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Go for it, UPA!
Panel on Telangana |
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Height of insensitivity
A sad chapter in Army’s history
Retired but not tired
India as a global power
Empty gestures on European stage
Climategate scientist ‘hid flaws in data’
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Go for it, UPA!
The Kirit Parikh committee report, submitted on Wednesday, makes economic sense but it would require tremendous political courage to decontrol auto fuel prices. Though the next general election is away and only the Bihar polls are around, it is, perhaps, the best time for the UPA to bite the bullet. The global oil price hovers around $76 a barrel and the fallout of the market-determined oil and LPG prices may be bearable. The country’s dependence on imported oil is 80 per cent. If the global oil price again shoots up to, say $150 a barrel, as it nearly did two years ago, the already shaky state of the Central finances can deteriorate, leading to downward ratings, wider deficit and capital outflows. If Parikh’s suggestions are accepted, the annual cost saving for the oil retailers will be Rs 30,000 crore a year at the current level of under-recoveries. But politicians have to fight elections and win popular support. Therefore, hard decisions, even if these are in public interest, are deferred or avoided. People do not understand fiscal complexities. A major price hike in kerosene, LPG, petrol and diesel will definitely set off alarm bells. The UPA leadership is already on the defensive on the issue of soaring prices. As the oil price hike will further fuel inflation, the government may not like to add to its problems. The government, therefore, may choose the middle path and give a milder jolt to people by going in for a lower-than-recommended price hike. Efforts should be made to build a political consensus on the issue of fixing oil prices, which can ease the pressure on the treasury. There may also be a near unanimity on the need to encourage consumers to conserve oil by making suitable price increases and promote alternative sources of energy in the long run. There is hardly any difference of opinion on finding ways to better target the subsidies meant for the poor. Why should fuel be subsidised for diesel-guzzling luxury vehicles? Competition can help remove inefficiencies in the public sector oil firms. Will Parikh’s report energise a complacent UPA leadership? |
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Panel on Telangana
The setting up of a five-member expert committee by the Centre, headed by retired Supreme Court judge Justice B.N. Srikrishna, to resolve the tangle over statehood for Telangana deserves a cautious welcome. That such a panel to study the issue in depth was sorely needed is beyond question, but by laying down no time-frame and reportedly unofficially giving it three years to submit its report, the government has gambled on normalcy returning to Andhra Pradesh in the interim. Even the pretence of a sense of urgency to resolve the issue has apparently been given up. While this prolonged period of study may help the panel in taking a dispassionate view, since it would hopefully not be under too much pressure from emotively-influenced protagonists and antagonists, it would need to be seen how the reaction to the announcement is. The students in particular would need to be convinced that the Centre is sincere about finding a permanent solution to the contentious issue. While the composition of the panel inspires hope that due justice would be done to the issue, political parties would be watching keenly what the terms of reference of the panel would be. The principal proponent of Telangana state, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi, has already indicated that it would react to the constitution of the panel only after it sees the terms of reference. The BJP in Andhra Pradesh is a party of little consequence, so the rejection of the committee “lock, stock and barrel” by it would not cause undue alarm. With virtually every other political party divided between those of its legislators who are from Telangana and those that are from coastal Andhra or Rayalaseema, the setting up of the panel may be a good face-saver to postpone the embarrassment of taking a pan-Andhra stand. As things stand, there is merit in all parties and groups waiting till the committee submits its report. The state has suffered irreparable damage in two months of agitational politics. It’s now time for Andhra Pradesh to get back to serious work for development and for public welfare.
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Height of insensitivity
What can be a bigger insensitivity towards the 1984 riot victims than that their cases have been allowed to drag on and on in courts for more than 25 years? Some of the perpetrators have died natural death while many others have been able to elude justice. Not only that, even adequate relief and compensation have been hard to come by. All this has happened for the simple reason that the culprits orchestrating the horrendous anti-Sikh riots happened to be leading Congress leaders of that time. But even when the party was in opposition, the investigations barely moved forward. That leads to the unfortunate conclusion that politicians as a class fend for each other. At least the CBI should have been above board but even that has used these as routine cases. All that has forced a Bench of the Delhi High Court headed by Chief Justice AP Shah to advise the CBI to be sensitive to the sentiments of the victims and to consider the appointment of a special public prosecutor for expeditious disposal of their cases. The need for a special law officer cannot be over-stressed, considering that this is not a routine matter which can be allowed to go on and on. That is why the court felt that the CBI should not cite the number of cases it was handling as the reason for opposing the plea to appoint a senior lawyer as public prosecutor. At stake is the life and future of thousands of innocent people. There is precedent as well. A special public prosecutor was appointed in Gujarat for the trial of the 2002 communal riots following the Godhra train fire. There is no reason why a similar step should not be taken in the case of the 1984 riots. In fact, it is all the more necessary to do so in this particular case because it happens to be much older. |
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For neither man nor angel can discern/ Hypocrisy, the only evil that walks/Invisible, except to God alone.— John Milton
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A sad chapter in Army’s history
AT last the Chief of Army Staff, Gen Deepak Kapoor, did order that the Military Secretary at Army Headquarters, Lieutenant-General Avdesh Prakash, generally perceived to be a favourite of the Army Chief, should face a court-martial in the notorious Sukna land scam, involving four very senior Army officers. Left to himself, General Kapoor, would not have done so. His inclination was to let Lt-General Prakash get away with mere “administrative action”, which would have been little more than a knock on the wrist. But Defence Minister A. K. Antony’s directive, euphemistically called “advice”, to him was to treat Lt-General Prakash no differently than Lt-Gen P.K. Rath, former GOC of the 33 Corps, in whose case the Army Chief had recommended a court-martial. Also allegedly involved in the land scam were another lieutenant-general and a major-general. Yet it is noteworthy that General Kapoor carried out the Defence Minister’s order literally at the eleventh hour and fifty-ninth minute, just 48 hours before the Military Secretary would have retired. It was only when the Ministry of Defence received General Kapoor’s recommendation — that only Lt-Gen P. K. Rath, Commander of the 33 Corps, should face a court-martial, while there should be much milder “administrative action” against Lt-General Prakash, Lt-General Halgali, a former chief of staff at the 33 Corps, and Maj-Gen P. Sen, administrative head of the corps — that Mr Antony found it necessary to intervene. Quite a few old-timers of the Indian Army have commented since then that the ministerial action was path-breaking, and the first of its kind in the Army’s long history. Most, though not all, of them also agreed that the Antony directive was necessary and timely. The minority view was that the Army should have been left free to decide the matter according to its own set of rules of justice under the Army Act. However, merely to state the facts of the case is to demonstrate that the Defence Minister was not only within his rights to intervene but also was profoundly right. There are two other firsts about this episode: First, never before has an officer of the rank of Lt-General (now retired) Prakash’s seniority faced such an action. Secondly, it is the first known occasion when two lieutenant-generals are being court-martialed simultaneously. Mr Antony may not have displayed great grasp of the problems of Indian defence but there has been never any doubt about his unyielding insistence on probity and transparency even if this delays unduly the military’s essential acquisitions. Sukna near Darjeeling is a military station under the Army’s 33 Corps. When it first became known that the Corps Commander, Lt-General Rath — allegedly at the goading of Lt-General Prakash and while keeping his superior, Lt.-Gen. V. K. Singh, GOC-in-Chief, Eastern Command and now COAS-designate, completely in the dark - had promoted the vested interests of a real estate builder, General Singh immediately appointed a Court of Inquiry. Lt-General Prakash and Rath, it transpired had helped the builder, Mr Dileep Agarwal, to secure from the 33 Corps a No Objection Certificate (NOC) for his project to set up an “educational institution” on a 70-acre plot adjacent to military land. The builder had claimed that his vaguely described educational institution would be affiliated to the famed Mayo College at Ajmer. On learning this, the Mayo authorities flatly contradicted Mr Agarwal’s claim. The Court of Inquiry, appointed by the Eastern Army Commander, indicted three Lieutenant-Generals, Prakash, Rath, and Halgali, and Major-General Sen, for wrong-doing. It also drew attention to Lt-General Prakash’s alleged association over a long period with builder Agarwal. On receipt of the Court of Inquiry’s report, the Eastern Army Commander recommended strong disciplinary action — which, in effect means court-martial and dismissal — against Lt-General Prakash as also others. Furthermore, he cancelled the NOC issued to Mr Agarwal before it could reach the West Bengal government’s headquarters at Writers’ Building in Kolkata. By the time the file reached the Army Chief for decision, the widespread impression within and without the Army circles was two-fold: first that there was tension between the Army Chief and the Eastern Army Commander, who would succeed General Kapoor on March 31; and, secondly General Prakash was a protégé of the Army Chief and was, therefore, being “shielded”. This should explain what followed. Since by that time the contents of the inquiry report and the Eastern Army Commander’s recommendations had become known to the media it went to town and demanded of General Kapoor what he proposed to do. His rather angry response was that neither he nor the media should reach a “premature” judgment”. Thereafter he dragged his feet most conspicuously. He even gave Lt.-General Prakash 10 days’ leave to avoid the embarrassment of his presence at the Army Day and the Republic Day parades and then gave the beleagured protégé a show cause notice in such a way that the answer to it would come just a few days before Lt-General Prakash’s retirement. But for the Defence Minister’s polite but blunt intervention the Army Chief’s wholly flawed decision might have prevailed. This said, I must rush to add that the Army is arguably the country’s finest institution that has defended its freedom and frontiers splendidly. Compared with other institutions that form the republic’s tattered infrastructure, it is more disciplined and efficient. Its ethos needs to be preserved and promoted and no one, whether a civilian or a military man, has any business unfairly or unnecessarily to sully its image. But how can the ethos and shining reputation of the Army be preserved when the misdeeds of some its own dent its image hugely? The shameful Sukna affair has come in the wake of several other scams, including the one in which the brave defenders of Siachen were sent drums full of water instead of petrol. A major-general had to be sacked for selling away the liquor meant for army formations. There is also the case of “ketchup colonels” who, to secure rapid promotions, faked photographs of militants they were supposed to have killed. The Sukna scam is unspeakably disgraceful. Land grab is currently the most lucrative pastime of those in power and other crooks. It is bad enough when corrupt politicians and bureaucrats indulge in it. But when generals join the loot, God help us. By mishandling such a scandal General Kapoor has neither covered himself with glory nor enhanced the Army’s reputation. The Army needs better
leadership.
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Retired but not tired
Some are born old. Some never age. I have seen 68 summers pass. Age has brought the inevitable change in the limbs and looks. What was once a hairy head is almost a bald pate. There are implants in the eyes. Silver in the teeth. More mass than muscle in the body. Probably, supple to stiff could sum up the story. Yet, age has not made me a sage. The few grey hair that have survived do not really tell the age of the heart. I enjoy the good things of life. With the old intensity. I like compatible company. Food. Liquor. Vintage wine. And even more. I firmly believe that every consumable is meant to be consumed. Eatables are there to be eaten. Starvation can only make a man sick. Fat keeps me fit. In fact, fattening food is my favourite. It is just irresistible. There is nothing better than a well-done four egg omelette. Stuffed parathas with fresh butter on top. How can you enjoy ‘daal’ or ‘saag’ without a good ‘tadka’ of desi ghee? I firmly believe that a hungry man is an angry man. A little bulge is beautiful. It makes a curve. A satisfied stomach is soothing for the soul. A good meal brings a smile on the face. Good food gives energy. And this energy is needed. It helps me to enjoy my work. At the end of the day, it promotes a sound sleep. I can get up before dawn and doze off after the News at Ten. In between, there is a lot to do. Continuously. Without a break or a yawn. During weekends, even a game of golf. And at the end of the round, a visit to the Bar. Popularly called the 19th hole on the golf course. A few sips or swishes of ‘single malt’ do a lot of good to the system. If in doubt, please try. When a little lighter in the head, I realise that I am totally free of all prejudice. I hate everyone equally. But being fat, I cannot stoop too low. My caution to all (friends and foes) is - ‘Do not worry about what you eat. Just take care of what is eating you. And if you carry a clear conscience to bed every night, you would not have to visit a doctor or swallow pills. Irrespective of what you eat or drink.’ Sun sets to make way for moon. The evening brings lights. It is true that the snow of age does not melt. But snow on the top of the house can only mean that there is fire within. Age is only an attitude. I may have retired. But I am really not
tired.
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India as a global power
For some time now, India is being projected as an emerging power on the global scene. But at the same time, forecasts that India would in foreseeable future catch up with China, however, seem a bit hard to comprehend, considering the gap that exists between the two. Notwithstanding, India together with China will certainly dominate the economic scenario of the 21st century, leading to the swing of pendulum of economic power from the West to the East. As of now, India has emerged as one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. Economic growth, all by itself, despite being an engine of power does not make a country a global or a major power. A nation has to be technologically competent and militarily deterrent for becoming a comprehensive major power. Despite 60 years of Independence, we continue to remain dependent on foreign technology and military wherewithal. We have little or no worthwhile indigenous military industrial base, particularly in the private sector. We continue to rely on foreign powers for technology as well as the much needed strategic weapons. Remaining mostly dependent on others for our security needs and the military wherewithal hardly entitles us to great power status. No nation can aspire to be a major power by being at the mercy of others who can armtwist you at critical junctures in keeping with their own policy constraints. All this, because we didn’t invest sufficiently in R&D nor did we involve the private sector to join hands in this strategically important area. Our capabilities are nowhere in consonance with our aspirations. Look at China. It has formidable armed forces, comprising largely indigenous production. We desperately need guns, missiles, ships, submarines, aircrafts and variety of other military wherewithal. The politician as well as the bureaucrat is much too cautious to pursue acquisitions, having burnt their fingers in past corrupt deals. The national leadership has to display more courage and better awareness of strategic environment and help the armed forces resurrect themselves in keeping with the needs of the time. Modernisation and specific-to-task modern hardware are urgently needed to match the future battle scenarios of a decade ahead at least. It takes years to build the armed forces. Our armed forces also need urgent reforms. Organisational restructuring and doctrinal changes have to be conceptualised in keeping with the strategically altered future context. Where does India really stand in the politico-strategic milieu with this sort of national vision? India has to go a long way before reaching anywhere near being a great power. Today, we are unable to assert ourselves even as a South Asian regional power with constant challenges from some of our obsessively hostile neighbours. With the US emerging as the sole super power, struggle for creating spheres of influence as hitherto is passé’. In fact, it has ushered in an era of sustained global peace. That’s how, despite many regional conflagrations, none ended up in a large-scale war with international ramifications. The same cannot be said in regard to the Indo-Pak regional context. Any conflict between these two has international consequences. The US is bound to tilt towards Pakistan, which is its closest ally in fighting the Taliban-al-Quida combine along the Pak-Afghan border. It does n’t seem India has learnt any lesson from its past experience. Are we ready to take on Pakistan that is getting vast military and economic aid from the US and yet disregards it totally in terrorising India? The Americans are fully aware of it and yet maintain deliberate silence. India has to neutralise this sub-conventional threat which Pakistan has perpetuated under nuclear parity with impunity. India has not been able to evolve any deterrent response so far to Pak machinations. In fact, our government finds itself literally helpless when it comes to the question of responding to Pakistan’s repeated belligerent acts. 26/11 is the most recent example of this helplessness. In Afghanistan too, despite confirmed information from US sources of the ISI hand in bombing of the Indian embassy in Kabul, India’s response was totally inadequate, to say the least. India’s lie-low attitude and defensive mindset has only encouraged Pakistan further, as was seen in yet another fidayeen attack in Srinagar a few days back where Pak handlers. like 26/11, were observed giving continuous instructions. A smaller and much weaker Pakistan has thus become a great challenge and a debilitating factor in India’s rise as a great power. From all indications, it appears that the Pak army will keep up its offensive till it is able to avenge Bangladesh, regardless of the government stand on Indo-Pak relations. India finds itself all the more uncomfortable when it comes to facing China’s belligerence and assertiveness. China has been subjecting India to ever-increasing diplomatic and military pressure for quite some time now. However remote, China sees a sort of challenge from India and hence its policy of containing it as a subaltern state in the back waters of Indian Ocean by devious means. It ensures that Pakistan remains competitively armed to fight its proxy war against India in order to keep it embroiled in regional conflicts and impede its over-all progress as a major power. It has also established military and maritime facilities in India’s neighbourhood and endeavour to wean India’s immediate neighbours by means of economic, military and political succour. Whilst China seeks a multi-polar world, it wants a uni-polar Asia and hence its policy of downsizing India. Our lack of farsightedness and lackadaisical attitude in planning our future does n’t auger well as a power in the offing. China makes an effective use of its military prowess in running its foreign and strategic policies. It is building major military bases and strengthening its defences in Tibet. It conducts major military exercises in close proximity of LAC with a view to show its might and intimidate neighbours. We have literally lost count of China’s incursions into Indian territory, especially in Arunachal Pradesh. The MEA’s mild responses only make India look weak. China will keep the pressure on India without resolving the border issue at present. It would rather wait till it is in a position to offer India a fait accompli. Till then China will continue to follow a dual policy of maintaining strategic stability coupled with aggressive posturing. Any solution without territorial concession from India at present will only enhance India’s stature as an Asian power. To keep up the diplomatic pressure on India, China by issuing loose sheet visas to the residents of J&K went on to suggest that the state was a disputed territory. Also, in a blatant show of assertiveness, China promptly detained 21 Indians on charges of diamond smuggling the very next day after India arrested three Chinese engineers for alleged culpability in the death of 41 Indians in a fire at BALCO. India must create counter pressures by fine tuning its diplomatic and military posturing but effective diplomacy and assertive postures are possible only when duly backed by appropriate military prowess and political will. India’s image as a soft state is incongruous with its major power aspirations. Such a tag has come to stick because of our repeated meek responses towards our adversaries. India’s passive responses which have deep roots in spiritually prone Indians and their culture are inconsistent in today’s pragmatic international environment. When it comes to national interest, there can be no alternative to firmness and deterrent response as the Chinese have shown repeatedly. Only then can India fit in the mould of a major power with a permanent seat on the UNSC
table. The writer is a former Director General, Defence Planning Staff
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Empty gestures on European stage President Obama doesn’t do idle chat. When he speaks to foreign leaders – unlike his predecessor, George W Bush – he likes the conversation to have a purpose. Not for him the bonding exchange or the photo opportunity. Which is why he seems to prefer Angela Merkel to most other European leaders. And why he has so publicly turned down the EU’s invitation to a summit in Madrid. Call it a snub if you like, but the simpler explanation is that he simply saw no point in it. And he is right. Just what was the purpose of the summit? It was called by Spain’s Jose Luis Zapatero largely with the aim of pre-empting the newly appointed full-time President of Europe, Herman von Rompuy, from doing the same. Well, say Europe’s defenders in excuse, you’re bound to have these kind of turf battles in a settling-in period between the old system of rotating national presidencies and the new post-Lisbon world of a single, permanent presidency. Perhaps, although that doesn’t say much for the understanding of Europe’s leaders of just what is implied by a Lisbon treaty they had all signed up to as the path to tomorrow. But then think what happened at the last European summit Obama attended – in Prague last year, hosted by a Czech government which had just fallen, and without an agenda worth the paper it was summarised on. The world has become too serious a place for premiers to glide from summit to summit in armour-plated cars solely for the purposes of being seen to be at them. Not that you would know it from the behaviour of most of Europe’s leaders. Ever since Gordon Brown sniffed the air and smelt electoral cordite he has been positively frenetic in his efforts to hold centre stage in world affairs, flying to conferences on economics and the environment there and holding meetings on Afghanistan and Yemen here. Whether these meetings achieve anything practical is beside the point.......... If Angela Merkel, Nicolas Sarkozy and Zapatero are really beating a path to our door over the coming months to fly the flag for the British Prime Minister, he would of course be delighted. Indeed I wouldn’t be surprised if No 10 didn’t deliberately spin regular meetings as support for Brown and disapproval of the Tory leader. But it is an odd choice of tactic, nonetheless. Gordon Brown doesn’t care about Europe. Never has. Never will. While Tony Blair hugged America close, he also sought favour in Europe, not least because he was arrogant (or deluded) enough to believe that he could bestride every part of the globe like a colossus. Brown has always been enamoured of the US, constantly reading up on its politics and its power, and taken Europe as a sideshow, arriving late for its meetings and never staying past their time. He now likes the stage but there isn’t the faintest evidence that he believes in Europe’s development as an integrated whole or Britain’s part in it. Yet the worst response to Obama’s so-called “snub” has been the immediate one – the cry of despair that Europe lacks presence on the world stage, that it cannot provide the single answering voice when Washington, or China or whoever calls. That is the dream of European politicians. There is no evidence that the people, as members of the Union, are dreaming of greater power abroad by acting as one. What they want is more effective responses to the challenges within – the recession, climate change, jobs, terror and security. The real lesson of Obama for Britain is that, in pursuit of conversations that matter, the new President is no longer interested in dealing with “special relationships” any more than unions which can’t get their act together. Washington wants ad-hoc alliances as they suit America’s interests. If we want influence, we will have to find it in
Europe. — By arrangement with
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Climategate scientist ‘hid flaws in data’ The “climategate” controversy intensified on Wednesday night when the senior British scientist at its centre, Professor Phil Jones, faced fresh accusations that he attempted to withhold data that could cast doubt on evidence for rising world temperatures. The charges follow an analysis of the emails hacked from the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit, of which Professor Jones is the director. The emails, published online on the eve of the recent Copenhagen climate summit, led to allegations that Professor Jones and other researchers had behaved inappropriately in withholding or deleting scientific information to prevent its disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act (FOI). Last week the charge became more serious when the Information Commissioner’s Office said that in withholding information, UEA had broken the law. The university has set up an independent inquiry into the affair headed by Sir Muir Russell, a former vice-chancellor of the University of Glasgow, and Professor Jones has taken leave from his director’s post until the inquiry is completed. But the new allegations go beyond refusing FOI requests and concern data that Professor Jones and other scientists have used to support a record of recent world temperatures that shows an upward trend. Climate sceptics have suggested that some of the higher readings may be due not to a warmer atmosphere, but to the so-called “urban heat island effect”, where cities become reservoirs of heat and are warmer than the surrounding countryside, especially during the night hours. Professor Jones and a colleague, Professor Wei-Chyung Wang of the State University of New York at Albany suggested in an influential 1990 paper in the journal Nature that the urban heat island effect was minimal – and cited as supporting evidence a long series of temperature measurements from Chinese weather stations, half in the countryside and half in cities, supplied by Professor Wei-Chyung. The Nature paper was used as evidence in the most recent report of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. However, it has been reported that when climate sceptics asked for the precise locations of the 84 stations, Professor Jones at first declined to release the details. And when eventually he did release them, it was found that for the ones supposed to be in the countryside, there was no location given. Climate sceptics have demanded the two professors now withdraw their heat island paper. Professor Wei-Chyung was investigated by his university, but exonerated, but the emails indicate there was also concern among Professor Jones’ s colleagues at UEA, including from Dr Tom Wigley, his predecessor as head of the CRU, about the Chinese weather station data and Professor Jones’s contuing reliance on it. No-one was available for comment at the University of East Anglia last night.n — By arrangement with
The Independent
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