in denial and agree to extradite Dawood Ibrahim, the mastermind of the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts, from Karachi. As American author Gretchen Peters has noted, “Ibrahim has the dubious distinction of being the only person Washington has designated both a “Global Terrorist Supporter” and a “Foreign Narcotics Kingpin”. Secondly, Pakistan’s then Railway Minister and former Director- General of the ISI, Lt-Gen Javed Qazi, stated in Pakistan’s Senate on March 10, 2004: "We must not be afraid of admitting that the Jaish-e-Mohammed was involved in the deaths of thousands of Kashmiris, the bombing of the Indian Parliament, in Daniel Pearl's murder and in attempts on President Pervez Musharraf's life." In these circumstances, one can surely demand that Pakistan should extradite JeM chief Maulana Masood Azhar, or try him for abetment of murder and terrorism. Hafiz Mohammed Saeed publicly acknowledged in January 2001 that he had organised the attack on the Red Fort in New Delhi. Articles in journals published by him have given details of members of the Lashkar-e-Toiba who had been “martyred” in encounters in Jammu and Kashmir. If, as Pakistan claims, it does not have evidence to nail Hafiz Saeed for the Mumbai attacks, he could surely be incarcerated and tried for all that he has admitted publicly over the past
decade.
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Is begum really be-gum?
IT WAS a cool, pleasant early morning when I disembarked at Dharmavaram last year for “Guru Purnima” celebrations at Prasanthi Nilayam in Andhra where Sri Sathya Sai Baba resides. The experience at the railway station, however, was certainly not pleasant. To our utter shock, despite ever being in plenty, not even a single “ikka” (mule-driven tonga.) was available for bus terminus for onward connectivity. My son somehow succeeded in spotting one, galloping in darkness. But the ikka driver would not agree on the pretext that he was permanently booked to ferry “begum sahiba” to temple in wee hours. We implored, offered double the amount but he would not yield, such was the commitment. After much persuasion, he relented to drop us but only mid-way. When pestered further, he revealed en route that he addressed his wife as “begum” and son as “Kumar” while his wife anointed him “Raja” in a formal post-marriage “naam-karan”. He turned philosophical and took on Shakespeare for his famous quote, “What is in a name?” The regal tag makes him rather feel majestic, keeps him afloat, thundered the charioteer. He considered himself no less than Shahjahan though he may not command empirical fortunes like him. Yet he treated his wife like a queen, continued the monologue. A married woman is normally addressed as “begum” notwithstanding the fact that her spouse may be an ordinary mortal. In common parlance, both “begum” and queen are used interchangeably. “Begum” etymologically conceptualises a woman who has no worry in life. Does a woman really turn “be-gum” after marriage? An emotional eruption of a bride while leaving “babul kaa ghar” is generally termed as her last, while the man sets on a matrimonial roller-coaster, unmindful of its bumpy, sharp curves. Do all her worries get credited into his account then onwards? Notwithstanding all chauvinist assurances and spousal support rendered, a woman remains eternally soaked in worries ever after. She is dubbed as an alien in her own matrimonial home, her work-place. She has to wade through “saas-bahu” and “nanad-bhabhi” ordeals day in and day out and compromise her dignity every now and then. An apparently fragile woman is supposed to bear children like a machine and rear them. She perpetually remains traumatised because of her philanderer husband, taunting “saas”, suspecting “nanad”, erring children and hunting neighbours. She often gets harried protecting her “Ruchika” and “Jessica” from growling human wolves, roaming around. The inter-spousal incompatibility converts her life commitment into life sentence. After matrimony turns dissonant, she keeps repairing broken strings to preserve a semblance of harmony. The title of “begum”, therefore, appears just emblematic! My own “begum” now loses no opportunity to remind me about the ace (ikka)-man, to imbibe a few of his tutorials. Though I am not sure whether the self-proclaimed “Raja” has made his wife “be-gum” in its metaphorical sense or not but he has certainly added to my cup of woes. Meanwhile, I have decided to change my itinerary to Prasanthi Nilayam via Bangalore instead of
Dharmavaram.
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Diplomat Menon can handle security as well
But successive Prime Ministers, from Jawaharlal Nehru to Manmohan Singh, look for talent there when it comes to crucial national positions. No government in New Delhi has ever been without the Ottapalam touch. At one time, K.R. Narayanan, who once represented Ottapalam in the Lok Sabha, adorned the Rashtrapati Bhavan. The appointment of Shiv Shankar Menon as the National Security Adviser (NSA) is the addition of just another “Mallu” to the corridors of power in New Delhi for the envious power brokers. “Menongitis” is a disease they have learnt to live with since the time of V.K. Krishna Menon, V.P. Menon and K.P.S. Menon. But many have not noticed that Ottapalam has produced two super spooks, Sankaran Nair and M.K. Narayanan, already and Shiv Shankar Menon should be able to combine diplomacy with security as the other two from his hometown have done with distinction in the past. If Nair and Narayanan could succeed as diplomats, there is no reason why Menon cannot do justice to his security role. Institutions rather than personalities should be the focus when matters of national importance are discussed. Brajesh Mishra, J.N. Dixit, M.K.Narayanan and Shankar Menon were appointed National Security Advisers by the respective Prime Ministers, not because they belonged to one particular service or another, but because they had competence and integrity to serve in that office. The hue and cry about the need for a change in the role of the NSA consequent upon the appointment of Menon, therefore, is wishful thinking to dilute the institution and to detract from his exceptional abilities. It is heartening that the Prime Minister has not altered the NSA’s job description as yet and he is not likely to do so even after the projected revamp of the anti-terrorism machinery. Home Minister Chidambaram was wise in not bringing the NSA into the discussion on the new structure he envisaged to meet the challenge of terrorism. He made it clear that it was for the Prime Minister to assign tasks to the NSA to get the best possible advice on national security matters and that he would not suggest any changes in the role of the NSA. This is the right approach to take and nothing should come in the way of the ability of the NSA to have access to external and internal intelligence, without which he cannot render the right advice to the Prime Minister. What he requires is access rather than control over the intelligence agencies. It is more useful for the NSA to be a consumer of intelligence rather than its czar. Having used intelligence in Islamabad, Beijing and Colombo for effective diplomatic practice, Menon will not be a babe in the woods when it comes to handling intelligence. Even if the Prime Minister takes special interest in foreign policy and makes use of his NSA to convey the right messages to the world, it is the Foreign Secretary who has to implement foreign policy and administer the missions. Foreign Secretaries played their role even during the Vajpayee-Mishra era. Having been a Foreign Secretary himself, Menon will be particularly sensitive to the proper functioning of the Foreign Secretary. He will not be blamed as Brajesh Mishra was that the latter had nursed a grievance that he did not become the Foreign Secretary himself. Lack of respect for institutions is evident also in speculation that Menon will make dramatic changes in foreign policy and that he will be partial towards the countries he served in. Such speculation also tends to question the logic of our foreign policy, dictated as much by history as by geopolitics. Menon was not inattentive to the neighbourhood as Foreign Secretary and it was not any omission or commission on the part of India that determined the course of events in our neighbourhood. Personalities do matter in the making of foreign policy, but to attribute changes to the Foreign Secretary or the National Security Adviser is to challenge the decisive role of the political leadership. The “menon-hunt” that was launched after Sharm el- Sheikh was actually an attack on the Prime Minister himself, but the attack was on Menon as he was considered vulnerable. Policy must remain with the political leadership in any democracy. By appointing Menon as the NSA, the Prime Minister has taken the responsibility for Sharm el Sheikh. He did not need a scapegoat. Menon is neither a hawk nor a dove when it comes to Pakistan and China. He has won laurels in his assignments by remaining within his brief and using his enormous diplomatic skills to secure results. His deep knowledge of China is an asset to the government because he is not swayed by personal prejudices or preferences. He will be an ideal adviser to the Prime Minister as he has the unique ability to present the pros and cons without pushing a particular point of view. Whether it is diplomacy or security or both, Menon will be able to do full
justice.
The writer is a former Ambassador and member, National Security Advisory Board, New Delhi
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Collapse of agriculture in Punjab Punjab’s fresh water resources and fertile soils provided a natural package which helped our past generations to have a sustainable harvest. They were not educated by agricultural universities but somehow most of them sustained by not over-exploiting their soil and water resources. They might have to divide their land into smaller portions for their next generations, but the quality of land was maintained. Soil was neither poisoned with artificial fertilisers, chemical insecticides and pesticides nor compacted with heavy tractors and other farm machinery. Maybe, they were simply lucky not to have electric or diesel-powered tubewells capable of sucking ground water from such depths that it might need next few generations to live without water and give enough time to nature to fill the ground aquifer again. In the second half of the last century Punjab farmers got struck with a curse, hailed as the Green Revolution. Farmers were led to believe that their land can produce more and more if they get rid of their bullocks buy tractors and, instead of cow manure, use urea. No need to waste time in sowing a crop with green manure or give rest to the soil for a year. Go in for intensive cutivation, suggested the American-educated agricultural scientists of Punjab Agricultural University. These supporters of the Green Revolution also advocated the heavy use of poisonous chemicals, mainly produced by multinational companies, which offered scholarships to scientists prepared to promote their way of thinking. Some of the crops grown were not suitable to Punjab’s soils and climate and thus required enormous artificial irrigation, compelling farmers to install centrifugal pumps run on subsidised electricity or diesel. Sometimes they got free electricity in exchange of their votes, which encouraged them to cultivate paddy on barren, sandy lands. It gave them an illusion of prosperity whilst sucking many of them deeper into financial debt. If my grandfather was riding a horse, my father rode a motor cycle, I must drive a car and the next generation will obviously like to fly a plane. To stay in that unwinnable race, inadvertently Punjab farmers were increasing the fossil fuel content in the production chain. Oil (fossil fuel) is simply the solar energy stored as hydro-carbon deposits under the crust of earth over a period of millions of years. No one is denying that we humans are consuming fossil fuels at such a rate that can’t be replaced in a few thousand generations’ time frame. The only difference of opinion between various researchers is whether there is enough left over for 30 or 50 years. This 20-year difference is simply because computers don’t know how much Saudi Arabian, Iranian or Russian governments are lying about their oil reserves. This is not to suggest that there will be no oil left somewhere deep underground but it is to say that it will not be economical to extract it any more. In other words, it might need to burn two drums of diesel to produce one drum – very much like Ethanol production in the USA where they are burning a ten-fold quantity of fossil fuels to produce and equivalent quantity of ethanol. Farmers all over the world, including that of Punjab, have a culture of not selling their farm land. They would rather add to their holding if possible and pass it on to the next generation. This is programmed in their genes to make sure their offspring have a better chance of survival and keep the gene pool alive. One should not be surprised to see a large proportion of court cases related to land disputes. Land is valued so high in the mind controlled by our genes that one can kill his brother for the sake of gaining an extra piece of land. What we did in the last 50-60 years was not in line with the rules of nature. We developed a delusion that we can control the forces of nature. Instead of acting as care-takers of land for the coming generations, we started to act like land-owners. So where does it lead us? Is there any hope of survival? Fortunately, this entire mirage is coming to an end in the near future. The good news is that as multinational companies like to sell their chemicals, fertilisers and machinery to toiling farmers of Punjab, they won’t be able to produce and transport all that without cheap oil either. Fortunately, for some of us, who haven’t been ruined by unserviceable debts, who haven’t sold our farming land to city developers and who haven’t started taking drugs to avoid the harsh reality, there is still hope to go back to our pre-Green Revolution ways of farming based on locally available resources. Rejuvenate our soil by adding organic manure and choose a sustainable cropping pattern not dependant on cheap oil inputs. Natures is very unforgiving to those who try to be smarter than it but at the same time it may consider an appeal from those who acknowledge their mistake and undertake to correct them. Let’s all try to understand the importance of Guru’s following words. “Pawan Guru, Pani Pita, Mata Dharat Mahat”.
The writer, orginally from Ekal Gadda village in Tarn Taran district, is based in Sydney after studying agricultural engineering in
PAU, Ludhiana. |
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Health Newspaper and magazine commentators have often commented on the increasingly trim physique of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who was pictured last summer – sans love handles – with Carla Bruni on holiday at her family residence at Cap Negre in the south of France. Just days earlier his high-pressure job and punishing diet had been blamed for his collapse while jogging in Versailles. Despite this glitch, Sarkozy’s senior ministers are said to be losing weight to please their boss. Sarkozy continues to train with Imperiali. “He’s the first French President to have a personal trainer,” she says. They now meet twice a week, and run together before exercising to stretch and reinforce the muscles. Sarkozy’s regime * Never skip a meal, especially breakfast, which Imperiali says is the most important meal of the day. * Drink fluids throughout the day, ideally between one and a half and two litres of water. * Dinner is traditionally a time to share a meal with your family. “Don’t give up on dinner,” Imperiali says. “But eating vegetables and lean meat, such as chicken, is good for an evening meal.” * Don’t give up fat. Lipids, or fats, should make up between 30 and 35 per cent of calories each day, Imperiali says. “Essential fatty acids are crucial for the heart and skin,” she explains. * Eat balanced meals at regular times. Snacking between meals upsets the rhythm of your body. * Eat a balanced diet – it’s 50 per cent of keeping in good shape. Try green tea to replace coffee, tepid water with lemon for breakfast to detox and stimulate the stomach muscles, and aloe vera juice regularly to help digestion and calm any inflammation of the intestines. * Safeguard a few hours a week for exercise and for relaxation and wellbeing. It’s crucial. If the head of state can find time, I’m sure you can also. * You only need do a full workout once every two days – the rest day gives your body time to recover between sessions. But try to include a half-hour brisk walk into your daily routine, even on off-days. * Practise the traditional yogic sun salutation when you wake up each morning. * Keep your perineum muscles in shape by contracting them several times a day. Squeeze the muscles whenever you remember. How others do it * Barack Obama starts his daily routine at 7.30am, focusing on cardio one day then weight and strength training the next. He also plays basketball to keep fit. * Gordon Brown completes a half-hour vigorous jog through Westminster, surprising passers-by with a Prime Ministerial run-by in St James Park, Hyde Park and Green Park. * Vladimir Putin keeps in shape with one of his favourite sports, judo, in which he currently holds a sixth dan. He has also been seen swimming in a Siberian lake.n
— By arrangement with
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