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Relief for Rahat
Protect privacy
Handling Indo-Pak logjam
S. M. Krishna is not alone
Missing children
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UNSC’s expansion China’s latest stand on the expansion of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is worrying, but should not be treated as an insurmountable hurdle. In its recent statement, China has clearly expressed its reservations about the expansion of the UNSC’s permanent membership. This is contrary to what the G4 group of countries — India, Brazil, Germany and Japan — has been pressing for in view of the changing global reality.
The G4 argument is that there is need for initiating a UN reforms process, including the grant of permanent membership of the UNSC to the G4 countries, so that the UN’s institutions become truly representative of today’s world. India’s case for the UNSC’s permanent membership has the backing of four members of the P5 club. China is the only country that has been maintaining an ambivalent stand. However, the latest statement from Beijing, which appears to be aimed at blocking the case of all the four claimants to the Security Council’s permanent membership, need not be taken as being directed against New Delhi. “China does not oppose India’s membership to the UNSC” as the Director of South Asia Studies at the Shanghai Institute for International Studies, Mr Zhao Ghancheng, has pointed out. But China will do all it can to prevent Japan from entering the P5 club because of historical reasons. All its arguments like “parties still have sharp differences over some major issues about the reforms and consensus is yet to be reached” need to be seen against this backdrop. Of course, China was “not expressing itself openly on India’s candidacy”, as Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao stated in the course of her speech in New York the other day. But Beijing can be convinced that India’s entry into the UNSC will be in the overall interest of Asia and in no way will harm the interests of China. It suits Beijing’s scheme of things, too, as it does not want India to allow itself to be used by the US in the latter’s game-plan against the communist giant. In any case, India and China together have to lead the coming Asian century. |
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Relief for Rahat Rahat Fateh Ali Khan is admired as much in India as in Pakistan for his hypnotic voice. His millions of fans are bound to feel bad that an artiste of his calibre should be breaking the law of the land where he is a guest. He was detained at the Indira Gandhi International Airport, Delhi, on Sunday while carrying an undeclared $1,42,600 (approximately Rs 64 lakh) to his country.
Intense diplomatic pressure mounted by Pakistan and the recent peace parleys between the two countries ensured that the singing icon and his nephew Maroof Ali were freed after 24 hours of questioning by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, but he will have to remain in the country until investigations are complete. His plea that he was not aware of the Indian law does not really wash, considering that he has been singing in Hindi films since 2004 and has visited India several times. The rules about how much money a person can take out of the country without declaration are specific and well-known. The spotlight on the celebrated artiste — who is a nephew of the legendary singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan — may bring to surface many unsavoury truths about the way Pakistani artistes performing in India are paid. His performances in Delhi, Ahmadabad, Jaipur and Rajkot during the past fortnight are particularly under the scanner. His hosts and event managers have a lot to answer for. This is not the first time that a Pakistani artiste has been found on the wrong side of the law. Only last month, the Enforcement Directorate had ordered the confiscation of singer Adnan Sani’s properties in Mumbai on the ground that a Pakistani national cannot purchase or transfer properties in India under foreign exchange regulations without permission of the Reserve Bank of India. Ironically, while the Indian artistes find it difficult to even visit Pakistan, the Indian government welcomes Pakistanis with open arms. That is all the more reason that the guests obey the rules of the country which showers so much of love and adulation on them.
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Protect privacy It indeed is a cause of concern that too many telephone calls are being intercepted by various intelligence and security agencies. Conversations between individuals, who had every reason to believe that what they were saying to each other was private, have been leaked to the media and have been the source of many a scandal in recent times.
The Radia tapes have occupied much news space these days, and people have forgotten the earlier instance linked to former Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh whose taped conversations appeared in the media in 2005, causing much embarrassment. Now his service provider, Reliance Infocomm, which had been accused of tapping the phone on the basis of a forged letter, said in an affidavit that it was legally bound to instantly comply with interception orders as part of the measures to prevent terror attacks and other serious developments. It also said it “facilitated the tapping of as many as 1.51 lakh telephones during 2006-10”. While the court will decide this particular case after all the facts are known, it must be noted that the number of telephone intercepted calls by only one service provider is staggering, and begs for a logical explanation. No one would argue with the security agencies in case they were to focus their activities on known terrorist or other national security threats. However, the tapping of lakhs of phones smacks of a heavy-handed approach, in which the interception is not only confined to potential threats to the nation, but also includes people of interest for the powers that be. This is a dangerous trend and citizens have every reason to demand a more transparent and less intrusive system so that the legitimate concerns of national security can be addressed, even as individual and corporate privacy is not impinged upon.
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The man who trusts men will make fewer mistakes than he who distrusts them. — Camillo di Cavour
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Handling Indo-Pak logjam
There
is no better place than Wagah to look for evidence of how badly India-Pakistan relations have eroded. Wagah is the only legally permissible place where, between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m., border crossings on foot can be made with the proper visas. On one Sunday morning, I was the only border crosser from Pakistan when the gates opened. Customs officials told me that perhaps 50 people make the crossing daily, except for the occasional tour bus. Prior efforts by Pakistani and Indian governments to simplify tourism, family reunions, and trade have come to this sorry state. Punjab remains an excellent barometer of the state of Indo-Pak relations. After Partition, it was a killing field. Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee traversed this blood-stained soil by bus in February 1999 attempting to normalise relations with Pakistan in the wake of the 1998 nuclear tests. In another highly symbolic gesture, Mr Vajpayee then went to the Minar-i-Pakistan, the monument erected in Lahore to commemorate Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s famous declaration in 1940 of the need to establish a homeland for the subcontinent’s Muslims. There, Mr Vajpayee penned these words in the distinguished visitors’ book: “From this historic ‘Minar-i-Pakistan’, I wish to assure the people of Pakistan of my country’s deep desire for lasting peace and friendship. I have said this before, and I say it again: A stable, secure and prosperous Pakistan is in India’s interest. Let no one in Pakistan be in doubt about this. India sincerely whishes the people of Pakistan well.” Pakistan’s military chiefs were not on hand to greet Mr Vajpayee at the border. The then Army Chief, Gen Pervez Musharraf, and a very select group around him were already deep into the Kargil misadventure. Afterward, when General Musharraf had a change of heart and was ready to take big risks to normalise ties with India, New Delhi was still feeling battered and bruised. Good timing is not one of the prominent features of Indo-Pak dialogue. Nor is sustained progress: when there is the possibility that modest gains might yield more meaningful results, big explosions happen. A cross-Kashmir bus service was launched between Srinigar and Muzaffarabad in April 2005. Few use it. Pledges were also made to simplify trade across the Kashmir divide. This is not happening. A train service began running between Delhi and Lahore. The “Samjhauta Express” was attacked near Panipat in February 2007, killing 68 travellers. The Government of India has yet to identify the perpetrators, who are believed to be Hindu extremists. Forty-two Pakistani travellers were killed on the train, along with 26 Indians. In November 2008, Muslim extremists linked to the Lashkar-i-Toiba, a group that retains links to Pakistani intelligence services, attacked iconic targets in Mumbai, killing 164. The attackers were trained and equipped on Pakistani soil. India and Pakistan have again agreed to resume what they used to call a composite dialogue at the SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) summit in Thimphu. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s government is beset by scandals and has had a very long, tiring run. Popular views in Pakistan concerning the government of Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani are perhaps best summed up by an editorial cartoon in one local paper showing him admiring himself in a hand-held mirror, but his reflection in the mirror was blank. Even though both governments are wounded, modest confidence-building and nuclear-risk reduction measures could be agreed to, as was the case after earlier crises sparked off by mass casualty acts of terrorism. Pledges against attacking nuclear facilities might be expanded to other types of installations, such as dams and historic sites. The pre-notification agreement for ballistic missile flight tests could be expanded to include cruise missiles, as Pakistan has previously proposed. The joint counter-terrorism mechanism, which was doomed to failure by appointing Foreign Ministry officials as co-chairs, can do no worse and might do better by being led by intelligence officials. An incidents-at-sea agreement could be finalised, as could long-delayed deals on the Siachen and Sir Creek issues. A SAARC-wide agreement on information exchanges related to monsoon rains, glacial melt and early warnings of extreme weather — perhaps with the assistance of outsiders with greater access to satellite data — could help with land use and water management as well as disaster relief. Many analysts and NGOs have joined the Stimson Center in proposing these and other incremental steps. Identifying useful measures is relatively easy; the hard part is encouraging diplomats to act positively rather than to explain in minute detail why the prospects for success are remote. Change on the subcontinent comes from the top down, not from the ranks of civil servants. If past is the prelude, incremental successes may again be possible — along with big explosions. Small gains will not lead to breakthroughs unless there is a shift in the strategic culture of Pakistan’s military leaders. Distrust of Indian intentions is embedded in their DNA, and as the conventional military imbalance shifts increasingly in India’s favour, Pakistan’s military establishment grows more concerned about dictation from across the border. This need not preclude modest nuclear risk-reduction measures, as long as these arrangements do not impinge on Rawalpindi’s perceived insurance policies. But if Pakistani military leaders remain convinced that India constitutes a mortal threat, the normalisation process will not proceed very fast or very far. How, then, to proceed in such inauspicious circumstances? A breakthrough, if one is remotely possible, is likely to come from Punjab, as Prime Minister Vajpayee intuited. India’s economy, shackled by Nehruvian dogma, was on the ropes until then Finance Minister Manmohan Singh and Prime Minister Narasimha Rao opened the door to market principles in 1991. National entrepreneurship flourished, and the world is now beating a path to India’s door. Pakistan is currently facing dire economic straits, which are greatly compounded by the lack of trade with India, its most natural and largest market. Pakistan’s military has a very large stake in the national economy. If trade could be greatly expanded across the Punjab divide, substantial benefits could accrue. Prior efforts to expand Indo-Pak trade have failed. There is need for learning the lessons why it is crucial to not repeating failures. Perhaps prospects for success might improve if the initiative came from the two Chief Ministers, rather than from New Delhi and Islamabad. (The same notion applies to increasing trade between Sindh and Gujarat.) The appointment of highly successful and respected entrepreneurs by the Chief Ministers to map out a plan for vastly increased trade that can generate economic gains and job growth on both sides of the border is likely to have a far greater chance of success than if such matters were left in the hands of civil servants. Incremental successes by means of nuclear risk-reduction measures remain valuable in their own right and symbolic of responsible nuclear stewardship. While important, these measures are not game-changers. Vastly improved trade between India and Pakistan, beginning across the Punjab divide, can be a
game-changer. The writer is the co-founder of the Stimson Center, Washington, DC.
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S. M. Krishna is not alone
A
day after erroneously reading out the Portuguese Foreign Minister’s speech at the UN Security Council, Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna described the incident as unfortunate, adding: “There were many papers spread in front of me. So by mistake the wrong speech was taken out. Such faux pas do happen on occasions with the V.I.Ps. In 1972, at a Rotary conference in Delhi, the then Information & Broadcasting Minister Satyanarayan Sinha as chief guest brought with him a copy of the speech he was to deliver at a conference of TV manufacturers the same afternoon and delivered the full speech before he realised or was made to realise that this was a Rotary conference. Thereafter, he made some impromptu comments lauding Rotary’s role in serving society. Mr Bhichai Rattakal, a former Speaker of the Thai Parliament and a former Deputy Prime Minister of his country, visited Delhi in early 1985 as a guest speaker at a Rotary conference. I accompanied him for a call on the President of India Giani Zail Singh. In his words of welcome, Gianiji said in Hindi: “Aap Ek Mittar Desh New Zealand se Ayen Hai, Hamen Khushi Hai” (we are happy that you have arrived here from New Zealand, a friendly country). The visiting dignitary had a bewildered expression when he heard the word New Zealand. However, in the long conversation, Gianiji corrected himself by lauding the role of his “country as a member of the Security Council” (at that time, Thailand was a non-permanent member of the Security Council). The late Radha Raman was the Chief Executive Councillor of Delhi in the early seventies. He was the chief guest at a function organised by the Indo-German Friendship Association to facilitate Mr Willy Brandt, who became Chancellor of Germany for the third successive term. Mr Radha Raman reached Hotel Imperial much after the function had started. Looking at German Ambassador Gunther Deil sitting at the head table, he thought that the Ambassador was Willy Brandt and said: “Excellency, we are proud of your election as Chancellor of your country for the third successive term.” He kept on addressing him as Chancellor even though some slips were passed on to him saying that the gentleman sitting at the head table was the German Ambassador. When he finished speaking and sat down, he was made to realise his mistake. He felt embarrassed and quickly departed from the function saying he was already late for the next programme. A few days later, Mr Radha Raman was the chief guest at the convocation of a women’s arts college. In his speech, he stated that ‘some of you will become doctors, some others will become engineers’, little realising he was speaking at an arts college convocation. The Statesman carried the news with the caption ‘Radha Raman does it again’. Giani Zail Singh as Home Minister was piloting a Bill in the Rajya Sabha. Pilloo Mody, as a member, had participated in the debate. While replying to the debate, Gianiji said: “Pilloo Mody is a seasonal member”. The whole House started laughing. A minister sitting next to Gianiji told him that the word to be used is ‘seasoned’ and not ‘seasonal’. Gianiji said: “English is not my mother tongue. Pilloo Mody had been taught English by his wife”. Pilloo Mody looked furious, thumped his table and said: “Point of order - Mr Deputy Chairman!” The Deputy Chairman asked Mr Mody what was his point of order. Mr Mody said: “Mr Deputy Chairman, Gianiji is totally wrong. My wife did not teach me English. I taught her English. (Mrs Mody was Swiss by birth.)n The writer is a former Governor of Uttarakhand and Sikkim and former Secretary-General, Rajya Sabha
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Missing children It is a telling commentary on the state of governance in India that the crime rate is much higher in cities with a high concentration of police, and in those villages that are close to police stations and government offices. By contrast, remote villages which rarely see the sight of a policeman are relatively crime free. Most atrocities in villages take place at the hands of castes and communities that can count on police support. A Bengali saying sums up the perception of the ordinary citizens aptly: Baghe kater 16 ghav, police kater 32 ghav. (If a leopard attacks you are likely to end with 16 wounds, but one who is targeted by the police will end up with at least 32 wounds). The entry of police in villages and neighbourhoods evokes fear rather than a sense of security. In tribal villages I have seen men flee to the jungles at the sight of a police jeep anticipating trouble. The widespread proliferation of private security agencies and gated communities with the well-off citizens organising personal arrangements for their safety amounts to an open declaration of "no confidence" in the police. Those of us who can't afford personal security guards live Allah bharose! One of the most under-reported and under-investigated crimes in India is the disappearance of little children from villages, urban slums and poor neighbourhoods. In last three years alone, 6,687 children in Delhi have been declared untraceable by the Crime Branch's Missing Persons Squad. This does not include those children whose parents failed to get the police to file a case. Their number is likely to be much higher than those few who managed to get an FIR registered. The manner in which the police terrorised families of children who disappeared from Nithari village in Noida instead of registering complaints and tracing the missing children is fairly typical of police behaviour in India. For example, Sonia, who lost her 11-year-old son says, "On December 29, 2006 when he disappeared, I immediately went to the local police. They told me to go and search for him in orphanages. When I went again they said the child is not in our pocket. He will come back on his own. When I asked them to register a report they abused me in the worst possible language. They said you people produce so many children and cannot take care of them; some of them are bound to disappear. Having got sick of abuses I stopped going to the police station. I could not take the insults of policemen in addition to the pain of losing my child." Dolly, the mother of 14-year-old Rimpa Haldar who disappeared in January 2005 said: "The police man asked us accusingly why we come to big cities with grown up daughters who get influenced by the 'fast' life of big city and elope with their lovers? Many of the people whose children went missing left the village due to the police harassment." The tragic and gruesome fate of those 40 children and young women from one small neighbourhood became known only when their skeletal remains were found in the drain outside businessman Pandher's house. I witnessed closely how the police terrorised the family of a carpenter whose teenage son was abducted while going to school. Let us call the man Aamir and his son Naseem. Aamir moved heaven and earth to get the police to register a case of abduction but without success. They laughed it off saying the boy is likely to have run away on his own and joined some terrorist gang! Aamir pleaded with the police that his son was well-adjusted and serious minded and had never socialised with lumpen elements but to no avail. I sent Aamir to an NGO working on child traffic but even they could not help him get an FIR registered. I talked to several senior officers of the Delhi police. All promised help but nothing really came of the assurances. Aamir travelled the length and breadth of the country going to even distant relatives in far away Assam to track down his son but got no clue. Nearly six months after his disappearance, Naseem returned home looking like a ghost. He had clear evidence of injuries all over his body and narrated a horrific tale about how he was rendered unconscious with a chemical laced handkerchief and abducted in a Maruti Omni right near the police post. Thereafter, he was taken to some unknown place and kept locked up in a basement with more than 60 other children in a building constructed away from habitations and surrounded by agriculture fields. They were not allowed to step out of the basement at all and made to work in a factory that manufactured and assembled mechanical parts that appeared as if they were meant for making illicit guns. He and some others tried escaping twice but were caught and severely beaten up. But he was lucky in his third escape when he managed to hide in the surrounding fields and crawled all night to reach the nearby railway station at Roorki. When Aamir took his son to the thana to report the return of Naseem, he was accused of cooking up a story, and asked jeeringly: "Why is it that only your son was abducted, when there are so many other children living in the area?" In addition, the police started harassing the family alleging that they needed to investigate Aamir's terrorist links! The situation got so menacing that Aamir had to send his son into hiding. Finally, the family moved to some other locality. I tried to persuade him to come with me to the Police Commissioner so that his son could help the police rescue other trapped children and bust this racket. But nothing on earth could persuade him to have any further dealing with the police because by now he was convinced that the police was hand in glove with the gang and that the police represented a greater danger to his son's life than his abductors because they seemed rather annoyed at his return. Most citizens in India, especially the poor dread entering a police station more than entering the gates of hell; they are far more terrorised of our own police than they are of ISI terrorists. The reason is simple: Terrorists strike once in a while, often at random whereas the police strike terror every day in order to extort bribes. Most of their time is spent collecting hafta and sniffing new opportunities for making an extra buck, often in collusion with criminals. They openly talk of "sookhi / geeli/ maalidar postings." The geeli postings are those that provide opportunities for regular bribes and payoffs while sookhi postings are devoid of such privilege. The biggest bribes predictably come from patronising those engaged in unlawful activities — peddlers of drugs and pornography, flesh traders, local thugs, land grabbers and corrupt builders. The Congress had promised in its 2009 election Manifesto that it will "guarantee the maximum possible security to each and every citizen… the police force will be made more effective and trained professionally to confront new and emerging threats. Accountability of the police force will be institutionalised." There is no evidence of the Congress remembering this promise. No political party is serious about police reforms because an accountable, efficient police force is not easy to manipulate for partisan purposes. It is imperative that citizens demand the right to police the police and press for far reaching institutional reforms since the large-scale criminalisation of our police force poses the biggest security threat to India as a nation and its citizens-rich and poor alike. We cannot let our children grow up in such an unsafe environment. The writer is Founder, Manushi Journal and Manushi-Citizens First Forum and Professor, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies
Unsafe world
India's track record on treating its most vulnerable section of population, that is women and children, continues to be dismal. Crimes against children show no sign of abating.
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According to National Crime Records Bureau, around 22,500 crime cases were recorded during 2008.The figure increased to 24,201 in 2009. Thus if a 7.6 percentage increase was reported in the incidence of crime against children in 2007 over 2006, the same figure was true for 2009 as compared to 2008. l
Cases of rape of children registered a marginal decline of 1.4 per cent in the year 2009 as against the same period of last year. l
A total of 6,377 cases of kidnapping and abduction of children were reported during the year 2007 as compared to 5,102 cases previous year 2006. Snatchings and kidnappings witnessed an increase of 16.9 per cent in 2009. l
The state of Madhya Pradesh with 4,646 cases, Uttar Pradesh with 3,085 cases, Maharashtra with 2,894 and Delhi with 2,839 cases accounted for 19.2 per cent, 12.7 per cent, 12 per cent and 11.7 per cent of the cases respectively in 2009. l
Delhi recorded an increase in all cases (from 8.2 per cent in 2008 to 11.7 per cent in 2009) and so did Madhya Pradesh (19.2 per cent as against 18.9 per cent the previous year). Uttar Pradesh witnessed a fall while in Maharashtra the percentage of crimes remained the same. l
While cases of foeticide increased, the silver lining was a perceptible drop in cases of infanticide.
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