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Clearing CWG rubbish
DMK in trouble |
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Consuming poison
The Summit in Sanya
A new beginning of life
US scrambles to contain fallout from ‘damaging’ Guantanamo leak
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Clearing CWG rubbish THE arrest of Suresh Kalmadi, even if belated, may satisfy the vast majority of Indians who had never expected the law to touch the mighty of the land. However, the more proactive and informed sections would dismiss it as “too little, too late” and press for the prosecution of all those indicted by the V.K. Shunglu Committee report. They include Delhi’s Chief Minister and Lt-Governor, and some top bureaucrats who have been accused of causing cost overruns, resulting in a loss of Rs 900 crore, favours to select contractors, exaggerated estimates and a large-scale waste of public money in holding the 2010 Commonwealth Games. They are all powerful people. The UPA government’s action on the Shunglu report will test its sincerity in taking on those who had let down the nation at a critical time. The organisers of the scandal-tainted CWG had exposed the country to global shame and tarred the country’s image as an emerging economic power brimming with talent and confidence. Indeed, the shoddy work in the run-up to the CWG disappointed all. Only sportspersons saved the country from utter ignominy. The UPA government itself was found wanting. Instead of sacking Kalmadi a year before the CWG — as the Shunglu committee had suggested – the government dithered, handpicked a group of officers for last-minute damage control and allowed the Kalmadi coterie to run the show. Post-CWG, clean-up work has been slow. Whether the government has acted on its own or under pressure is open to debate. But it has taken the CBI six months to arrest the chief suspect. The arrests of Kalmadi and his aides may temporarily cool growing public anger over corruption. But ultimately, it is conviction which will retrieve public faith in the system. The CBI will have to ensure that the culprits do not get away lightly. Given Kalmadi’s political clout, even the Congress has been slow in getting rid of him. The need is now to save sports from politicians and break their hold on sports’ bodies. |
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DMK in trouble
THERE is no mistaking the fact that by charging Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Karunanidhi’s daughter and MP Kanimozhi with criminal conspiracy and of accepting a bribe of Rs 200 crore along with former Telecom Minister A. Raja, the CBI has finally caught the DMK’s first family in the 2G web. With the Supreme Court breathing down its neck, the CBI had little room for letting Kanimozhi off the hook in the face of increasing evidence that there was more to the grant of 2G licence to Swan Telecom than met the eye. The money trail traced by the CBI reveals that DB Realty, a wing of Swan, took a loan of Rs 242 crore from a financial service company on December 23, 2008. Of this, Rs 200 crore was routed on the same day to Cineyug and Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetables, who in turn transferred the money on the same date to Kalignar TV. The CBI believes this money was the bribe for Raja and Kanimozhi, even as Kalignar, in which Kanimozhi has a 20 per cent stake, claims this was an unsecured loan. That the chargesheeting of Kanimozhi has not led to an uproar in the DMK and a clamour to break ties with the Congress is a measure of how helpless the DMK finds itself today. It is significant that the CBI has not chargesheeted Mr Karunanidhi’s second wife Dayalu Ammal who is a 60 per cent stake holder in Kalignar TV. The grounds given for sparing her would have to stand judicial scrutiny but many see the hand of the Congress in this. The DMK is also conscious of the fact that it would be well nigh impossible for it to form a government in Tamil Nadu without the help of the Congress when the results for the State Assembly elections come out on May 13. In the event of the alliance losing out to the AIADMK-led grouping, the DMK would require Congress backing in its efforts to minimize the damage to it from 2G scam disclosures. With the apex court monitoring the investigations closely, the DMK could indeed be up against hard times. What effect all this would have on DMK’s first family is anybody’s guess. |
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Consuming poison
A
pesticide which is linked to deformities among children, even death, should not be used. Yet, India is the world’s largest user of endosulfan, consuming an estimated 4,500 tonnes every year, and exporting as much. The Centre is resisting a ban on the cheap pesticide, in spite of it being linked to deformities and deaths among the villagers of Kerala who were exposed to it because of aerial spraying of the cashew crop. The fact that the chemical is banned in 87 countries, including the US and the European Union, too, does not seem to have much impact on the government. Chief Minister V. S. Achuthanandan’s fast for the ban on using endosulfan is timed with an important meeting of the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, which is being held in Geneva. The initiative seeks means to protect human health, and global environment from dangerous chemicals. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was expected to take a leadership role in sorting out this matter, but the Prime Minister’s Office has just reiterated that endosulfan use has been banned in Kerala, and maintained that imposing a nationwide prohibition would require national consensus, backed by scientific study. It is on the basis of such studies that endosulfan has been banned in most of the developed world. It is considered toxic to humans, and aquatic life, including fish. It can lead to death, disease and birth defects, among human beings and animals, just as it did in the Kasaragod district of Kerala in the 1980. How many more such cases will it take for the government to come to the conclusion that is similar to those on the basis of which other countries have barred endosulfan use? Instead of waiting for the Indian Council of Medical Research to give its report on the subject, the Centre should be proactive in banning a pesticide as the rest of the world has done. |
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A hero is one who knows how to hang on one minute longer. — Novalis
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The Summit in Sanya
NEVER before had a new global grouping emerged from the research of an American Investment Banking and Securities Company. But this is what happened when a 2001 Goldman Sachs paper entitled “Building Better Global Economic BRICs” signalled the forthcoming shift of global power away from the G7 led developed world to the emerging, fast-growing economies of Brazil, Russia, India and China, with the acronym BRIC. On June 16, 2009, the leaders of the BRIC countries held their first Summit in Yekaterinburg, and issued a declaration calling for the establishment of an equitable, democratic and multipolar world order. As it would have been imprudent to exclude the entire African continent from what is a global grouping, BRIC became BRICS with the participation of South Africa at the April 14 Sanya Summit. China’s decision to hold the BRICS Summit at Sanya, located on the southern tip of the Hainan Island, was obviously not accidental. Beijing’s mandarins are meticulous in their planning and decision-making for such international events. The visiting delegates were no doubt thrilled by the sumptuous Chinese cuisine, the gracious hospitality of their Chinese hosts and the picturesque tourist attractions like the 108-metre high Guanyin Statue and the Buddhist Nanshan Temple. But what precisely is the strategic symbolism of Sanya and the Hainan Island? Sanya is located close to the disputed Xisha (Paracel) and Nansha (Spratly) Islands in the South China Sea, which China has recently declared as an area of “core interest” like Tibet and Taiwan. The Hainan submarine base, where five nuclear submarines, each armed 12 nuclear tipped with ICBMs, are deployed in underground caves and will also be the home to China’s first aircraft carrier, is located adjacent to Sanya. Chinese naval power concentrated in Sanya has evoked serious concern in both ASEAN and India. Hosting the BRICS Summit in Sanya was evidently a not-too-subtle message to the world about China’s growing military muscle. Our worthy leaders and mandarins have few equals in giving a spin to whatever emerges from Summits with China or Pakistan. Our scribes, therefore, breathlessly reported after Dr. Manmohan Singh met President Hu Jintao, that there had been a “breakthrough” with China supporting our candidature for permanent membership of the Security Council. But alas, all that happened was that the Chinese merely said that they “understand” the “aspiration” of Brazil, India and South Africa to “play a greater role in the UN”. Much has been made of China’s decision to avoid “stapled visas” for journalists from Jammu and Kashmir accompanying the Prime Minister to Sanya. The Chinese “gesture” on stapled visas has been reciprocated by a resumption of military exchanges. But one would caution against too much optimism on continuing peace and tranquility along the border, merely because we have a new “working mechanism” for this. The much touted “Joint Terror Mechanism” with Pakistan only resulted in terrorist attacks on our Embassy in Kabul and the 26/11 terrorist strike on Mumbai. One should realistically place greater emphasis in maintaining peace on our borders with China, not on a “working mechanism” with the Chinese, but on better communications, enhanced and well-equipped military deployments and adequate air power. New Delhi has, however, been more realistic recently in responding to Chinese diplomatic provocations by the commencement of ministerial-level visits, together with moves for concluding a Free Trade Agreement with Taiwan and a more proactive approach to ties with Japan, South Korea and Vietnam. Just before the Sanya Summit, Zhu Xiaochuan, the Governor of China’s Central Bank, called for a “super sovereign currency” to replace the dollar. Moreover, the Chinese had earlier played a key role in the so-called “Chiang Mai initiative” as an alternative to the IMF. The initiative was intended to bail out East Asian economies facing economic downturns. China has consistently sought alternatives to the western dominated Bretton Woods financial institutions. With reserves of three trillion dollars and its foreign aid of $100 billion exceeding the fund transfers of the World Bank, China obviously intends to flex its economic muscle globally. India, which has legitimate concerns about the lack of market-oriented transparency in the valuation of the Chinese yuan has, however, reiterated its faith in the dollar as the global reserve currency and would prefer strengthening the IMF by expansion of “Special Drawing Rights”. But there was an agreement in principle in Sanya to establish credit lines in local currencies, which will insulate recipients from exchange rate risks. It remains to be seen if BRICS can establish such credit lines for infrastructure and other joint projects. At the same time, BRICS believes that the current domination of the IMF and the World Bank by G7 members should end. The Sanya Summit did, however, signal that despite differences, there was much the partners shared in common on issues ranging from climate change and the continuing relevance of safe nuclear energy to the transfer of financial resources and technology to developing countries. Moreover, despite Russia and Brazil being resource-rich countries, there was a shared concern about prevalent volatility in the prices of energy and food. The Summit also sent out a clear message that emerging powers intended to strengthen contacts on security-related issues and would coordinate their positions in forums like the Security Council. National Security Advisers of BRICS are to discuss security issues of common concern in China later this year and their Foreign Ministers are scheduled to meet annually in New York. Further, as all BRICS members are presently members of the Security Council, they have agreed to expand contacts on western intervention in Libya. While a criticism of NATO actions has been avoided, BRICS will support the African high-level initiative, which has been rejected by the Libyan opposition in Benghazi. While there has been much talk of building a multi-polar world order, it is evident that Russia, Brazil, South Africa and India recognise that in an ultimate analysis, China really seeks a bipolar world order, which it jointly dominates together with the Americans. Moreover, there is no dearth of Americans who feel likewise. The Chinese have after all told the American military that while the US Pacific Fleet should wield power in the Eastern Pacific, it should recognise the western Pacific and Indian Ocean regions as China’s spheres of influence. While one wonders if this is realistically possible, India is realising the importance of multiple-level engagement with all major powers. But, given Chinese global ambitions, one has to proceed with due care on engagement with the “Middle Kingdom”. BRICS has to be built patiently, brick by
brick.
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A new beginning of life
A recently retired colleague from the Delhi Development Authority where I had worked on deputation, made a desperate call to me to help him secure his granddaughter’s admission in a reputed school in South Delhi; a task more difficult than securing an appointment with President Obama! Having made similar calls, before he chose to call me up, disappointment and bitterness rang through his voice. I understood immediately. The relationship forged during the course of service crumbles the moment you step out of the office; a fact that officers who retire have to come to terms with. Reassuring him my help, I quipped, sugar coating the bitter pill, that we all fall in the category of “chale huey kartoos” (spent bullets). I remember that as my retirement from service approached, I had started preparing myself mentally for the grand paradigm shift. I had seen a lot of people wither at the loss of power, position and the sense of purpose that being in service brings. After nearly four decades, the job unfortunately defines you and becomes the fulcrum of your existence. Post retirement, you have to reinvent yourself without the vigour of youth and with limited options. But no amount of preparation can make the first year of retirement easy. I felt a huge social and official disconnect from bureaucratic networking. Some colleagues refused to recognise me, some were too busy to take or return my calls and a subordinate who used to lunge for my feet on sight did not even have the courtesy to say goodbye or keep in touch. The knowledge that this happens to everyone does not make it any less brutal. But what the process does is sift the grain from the chaff. You discover the colleagues and friends who genuinely care and respond. This process and the invaluable time on my hands which seemed like a bit of a burden in the beginning, made me realise that life is beyond the 9 to 5 that I had believed defined me. There is actually too much to do and too little time. This is the time I have earned to pursue my passions without any pressures of everyday life. It is the time for self discovery, of introspection and of embracing the joy that comes doing what you love doing most. To all my fellow retirees, I urge you to follow a basic code of conduct to avoid disappointments and hurt. Do not make unnecessary recommendations and ask for favours from your colleagues, friends and subordinates and as much as possible do not visit them in their offices unless extremely necessary or by invitation. And grab life in all its challenges and mysteries. Before the call from my friend, I had never really felt that I had retired as I had immersed myself in literary and other professional pursuits. As I sat back and thought for sometime post this call, I realised that retirement is not the end but another milestone, another change — a brand new beginning in this ever changing, ever altering cycle of life, the auteur of which is only you. Death is and remains the only finality in life, as the Latin proverb goes ‘mors omnibus communis’ – which is common to
all!
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US scrambles to contain fallout from ‘damaging’ Guantanamo leak THE Obama administration was working furiously to prevent the re-ignition of international criticism and Arab fury over the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba where hundreds of terror suspects have been kept in extra-judicial limbo, after leaked documents revealed the flimsy intelligence on which many of the detentions have been based.
The US insisted that the documents, originally handed to the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks and then obtained by the New York Times, painted an incomplete and outdated picture of life at the camp, which scarred President George Bush’s relations with the rest of the world and which President Barack Obama has failed to close as he promised. In a statement that completed the 180-degree turn in President Obama’s approach to Guantanamo, the Pentagon weighed in to support President Bush’s approach to dealing with the people picked up and brought to the camp on suspicion of being what he called “enemy combatants”. Condemning the leaks, it said: “Both the previous and the current administrations have made every effort to act with the utmost care and diligence in transferring detainees from Guantanamo. The previous administration transferred 537 detainees; to date, the current administration has transferred 67. Both administrations have made the protection of American citizens the top priority, and we are concerned that the disclosure of these documents could be damaging to those efforts.” President Obama signed an executive order for the closure of the camp by January 2010, but it remains open with 172 prisoners, out of 779 men who have been held there since it was established in 2002. The leaked documents include files on more than 700 of the prisoners, many of which had been known only from a list of names until now. Many of the files include pictures and details of detainees’ backgrounds, a trove of data that paints a picture of intelligence-gathering inside the camp and beyond and which provides ammunition for both sides in the bitter political battle over the camp. The documents describe in stark terms the consequences for individuals of a process that lacked the protections for the innocent that would be common in the US criminal justice system. Elderly men suffering senile dementia and innocent farmers picked up near the site of roadside bombings were among people brought to Guantanamo on the flimsiest of evidence — sometimes even with no reason at all recorded in their files — with months or even years passing before their release. Some of the individuals have been highlighted before by human rights campaigners, though the cache of documents provides new detail on their cases. An Al Jazeera cameraman was held for six years in part because authorities believed he would provide useful information about the TV channel’s training programme and newsgathering operation. The British resident Binyam Mohamed, released by the Obama administration after five years, had been implicated in a dirty bomb plot only on the basis of claims from a fellow prisoner who had been subjected to waterboarding by interrogators. The files were also seized upon yesterday by supporters of the extra-judicial process for dealing with terrorist suspects, who pointed to cases of Guantanamo detainees that were freed and who subsequently turned or returned to violence. Assessors at Guantanamo originally divided detainees into three categories, depending on their view of the risks their release would pose to US security, depending on what they believed to the suspects’ links to al-Qa’ida, the Taliban or other extremist groups, and based on whether they had cooperated with authorities or expressed violent feelings towards the US. The Pentagon yesterday pointed out that that system had been abandoned in favour of a more nuanced approach that is not shown in the leaked documents, which were written between 2002 and 2008. Last month, after a two-year freeze on military tribunals at Guantanamo, the administration said they would be restarted and laid down the rules for holding some of the detainees inside the camp indefinitely. Among the other issues thrown up by the leak and threatening to cause difficulties for the Obama administration, the documents show that Pakistan’s main intelligence agency, the ISI, was classified at Guantanamo as a terrorist organisation, like more than 60 militant networks, so that detainees linked to them might be considered to have “provided support to al-Qaida and the Taliban, or engaged in hostilities against U.S. and coalition forces”. —The Independent
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What we’ve learnt from the Guantanamo files Al-Qa’ida agent ‘worked for MI6’
The British and Canadian secret services were victims of a double agent who, at the same time as working as an MI6 informant, was serving as a kidnapper and assassin for al-Qa’ida, according to the CIA. The old were taken, too
Mohammed Sadiq, below, a frail Afghan man of 89 with senile dementia, was flown half-way around the world and detained for two months at Camp Delta — the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba — before officials there decided he was neither a Taliban grandee nor a member of al-Qa’ida. Mr Sadiq had been arrested at his home He was not the only elderly Afghan taken to the camp. Haji Faiz Mohammed, 70, right, who also had senile dementia, was seized in a raid on a mosque. “There is no reason on the record” for his detention, his file says, but he was still held for nine months. Some were freed to fight again
One of the men now training Libyan rebels in Benghazi is a former Libyan army tank driver who fought in Afghanistan and Sudan before spending four years at Guantanamo. The case of Abu Sufian Ibrahim Ahmed Hamuda bin Qumu, 51, was being pored over in the US yesterday — not just for what it says about the kinds of people detained at Guantanamo, but also for what it says about those involved in the Nato-backed resistance to the Gadaffi regime. Mr Qumu, who was diagnosed with a “non-specific personality disorder”, escaped from a Libyan jail in 1993 and fought with groups linked to al-Qa’ida until he was captured in a tribal area of Pakistan after the US-led invasion of neighbouring Afghanistan. He was handed over to the Libyan government in 2007 and released from prison there the following year in an amnesty for militants. Cases of mistaken identity
Of all the miscarriages of justice revealed in the leaked documents, that of Mohammed Nasim, right, stands out. He spent two years at Guantanamo because he shared the name of a prominent Taliban leader. His file says: “The detainee was apprehended after a name similar to his was heard on a radio intercept thought to be originating from a group of individuals acting as sentries, reporting US troop movements to the Taliban. It is assessed that the detainee is a poor farmer and his arrest was due to mistaken identity.” However, the failure of assessors at Guantanamo to verify their captives’ real names can cut both ways. Said Mohammed Alam Shah, a 24-year-old Afghan with a prosthetic leg, was judged to have been working to flee the Taliban. On returning to Afghanistan in 2004, he revealed himself to be Abdullah Mehsud, a Pakistani militant leader who carried out bombings, kidnappings. Osama bin Laden’s whereabouts
Evidence collected from detainees at Guantanamo helped to build up a picture of the movements of Osama bin Laden, below, after the US attacks of 11 September, 2001, although the intelligence dried up quickly and the al-Qa’ida leader remains at large. With many of the group’s senior leaders among those kept at Camp Delta, leaked documents from their files can be used to track apparent al-Qa’ida activities before and after the World Trade Centre was destroyed. They show that Osama bin Laden made public speeches in Kandahar province to rally support, telling Taliban fighters there “to defend Afghanistan against the infidel invaders” and to “fight in the name of Allah”. He also travelled around the country to issue orders and meet supporters. Bin Laden is last recorded escaping from his hideout in the Tora Bora mountains.
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