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Pak, the favoured one
Bane of India |
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Inglorious record
Raw deal for veterans
Beware wives!
A rebel departs, disappointed
T-20 harmful for youngsters
Inside Pakistan
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Pak, the favoured one
India
is mature and strong enough not to be overly concerned about the US-Pakistan strategic dialogue, but certain straws in the wind are disconcerting. Apparently, an attempt is being made to re-hyphenate India and Pakistan in the name of “incentivising” the latter. The way US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has deftly skirted around questions about the nuclear deal with Pakistan has set the alarm bells ringing. Any such deal would be disastrous, given Islamabad’s role in proliferation. India’s case is entirely different, considering that its record has been consistently exemplary. Not only that, there are also genuine concerns about the capability of the present Pakistani dispensation to safeguard nuclear facilities, because if those fall into the hands of terrorists, the whole world will have to pay an incalculable price. For form’s sake, Pakistan is a frontline partner of the US in the ongoing war against terror. But it is no secret that it has been aiding and abetting terror at the same time, as amply confirmed by the Headley confessions. The US needs to seriously analyse whether the war can at all be won when its ally is itself playing a double agent. Various groups of terrorists are so well intertwined that you cannot vanquish Al-Qaida while turning a blind eye to the activities of others like the Lashkar-e-Toiba. Equally unfortunate is the US military largesse for Pakistan. It would have been understandable if Washington had tried to beef up its counter-insurgency strength by giving it helicopters etc, but it seems to be preparing the ground for the supply of F-16s along with laser-guided bomb kits besides other sophisticated equipment. All along, such military might has been used against India. Things may be no different this time. Delhi has done it well to let it be known that such a transfer may have an impact on the $10 billion-plus tender floated by it for the acquisition of 126 multi-role combat aircraft, for which two US companies are bidding. Since the US has been insensitive to Indian concerns, it is pragmatic to use the huge deal as a bargaining chip.
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Bane of India
As
the three-member Bench headed by Supreme Court Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan has referred the issue of granting 4 per cent job and educational quota to 14 backward classes among Muslims in Andhra Pradesh to a five-Judge Constitution Bench to examine questions of constitutional law, its interim ruling, staying the Andhra Pradesh High Court judgement that quashed the quota for Muslims, was wholly unwarranted. It is nobody’s case that the backward classes should be deprived of the benefit of affirmative action. Indeed, the nation can grow only when every citizen, irrespective of caste, creed, sex and religion enjoys the basic economic minimum. However, reservations on the basis of castes such as Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes or even on religion (which has no constitutional sanction) are known to exacerbate social unrest and tension in the country. Quotas by their very nature directly benefit only a few individuals and their extended families. The reservation system has created widespread resentment among the hapless many against the resourceful few who have learnt to manipulate the regime of quotas to their own advantage. The Tribune has always been championing the need for meritocracy. It had opposed reservation for the OBCs on the ground that merit will be the worst casualty and that those belonging to upper castes will suffer. It is common knowledge how quotas in the civil services, IITs and IIMs have severely hampered the prospects of many. If quota is a tool of advancement and empowerment, why cannot it be given to people on the basis of their economic backwardness instead of caste affiliation? Even this kind of affirmative action will have to be time-bound. Quotas cannot continue in perpetuity. Unfortunately, politicians have a vested interest in perpetuating the reservation system. Castes, sub-castes and religions are big vote banks for them. What was initially meant to be a 10-year quota for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in the Fifties has now become a permanent affair! Successive governments at the Centre have been peremptorily extending reservation for them every 10 years. The states, too, do not lag behind in giving quotas to more and more castes and sub-castes. Indeed, there is no end to this competitive populism. It is time to review all kinds of quotas.
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Inglorious record
For
36 years India has been struggling to develop the Arjun main battle tank. This three-and-a-half decade-long quest since 1974 is perhaps the longest in the world’s history of the development of this land-based mechanised weapon system that facilitates rapid mobility for any army. For the Indian Army in particular, which has a long, vast and vulnerable border to defend in the plains of Punjab, Rajasthan and parts of Jammu, tanks comprise a crucial fighting instrument to both mount a counter-attack or blunt an offensive in the plains. But while the Arjun tank may be a proud symbol of technology demonstration at the Republic Day parade every year, it continues to be elusive as both an indigenous product and, more importantly, a weapon system for large-scale induction into the army. Almost 60 per cent of the tank, including its engine, tracks, transmissions and the gun sighting system — all of which are critical components – are imported. Yet, despite two decades of trials, the tank is still awaiting the army’s nod for approval. The Arjun tank presents a microcosm of the enormous difficulties India is facing in its quest for indigenisation of weapon systems and platforms. From questionable capabilities in strategic technologies, constantly changing qualitative requirements by the army that seeks the best and the latest, to extensive and extended user trials that have spanned almost two decades and, on occasions, imposition of technology denial regimes, it has been a constant struggle for India’s defence research and development organisation and its affiliated units. There is no doubt that for India to be a credible independent military power, it is imperative to become self-reliant. Currently, India imports 70 per cent of its weapon systems, which is hardly a satisfactory situation for a country that aspires to a place as a geopolitical power and gets regularly commented on by the defence minister and in successive parliamentary standing committee reports. India needs a thorough re-examination of its military-industrial complex and greater realism about the projects it undertakes.
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Let us not envy others’ knowledge but strive to learn from them. — The Upanishads
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Raw deal for veterans Veterans recently went to Rashtrapati Bhavan to return the sixth pack of medals to the President of India. But the President could not be there to receive the medals, so they came back disappointed. For a veteran, his medals are his most valued and cherished possession. These are heirlooms for their families. Medals are earned under difficult conditions. Some by laying down life during war and in fighting insurgents, others for gallantry in the face of the enemy and yet some others for wounds suffered during operations. For veterans to part with their medals is an extreme step of desperation, caused by frustration and distress. Why have the veterans been driven to such a state of anguish! Successive Central Pay Commissions (CPCs) repeatedly and viciously lowered the pay and status of defence personnel. To mention just two cases, DIG of police, whose pay and status was in between that of a Lieutenant-Colonel and Colonel now stands equated with a Brigadier for pay etc. DIG rank comes after 14 years service while that of a Brigadier after 26-28 years. So absurd has been the dispensation that a Brigadier was given more pension than a Major-General. The Sixth Pay Commission introduced a dozen more anomalies. The Fourth Pay Commission granted rank pay up to the rank of Brigadiers. Through sleight of hand, the Ministry of Defence deducted the amount of rank pay from the basic pay. Later, the Supreme Court has finally set it right. The Supreme Court had also noted, in an indirect manner, the untenability of granting different pensions to persons of the same rank, irrespective of their date of retirement. The Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) at Chandigarh has drawn the government’s attention to the Supreme Court’s point and has given the Central Government four months to resolve the issue. Left to bureaucracy, nothing much can be expected. Therefore, the veterans decided to continue their struggle for One Rank One Pension (OROP). Successive Presidents, Prime Ministers, Defence Ministers and the chairperson of the Congress party, at various times, accepted the grant of OROP. However, the bureaucracy has been frightening the political executive that giving OROP to the defence services will open a Pandora’s box. Every other government employee will ask for the same. This is patently false and mendacious contention. In all, 83 per cent of defence services personnel retire between the ages of 34 and 37 years. Another 5 to 12 per cent retire at the ages between 44 and 52 years. Only 0.35 per cent retire at the age of 60. While all civil employees serve up to the age of 60 years, they step up to the top of their respective pay bands, get all the three Assured Career Progressions (ACPs) and consequently not only draw increasing pay but end up with much higher pension. The 83 per cent of military personnel who retire at 34-37 age, that is after 17 years service, do not qualify for even the second ACP which comes into play only after 20 years service. Since some may not grasp the import of this gross injustice, more appropriately a mischief, spelling out the monetary position would be in order, but a little later. Subsequent to the ham-handed dispensation of the Sixth Central Pay Commission which drew strong response from the defence services headquarters, the government appointed a Committee of Secretaries to go into these anomalies. In the Sixth Central Pay Commission, the villain of the piece was the IAS officer on this Commission. Now when the Committee of Secretaries was constituted to address the anomalies, the same IAS officer also formed part of this committee. Thus, it became a case where the prosecutor also formed part of the jury! The committee endlessly dragged its feet and finally omitted OROP in its recommendations. A comparison of the total amount drawn in terms of pay and pension by a soldier and pay by his counterpart in the civil by the time both reach the age of 60 years is Rs 33.3 lakh more for the civil servant; this figure at the age of 70 is Rs 42.670 lakh. At age 75, it is Rs 47.310 lakh. In the case of a Havaldar, his equivalent in the civil, at age 60, would get Rs 20.261 lakh more and this figure is Rs 26.639 lakh at age 70 and at 75 it is Rs 29.828 lakh. In the case of a Subedar, these figures at ages 60, 70 and 75 years are Rs 13.979 lakh, Rs 18.911 lakh and Rs 21.277 lakh respectively, more for the civil servant. A soldier retiring at 35 years of age will live through at least four Central Pay Commissions and suffer their dispensations for retirees. Whereas his counterpart in the civil will not only continue to benefit from successive CPCs while still in service for an additional 25 years, but on retirement will be effected by just one CPC, assuming 70 years as the average age expectancy. Therefore, even if OROP is granted, defence personnel will continue to suffer these gross disadvantages. The ad-hoc compensation promised to the other ranks is completely inadequate and fails to address the core issue of OROP. Similar situation prevails in the case of officers. Only one with severely impaired vision, limited intelligence and/or deep seated bias can miss the incongruity in this working. The above disparities are independent of X factor which apply to only defence personnel. About 15 per cent of soldiers get the opportunity to live with their families for a period of one to two years in their entire service. In the case of others (including officers), only 40 to 50 per cent of their service, they live with their families. Then there are other travails of service such as harsh living conditions in uncongenial and high altitude areas which results in approximately 5000 of them being annually boarded out on medical grounds. Thousands live with ailments and continue to serve. Then there is the curtailment on fundamental rights and harsh military law to contend with. Entry into the officer cadre has become the last career choice for the country’s youth. Consequently, huge shortages persist. Few seem to realise the strong bonding that exists between the veterans and the serving. There is continued interaction between units and their retired personnel and that is how units sustain the regimental spirit and traditions. During leave, the serving come in contact with the retired and the dissatisfaction of the later gets passed to the serving. Therefore, there is the danger of spill-over effect of this disenchantment and disgruntlement of the veterans passing on to the serving. It will indeed be a sad day for the country when this distress is fully transferred to the serving. The demand for OROP is fair and just and is only a part-compensation for early retirement, extremely limited promotions and a miniscule recompense for a hard and risk filled career. The political executive ought to realise the injustice being done to the soldier and accept in good grace, what is fair and what is
just.
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Beware wives! One day Buddha visited the home of famous gahapati of Shravasti. There was noise in the home created by his unruly daughter-in-law, Sujata. The gahapati requested Buddha to counsel her who told her about the seven kinds of wives. First is the vadhak (slayer) who always quarrels and kills all joys of the home by total neglect. The Bible also names such wife as “a dripping tap on a rainy day”. Buddha moved to the other categories as “the chorsama (thief-like) who spends extravagantly without caring for the hard ways of earning and thus impoverishes the household; the ayyasama (mistress-like) is lazy, loves gossips, wastes time and money, talks in loud tones; the matusama (mother-like) takes good care of the entire family as a mother takes care of her children; the bhaginisama (sister-like) gives respects to each member of the family as a sister to her elder brother; the mitrasama (companion-like) is faithful, happy with and helpful to the members of the family; the dasisama (slave-like) is calm, patient and obedient. Buddha concluded that the first three types go to hell when they die and the rest go to heaven. The liberated woman, today, disregards six of these seven categories and wants to be “mitrasama” provided the entire household is also “mitrasama” to her but my fear is if that comes true then path to heaven would be too congested. I am ignorant of the texts classifying husbands but Lyndon B. Johnson, the former US President, giving advice to the male spouses had said, “I have learned that only two things are necessary to keep one’s wife happy. First, let her think she’s having her way. And second, let her have it.” I do not know where the late Claudia Alta “Lady Bird’ Taylor Johnson is but with caprice, greed and adultery on the increase among wives, if the TV serials are to be believed, then I am relieved that with Lyndon’s advice my earlier fear is unfounded and I foresee a crowded hell — but that is hell. What type of wife, of the seven categories, would you like to have? The “Sunday People” of England conducted a survey and most people ignoring the Buddha’s ways wanted a wife to be “a cook in the kitchen and whore in bed”. And woe fell on those whose wives were whores in the kitchen and cooks in the bed! I am willing to tolerate the ire of women by not asking from them the type of husband they would like to have because I know that they want one who plays a lead role on the wedding day and supporting role for rest of the wedded life. A bureaucrat friend tired of playing a supporting role got a chance of going to Paris on an official tour. I asked him why he was not taking Bhabhiji along, he replied, “You do not take paranthas to Governor’s dinner, do you?” Beware
wives!
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A rebel departs, disappointed The
death of the oldest red guard, Kanu Sanyal (78), on Tuesday rekindled the memories of people across India about the beginning of the Naxal movement in the 1960s. Sanyal was then portrayed as a “great revolutionary” and compared by the pro-left media to the likes of Mahatma Gandhi and Jatin Das largely because of his charisma and his public showmanship such as his displays of “wealth renunciation” and his publicity campaigns where he tried to identify with the proletariat. But the new avatars of the Naxal movement, known as the Maoists, seem to be too busy in their violent world, carrying out the so-called protracted people’s war against the State. Hardly any of them has shed a tear over his death. While the Maoists are not going to miss Kanuda, as bachelor Sanyal was lovingly called, students of history will always remember him. Sanyal was found hanging in his room at his house in Seftullajote, 25 km from Kolkata, which was also the headquarters of his party – the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) – of which he was the last surviving founder member. For many years he had not been keeping good health. But he always refused to take help from the Left Front parties and their successive governments in West Bengal. The irony is the man who in his younger days was considered as a daredevil chose to hang himself to end his life. Another irony is that he chose to fade out from this world quietly at a time when the Maoists’ fighting machine is being engaged under “Operation Green Hunt” by the para-military forces in the Naxal-affected tribal belt known as the “Red Corridor” in Jharkhand, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Orissa, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. According to a confidential report of the military intelligence, India’s 231 districts in 13 states, including three in the NCR, are now being targeted by the Maoists. Their aim is to seize power in Delhi by 2050. One would assume that it must have made Sanyal proud. But it was not the case. In fact, for many years he had been disillusioned and upset over the way the Naxals were operating, indulging in violence, targeting public property, especially the Railways and killing opponents. Chhattisgarh’s Director-General of Police Vishwa Ranjan from Raipur told The Tribune: “Sanyal in his last days was a sad man as his Naxal movement had gone astray.” Many Maoists have become billionaires. Mao Zedong’s socio-political belief was based on “political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.” But the Maoists in India seem to have redefined it: “Money power grows out of the barrel of a gun.” It is ironical that in the name of revolution, the Maoists are collecting money by levying “taxes”. This criminal aspect of the Maoists had been upsetting Sanyal for quite some time, say his old colleagues. Some of them feel that the suicide of the Naxal movement’s founder might prove to be an eye-opener for the educated but disillusioned young Maoists who have unleashed terror in different parts of the country. Old timers still remember those days of the mid-sixties when it was a fashion to be known as a Naxal. Soon after the beginning of the Naxal movement, Radio Peking (in China) on June 28, 1967, called it “The Spring Thunder”. Independent India’s first “red revolution” started in May 1967 in north Bengal’s Naxalbari by a small breakaway faction of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). Later, on April 22, 1969, the birthday of Russian revolution leader V.I. Lenin, the rebels led by Sanyal formed the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist). Sanyal actively solicited help from the Communist regime in China to further his goals. But “the thunder” fizzled out by 1972. After that, Sanyal went into hiding. The death of his colleague Charu Majumdar was followed by a breakup of the Naxalite movement. Sanyal abandoned violent means and accepted the parliamentary practice as a form of revolutionary activity. He was arrested in August 1970. The news of his arrest sparked violence by CPI (ML) cadres. For seven years Sanyal was imprisoned in a jail in Visakhapatnam. Sanyal was released from jail in 1977 following the change of government at the Centre as well as in West Bengal. Sanyal soon publicly repudiated the original strategy of armed struggle of the CPI (ML). In 1985, Sanyal's faction along with five other groups merged to form the Communist Organsiation of India (Marxist-Leninist). Sanyal’s “last actions” were in 2006 when he became a prominent figure in the opposition to land acquisition in Singur. On January 18, 2006, he was arrested for disrupting a Delhi-bound Rajdhani Express train at the New Jalpaiguri railway station in Siliguri while protesting against the closures of tea gardens in the region. Azizul Haque, one of Sanyal’s closest confidants in the violent days of the 1960s and the 70s, said: “There is a message hidden in Kanuda’s death. It is not a simple case of suicide. It is a protest by a born revolutionary.” Haque believes that Kanuda’s suicide is a message to the modern-day Maoists that what they are doing ultimately affects the poorest sections of society for which they claim to have taken up arms. “I am convinced that this thing kept troubling Kanuda and he ultimately decided to take the extreme step in protest,” says Haque, hoping Sanyal’s death would open the eyes of the Maoists…I don't believe Kanu Sanyal committed suicide…we all murdered him, the present society being his killer…the peasants' movement across the country lost its parent today…” Did the founding father of the Indian red revolution receive enough respect at the end of his journey? Many believe that the country, irrespective of his ideology, did not honour his sacrifice. After all, as they point out, Kanuda was a people’s man…he deserved the “Lal Salaam”!
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DP Azad is the first cricket Dronacharya awardee of the country and has produced international cricketers like Kapil Dev, Harbhajan Singh, Chetan Sharma, Ashok Malhotra and Yograj Singh. At present he runs his academy at St.Stephen's School, Chandigarh. While watching the match beween Kings XI Punjab and Rajasthan Royals at the Punjab Cricket Association Stadium in Mohali on Wednesday, Azad spoke to Tribune correspondent Akash Ghai passionately about the game and T-20. Here are excerpts: The innovative T-20 cricket just upsets me. At present we are not aware but surely we, especially the budding cricketers, are bound to pay a heavy price in the coming times. At the learning stage, which is the time to learn the basics and fundamentals of the game, the future cricketers are just imitating the “improvised” shots, which are suitable only for the 20-20 format. Instead of the traditional shots like cover drive, square drive and defensive shots, which only help in building the long innings and long stay at the crease, our future stars are trying to play “switch hitting” and scoop shots, which are never recommended at the learning stage in any coaching manual anywhere in the world. This type of cricket is never going to to benefit the young players but is drifting them from the game. In fact the ill-affects of this fast format have started telling upon the game of those youngsters who try to apply the “improvised” shots during their innings. Nowadays one shocking fact that has started coming into light is that the players under the 14,16 and 19 age groups hardly consume the allotted quota of the overs/days in the longer version of the game. They just want to make quick runs and I think this certainly is detrimental to their game. One can argue that cricket god Sachin Tendulkar and cricket icon MS Dhoni too play these shots. I would like to comment that they have reached that stage by learning the fundamentals and basics of the game by playing the traditional cricket. So their playing such shots would not harm their game. I want to clear one thing that I am not against the T-20 format as the players and a lot of other persons related to the game are earning lots of rupees from it. But at what cost? That’s a million dollar question for the future of budding cricketers. I suggest that steps should be taken to ensure that the T-20 format should carry a warning – just like the ones on the cigarette packs and liquor bottles – “It is injurious to the game of teenage cricketers”. |
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Inside Pakistan PML (N) leader Nawaz Sharif stunned the Pakistanis when he declared on Thursday that the proposed constitution amendment package could not be presented to parliament as there was “no consensus” on it among the political parties. This was contrary to expectations as the Parliamentary Reforms Committee, headed by Senator Raza Rabbani, had included the PML (N)’s proposals “regarding the appointment of judges”, one of the contentious issues, according to Daily Times (March 26). Mr Sharif’s announcement that a consensus had still not been reached was “dramatic”, as Dawn commented. The paper further said, “it was thoroughly unexpected, it was, sadly, vintage Pakistani politics. Curiously, Nawaz Sharif did not focus on the one issue that was known to be still unresolved: renaming the NWFP.” According to Daily Mail, Mr Sharif said: “The authority to appoint judges should not rest with an individual and for that matter not even with the President or the Chief Justice of Pakistan.” The PML (N) stand has led to the Pakistan National Assembly joint session, scheduled for Friday, getting postponed. Mr Sharif has his own game plan. He does not want to give the PPP an opportunity to improve its image, which could have happened after the adoption of the constitution reform package by parliament. Killings in Balochistan The shooting down of a principal of a college in Quetta is not an isolated act of a madcap, nor should the lawyer slapping a judge in his face right in the court come as a surprise. These callous outbursts of violence and intolerance have become, sadly, the order of the day….” This is how The Nation commented on the killing of educationist Fazle Bari in Quetta on Monday while he was on the way to his college in his car. Such incidents have been occurring frequently in Balochistan for some time. The Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) has claimed responsibility for the highly popular principal’s murder as it did for most of the killings in the past. The BLA has been targeting settlers in Balochistan particularly after the elimination of three Baloch leaders in April 2009. The BLA suspects the “outsiders” settled in Balochistan have been helping intelligence agencies in victimising the locals. They accuse the intelligence agencies of the murder of the Baloch nationalists. Tempers have been running high with widespread protests organised off and on since then. Business Recorder says, “As things stand, Balochistan has been completely relegated to lawlessness. One does not know who is running the Balochistan affairs...” NRO verdict and after The success of the movement for judicial independence had led to the belief that now no individual or institution would dare go against the rule of law. That is why people believed that the historic judgement of the Pakistan Supreme Court scrapping the controversial National Reconciliation Ordinance would be implemented in full irrespective of who the affected individuals were. But that was hoping against hope. The rulers in Pakistan continue to send across the message that individual interests will continue to get precedence over institutional interests in their country in accordance with the so-called doctrine of necessity. That is why the PPP-led government in Islamabad, in a petition filed in the Supreme Court against the NRO verdict, has pleaded that reopening of the cases relating to the Swiss bank accounts of Pakistanis will amount to putting the late Benazir Bhutto on trial. The News has described the pointless explanation as “unnecessary melodramatic”. It points out that “the conduct of justice is, after all, an affair governed by rules, which do not take into account emotion or other similar matters.” The system of dispensing justice cannot be fair unless it ensures that the law applies equally to everybody. “The issue at hand transcends the trial of any one person. It concerns the looting of national wealth. If one of the accused has passed away, that cannot justify pardoning the crime and sweeping the matter under the rug, particularly when the other main accused (Mr Zardari) is very much alive and presently occupying Aiwan-e-Sadar. If he is guilty then serious questions regarding his fitness and eligibility to hold such high office must be addressed and the looted millions must be recovered”, as Ameer Bhutto, Vice-Chairman of the Sindh National Front, asserted in an article in The News on March 26.
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Kanu Sanyal was upset with Maoist violence
