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Revival of Third Front Shift in stance |
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Challenges in India-US ties
A surprise in Rio de Janeiro
Plugging heroin smuggling in Punjab
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Revival of Third Front Eleven regional parties have got together to form a pre-poll alliance with a view to providing an alternative to the Congress and the BJP. However, Naveen Patnaik of the BJD and Prafulla Kumar Mahanta of the Asom Gana Parishad did not attend Tuesday's meeting in Delhi. Together the new alliance accounts for 92 seats compared to the UPA's 222 and the NDA's 130 in the outgoing Lok Sabha. Even if they substantially improve on their tally, they would still need either the Congress or the BJP to form a government at the Centre. If successful, they would thus have a government which would be at the mercy of either of the two. Their economic policies and the prospect of political uncertainty would drive away foreign investment. Regional parties have grown due to dissatisfaction with UPA rule at the Centre. The BJP's divisive and communal politics has strengthened them. They represent the plurality of Indian society and political thought. They champion populist local causes. Some of their leaders like Jayalalithaa in Tamil Nadu and Nitish Kumar in Bihar have delivered good results. Will their traditional voters trust them with responsibility at the national level? The odds are heavily stacked against their coming to power. The 11-party grouping has several prime ministerial candidates. Even if they manage to secure the required numbers, it would be a herculean task to choose the next Prime Minister. They all are united by a desire for power. Each would like the others to make the sacrifice. The Third Front parties are not bound by any ideology, vision, organisational structure or strong leader. Each is free to go its own way before or after the elections. Since they operate in different states, their partnership in no way would brighten their electoral prospects. The prevailing political mood is obviously against the Congress but it is also not much in favour of a Third Front government. Anti-incumbency may benefit Narendra Modi with Arvind Kejriwal being a powerful contender. If AAP springs another surprise after Delhi, the Third Front could actually be reduced to the "fourth" front.
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Shift in stance AIR strikes are nothing new in North
Waziristan. Terrorist hideouts in the largely autonomous region on the border of Afghanistan have long been targeted by American drones, which had been inactive of late because of Pakistan's insistence. This time, the hideouts are being targeted by Pakistan Air Force warplanes. The army too, has announced that it is preparing for a big offensive, unless the Taliban come to the negotiating table. A change of heart can be perceived. The federal government in Pakistan has approved a new national internal security policy with a tough stance against the militants. The policy, presented by the Interior Minister, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, clearly enumerates the rise in the number of terrorist incidents in Pakistan as well as the cost of terrorism to the economy of the country, which it puts at $79 billion in the past 10 years. An unconditional ceasefire by Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP) has been made a precondition for talks. Politicians have not only articulated their policy clearly, they have managed to evolve a consensus that will surely strengthen the hands of the Pakistani army in dealing with the situation. Patience in Pakistan was running thin following the killing of 23 captured Pakistani soldiers and a spate of recent attacks, including one on a Karachi police station that resulted in 19 casualities. There have been many false starts towards tackling terrorism in Pakistan. Unfortunately, Pakistan has also failed to realise that providing a base for terrorists within its borders has created a situation where it itself, and not just its
neighbours, have suffered. Taking a firm stance against terrorist activity and attacking terrorist bases will no doubt yield results, it will be some time before the effect is visible. A firm resolve and a clear vision can help sort out many situations. However, even with that the road to tackling terrorism is a long and arduous one, especially for Pakistan.
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Thought for the Day
Middle age is when your age starts to show around your middle.
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Success of Indian students REFERRING to the success of seven Indian student out of 20 in the recent competitive examination held for the Indian Medical Service in London, one of the Anglo-Indian papers asks: “Evidently examination in England is no bar for Indian students as far as the Indian Medical Service is concerned; why then should it be an unfair obstacle in the case of the Civil Service? If seven Indians can get in out of a field of twenty, where is the call for simultaneous examinations?” Evidently the motive for this question can be expressed in one brief word-jealously. Anglo-Indian feeling would not bear the success of one-third of the number being Indians in a scheme which has many obstacles against them. But this success has been purchased at a heavy outlay and personal inconvenience which English competitors are free from, and is not this an unfair condition of competition? The I.M.S. jealousy AN English lady who commands the universal respect of Indians in this province and who has extended her sympathy to Indians on many occasions writes to us a remarkable letter on the subject of the I.M.S. jealousy which has come to be noticed prominently in connection with the resolution of the London Hospital Student's Union. She seems to exonerate the bulk of the professional men in England who have no cause for quarrel with us, and she very properly fixes the blame for the London Hospital Resolutions entirely on the shoulders of a few, and probably they are all I.M.S. men and men connected with them. The following from her valued communication will be read with great interest: “May I be permitted to point out that the entrance of more Indians into to the I.M.S. has somewhat to do with the feeling among Englishmen that the service is not their preserve as it used to be, and that with the advancement of education in this country and the ambition it naturally fosters, the necessity for recruitment in England will not be so great as formerly”.
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Challenges in India-US ties Travelling across the US as the winter Olympics in Sochi commenced, one was saddened to witness how India's international credibility had been shaken when television audiences across the world saw three forlorn Indian athletes marching without the national flag. India faced this disgrace, thanks to the avariciousness and nepotism of an internationally disgraced Indian Olympic Association. Sadly, this was accompanied by charges of corruption, nepotism, match fixing and worse involving the President of the BCCI. Many Indian friends in the US asked in anguish: "Is there no section of national life left in India which is free from corruption and venality?"
The mood in Washington, where one had an occasion to meet a cross section of senior officials, business executives, analysts and scholars, was quite different. In marked contrast to the earlier years, I found widespread criticism of the conduct of foreign and security policies by President Obama. The Administration had not just botched up its healthcare programme, but was seen as indecisive and weak in dealing with challenges in West Asia, Afghanistan and the provocations of a jingoistic and militaristic China. President Obama, in turn, is acutely conscious of the mood in the country which wants an end to foreign military entanglements. More significantly, as the US moves towards becoming a net exporter of energy, thanks to the expanding production of shale gas and oil, the country's geopolitics are set for profound change. Using its leadership in areas of productivity and innovation, the US now appears set to the stage for increasing domination of the world economic order. From across its eastern shores, the US is negotiating comprehensive trade and investment partnerships with its European allies. Across its western shores in the Pacific, the Americans are negotiating transpacific partnerships with Australia, Brunei, Chile, Canada, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, South Korea and Vietnam as negotiating partners. While China has informally indicated an interest in joining this partnership, the US will use its influence to ensure that China is not admitted till American political and economic pre-conditions are met. There is naturally interest in Washington in the forthcoming general election in India. The assessment appears to be that the ruling Congress is headed for a drubbing in the polls. Not many tears will be shed in Washington or elsewhere about this inevitability as the only questions which well-wishers of India ask are how India landed itself in its present morass of corruption and whether a new dispensation, which may be fractious, will be able to restore India to a high growth path. Speaking informally, a senior official recalled that President Obama had described the US-India partnership as "one of the defining partnerships of the world". The official noted that "every meaningful partnership between powerful nations encounters setbacks", adding that such setbacks should be minor compared to the benefits of the relationship and the magnitude of what the two could accomplish together. The Khobragade episode was a defining event in India-US relations. The Americans found Indians across the political spectrum united in the view that insults to India's national dignity would not be acceptable. It is important that in future negotiations by the Task Force set up to address such issues, India should make it clear that it will not tolerate events like Mrs. Sonia Gandhi being threatened with prosecution while undergoing medical treatment in New York, or the supercilious attitude adopted towards Mr. Narendra Modi, who is a constitutionally elected Chief Minister. We should not accept a situation where Americans believe that they can behave high-handedly towards our elected politicians because of their domestic lobbies. The US should also be left in no doubt that on such issues, including consular and diplomatic privileges, India will firmly adhere to a policy of strict reciprocity. The Obama Administration has messed up its relations with President Karzai in Afghanistan, dealing with him in a manner that showed scant regard for his position as the elected Head of State of Afghanistan. Worse still, by its actions, the US has clearly given the impression that despite its protestations it was clandestinely dealing, behind Mr. Karzai's back, with the Taliban. While the US-Afghanistan Strategic Partnership speaks of joint determination in eliminating the "al-Qaida and its affiliates," the US now speaks only of eliminating al-Qaida and not is affiliates like the Taliban, the Islamic Movement of Afghanistan, Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed. There are naturally concerns in Afghanistan that the US, which needs Pakistan's assistance for withdrawing its military equipment from Afghanistan, will seek to appease the Pakistanis by giving them a less-than-healthy role in determining the future dispensation in Afghanistan and the role of the Taliban in such a dispensation. While there is an evident congruence of interests in working with the US, Japan and others in the face of growing Chinese military assertiveness, New Delhi and Tokyo cannot ignore the reality that there have been many flip-flops and inconsistencies in the approach of the Obama Administration to China. Moreover, the US is becoming increasingly strident in its economic relations with India on issues ranging from sanctions on sections of our pharmaceutical industry and our civil aviation facilities, while demanding changes in our policies on solar panels and equipment and placing restrictions on the movement of IT personnel. It is, however, not India alone that is the recipient of such measures from the US! Despite these challenges, India cannot ignore the reality that the US is the pre-eminent power in the world. Moreover, it will remain so in the coming years, primarily because its innovative and technological strengths are going to be reinforced by its energy surpluses, together with the energy potential of its neighbours like Canada, Mexico and Argentina. It will, moreover, remain the foremost power in the manufacture of high-tech equipment, particularly in defence and aerospace. It is for India to fashion industrial policies to leverage its strengths and potential to secure high levels of investment and partnership in crucial high-tech industries. I was advised in Washington that contracts currently secured with US companies enable us to import 5.8 million metric tonnes per annum of shale gas from the US annually. According to oil industry sources, these contracts alone provide us more gas than we could obtain from the controversial Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline. But, for all this to fructify, the new dispensation in New Delhi will have to replace economic populism and accompanying fiscal irresponsibility with a quest for accelerated growth.
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A surprise in Rio de Janeiro THE Brazilian city Rio de Janeiro was swarmed by hundreds of delegates from all over the world during the famous Earth Summit in June 1992. It was the biggest gathering of world leaders, with over 120 presidents and prime ministers, including George Bush (Sr), John Major, Narasimha Rao and Nawaz Sharif. Indian Embassy officials told the national delegation members to be alert and cautious, to move only in groups, avoid less crowded places and not to carry much cash. One could be stabbed for a small amount and even for not carrying any cash at all. We were advised to keep our passports, cash, watches and other valuables in the lockers provided in the hotels. Across a tunnel from our hotel was a huge shopping mall named Rio Sul (Sul in Portugese means Big Bazar). Aware of mugging incidents in the tunnel, we visited this mall only in groups. The summit venue was a temporary city located 40 km outside Rio. After a tiring day of intense negotiations and fights over comas and full stops, between the developed and developing nations over controversial subjects like climate change and biodiversity treaties, we returned to our hotel on the Copa Cabana Beach and prepare for the next day. After a quick bath a cheap dinner at a beach-side restaurant became our evening routine on days when there was no official dinner. The unending line of restaurants is just a shade better than Punjabi dhabas on Indian highways. They have bars and also beautiful girls occupying corners, openly soliciting 'evening partners'. Some bars also offered Samba Dance performances for the guests. One evening, after taking dinner at a restaurant, two journalist friends and I took a different route back to our hotel. While reaching a poorly lit street corner, as the bazar had closed, we noticed four young robust persons in jeans eagerly looking towards us and talking in a hush-hush manner. The three of us sensed danger and got alert for any eventuality. The other two stepped behind me, hoping the Sardar would protect them. When we tried to hasten past the strangers, one of them moved towards us. We were just floored as he hailed me with a 'Bhaaji Sat Sri Akal'. With a total reversal of the situation, I could only mumble a very weak "Sat Sri Akal". Soon I recovered and asked them: 'How are you?' 'What are you doing here?' They introduced themselves and one of them happened to be a Randhawa from Gurdaspur. They said they had entered Brazil with the help of agents and were enjoying life in Rio till they managed to enter America through Mexico.
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Plugging heroin smuggling in Punjab IN 2012, of the total 1,110 kg heroin seized in South Asia, 1,029 kg was seized in India. Out of this haul, 278 kg was seized in Punjab alone. Over the last few years smuggling of heroin in the state has shown an alarmingly phenomenal increase. Last year, the recovery in Punjab touched 416 kg, up from less than 50 kg till 2005. Though the Indo-Pak border manned by the BSF is more than 2,300 km, out of which only 550 km falls in Punjab — the remaining being in J&K, Rajasthan and Gujarat — the recoveries in Punjab are far beyond their share of the border. Last year, only about 20 kg heroin was recovered in Rajasthan and about 40 kg in Gujarat and J&K as against 400 kg in Punjab. The phenomenon needs a deeper analysis and countermeasures to check the resulting threat to Indian security and damage to society.
Disturbed past Punjab has lived through an era of terrorism aided and coordinated by Pakistan. Smugglers and couriers from across the border actively participated under the aegis of the ISI in supplying weapons to terrorists. It was with the objective of preventing unchecked movement of terrorists and weapons across the border, which was proving to be major impediment in controlling terrorism in Punjab, that border fencing was erected by India. It was a highly successful measure, but given the topography, the smuggling of weapons could not be prevented entirely. The weapons recovered in Punjab from 1990 to 1994 are a testimony to that. During this period, about 2,000 AK 47/56/74 rifles, 1,200 other rifles, 4,250 small arms, 1,150 hand grenades, 870 bombs, 5,400 kg explosive material and 3 lakh cartridges were recovered in Punjab. The supply of arms and explosives dwindled with the arrival of heroin on the scene.
Narco-terrorism While the years from 1994 saw a sharp decline in terrorist activities in Punjab, the bid to infiltrate weapons from Pakistan continued. Over a period of time, the consignments began to be mixed with packets of heroin and bundles of fake currency notes to make smuggling lucrative. The period from 1995 to 2005 can be called a decade of transition, whereby the focus of smuggling gradually shifted from weapons to heroin. Since the year 2005, there has been an apparent strategic shift by the ISI to push the drug into India through Punjab. Heroin is easily available from Afghanistan, which accounts for nearly 83 per cent of the global heroin production. This way, the ISI can generate unaccounted money to fund its disruptive covert operations in various parts of India. It also weakens the population, and thereby the nation. Once the pride of the Army, the Punjab youth can now barely match up to the recruitment standards of the force.
Easy money While the takers for arms and explosives were difficult to find in Punjab, heroin was turning out to be a money spinner, not only for Indian farmers on the border — many of whom started working as couriers — but also for the smugglers on the Indian side. Pakistani couriers easily develop relations with farmers and lure them with huge commission for supplying the consignment. Pakistani mobile phone SIM cards help farmers in safely communicating with Pakistani smugglers without any fear of monitoring and evidence on apprehension. The rate for Indian couriers is Rs 50,000 for five packets to be carried and delivered across the border. If the delivery is made in Delhi, a smuggler makes Rs 2 lakh.
Drug affliction Punjab is the primary gateway for smuggled opiates. While there are reports of heroin brides from Afghanistan due to economic gains from the drug trade there (55 per cent of Afghanistan’s economy is tied to drugs), in Punjab, Maqboolpura in Amritsar is known as the ‘village of widows’ since many young men have died of drug abuse. The gravity of the menace can be gauged from the fact that only in a span of over nine months (Jan to Oct 2013), over 3,300 FIRs were registered in cases related to drugs and 3,600 persons were arrested in the state for illegally possessing banned drugs. Daulewala of Moga district has earned an unwanted sobriquet — ‘drug capital of Punjab’. In the past six years, this village, with nearly 400 households, has 390 cases registered against its residents pertaining to drug peddling and the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act. Many villages do not have health clinics but have drugstores, which often make sizeable profits selling pills and other synthetic drugs to addicts who cannot afford heroin. Drugs in Punjab are a multi-dimensional problem affecting different sections of society. It is a favoured route for the smuggling of heroin and the trend is emerging towards the local distribution of a part of the consignment in the villages and cities of the state. The local population is consuming traditional drugs like poppy husk (1.71 lakh kg last year), charas and ganja in villages and the urban youth is taking to smack. The consumption of shelf drugs from medical stores like cough syrups and Iodex etc. has also gone up. About 12.38 lakh banned capsules, 27,000 injections and 9,000 bottles of habit-forming syrups were seized last year. The production of synthetic drugs like M-amphetamine, or ICE, is being undertaken for smuggling to Europe, Canada and the US.
Multi-pronged approach India is sandwiched between two major regions of the world producing illicit narcotics (the golden triangle and the golden crescent). On account of being a traditional cultivator of illicit opium and a supplier of this raw material for medical and scientific needs of pharmaceutical industry, which makes use of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances to make critical medicines, the Government of India came up with a comprehensive policy on narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances in the year 2012. The policy attempts to curb the menace of drug abuse and contains provisions for treatment, rehabilitation and social re-integration of victims of drug abuse. Implementation of the provisions of the policy would also lead to reduction of crime and drugs abuse. Since multiple agencies are involved in the process, there is a need for regular meetings for sharing information and coordination among different agencies in the region such as the police, BSF, Narcotics Control Bureau, Delhi Police, Intelligence Bureau, Customs and Excise, Enforcement Directorate, RAW, Railways and DRI. There should be strict surveillance on smugglers and ‘hawala’ operators with past record, including those lodged in various jails in Punjab, Delhi, Rajasthan, J&K and Mumbai. Community participation measures would create awareness and also help in the identification of drug peddlers and persons living beyond their means in the border villages and towns. It is also imperative that some effective mechanism is evolved with Pakistan so that identified smugglers in Pakistan do not indulge in drug trafficking to India with impunity. The computerised data bank relating to DNA and fingerprints of all drug dealers and peddlers should be maintained and shared among different enforcement and intelligence agencies. The provisions of the relevant Act like criminal procedure code and prison manual should be amended to allow DNA profiling of all arrested persons by different agencies, irrespective of the final outcome of the case. The conviction rate of the NDPS Act cases can be improved by conducting specialised training programmes and strengthening of Forensic Science Laboratories. There are stringent provisions for punishment under the Act and to prevent its misuse and miscarriage of justice, there are additional mandatory requirements pertaining to arrests and recovery to be fulfilled by the investigating officers. These can be highlighted in the training programmes.
Dreadful substitute Desomorphine, which goes with the street name ‘krokodil’, is a new drug currently and increasingly being used in Russia due to its relatively simple synthesis from codeine which is available over the counter. This was after Russia started a major crackdown on heroin production and trafficking. It has been estimated that around 1,00,000 people use ‘krokodil’ in Russia and its use has been confirmed among Russian expatriate communities in a number of other European countries. It is a cheap alternative to heroin but the impurity of homemade ‘krokodil’ produces severe tissue damage, phlebitis and gangrene, which sometimes requires limb amputation in long-term users. Such drugs may find usage in Punjab too. As Punjab reels under the onslaught of heroin smuggling from Pakistan, there is a need to adopt a multi-pronged approach and initiate robust measures in the region to counter it urgently. The writer is ADG, Punjab Police
Smuggling tactics * Digging tunnels underneath the barbed wire fencing. *
Throwing consignment over the fence. * Concealing contraband in cultivated land of Indian farmers across the fence and transporting it by hiding it in tractors and other farm implements. *
Smuggling contraband concealed in goods legally imported through rail and road. *
Through riverbed area where barbed wire is either not erected or is breached.
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A very large force of media persons from across the globe converged on the city to cover the Summit. A parallel NGO Summit was also being held where Al Gore was one of the delegates. He had written a book on environment and later went on to share the Nobel Prize with India's R.K. Pachouri, who was also a member of the Indian delegation.
