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Managing gurdwaras Back home safe |
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High hopes from Finance Minister
Stopping the President’s train
The fiercest of wars lies ahead Saudi Arabian troops on border with Iraq
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Managing gurdwaras THE announcement of intent for the formation of a gurdwara management committee for Haryana has led to predictable reactions from various Sikh leaders and organisations. On the one side is the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), which manages historical gurdwaras in Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh, and the Shiromani Akali Dal, which dominates its functioning. On the other side are prominent Sikh leaders of Haryana and the Congress government in the state. The party politics angle is so strong that it is clouding some important real issues. The SGPC came into being because of mismanagement of gurdwaras by hereditary mahants. It became a body that not only represented the voice of the Sikhs but also one that standardised various practices and provided religious leadership to the Sikh masses. Its status is such that it is often referred to as the mini-parliament of the Sikhs. However, even as the SGPC maintained its hold over the areas that had been assigned to it since it came into being, other gurdwara management committees too came into being, notably the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Committee in the 1970s. An All-India Gurdwara Act was proposed, but it has been put into cold storage, largely because of SAD's inconsistent stand. The SGPC's pre-eminent position as a Sikh organisation rests on its moral authority, and its overall role. The SGPC has provided leadership to the community, but some questions have arisen about whether it is representative enough. There have been other allegations, which have dented the image of the organisation that was once looked on as a paragon of virtue and democratic expression in the sacred space. The SGPC needs to look within to see why its constituents now seek to break away. The political parties that seek to replace the SGPC would be well advised to be careful in their approach. In the matter of religion it is best if the adherents are allowed to sort out the issues themselves. It is for the Sikhs to decide who should administer their gurdwaras and how.
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Back home safe THE release of 43 nurses, who had been stuck in Tikrit which was occupied by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) forces, as well as the evacuation of 183 Indians who flew with them on a special Air India flight was the beginning of a major effort to bring back Indians from war-torn Iraq. The capture and subsequent release of the nurses had become an emotional issue and there were many scenes of joyful family reunions at Kochi when they returned. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy both worked together proactively to get the girls home. Other flights followed and more Indians have returned. It would, however, be a little premature to break into celebrations since the fate of many others hangs in balance in the troubled land. Indian workers are caught in the internecine warfare that has engulfed Iraq as the government and the ISIS forces battle it out. There is no news about the fate of the construction workers abducted in Mosul. Most of them hail from Punjab. Perhaps the Punjab government could take a cue from the Kerala Chief Minister and do more for the Punjabis stuck in Iraq. While it might be argued that India could have acted earlier, the proactive approach of the Ministry of External Affairs is welcome. The situation in Iraq requires Indian officials to reach through non-traditional channels to the ISIS forces. The success shows how much can be accomplished when Indian diplomats really get going. It also raises the expectation that they will be able to help other Indians. Our citizens working in Iraq need help, and every effort must be made to get them back safe and sound.
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Thought for the Day
Before I refuse to take your questions, I have an opening statement.
—Ronald Reagan
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Inspection of sub-registrars' offices THE Punjab Government notices in its review of the Registration Report that the work of inspection appears to have been "totally neglected" in certain districts and expresses the hope that Registrars will not lose sight of their duties in this respect. In the United Provinces the number of inspections rose from 1,415 in 1912 to 1,551 in 1913 and Government expresses its satisfaction that the Inspector General was able so to extend his activity as to bring in a larger number of offices under his personal supervision. Why inspections have been fewer in the Punjab requires some explanation. In this connection it may be noted that in the Punjab there was an increase of 7 per cent in income, in spite of a decline in the number of optional registrations as compared with an increase of 9 per cent in Bengal where there was an all-round increase in the number of documents registered. A railway catastrophe averted THE rainfall in the neighbourhood of Jullundur on the 2nd and the 3rd was so heavy that the newly constructed double line on the North-Western Railway was washed away in more than one place. It appears from our correspondent's letter that both the Baeen and the Beas were in floods; and in addition to causing damage to railway bridges resulted in a considerable loss of cattle. Loss of human life is also reported but to what extent it is not known. But one thing is certain. The breaches on the railway bridge between Hamira and Dhilwan were very serious and if they had not been detected in time the Bombay mail would have been precipitated into the Baeen and an appalling loss of life occasioned. It is worthy of note that the double line is a new one and the bridge that has been washed away is also a new one.
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High hopes from Finance Minister THE Ministry of Finance is a bit of poisoned chalice in the modern Indian polity. The exigencies and complexities of the job of the Union Finance Minister ensure that the head wearing this crown is perpetually uneasy and weary. In that sense the role is quite akin to that played by Lord Shiva as the Finance Minister has to swallow the toxicity of populism and coalition compulsions churned out by the whirlpool of Indian politics. Thankfully, Mr Arun Jaitley, when he presents his first budget, will be faced with considerably fewer encumbrances than some of his recent predecessors. An unprecedented majority for the BJP as well as his personal proximity to the Prime Minister should further strengthen his position. Amongst the things the UPA did well was most notably the famous MGNREGA scheme. One could argue that there were seepages in disbursals and the scheme did not lead to the sort of asset creation which was envisaged, but overall there is a lot to commend. It did lead to an overall appreciation in the wages of poor landless labourers. Today landlords in Punjab and upper middle-class houses across North India are forced to pay higher remunerations to their staff. This is a sweet consequence of MGNREGA. More importantly, the scheme led to the decentralisation of powers and empowerment of gram panchayats. The scheme began well. However, along the way several inefficiencies crept in, but that is no reason to debunk it. The target should be to streamline it and continue/re-launch it in a new improved “avatar”. Similarly, the Aadhaar scheme has already covered around half the population. It has had its share of teething troubles but its importance in ensuring the right disbursal of welfare benefits cannot be underestimated. Finally, there is one aspect which is close to my heart. As a member of the Empowered Committee of Finance Ministers, I saw that the staunchest opposition to the goods and services tax (GST) came from the BJP-led states. The GST's necessity to reform India’s archaic taxation system is a no-brainer. One sincerely hopes that the UPA government's consistent work in building a slow but definite consensus towards the GST is taken to its logical conclusion and this much-delayed reform sees the light of the day. A well-designed GST regime can increase India's GDP growth rate by 2 per cent. Do we need another solid reason? Coming to things which the UPA did not do well, the paramount amongst them is the retrospective tax amendment. In a way the single decision to circumvent the Supreme Court's verdict to tax Vodafone proved to be the starting point of the UPA's economic decline. Foreign investors shuddered, the domestic ones were petrified and a shocked government brought the venerable Mr P Chidambaram back from his stint at the Home Ministry to get things going again. He tried his best, but sadly the horses had bolted. Hopefully, this anomaly would be set right. The second unfortunate activity under the UPA was the vilification of several of India's respected industry captains on the flimsiest pretexts, which dealt a crippling blow to all future investment plans. An over-enthusiastic Environment Ministry, which viewed almost every project with a jaundiced eye, exacerbated the situation. The new government should do well to remember that it is the poor rehabilitation mechanism, and not displacement, that is the villain in mega projects. No one promotes damage to the environment but in the modern era there are sustainable models that facilitate development as well as ensure that the fragile natural balance is not disturbed. One also hopes significant improvements in the UPA's record of controlling food inflation — by freeing up import controls, empowering states to hit at the middlemen cartels, making horticulture more remunerative and equipping the nation with a modern warehousing network. Last, the things which the UPA ought to have done but did not. The top of the list is banking reforms. A staggering 10 per cent of the total outstanding loans of India's public sector banks are non-performing assets. While this adversely impacts banks' performance, it also makes them very cautious in extending loans — squeezing the credit in the market and thereby forestalling all investment, especially in small-scale enterprises that have a potential for generating maximum employment. The second area is that of labour reforms. It is heartening to see the BJP government in Rajasthan taking some small steps towards labour reform — an area inexplicably left untouched by the UPA. While it may be emotionally compelling to project labour reform as against the interest of the workforce, the truth is that by continuing with some anachronistic regulations, we have harmed the interest of the workers. Close to 85 per cent of India’s workforce is in the unorganised sector, therefore, beyond the purview of these so-called labour laws. These poor labourers are not entitled to any social security or any saving schemes. To get them into the mainstream employment, industries need to invest and they are unable to do so in view of the restrictive labour laws. Which industrialist would be motivated to set up a new big plant if he knows that to fire even one labourer he would need permission from at least six different inspectors? A related issue here is that of disinvestment. While it is true that disinvestment plans in certain strategic areas and select profit-making PSUs deserve a greater debate, there are entities that are so inefficient that they have to be disinvested with minimum delay. The surprising aspect is that even the UPA gathered a consensus that organisations such as Air India and Coal India would function better if they got private investment, but somehow things never got going. The same entropy was visible in infrastructure development. Till 2005, India was adding almost 6,000 km of new modern highways. This has got reduced to 1,500 km annually! The suggestions made under these categories are by no means exhaustive. No list can ever be. Nor is there any claim that these are most important priorities for the government. But committed action on these areas would signify the intent of the new government and for the sake of India, one just hopes that this intent isn’t found missing. The writer is a former Finance Minister of Punjab
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Stopping the President’s train ON reaching Coimbatore to join the Air Force Administrative College for my pre-commissioning training, to my utter surprise I saw my close friend and a class fellow from the Law College also there on the railway platform. We bonded well during the training. We got a mid-term break and we were excited to go back home in Chandigarh. I kept running between the tracks, finding that the anti-collision light of the last coach started fading away. I was in a jungle with darkness setting in. Panic and fear gripped me and all sort of thoughts flashed my mind as to where would I go at night and how I would catch a train etc. Suddenly I found that the train had stopped at a distance, so I ran faster to catch up. As I approached the last coach, the guard shouted: "Get in quickly". Though I heaved a sigh of relief seeing my friend waiting for me in the guard's cabin, I was shocked when the guard informed us that the President of India was on board and for pulling the chain, we would be handed over to the police. By then the guard had seized our identity cards. Losing the identity card is a big offence in the defence forces. Soon the train arrived at a station and surely the guard handed us over with our identity cards to a policeman on the platform. Meanwhile, the train started moving and no amount of begging would make the policeman relent and let us off. It was a do-or-die situation. Suddenly I offered a five-rupee note to the policeman and my friend snatched our identity cards and we ran to board the train. Thus the ordeal came to an end but it jolted us so much that the worst scenario of not being able to get into the train and endangering our career if there was any police case against us left us shell-shocked. Today I realise how strong the Indian rupee was 47 years ago, that a five-rupee note was a substantial sum for that policeman to let us go.
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The fiercest of wars lies ahead THE meltdown of American and British policy in Iraq and Syria attracts surprisingly little criticism at home. Their aim for the past three years has been get rid of Bashar al-Assad as ruler of Syria and stabilise Iraq under the leadership of Nouri al-Maliki. The exact reverse has happened, with Mr Assad in power and likely to remain so, while Iraq is in turmoil with the government's authority extending only a few miles north and west of Baghdad.
By pretending that the Syrian opposition stood a chance of overthrowing Mr Assad after the middle of 2012, and insisting that his departure be the justification for peace talks, Washington, London and Paris have ensured that the Syrian civil war would go on. “I spent three years telling them again and again that the war in Syria would inevitably destabilise Iraq, but they paid no attention,” the Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari told me last week. I remember in the autumn of 2012, a senior British diplomat assuring me that talk of the Syrian war spreading was much exaggerated. Now the bills are beginning to come in, with Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isis), declaring a caliphate in northern Iraq and Syria. He has effectively denied the legitimacy of Muslim rulers throughout the world. No wonder Saudi Arabia has moved troops to guard its 500-mile-long border with Iraq. There is a certain divine justice in this, since until six months ago the Saudis were speeding jihadists in the general direction of Syria and Iraq but is now dreading their return. The success of Isis depends on its ability to win spectacular victories against the odds and not on its primeval and brutal ideology. Victory in battle is what makes it attractive to young Sunni recruits and it can also afford to pay them. It cannot sit on its laurels for long but needs to secure the territories it has taken and make sure that its Sunni allies – tribal, Baathist, former members of Saddam's army – who joined it to fight against Mr Maliki will not find the new masters worse than the old and change sides. Isis has moved swiftly to prevent this by demanding that the allies swear allegiance to the caliphate and give up their weapons. But beyond that Isis must show that success at Mosul was not a flash in the pan. As Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi put it last week: "There is no deed better than jihad, so to arms, to arms, soldiers of the Islamic state, fight, fight.” The Baghdad government is hopeful that the White House will ultimately use drones against Isis convoys even if it will not allow air strikes by fixed wing aircraft called in by American forward air controllers on the ground. Drones are particularly appealing to politicians because they appear to maximise damage to the enemy without American loss of life which might anger voters back home. It is true that roving Isis columns of trucks packed with fighters and heavy machine guns have proved effective so far. One Iraqi official compared them to “Arab raiders of old who would strike at caravans and then quickly withdraw”. But the core Isis military leadership is experienced Iraqi military professionals who will make sure their men don't make easy targets. Even so, any American military action, however, limited will buoy up the faltering morale of the Iraqi army. The US is pleased with the way drones have worked in Yemen and Waziristan against small groups of Al-Qaida-associated groups. But these isolated gangs are not a serious threat compared with what is brewing in Syria and Iraq, where there will soon be tens of thousands of trained, well-equipped and fanatical militants under a strong central command. But there is one important aspect of drone warfare to which Washington has not given enough attention. Drones have hitherto been used largely against ill-equipped tribespeople in isolated parts of the world and not against well-organised groups such as Isis. The latter may not be able to do much against drones at the moment they strike, but it will certainly retaliate later against American or European targets. Sunni are attracted by the idea – and Hezbollah in Lebanon have the same attraction for Shia – that here at last is a Sunni military organisation that can fight and win, however toxic its beliefs and behaviour. Faith expressed through war and death is at the heart of jihadism, so drone strikes will inevitably bring retaliation. Another round in the war in Iraq is gathering strength. Isis and its allies have succeeded easily because of the dysfunctional nature of the Iraqi army and because they have been advancing almost entirely through sympathetic Sunni-dominated areas. It is now up against Shia militia and is coming into mixed or Shia neighbourhoods where it will be resisted. But Iraq more than most countries is dominated by its capital with its seven million people, and Isis may want to establish that it has Baghdad under the gun, even if it cannot capture it. The US, Britain, France and their allies still do not have a policy to counter Isis. Washington is trying to do now what it should have done in 2010, when it could have got rid of Mr Maliki. Smugly triumphant at the time at besting the Americans in Iraq, the Iranians made the same mistake in thinking that Mr Maliki was the safest bet for them, without realising the degree to which his effort to monopolise power was degrading the Iraqi state and armed forces and enraging the Sunni minority. While the Americans imagine the Iranians are full of devious plots, they are, in fact, aghast at what has happened. “They don't want to overextend themselves,” said an Iraqi politician I asked about Iranian policy. “They are waiting for the Americans to do something.” The Iranians have started acting in Iraq, though they have not committed many people. They are trying repeat their tactics in Syria, which is to create a parallel army out of the militias to buttress or replace the regular Iraqi army. They openly say they are doing so. But there is another aspect of their Syrian strategy which shows signs of appearing in Iraq and is bad news for Iraqis. This is to cut off electricity and water to rebel areas and pulverise any town or city held by the enemy with shellfire and bombing without assaulting it, but forcing the civilian population to flee; then advance cautiously and try to encircle enemy positions with checkpoints so they can be gradually strangled. This appears to be what is happening in Tikrit, the birthplace of Saddam Hussein and a city of 200,000 on the Tigris river. The city centre is being systematically smashed according to eyewitnesses, and any point of resistance is pounded by artillery. Iraqi security officials say they believe they have a good chance of clearing Salahuddin province of which Tikrit is the capital. Meanwhile, Isis has started bulldozing Shia shrines and religious buildings, opening the door to a religious war. — The Independent
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Saudi Arabian troops on border with Iraq Saudi Arabia has sent 30,000 soldiers to its 500-mile border with Iraq after claims that Iraqi soldiers had abandoned their positions along the frontier, though this is denied by Baghdad. The Saudi-backed al-Arabiya channel said it had obtained video footage in which an Iraqi officer said 2,500 troops had been ordered to pull back from the border. The Iraqi army still appears to be dissolving after its retreat from the northern half of the country when Mosul was captured by Isis in June. A brief counter-offensive to retake Tikrit, north of Baghdad, on the day of the opening of parliament on July 1, failed to make any ground. Tikrit is without water and electricity and has been largely abandoned by its people.
Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region looks set to take advantage of the turmoil to declare an independent state. The region’s President, Massoud Barzani, asked the parliament to prepare to hold a referendum on independence, saying, “The time has come for us to determine our own fate”. In declaring the Islamic State and demanding that all Muslims pledge allegiance to it, Isis has challenged the legitimacy of all Muslim rulers – including those of Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Turkey, who have fostered the opposition in Syria and been sympathetic to it in Iraq. Studies show that where Isis takes over a district it can often recruit five or 10 times the number of fighters it used to secure control. It is offering about £400 a month for recruits with military experience, and Iraq is full of jobless young men of military age. Iraq is also facing a political crisis as it tries to form a new government after the parliamentary election in April. Nouri al-Maliki, the Prime Minister, did well in these by presenting himself to Shia voters as a man who was tough on security and who knew how to cope with a Sunni counter-revolution. Discredited by military defeat and loss of control of most of the country north and west of Baghdad, Maliki still clings to power. He is helped by the deep divisions within the Shia, Sunni and Kurdish communities, which have not been able to pick which of their leaders should be chosen as candidates. The speaker of parliament is normally a Sunni, the president a Kurd and the prime minister a Shia, but no decision on choosing them is likely within the next three or four weeks, say MPs. After the 2010 election it took 10 months to choose a new government. Football fervour scores over Isis fear Iraqi football fans are continuing to gather and watch the World Cup together, in defiance of Sunni militants and the dangers facing a country rapidly descending into all-out war. Fighters for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isis) have taken over large areas of western and northern Iraq and their raids have come within an hour's drive of Baghdad — but this has not deterred many from going to local cafés to watch the matches. Mr Hussein said: “I remember in 2007 everyone was celebrating in the streets, and you wouldn’t know who was Sunni and who was Shia.” Isis launched its military campaign last month, capturing Iraq’s second-largest city of Mosul and effectively dissolving the border with Syria, before declaring a new Islamic state. One fan, Raad Abdulhussein, told AFP that he has been going to the capital's “Facebook Café” every day with his friends to watch the matches, even though there are clearly risks. Café owner Ali Hussein said that “a lot of clients” visit his establishment to watch the tournament, particularly for important matches, and that he regularly caters to a full house. Although Iraq did not qualify for this year’s tournament in Brazil, the national team has had previous successes. In 2007, they won the AFC Asian Cup and the 2009 UAE International Cup. —AP Isis crisis *
The Isis announced recently that it has unilaterally established a caliphate in the areas under its control. It declared the group’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the head of its new self-styled state governed by sharia law, and demanded that all Muslims pledge allegiance to him. *
Isis now controls land stretching from northern Syria to the outskirts of Baghdad. That has sent tremors across the region, particularly in neighbouring Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Iran *
Talks on forming a national government will continue inside the heavily defended Green Zone. Tribal and Sunni militants who are not part of Isis are less likely to be able to oppose the jihadis or split from them. *
The US-backed Sahwah movement had divided the Sunni insurgency in 2006-07. — The Independent
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It is exactly for these reasons that expectations from the new Finance Minister are exceedingly high. People expect him to 'transform' things suddenly. It would be interesting to see the Finance Minister's challenge from three different prisms i.e. things which the UPA did well and, therefore, should continue and be strengthened; things which the UPA did not do well and, therefore, should be discontinued; and things which the UPA ought to have done but did not and, therefore, should be initiated in right earnest.
We boarded a train to Delhi in the evening and were already feeling that we were part of an elite class of commissioned officers. For dinner we were planning to go to the dining car at the next station. Suddenly the train stopped. Since all the coaches were not inter-connected those days, we did not wait for the next station and decided to get down at this unscheduled stop to go to the dining car. Just as we were walking, the train started moving. We started running to board the dining car. In no time the train picked up speed and it was not possible to reach the dining car, so we tried to board any coach near us. My friend quickly ran and got into the train. When I tried to catch the same door handle, the train had already picked up speed. The loose gravel underneath and the height of footsteps of the train made it impossible for me to get into the speeding train. I gave up and shouted at my friend to pull the chain to stop the train. He said that he was doing so.
