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New hope in South Asia
High-handed Mamata |
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Syrian regime on test
N-threat from Pakistan
The writing of ‘middles’
US food-aid deal collapses following North Korea’s failed long-range missile fire
Korea’s move may try China’s patience
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New hope in South Asia
Concerted efforts to promote trade between India and Pakistan, a liberal visa regime, a new and better Integrated Check Post at the Attari border and India allowing foreign direct investment (FDI) from Pakistan show the realisation on both sides of the political divide that the climate of suspicion and hatred must end. This is in the interest of not only India and Pakistan but also the rest of South Asia. Contentious issues like terrorism and Kashmir can no longer be allowed to prevent the two neighbours from coming closer to each other. The increasing desire for promoting people-to-people contacts and developing greater stakes in economic growth indicates that there is a big constituency in both countries which feels that it is better to concentrate more on the factors which can improve the economic condition of the people on both sides than on contentious issues which have been only harming their long-term interests. Having great stakes in economic growth can weaken the hold of divisive factors on the psyche of the people. As Home Minister P. Chidambaram stated at Attari on Friday, efforts need to be made to remove all barriers that hinder trade between the two countries. Since trade unites, the time has come to allow trading in all items that have a demand on either side. This will go a long way in normalising India-Pakistan relations. The idea is not new. We have before us the India-China template which can be created in the context of India and Pakistan too. There is considerable desire to move ahead on these lines not only in India but also in Pakistan, as President Asif Zardari referred to this idea during his recent visit to New Delhi. Pakistan, however, is not responding to India’s gestures as quickly as it ought to. The delay in the grant of the Most-Favoured Nation status to India and being slow in removing all the items on its list that cannot be traded with India can be cited easily to prove this point. Since we cannot change geography and wars have failed to solve any problem, let us concentrate on trade and industry, which can metamorphose the entire climate in the region. |
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High-handed Mamata
The arrest of a senior professor of Jadavpur University, Ambikesh Mahapatra, and the secretary of a housing society in Kolkata who is a close associate of his, Subrata Sengupta, for forwarding an e-mail that contained a cartoon of Trinamool Congress leaders Mamata Banerjee, Mukul Roy and Dinesh Trivedi is reprehensible. This high-handed action is symbolic of how Ms Banerjee, the State’s chief minister, has gone berserk with power. That Mr Mahapatra was slapped, abused and assaulted by a group of youth who accosted him while he was returning home at night and forced to sign an apology before he was handed over to the police as alleged by Mr Mahapatra shows the brazen assault on freedom of expression under the very nose of the Trinamool-led government. Lest someone may feel that the arrests were not within the knowledge of Ms Banerjee, the chief minister has defended the police action in no uncertain terms. The charges against the two accused included defamation, outraging the modesty of a woman and causing offence using a computer. All for a mere sending of a cartoon to a small list of addressees on the web. This is not the first example in the 11 months she has been in power of Mamata Banerjee’s paranoia and the persecution complex she suffers from. Ms Banerjee began her term by storming a Kolkata police station to free two of her party colleagues who were arrested for rioting, setting a very unhealthy precedent. Her recent action in stopping subscriptions to most mass-circulated Bengali dailies and English language newspapers in public libraries was in itself an outrageous one and violative of basic democratic norms. Ms Banerjee has also had school textbooks rewritten to remove the philosophy of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Her action in removing her party colleague and Union Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi from his post for having proposed a hike in passenger fares was also outlandish. Enough is enough! It is time Mamata’s partymen counsel her against the path of intolerance that she is taking. Instead of getting involved in trivialities, she must provide effective governance to West Bengal which is what the people have elected her government for with much hope. |
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Syrian regime on test
Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad’s moves are being watched with interest by the world community. The UN-brokered ceasefire which came into effect on Thursday remains intact, barring some skirmishes at a few places between government troops and opposition fighters. But Syrian watchers are sceptical about the intentions of the Baathist regime. Past experience shows that Damascus has rarely honoured its commitment to the international community. As a result, the 13-month-long unrest in the country has led to the loss of over 9000 lives in clashes between Syria’s armed forces and opposition fighters. For some time Syria has been on the brink of a civil war, forcing the UN and the Arab League to look for a solution to bring the situation under control. The task of negotiating a ceasefire was assigned to former UN chief Kofi Annan, who prepared a practicable blueprint for peace in Syria. Mr Annan’s negotiating skills made the Syrian ruler agree to a ceasefire in the interest of peace and stability in that country. The Kofi Annan plan for peace is, however, yet to be implemented fully. It calls for, among other things, sending government troops back to barracks and deputing an unarmed UN-mandated team of observers to monitor the implementation of the ceasefire agreement. Efforts are on to convince the Syrian ruler to withdraw his troops from civilian areas. His refusal to do so may invite the ire of the UN Security Council, which will review the Syrian situation at its meeting soon. The time has come for President Bashar Al-Assad to prepare for a peaceful transition of power through democratic elections. There is no other option left for him, as the situation prevails today. Holding on to power on the basis of the questionable referendum he held a few days back will not do. Russia, China and Iran which have been helping the regime to survive may not be able to stand by it forever. Developments in Syria’s immediate neighbourhood provide sufficient proof that no power on earth can help a discredited government survive if people in large numbers come out into the streets seeking regime change. |
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Action is the real measure of intelligence. — Napoleon Hill |
N-threat from Pakistan
The much-hyped second Nuclear Security Summit held at Seoul last month was high on rhetoric and short on substance. Though nearly 50 countries attended the summit and discussed ways and means of trying to reduce the threat of nuclear terrorism, the event was overshadowed by the likelihood of a North Korean launch of a ballistic missile as well as the US President’s off-th- record comments telling Russian President Dmitri Medvedev that the sensitive issue of European missile defence could not be fully addressed in the heat of the 2012 presidential campaign. Though the South Korean government has suggested that the summit did “yield practical outcomes to reduce the threat of nuclear terrorism,” the final communiqué issued at the end of the summit made no reference to either Iran or North Korea, the two nations that are challenging the very foundations of the global nuclear order. Moreover, there was no discussion at all of the elephant in the room when it comes to nuclear terrorism – the possibility of Pakistani nuclear weapons falling into the hands of terrorists as the governing institutions in Pakistan get weaker by the day. For long, the US and the West have viewed nuclear weapons in South Asia with dread because of the possibility that a conventional war between India and Pakistan might escalate into a nuclear one. Bill Clinton called the Kashmir conflict "the most dangerous flashpoint on earth" precisely because of this fear of a nuclear holocaust in the Indian subcontinent. Indian and Pakistani officials, on the other hand, have continued to argue that just as the threat of Mutual Assured Destruction resulted in a "hot peace" between the US and the former Soviet Union during the Cold War, nuclear weapons in South Asia will also have a stabilising impact. They point out the fact that despite several provocations, India and Pakistan have behaved "rationally" during various crises by keeping their conflicts limited and avoiding escalation. But since September 11, 2001, the nature of the problem for the West has changed insofar as the threat is now more of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal being used against the West by radical Islamists if they can lay their hands on it. The present turmoil in Pakistan has once again raised concerns about the safety, security and command and control of its nuclear stockpile. Though Pakistan's government continues to dismiss media reports that its nuclear weapons were in danger of falling into the "wrong hands" as "inspired," and stressed that Pakistan provided the highest level of institutionalised protection to its strategic assets, the credibility of such claims remains open to question. Instituted in 2000, Pakistan's nuclear command and control arrangements are centered on the National Command Authority, which comprises the Employment Control Committee, the Development Control Committee and the Strategic Plans Division. Only a small group of military officials apparently have access to the country's nuclear assets. However, these command and control arrangements continue to be beset with some fundamental vulnerabilities that underline the reluctance of the Pakistani military to cede control over the nation's nuclear assets to civilian leaders. It is instructive to note that of all the major nuclear states in the world, Pakistan is the only country where the nuclear button is in the hands of the military. Moreover, senior civilian and military officials responsible for these weapons have a problematic track-record in maintaining close control over them. AQ Khan was the head of the Pakistani nuclear programme (and a veritable national hero) but was instrumental in making Pakistan the centre of the biggest nuclear proliferation network by leaking technology to states far and wide, including Iran, North Korea and Libya. Pakistani nuclear scientists have even travelled to Afghanistan at the behest of Osama bin Laden. While it is true that the Pakistani military remains largely professional and perhaps the only cohesive force in the country today, it has also become deeply demoralised, reflected in the large number of soldiers preferring to surrender to the militants rather than fight. There are growing signs of fraying loyalties in the Pakistani army, underlining the danger to its cohesiveness. The growing "Islamisation" of the younger generation of Pakistani military officers is well-recorded. Given the close links between the Pakistani military and intelligence services and the militant groups fighting in Kashmir and the Taliban, it is not far-fetched to assume that there is a real danger of elements within Pakistan's military-intelligence complex colluding with radical Islamist groups. Pakistan has accepted US help since 9/11 in designing its system of controls for its nuclear arsenal and the prevention of theft. The US has reportedly spent about $100 million in helping Pakistan secure its nuclear arsenal, and some reports have suggested that Pakistan has also received technical assistance from the US. Throughout the Cold War years, it was viewed as politically prudent in the West and especially in the US to ignore Pakistan's drive towards nuclear acquisition, as Pakistan was seen as an important ally of the West in countering the Soviet Union in Afghanistan and elsewhere. Nuclear proliferation has never been a first order priority for the US when it comes to Pakistan. Now the chickens are coming home to roost as the Pakistani military seems unable and unwilling to take on the Islamist forces gathering momentum on Pakistani territory on the one hand; while on the other, the nation's nuclear weapons seem within reach of the extremist forces. The turmoil in Pakistan and all its attendant consequences in the nuclear realm point to the long-term costs of short-sighted policies — the politics of proliferation — followed by the West in countering
proliferation. |
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The writing of ‘middles’
In 1971, after the debacle of my first book, my friend Khurshid gave me a piece of advice: “People don’t buy books in English by unknown Indian authors. Spend the next five years writing for the newspapers. People will recognise your name and buy your books.” I paid no heed and went on to churn out another 12 books. One of them still gets an annual reprint, 18 years after it was first published, a few ran into second and third editions, but most of them sank without a ripple. Then I began to write ‘middles’. They were an instant success. I received endless phone calls, e- mails and yes, even letters, from total strangers saying how much they had enjoyed reading a particular ‘middle’. When I am introduced to someone, his first statement usually is a declaration of how much he loves my ‘middles’ The ‘middles’ have served to bring me into contact with a large number of people, some of whom I now count amongst my friends. They have also served to re-establish contact with my past. One letter came from my teacher of English, who taught me in Class VII. He said he enjoyed reading my ‘middles’ and that, perhaps, he could claim some credit for them. He definitely could! He used to give me the highest marks in class. I am not too sure that he improved my English but he did give me an exaggerated opinion about my ability in the language, an opinion which persists even today and which has led me to all my writing, including my ‘middles’. There was an e- mail from an Assistant Professor of English from Lucknow University – my university. He claimed kinship with me on the grounds that he too was from Punjab, that like me he had studied and now taught in Lucknow University and that we had the same supervisor for our doctorates. His mail was a breath from my past. He said he enjoyed my ‘middles’ very much and congratulated me on my prize-winning story which he had read in the Little Magazine. Then there was a phone call from a lady from Sham Chaurasi. She said that she and her mother-in-law, who was from my village, Dingarian, were great fans of my ‘middles’. It turned out that the lady was the daughter of my second cousin Sarup Singh. Readers have become familiar with my name but this familiarity has, not translated itself into an increased sale of my books. I had to buy up 1,027 copies of my last book, at a discounted price, to save them from being shredded. They came in handy to give away as presents, though I don’t think the beneficiaries of this largesse were altogether pleased! Khurshid’s advice was obviously based on a blemished premise. But I don’t mind. What my ‘middles’ have done for me is far more valuable than something as inconsequential as the sale of a few more
books. |
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US food-aid deal collapses following North Korea’s failed long-range missile fire
The US has said that it will not deliver on its promise to provide food aid to North Korea after the failed launch of its long-range rocket, which plunged into the sea just over a minute after take-off late on Thursday. The US and its allies had accused North Korea of attempting to launch a long-range missile, though North Korea maintains that the rocket had been carrying a satellite intended for weather monitoring. “Their efforts to launch a missile clearly demonstrates that they could not be trusted to keep their commitments,” Ben Rhodes, spokesperson for the White House National Security Council, said on Friday. “Therefore, we are not going forward with an agreement to provide them with any assistance.” Malnutrition among children In February, Washington promised 2,40,000 tons of food packages to North Korea, where an estimated one-third of children are thought to suffer from severe malnutrition, in return for the nation’s pledge to cease its nuclear programme. An emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council was convened on Friday, April 13, in the wake of the failed launch. A brief statement afterwards said members had agreed to continue consultations “on an appropriate response” to the launch “in accordance with its responsibilities given the urgency of the matter”. Admits failure In an unusual step, North Korea admitted the “failure” of the satellite “to enter preset orbit” on Friday. A woman clad in traditional Korean hanbok dress announced the failure on state TV, saying that “scientists, engineers and experts” were seeking the causes but she did not elaborate. The announcement came four hours after word had already spread around the world. Angus Walker, China correspondent for ITV News, who was in Pyongyang to cover the rocket launch, tweeted on Friday: “Gone midnight in the press centre set up for the rocket launch in North Korea and no official has spoken to reporters to explain failure”. Huge embarrassment The failure comes as a huge embarrassment for North Korea during the build-up for large-scale celebrations on Sunday to mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of North Korea’s founding “Great Leader” Kim Il-sung. In the face of the public-relations disaster, focus was swiftly shifted away from the launch to the nation’s new leader Kim Jong-un, who took power after the death of his father, Kim Jong-il, last year. Hours afterwards, he was named First Chairman of the powerful National Defence Commission – the latest in a string of titles apparently designed to help strengthen his position. Foreign journalists were taken to a ceremony for the unveiling of statues of Kim Il-sung and his son, Kim Jong-il. New “Supreme Commander” Kim Jong-un was at the centre of leaders ranged in front of the statues, facing several thousand cheering people. Rocket disintegrates It was thought on Friday that North Korea would remain defiant, even as the United Nations Security Council convened. South Korean Deputy Defence Minister Lim Kwan-bin told parliament that chances are “very high” that North Korea will carry out another provocative move to improve domestic support. The Unha-3 rocket lifted off at 7.40 local time (22:40 GMT on Thursday) from a specially prepared launch site in Cholsan County, on the country’s western coast, according to South Korean and US monitors. It disintegrated after only a couple of minutes. Into the sea A South Korean defence official said the rocket had been on a trajectory that would have taken it over or near the southernmost Japanese island prefecture of Okinawa and past the northern Philippines before landing in the South Pacific. South Korean sources said the rocket fell into the sea about 140 miles west of Kunsan, a major port on the southwest South Korean coast. Two South Korean destroyers equipped with the latest Aegis radar and ship-to-air missile systems were already patrolling the waters, ready to fire at portions of the rocket if it appeared they might land on South Korean territory. The destroyers, along with smaller craft and helicopters, churned the waters looking for debris from the rocket, believed to have broken up at the critical first stage of separation after launch. May conduct N-test Kim Tae-woo, a defence analyst and president of the Korea Institute for National Unification, said he believes North Korea is committed to developing missiles and nuclear weapons partly to prove the power of Kim Jong-un, who is thought to be under the control of a clique of generals and relatives. The crash has fuelled fears North Korea may conduct its third underground nuclear test in the near future. “What they are concerned about is not to improve the quality of life of their people, but to consolidate behind Kim Jong-un,” he said. The US, South Korea and Japan all denounced the launch as a violation of UN sanctions. — The Independent |
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Korea’s move may try China’s patience
There are two aspects of the failed North Korean nuclear launch, one technical, and the other political. The technical issue is easy to deal with. This event was a big loss of face for Pyongyang. A successful launch would have reminded the world that the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is not going to go away, and needed to be given more serious airtime. It might have been worth the flak the country knew they were going to get as a result of this event. A failed launch brings down the ire of the international community and puts North Korea firmly back in the doghouse, despite the positive moves seemingly afoot between it and particularly the US recently. The failed launch also reinforces what was already known. North Korea has creaky, poor technology – which is why there are few customers, even among those that are willing to break embargoes, to buy its weapons. Whatever its aspiration, it has shown in the last 24 hours that it lacks the capacity to back them up with hard action. Its only card at the moment is being disruptive and awkward. The political meaning is harder to work out. The pattern of good behaviour, then bad behaviour that was followed under Kim Jong-il looks set to continue. What is less clear is whether the elite group guiding this have anything like the crafty strategic sense of the late Kim. He at least proved adept at choosing his moment and getting North Korea back on the agendas of the key powers. This latest move underlines just how bare the cupboard of diplomatic options is. Does this recent inept move show that Kim Jong-un has been given rope by the experienced leaders around him to hang himself, and free them up now to get on with the adult business? Does it show that without Kim Jong-il the decision-making structures have fallen apart and there is disarray and incompetence? Does it show that this is a decision by senior leaders which has gone badly wrong and will strengthen the hand of a perhaps more emollient Kim Jong-un? It could be any of these or none of them. The bottom line, as the South Korean government statement issued on Friday morning made clear, is that North Korea has violated a UN resolution, at a time when its people are still hungry, its political system is grinding to a halt, its leadership has limited domestic credibility, and its international position has never been more isolated. And with China, the one sole diplomatic friend, distracted by a leadership transition which has just been knocked sideways by the fall of Bo Xilai, former Politburo member, it seems likely that their famous patience with their “little brother” might finally wear out, and some sharp, harsh words might be heading their way. — The Independent |
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