New Delhi, August 8
India has ruled out any possibility of opening a dialogue with the Pakistan Army despite the growing impression worldwide that it is the army chief Gen Ashfaq Pervez Kayani who calls the shots in Pakistan.

“We will deal only with the civilian government and civilian officials in Pakistan…there is no question of talking to the men in uniform,’’ official sources said.

This came amid the talk in political and diplomatic circles that India should open the channels of communication with the military leadership, given the fragile nature of the civilian government in Islamabad and its inability to take any decision on its own in ties with New Delhi.

“They (Pakistanis) say they have a democratic government running the country…we believe them. How can we deal with the Generals when a civilian government exists,’’ the sources added.

In fact, India has been attempting to strengthen the hands of the civilian leadership in Pakistan despite being well aware of the power equations in the country.

Gen Kayani, who is widely believed to have sabotaged the July 15 talks between the foreign ministers of India and Pakistan, has emerged as the most powerful man in the country after he was given an extension in his post by another three years.

Kayani is also seen as the man central to American scheme of things in Afghanistan. When Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Pakistan last month, she had a crucial meeting with Kayani. It was just a few days after this meeting that Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani extended Kayani’s term in office.

Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao also stated in a TV interview that India would continue to have a dialogue with Pakistan's civilian government and had no intention to establish any direct contact with its military.

Regarding Afghanistan, she said the war-ravaged nation was too independent to allow Pakistan to erode its sovereignty and the gradual progress it has made.

Hyderabad, August 8
Facing toughest challenge in its history, the CPM is in a soul-searching mood to analyse reasons for the recent electoral debacles and chalk out a political strategy to regain the past glory.

As over 350 party delegates gathered for the four-day extended central committee meeting at coastal Andhra city of Vijayawada, the mood was one of anxiety, diffidence and sullenness.

The grim prospect of losing power in the strongholds, West Bengal and Kerala, weighed heavily on the minds of comrades as they began the brainstorming session to discuss the political tactical line.

The political observers say that questions are bound to be raised about the hard line approach of General Secretary Prakash Karat who is widely blamed for the party’s decision to withdraw support to the UPA-I on Indo-US nuclear deal issue. The strategy had boomeranged with the UPA returning to power for second term and the Left’s tally eroding significantly.

The West Bengal unit is understood to be peeved over Karat’s political prescriptions, arguing that his ‘visceral anti-Congressism’ had pushed the Trinamool Congress closer to Congress and thereby strengthened opposition unity in West Bengal.

The dichotomy in the political line of thinking between a ‘dogmatic’ General Secretary and ‘pragmatic’ leaders from a traditional bastion state has created a rift in the party. Smarting under a string of electoral reverses in West Bengal, the party needs to re-invent itself and come up with an agenda to arrest the downslide.

The main challenge before the Marxists is how to stop Mamata’s juggernaut, which now looks unstoppable. The draft political resolution and Karat’s inaugural address at the meeting make a fleeting mention about the poll debacles but offer no clear direction to reverse the trend.

“We have carefully looked into the causes of poll reversals and identified steps to be taken to remedy the situation,” Karat said in his address but did not elaborate.

He said the party must take all measures so that people of West Bengal and Kerala renewed their faith in the party. The draft political resolution, to be discussed over the next two days, declares the Congress as the main enemy and dubs it as the prime mover of ‘neo-liberal policies’, representing the interests of big bourgeoisie and favouring a pro-US foreign policy.

On building the third front, it said: “The emergence of a joint platform on policies and programmes will take time. What is possible and may be required now are electoral understandings with some of these (non-Congress and non-BJP) parties in the states.”

New Delhi, August 8
Even as Treasury and Opposition Benches slugged it out in Parliament to fix responsibility for price rise, two suggestions on foodgrain storage -- one from the ruling Congress in the Rajya Sabha and the other from the Opposition BJP in the Lok Sabha -- may offer a solution for the future.

Leader of Opposition Sushma Swaraj suggested in the Lok Sabha after Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee's reply on the price rise debate that the government consider providing loans to employees at harvest time so they could purchase and store grain in their homes. "This way people can buy the quantity they require and store it properly. While the government will be able to resolve the storage issue by building storage capacity, at home, women can also ensure food security for their households. Bringing grain closer to the user will reduce wastage," Swaraj said, adding that the Punjab Government had tried the formula this time.

In the Rajya Sabha, Congress leader Jayanthi Natarajan advised the government to ensure foodgrain storage facilities at farmers’ level. She said growers could be entrusted to take care of their grain and this would reduce the burden on state warehouses and wastage, since post-harvest losses were highest in foodgrains.

Foodgrain storage is a massive problem, as proven by recent reports of wastage in FCI godowns and also Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar's admission that there was a shortage of around 150-200 lakh tonne of storage space in the country.

In the past four years, approximately 6 lakh tonne foodgrain has been lost due to poor storage facilities and around 7 lakh tonnes in transit. In Punjab alone, thousands of tonnes of wheat has been declared unfit for human consumption by the FCI in the last three years.

In 2009-10, a whopping 6702 MT foodgrain were declared damaged, non-issuable or unfit for human consumption. Out of this, 2273 MT of rice was found damaged in Punjab alone, also the highest in the country. 

New Delhi, August 8
For the first time in 40 years since Sanjay Gandhi’s controversial vasectomy campaign, the Government came to Parliament with an appeal to MPs for help to meet population stabilisation goals.

A worried Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad moved a motion in the Lok Sabha to debate the matter, and said India, at current fertility rates, would not meet the population stabilisation targets even in 2070. “We were to achieve these rates by 2045 but won’t meet them even by 2070 if you don’t help us with suggestions to improve upon the new population policy,” Azad told the House, which discussed the issue well beyond 7 pm.

The government ruled out coercion to achieve the targets and said the effort needed to be voluntary. “The situation has changed in 50 years. Now men and women have avenues of entertainment they didn’t earlier have,” Azad said, quick to admonish the youth to do better things in life than “just love and marry”.

He quoted the legendary poet Faiz Ahmad Faiz to drive home the message of delay in marriage: “Aur bhi gham hain zamane mein mohabbat ke siva; rahatein aur bhi hain vasl ki rahat ke siva.”

The government further admitted on Thursday that family planning through contraception had failed as 50 per cent of the contraceptives being sent to the states were in disuse. Now the Health Ministry will deliver contraceptives door to door in rural areas in 100 districts.

Azad’s appeal to MPs mainly centred around the need to prevent child marriage, delay marriage and promote spacing among children. Over 35 per cent of the Indian girls were being married off before the age of 18. The figure in rural Bihar is 70 pc and for UP it is 59 pc. Both these states are the biggest contributors to India’s burgeoning numbers.

New Delhi, August 8
The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has ripped apart the Ministry of Defence for recklessly spending crores of rupees and impacting operational preparedness of the forces.

The CAG report on Army, Ordnance factories and DRDO tabled in Parliament yesterday said that the MoD purchased vintage, non-working missiles, allowed setting up of a gun-making unit that does not manufacture guns and even “maintained” products that do not exist in the inventory.

“…the Ministry does not appear to be serious about implications… of defective equipment,” the CAG report said. Pointing out the lackadaisical attitude of the Defence Public Sector Undertakings established to provide the Armed Forces with state-of-the-art equipment, the CAG says there has been a “role reversal”.

The Ministry procured outdated missiles of 1970s worth Rs 587 crore in 2008 merely to favour Bharat Dynamics Limited. “…The missiles procured were not only of lower capabilities in terms of range, but also did not meet the Army’s long-term objective of acquiring third generation missiles which were available in the market,” the Comptroller and Auditor General said.

The CAG also commented on procurement of the Multi Barrel Rocket Launcher System (SMERCH), often proudly displayed at the Republic Day parade. The Rs 2633 crore system has critical defects. Similarly, the Ordnance Factory at Korwa in Amethi was sanctioned Rs 408 crore to produce new generation carbines -- guns with rapid firing capability -- for the Army. However, the type of carbine to be produced is yet to be decided.

Unexplainably, the Army paid for the maintenance of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles that which were not even held by it. In another case, it procured spares for a particular gun and later found those to be non-compatible and hence could not be fitted in the gun.

The CAG also pointed out at defective ammunition worth Rs 245 crore lying unused for six years. Another typical case of defective purchase was procurement of oxygen mask-embedded helmets used by chopper pilots operating at altitudes of beyond 14,000 feet. The oxygen masks had to be withdrawn as pilots experienced serious defects like insufficient supply of oxygen. The masks were purchased with an evaluation.

Appallingly, assault boats required urgently by the Army could not be procured for over six years despite a budget and adequate number of vendors. 

Ahmedabad, August 8
Four persons including three children were killed while railway and air traffic was severely affected following heavy overnight rains in the city, officials said today.Ten trains were cancelled and nine others got delayed as railway tracks were submerged. The city received 130 mm rains throughout the last night, railway officials said.

The top portion of a temple fell on its adjoining house killing four member of the family on the spot at Dudeshwar area of the city in the wee hours today, they said.

Operations at the international terminal of the Sardar Patel Airport here have been hampered due to water logging following which electricity supply to the terminal had to be cut off as a precautionary measure, airport officials said, adding that one international flight has been cancelled.

There has been water-logging in various areas of the city which include Chandkheda, Ranip, Sabarmati and other low lying areas, municipal officials said. Six broad gauge trains originating from the city have been cancelled which include Ahmedabad-Okha, Ahmedabad- Viramgam, Ahmedabad-Veraval,Ahmedabad-Valsad, Jamnagar-Surat, Ahmedabad-Mehsana and Ahmedabad-Gandhinagar.

Whereas, nine other trains like Kutch express, Saurashtra Mail, Bhavnagar Express, Saurashtra Janta Express, Ashram Express, Somnath Express, Rajdhani Express are running two to four hours behind schedule. Four meter-gauge trains have been cancelled due to water logging on railway tracks. Meanwhile, Ahmedabad-Dubai flight of Emirates has been cancelled, while other domestic flights have got delayed. The passengers were seen traversing through knee-deep waters at the airport carrying the baggage on their head. — PTI

Chandigarh, August 8
Communication link to Leh is expected to be restored soon with the IAF airlifting vital telecommunication equipment to the devastated town on Sunday.Telephone and mobile link of the town with rest of the country was snapped following the cloudburst that hit the area on August 6.

The major portion of the required BSNL equipment was airlifted by a Chandigarh based IL-76 from Delhi. Two AN-32s from the Chandigarh-base carried additional equipment. Another IL-76 airlifted heavyduty bulldozer and debris-clearing machines from Chandigarh to Leh.

Based upon the requirements projected by the Jammu and Kashmir Government, medical items provided by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, relief material and 5,000 blankets were airlifted from Delhi by the IAF. 

When the state government on July 27 finally constituted a Commission of Inquiry and approved ex-gratia payments for the kin of those killed, in addition to job to one member of the family, it made little impact on the ground situation. It was deemed too little and came too late.

This is the third consecutive summer of discontent in the Valley. It was the Amarnath land agitation that paralysed the state for over two months in 2008 while the next year, the alleged rape and murder of two women in Shopian disrupted normal life in the Valley.

This time, however, there is a qualitative difference. "This is like the sweeping Azadi sentiments of early 1990's", observes a Bank employee, when the central government and security agencies had to face and fight armed militants in the absence of an elected government. This time an elected state government is facing public wrath with police and CRPF fighting the stone throwing youth across the valley.

The Chief Minister Omar Abdullah is faulted for delaying his first public appearance on Thursday (August 5) when he visited Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKLIMS) to meet the injured undergoing treatment in the hospital. The Chief Minister's statements that " Peace must be restored" and " the cycle of violence must be stopped" are mimicked by people who believe they added fuel to the fire.

"A moderate approach with an early decision to sanction ex-gratia or jobs to the next of kin would have helped,", says Mansoor Ahmed.

The young Chief Minister, before assuming office on January 5 last year, had promised that his priorities would include development, good relations with Pakistan and providing at least one job to every household in the state. While the state is said to have over half a million unemployed youth, another observer Nizamuddin is quick to point out, " a 13 year old boy pelting stones has nothing to do jobs. He is swayed more by sentiment".

The common man is sandwiched between the two sides. "They (separatists) call for bandh and this side (government) imposes curfew restrictions", said a policeman on duty, which has been facing the brunt of the irate mobs along with the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF).

The coalition government, in its endeavour to contain the situation, failed to get the support of the opposition People's Democratic Party (PDP), which refused to attend the All-Party meet called by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on July 12.

The PDP even declined Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's plea to attend the meeting. Mehbooba Mufti had earlier urged the Chief Minister to convene a special session of the state legislature. The opposition BJP, which did attend the meeting, did not agree with the resolution with regard to conducting enquiry to ascertain the circumstances leading to the death of civilians. This was one of the six resolution passed at the meeting though they did not make much of an impact on the situation.

More measures are needed to assuage the anger over the recent killings in Kashmir. But the overriding sentiment among political parties in the Valley is that if dialogue can resume with Pakistan, it is time to resume dialogue with Kashmiri separatists too, stalled over the past several years.

Gulzar Ahmad Wani describes himself as the child of conflict. He was born in Baramulla in 1987, the year that saw Kashmir plunge into its gravest ever crisis. From that time on, secession became the order of the day in the Valley as disgruntled cadres of the hardline Jamaat-e-Islami -- including the present chief of Hijbul Mujahideen Syed Salahuddin -- took to guns alleging rigging of the 1987 elections in the state in favour of Farooq Abdullah of the National Conference.

"Our lives have been spent in bloodshed and frustration. Ours is a troubled generation. We are not like our fathers who will sit at home and let things be. We want answers and we want them now," he asserts.

"I am not justifying what the Kashmiri youth are doing, but what they are doing must be seen in context. They are in despair and have nothing to fall back upon. While Chief Minister Omar Abdullah had promised to end human rights violations, killings are only increasing by the day. He has failed to deliver," says Gulzar, who was bright enough to clear the All-India CBSE exam for entry to Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya of Baramulla (there is only one Navodaya per district and the competition is real tough). He took his LLB from Jamia Milia Islamia.

Others who have enrolled for IAS coaching at the Hamdard Study Circle here rise in his support. Mohd Aijaz from Poonch (a mechanical engineer from IIT Delhi), Wasim Malik from Anantnag (a law graduate), Rifad from Doda and many others rush to explain the ongoing crisis which, they say, will end only when the Centre and the state offer a political solution to Kashmir. To that extent, they agree with CM Omar Abdullah, who recently said that the valley needs a political package and not an economic one (over the years though, Rs 24000 crore have been pumped into Kashmir without much visible change in ground).

The Kashmiri youth however want to know what the Centre is waiting for. "For years together, the Kashmiris have thrown their weight behind the Centre and the state government in the hope of resolution of this crisis. But every time peace returns, the promise of talks also vanishes. On top of that, security force presence remains at stifling levels. When the Army admits it has reduced the levels of militancy to a minimum, why does the Centre need 6 lakh troops in the Valley? Forces can surely be withdrawn from densely populated areas," Wasim Malik argues.

Strangely, Kashmir, despite its history of violence, has no students' union. But Mohd Aijaz says every district level protest has some familiar leaders who must be spoken to when arriving at a solution to the crisis.

Today, J&K suffers from a lack of governance (Transparency India has rated it among the most corrupt states where 6 lakh youth are registered as unemployed), with Omar facing the accusation of lacking both "sensitivity and aptitude" to handle the crisis.

"He had an opportunity in 2008 when the Valley, in a significant turnout, voted for the NC-Congress alliance. That chance has been lost. In fact, Omar's installation as CM was the first deception of the Kashmiri people who had voted for his father. How could Farooq Abdullah forget that in the 2002 state polls when he projected Omar as the chief ministerial candidate, the National Conference lost half of its seats in the Valley and Omar lost the Abdullah family constituency of Ganderbal to the PDP? Still in 2008, Omar was installed as the CM. As expected, he could never connect to the people," Mohd Sayeed Malik, Kashmir affairs expert points out.

Social networking sites like Facebook, YouTube and Orkut are abuzz with 'cyber protests in Kashmir'. They are being used by the more educated and possibly more well to do youth than the stone pelters in the Kashmir Valley. Some of them describe themselves as 'cyber warriors'.

The wikipedia, the largest online and interactive encyclopaedia, has also become a popular site for them to spread their 'message' and many new articles including, "Quit Kashmir phase I' and 'Quit Kashmir phase II' have come up since June 11, when the present unrest erupted in the Valley.

"A large number of educated youth who cannot come out on roads to take part in the protest have adopted these means ," the creator of community 'We protest the killing of innocent Kashmiris' told The Tribune while requesting anonymity. The community has more than 300 members and surprisingly enough, a large number of the members seem to be residents of other Indian states and from different religious backgrounds.

Many such cyber communities have come up and most of them seem to be running hate campaigns against the Abdullahs. A contributor to one such site writes, "one Abdullah (referring to Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah) for his political interest brought the Indian Army in Kashmir on October 27, 1947, while another Abdullah (referring to Dr Farooq Abdullah) to confirm his position in Kashmir brought the Gun in Kashmir (referring to the eruption of the armed insurgency in the valley in late 80's when Farooq was the chief minister) and now Omar Abdullah has brought more forces to quell the voice of the Kashmiri people who are holding peaceful protests against their oppression'.

Another brazenly communal comment maintains that Omar was only 12.5 percent Kashmiri since his grandfather married a Gujjar lady, his father a Christian and he himself a Sikh." In most of such hate communities on Facebook, Omar Abdullah is addressed as Omar Singh.

Another such community is named 'Bekaar Jamaath' (Idle group) with a fan following of 5,591 and has also prepared its 'official website' www.bekaarjamaath.co.nr. The community has a presence on all the social networking sites and has its own blogs, while the moderator of the community asks people to share news about their places and even keeps track on the movement of Syed Ali Shah Geelani.

The sites also carry digitally morphed pictures and in one such community, 'Free Kashmir', a user has posted a morphed picture of a Rs 1,000 currency note in which the picture of Mahatma Gandhi has been replaced with the picture of the Chairman of the hardline faction of the Hurriyat Conference Syed Ali Shah Geelani and the 'Reserve Bank of India' has been replaced with the 'Reserve Bank of Kashmir'.

There are digitally manipulated photographs of the Chief Minister, some of them offensive and showing Omar Abdullah with fangs, and also of Union Minister Farooq Abdullah offering prayers at some Hindu temples and dancing with models.