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Be transparent in N-ties with Pak: India to China
CWG Mess |
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Gaffe unfortunate, but nothing wrong in it, says Krishna
India panel to seek access to Headley
Pillai to invite Pak counterpart for talks
Soon, accreditation must for spas, beauty clinics
Jantar Mantar
Centrestage
Rulers are loath to lose power
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Be transparent in N-ties with Pak: India to China
New York, February 13 Speaking on Sino-India relations at the New School in New York, Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao said that India was "not against" Pakistan's relationship with other countries but New Delhi had some "genuine concerns about some aspects" of the relationship between Beijing and Islamabad. China's support for Pakistan's nuclear ambitions, Rao said, was an area where India was "seeking more clarity and transparency and welcomed an open discussion". Early this week, reports had indicated that China and Pakistan had recently concluded an agreement under which Beijing would construct the fourth nuclear reactor at Khushab in Pakistan's Punjab province. The Washington Post said, "the new reactor, if verified, would signal yet another step forward in Pakistan's ambitious effort to modernise and expand its nuclear arsenal." In response to a question, Rao noted that unlike the US, China had not yet openly endorsed India's candidacy for a permanent seat in the United Nation's Security Council. "China is not expressing itself openly in terms of India's candidacy," she said and hoped that "Beijing would not block India from getting a seat when the matter came to a vote." Currently 128 out of 192 countries in the United Nations support India's permanent presence in the Security Council, according to Indian officials. Rao also said New Delhi took strong exception of China's policy of issuing stapled visas to residents of Jammu and Kashmir and its presence in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. The relationship between India and China, she said, "would be stronger when China shows more sensitivity on issues that impinge on our sovereignty and territorial integrity." Both sides, Rao said, were working to resolve the boundary dispute. — PTI
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CWG Mess
New Delhi, February 13 "But the payment is not illegal as it was due to him as part of the consultation fee. We have mentioned it in the audit memo sent to the OC. The final report is yet to be finalised," the CAG sources said today. Tharoor defended his CWG links saying that he was "officially, formally and legally paid" for the services rendered by him when he was not in public life. The former Minister of State for External Affairs also said that he legally retained his foreign bank accounts as all former NRIs were entitled do under RBI rules and that there was no impropriety in doing so. In a statement, Tharoor, who had to resign as union minister following a controversy over Kochi IPL ownership last year, said the consultancy services were rendered between September 2008 and January 2009 during a period well before he entered public life and when he had no relationship with the government. "The consultancy fee charged was a token sum, and the total sum paid ($ 30,000 less taxes) was far below the fee that I used to command even just to make a single speech," the Lok Sabha MP from Kerala said.— PTI
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Gaffe unfortunate, but nothing wrong in it, says Krishna
New Delhi/New York, Feb 13 At the UNSC meeting, Krishna began reading the wrong speech by inadvertently reading the Portuguese Foreign Minister's English translation of his text for about three minutes before being corrected by India's envoy to the UN Hardeep Singh Puri. Krishna's mistake made headlines in the media back home and the Pakistani press gleefully played it up too. A lot of traffic was generated on social networking sites since the goof up became public with many bloggers poking fun at the expense of the External Affairs Minister but leaving many others wondering what the fuss was all about. After all many a public figure have committed such gaffes. US President Barack Obama began reading the speech of the Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen at the UN in 2009 after the teleprompter mixed up their speeches. Former Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan G Parthasarathy, now a well-known commentator on Foreign Affairs, said, "It is a mistake which even Obama has made. It makes good gossip, but more important is what he said in substantive terms. It can happen. Everybody in the Security Council knows that ministers are busy people. It is not an embarrassment for the country." K Natwar Singh, one of Krishna's predecessors, declined to say anything on the episode.
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India panel to seek access to Headley
New Delhi, February 13 The National Investigation Agency, which is probing the case, also plans to file a chargesheet soon against the Pakistani-American terrorist who is accused of having done a recce of targets before the 26/11 Mumbai attacks. Union Home Secretary Gopal K Pillai said a commission might even be sent to the United States for getting evidence, may be from Headley, his wife and from other people, for which it would talk to the US authorities. “We need to get evidence fully on board. We cannot call them here because the request for examining his wife is still pending with the US government. We have not received any response yet,” he said in an interaction with journalists. Pillai said when an NIA team had visited the US to question Headley, the examination was done under particular circumstances. “It has no evidential value. It was just a statement, not in the presence of a magistrate... signed or sealed. It is just a hearsay statement. We have to make it into an evidential statement,” he said. Asked whether India would seek permission from the US to send the commission, he said: “Yes, that is the legal process which is required. Once the chargesheet is filed, it will be done”. After filing the chargesheet, the government would take permission from the court to send a commission to Pakistan also to question those involved who helped Headley. — PTI
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Pillai to invite Pak counterpart for talks
New Delhi, February 13 "I will call my Pakistani counterpart this week inviting him to New Delhi. I will propose two sets of dates to him for a meeting in second-half of next month," Pillai told PTI. This will be first structured bilateral Secretary-level meeting on counter-terrorism, including progress on the 26/11 trial in a Rawalpindi court. More than two years after India had suspended composite dialogue with Pakistan in the wake of 26/11 attacks in 2008, the two sides recently decided to resume comprehensive dialogue comprising the same issues as in the composite one. Asked about the issues to be taken up during the meeting with Pakistan Interior Secretary Chaudhry Qamar Zaman, Pillai said, "From our side it will be, of course, progress on investigations (26/11). "We will ask for voice transcripts even though the trial court has said no. We will ask them why they have not gone and appealed. I am sure the High Court or the Supreme Court may have said that the voice transcripts can be given." Underlining lack of action on the part of Pakistan in the investigations in 26/11 attacks, he said, "So far most of the people they have caught are all chaps who have sold outboard engine or... driven a taxi and not anyone of the main people whose voice has been identified by Pakistani-American terrorist David Headley." "I think by now, if they wanted, they should have arrested main persons behind it (Mumbai attacks). No use catching people on the street.... and not the real controllers and who are behind it (attacks)", despite India providing them the names, photographs and their addresses, the Home Secretary said. Headley's own evidence shows clearly that there was support of certain elements in Pakistan state. He also rejected the view that recent developments in the investigations into the Samjhauta Express blast indicating involvement of right-wing extremism will put pressure on India while talking with Pakistan on terrorism. — PTI
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Soon, accreditation must for spas, beauty clinics
New Delhi, February 13 To put an end to such unethical practices, the government is coming out with a set of quality-control measures and accreditation. The Ministry of Tourism, which wants to promote India as a major wellness destination, has joined hands with Ayush under the Ministry of Health and the Quality Council of India (QCI) to launch a set of guidelines for spas, gyms and beauty clinics. The guidelines will be launched on February 15. Now if the wellness clinics want to be treated at par with the world’s best, they will require accreditation from National Accreditation Board for Hospitals and Healthcare Providers (NABH). NABH is a constituent board of the QCI, set up to establish and operate accreditation programme for health care organisations, officials state, adding that though the accreditation will be purely voluntary, it would in the best interest of an establishment to acquire one and help clients make an informed decision. With huge growth in the wellness market, QCI officials say it is important to develop a mechanism where health care and beauty care is accredited. Currently there is no check on activities at health care clinics, gyms and spas and the QCI has many examples of unethical claims followed at such places and related consumer and trade complaints. Preliminary standards for wellness and health care were launched during 2008 but overlapping with standards of other bodies led to confusion. “Currently, no one is paying attention to the client safety or satisfaction. Gyms at times have untrained employees who can actually do more harm than any good to an unsuspecting client. Ayurvedic centres may be using chemicals to treat customers. Standards will ensure that unethical practices are discarded,” QCI officials say.
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Jantar Mantar
Although they are on opposite sides of the political divide, the Congress has always enjoyed a special relationship with senior BJP leader and former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee. Beginning with the late Indira Gandhi, the bond has strengthened over the years and has extended to a large number of Congress leaders, who always speak very indulgently about Vajpayee in their private conversations. It is, therefore, not surprising that Congress members who drop in to enquire about Vajpayee’s health outnumber BJP leaders. His oldest friend, BJP leader LK Advani, apparently calls on the ailing Vajpayee once a year on his birthday, which falls on Christmas Day. In sharp contrast, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) calls up Vajpayee’s family every week to check on the BJP stalwart’s health and to offer any assistance which they might require. Not just that but Prime Minister Manmohan Singh personally telephones the Vajpayee residence every two months and makes it a point to visit him on his birthday. Waiting for better chemistry
There has been no official word from New Delhi after Pakistan foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi was dropped in last week’s reshuffle but the foreign office here is quite relieved at this change. External affairs minister S.M.Krishna was apparently a little wary of engaging with the flamboyant Qureshi but had no choice in the matter. Not only did Qureshi try to overawe his Indian counterpart during their one-to-one meetings but there was no knowing how much of these conversations would be revealed to the media by the former Pakistan Foreign Minister. New Delhi hopes that Pakistan’s new minister Hina Rabbani Khar will make for a refreshing change. |
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Centrestage The last Arab despot I saw overthrown was Saddam Hussein. That was all very different from the fall of Hosni Mubarak, toppled by his own people, not the might of a foreign army.In 2003, I spent 18 days under fire in Baghdad as waves of cruise missiles vaporised swathes of the city. It was pounded day after day by American B-52s and British Tornados, before U.S. tanks rolled in to a prostrate capital and declared Iraq liberated from a brutal dictator. Iraq, and the Arab world, was shocked, and awed. But the fall of Saddam, at a cost of thousands of lives -- and a foreboding of so much more blood to come -- failed to ignite the sense of national triumph among Iraqis that has had Egyptians dancing in the streets after 18 days of popular protests. In Iraq, there was, of course, elation, especially among the oppressed Shi'ites and Kurds. But there was also fear and anxiety. Saddam was gone but so too were many of their loved ones. And scores of "mini-Saddams" were to emerge in his place. Liberation had been delivered by foreign tanks and war planes, after years of punitive Western sanctions and three weeks of relentless bombardment. In Cairo, the only tanks are Egyptian, and they have not opened fire. Instead, demonstrators painted them with anti-Mubarak slogans and soldiers smiled. Now Mubarak is gone. It is hard to believe. No one who has lived in Egypt, as I did in the 1990s, could easily imagine him going, other than through illness or, like his predecessor Anwar Sadat, through an assassin's bullet -- and Mubarak had dodged several of those.Arab dictators tend to die with their boots on. NEW DREAM
But the dream was real and Egypt and its people woke up to a new dawn. As the muezzin's call to prayer reverberated from a thousand mosques across Cairo at dawn, the sounds of Egyptians still cheering at Mubarak's departure grew louder. Egypt's capital tells a story of a country that has changed overnight. Mubarak's resignation electrified Egypt and the current is being felt across Arab lands and the palaces of their rulers. Egyptians in their millions danced and partied, celebrating the fall of the man who ruled like a pharaoh. They brought children to celebrate the seismic change Egypt has undergone. Women ululated, as though at a wedding. Young men danced. At the heart of the uprising in Cairo's Tahrir Square, packed so tight hardly another soul could fit in, people embraced and wept in joy and disbelief at a day some thought would never come.Never before had I seen Egyptians so jubilant. In one day they regained a sense of dignity and national pride that had been buried under the degradation of Mubarak's autocratic rule. Egyptians from all walks of life, old and young, women and men, religious and secular, rich and poor, leftists and Islamists, all across the nation had united in their loathing of him. As a journalist long used to the sullen quiet of the police states that still make up much of the Middle East, I felt the surging joy and overwhelming emotions of the population around me as a palpable, physical sensation. Only once before had I witnessed such ecstatic emotions, in 1994 when I accompanied Palestinian President Yasser Arafat --and Mubarak -- in the convoy that drove Arafat in his first historic journey back to the Gaza strip after years in exile.Egyptians had always seemed unlikely revolutionaries. Throughout the years I lived and worked here I came to know the Egyptians as kind, cheerful and generous, but also often docile and resigned to poverty and hardship as "God's will". GRIM PAST
The ferocity with which Mubarak's security forces previously dealt with opposition may have had a lot to do with that, and makes the bravery of those who began the protests on Jan. 25 all the more startling. In 1992, I moved to Cairo after 16 years of civil war in my native Lebanon and time spent also covering the first Gulf war. In Egypt, long the cultural hub of the Arab world, I was looking forward to writing about life not death, peace not war, and about a country in hopeful transition, reforming its way into the modern world. I was excited by the country's majestic archaeological treasures and reputed intellectuals. Just one week into my new job, however, the Islamist militant group al-Gama'a al-Islamiya staged its first attack against foreign tourists, targeting Egypt's number one currency earner and economic lifeline. The Islamist resurgence became my focus and I set off to the slums of Imbaba, on Cairo's outskirts, to find out whether it was true that the radical Islamists had set up a sharia law state-within-a-state. I interviewed their emir or sheikh. Soon after, I had my first "invitation" to Egypt's Interior Ministry. After I refused to provide information on whom I had met, I soon began seeing men in cars parked outside my apartment building, ostentatiously reading newspapers; just in case I hadn't noticed, the men from the ministry made sure to tell me that I was being followed. There ensued several weeks of slander in government newspapers. They depicted me as the Lebanese who had come to Cairo to spread civil war, some sort of Levantine Mata Hari. Mubarak himself indignantly denied that there was any such thing as an Islamist challenge to his Egypt. Yet a month later he sent more than 20,000 troops into Imbaba. In a week of house-to-house fighting, they rounded up scores of suspected Islamists including the sheikh I had interviewed. Days later he was paraded on state television. His face was bruised and swollen. He was hard to recognise. Throughout the mid-1990s, I travelled to meet Islamists in their strongholds in Cairo and the southern province of Assiut, witnessing attacks on mosques by Mubarak's men and learning to play cat-and-mouse with the ubiquitous security services: always do interviews in distant towns before checking into the hotel; if you register first, the police will be on your tail. I learned, too, how to get through my regular "invitations" to enjoy the hospitality at the Interior Ministry -- keep your answers consistent; don't lose your temper; and don't count the hours. For all that, entering their headquarters at La Zoughly, no one could shut out of their mind the well-documented tales of savage torture that was routine for prisoners in the dungeons. By 1997, Mubarak was claiming victory over the Islamists, though the price had been high. Attending trials of many of the thousands arrested was disturbing. Military tribunals showed scant regard for evidence, turned a blind eye to torture and were, in effect, a conveyor belt to the gallows. I grabbed interviews with the accused in their courtroom cages. They were fleeting. The judges wasted little time before banging down the gavel and meting out the death sentence. POVERTY, BRUTALITY
Heart-rending scenes would ensue. Mothers fainted, fathers sobbed, the condemned would brandish the Koran. Sometimes, it was the judge who looked most frightened. I remember one who read out his verdict and fled, ducking a chair hurled by a mother. "The sons of Islam will haunt you," she yelled, "Mubarak, you are a tyrant!" Much of the trial process was a sham. The state occasionally produced indictments against men already hanged. Such was the impunity of state power, no one bothered to cover up the errors. While some of those convicted had indeed taken up arms, many were condemned only for membership of Islamist parties. And they were far from alone in harbouring deep grievances against Mubarak. By this year, millions of young people have never had a job. Whether Islamist or secular, many millions were frustrated by the arrogance and corruption of the elite. In the past decade, Egypt seemed to sink further into poverty and exploitation, hardly covered by the fantasies of state media which continued to trumpet the achievements of Mubarak's rule. As in Iraq under Saddam, the security apparatus stretched its tentacles into every aspect of everyday life. Rights groups said thousands of detainees filled Egypt's jails. No one knew, or knows still, the exact figure. Mubarak pushed economic liberalisation policies that drew crony capitalists into the bosom of the administration but left tens of millions of Egyptians below the poverty line. As the middle class was emaciated, the rich opted for gated communities in the desert around Cairo. The poor got poorer in the slum belts. I watched the capital of the Arab world, a city rich with thousands of years of civilisation and history, going from bad to worse, its buildings crumbling, its diplomatic role in the world diminishing, its creativity stifled and freedoms thwarted. The revolution that began on Jan. 25 has given Egyptians back their pride and dignity. They have not just thrown out an unpopular ruler. Unarmed, they have faced down the might of a ruthless police state which had never shrunk from detaining anyone, for any reason, for any length of time. In the process, they have ripped up stereotypes of a nation that for millennia was supposedly ready to bow down before the pharaoh, regardless of the humiliations heaped upon it. Opposition politician Ayman Nour -- a man who paid the price of prison for daring to challenge Mubarak's supremacy at the ballot box -- said it was the greatest day in Egypt's history. "This nation has been born again," he said. "These people have been born again, and this is a new Egypt." Whereas, Baghdad, subdued and occupied, descended into an orgy of looting and violence among the communities which Saddam had divided in order to rule, Cairo is having a carnival. — Reuters
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Rulers are loath to lose power
Why did the protesters prevail? Many of the younger protesters told stories of being stopped in the street by older Egyptians and told how proud they should feel. Clearly those with longer memories were impressed at the speed of Mubarak's fall from grace. One of the things which facilitated it was the internet. As one administrator of the Facebook page which first called for the protests said: "Before our webpage went up, people were interested only in football. But afterwards everything changed." Then there was simply the steely grit of the protesters, which the army initially acknowledged, and then supported. Anyone who witnessed the 28 January clashes with police will know that, without the bravery of the first wave of activists, the anti-government movement would never have reached Tahrir Square in the first place. Ultimately, Egyptians felt they had had enough. One of the economic aspects of Mubarak's legacy was the yawning gap between rich and poor. Angered by this and years of repression, spurred on by the success of Tunisia's jasmine revolution and determined enough to resist Mubarak's thuggish supporters, they turned the screw until their leader broke. What role did the US play in the revolution? For a while, Mubarak thought he could blame interfering "foreign powers" for the turmoil in his country. But the bogeyman gambit didn't work. The dilemma for Washington and European capitals throughout was how hard to press Mubarak to relinquish power. In the end they nudged more than they shoved. Contacts between the Pentagon and Egypt's top military officers run very deep; the message to them was very clear and apparently was heeded: do not open fire on your own people. Who is in charge now? The military. After Hosni Mubarak shocked his people by handing power to his armed forces on Friday night, Egypt's generals hold all the cards. The success of the 25 January revolution now depends on how they play them. For the moment the army is basking in the goodwill of the demonstrators, who throughout this crisis have perceived the military as impartial arbiters between the people and the regime. When will there be an election? The timetable set out by Mubarak as he struggled to stay in power was for elections to take place in September 2011 at the latest, and this is what a majority of those who took part in the 25 January revolution would like to see - though not on his terms, of course. But Mohamed ElBaradei, the Egyptian Nobel peace laureate, wrote in The New York Times of a process overseen by a presidential council, including a representative to oversee the constitutional changes required to ensure free and fair presidential and parliamentary elections "within a year". The problem is how to achieve such reforms - which include lifting emergency powers, guaranteeing freedom of speech, limiting presidential terms, allowing any bona fide candidate to stand, and perhaps transferring some presidential powers to a prime minister - without recourse to the current parliament, whose legitimacy is so low because of last November's rigged elections. Will Islamic fundamentalism become a factor? Not if the statements of leading Muslim Brotherhood members are to be taken at face value. The Islamist organisation, which is Egypt's most entrenched opposition movement despite having been banned for most of the past half-century, is suspected by some in the West of harbouring fundamentalist political ambitions. And yet the Brotherhood long ago abandoned any pretence of violent revolutionary ideology. According to Dr Essam El-Erian, an executive bureau member of the Brotherhood, the organisation is looking forward to a "free and democratic" Egypt. His view is supported by Egyptian political expert Emad Gad, who said that although any Brotherhood-dominated government might well revise Egypt's peace treaty with Israel, there would be no threat of an Iran-style seizure of power. Who is likely to run Egypt? For now, of course, it's the army. But if Egypt moves to the kind of open, pluralistic democracy the Tahrir Square demonstrators want, then it is almost impossible to predict the outcome. Mubarak has long predicted that the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood would take over if he went, but few Egypt experts believe that, at the very least in the medium term. There are opposition or liberal figures waiting in the wings, and all have their detractors as well as their supporters. What happens to Mubarak now? Many of the Tahrir Square protesters wanted to see Mubarak put on trial, and were equally adamant that he must not be allowed to leave Egypt with his vast fortune, "stolen" from the Egyptian people and now apparently in secret bank accounts frozen by the Swiss authorities. Others were content simply to see him go. But the chances are that as more emerges about the regime's financial dealings - and perhaps also about the darkest aspects of his security state - the calls for trial could intensify. Will Egypt's peace with Israel hold? This was not at all a revolution about Israel or against the treaty; it was much more domestic than that. Many of those on the streets actually stressed Egyptians' lack of interest in a war with Israel, while often also citing the importance of a fair deal for Palestinians. Some fear that if the Muslim Brotherhood had a big share of parliamentary seats, it could seek to end the 1978 Camp David treaty. The Brotherhood itself has been enigmatic, saying it is a "heavy question" or it will be for the people to decide. But most officials of Western governments familiar with Egypt believe that the likeliest course for a freely elected government will be to stick by a treaty needed for Egyptian peace and so retain access to the billions of US dollars in aid which the country will need for some time to come. What will be the impact in the rest of the region? Algeria Thousands of Algerians defied a government ban on protests and a massive deployment of riot police to march in the capital, demanding democratic reforms. Thousands flooded into central Algiers, clashing with police who outnumbered them at least three to one. A human rights activist said more than 400 people were arrested. Islamic groups are a potent force here. Under Algeria's nearly two-decades-long state of emergency, protests are banned in the capital, but repeated government warnings for people to stay away fell on deaf ears. Some called Saturday's protest a turning point. Yemen Combustible situation which could blow at any time. Morocco Even this, one of the region's least bad regimes, has seen protests, the most recent bringing 1,000 on to Rabat's streets on Thursday. Their cause: the lack of promised public sector jobs. Graduates, among whom unemployment runs at 18 per cent, are not happy. Libya The least likely candidate for revolution. Political parties are banned, public dissent rare, and Colonel Gaddafi's regime swift to jail even incipient subversives. Only last week a writer who called for peaceful mass protests was arrested. The pretext was a traffic offence, but Jamal al-Hajji, a dual Libyan-Danish national, remains in jail. What does the revolution mean for the US and the West ? At risk of collapse suddenly is the central pillar of Western policy in the Middle East, namely the 30-year treaty between Egypt and Israel, the single most important bulwark against a new Arab-Israeli conflagration. That post-Mubarak Egypt is likely to turn its face away from the West is probably a given, not least because few imagine that the Muslim Brotherhood will not have some significant part in the country's future. But by how many degrees is now the crucial question. — The Independent
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Pranab’s son Abhijit in politics? Ramdev’s convoy vehicle kills two Girl kills self after scolding at school
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India has sought more "clarity and transparency" in China's nuclear cooperation with Pakistan, saying Beijing needs to be more "sensitive" towards its "genuine concerns".
Speaking on Sino-India relations at the New School in New York, Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao said that India was "not against" Pakistan's relationship with other countries but New Delhi had some "genuine concerns about some aspects" of the relationship between Beijing and Islamabad.
New Delhi, February 13
New Delhi, February 13
Although they are on opposite sides of the political divide, the Congress has always enjoyed a special relationship with senior BJP leader and former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee. Beginning with the late Indira Gandhi, the bond has strengthened over the years and has extended to a large number of Congress leaders, who always speak very indulgently about Vajpayee in their private conversations.
The last Arab despot I saw overthrown was Saddam Hussein. That was all very different from the fall of Hosni
Mubarak, toppled by his own people, not the might of a foreign army.In 2003, I spent 18 days under fire in Baghdad as waves of cruise missiles vaporised swathes of the city. It was pounded day after day by American B-52s and British Tornados, before U.S. tanks rolled in to a prostrate capital and declared Iraq liberated from a brutal dictator.
Why did the protesters prevail?
Rahat Ali Khan held with $1.2 lakh