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Crossing the line
Soaring success |
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Domestic abuse
Caution: Work in progress
Chandigarh, then and now
Imran scores a popular century
India should be proactive in promoting regional peace
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Crossing the line
The frequent lapses of the executive in the recent past have earned adverse comments from Supreme Court judges, some of whom have now got emboldened to cross the Lakshman rekha drawn to mark the separation of powers in the Constitution. On July 4 the Supreme Court constituted a special investigation team (SIT) to look into the affairs of Hasan Ali Khan and the Tapurias, suspected black money holders, and bring back unlawful money kept abroad. Many Indians may share the Supreme Court’s conclusion that the government is not doing enough to trace black money and even share its disgust at the slow pace of investigation. But not many expect the court to take up the executive’s job and appoint retired judges as the Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the SIT and also rope in the RAW chief, who is supposed to keep a low profile. This happened after the court had described as insufficient the high-level committee appointed by the government to do the job. Now how and whether the SIT would do a better job is a matter of opinion. It was, therefore, quite natural for the government to move the Supreme Court and seek a recall of the July 4 court order, which, according to the government petition, impinged on its jurisdiction and violated the doctrine of separation of powers. Moreover, the original petitioner, Ram Jethmalani, had not prayed for the constitution of a SIT. This is not the first time that the judiciary and the executive are engaged in a turf battle. Judicial activism pursued in recent years has been widely appreciated in this country. It is when judicial activism turns to “judicial overreach” that it becomes an issue. There is a very thin dividing line and any suspected or actual digression provokes a controversy. A Supreme Court Bench comprising Justices G.S. Singhvi and A.K. Ganguly has reacted to the charge of courts “exceeding the unwritten boundaries of their jurisdiction”. Nobody negates the good work judges are doing in helping the needy. But frequent, harsh criticism of the executive is avoidable. It seems the government has started to assert itself by challenging the SIT order. |
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Soaring success
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) fell back on its old workhorse, the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), to launch a heavy communication satellite successfully, and in doing so, it showed both its strength and weakness. The PSLV has an enviable record of successfully delivering payloads in space, while its bigger version, the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) has a chequered history. After the two successive failures of GSLV rockets last year, ISRO understandably decided to make modifications to the PSLV rocket and use that for the successful launch of its GSAT-12 satellite. The satellite’s 12 extended C-band transponders, when they are fully tested by the end of the month, will provide a much-needed boost to various communication services such as tele-education, telemedicine and village resource centres as well as disaster management. A bigger and more powerful satellite, GSAT-10, will be launched later in the year by an Ariane-5ECA. The satellite has lift-off mass of 3435 kg, for which GSLVs would be needed. ISRO has been making steady progress in indigenising GSLVs, but the cryogenic engines have proved to be a formidable challenge, more so because ISRO had to start on them from scratch after Russia reneged on its deal to provide hydrogen-fuelled rocket engines and technical knowhow under US pressure in 1992. While there have been failures, there is no doubt that ISRO will be able to successfully meet this challenge, as it has done in the past. Indeed, the Indian space programme has been much lauded, not only for its success but also the relatively low cost at which it has been achieved. Having put the Indian flag on the moon, ISRO now seeks to send Indian astronauts into space. However, that endeavour is dependent not only on the success of its GSLV programme but its continued, flawless launches. Having delivered much to the nation, it is expected that ISRO will rise to the challenge yet again, even as it gets a pat on the back for yet another successful launch. |
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Domestic abuse
Violence against women is not unknown in India. What is particularly appalling is that they are unsafe even in places where they ought to feel the safest. From a mother’s womb to her marital home, a woman’s very existence is threatened at every step. According to the report of UN Women (a United Nation’s organisation) 35 per cent women in India face domestic violence. Not only have victims reported physical violence at the hands of their partners but a good 10 per cent have faced sexual violence too. Worse still, it’s not only the men who condone violence; even women feel that domestic violence is justified. The visible presence of women in empowering positions has done little to change their position in the family matrix. When it comes to man-woman equation it seems that the fair sex continues to remain at the receiving end. The recent case involving a diplomat proves wife beating is not restricted to any particular class. Ironically, studies have even found a direct correlation between education and domestic violence. Reports have also shown that even new-generation men are no less guilty. The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, hailed as a pathbreaking piece of legislation, was expected to bring relief to women. But what to talk of holding men accountable for verbal abuse, by and large men have been getting away with physical violence too. While the UN report has lamented the negligible presence of women as judges and rightly called for more gender-sensitive laws, clearly laws alone are not enough. Though many women have sought recourse to the DVA law and courts too have delivered heartening judgements, still domestic violence continues to be not only widespread but often goes unreported. Indeed, there is an urgent need to spread awareness that domestic abuse is not just a personal affair. At the same time men have to be reconditioned to change their convoluted notions of masculinity. Women, too, must fight gender biased attitudes. Men will learn to respect women only if the so-called weaker sex sheds its meek behaviour that grants an alibi of sorts to reprehensible acts such as wife beating. |
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My formula for living is quite simple. I get up in the morning and I go to bed at night. In between, I occupy myself as best I can. — Cary Grant |
Caution: Work in progress
The disappointment and breast- beating over the Union Cabinet reshuffle comes from excessive expectations created in media and political circles by the kind of incestuous hype that appears to drive so much public discourse in India. Media speculation was rife and fatuous panel discussions night after night, with Opposition sharpshooters taking position among the pundits and media oracles, caused much fur to fly. When the actual event turned out to be a more modest and sober, yet business-like affair in the given circumstances, political punters and others who had placed outlandish bets felt cheated. This is not to suggest that reshuffle has given the country an ideal Cabinet. But given the political and coalitional constraints he faced, the Prime Minister has not done too badly. Some non-performers have been put to pasture and good new faces brought in. Sometimes a change in portfolio can reflect on performance. One will have to wait and see. Some deadwood remains. Mr Jairam Ramesh has not been penalised nor pushed out from the Ministry of Environment and Forests. He did a great deal to put that once-moribund ministry on the map and ably steered India’s position in global negotiations on climate change. He also took a firm line on implementation of conditionalities attached to forest and environmental clearances but perhaps pushed too far at the cost of avoidable delays in sanctioning landmark power, mining and manufacturing projects, using retrospective application of new laws in some instances to stymie progress. He had later softened his stand as in the case of the Jaitapur nuclear project. Yet he had become a red rag to the bull and this is perhaps why he was moved, yielding place to a more soft-spoken but no less savvy successor in Ms Jayanti Natarajan. Mr Ramesh will have every opportunity to show his mettle in the important Rural Development Ministry where he will be the custodian of a number of vital grassroots programmes such as NREGA. One can have little sympathy with some ministers of state who desired no less than Cabinet portfolios, their egos outrunning their abilities or sense of service over self. More worrying than the naming of ministers is the balkanisation of ministries and departments within them over the years to accommodate all and sundry. This has added to costs, fragmentation of responsibility and incompetence without serving any real political purpose. This is something that calls for early and urgent reform. It is a pity that the positions of parliamentary secretaries and deputy ministers have disappeared whereas they could be a valuable training and proving ground for younger talent. Similarly, the “weight” attached to ministries has been wayward, patronage and opportunities for rent seeking often being private criteria for preference rather than the social importance of the charge. Thus, water resources has been treated most casually in recent time and sometimes power, mining and health. Ministers in absentia, like Ms Mamata Bannerjee earlier and Mr Alagizhi, also send out wrong signals and impair the culture of good governance. The Railways has been allowed to roll downhill over the years, most often being seen as a source of patronage and rent-seeking. These are important matters that demand urgent attention because UPA-II will be judged over the rest of its three-year tenure by performance — progress on interrupted economic reforms, positioning India to take its place as an emerging regional and potential global power, and administrative reforms that must include systems improvement, personnel training, lateral recruitment, autonomy to regulators and cutting out fat in staffing while providing adequate numbers of judges, teachers, doctors, policemen and other key functionaries. The challenge before the government is not winning the UP polls through brash grandstanding or petty manoeuvres, but by policies, performance and creating the basis for the next great leap forward by critical reforms, HRD and infrastructure development. This alone will provide jobs and growth and make for poverty alleviation. The Land Acquisition Bill, the Lokpal Bill (though the issues involved are far wider, including police reform and reform of the criminal justice system) and the Equal Opportunity Bill are only some among the major priorities. Autonomy for public service and community broadcasting should also be among things to do as communication and informed dialogue are necessary for participative governance. It is good that the matter of higher defence management has again been raised through the appointment of a high-level committee under Mr Naresh Chandra. The debate on a chief of defence staff and integrated theatre commands has been reopened. The matter was studied by the Arun Singh Committee in the Rajiv era. It was again endorsed by the Kargil Review Committee and the task force on higher defence management set up as a consequence and approved by a GoM thereafter. The matter was intensively debated within the Ministry of Defence and every effort was made to assuage the anxieties of the smaller services, the Navy and the Air Force. It was suggested that the first two CDS should come from these two services. The Fortress Command, established in the Andamans, has worked well. An Integrated Defence branch has been set up but there the matter rests. It is necessary that a satisfactory resolution is soon found as higher defence planning and strategic thinking cannot be left to single services or a non-functional National Security Council. The Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, though useful, is not fully equipped for the task. A clear decision and early closure is required so that the country can plan its security and strategic framework more effectively. Finally, there have been demands in the country, especially in Tamil Nadu, that India support the demand for a war crimes commission to probe the alleged genocide by Sri Lanka’s armed forces that brought the LTTE insurgency/war to a close. These are largely based on a documentary, “The Killing Fields” produced by the UK’s Channel Four TV. The Sri Lankan authorities challenge the authenticity of the film and argue that a high powered internal commission is seized of all allegations and complaints and that its verdict should be awaited. This is not an unreasonable proposition and could be more acceptable if international observers could be attached to the commission. India should be in no hurry to demand a war crimes commission to pacify domestic opinion as its own early role in assisting the thoroughly unscrupulous and murderous LTTE constitutes a sorry tale. There is a need to act with caution
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Chandigarh, then and now
WHILE I was moving into Chandigarh, on my maiden voyage, I was feeling excited but nervous, like a hesitant teenager approaching a beautiful maiden. I was to migrate to the city beautiful for higher studies, after completing my schooling in remote parts of Haryana. Ecstatic as I was, I thanked God for granting my wish, to stay afloat in the lap of what was often hyped to be as stunning and vibrant as Helen of Troy. As the bus rolled in, I truly felt flabbergasted in admiration, while I explored various parts en route. Echoing with Christopher Marlowe in “Dr Faustus”, I kept wondering, “Was this the face that launch’d a thousand ships, and burnt …” hundreds of buses by over-enthusiasts of Punjab and Haryana, clamouring “Helen, come, here will I dwell”. I instantly fell in love with Chandigarh, renowned for its astute planning, social fluidity, throbbing culture and elitist moorings. I was over-run by scholastic milieu too, ruling in educational institutes here. With bubbly Shivaliks pulsating in the background, the city used to breathe fresh and look refreshing, like an outpouring woman, sprinkled with droplets. The Rose Garden had justly been christened as a romantic cradle for nascent lovers, cool and thrilling. Some of us would regularly play truant from nearby DAV College to gaze upon blooming roses and rosy girls, much to the annoyance of Principal Triloki Nath. He rather coined a hilarious interpretation to what the three monkeys of Bapu preached- “Don’t you see, talk or hear anything about girls”. Had he had his way, he would have certainly dumped all boys in the northern hemisphere and girls in the southern hemisphere. Chandigarh today is not what it used to be, not long ago. Earlier known for its elegance, it has now, over the years, graduated into a city of heterosexuals. Its gorgeous beauty has been ravished, architectural grandeur robbed, culture invaded, character violated. Its heart, Sukhna Lake, gets choked rather too often; its road-arteries cry for angioplasty whereas engineers are content with installation of mere stents and routine patch-work. Surely, it is now aging fast to its unnatural demise, triggered by deforestation and consequent contraction of its lungs. True to what Francis Bacon outlined in his essay “Of Great Place”, the Chandigarhians too have become “thrice servants: servants of sovereign; servants of fame; and servants of business”. Its “men in great fortunes have turned strangers to themselves”, and when a Chandigarhian “sits in place, he is another man”. Even Le Corbusier, the French architect, would have been driven to the precipice of committing suicide, had he seen how haphazardly its skyline was being vitiated. Last night, an agitated Corbusier appeared in my dream and thundered, how he had created a city of dreams, out of the ashes of what was it once called, city of ghosts. He pleaded to me, to rekindle the wonderland, he had so beautifully styled, akin to Paris, away from Paris. I instantly nodded to join hands with his “open hand”, to re-discover the lost heritage. Hence, this
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Imran scores a popular century ALL those who frown at the Imran Khan options in politics, they presumably are the indefatigable optimists who still believe that so-called progressive politics still has a future in this country; or they are people who exist at a comfortable distance from Lahore and have no idea of the long-reigning monotony in the city. For those who cannot escape Lahore and have fallen off the progressive cocoons, Imran Khan has already livened up the proceedings with his new spell. He has displayed his growing street power in Karachi as well as in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. In Punjab, which he should be very keen on impacting, he has spun an impressive show in Multan and is now set to take his campaign to Faisalabad. What is more, he has sought to fulfil the long-voiced demand of a programme from him by coming up with a 100-day crash plan on reforming Pakistan. In the tradition of a true guerilla fighter, the keyword that sustains his advance is withdrawal. Mr Khan says that should his party come to power he is going to focus on political approaches to end the war on terror. Force will be the last option. Indeed, his party, the PTI, would withdraw from the war on terror and declare a war on corruption instead. The troops would be withdrawn from Fata and Mr Khan’s favourite grand jirga would be constituted to bring in peace. The government will be inclined to say that this is exactly how they viewed the Fata situation before they were compelled to employ force as a last resort. Imran Khan goes beyond this when he promises such drastic steps as the setting up of a commission to probe rights violations in Fata and Swat, cancellation of visas of all foreign security operators, not to speak of a ban on drone attacks and a blockage of Nato supplies. Within the first 100 days of power, Imran Khan promises an independent accountability commission under a new anti-corruption law; dismantling of sugar, cement, fertiliser cartels; a Pakistan infrastructure fund contributed to by overseas Pakistanis; reduction in indirect taxation on fuel; end to deficit financing; elimination of the power circular debt and hawala transactions. If not an exact opposite of the current government policies, Imran Khan’s 100 is anti-status quo and as ambitious a vote-catcher as one can hope for. In a nutshell, it reads like a collection of all the pro-people, anti-establishment stories the journalists have a bias for in times such as these. It is reflective of the sentiments of large sections of Pakistanis. This is not about power, at least not as yet, and not about whether Mr Khan has the ability or the right conditions to change. He may not be exactly poised for a landslide in elections — he is popular enough and his calls are being reciprocated sufficiently by the public for other politicians to make adjustments accordingly. It does serve as a serious enough agent that is seeking to break the monotony of Pakistani politics. You have to be permanently living in Lahore since the Zia days to realise how desperately some of us crave diversity and an anti-thesis to the present theme. It’s been the same faces, the same politics in which the Sharifs have been — sometimes only academically — pitted against the PPP. Nawaz Sharif is not even an MNA. Yet he gets to chair in Lahore’s own imposing ‘Nine Zero’ meetings that are called to decide important matters of the government. He was back at ‘Nine Zero’ Mall last week, to oversee some corrective work of very basic nature on the famed but somewhat stalled Walled City Project. This omnipresence of the Sharifs obviously has its merits. For beginners, the old dictum that you could never accuse the Sharifs of idleness still holds true as whatever takes place in the province by way of governance carries the Sharif stamp on it. Boring stuff, ultimately. Imran Khan injects an element of the expected-unexpected in the air. Those who have been on the tour before Mr Khan, like the passengers on the Islamic Jamhoori Ittehad’s establishment-driven bandwagon, realise what miracles on-way hospitality from the right quarters can lead to. Consequently, there is visible anxiety in the Raiwind camp, which in a recent statement, considered Mr Khan to be worthy enough of playing for President Zardari. This is not about power but about something that is more profound and permanent. The increasing discussion about Imran Khan and his politics as an option signals the establishment of new benchmarks in Pakistani politics upon which the future moderates and those who are not in this category will be judged. Through a long process, the right has gained ground in the country as it has elsewhere in the world. It is now looking to consolidate. With past progressives failing to listen to pro-people stories crying out to be heard, it may essentially turn out to be a fight among the right to decide who gets the consolidation contract. From among their ranks will emerge leaders who we are going to address as forward-looking. Imran Khan is an important player in the game who is in need of partners. He once had a team even if he was not known for carrying out expert plans. Today he has got a plan and should go looking for a team. The writer is Dawn’s Resident Editor in Lahore.
(By arrangement with Dawn) |
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India should be proactive in promoting regional peace This watery graveyard contains the life-savings of hundreds of Indian fishermen who were unfortunate enough to cross the unmarked coastal boundary between Indian and Pakistani waters. Captured and locked up, they languish in jail, sometimes for years. Their release in exchange for Pakistani fishermen in Indian jails for a similar ‘crime’ depends on the state of relations between the two countries. The rotting boats and the imprisoned fishermen are apt metaphors for the situation in which India and Pakistan find themselves. Frozen in their rigid position of no-war, no-peace, both countries take out their frustration on the weakest of the weak. As the recent meetings between Indian and Pakistani officials showed yet again, there is little stomach for a sane and peaceful resolution of their outstanding problems on either side. They go through the rituals of pretending to negotiate, knowing full well that no agreements will emerge at the end of the exercise. There is simply no political will in either Islamabad or New Delhi to cut the Gordian knot. And yet, there was a time when there was hope for a breakthrough. Under Benazir Bhutto and Rajiv Gandhi in 1989, an agreement over the absurd squabble over the Siachen glacier was reached. Sadly, the Indian establishment torpedoed it before the ink had dried. And Musharraf, for all his flaws, as well his responsibility for the Kargil folly, genuinely tried to solve the festering Kashmir dispute, and presented some out-of-the-box ideas, including putting the UN resolutions aside. He was snubbed by India for his pains. So, if Pakistan, with its huge security problems, its dysfunctional civilian government and its prickly, blinkered generals, can make serious attempts at mending fences with its neighbour, why can’t India? After all, with its overwhelming military superiority, its rapidly expanding economy and the goodwill it has globally, it should be brimming with self-confidence. So, what excuse does India have for not being more proactive and imaginative in promoting regional peace? The truth is that somehow, despite its economic and military clout, India continues to punch well below its weight in the region. When Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said recently that 25 per cent of all Bangladeshis hated India, he might have been undiplomatic, but he was saying something everybody knows. Here is a much smaller neighbour that owes India its very existence as an independent state, and yet anti-India sentiments in Bangladesh are rampant. Or take Sri Lanka, an even smaller neighbour. In the closing stages of the civil war two years ago, tens of thousands of Tamils were massacred, and India could do nothing to persuade Colombo to desist. This is despite the fact that the citizens of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu were convulsed at the sight of their cousins being slaughtered. The only time India attempted to intervene in the conflict was when it sent a peace-keeping force to the island. These soldiers were pulled out after three years following heavy fighting with the LTTE. Since then, India remained a bystander while Pakistan and China armed and trained government forces. So, although India is helping Sri Lanka with various infrastructure projects, it has very little influence in Colombo. Or take Nepal, another of India’s neighbours that has gone though a long and bloody civil war. Although the land-locked nation’s economy is almost completely integrated with India’s, New Delhi was unable to intervene in the civil war, or in the long political crisis that has paralysed the country. Even within India, the expanding Naxalite insurrection, as well as other separatist movements in Mizoram and Kashmir, highlight the establishment’s lack of imagination and self-confidence. These problems have been around for decades, and continue to get worse rather than better. Surely some creative ideas ought to have been put forward by now. But force seems to be the only answer New Delhi is capable of. India’s successful entrepreneurs have seized opportunities created by globalisation, as well as by their country’s growing middle class and its trained manpower. Indian politicians, diplomats and civil servants, on the other hand, retain their old mindset from an era when India was just another developing nation. Instead of using its expanded hard and soft power to have a greater say in the region, India appears to be a timid player on the world stage. In order to translate its growing strength into influence, India need not be the bully on the block, as it has so often seemed to its smaller neighbours. Given its resources and expertise in many fields, it can reach out to extend a helping hand. It can and should expand trade, and encourage its entrepreneurs to invest in the region. The regional organisation, Saarc, must be reactivated to become the platform for expanding regional trade and travel it was designed to be. But for any of this to happen, India needs to break out of its timorous frame of mind and think big. Before it can be seriously accepted as a major global player, it has to sort out its regional disputes. Whenever I have suggested that India can afford to be magnanimous as it is so much more powerful than Pakistan, I am routinely attacked by Indian readers. But what’s the alternative? Clearly, Pakistan’s generals are too insecure to take the initiative, and its shaky civilian government is in no position to take up from where Musharraf left off. However, both Asif Zardari and Nawaz Sharif have expressed their desire to normalise relations with India.Somehow, the political elites as well as the media in both countries are quite content with the status quo. They seem to think that it is perfectly normal to stay locked in a confrontation for decades when the rest of the world is moving ahead. And while India has done phenomenally well in recent years, the majority of its population still lives in abject poverty. A few years ago, I was at a conference in Colombo to discuss the Kashmir problem, and a retired Pakistani general said: “India is a big country with a small heart.” It is high time Indians proved him wrong. (By arrangement with Dawn) |
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IN Karachi’s Keamari harbour, near Baba and Bhit islands and close to the Yacht Club, is a macabre sight: scores of wooden fishing boats are quietly rotting away. A few are still riding high in the water, but most are partly submerged, their hulls and masts tilting at crazy angles.