|
|
|
|
|
Pak image makeover
The Aarushi case |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Rape victims of UP
Getting all ‘POSCOs’ moving
Cricket or surgery
As terrorism spreads and the security situation in its north-western region worsens, reports of Pakistan increasing its nuclear arsenal have raised fears over its safety and security. There is serious concern about the possibility of non-state operators acquiring a dirty bomb in the event of the government crumbling or a successful coup led by radical extremists, which could be catastrophic. As Pakistan’s immediate neighbour, India will have to bear the brunt of such a fallout. Corrections and clarifications
|
Pak image makeover
The
Pakistan Cabinet’s resignation on Wednesday was expected anytime after pressure began to mount on the PPP-led government to downsize it at the earliest. The International Monetary Fund, one of the major donors helping the country’s economy to survive, had been telling the Pakistan government for a long time to cut down the Cabinet’s size and implement some other reform measures for politico-economic stability in that country. The recently introduced 18th Amendment also had it that the government should be as thin as possible with a view to reducing its expenses at a time when it found itself in difficult straits. There was tremendous pressure from the main opposition party, the PML (N), too, for doing what Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani did on instructions from President Asif Zardari. The most important factor for the PPP-led government to go in for an exercise of this nature was its image of being a corrupt and inefficient administration. The PPP, which had emerged as the largest single party to be able to form a government with a little support from here and there after the 2008 elections, has lost its following considerably. The party’s top leader, Mr Zardari, is today one of the most hated figures in Pakistan because of his image of being corrupt to the bone. The sharp decline in the PPP’s popularity was helping former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s PML (N) to enlarge its support base. Most political analysts believe if there is an election in the near future, the PML (N) may easily capture power in Islamabad. Neither the army nor the US, whose massive aid sustains the economy of Pakistan, want Mr Nawaz Sharif’s party to control the levers of power at least at this stage. His victory, it is feared, will embolden the extremist forces, adding to the US troubles in Afghanistan, from where American forces are scheduled to begin their withdrawal in July. But will the exercise undertaken in Islamabad help the PPP and its camp followers? Much will depend on who the new Cabinet members are and how efficient they prove to be.
|
|
The Aarushi case
The
CBI Special Court in Ghaziabad cannot be faulted for treating the ‘closure report’ filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation as a charge sheet against the parents of Aarushi Talwar, who was mysteriously found murdered on her own bed nearly three years ago. Had the court accepted the investigating agency’s plea that though it suspected the role of the father, it had not been able to establish the motive or collect any evidence and would, therefore, like the case to be closed, it would have been accused of letting the guilty get away. Under the circumstances, the decision to hold a trial and order a fresh investigation was the only option open to the court. The trial should also be welcomed because it would give the doctor couple, Rajesh and Nupur Talwar, a fresh opportunity to establish their innocence. It may well appear perverse that while investigators have failed to establish the guilt, the parents are now being called upon to prove their innocence. But still, the case poses a serious challenge to the country’s criminal justice system and does need to be pursued to its logical end. The ‘perfect murder’, which has grabbed the attention of the nation, and the investigation that followed are a sad reflection on the country’s premier investigating agency. Indeed, there are two different conclusions drawn by two different teams of the CBI. While the first team was confident that the murder was committed by three domestic helps, the second team found the parents to be the main suspects. With no evidence of any forced entry into the flat, in which four people lived and two of whom were killed on the same night, the two surviving inmates do have a lot of explaining to do. But then the Talwars have already undergone the whole gamut of tests and there is very remote possibility of finding fresh evidence . One, therefore, suspects the prosecutors would be content to pin the Talwars down on the charge of destruction of evidence and let the murder mystery continue to fire the imagination of writers and filmmakers. The law-makers need to take a good, hard look though at allowing private hospitals to do the autopsy and independent labs to conduct forensic tests. Depending solely on government doctors and hospitals no longer appears necessary.
|
|
|
Rape victims of UP
If
Uttar Pradesh is not turning its rape victims into dreaded dacoits like Phoolan Devi any more, there are reasons! Under Mayawati’s regime that claims to have restored law and order in the state, the nature of incidents of rape is growing macabre. A 17-year-old Dalit girl had to lose part of her nose and one of the ears and fingers, chopped off with a sharp-edged weapon by the men who also tried to molest her. Her father had an altercation with these men at a panchayat meeting. The incident that took place at Urdauli village last week shook the civilised society. A rape case, that too of a Dalit girl, almost always gets tremendous attention from all sections of society. After Banda legislator Purushottam Naresh Dwivedi had sent a minor girl to jail on charges of theft after raping her in his house, media went hammer and tongs against the BSP legislator. Dwivedi was arrested a month later. Then an attempted self-immolation by a girl of 14 on January 26, who was raped by two boys at Nagla Gumani village in Ferozabad district, and the rape of a Muslim woman at Sultanpur on February 1 created clamour for booking the culprit. From raping and parading of naked Dalit women, the offenders have graduated to chopping off their body parts, pushing the victim to the verge of committing suicide or immolation. Rape can be a single, isolated shocking incident. Something terrible must be happening to these women at various levels to take away their will to fight back and live. The gruesomeness of these acts has failed to attract anything but clichéd jingoism from political quarters. Rahul Gandhi, Congress general secretary, who visited three rape victims in Uttar Pradesh on Monday, is accused of politicising a sensitive issue. Of course, there is the usual monetary compensation and promises of free medical help. Rape in these caste- ridden societies is a way of avenging and humiliating the rising Dalit vote power. Hence the malaise should be treated at several layers by sensitising administrative machinery and putting the justice delivery system on a fast track.
|
|
|
The worst bankrupt in the world is the man who lost his enthusiasm. Let a man lose everything else in the world but his enthusiasm and he will come through again to success. — H.W. Arnold
|
Getting all ‘POSCOs’ moving Mr Jairam Ramesh has finally given conditional clearance to the mega POSCO steel-mine-port project in Orissa that he vetoed last August after much palaver. This is good news but is something that could have been done long back without the prodding and pushing it entailed. There is nothing in the order, including stipulating action in consonance with the Forests Rights Act that could not have been said or sought earlier from the project authorities and the state government. Precious time has been lost considering that initial clearance for this 12 m tonne, $12 bn project was given in July 2007 after an MOU was signed with the South Korean Pohang Steel Company in 2005. The subsequent Forest Rights Act, retrospectively applied, was to undo earlier approvals as in the case of the Vedanta aluminium project. One clear lesson is that piecemeal, stop-go clearances and incremental approvals, subject to revision in the context of future legislation, constitute an appallingly clumsy and muddled way of doing business. This inspires no confidence and can only undermine the credibility of governance. No surprise if investors, Indian and international, should pause before staking too much in an uncertain future. The contretemps over coal mining caused by the Ministry of Forests and Environment’s “go and no-go” classification of forests for mining approvals brought a word of caution from the Planning Commission Deputy Chairman in December that this could retard infrastructural and industrial development. The Reserve Bank of India followed, lamenting the decline in inward FDI flows, resulting in delays and stop-go’s in relation to environmental clearances for a wide range of projects on account of procedural and land acquisition hassles and (the consequent) paucity of quality infrastructure which lies at the heart of the government’s growth and poverty alleviation strategy. The Coal Minister has now assessed that as a result of MoEF embargoes on mining, the country faces a possible shortfall of 142 m tonnes in coal production next year with implications for prices and industrial production. With oil prices rising, the foreign exchange burden will also increase. The Prime Minister has upheld environmental conservation as a matter of prudence and inter-generational equity but has expressed concern that we should not return to the permit-quota-licence raj. Mr Ramesh has countered by stating that most coal mining applications have been cleared and that he is seeking to maintain a delicate balance between conservation and growth. The MoEF argument, as reported, that no-go mining areas serve to preserve a national strategic reserve is unconvincing. Worked mines can and should be ecologically restored as green parks and water bodies, as is indeed being done in certain cases with considerable success. The notion that growth caters solely to corporate greed is fallacious. A sustained high rate of growth is necessary not merely to generate incomes and employment to absorb the net 12 million annual addition to the labour force as a result of given demographic factors but to mitigate, if not obviate, the 30 million annual distress migration of Malthusian refugees seeking life-saving opportunities. It also helps support inclusive growth by generating the revenue surpluses that make possible the funding of large rights-based programmes such as the Employment Guarantee Act, the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and so forth. A sustained 8-9 per cent rate of growth over the next decade should enable the country to overcome destitution by 2020. High growth is, therefore, more essential for the poor than it is for the well-off. However, widening disparities between different classes and regions must also be countered in the interest of social and political stability. A further proposition that merits wider understanding is that poverty, which breeds survival economics, is inimical to conservation and the environment. The government’s new line on POSCO has not unexpectedly aroused the opposition of sundry activist groups that have opposed not only this but also a whole series of large projects across the board in every part of the country. Relevant conditionalities are in order; but any set of ideological red-lines can only harm the welfare of the tribals and other disadvantaged groups, who are being falsely instigated to forego opportunities of transforming their lives and their environment. The land can no longer sustain the numbers still scratching a marginal livelihood from it. Mega industry is obviously not the sole answer and must be buttressed by the development of off-farm, rural -based small and medium enterprises in food and by-product processing and a range of services. The khadi and village industry and handloom and handicraft sectors are well poised to be infused with modern technological, marketing and management inputs to give a thrust to a new generation of SMEs, assisted with micro-finance that post office savings banks could provide. Gandhi has to be reinterpreted for modern times in a manner that he would surely have approved. Energy represents another vital sector that required impetus. After virtually banning any new hydro projects in the higher reaches of Uttarakhand and Himachal, there has reportedly been a welcome relaxation – at least for survey and investigation – in North Sikkim, though not in Arunachal Pradesh. However, strong opposition to the mega 6 x 1650 MW nuclear plant, proposed to be set up at Jaitapur, in Ratnagiri district, remains. There is again evidence of a touch-me-not attitude in the opposition to the project, apart from objections to the adoption of new technology being brought in by the French collaborator, Areva. Issues concerning public hearings, land acquisition, fisheries, the temperature of return coolant water flows, seismicity, radiation and green cover have all been gone over and answered. Some of the objections to the Jaitapur project would appear to be ideologically driven on account of positions taken on the merits of the civil-nuclear deal. These have been amply debated and answered, though those who are determined to oppose nuclear power and the route followed will continue to do so. But none can have a veto on development. Nuclear power is not the sole option and there can be no disagreement about going forward with solar and other forms of non-conventional sources of energy. Nor is it sufficient to argue that nuclear power is currently high cost and that its immediate contribution over the next decade or two will be limited in relation to India’s total energy budget. The underlying national strategy is to move on to a second and third stage of nuclear power generation, graduating from uranium-based to cheaper and more efficient breeder reactors operating on the plutonium-thorium cycle. That the country has gone slow in developing nuclear power for a variety of reasons is every reason to expedite rather than further retard the process today. Yesterday’s people fear tomorrow, which is where the future
lies.
|
||||||
Cricket or surgery BUNTY, living in our neighbourhood, is a bright boy of 13, always scoring more than 95 per cent in his examinations. He wants to be a surgeon and his knowledge of surgery is impressive. He frequently comes to me to know more. Bunty was very much interested in cricket and had joined training classes. He was considered to be a good allrounder and got selected in the under-13 Chandigarh team but left as it was interfering with his studies. Therefore, I was surprised to find him in cricket gear at a time when he should have been in a tuition class. When I asked him why, he told me that he was in a hurry and would come in the evening. He was at my place just after sunset. “Uncle, you must be eager to know how come I have resumed cricket,” he told me. “Yes, you had stopped playing cricket, now what happened?” I asked him. Instead of replying, he asked me if I had watched the IPL auction and without waiting for my answer he told me: “What is the use of becoming a surgeon? Uncle, you have occupied one of the highest positions that an Indian surgeon can dream of. Professionally, you have a name, but during the whole of your professional career spanning over 45 years you might not have earned a total of two crore rupees. I also know that you were a dedicated and devoted doctor and always had a stressful and hard life. Not only you, Malhotra uncle who retired as Air Chief Marshal and Uncle Saluja retiring as Chief Engineer also had the same life. But the other day, Gautam Gambhir got more than Rs 11 crore for playing cricket for the IPL for a period of 45 days only and that too just for 4 to 6 hours per day. Compare it with your salary. Uncle, do you realise that what you have earned in the whole of your professional tenure, Gambhir will earn in eight to 10 days. “And mind you, Gambhir is in good company of Pathan brothers, Rohit Sharma, Robin Utthapa, Yuvraj Singh etc. Do you know uncle how much other sports persons like Floyd Maxweather, Tiger Woods, Fernando Alonso, Cristiano Orlando earn Rafael Nadal earn in a year? “Uncle, do not get depressed when I tell you that you got two crores for undertaking thousands of operations and training hundreds of surgeons but Amitabh Bachchan or Shah Rukh Khan or Akshay Kumar get two to three crores from an ad of 30 seconds, that also for saying silly things like ‘thanda thanda cool cool’. Now please don’t say that money is not everything. Uncle, time has changed and I know the value and power of money. “I can’t be a Bollywood actor but I have the option of cricket or surgery, and I have decided to go for cricket. I am sure in the next five or six years, I will be a candidate for IPL auction. Wish me good luck.” I became dumb with this 440-volt shock and could only mumble best
wishes.
|
||||||
As terrorism spreads and the security situation in its north-western region worsens, reports of Pakistan increasing its nuclear arsenal have raised fears over its safety and security. There is serious concern about the possibility of non-state operators acquiring a dirty bomb in the event of the government crumbling or a successful coup led by radical extremists, which could be catastrophic. As Pakistan’s immediate neighbour, India will have to bear the brunt of such a fallout.
Despite
growing concerns regarding the safety and security of Pakistan’s nuclear warheads, fissile material stocks, and nuclear facilities, recent reports indicate that Islamabad has managed to amass a nuclear stockpile of approximately 110 warheads—a steep upward climb from earlier international estimates. Pakistan could not have accelerated production of plutonium and enriched uranium, which it uses for warheads, without substantial outside support. China has been its principal nuclear and missile technology benefactor. Pakistan’s Chasma-I reactor was imported from Beijing during the 1990s followed by Chasma-II in the early 2000s. Now China is supplying Pakistan with two new 650-MW nuclear reactors, Chasma-III and Chasma-IV. While these reactors are ostensibly for electricity generation, they will produce plutonium as a byproduct. It is not yet clear whether these will be subject to full-scope IAEA safeguards. The China-Pakistan deal is in violation of China’s NPT obligations and transgresses the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG, having 46 NPT states including China) guidelines that forbid NPT-signatory states from supplying nuclear technology and fissile material to states not a party to the NPT. Pakistan has a poor non-proliferation track record as it is known to have passed on nuclear technology to states like Iran, Libya and North Korea through the AQ Khan network. As Pakistan Air Force aircraft ferried nuclear goods and the army tightly controls the nuclear programme, it is facetious for the Pakistan government to continue to claim that proliferation occurred without its knowledge. Confirmation regarding the deal to supply new reactors has come in from China National Nuclear Corporation, which announced that China Zhongyuan Engineering is the general contractor for the project. Beijing has sanctioned a low-interest loan to Pakistan for 82 percent of the $1.9 billion cost of the reactors. The leading Chinese political daily and mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Renmin Ribao, lashed out against the US for “being soft on India and deriding the NPT”. Commenting on the spillover effect of the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal and choosing to ignore India’s spotless nuclear non-proliferation record, Renmin Ribao stated that if the US made a “nuclear exception for India”, other powers could “do the same with their friends” — apparently a clear reference to Pakistan. As a matter of fact, by virtue of this latest nuclear reactor deal, Beijing has done precisely that. However, going by the experience in setting up Chasma-I and Chasma-II, it will be quite some time before the Chasma-III and Chasma-IV reactors begin producing power – and plutonium to add to Pakistan’s fissile material stockpile. Meanwhile, the Kahuta facility has been producing highly enriched uranium for a quarter century. Additionally, two un-safeguarded plutonium and tritium producing reactors are operational at the Khushab facility for advanced compact warheads and the intensified construction of a third facility has been reported. Pakistan has been testing ballistic and nuclear-capable cruise missiles at an average rate of one every two months. It is apparently engaged in improving the accuracy of its North Korean origin No Dong and Taepo Dong missiles and of the Chinese origin missiles M-9 and M-11. Its indigenous arsenal include the Hatf, Shaeen and Ghauri series of ballistic missiles and the Babur cruise missile. Pakistan does not have any tactical or battlefield nuclear weapons. However, low yield fission bombs can be employed against tactical targets by means of aerial delivery or missiles. Pakistan is reportedly working towards miniaturising its nuclear warheads for use on the Babur cruise missile. As and when this capability is acquired, Pakistan will also be able to develop tactical nuclear warheads for its short-range missiles. On the other hand, Indian missiles are indigenous but these have not been tested as often as Pakistan’s. Also, there is a question mark over the efficiency of India’s fusion warhead. India has an edge by establishing a genuine triad, that is, land, sea and air based deterrence that enhances survivability for retaliatory strikes. This may give the impression of an overall nuclear parity with Pakistan, but is not true. Nuclear deterrence is not a numbers game and if deterrence breaks down, India has the capability to destroy major Pakistani cities several times over. Hence, credible deterrence prevails between both nations. With the spectre of terrorism having taken hold of Pakistan’s polity, there are serious doubts whether Pakistan’s nuclear warheads are safe from falling into Jihadi hands. The death of Punjab Governor Salman Taseer at the hands of a specially selected bodyguard has fuelled apprehensions of guards being subverted and diverting fissile material or even a warhead or two. Western commentators have for long expressed grave reservations about the safety and security of Pakistan’s nuclear warheads and have called for contingency plans to “take out” all of them in the eventuality of their imminent loss to the jihadis. According to US-based columnist Seymour Hersh, US and Israeli Special Forces have even rehearsed such plans in the Negev Desert. So long the warheads are in the custody of the Pakistan army, such reservations are misplaced. However, in case there is ever a successful coup led by radical extremists with the support of disgruntled elements in the Pakistan army, nuclear warhead storage sites will need to be bombed so as to render the warheads ineffective. For this contingency, India must consider providing military and logistics support to the US and its allies. As fighting intensifies in the NWFP-Pakhtoonkhwa and other tribal regions in Pakistan’s FATA, the worsening security situation in the “Af-Pak” region, continuing radical extremism elsewhere in Pakistan, creeping Talibanisation, a floundering economy and the failure of the civilian government to govern effectively, have raised deep concerns regarding the safety and security of Islamabad’s nuclear arsenal. In the event of President Zardari’s government crumbling due to the Pakistan army’s failure to root out militants and terrorists, a situation could well arise where extremist infiltration within the military and intelligence services could compromise the security of Islamabad’s nuclear weapons. This could be catastrophic for the entire region. As Pakistan’s immediate neighbour, India will have to face the brunt of such a collapse. There is serious unease about the possibility of non-state actors seizing an opportunity to acquire a nuclear warhead or a “dirty” weapon. Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, has expressed doubts regarding the “continuing safety” of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal. Going by assurances provided by Zardari in May 2009, the Obama administration maintains Pakistan’s nuclear weapons are secure “at least for the moment”. However, apprehensions continue to grow not just in Pakistan’s immediate neighbourhood but across the globe even though Gen Tariq Majid, Chairman of Pakistan’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, has categorically rejected such propositions. It is imperative for Pakistan’s nuclear authorities to come clean on the system of checks and balances instituted by them. These organisations include the National Command Authority, responsible for policy formulation and control over all strategic nuclear forces, the Strategic Plans Division, in charge of developing and managing nuclear capability in all dimensions, and the Strategic Forces Command, responsible for planning and control as well as for issuing operational directives for the deployment and use of nuclear weapons. Potential loopholes in the system through which sensitive WMD technology could slip into the hands of non-state actors must be effectively plugged. The authors are director and senior fellow, respectively, at the Centre for Land Warfare Studies, New Delhi
|
|
Corrections and clarifications n
In the Opinion page article by Gautam Sen (Feb 8), in the fourth paragraph, “Kattabomman” should have been there after “INS” in the sentence “Surveillance on military establishments like INS ….” n
The headline “US may reinstate visas of Tri-Valley students” (back page, February 7) should have used the word “restore” instead. n
Rajbir Deswal in his article “The Legend of Panipat” in Spectrum (February 6) wrongly attributed the couplet “Khudee ko kar buland itna” by Iqbal to Hali. n
In the story “Gauba goes out” (Chandigarh Tribune, page 1), it should have been “relieve him of his charge”, and not “relinquish him of his charge”. 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
|
|
|
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Letters | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
According to a statement in The Washington Post by David Albright of the Institute for Science and International Security, “Pakistan has expanded its nuclear weapons production capability rapidly.” The paper also quoted Dr. Peter Lavoy, US national intelligence officer for South Asia, as having told NATO officials in December 2008, that "despite pending economic catastrophe, Pakistan is producing nuclear weapons at a faster rate than in any other country in the world". The frenzied activities by Pakistan’s nuclear establishment will soon place it on the fifth spot as the world’s largest nuclear weapons power in terms of the number of warheads stockpiled. In fact, it has now edged ahead of India, which is reported to have 60 to 80 nuclear warheads.
