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No surprises SAARC bonhomie |
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Return of Congress difficult
The dog street in Chandigarh
Ukraine crisis: More bitter strife ahead
Chocolate King prefers a whisper to a breakaway
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No surprises Narendra Modi
has got the team he is comfortable with playing. The surprise Modi sprung by inviting Nawaz Sharif and other SAARC leaders to the swearing-in ceremony is missing from his choice of ministers and allocation of portfolios. Modi has broadly stuck to his core team comprising Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley, Nitin Gadkari and Venkaiah Naidu. Giving space to the rival camp, he has inducted Sushma Swaraj with a portfolio matching her status. The oath-taking ceremony revealed the NDA government's seniority list. The allies have been adjusted but offered no significant portfolio. Modi has not given adequate representation to the Muslims - Najma Heptullah is the only choice - and he has not hesitated to induct the riots accused MP from Muzaffarnagar. His government's handling of the minorities will be keenly watched. Surprise, if any, is in the list of the excluded. Prominent among them are veterans L.K. Advani and MM Joshi, NDA performers Arun Shourie and B.C. Khanduri, loudmouths Rajiv Pratap Rudy and Shatrughan Sinha as also Amit Shah and Subramaniam Swamy. Also kept out are kin of politicians, including the sons of Maneka Gandhi (Varun), Vasundhra Raje (Dushyant), Yashwant Sinha (Jayant), Raman Singh (Abhishekh) and Prem Kumar Dhumal (Anurag). Harsimrat Badal is an exception. Modi has shown limited interest in restructuring ministries. While power and coal, rural development and panchayats have been clubbed for better coordination, suggestions about other changes have been ignored. Agriculture, food, food processing, consumer affairs and civil supplies could have been put together under one minister for better food management and inflation control. Similarly, the integration of commerce with external affairs, the merger of industry, textiles and heavy industry with micro, small and medium enterprises and the separation of internal security from the home ministry have not happened. Instead, finance and defence have been given to one minister, which is as illogical as handing over I&B and environment to another. To his credit, Modi has kept the team smaller than that of the UPA, though reports suggest a post-budget Cabinet expansion. Given the number of newcomers and lightweights, the PMO may centralise powers for a pivotal role.
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SAARC bonhomie THE attendance of SAARC heads of government at the swearing-in ceremony of Prime Minister Narendra Modi was unprecedented. Their subsequent meetings with him have been described as substantive and the new government has started off on a positive diplomatic note. Hyderabad House became the focus with bilateral meetings between Modi and the heads of government. Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai was the first to meet the new Prime Minister, followed by Maldivian President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom and Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay of Bhutan. Modi's meetings with Dr Navinchandra
Ramgoolam, Prime Minister of Mauritius, and Prime Minister Sushil Koirala of Nepal and Dr Shirin Shamin
Chaudhury, Speaker of the Bangladesh Parliament, were all described as cordial ones in which a number of bilateral issues were discussed. Enhancing regional cooperation and connectivity between SAARC nations was also a common thread. All eyes, however, were on the interaction between Modi and Prime Minister Nawaz
Sharif. Both had met a day earlier and exchanged pleasantries, but these talks were expected to set the tone for improving relations between the two
neighbours. The Pakistani leader has made reassuring statements, as Modi spoke of the underlying concerns on terror, and both discussed improving trade relations, among other things. The meetings seem to have worked towards decreasing some mistrust and misgivings. Modi has signalled a desire to get down to business with this
neighbour. Modi's bold step of inviting the Sri Lankan President Mahinda
Rajapaksa, even in the face of a vociferous reaction from various parties in Tamil
Nadu, is also significant. Modi's new diplomatic thrust is likely to pay rich dividends, as the immediate though symbolic release of fishermen held in Pakistani and Sri Lankan jails as a goodwill gesture from both governments shows. The first diplomatic contact between the new leader of the largest democracy in the world and India's neighbours has created a positive atmosphere. The expectation of there being more substantive progress may also well come true.
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Money can't buy love, but it improves your bargaining position. — Christopher Marlowe
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Removal of cattle from towns
OUR Amritsar Correspondent has given a full account of the discussion that took place at the last meeting of local Municipal Committee on the removal of cattle from the city. The Punjab Sanitary Conference held at Simla last year considered this question and there is no doubt that the insanitation caused by the present practice should be removed. But the suggestion made at Amritsar to remove cows wholesale from the city appears to be a too drastic procedure. No other town has adopted this unpractical step. The Bombay Municipality is justly regarded as a model, and Bombay is an efficiently managed town. But in regard to cows and buffaloes, the Health Department insists on a high standard of sanitation and an inspector regularly visits the cow sheds and sees that the bylaws are properly observed. Why should not Amritsar follow the same example? The milch cow is an important ally of the housewife. This should not be banned as if it were a plague or scourge in itself. The Comrade
SOME enthusiastic men in the Punjab are endeavouring to bring out a Mahomedan daily paper in English. Just at this time Mr Mahomed Ali, editor of the Delhi Comrade, is describing in its columns his own experience as a journalist. The circulation of his journal declined as a result of his migration to Delhi, and he had to make a fresh appeal to his co-religionists for encouragement and support. In two months and a half nearly 200 new subscribers were enlisted, but withdrawal of support was announced by 400 old subscribers. That surely is not the way to encourage a journal which some members of the community wish to see developed into a daily.
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Return of Congress difficult People were then angry over the excesses committed during the Emergency. They felt relieved after punishing the Congress for all that it did. They brought back the party after they found the Janata Party, the successor, floundering. Theirs was anger, not alienation. This time it is a vote against non-governance and the scams which tumbled one after another from the party's cupboard. The disillusionment is deeper than ever before, it is believed the party cannot give a clean and efficient government. If Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) manage to deliver on the agenda of development and employment-they have secured 282 seats-then the return of the Congress will be difficult even in the next election in 2019. Much will depend on Modi. The speech he has delivered before the elected MPs of his party is so emphatic in tone and so promising in tenor that he looks like settling in at least for a decade. The delivery on progress and jobs may make the return of the Congress still more difficult in the foreseeable future. Modi is intelligent enough to realise that the Hindutva card is not necessary to play when the BJP-RSS combine has made inroads in the southern states as well. If the middle class had not been influenced by soft Hindutva, such a sweep would not have been possible. That is the reason why Modi is underlining development. He wants to show that the BJP is capable of pulling people out of poverty in which at least one-third in the country are hopelessly stuck. True, the outgoing Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was an open book. But there was very little written in terms of performance. The ever-increasing prices and the arrogance of power botched even the average growth rate of nearly 8 per cent. The Congress problem was never Manmohan Singh who, in any case, is a yesterday story. How the party disentangles itself from the dynasty and stands on its own is the issue it is facing today. Party president Sonia Gandhi and her son, Rahul Gandhi, ran the government and the party. Now that both have failed, who do the people turn to? Both have offered to resign but the working committee has refused to accept their resignations. After all, they are the ones who constitute the leadership. They have not allowed anyone else to grow or emerge. The Congress has nowhere to go except the dynasty which has run the party since Independence. It was said about Jawaharlal Nehru that he was like a banyan tree which did not let anything beneath to grow. The Congress was dependent on him. Consequently, none in the party emerged to be its natural choice when he died. Mrs Indira Gandhi, his daughter, whom he had groomed, was not acceptable to the party at that time. Lal Bahadur Shastri was the natural choice because he was the consensus candidate, although Morarji Desai threw his hat in the ring, knowing that he had the support of most state chief ministers. But the then Congress president, K. Kamaraj, found him too rigid and preferred Indira Gandhi. The party of today is entirely different because Kamaraj and Mrs Indira Gandhi are rolled into one person: Sonia Gandhi. The party does not have to introspect. She has to do so. Is she willing to give up control over the party, state leaders and others? Is she ready to accept the criterion of work at the grassroots rather than being sycophants to her? The suggestion that the party’s office-bearers should be elected carries weight. But something similar was tried and found to be a mere exercise because bogus voters proliferated. Maybe, the office of party president and that of the Prime Minister should be combined. Mrs Indira Gandhi did so. She, as Prime Minister, found the Congress president in the way. This may be very much a presidential form of governance. But that is how Narendra Modi is going to function. His election campaign showed that. The presidential form is, no doubt, democratic but it gives room for authoritarianism. He has already announced that he will also head the National Democratic Alliance. History is replete with such examples. The Soviet Union was run like that. After several decades, it got disintegrated because of the concentration of power in Moscow. Even now Russian President Vladimir Putin rules in the same style and this can be seen in Moscow's attitude towards Ukraine. America has escaped dictatorship even though it has the presidential system because of the checks and balances. The Congress, the US parliament, is strong. The Congress Party in India can bounce back because it is the only alternative available. In the minds of the people there are only two parties, the Congress and the BJP. When they do not find one delivering, they return the other which they had rejected previously. They are stuck with the two. The Aam Admi Party (AAP), a movement against corruption which converted itself into a political party, can be an alternative provided it expands its base. AAP has secured less than 3 per cent of the votes in the election. Moreover, the anti-corruption stand it has taken is laudable. But there has to be an ideology or vision if it wants to attract voters. It messed up a great opportunity it got in Delhi. Even if the party has admitted its mistakes, though belatedly, it will take time for that blemish to go. The party has to work in the field. It cannot depend on slogans alone. Power that has got concentrated at the top, more specifically in the hands of its leader, Arvind Kejriwal, must spread. There is no other way. This holds good for Modi as well.
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The dog street in Chandigarh My rickshaw passed through different roads and roundabouts of the city and I fell in love with Chandigarh and its beautiful people all over again. The very ambience of the city and the sweet thoughts of my welcome at home enthralled me. “Sirji, we have reached”, said the rickshaw-wala. I looked around to realise that we were somewhere else. I again explained him the location of my home. He said “hun samajh ayi, tusi kutteyan wali gali jana hai”. His answer both amused and confused me. Upon reaching the lane where my home is, I was given a rousing reception by quite a few four-legged residents of the street. The younger ones ran beside my rickshaw. But a few big ones expressed their unhappiness by barking loudly at me and the rickshaw-wala. I rushed inside my house and as expected I was greeted by the teary eyes of my mother and tight hugs. On enquiring about our new neighbours, I found out that our lane experienced a “puppy boom” last year and my own garden was their cradle. And now they had spread to every nook and corner of the street. The municipality’s attempts to win back the street and the adjoining playground from these usurpers were unsuccessful. Early next day the dogs manifested their power by attacking a school-going child. A few morning walkers came to his rescue but the child was frightened to the core. I wanted to help too, but was hesitant, or may be was afraid. Strangers passing through and visitors to the street residents were the prime targets of this joint dog family, though the familiar residents were spared by this benevolent lot, but for how long? All of them were not bad, honestly. The small ones were indeed cute. The white one, named “Gora” by the children was playful, while “Kalu” seemed like a brat. My parents and a few neighbours did care about them; fed them whenever they moved their tail in anticipation of food. But their menace was now worrying one and all. Children had stopped playing outside, people felt intimidated, everyone’s sleep was disturbed by their constant barking and all living in the vicinity had purchased sticks to defend themselves, if attacked. These dogs were indeed not pets. People were afraid to enter this notorious “dog street”. Finally it was decided that no one living in the neighbourhood would feed them. It was believed that the paucity of food would force these dogs to leave the area. But as it happens in Indian Parliament, it was an elusive consensus. Some of our neighbours continued to feed them. Mr Sharma had astrological interests in feeding the black dog, while Mr Singh's five-year-old son refused to eat if his favourite brown puppy didn't get milk every day. As a result, the dogs continued to proliferate and prosper. Finally the day of my departure arrived. I telephoned the taxi operator for a taxi to the railway station. “Sir, please tell any landmark near your house, so that I can find your address”, the taxi guy asked. “I live in Kutteyan wali gali”, I replied. The taxi was at my door in no time.
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Ukraine crisis: More bitter strife ahead
THE election of Petro Poroshenko as the President of Ukraine was followed by warplanes carrying out strikes at Donetsk airport and the Kremlin declaring that it was ready to open talks with the new leader to try and find a solution to end the bitter strife in the east of the country. It was a dramatic start to the confectionery billionaire taking over the helm, but what significance does it have for his divided land? After his overwhelming victory in the polls, at least in the parts of the country where voting could take place, Mr Poroshenko has spoken of amnesty, reconciliation and the need for reform after his victory. But the new President is yet to take office and it is unclear how much say, if any, he had over this latest military action by the outgoing caretaker government in Kiev. The "Chocolate King", however, could hardly be seen to be wilting at this point before an electorate which has become anxious and angry at the dismemberment of their country. The most he could do was offer veiled criticism of the conduct of the mission launched by the administration's acting President Oleksandr Turchynov two months ago. No chance of offensive abating Speaking at a press conference in Kiev as the fighting got under way, Mr Poroshenko declared that the "anti-terrorist operation should not last two or three months; it should last a matter of hours". Those of us who have observed the current unfolding conflict can say with a degree of certainty that there is absolutely no chance of the current offensive finishing with the successful recapture of a dozen towns and cities across the region in days or weeks, let alone hours. The Ukrainian forces do not have the numbers or the weaponry to do this, and many of the regular troops spoke of their unwillingness to take part in a bloody and internecine civil war with the inevitable loss of civilian lives. The appetite for such a scenario may be there among the recently raised National Guard and oligarch-funded private armies, but these have tended to come off worse in the skirmishes so far when faced with well-armed militant fighters, many of them veterans of Ukrainian and Russian forces. The Kiev administration has been carrying out its media offensive about the “anti-terrorist operation” largely through Facebook, with the acting Interior Minister Arsen Avakov leading often with highly inaccurate postings. But today's posting on Facebook by Vladislav Seleznyov, a spokesman for the "anti-terrorist" operation, appears to have reflected what happened on the ground. The military acted after separatist fighters took over the airport. Confrontation or negotiation? Denis Pushilin, a separatist leader, acknowledged fighters had been sent to confront the forces of the “Kiev junta”. The “chairman of the governing council” of the People's Republic of Donetsk has, however, lost the power to order military action two weeks ago, in a putsch. Col Igor Strelkov, of Slovyansk, a militant stronghold, is now the commander of the People's Militia and would have been in charge of the airport operation. The bigger question is whether Mr Poroshenko is prepared to continue with a combat mission that may well take months, with all the attendant instability and rising casualties. Or will he, after a show of force, start negotiating with the separatists to arrive at a federal system which seems the only form in which Ukraine can survive as a state? Mr Poroshenko, who does not like being called an oligarch and would rather be described as a successful businessman, needs to do business with the Kremlin. He is already committed to dialogue, stressing: “Without Russia, it will be impossible to speak about the security of the whole region”. Just before the election, Vladimir Putin, who had repeatedly accused the Kiev government of being illegal, stated that he would be prepared to work with the new President. Today Sergei Lavrov, the Foreign Minister, reiterated: "We are ready for dialogue with Kiev's representatives, with Petro Poroshenko". Moscow still complains that the presidential election should not have taken place until a new constitution, including the federal option it favours, had been discussed. But that apart, having accepted Mr Poroshenko as a legitimate leader, it has no excuse not to work towards a speedy solution in the east. It can no longer charge the Ukrainian administration with being full of fascists. Moscow's control The government which took power after the fall of Viktor Yanukovych indeed contained unsavoury extremists. But, in the week when the far right was gaining ground in elections across Europe, the electorate in Ukraine delivered them a firm rebuff. Oleh Tyahnybok, the candidate for Svoboda Party, polled just 1.3 per cent while Dmytro Yarosh, of the Right Sector, whose paramilitaries have been accused in the east of carrying out killings for the Kiev administration, received only 1.1 per cent, according to exit polls. Just how much control does Moscow have over the separatists? Colonel Strelkov, who was born Igor Girkin, is a member of the GRU — Russian military intelligence — according to the Kiev administration and the EU. No conclusive proof, it must be said, has been provided for this. But there is evidence that he has been at least in liaison with members of the Kremlin's security apparatus. Why, the question may be asked, did the commander of the People's Militia order his fighters to seize Donetsk airport, starting a battle, just as news came through of Petro Poroshenko becoming President, with the chance it brought of a negotiated
settlement? — The Independent
The Background
The origins
East or West? The dispute over whether Ukraine would face East or West has raised broader questions about its future as a unified state, and relations between Russia and the rest of the world. Protesters who prevailed in Ukraine said aligning its future with the EU would strengthen institutions, bolster democracy and stem a slide back towards Soviet rule. The support in Russia for Putin's actions underscored the growing gulf in the worldviews in Moscow, Kiev, the US and Europe. Tying all sides together is Russia's oil and gas: Discounts from Moscow have amounted to a crucial subsidy for Ukraine that Putin has now revoked. Russia provides one-third of the EU's gas imports. Those sales have fuelled Russia's economic growth. To deepen sanctions, European leaders have to face the question of what economic penalty they are willing to pay to rein Russia in.
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Chocolate King prefers a whisper to a breakaway
ON the day it became clear that Petro Poroshenko, the "Chocolate King", may well become the next president of Ukraine, he was careful about proposed new sanctions on the Kremlin: “One shouldn't rush into things. We don't want to hurt Russia: that is not our aim.” Vitali Klitschko had just stood down as a presidential candidate, pledging his support for Mr Poroshenko. The former boxer pledged his support to the billionaire who had made his fortune from confectionaries, resulting in banners proclaiming: “Willy Wonka and Rocky — The Dream Team.” That was two months ago, after Crimea had been annexed by Vladimir Putin, but before the separatists began to take over swathes of the east of the country. Mr Poroshenko condemned the destabilising role Moscow was accused of playing but was less vitriolic than others. Now polls say Mr Poroshenko, 46, the winner of the election would not need the hitherto expected second round scheduled for June 15. He would face the daunting task of trying to bring an end to the strife tearing his country apart. That is unlikely to happen without the help of the Kremlin and for the first time, Mr Putin explicitly stated that he will respect the outcome of the election: A fundamental change from his previous stance. Mr Poroshenko may not be the dream candidate for the Kremlin, but the two who are seen as overtly Russian leaning, Serhiy Tigipko and Mykhailo Dobkin, should finish well back. And Yulia Tymoshenko, the former heroine of the Orange Revolution, whose star has plummeted as the Chocolate King's has risen, is now held in wide distrust by many, including Moscow. Mr Poroshenko had, like some other politicians, appeared in the barricades of the Maidan, often at personal risk to himself from thugs supporting Mr Yanukovych's government, confirming his solidarity with the protest movement. But he had also urged Ukrainians to settle their differences peacefully and told Moscow newspaper, Novaya Gazeta: “Russia isn't our opponent, but our partner. Understand, Euro-Maidan is not a movement away from Russia, but... the Soviet Union.” With anxiety and anger among Ukrainians outside the east at the dismemberment of the country, Mr Poroshenko has, unsurprisingly, been talking tough: “My first step will be to go to the army headquarters and assume the role of supreme commander. We cannot negotiate with terrorists who rob banks, kill and kidnap innocent people.” Any accommodation Mr Poroshenko makes with Moscow will not, however, mean turning away from the EU. He has pledged to sign an association agreement — the step which Mr Yanukovych failed to take, triggering the protests which led to his downfall. He has been more cautious about joining Nato, something which would be opposed virulently by Mr Putin, saying only that there may be the need to form a “security arrangement” with the organisation.
— The Independent
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THIS is not the first time that the Congress has been decimated, getting only 44 seats in the 543-member Lok Sabha. The party met more or less a similar fate in the 1977 elections held after the Emergency. Mrs Indira Gandhi, the architect of the Emergency, and Sanjay Gandhi, her son with extra-constitutional authority, too lost in the polls. Yet the Congress retained the three southern states-Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala. Even the overall tally was around 150. It was, indeed, a defeat but not a rout as it has been the case now.
I
was stealthily returning home to surprise my parents, after one long year. “I have to go to Sector 22 near the gurdwara”, I told the rickshaw-puller, after getting down from Shatabdi express. I readily agreed to the exorbitant demand made by my chauffeur, as I wanted to be at home as quickly as possible.
