The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Defiant Jagan
Congress cosying up to Chiru in AP

The Congress high command is in a dilemma over Kadapa MP Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy’s antics in Andhra Pradesh. It is unable to decide whether to expel him or not. It is disturbed over his defiance of its directive not to tour the troubled Telangana region, ostensibly to console the families of those who committed suicide following his father and former Chief Minister, Dr Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy’s demise in a chopper crash last October. As a clear index of its tough stand, Congress president Sonia Gandhi refused to see him in New Delhi on Monday. Mr Reddy’s justification of his controversial tour and reiteration that he won’t quit the Congress has only deepened the party’s troubles. There was violence in Warangal’s Mehboobnagar last Friday which claimed one life and injured many people. The state government promptly arrested him. He was peeved about his detention for over five hours in the train in which he was travelling near Mehboobnagar.

The party leadership seems to be losing patience with Mr Reddy. Though many Congress MLAs are his nominees, because of his not-so-clean image and questionable dealings in mining, real estate and other sectors, the leadership is in no mood to hand over the mantle to him. At the same time, it is taking no chances and is cosying up to the Praja Rajyam Party (PRP) chief, Mr Chiranjeevi. Mrs Sonia Gandhi met him in New Delhi on Saturday and appealed to him to support Congress candidates in the Rajya Sabha elections. The PRP has 18 MLAs in the State Assembly, though two of them have revolted against Chiranjeevi. These votes may be crucial for the Congress or would at least serve as reserve votes in the Rajya Sabha polls. Though Chiranjeevi is yet to spell out his stand, he is expected to weigh his options and tread with caution.

The setting up of the Justice Srikrishna Commission has helped restore peace in the state after months of violence over the question of separate statehood for Telangana. But there is no respite from Mr Jaganmohan Reddy’s political games. It remains to be seen how long the party would tolerate his indiscipline and whether it can muster enough courage to expel him, regardless of its repercussions on the party.

Ombudsmen for job scheme
Punjab lags in NREGA execution

That the Punjab government has not been able to take full advantage of the ambitious UPA scheme to provide guaranteed employment to the rural poor is not in dispute. A study done by the Chandigarh-based Centre for Research in Rural and Industrial Development (CRRID) has established it. Of the Rs 120 crore sanctioned by the Centre for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme for Punjab, the state government has spent only Rs 99.10 crore. There have been complaints from sections of the rural poor about the denial of jobs/unemployment allowance and payment of wages lower than what is provided for.

Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal has also admitted that the scheme has been a flop show as the wages offered are lower than those prevailing in the state. Given the state’s own fiscal constraints, it has not been able to jack up the wages suitably. As complaints multiplied, the Centre put pressure on the state to appoint ombudsmen as provided in NREGA. Eight months later on May 16 the state government finally appointed six ombudsmen for a term of two years and allocated the 20 districts to them. Instead of admitting the Central pressure and mounting complaints, the state Rural Development Minister even touted this as an achievement.

Whether this will improve the implementation of the job guarantee scheme remains to be seen. Much will depend on the quality of persons occupying the post and how much interest they take in the scheme, which can raise rural incomes. Significantly, the ombudsmen have been given sufficient powers to deal with a laid-back bureaucracy. They can conduct spot investigations and lodge FIRs against the erring officials. Neither politicians nor bureaucrats in Punjab as well as Haryana have taken sufficient interest in executing this widely acclaimed national scheme. Himachal Pradesh, on the other hand, has made good use of Central funds to undertake development work.

Thought for the Day

Forsake not words; forsake only words of envy and greed. — The Upanishads

ARTICLE

Policy on Lanka
India should spell out its stand
by Kuldip Nayar

I wish I knew what India’s policy on Sri Lanka is. It now favours reconciliation between the Tamil minority and the Sinhalese majority. Not long ago, it stood for devolving power to provinces in a federal structure. True, the two communities have no other option except to co-exist, as they have been doing all these years. But the lackadaisical attitude towards Tamils, particularly in all walks of life, has to go before they gain confidence that they are equal citizens.

I wish Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had made a statement on Sri Lanka in his maiden press conference at Delhi. He has to put pressure on President Rajapaksa to make his promise on decentralisation of power good. Even in the midst of fighting against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the Sri Lankan government was voicing such a promise.

Some argue that New Delhi should have intervened before the decimation of the LTTE so that it could have had some room to prevail upon Colombo to accommodate the Tamils. Authentic reports have it that India supplied weapons to the Sri Lankan army even during its operation against the LTTE. Colombo should have been made to give Tamils concrete concessions at that time and it would have done so because it wanted to finish the LTTE once and for all. But, on the contrary, India never withdrew its hand from supplying arms to Colombo.

Probably, New Delhi did so because it could never get off its chest that it had committed the original sin of training and arming the LTTE. Then the policy of India was to create a force which would help the Tamils, who were being evicted from their land in the north and who were maltreated all over, without getting their due. It is unfortunate that the LTTE became a Frankenstein and came to nurture the ambition of an independent state.

Maybe, the menace that the LTTE subsequently became had to be ended in the way President Rajapaksa scotched it. In a way, New Delhi should have been happy that the force which killed Rajiv Gandhi has been eliminated. Yet there is a feeling in South Block that its say at Colombo has been further reduced. But then, this is because India had no persistent policy. It reacted according to situation that would prevail in Sri Lanka.

If only New Delhi had a set goal to win a place for Tamils under the sun, it would have settled the matter long ago even during the time of President Jayawardene, who told me once that Rajiv Gandhi was the captain of the ship and they would do whatever he commanded.

Why the vague word of reconciliation has been substituted in place of concrete devolvement of power is because of the panic that has gripped New Delhi after Beijing has announced a large investment in Sri Lanka and given an undertaking to develop the Trincoomali port. Instead of ticking off China for its blatant policy of encircling India — Beijing is making larger investment in Nepal too — New Delhi has made a retreat on its resolve to enforce a federal structure in Sri Lanka.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi could have given an ultimatum to the Manmohan Singh government on Tamils in Sri Lanka. But he, during his visit to Delhi, was interested only in saving Union Telecommunications Minister A. Raja who is mixed up in the Rs 40,000-crore scandal involving 2G mobile bands. Even when Karunanidhi talked about the Tamils, he did only cursorily.

Meanwhile, more and more stories of what the Sri Lankan army did to thousands of civilian Tamils, caught in the crossfire between the LTTE and the Colombo forces, have come to light. It was terror perpetuated on innocent men, women and children. Some 20,000 Tamils were killed. Sexual abuse and the rape of women were yet other atrocities clearly proved against Sri Lankan military and they would amount to crime against humanity and Geneva Convention.

One aspect of the government policy that facilitated a variety of atrocities was the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) of 1979 which designated the LTTE forces as “terrorists.” It further undermined some of the safeguards in the justice and military legal systems, leading to significant abuse. Evidence shows that maltreatment of the dead also took place.

The resulting atrocities of rape, torture, assassinations, “disappearances” and withholding of food, water and medical supplies brutalised and threatened the survival of the Tamil community. The use of artillery and illegal weapons such as white phosphorus and cluster munitions places the government outside accepted international legal standards. It is not surprising that charges of atrocities, ethnic cleansing and indeed genocide have been levelled at Colombo. War crimes and crimes against humanity clear appear to have been committed.

The Permanent People’s Tribunal (PPT) on Sri Lanka has already held an inquiry. In its report, it has regretted that after repeated pleas and in spite of the appalling conditions experienced by Tamils, the UN Human Rights Council and the UN Security Council failed to establish an independent commission of inquiry to investigate those responsible for the atrocities committed. The tribunal has emphasised that if normal conditions are to be restored in Sri Lanka, the government must establish, as a matter of urgency, an independent and authoritative Truth and Justice Commission to investigate crimes against humanity and war crimes committed by parties in conflict.

Colombo has appointed an eight-member Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission on the events ranging from the aborted ceasefire pact in 2002 to the military defeat of the LTTE in May last year. But the Commission is looked at with suspicion because there has been a big gap between the words and deeds of the government where it concerns issues of human rights, good governance and accountability.

What President Rajapaksa does not realise is that he has vanquished the LTTE but not the sense of grievances nursing in the hearts of Tamils. If he does not do anything to win them over, some other LTTE would emerge. Already the Tamils living abroad have begun telling the international community that Pesident Rajapaksa has no intention of treating the Sinhalese and the Sri Lankan Tamils at par. This can damage his and his country’s credentials of being democratic.

Therefore, I come back to the question that I asked in the beginning. What is India’s policy on Sri Lanka? New Delhi has been trying to convince it to adopt a federal system and decentralise power for the last two decades with no results. What is on its agenda now?

MIDDLE

Decay of decency?
by Harish Dhillon

It is fashionable among older people to bemoan the decline of decency and all the values that go with it among the young. I, too, am often guilty of this. But then incidents happen which make me think that I am perhaps making too sweeping a judgment.

Fifteen years ago I was driving on a lonely road. The engine spluttered and huge clouds of smoke flew out of the bonnet. I had no knowledge of cars and car engines and my driver shared my ignorance. All I could do was wait for help.

The quiet of the morning was shattered by the shouting and cheering of a group of youngsters driving past in an open jeep. Before I could feel angry at their indifference, they had reversed and come back to us. When their efforts to set the engine right failed, they towed us to the nearest town. They waited for the car to be repaired, escorted us for about 20 miles, then zoomed on.

When I moved to Mohali I made a habit of cycling to the Lake and back every morning. On my return, I would stop at a roadside vendor of cigarettes and treat myself to a cigarette. He was a young man of 22 who had come to Chandigarh six years ago. He said he was quite content with his earnings. He was able to send a little money home to his parents, meet his own expenses and put some money aside to acquire a more appropriate place for his business. I enjoyed the little chat each morning as it set the mood for the day.

Then I got busy with building my home in Dharampur and for almost a fortnight was not able to go cycling in the morning. When I did resume my exercise, the first thing he asked was where I had been all these days. I told him about the building activity.

“Yes!,” he said,” I know how difficult it is. My uncle built a house in Patna and it almost drove him crazy.” Next morning when I paid for my cigarette he reached inside his box, pulled out a thick roll of bank notes and held them out to me.

“Here, Babuji,” he said softly. “I know how expensive it is to build a house. No matter how much money you have, it always runs short.” I held the money for a while and thought of how readily he had sacrificed his aspirations for a better place of business to help someone he did not know beyond a five-minute rendezvous each morning. I realised that there have always been two groups of young people, those who live by the values that make life worth living and embody all the virtues of decency, and those who violate all these values. It is just that as we grow older, we take the first group for granted and only react to the second group.

OPED

Diplomatic activism
India hesitates as Brazil, China venture out
by Sreeram Chaulia

The unveiling of a nuclear fuel swap plan between Iran and two “friends” –Brazil and Turkey — is a potential game-changer in a long running battle of wills heading towards another round of sanctions and possible war in West Asia.

Seizing opportunities: Brazil’s President Lula da Silva (left) with Turkey’s Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan. — Reuters

Unlike the Western powers, whose brand of diplomacy with Iran was laced with threats of sanctions or unleashing Israel’s covert strikes, Brazil and Turkey entered the fray as states without any coercive axes to grind. Brazil employed remarkable techniques of appealing to Iran’s identity as a fellow developing country and engaged with Iranian leaders for months before the deal was finally signed. The keystones of Brazilian overtures to Iran were to highlight that the former does not share Western animosity for Iran’s fundamentalist rulers and that the goal was to find an honorable win-win solution that prevents Tehran from getting a raw deal.

Turkey too played on old affinities with Iran as a non-Arab Muslim state that does not buy the “Shia crescent” threat theory, which was propounded by Jordan’s King Abdullah to portray Iran as an expansionist state with a sectarian agenda that antagonised Arab states.

Compared to the traditional international mediation services provided by small states like Switzerland, Norway and Sweden, moderation or facilitation by a continental power like Brazil is of a different dimension because the latter has influence not only on the direct conflicting parties but also on a wider range of stakeholders and international institutions. For a diplomatic accord to hold in most contemporary armed conflicts, it requires consent of the direct parties to the dispute and of external actors which indirectly fan the flames or take sides. A sizeable power like Brazil has more levers at the UN and in world capitals to get these extraneous elements on board the peace bandwagon.

The minor states of Europe that have earned a name for neutral peace-making qualities know the limits of their trademark diplomacy. They are aware that soft power enhancement alone is not sufficient to take them into the company of dominant actors in the international system.

But a large state that is on the rise and is a serious contender for the status of a genuine great power can reap richer rewards through proactive mediation in intractable conflicts or crises that are global headaches.

The prestige associated with a major economy from the developing world making itself indispensable to the solution of a number of flashpoints is immense. China, for instance, has benefited hugely from positioning itself as a vital intermediary for Western powers to reach out to North Korea and Myanmar. In Africa China won grudging acknowledgement by the US for its behind-the-scenes diplomacy in “encouraging” Sudan’s murderous government to accept a UN peacekeeping force’s presence in Darfur. In the war-ravaged Great Lakes region, China is quietly sounding out the two main protagonists — the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda — that it is willing to parlay its considerable economic clout into bringing the perpetually warring parties to a negotiated settlement.

Economic aid remains the main lever for China to assume the mantle of Africa’s predominant power, but the day does not seem far off when Beijing will be invited as a diplomatic arbitrator to many more of the continent’s trouble spots.

In contrast to the path-finding globalist foreign policies of China, Brazil and Turkey stands the curious figure of India, an equal of Brazil in economic might but a pygmy when it comes to diplomatically venturing out of its comfort zone of South Asia. India has boxed itself in as an Asian power due to mental blinders rather than lack of resources to become a global peace-maker. The India of today is a conservative and over-cautious diplomatic actor on the world stage, cocooned in the indolence of minding its own business.

The thinking prevalent in Indian foreign policy circles, unlike their Brazilian counterparts, is that if the country fixes its internal bottlenecks like infrastructure deficiency and keeps growing, then it would automatically be acknowledged as a great power in times to come. If a conflict does not have a visible impact on India’s strategic objectives, then it is simply bypassed in New Delhi as someone else’s brief.

Unlike Brazil under President Lula da Silva, which senses opportunity in far-flung disputes, India under Prime Minister Manmohan Singh chooses to be self-absorbed, assuming that staying out of trouble zones is a rational tactic for a growing economy. Focussing on the home front with one’s head down is a tried and tested formula that China itself practised in the Deng Xiaoping period (1979-97).

But as China itself has taken to measured diplomatic activism, and Brazil and Turkey pull off more diplomatic coups like the Iran nuclear swap, India’s basic premise that enhancing one’s own hard economic power alone is sufficient to hoist it to world leader ranks is being exposed as a pretext for shortsightedness. Judiciously choosing specific armed conflicts outside South Asia in theatres where India has innate strengths and attraction as a third party facilitator will minimise risks of diplomatic initiatives backfiring on New Delhi. India would do well to note that neither China nor Brazil has jumped into dispute resolution indiscriminately.

The current liberal international order places a premium on soft skills that can contribute to political stability, which in turn is a prerequisite for the wheels of commerce and capital to move effortlessly. Fast-rising developing countries are neither fully neo-imperial in intent nor condemned to performing insignificant functions in the international system. They have the right mix of attributes to intervene creatively as peacemakers in crisis zones.

States which act in the global interest will steal a march ahead of those who artificially restrict the scope of their diplomatic domain. Vijay Nambiar, Chief of Staff to the UN Secretary General, aptly commented in the context of India’s stalled bid for a permanent seat in the Security Council that it “should play a more participatory role in world affairs.”

India’s pride as a land where intellect and mental skills are rewarded needs to be put to test at the global level. Anything less will render it a pretender that failed to capitalise on historic chances that come by states at specific stages of economic development and power progression.

The writer is an associate professor of world politics at OP Jindal Global University

Fallacies about poverty line
by Joginder Singh

The distribution of income has great relevance for the development of an economy and maintaining social stability. Efforts by governments are made to frame fiscal and monetary policies with a view to normalising it. Moreover, aggregate consumption, savings, investments, employment etc are largely dependent upon the extent of economic polarisation of society and have been the causes of serious economic depressions.

Measuring poverty involves three fundamental steps. This first step is by pinpointing a range of the poorest within a given population, defining a measure of individual welfare. Secondly, defining a poverty threshold for this welfare measure below which an individual would be considered poor. It includes low incomes and the inability to acquire the basic goods and services necessary for survival with dignity.

Therefore, poverty line is generally worked out on the basis of minimum economic needs of the population. The third step is constructing an index of poverty using the available information on poor people and even baseline for future estimations. To lay special emphasis on most depressed economic classes, indexing of poverty comprises many dimensions.

In India, based on minimum dietary requirements, poverty lines are generally drawn at the state, national and international levels. The requirements taken thus are 2100kcal in urban and 2400kcal in rural areas, the cost of which in 2004-05 was estimated as Rs1,000 and Rs700 per month per capita respectively. The cost of food being variable in different areas, the basis of poverty line gets changed from one state to another.

Similarly, at the global level, some rough estimates of poverty line of US$1/day and US$2/day are considered which in itself is unfair in the context of food prices having high variability across countries and volatility over time. For example, the costs of minimum food needs in Japan and Switzerland are not comparable with the countries of South Asia. Further, it is not only food but also minimum clothing and shelter requirements which should form as the baseline of poverty. Even the cost of basic health care is an important component of it.

Even though the incidence of poverty in terms of per cent poor population has declined from 54.3% in 1973-74 to 27.6% by the Uniform Reference Period (URP) in 2004-05, the absolute number of poor has still been hovering around 30 crore. Apart from a number of possible corrective measures, the first and foremost solution appears to have an effective check on population growth, particularly in the poorer sections of society. The measure may not be much pleasurable and is exactly not in line with the short term political motives.

Within the country the picture is very gloomy with Orissa having 46%, Uttarakhand 40%, Chhattisgarh 41%, Bihar 42%, Madhya Pradesh 38% and Utter Pradesh 33% population still struggling for minimum food needs. Except for Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab has been rated as a state with minimum (i.e. 8.4% by URP) population in the poverty grip.

We should not lose sight of the fact that a large section of the state population is of migrant labour from other states. To meet the increasing requirement of Punjab agriculture during the Green Revolution period, a large scale immigration of labour from neibouring states took place. Initially they migrated on a seasonal basis but later they settled permanently.

According to a recent study carried out by Ram Singh, the total number of in-migrants in Punjab from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and other states was estimated at 37 lakh, which means about 15% of the state population. The survey further revealed that a majority (about two-third) of them are below the poverty line.

However, these persons are accounted for in their respective states rather than in Punjab. If 10% population as migrants along with 8.4% as local population are taken together as below poverty, the aggregate figure comes to at least 18% rather than only 8%. The Planning Commission of India needs to be apprised of the factual situation of poverty in the state for seeking justice in the allocation of Central funds.

The writer is a former Professor and Head, Department of Economics & Sociology, PAU, Ludhiana

Delhi Durbar
Left out at PM’s press conference

The Prime Minister’s press conference last week turned out to be a woeful experience for a number of journalists. They came to the Vigyan Bhavan for the high-profile event well in advance at the peak of office hours for security reasons as well as to occupy seats in the front rows.

However, they were quite disappointed that they were not given an opportunity to ask questions. At least one senior journalist complained that he was deliberately not called to ask his question despite waving the placard lying in front of him almost throughout the duration of the press meet.

Seething with anger, he told the PMO officials that he would take up the matter with Dr Manmohan Singh. Others, however, preferred not to make an issue of it and were seen enjoying soft drinks and snacks served after the press conference.

Not in public interest

SH Kapadia

Immediately after taking over as the Chief Justice of India, Justice SH Kapadia warned that the Supreme Court would no longer be lenient with those filing frivolous public interest litigation (PIL) petitions. Heavy costs would be imposed on those filing such petitions as this resulted in the judges, who were struggling to liquidate a huge number of pending cases, wasting their time, he had clarified.

Sensing his sentiments, a number of advocates instantly withdrew their PILs when these were called upon for preliminary hearing. Last week, a vacation Bench of the SC threatened to slap a journalist with a penalty running into “lakhs of rupees” for seeking to stall the declaration of results of the IIT joint entrance examination (JEE), citing some minor discrepancies in the question paper.

However, upon finding that the petitioner was a “young boy,” the apex court let him off with a warning that he would stay away from such “publicity misadventures” in future. It was unfortunate that PILs had assumed several connotations these days as most of these were aimed at serving “private or publicity” interest, not public interest, the court observed.

Ananth Kumar grows in stature

If there is one man who has no reason to complain in the Nitin Gadkari dispensation of the BJP, it is general secretary Ananth Kumar. Ananth Kumar, incidentally, was a rather junior camp follower of L.K. Advani. When Advani was running for the Prime Ministership of the country, Kumar’s Tughlak Crescent House was converted into the control room and he was involved in all major decisions then.

He had remained the BJP general secretary in the Rajnath Singh regime and continues in the Gadkari regime as well. That is true of Vijay Goel. But poor Goel is hardly seen anywhere, while Kumar is all over at any important party event. His stock went up further after he clashed with Lalu Prasad during the caste-based census debate in the Lok Sabha on May 7. After that he was the main negotiator on behalf of Gadkari with the JMM leaders in Ranchi.

Contribued by Ashok Tuteja, R Sedhuraman and Faraz Ahmad

Corrections and clarifications

The headline, “Punjabi Taliban: A growing threat for Pakistan,” (Page 13, May 31) should have been threat to Pakistan, instead of for.

On Page 13 of The Tribune (May 28), in the headline “Dalai inaugurates Buddha Smriti Park,” it should have been Dalai Lama.

On Page 1 of Chandigarh Tribune, (May 26), in the news item “Strawberry Fields faces de-recognition,” the reference is to Strawberry Fields, Sector 26, which is the Strawberry World School and not Strawberry Fields.

On page 1 of Chandigarh Tribune, it is inappropriate to say “PU high on toxicity,” while referring to toxic waste.

Despite our earnest endeavour to keep The Tribune error-free, some errors do creep in at times. We are always eager to correct them.

This column appears twice a week — every Tuesday and Friday. We request our readers to write or e-mail to us whenever they find any error.

Readers in such cases can write to Mr Kamlendra Kanwar, Senior Associate Editor, The Tribune, Chandigarh, with the word “Corrections” on the envelope. His e-mail ID is kanwar@tribunemail.com.

Raj Chengappa
Editor-in-Chief