EDITORIAL 06.11.09

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Editorial

month november 06, edition 000343, collected & managed by durgesh kumar mishra, published by – manish manjul

 

Editorial is syndication of all daily- published newspaper's Editorial at one place.

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THE PIONEER

1. DEATH IN CHANDIGARH
2. LASHKAR IN AMERICA
3. AN ASSAULT ON SECULARISM - BK VERMA
4. NEPOTISM AS EMBEZZLEMENT - SUNANDA K DATTA-RAY
5. BLOOD-DRENCHED DIAMONDS - RUDRONEEL GHOSH
6. A FIGHT TO THE FINISH - SHIKHA MUKERJEE
7. NO END TO BJP'S TROUBLES - KALYANI SHANKAR
8. MAKING THE FINANCIAL SYSTEM WORK - VINAYSHIL GAUTAM

MAIL TODAY

1. THE TERRORISTS ARE STILL PLOTTING THEIR EVIL
2. CALLOUSNESS ON DISPLAY
3. THIS IS NO ISSUE
4. PEACE OF THE GRAVE OR THAT OF THE BRAVE?
5. EVERYONE'S OUT TO GET ZARDARI - BY NAJAM SETHI
6. A FICTITIOUS DIARY OF NAWAZ SHARIF - JUGNU MOHSIN
7. BIHAR'S TOP COP GETS PREACHY WITH TRADERS - BY GIRIDHAR JHA IN PATNA
8. FOREIGN PRESS BARRED FROM COVERING DALAI LAMA VISIT
9. BACK TO CONG
10. GARLAND TROUBLE
11. CABINET REJIG
12. NO APPLES FOR POK
13. STRICT PROTOCOLS FOR FIRE- PRONE AREAS
14. TIMING OF SC JUDGES IS STRANGE
15. SECURITY PROTOCOL RAISES QUESTIONS

 TIMES OF INDIA

1. TIME TO MOVE ON
2. DECODING KODA
3. BUSINESS OF KNOWLEDGE - DEVESH KAPUR
4. ETERNAL NOMAD
5. IN SEARCH OF A HOME - SUSMITA MUKHERJE
6. 'WOMEN'S REPRESENTATION IS VITAL TO DEEPEN DEMOCRACY'
7. PLASTIC DEVI - JUG SURAIYA 

HINDUSTAN TIMES

1. ENGAGEMENT IS NOT SUPPORT
2. EDITOR ZINDABAD!
3. POLITICS OF POPCORN - SOUMITRO DAS
4. BITTERSWEET TIDINGS - ASHOK GULATI AND TEJINDER NARANG
5. THE RAW & THE COOK - JONATHAN JONES
6. CELLULAR CURE -  SANCHITA SHARMA NEW DELHI

INDIAN EXPRESS

1. DANGEROUS FEARS
2. IDEAS OF PROGRESS
3. 439, 2009
4. LAYERS OF INSECURITY - INDER MALHOTRA
5. NOT BY PAY ALONE - AJU JOHN
6. NO BERETS PLEASE, WE'RE BRITISH
7. GOING… GOING… GONE - VINOD DHALL
8. SAFETY IN NUMBERS - ROHITKUMARSINGH
9. THE HINGE OF HISTORY
10. L'AFFAIRE MADHU KODA - SEEMA CHISHTI

FINANCIAL EXPRESS

1. LEND A HAND, NOW
2. HIT THE ROAD
3. DOES RBI GET IT? THERE IS NO CREDIT  - P VAIDYANATHAN IYER
4. MUST CLIMATE RESEARCH BE OUTSOURCED? - YOGINDER K ALAGH
5. FAST MOVING FMCG - LALITHA SRINIVASAN
6. REPORT CARD

THE HINDU

1. ENFORCING THE RULE STRICTLY
2. HYPING SCIENCE
3. IN KASHMIR, THE PRICE OF PEACE ISN'T RIGHT - PRAVEEN SWAMI
4. INDIAN DISORDER AND ENGLISH PRECISION - VIDYA SUBRAHMANIAM
5. AUSTRALIA PUTS ITS REFUGEE PROBLEM ON A REMOTE ISLAND - NORIMITSU ONISHI
6. IVORY COAST: TOXIC WASTE VICTIMS' MONEY FROZEN - DAVID LEIGH

THE ASIAN AGE

1. INDIA'S STIMULUS: TO END, OR NOT TO END...
2. CERN: WILL OUTCOME MATCH AMBITION?
3. S.H. VENKATRAMANI
4. FISH OUT OF WATER? - SHEKHAR BHATIA
5. INNOVATE WHERE YOU ARE - ROBIN SHARMA
6. MAOISTS TALK ONLY TO THE POWER OF A GUN - BALBIR K. PUNJ

DNA

1. CORRUPTION INC 
2. BATTLE CONTINUES 
3. THE HEAT IS ON - ARATI R JERATH
4. CHOICES WE MAKE
5. A NATION CAPTURED IN ARRESTING IMAGES - MADHU JAIN
6. OBAMA OR O'BAMA
7. DON'T ALIENATE THE TRIBALS
8. ILL-GOTTEN WEALTH
9. A HISTORIC JUDGMENT
10. RIGHT TO REFUSE

THE TRIBUNE

1. OPTING OUT OF RELIANCE CASES
2. DESIGNS ON INDIA
3. DISINVESTMENT ON AGENDA
4. CHINESE PINPRICKS OVER ARUNACHAL - BY  PUNYAPRIYA DASGUPTA
5. ANGER — A RIFTY GIFT - BY CHETANA VAISHNAVI
6. ONE-CHILD LEGISLATION LEAVES CHINA'S AGED IN COLD - BY VIJAY SANGHVI
7. WARMING UP FOR GAMES  - BY V.S. AILAWADI
8. CAN'T WE LATCH ON TO THE AFFIRMATIVE? - BY CHRISTINA PATTERSON

 THE ASSAM TRIBUNE

1. UNCONTROLLED PRICES
2. DEATH OF A BEAR
3. US INVASION OF GRENADA AND ITS RELEVANCE - SAZZAD HUSSAIN
4. BRONZING – A SERIOUS DISORDER IN RICE - DR BHAGAWAN BHARALI

THE ECONOMIC TIMES

1. NEITHER FAIR NOR SWEET
2. AN AUTOMOBILE STIMULUS
3. THE CYCLING CEOS
4. PERILS OF DOLLAR CARRY TRADE - SUNIL KEWALRAMANI
5. RICE SURPRISE - THE INDIAN MOVE - TEJINDER NARANG
6. LIVING WITH THE DEEPER REALITY - MUKUL SHARMA
7. WE ARE ONLY FOR UPGRADATION OF MARATHI
8. A MOVE TO REVIVE POLITICS OF REGIONAL IDENTITY
9. OATH IN MARATHI' CALL MERE POSTURING?
10. A MOVE TO REVIVE POLITICS OF REGIONAL IDENTITY
11. THERE WON'T BE ECONOMIC ARMAGEDDON - SHAILESH DOBHAL
12. HCL CHIEF RULES OUT PLANS TO SET UP VC FUND - CHANDRA RANGANATHAN
13. STASH YOUR GOLD AWAY SAFE AND SOUND, IT'S STILL THE BEST BET
14. 'SHARE OF SMES IN CREDIT FLOW HAS INCREASED'

DECCAN CHRONICAL

1. INDIA'S STIMULUS: TO END, OR NOT TO END...
2. MAOISTS TALK ONLY TO THE POWER OF A GUN - BY BALBIR K. PUNJ
3. PAK MUST ACCEPT INDIA'S OFFER OF PEACE - BY I.A. REHMAN
4. DIFFERENT STROKES ON PEOPLE WHO PRODUCE MORE MELANIN - BY COLSON WHITEHEAD  
5. CERN: WILL OUTCOME MATCH THE AMBITION? - BY S.H. VENKATRAMANI
6. VOTERS SPEAK, HEADS ROLL  -  BY GAIL COLLINS

THE STATESMAN

1.     MR BASU'S APPEAL

2.     VALUELESS VALOUR

3.     ONE-HORSE RACE

4. WAR CRY FOR ART. 356~I - ABHIJIT CHATTERJEE
5. OBESITY 'CAN KILL YOUR SEX LIFE'

THE TELEGRAPH

1. OLD FORM
2. HARD REALITY
3. FATED TO FADE AWAY - ASHOK MITRA
4. TIGER MEETS DRAGON  - MALVIKA SINGH

DECCAN HERALD

1. MIND-BOGGLING FEAT
2. POSITIVE OUTCOME
3. INDIRA, THE DESTROYER - BY KULDIP NAYAR
4. ISRAEL'S BACKDOOR CONTACTS WITH IRAN - BY SAEED NAQVI
5. TERRORISED CHICKEN - BY NIVEDITA CHOUDHURI

THE JERUSALEM POST

1. US, THEM & OBAMA

HAARETZ

2. THE WORST SHOW IN TOWN
3. PRESERVE THE ATTORNEY GENERAL'S ROLE  - BY URIEL PROCACCIA
4. OPERATION IMMUNIZE ISRAEL - BY YOSSI SARID
5. YES TO WORK AND NO TO WELFARE  - BY NEHEMIAH STRASSLER
6. THE DEAL THAT WAS NOT  - BY EMANUELE OTTOLENGHI
7. EYES TO THE FUTURE - BY AHARON HORWITZ AND ARIEL BEERY
8. ABROAD DOESN'T HAVE TO MEAN LOST  - BY NIR COHEN AND ISRAEL PUPKO
9. THE POISONOUS WELL OF ANTI-JEWISH RHETORIC - BY MORDECAI PALDIEL

THE NEW YORK TIMES

1. TRIBAL CHIEFS AND THE PRESIDENT
2. APPLES, APPLES, APPLES - BY VERLYN KLINKENBORG
3. THE REPUBLICAN HEALTH PLAN
4. A BAD WAY TO SPEND MONEY
5. CHRIS CHRISTIE CONFIDENTIAL - BY HARLAN COBEN
6. OBAMA FACES HIS ANZIO  - BY PAUL KRUGMAN
7. WHAT INDEPENDENTS WANT - BY DAVID BROOKS

I.THE NEWS

1. END IN SIGHT?
2. HOT AIR
3. A WIN FOR WOMEN
4. WHAT FURTHER TRIALS FOR A SORELY-TRIED NATION? - AYAZ AMIR
5. SCAM IN THE MAKING? - AHMAD RAFAY ALAM
6. PAMPERING THE MULLAH - TALAT FAROOQ
7. WHERE IS THE GOVERNMENT? - DR MASOODA BANO
8. ARE WE READY FOR THE LONG WAR? - SHAFQAT MAHMOOD
9. SOVEREIGNTY, WHOSE? - HARRIS KHALIQUE

PAKISTAN OBSERVER

1. FOOLISH IDEA OF TWO WEEKLY HOLIDAYS
2. GAS CUT: ANOTHER BLOW TO INDUSTRY
3. ILLEGAL ISRAELI SETTLEMENTS
4. WILL INDIANS & PAKISTANIS LOSE THEIR CULTURE? - M D NALAPAT
5. BANALITY OF TERROR - SULTAN M HALI
6. NON-VIOLENCE AND ISLAM - MAULANA WAHIDUDDIN KHAN
7. NAXALITES: OPPRESSOR OR SUPPRESSED? - FATIMA SYED
8. CHEMO FOR THE BJP..! - ROBERT CLEMENTS

THE INDEPENDENT

1. VACANT POSTS
2. THIS TOO SHALL PASS...!
3. DISPUTE OVER MARITIME BOUNDARY - NILRATAN HALDER
4. CHANGING THE CONSTITUTION
5. REMEMBERING KHURRUM KHAN PANNI - WAJID ALI KHAN PANNI
6. INLAND PORT AT MAWA - NEHAL ADIL

THE AUSTRALIAN

1. TALKBACK TO THE FUTURE
2. AUSTRALIA: IT'S TIME TO REOPEN FOR BUSINESS

THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD

1. ANGRY OWNERS ON THE BLOWER
2. TURNING OFF FIJI'S TAP
3. IT'S TIME TO GROW UP, AND REVIVE THE REPUBLICAN CAUSE
4. LIFE ON EARTH IS VANISHING BEFORE OUR UNSEEING EYES

THE GURDIAN

1. IN PRAISE OF… THE DIPLOMATIC ARTS
2. PALESTINIAN PRESIDENT: A DREAM TURNED SOUR
3. BANK OF ENGLAND: THE TREATMENT ISN'T WORKING

DAILY EXPRESS

1. THESE FIVE DEATHS PROVE WE HAVE TO LEAVE AFGHANISTAN - BY KEVIN TOOLIS
2. NEW MPS ARE LIKELY TO BE BRIGHT AND HARD-WORKING
3. EXPENSES RULES ARE NOT RIGHT - BY FREDERICK FORSYTH
4. WORLD CUP WILL BE A HOOT FOR OUR STARS

THE KOREA HERALD

1. MORAL HIGH GROUND
2. AGAIN, SEJONG CITY
3. POST-LEHMAN 'ZOMBIE ECONOMY' ERA  - JASPER KIM

THE JAPAN TIMES

1. CONFUSING APPROACH TO GOALS
2. SEPARATE SURNAME OPTION
3. RECALLING A SAINT'S LEGACY TO LEPROSY VICTIMS - BY YOHEI SASAKAWA
4. THE HUMAN RIGHTS OUTLOOK AND NEW JUSTICE MINISTER - BY LAWRENCE REPETA

THE JAKARTA POST

1. NEW CLUBS IN TOWN
2. ON THE QUESTION OF POLYGAMY
3. ABDUL KADIR RIYADI

CHINA DAILY

1. SOCCER SCOURGE
2. STOP UNLICENSED PRACTICE
3. HOW TO HANDLE GLOBAL ECONOMIC IMBALANCES
4. CHINA, AFRICA BOUND ON DEVELOPMENT ROAD

THE MOSCOW TIMES

1. SPENDING MONEY HAND OVER FIST  - BY MICHELE A. BERDY
2. VERY LITTLE TO CELEBRATE  - BY VLADIMIR RYZHKOV

 

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THE PIONEER

EDIT DESK

DEATH IN CHANDIGARH

'VVIP' SECURITY AS TAMASHA IS TO BLAME

The Prime Minister has no doubt expressed his "profound sense of sadness" at the death of Sumit Verma, a patient in need of emergency medical help who was not allowed to enter the Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research in Chandigarh because Mr Manmohan Singh was delivering a lecture inside on Tuesday, but it will not fetch the slightest comfort to the family of the victim of 'VVIP' security arrangements. Such vacuous expressions of regret have been heard earlier too whenever people have been inconvenienced or have had to suffer on account of security arrangements ostensibly meant to protect 'VVIPs' and 'VIPs' but in reality are no more than an elaborate effort to demonstrate the 'importance' of the person who is being protected. Not only are roads closed, traffic halted and life brought to a virtual standstill in the name of 'VVIP' and 'VIP' security, the policemen on duty are crude and rude with the people as if that, too, is part of the standard operating procedure. The tragic consequences of the ham-handed security arrangements for the Prime Minister during his visit to Chandigarh should serve to draw authority's attention to the urgent need for reviewing the existing system of protecting 'VVIPs' and 'VIPs'. To begin with, those who cannot step out of their homes and offices without disrupting the lives of people should desist from visiting public places. Frankly, the Prime Minister need not have accepted an invitation to give a lecture at the Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research in Chandigarh — or any other hospital, for that matter — as he knew very well that his presence would cause more than just inconvenience to patients and their relatives. Hospitals and similar public places are not meant for politicians to participate in outreach programmes meant to promote themselves. Such events are best held at the Prime Minister's residence where elaborate conference facilities exist or in one of the meeting halls of Parliament House complex. In the same manner, 'VVIPs' and 'VIPs' in States, too, should restrict their presence in events that create problems for the people unless they can ensure that security arrangements are non-intrusive and create no obstacles.

In fact, if at all the Prime Minister truly regrets the needless death caused by his visit to the the Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research in Chandigarh, he should immediately instruct the Ministry of Home Affairs to instruct the police and other relevant agencies to stop turning 'VVIP' and 'VIP' security arrangements into a public spectacle and hold those on duty responsible for any inconvenience that is caused. Given the threat perception, especially from terrorist organisations, every possible step must be taken to protect the lives of those who hold high office. But this needs to be done with a measure of sophistication; nowhere else in the world, barring in countries where dictators rule and thus need to make a show of their clout and power, is security cover for important individuals either intrusive or obstructionist. Indeed, when our 'VVIPs' and 'VIPs' travel abroad, they have to do without the pleasure of making the lives of others miserable. The death of a critically ill patient has stirred the conscience of the nation and the national outrage is a measure of popular anger. Hopefully, the conscience of our security-crazy politicians, too, will be roused from slumber.>

 

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THE PIONEER

LASHKAR IN AMERICA

US MUST RE-STRATEGISE WAR ON TERROR

The arrest of two Lashkar-e-Tayyeba operatives — Tahawwur Hussain Rana and David Coleman Headley — in the US is telling in more ways than one. First, despite the best efforts of the US administration to seal off America to terrorists, the incident has proved that loopholes still exist in US homeland security. It is true that the American intelligence machinery was able to apprehend Rana and Headley before they could do any harm. But as Rana's advice to another LeT operative on how to smuggle people into the US — evidence which is being used against him in a court of law — suggests, jihadis can still infiltrate America. Although it will be uncharitable to criticise the American authorities for allowing Rana and Headley to operate from the US for so long — the Lashkar men's arrest has provided India with valuable insight on how the National Defence College in New Delhi could have been the target of a terror attack — the episode should force the Obama Administration to re-evaluate its war on terrorism. There can be no denying that Pakistan and Pakistan-based terrorist organisations are central to global jihad. Unless this source of terrorism is effectively neutralised, the war on terror will be futile.

Rana and Headley's interrogation has once again proved that organisations like the Lashkar-e-Tayyeba and its ilk continue to operate with impunity from Pakistan. This, despite repeated assurances by Islamabad that it was moving to dismantle all terror groups operating from its soil. It is also equally clear that US funding of Pakistan's anti-terror operations is achieving zilch. Not only is there reason to believe that the money is not being used for the purpose intended, there is also a strong possibility that it is being siphoned off to strengthen the terror infrastructure. Yet Washington, DC, believes that its perseverance will eventually bear fruit. This is the reason why it recently sanctioned billions of dollars in civilian and military aid even though Islamabad made it clear that it would not accept any riders. The result is there for all to see. Even though Islamabad has been making a show of moving against the Taliban and other affiliated terrorist organisations that are responsible for the present spate of terrorist attacks in Pakistan, it has done little to crack down on organisations like the LeT or the Jaish-e-Mohammad. This distinction between 'good' jihadiand 'bad' jihadiexposes Islamabad's reluctance to stop using terrorism as an instrument of state policy to keep Afghanistan destabilised and India on its toes. Unless the US addresses this fundamental issue, Pakistan will remain the epicentre of international terrorism. This time Rana and Headley's nefarious designs were stubbed out before they could be implemented. Next time the world might not be so lucky.

 

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            THE PIONEER

COLUMN

AN ASSAULT ON SECULARISM

BK VERMA

Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind's reiteration of a 2006 fatwa issued by the Darul Uloom, Deoband, calling upon Muslims not to sing the National Song Vande Mataram is a grim reminder that fundamentalist Islam is not only very much alive in India but getting stronger by the day, thanks to the encouragement being provided by the so-called secular political parties. The Pioneer's editorial, "Jamiat's insidious agenda" (November 5) crisply summarises the 25 highly objectionable resolutions that were passed at the recent Jamiat convention. They are nothing short of declaring Muslims a separate nation within our state.

In this day and age the call for Muslims to abstain from watching cinema or television, or the imposition of sharia'h rules for girls above 10 years of age is akin to pushing the Muslim community five centuries back. From time to time we conveniently forget that Islam is a militant, imperialist ideology that cannot tolerate any other world view. It preaches hatred towards those outside the faith. It frowns upon any kind of entertainment. As Ayatollah Khomeini had said, "There is no fun in Islam".

It would be fitting to remind readers of what Winston Churchill had said in his book, The River War: "How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries…wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live. A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity. The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property, either as a child, a wife, or a concubine, must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men. Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world."

What is really worrisome is that the Jamiat convention was attended by the Union Home Minister who did not condemn the insidious resolutions. The resolutions must be roundly condemned by the Government at the first available opportunity. There can be no compromise on our secular integrity.

 

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THE PIONEER

COLUMN

NEPOTISM AS EMBEZZLEMENT

SUNANDA K DATTA-RAY

All those tales of how frankly Devi Lal justified promoting his son also promoted the view that nepotism is an Asian vice. China's 'princelings' dominated the news until the world tired of a phenomenon that explains the political succession from Syria to North Korea. But India is still thought to offer the ultimate example of family solidarity.

It now looks as if Britain might steal our laurels. Oh, there's no equivalent yet of the Nehru-Gandhi clan or of the dynasties that assume an unquestioned right to power in some States. But as an addict of historical trivia, I remember my schoolboy surprise on reading that when England's 16th century Queen Mary Tudor asked the Holy Roman Emperor who she should marry, the Emperor replied he loved no one better than his son, Philip of Spain, whom she subsequently married. The reply made clear that Devi Lal did not invent the 'blood is thicker than water' concept or saying. Men of power acted on that principle centuries before Haryana existed as such.

So, it should not occasion surprise that about 200 members of Britain's House of Commons employed their wives, husbands, children and other relatives on their official staff, their wages being paid by the state. That may have nothing to do with the disclosure that MPs' staff costs went up by eight per cent to £ 59.96 million in 2008-9. But the parliamentary expenses scandal makes it impossible not to link the two.

This aspect of the controversy came to light when it transpired that Mr Tony McNulty, a former Minister in the Home Office, who represents the London suburb of Harrow East, but whose 'main' residence is in London, claimed expenses for a second home in his constituency. Harrow East being only eight miles from his London home, there was no need to maintain a second home there at the taxpayer's expense. He could have taken a taxi whenever he wished to attend to his constituents.

What made matters worse was that though Mr McNulty claimed £ 72,500 for the Harrow house between 2002 and 2008, he did not spend more than 66 nights there in a year. Finally, and to everyone's outrage, his elderly parents lived in the house free of rent. Mr McNulty, who has issued what many regard as a grudging token apology (one columnist called it a "pseudo-apology"), would disagree. He maintains he did nothing wrong, and

Prime Minister Gordon Brown supports him.

In India, he would qualify as a dutiful son. But the House of Commons Committee on Standards and Privileges says he breached official rules for "subsidising the living costs" of his parents. The Parliamentary Commissioner, Mr John Lyon, thinks it inappropriate for an MP to subsidise the living arrangements of anyone other than a wife, husband, partner or children under the age of 18 who still live at home. That was the principle we grew up with. We travelled free on my father's railway pass until the age of 18 when we were no longer deemed dependants.

I remember that when my grandmother came to stay with us, my father paid back to the old East Indian Railway a small portion of the notional rent for the bungalows to which he was entitled and where we lived in Benares, Lucknow and Kanchrapara. His rationale was that he was in effect subletting a portion of the Government property that had been assigned to him. While he, as son-in-law, may have owed a duty to my grandmother, the Government did not.

Such hair-splitting accounting may have been rare even then; it would be very strange, indeed, to find it today in Lutyens' Delhi where Ministers and civil servants and their extended families occupy official bungalows.

True, no British MP has as yet been accused of renting out a portion of his official accommodation as some Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha members have been known to do. But several allowed grown-up daughters, all professional women, to stay on without paying any rent in houses for which they claimed expenses. One MP, Mrs Julie Kirkbride, asked for and received permission to extend her flat in a Georgian country house and increase her mortgage for her "growing family". She used the money to build a separate bedroom for her brother who lives rent-free in the extended flat. It sounds like adding a barsati in Delhi except that Mrs Kirkbride's flat is in a gracious mansion set in rolling lawns.

The question of employing spouses and children is more complex. Some wives and daughters are trained office workers. Some have given up other jobs to work for the related MP. Asking them to quit recalls Mrs Indira Gandhi demanding querulously why Sanjay should be penalised — meaning denied the business opportunities he sought — for being her son. In Britain, Lady Thatcher similarly felt her son was discriminated against.

An MP's wife pointed out another dimension of the controversy. If she had just been living in sin ("shacked up" was the phrase used) with him instead of being bound in holy matrimony, there would have been no objection to her working as his secretary. Some partners — the contemporary word for a live-in girl friend or what would once have been called a 'mistress' — do, indeed, work in MPs' offices. No one accuses them of corruption. Being married makes the difference.

Some of these aggrieved wives are working on a scheme to find a way round the difficulty. Their spouses will swap wives. It's not quite as titillating as it may sound for all it means is that each working wife will work for an MP who is not her husband. It might work in some cases but it all depends on finding enough people with matching jobs to change with. Obviously, changes will have to match not only personality but also party: A Tory MP's wife cannot work for a Labour member. They must both hold similar jobs to exchange. Geographic convenience is an important factor. Even if all the out of work wives are catered for, there will still remain the husbands, children and more distant relatives who work for MPs.

It's a difficult matter that the law cannot solve. The British dilemma confirms that civilisational values alone can decide when family loyalty ceases to be a virtue and becomes a form of embezzlement.

 

sunandadr@yahoo.co.in

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THE PIONEER

OPED

BLOOD-DRENCHED DIAMONDS

IN ZIMBABWE, THE GOVERNMENT IS GUILTY OF FUELLING THE TRADE IN 'BLOOD DIAMONDS'. THEREFORE, EVEN IF THE KPCS SUSPENDS ZIMBABWE'S MEMBERSHIP, WHICH IS UNLIKELY, THESE STAINED DIAMONDS WILL CONTINUE TO FIND THEIR WAY TO JEWELLERY STORES THROUGH MOZAMBIQUE AND SOUTH AFRICA. NOBODY SEEMS TO CARE!

RUDRONEEL GHOSH

With Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai suspending co-operation with the country's President Robert Mugabe over disagreements in power-sharing arrangements, the fragile coalition Government that was formed nine months ago is literally coming apart at the seams. Led by the Southern African Development Community, efforts are currently underway to try and broker some sort of an agreement to establish a stable Government in Harare. But finding middle ground between Mr Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change and Mr Mugabe's ZANU-PF is no mean task. President Mugabe and his ZANU-PF cronies are determined to continue their almost three-decade-old reign over Zimbabwe and have little patience for Mr Tsvangirai and his democratic ideals. The MDC's victory in elections held last year was brutally snuffed out by a systematic campaign of state perpetrated terror wherein MDC supporters were beaten up, raped, jailed and killed.

The intimidation tactics succeeded and despite the SADC's help in creating some space for Mr Tsvangirai and the MDC in Zimbabwean politics, Mr Mugabe remains firmly in control. With ZANU-PF loyalists in the Zimbabwean Army faithfully backing him to the hilt, Mr Mugabe has been able to crush any force that he has perceived to be a challenge to his authority. He has also exploited the post-colonial syndrome with a great degree of success by branding anyone who questions his supremacy as an agent of Western powers. He has also used this excuse to forcibly seize farmland from the Whites and redistribute it among the Blacks. As a result of Mr Mugabe's policies, Zimbabwe has gone from being known as the 'bread basket of Africa' to a country that is in the midst of an economic meltdown with widespread unemployment and hunger.

It is in this background that another sinister issue has come to light. Three years ago diamonds were discovered in the Marange fields of eastern Zimbabwe. Subsequently, the area was overwhelmed with prospectors and poor Zimbabweans looking to make a quick fortune through the illicit diamond trade. However, late last year Zimbabwean Army troops moved into the area, inflicting all kinds of human rights abuses on the local miners. Reportedly, around 200 people were killed, hundreds more beaten and women rampantly raped by the Government soldiers in the process of securing the diamond fields. Today, the Marange fields are being farmed by Army officers through force and coercion, with profits from the trade going to the ruling ZANU-PF regime.

Harare has been vehemently denying these allegations. But investigation by representatives of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme — an international body that regulates the trade in rough diamonds — earlier this year confirmed the abuses. In fact, member nations of the KPCS met this week in Namibia to consider suspending Zimbabwe from the scheme till the time abuses in Marange cease.

The vast mineral resources of African nations are central to most conflicts there. The issue of conflict or blood diamonds came to light during the 1990s with the civil war in Sierra Leon. High-grade diamonds were being farmed by rebel groups to fund their activities. It was in this scenario that the need was felt to come up with a regulatory mechanism to ensure that these blood diamonds do not enter the legitimate diamond trade. For this purpose the KPCS was set up by a United Nations resolution in 2003 and was backed by the diamond trading industry in the form of a system of warranties introduced by the World Diamond Council. It was envisaged that the trade in rough diamonds would be controlled by the KPCS participants by trading only between member nations after they had put in place a common certification mechanism. The diamond manufacturing and trading companies would then support the KPCS efforts by conducting their trade only on the basis of authentic invoices at every stage of the diamond processing and retailing pipeline to ensure that the diamonds are not funding conflict and human rights abuses.

But the KPCS has only been marginally successful. This is essentially because most of the diamond trading nations face another huge problem: Corruption within the state machinery. As a result, even if a country is blacklisted by the KPCS, the illegal diamonds find their way into the global trade through an active KPCS member nation.

In Zimbabwe's case the Government itself is guilty of fuelling the trade in blood diamonds. Therefore, even if the KPCS suspends Zimbabwe's membership — which is unlikely given the support Harare has from other southern African nation — the conflict diamonds will find their way into your nearest jewellery store through Mozambique and South Africa, which is an established illicit diamond trading route. Unless the international community finds an effective way to stifle the use of Africa's mineral resources to fund decrepit regimes and bloodthirsty guerrilla groups, all human rights efforts in the continent will be in vain.

 

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THE PIONEER

OPED

A FIGHT TO THE FINISH

MARXISTS, MAMATA ADOPT DESPERATE MEASURES

SHIKHA MUKERJEE

As West Bengal explodes in a series of political encounters, beginning with Khanakul in Hooghly on November 1 to Nanur in Birbhum on November 3 in a swathe that touches the constituencies going to the polls on November 7, it is apparent that force rather than reason are the preferred tools of the political class in this State.

The Communist Party of India(Marxist), it appears, is fighting to recover lost ground following the shock of a series of defeats — panchayat elections in 2008, Lok Sabha election in 2009, by-elections and civic elections in between. The Trinamool Congress has not begun its counter offensive as yet. Its response, in so far as Ms Mamata Banerjee is concerned is to threaten bandhs and road blocks.

In circumstances such as these, the appeal by the veteran Marxist leader, Mr Jyoti Basu, seems to have been badly timed, ill advised and entirely inappropriate. His appeal of November 1, calling for a conscience vote by voters, from the Congress, the disgruntled from the Left who had withheld support after 2006 in the interests of West Bengal's future, its development and progress, instead of altering the political debate has proved itself to be irrelevant.

In the hands of an adroit leader, vastly experienced in sensing moods even before they become manifest, a cryptic message delivered to voters would be a potent weapon. Success, to some degree, could have been guaranteed if Mr Basu was well enough to fan the spark he ignited with his appeal to Congress voters on the eve of the crucial cluster of by-elections in West Bengal.

The onus to rescue the State from the crisis — of opposition assisted violence that has converted the State into a Maoist theatre of war — has moved from CPI(M)'s loyal voters to the party's disgruntled ranks, to Congress voters and by extension Congress leaders. West Bengal's politics, hitherto congealed in an ugly mix of hate and violence, may not change overnight; it may not change at all. But the appeal has been launched and its effect may fizzle out or grow.

With violence erupting in West Bengal it is inconceivable that Mr Basu's appeal will have any takers. On the other hand, given the violence the appeal to restore stability, peace and progress may have a different kind of allure. But, without the formidable skills of Mr Basu in using any weakness to create a breach through which a breakthrough can be achieved, it is difficult to imagine how a clumsy CPI(M) leadership, harassed and often looking hapless by an opposition that is careless of what tools it employs, will handle the inevitable aftermath of violence.

As West Bengal moves inexorably deeper into crisis, it seems as though the two principal foes are fighting a war of annihilation. The turf wars in Khanakul or Nanur or Nandigram or Singur reflect the intolerance of the political parties to the presence of rivals. The issue that made the opposition an attractive idea: The CPI(M)'s alienation from its voters: Because it ignored the peasant's anxieties over land acquisition, its reckless pursuit of investments for industrialisation, the corruption of leaders and the abuse of power by the cadres, the opportunistic identification with the party, the shelter it provided to anti-social elements: Is no longer relevant.

The issue has changed from rescuing maa, mati, manush as per Ms Banerjee's slogan from CPI(M)'s exploitation and oppression to a fight for territorial occupation and control. Voters are captives on the territories where they are rooted. Occupation of a particular turf seems to imply that the bulk of voters will also shift allegiance.
The turf wars, the violence that escalated as the Maoist presence grew is familiar, even though it is not a re-enactment of the early-1970s. In the hey-days of the Maoist movement, there was violence, there were killings, there were police encounters and there were raids. The difference was that the CPI(M) was out of power and on the defensive. The difference is that the CPI(M) is in power and still on the defensive, because the Trinamool Congress and the Maoists have targeted the Marxists.

If the deadlock is to end, a political gambit is necessary. Perhaps Mr Basu in his wisdom felt that an appeal for a conscience vote for stability-peace-progress would percolate and take effect, if not by November 7 then by 2011. In a situation where there is no politics other than hate and violence, a call to reason is perhaps futile.

But there is sense in Mr Basu's appeal, which has provoked the Congress, as a party, to react. In seeking a way to restore to the voter the power to make reasoned, sensible choices that affect, short and long-term interests, Mr Basu is calling for a return to normalcy. He is also asking voters to be discriminating. In other words, he is asking voters to cut off the supply of heat to the political leadership. If Mr Basu were active, the appeal would have had considerable force. His ability to persuade was awesome. He did it over the CPI(M)'s rigid position in 1996 over participating in a non-CPI(M) led Government at the Centre. By forcing his party to "withdraw" from the 1972 elections in West Bengal, declaring that it was entirely rigged, Mr Basu sold the idea of the CPI(M) as a principled political party to voters in 1977 apprehensive over its record for turbulence and agitational politics.

In an indirect way, Mr Basu is also asking the CPI(M) to rethink its position on perpetuating the break up with the Congress. It is, therefore, intriguing that the super sensitive CPI(M) leadership has not ignored the gambit. Instead, Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury has officially responded by describing it as sage advice from India's oldest statesman.

 

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THE PIONEER

OPED

NO END TO BJP'S TROUBLES

THE CRISIS IN KARNATAKA CAN ONLY BE RESOLVED IF THE BJP'S CENTRAL LEADERSHIP IS DECISIVE. THE PARTY MUST SAVE THE GOVERNMENT IN THIS SOUTHERN STATE NO MATTER WHAT IT TAKES.

KALYANI SHANKAR

Why is the BJP unable to deal with its Chief Ministers from Kalyan Singh to Uma Bharti to BS Yeddyurappa? The party had to replace then Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Kalyan Singh because he refused to change his style of functioning despite warnings from the central leadership. But the NDA was in power then and the leadership was strong at the central level.

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi does not like any interference in the affairs of his State. Former Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje also refused to change her style of functioning despite complaints from the BJP local unit and the RSS. She continued her defiance when she dilly-dallied about resigning from her position as the BJP's legislative party leader. Now the BJP is faced with the same problem with a powerful section in Karnataka rebelling against Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa and is on a 'oust Yeddyurappa mission'. The sad story is that despite getting a foothold in the south for the first time, the BJP is unable to manage the State on account of its own problems.

The present crisis is mainly due to mismanagement and the ego trip of Mr Yeddyurappa and the rebels led by the powerful Reddy brothers of Bellary who are Ministers in his Cabinet. The tussle is for control over the prosperous mineral rich Bellary region and more clout in the Government.

Mr Yeddyurappa, who should have noticed the signs of unrest, should have taken steps to nip it in the bud. On the contrary, he allowed things to simmer that today his own position is shaky. The Reddy brothers have acquired clout because of their ability to fund several legislators during elections and these legislators owe their loyalty to them and not to the party. The dissidents are attacking the Chief Minister and his close associate Panchayati Raj Minister Shoba Karandlaje for interference in other Ministries. It reminds one of then Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Kalyan Singh and the alleged influence of his close associate Kusum Rai.

The crisis in Karnataka is also due to the State-level rivalry between BJP general secretary Anant Kumar and Mr Yeddyurappa. In the Brahmin-Lingayat power struggle, it was Lingayat leader Yeddyurappa who won the battle. The party decided to keep Mr Anant Kumar at the centre, leaving the State to Mr Yeddyurappa. With the loyalists accusing Mr Kumar of engineering the present revolt in the State Cabinet, apparently this formula has not worked well.

One of the reasons for the delay in resolving the present crisis is also due to the fact that the BJP central leadership is weak. BJP chief Rajnath Singh is a lame duck president and is on his way out. Leader of the Opposition LK Advani is not as strong as he used to be when a word from him was considered law. Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee is out of the political scene. The second-rung leadership is fighting for the cake. In such a situation, the State legislators are not ready to listen to the central leaders.

It is money that speaks as most of the rebels had won their seats with the help of the powerful Reddy brothers and what they say they will follow. With a weak leadership at the centre as well as in the State, it is only natural for the crisis to continue.

Mr Jagan Mohan Reddy, son of late Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy has also emerged as a player if one goes by the rumours. Insiders say that he, being the business partner of the Reddy brothers, has a lot of influence with them and is keen to destabilise the Yeddyurappa Government.

The first priority for the BJP is to save the Government, irrespective of whether Mr Yeddyurappa remains or goes. So the crisis has to be resolved with a give-and-take attitude. The new formula should include keeping Mr Anant Kumar away from meddling in the affairs of the State. Using the influence of Ms Sushma Swaraj with the Reddy brothers may keep them under check. Ms Swaraj has been nursing Bellary since she fought and lost elections from there. Clipping the wings of Panchayati Raj Minister Shoba Karandlaje may mollify the dissidents. The Chief Minister should undertake a Cabinet reshuffle to maintain a balance and also address the concerns of the rebels. The Reddy brothers should be mollified and Yeddyurappa should do everything in his power to restore the balance.

 

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THE PIONEER

OPED

MAKING THE FINANCIAL SYSTEM WORK

A SUPERVISORY FRAMEWORK IS URGENTLY NEEDED BUT IS STILL MISSING

VINAYSHIL GAUTAM

There are a group of people who believe that innovation in the finance area should not be curtailed and market should be given a free run. These market fundamentalists have been variously questioned. Studying a pattern and doing content analysis is an effective learning instrument. A conference of International Institute of Finance was held in Athens in summer of 2007. It was a high powered conference, they were then discussing whether hedge funds and private equity funds should be asked to disclose their business or be asked to disclose their numbers. In that international gathering, no one even talked of whether they should be regulated. The flavour of times was free market and the approach was of promoting and encouraging innovation. Incentives and bonuses were amongst the instruments thought to promote it.

Then came the slump; and the state auditors got into action. The lavish earnings which actually came in the way of some in 2008, was almost parallel with the slump. It involved people getting mind-boggling perks. People got all varieties of bonus, and some bought themselves private jets. The immediate advantage for the person who was doing it within a system within a financial company led to such things happening. Clearly, nobody was supervising, much less regulating.

A moot question which to this day remains unanswered in an institutional mode is whether that was all something like a private contract or was it something which could lead to public harm? The question is not as complicated as it seems. If there are two persons in a room who are venturing with their own money and they are not borrowing money from anybody, this may be something between the two of them. But, if there is something where public money is involved, where money kept in fiduciary capacity, then somebody has to supervise and look at it. It was not happening enough when the so-called 'slump' took place and it is not happening adequately even today.

One thing is clear — when there is a company, the company is taking a credit risk. If the company is exporting or importing, it is taking a foreign exchange risk. The truth is they are taking an interest rate risk on the economy. So, one has to hedge. There is a natural case for you, a business case for you to hedge against your normal business — whether it is an interest risk or a credit risk or it is a forex risk. It has been a sad day when speculation became so important even for the corporate. The examples are many in India. Some sugar companies in India, or some auto component suppliers or some exporters in India who are exporting their merchandises started hoping that 30-40 or even 50 per cent of their revenue will come from their forex hedging. Clearly, it was not their core business. Consequently, when the hedge went against them, several of them went to various courts all over the world saying they did not understand this instrument. One can only wish they had realised it earlier. So long as they were minting money, they never went anywhere and when they lost money, complainants started saying they did not understand it and courts must provide protection!

Whatever be the instruments or systems which are being implemented in or are being planned for India, one has to accept that flow of capital will happen either way. All monetary policies, all regulatory architecture and all instruments have to be fully prepared for eventualities of huge amount of flow capital. It is interesting to note that the amendment in 1999 of the Securities Contract and Regulation Act began the process for creation of exchange-traded derivatives. It would be interesting to recall that India has a contract law where its Section 30 says that wagering contract is not legal. Any sort of wagering is not permitted and that is why this law provides that if trading is happening in exchange, exchange trading means that one party does not know which is the counterparty is. It is anonymous order-driven on the screen. So that was allowed. So, exchange derivatives are allowed and this led to creation of index futures, followed by single-stock futures, index options and single-stock options. There is a story of the ups and downs of interest rate derivatives. But, that is another matter and there are certain turf issues between the SEBI and the RBI.

That is how our financial systems work and clearly, they need attention!

 gautamvinay@hotmail.com

 

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MAIL TODAY

 COMMENT

THE TERRORISTS ARE STILL PLOTTING THEIR EVIL

 

THE Lashkar- e- Tayyeba terror is closer than we thought. After the dastardly terror attacks on Mumbai last November, there haven't been any attacks by terrorists from outside the country, but with the arrest and prosecution of David Coleman Headley and Tahawwur Rana in Chicago by FBI officials, it is apparent that an audacious plan to attack the National Defence College in New Delhi was in the making.

 

That two elite boarding schools — Woodstock and The Doon School — were also on the terror hit list is all the more chilling.

 

As was more than evident in the 26/ 11 attack last year, terrorists are well- trained — with military capabilities, are able to destroy targets using the most advanced weaponry, and most important of all, they have nothing to lose as they go into a mission knowing they are going to die.

 

Which is why, it is critical that India, along with other countries affected by terrorism, share intelligence and make valuable inputs available to each other so that counterterrorism measures mean that such plots are negated even before they go into execution stage.

 

The US effort to nab Rana and Headley was a unilateral one, and it was only after the targets were shown to be Indian did they share the news with the Indian authorities. However, with both the Intelligence Bureau and Research & Analysis Wing teams already in the US to find out more about the plots, it would give a great opportunity for investigators in both countries to exchange more than just a few notes about this case.

 

India can only gain from this symbiotic relationship, and with India's experience in gathering intelligence in the region, the US authorities will be able to make headway in partly abating, if not eliminating the terror threat here.

 

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MAIL TODAY

COMMENT

CALLOUSNESS ON DISPLAY

 

PRIME Minister Manmohan Singh is right to be irked over the absence of most concerned chief ministers from a conference on the implementation of the landmark Forest Rights Act. Tribal people form a significant component of the Maoist insurgents who are now in effective control of some 180 districts of the country. Yet the only chief minister who showed up was Navin Patnaik of Orissa; the others were represented by ministers and officials dealing with tribal affairs. Our chief ministers are zealous in guarding their turf when it comes to law and order, yet an important meeting with a bearing on the subject is treated with casualness.

 

As the Prime Minister pointed out in his address, the systematic exploitation and social and economic abuse of tribal communities has come to a head. But nothing could be done in the lengthening shadow of the gun. On the other hand, he lamented the lack of committed and competent officials to provide governance to the tribal regions.

 

The quality of governance is evident from the sheer scale of the evidence available of the money that former Jharkhand chief minister Madhu Koda allegedly made through corruption. One estimate puts it at a fifth of the state's annual budget.

 

The battle against the Maoist challenge is bound to be a complex one. It requires action on multiple fronts — the police, administration, judiciary, development and so on. Constitutionally the responsibility falls on the CMs of the various states to get their individual and collective act together.

 

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MAIL TODAY

COMMENT

THIS IS NO ISSUE

 

THE controversy over Jamiat Ulema- i- Hind's resolution against Muslims reciting Vande Mataram is uncalled for. Hindutva elements employing the obnoxious ' cricket test' to claim that Muslims are anti- India have made this an issue. And the ulemas have reacted along predictable lines. Both are wrong because the issue of whether or not someone should sing Vande Mataram is, or ought to be, a matter of individual choice, not a test of nationality or religious affirmation.

 

That is the meaning of the freedom that our Constitution gives us.

 

Home Minister P Chidambaram has played into the hands of the Bharatiya Janata Party by sounding defensive about attending the Deoband conference where the resolution was adopted. The BJP is in complete disarray and is desperate to find issues that help it regain its relevance. For the media and the Congress to join issue with it here only aids its divisive agenda.

 

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MAIL TODAY

COLUMN

PEACE OF THE GRAVE OR THAT OF THE BRAVE?

 

IT IS difficult to raise any voice of sanity and wisdom in the war- like atmosphere with regard to the State- Maoists collision that is capturing the headlines for the last two weeks. In this atmosphere the national political class is feeling a sense of exhilaration.

 

With what is called the national media, particularly the TV channels, clamouring for the blood of the Maoists, it seems that the members of the capital's political class have to now jostle with each other to sacrifice themselves at war's altar and save the nation from bloodthirsty Maoists.

 

Instead of appreciating the decision of the West Bengal government to release adivasi women from jail, held there on fictive and flimsy charges, the political class is now crying for the blood of the West Bengal Chief Minister. Likewise, instead of appreciating the Maoists' decision to scale down their terms for release of the apprehended police officer, this is now portrayed as Machiavellianism and nefariousness of the Maoists.

 

With such advice all around, we shall not need Pakistan for a war; we shall soon have a theatre of full scale war in West Bengal and the adjoining regions, a replica of the Northeast in the heartland of the country.

 

Both central and state governments require better advisors— wise, appreciative and innovative of peace efforts, and above all sagacious, and thus knowledgeable of the art of peace making. These advisors, unlike the present lot, must not be selfappointed security specialists who only create horror, what the sociologist Zygmunt Bauman calls liquid fear , and live off that fear by selling sound bytes.

 

Remember how the peace process in Andhra Pradesh was sabotaged and eventually destroyed about six years ago? It was destroyed by the national security lobby, the intelligence, and the jingoist media whose members would have lost bread if peace had returned — peace for which some of the eminent citizens of the state ( known as Concerned

 

state ( known as Concerned Citizens' Initiative), a few politicians ( including some from Congress and Telegu Desam), and the Maoists had worked, showed courage, and had taken the first tentative steps — though not in coordination and often at cross purposes.

 

CHOICE

In any case the Maoists had as a result come out of the underground bases, reached Hyderabad, started talks, and then, we have to recall, had to go back empty- handed, losing on their way back a few of their leaders. And the result? Retaliation, more anger, and more brutalisation of modes of engaging the State.

 

Recent West Bengal incidents including the forcible stoppage of a Rajdhani Express train to make the demands of justice known force us to decide now: What do we want? Peace of the grave or peace of the brave? We have to decide also, are we to gradually create trust towards State- Maoists dialogue and therefore suggest trust creating measures, or mount an all out war against a section of citizens of the country? But more important, we have to decide: How do we take the open statements by the Maoists? Are they attempts towards fake publicity or the first uncertain steps by an underground party to come out and open talks? On this will depend how to interpret their actions of taking into custody a police officer or a train (!).

 

It should be clear that these attempts to take into custody an individual or a train or storming a party leader's house resplendent with wealth of the poor population around have been accompanied by minimum of bloodshed, a great deal of caution, planning, and intelligence, in short, minimalviolence. The signal is unmistakable. There is ground to interpret these actions as gestures , as the first signs of a dialogic situation.

 

War studies tell us how the first efforts towards conversation begin and trust networks form and spread.

 

Yet we tend to ignore this fact, also the fact that many more lives are lost and killed in operations and encounters — often with high civilian casualty. Terror and terrorist , the two appellations now attached to the Maoists by the government and the media through extra- ordinary laws, briefings, deployment of personnel, and media campaigns, will help none except the security lobbyists.

 

Liquid fear is when fear is exaggerated, multiplied, and made form- less, so that it spreads like thin gas. Liquid fear is the staple diet on which from now on we shall be asked to live.

 

Think of the attitude of the West Bengal government ( or the Union government) to veteran politicians like Rabi Ray, literary figures like Arundhati Roy, civil liberty campaigners like Sujato Bhadra, and several others, who call for sanity, restraint, and wisdom. The government taunts them, ridicules them, and openly says that exceptional measures are the only answer.

 

The government does not want to give peace makers any chance.

 

If you now call for peace in West Bengal you are then a sympathiser of the terrorists and are likely to be picked up by the police — exactly as in the sixties and seventies of the last century it was a crime for you to be young. Police would be waiting to pick you up. This has happened elsewhere also.

 

One of the problems on the path of peace is that most of the hack writers egging on the government to be militaristic are not literate in the relevant field of peace studies. Take for instance the controversy around Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions, an understanding of which is necessary in order to create a middle space between two adversaries in an internal armed conflict. What defines internal armed conflict ? Is it enough to say that this not an international war? What will ensure the recognition of an armed adversary so that talks can begin and humanitarian purposes can be met?

 

RECOGNITION

As we know, recognition, legal recognition of ' the party in revolt' or ' the insurgents' depends not only on possession of ' an organised military force, an authority responsible for its acts, and acting within a determinate territory' but also on the de jure government recognising ' the insurgents as belligerents, ' the insurgents ( having) an organisation purporting to have the characteristics of a state', and so on. The de jure government will never like to give that recognition lest its freedom to take certain recourse is curtailed.

 

Therefore the law of proportionality, ensuring safety of the civilians, etc.will be never followed.The law of internal armed conflict therefore fails. The politics of war can be tamed not by the laws of war but by a politics of dialogue, of which one expression can be pluralism of avenues and talks. The casualty of not understanding this will be both human rights monitoring and humanitarian assistance in conflict.

 

DIALOGUE

While therefore the government will keep on promising us long and pleasant life, that life insurance will be henceforth connected with a death command.

 

To be sure the Maoists like many other rebels will take a long time to learn the art of peace and dialogue in order to press forward the demands of justice.

 

They may have learnt to some extent the art of war, but not the art of peace.

 

Meanwhile many lives will be lost, many more will be brutalised, still many more terrorised, and traumatised.

With so many individual killings, any sense and ethics of freedom will be gone.

 

Perpetual recourse to violence will impact on the Maoists themselves and badly alter their political nature. They will not learn how to govern, more importantly self- govern, as they will keep on copying the methods of the State whom they fight. This is evident to some extent already in Nepal. The need to keep violence at the minimum level is permanent, and therefore the acts of the Maoists in killing individuals, not in self- defence or clashes but as punishments, are condemnable.

 

All the more therefore is the need to understand and appreciate the signals of deliberately keeping violence low and attempts to converse. The responsibility of those who govern is immense in this respect.

 

 

Power must be linked up with the principle of responsibility.

 

The writer is a well known social scientist and Director, Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group, Kolkata

 

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MAIL TODAY

THE LAHORE LOG

EVERYONE'S OUT TO GET ZARDARI

BY NAJAM SETHI

 

IN A REMARKABLE shortterm achievement, Mr Asif Zardari, the leader of the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party and President of Pakistan, has managed to irrevocably alienate the army, judiciary, media and civil society. The angry public is already groaning under the weight of unprecedented inflation and shortages of basic necessities like energy, sugar and wheat. The opposition led by Nawaz Sharif, needless to say, smells blood and is moving in for the kill.

 

Mr Zardari sounds clever and cunning but has proved to be politically naïve.

 

After the 2008 elections, real politik demanded an " unholy alliance" between Mr Zardari's PPP and President Pervez Musharraf's Pakistan Muslim League Quaid ( PMLQ) as originally envisaged by Benazir Bhutto when she cut a deal with the General that enabled her to return to Pakistan and win the elections. But Mr Zardari's personal ambitions came in the way. He allied with Mr Sharif to oust President Musharraf and then reneged on his public promise not to pocket the Presidency himself. This didn't go down well with any section of state or society. The army and media, in particular, didn't want the " supreme commander" of the armed forces with a sullied past. Like them, the opposition felt wounded by the " betrayal" and began to galvanise its forces.

 

M R ZARDARI now decided to seize Punjab province from the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz ( PMLN) government by proposing an alliance with the PMLQ. But this was too little, too late. The PMLQ was crippled by the ouster of its mentor General Musharraf and didn't trust Mr Zardari. Nonetheless, Mr Zardari imposed Governor's Rule in Punjab to facilitate the PMLQ into an alliance with the PPP. But the PMLQ was weakened by internal divisions and fumbled the job. Subsequently, the PMLN sought the help of the resurgent judiciary and romped back to provincial power, splattering mud on Mr Zardari's face.

 

Mr Zardari's third mistake was to renege on his public pledge to restore Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry as chief justice of Pakistan. This created divisions in his own party and enabled the PMLN- led opposition to mobilise the media, lawyers and civil society to launch a long march on Islamabad in early 2009.

 

Faced with the prospect of violence and civil disturbances, the army chief, General Ashfaq Kayani, stepped into the fray to " persuade" the Prime Minister, Yousaf Raza Gilani, to persuade Mr Zardari to back off from the confrontation and restore the judges. The stage was now set for the restored anti- Zardari judges to weed out pro- Zardari judges from their ranks and gang up with the anti- Zardari forces outside for the final push.

 

Mr Zardari did not expect such a destabilising and negative public response to the Kerry- Lugar Bill that pledges $ 7.5 billion in American grants over the five years. Far from it, he expected kudos for bringing US money to shore up the failing Pakistani economy. But the prickly army saw another opportunity in the language of the Bill — which explicitly talks of civilian control of the military — to tick off the Presidency. In an unprecedented move, it publicly raised the banner of revolt, enfolding the PMLN and media in its ranks. Meanwhile, unaware of the gathering storm, Mr Zardari made bold to protect the self- serving National Reconciliation Ordinance, which reprieves him and hundreds of others of past alleged crimes, in Parliament. But a wink from the same quarters put paid to that when Mr Zardari's alliance partners blithely left him in the lurch. The Muttahida Qaumi Movement announced a stunning anti- NRO stance and the Awami National Party cowered with ambiguity because it is dependent for its political survival on the army's protective umbrella in the NWFP, Swat and Waziristan. Another ignominious retreat here doesn't bode well for Mr Zardari. He is truly besieged. What next? Each of the four " players" in the game to " Get Zardari" has common as well as separate aims. The army wants a President who will back the military's strategy and tactics to deal " appropriately" with India, Afghanistan and America. Mr Zardari's " soft" approach to all three is not appreciated in GHQ. Indeed, his clumsy efforts at home and abroad to bring the ISI under civilian control and urge the army to back the US agenda in Afghanistan have aroused deep suspicion and hostility.

 

Under the circumstances, the fact that he has his trigger on the gun to fire the army chief is an added affront. So the military would like to replace him with a pliant pro- military President.

 

But the military also has an institutional memory. It wants to get rid of Mr Zardari but it doesn't want to shift the balance of political power in the direction of Mr Sharif, who sacked two army chiefs when he was prime minister the last time round and makes no bones of his desire to firmly put the army and ISI under civilian control. So the military would like to see PM Yousaf Raza Gilani and a new pliant new President do its bidding at the head of the PPP- ANPMQM alliance without opening the route for Mr Sharif.

 

Mr Sharif, of course, has other ideas. He wants to ally with the military to weaken Mr Zardari to the point where he is amenable to undoing the 17th amendment that bars Mr Sharif from becoming prime minister again, but not to get rid of him until that objective is achieved. Certainly, he doesn't want to push the system to breaking point, thereby enabling the army to play a dominant interventionist role all over again.

 

T HE MEDIA and judiciary have their own joint- agenda that is only partly supportive of the army and/ or Mr Sharif. They support the army's " Get Zardari" agenda but they do not want an army resurrection after having jointly got rid of General Musharraf only recently. They also don't want to see an unfettered Mr Sharif back in power because of his track record vis- à- vis both institutions. They see themselves now as key players in any state- power games in the future and will maintain a joint strategy to establish their independent claims and clout.

 

Everyone wants Mr Zardari to go. But not everyone wants a quick new election that brings Mr Sharif to absolute power.

 

Everyone also knows there is no way to get rid of Mr Zardari in any constitutionally transparent way. So everyone is ganging up against him in order to hound him into quitting of his own accord. The next big push is expected to come from the direction of the judiciary and media which will highlight past cases of alleged corruption against him and accept petitions challenging his credentials in the presidential election.

 

Mr Zardari is a much weakened man because of his own foibles and miscalculations.

 

If he wants to dig his heels in and survive, he will need to ditch his old bag of political advisors who have brought him to this sorry pass and make common cause with Nawaz Sharif. Both leaders need to hammer out a compromise solution — the PPP and President Zardari should be allowed to complete their terms more or less in exchange for relinquishing certain presidential powers and removing the constitutional road blocks to Mr Sharif and his PMLN as the logical successors to the PPP in government.

 

The army, media and judiciary must not dictate self- serving solutions at the expense of the political parties which, for better or for worse, represent the will of the people.

The writer is editor of Friday Times and The Daily Times ( Lahore)

 

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MAIL TODAY

THE LAHORE LOG

A FICTITIOUS DIARY OF NAWAZ SHARIF

JUGNU MOHSIN

 

POOR Asif. He sent me massage that look here. See what MQM and Altaf Hussain have done to me. They have stabbed me in the back. Not at all, I said. They have stabbed you in the front. Asif is surrounded by enemies and enemas. He has played lying, cheating, clumsy game. He thought he could smartout everyone.

 

He is not a smartie. Faujis, they are smarties.

 

Jugdes, they are smarties. Media, they are smarties.

 

Apposition, we are smarties. But one thing even I am knowing, Asif has been implied on the horns of a dilemma. His dalai lama was that if he did muk mukaa with me on Charter of Demo Cracy, made constitutional amendment to alloy me to be PM for thud time, and gave away presidential powers, then he would become dead duck.

 

I know it is a big dalai lama. But look here, I told him when we fust hugged and made up after the elections — that the enema of my enema is my friend. What Faujis will not alloy you to have, give to me. I will see them.

 

But what Asif anded up doing is this — neither I will play, nor I will lat you play. Sir jiiii, I told him, they don't like your hello- hi with Amercans. They don't like your hellohi with Indians. They want a president like Musharraf, who said one thing and did another. Who took the dallars from the Amercans and never gave accounts. Who was hands on against some jihadis but hands off against other jihadis. Then Asif said but in this uncertinity, there can be no dev lopment. Oye leave it ji, I said, who cares about eco nomy? Who cares about dev lopment? I gave him some frank adwise. I told him tell Faujis that Presidents are not like calendars that you can change them every month. Also tell them that three things are not worth running after.

 

One is bus, the other is woman and thud is pliant politician.

 

Because there will always be another one shortly.

 

Ok, ok, he said. I will take your adwise but fust take this beautiful new Ferrari and test drive it to Lahore on the Motorway. Don't take, my advisors said, he is trying to divert your attention. Oye, what goes of my father, I asked, hain ji? On the way, problem was. I ranged Asif and said " there is something wrong with your Ferrari, Asif". " Oh really?" he said, " what's the matter?" " I think so there is water in the carburetor" I said. " Don't worry" Asif said, " I will immediately send the Minister for Science and Technology. He will remove the water from the carburetor. Where are you?" " Actually, I am in the Chenab in the Ferrari" I said.

 

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MAIL TODAY

BIHAR'S TOP COP GETS PREACHY WITH TRADERS

BY GIRIDHAR JHA IN PATNA

 

BIHAR'S ' deeply religious' director- general of police ( DGP) Anand Shankar often dons the mantle of a preacher. It was the turn of the businessmen to be at the receiving end of his sermons on Wednesday.

 

Shankar advised the traders to donate at least 10 per cent of their profits to serve the poor. " This is what has been prescribed in most of the religious texts," he said.

 

Quoting extensively from ancient scriptures, Shankar told the traders that if they did not donate for a noble cause, their money would be spent in courts and hospital.

 

The businessmen were lectured when they placed a charter of demands, including better policing to protect their community, before the DGP at an interactive police- traders' meeting. Shankar was the chief guest convened by the Bihar Chamber of Commerce ( BCC) in Patna.

 

Welcoming the DGP and other senior police officials, BCC president P. K. Agrawal suggested a few steps to improve the policing in the state. He said the police force should be modernised and more outposts should be set up. Among his other demands were facility for online registration of FIRs, clearance of traffic snarl- ups and good behaviour of the policemen.

 

Shankar heard their demands patiently before commencing his address by reciting the shlokas ( hymns) from Bhagwad Gita, which he had carried to the venue. He By Giridhar Jha in Patna Bihar DGP Anand Shankar ( right) at the police- traders' meeting in Patna.

 

then asked the businessmen whether they were ready to change themselves for the betterment of society. " Will you come forward to donate 10 per cent of your profits to serve the poor who are still deprived of the basic amenities?" he queried.Shankar's sermons bore fruit, as the traders' body agreed to open one outlet of free roti- sabji for the poor in Patna. But the police chief opined that it should be opened in each city of the state.

 

The DGP also advocated setting up of a welfare centre through donations, where the poor and the hungry could get meals and the homeless could get a roof over their heads.

 

He said the state's policemen were saddled with overload of work. " A CBI officer handles one or two cases in six months whereas a station house officer has to deal with 10 cases at a time," he said.A tough cop who does not mind wearing the spiritual side of his personality on his sleeves, Shankar is known for frequently visiting temples across Bihar. He has also been embroiled in a row over the big tilak ( vermillion) that he sports on his forehead.

 

The Bihar Policemen's Association had accused him of violating the Police Manual by doing this. But the allegation was levelled only after the DGP had directed the office- bearers of the association to wear police uniforms instead of dhoti- kurta in their duty hours.

 

Soon after assuming charge this year, the DGP had also asked the policemen to " run their homes with their salaries alone" — a statement which earned him brickbats from the state's policemen.

 

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MAIL TODAY

FOREIGN PRESS BARRED FROM COVERING DALAI LAMA VISIT

 

IN AN apparent concession to China, India on Thursday disallowed foreign journalists from covering the Dalai Lama's week- long visit to Arunachal Pradesh beginning November 8.

 

The government revoked passes issued to seven journalists, including two from the Associated Press and one from The Times , London.

 

Sources said these journalists were turned back from the Guwahati airport where they were about to board a helicopter for Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh. Foreigners require Restricted Area Permits, issued by the Union home ministry, to visit Northeastern states. Indian journalists working for foreign media organisations have so far not been barred.

 

Reacting to the ban, Heather Timmons, president of the Foreign Correspondents' Club, said he was " incredibly surprised and disappointed" that permits had been cancelled. The Indian government is yet to comment on the development.

 

This is probably the first time that New Delhi has put a gag on covering the Dalai Lama's activities in India.

 

The Tibetan leader has considerable following in western capitals. The western media has been critical of China's handling of the Tibetan issue.

 

China is opposed to the Tibetan spiritual leader's visit to Arunachal Pradesh. Earlier this week, it blamed the Dalai Lama for straining Sino- Indian ties.

 

The Dalai Lama, on his part, said China was overpoliticising his travels, adding his decisions on where to go were spiritual in nature, not political.

 

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MAIL TODAY

RAISINA TATTLE

BACK TO CONG

 

AFTER trying her luck with Mulayam Singh Yadav's Samajwadi Party, socialite and social activist Nafisa Ali has returned to the Congress fold.

 

The Congress had nearly finalised her nomination to fight from the Lucknow Lok Sabha seat when she chose to fight the polls on a Samajwadi ticket. Nafisa had replaced actor Sanjay Dutt after he was barred from contesting the polls. A senior party leader confirmed that Nafisa has indeed joined the Congress again.

 

The former Miss World was seen campaigning in Lucknow along with state Congress president Rita Bahuguna Joshi. They were canvassing for party candidate from Lucknow ( West) assembly constituency, Shyam Kishore Shukla, for the November 7 bypolls.

 

GARLAND TROUBLE

WHENEVER a certain Union minister is scheduled to inaugurate or attend a function, an informal advisory is sent to the organisers — " Please do not garland the honourable Union minister". No, the minister is not allergic to flowers, there is a far more awkward reason behind it. Those in the know say whenever the minister removes the garland, inevitably his wig and hearing aid also come off causing much embarrassment to him.

 

So, whenever the minister attends a function his anxiety increases if he sees an over- eager organiser with a garland in hand.

 

CABINET REJIG

POLITICAL circles in New Delhi are abuzz with speculation that the Union Cabinet is likely to be reshuffled on November 10, ahead of the Parliament session.Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh are also said to have given final touches to major changes in the All India Congress Committee and the Andhra Pradesh Congress unit.

 

There is also the likelihood of shuffling state governors. The two leaders have reportedly finalised the nomination of two Anglo Indians to the Lok Sabha.

 

Sonia has reportedly summoned Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan and Andhra chief minister K. Rosaiah to Delhi for discussions on issues concerning their states.Rosaiah will be consulted on the future of the Jagan camp, and a possible alliance with Chiranjeevi's Prajarajyam Party. A date for the Congress legislature party meeting will also be decided to formally elect Rosaiah as the leader of the CLP. A decision on Jaganmohan Reddy's induction into the Union cabinet will also be discussed.

 

NO APPLES FOR POK

FRUIT merchants in Jammu and Kashmir have stopped sending consignment of apples to Pakistan- occupied Kashmir ( PoK). The traders say they did not get a single rupee for the consignments sent last year. This despite Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's assurance to resolve issues affecting the cross- LoC trade started a year ago. Traders in Sopore claim not only were they cheated by their PoK counterparts in fixing the prices, but the Rs 14 lakh fixed by them arbitrarily as the price for the supplies received was also not paid.

 

The Kashmiri traders are upset that the government is doing nothing to help them recover their dues. Hence the best course, they felt, was not to supply any more apples to the PoK traders.

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MAIL TODAY

INTERACTIVE

STRICT PROTOCOLS FOR FIRE- PRONE AREAS

APROPOS of the news report ' Deora calls for safety audit of all oil and gas companies' ( November 4), it is pertinent to observe that every disastrous accident or failure evokes a similar response from the government.

 

This has become a ritual intended to bury criticism and to put out of sight the flaws in the system. Even while announcing this audit, the government has failed to see the issue holistically.

 

Safety, security and fire prevention in an oil installation are intrinsically linked and rectifying the shortcomings involves addressing all the three issues simultaneously if similar incidents are to be prevented in the future.

 

It may be worthwhile for the petroleum minister to order an audit in all the three areas besides ensuring that the standard operating procedures are taken out of the shelves, updated, and rehearsed.

 

There is a need to conduct training sessions at the level of the senior officers, executives and working hands. Until and unless we work on these lines right at the depot level with sincerity, the deficiencies in the system cannot be set right. It is better to sweat in training than to bleed in accidents.

Brigadier V Mahalingam ( Retd) via email

 

TIMING OF SC JUDGES IS STRANGE

THIS is with reference to your news report ' SC judges opt out of two RIL cases' ( November 5). The report about Justice Raveendran recusing himself from the RIL- RNRL case raises several questions. The fact is that it is a high- profile case

 

involving two of India's biggest companies, and which has invited intense media scrutiny.

 

In this context it is surprising that no one was aware that Justice Raveendran's daughter is working with a law firm that advises RIL, one of the litigants in the case. But further, the manner in which this connection was brought to the notice of the judge forcing him to recuse himself is equally strange.

 

Ever since the Ambani brothers' spat reached the public domain, there has been no dearth of effort to muddy the waters and to obfuscate the issues involved. It seems that everyone, including the government, has something to hide.

 

The most obvious fall- out of the judge's action is that the case will get delayed further. It is indeed a criminal waste of the court's time and of the nation. This delay in the proceedings of the case, I am wont to believe, must be benefiting someone. From what we know about how corporate battles are fought, anything is possible.

Shivangi Vasudevan via email

 

SECURITY PROTOCOL RAISES QUESTIONS

APROPOS of the editorial ' VIP security is more than just a nuisance' ( November 5), it was good to know that the PM was secure, but heartrending to realise that a man lost his life after being denied entry into a Chandigarh hospital.The PM expressing his regret must be appreciated; however, the incident raises some significant questions regarding security protocols. But for the faulty

and cumbersome system coupled with the human sycophancy, time had run out for Sumeet Kumar Verma.

R. L. Pathak via email

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TIMES OF INDIA

COMMENT

TIME TO MOVE ON

 

The patriotic credentials of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Hind (JUH) have never been in doubt. Hence the current controversy over a resolution regarding Vande Mataram, adopted at the annual JUH meet in Deoband early this week, is misplaced. The resolution insisted that patriotism didn't require singing Vande Mataram in schools and supported a fatwa along those lines. The reservation among some Muslim groups towards Vande Mataram has a long history and the Supreme Court has indicated that the singing of national song must not be made compulsory for all. The national song is just another prop to celebrate the nation state and undue importance must not be given to it. Singing Vande Mataram must neither be made a test case of patriotism nor should people be obstinate about not singing it.

However, the other resolutions taken up at the JUH meet call for a closer look. The meet has taken an extremely critical - and in our opinion regressive - view of a host of public policies that have been legislated or are in the making. The JUH has opposed the move to decriminalise homosexuality and the Women's Bill that seeks to increase the presence of women in Parliament. Similarly, community members have been told to keep off government-run anti-AIDS programmes and to avoid cinema and television.

The decree against terrorism first pronounced by Darul Uloom, Deoband, last year was an attempt to clarify that political violence in the name of religion was unacceptable whatever be the reason. The JUH too has been active in decrying political violence and has projected avenues offered by parliamentary democracy as the legitimate platforms to espouse political demands. Such a modern political viewpoint is in sharp contrast to the organisation's conservative social agenda. The contradiction is not sustainable and is sure to unravel at some point. The experience of the Taliban is instructive on this count. Sections of Taliban trace their ideology to the Deoband school. The social conservatism of the Deoband teachings - attitudes to women, entertainment etc - is reflected in the political vision of the Taliban. The Taliban idea of a state is merely the political expression of its conservative social vision.

Hence it is important that organisations like the JUH take a critical view of their social agendas. Societies are not frozen in time. They are constantly evolving. Organisations that seek to represent communities must engage constructively with change and adapt accordingly. A regressive social agenda will prevent people from making full use of the opportunities offered by a democratic state. Whenever they fail to make sense of changing times, the politics of victimhood looks attractive.

 

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TIMES OF INDIA

COMMENT

DECODING KODA

 

Madhu Koda's meteoric rise would have normally made for a heartwarming story. Once a labourer in iron-ore mines, he won assembly elections from Jharkhand in 2000. Five years later and only in his mid-thirties, he was appointed state minister for mines in a BJP-led government. From 2006 to 2008 he was the Jharkhand chief minister. But now Koda stands accused of being part of a massive corruption scandal and faces the possibility of arrest.

Raids by the Enforcement Directorate and the income tax department over the past few days have unearthed Koda's alleged involvement in illegal transactions worth over Rs 2,000 crore, including several properties and acquisitions abroad. Latest investigations show that the former CM might even have been negotiating to acquire an SEZ in Noida for a staggering Rs 4,800 crore. The scale of allegations against Koda yet again throws the spotlight on corruption in Indian politics and the propensity of politicians to amass extraordinary wealth through illegal means.

Koda is by no means the first politician or even chief minister to be accused of massive corruption and to face arrest. Former Bihar CM and Union minister Lalu Prasad had been implicated in the multi-crore fodder scam, which first came to light in 1996, and was jailed for brief periods. That year, the CBI seized a few crores of rupees from Union communications minister Sukh Ram's house and subsequently arrested him. Lalu and Sukh Ram are distinguished by the scale of corruption charges against them and the high office they held. There are of course several corruption scandals that have tainted politicians big and small, including former prime ministers. Besides, many of our MPs face criminal charges. In the current Lok Sabha, nearly 30 per cent of the MPs face criminal cases.

In such a situation it isn't surprising that citizens have little faith in politicians. It is unfortunate that while investigating agencies and the media have highlighted corruption in the highest places, these cases have dragged on for years. Though some people have been punished in the Bihar fodder scam, it continues to make its way through courts at various levels. In the Sukh Ram case, a trial court found him guilty 13 years later under the Prevention of Corruption Act for amassing disproportionate assets. Sukh Ram has since appealed the verdict. The time taken to decide these high-profile cases gives the impression that politicians are above the law. If politics and crime cannot be prised apart, that represents the biggest threat to India's future.

 

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TIMES OF INDIA

TOP ARTICLE

BUSINESS OF KNOWLEDGE

DEVESH KAPUR

 

While many disagree about how to fix Indian higher education, there is broad consensus that it is, to quote Prime Minster Manmohan Singh, "in a state of disrepair". Most analyses put the blame squarely on the government's shoulders. Higher education has been deeply politicised and as one of the last bastions of the licence raj, lofty rhetoric has typically disguised egregious venal behaviour.

However, much less attention has been paid to the role of business interests in shaping the direction of Indian higher education. Availability of skilled labour is a critical input for all firms, and hence Indian business has an enormous self-interest in the functioning of this sector. One could argue that just as Indian firms have been forced to adapt to chronic infrastructure shortages and disadvantageous labour laws, they have also adapted to the weaknesses of the Indian higher education system.

A surrogate higher education system has evolved and, in particular, workforce skill development is occurring outside the traditional domestic university model - within firms, by commercial providers, overseas, through open-source/virtual learning and in narrow specialised institutions. Investment by Indian firms in an array of workforce skill development practices, including new employee training, continual instruction, performance appraisal systems and university partnerships, have all gone a long way towards improving the skills of their workforce. But these practices are confined to the large corporate sector, which both has the capability to undertake such initiatives and can internalise the costs.

 

Indian business is also involved in provision of higher education. Where business enterprises offer narrow professional skills, such as training in a computer language, this model has been somewhat successful. But the vast majority of private sector efforts involve the promotion of professional education in fields such as medicine, engineering and business management. These are ostensibly not-for-profit institutions set up as trusts or societies, yet they represent some of the worst aspects of crony capitalism in India, with politicians and business interests colluding to provide dubious education at inflated prices. Government policies have ensured that it is easier for such suppliers to enter higher education than for genuine philanthropists. Professional associations, even statutory ones like the BCI and MCI, have largely failed to regulate the quality of these institutions - a testimony to the failure of the professions to self-govern.

But while Indian business has been somewhat successful in securing its short-term interests by aggressively pursuing skill development programmes, it has shown a striking absence of any long-term strategic vision with regard to higher education. No world-class higher education institution anywhere in the world makes profits. Great universities produce knowledge - where knowledge is a public good. Consequently all such institutions require subsidies, whether through the government or private philanthropy. Despite rapidly increasing wealth within the Indian corporate sector, private philanthropy has had very little impact on higher education.

The commitment of Indian business to philanthropy in higher education was strong prior to independence and has dwindled ever since. Pre-independence, business interests not only made the transition from merchant charity to organised professional philanthropy, but did so in a significant way. They created some of India's most enduring trusts, foundations and public institutions, including the Aligarh Muslim University, Banaras Hindu University, Jamia Millia, Annamalai and Indian Institute of Science. Of the 16 largest "non-religious" trusts set up during this period, 14 were major patrons of higher education.

Today, the so-called not-for-profit educational institutions do not engage in philanthropy. Their income comes from fees rather than endowments and investments. Thus even while the number of "trusts" set up for philanthropy in higher education has been steadily rising, the total share of "endowments and other sources" in higher education funding has been consistently falling - from 17 per cent in 1950 to less than 2 per cent today. Some of this decline is to be expected, as the government has expanded its role in higher education, yet the extent is remarkable. Furthermore, donors today are more likely to retain effective control over the resources they contribute.

But Indian business has much to explain for a more egregious failing: for the most part, it sees little value in research and even less in building quality institutions that produce good research. This is manifest most starkly in its unwillingness to fund even world-class think tanks, let alone an outstanding university. The reality is that most Indian business elites' children study abroad, not in India. The sad implication is that this reduces their stake in lending a badly needed voice to genuine higher education reform in India.

It is extraordinary how much energy and capital Indian corporate titans are willing to commit to summits, conclaves and the like, where photo opportunities and power-point presentations pass off as the epitome of deep thinking and real insight. Yet, for all the posturing by Indian business elites and their courting of universities in the West (especially in the US), the notion of Indian business coming together to fund research centres that produce knowledge and provide quality education accessible to all sections of society in India does not seem to be on the horizon.

The writer is director, Centre for the Advanced Study of India, University of Pennsylvania, US.

 

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TIMES OF INDIA

ETERNAL NOMAD

IN SEARCH OF A HOME

SUSMITA MUKHERJEE

 

I wonder if the Indian government's decision to extend permanent residentship to exiled Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen is going to make any difference to her nomadic existence. It's been 15 years that the controversial author has been scouting countries for a place she can call home. She did find a temporary refuge in Kolkata for some time but those in charge of Islam shook her haven one fine afternoon, forcing the administration to show her the door. That was in 2007. Near-riots broke out on the streets of Kolkata, buses were burnt, stones pelted and chaos reigned as a radical group maintained that she had no right to stay in the city or the country till she gave an unconditional apology for writing what she did in her book, Dwikhandito. Taslima initially refused to take those supposedly anti-Islam pages off her book but in the later editions they were deleted. However, she's still paying the price for her recalcitrance. Bundled out of her apartment like a fugitive in the dead of night and driven away to an unknown destination, it was like living those dark days in Dhaka all over again. That the West Bengal government gave in to the demands of Muslim fundamentalists helped matters little. The writer later said she never expected this treatment from a secular government.

The manner in which she was thrown out of the state left her wounded and brought back memories of another day in Dhaka. ''I was holed up in an attic,'' the writer had said on one of her visits to Kolkata, ''and i could hear extremists marching down the streets crying for my head!'' She was cornered, terrorised, traumatised, but Taslima did not apologise for the alleged ''blasphemy'' in her book, Lajja. After this, she had to leave Bangladesh and ever since she has been drifting. Kolkata had been dear to her and given the opportunity to choose an adoptive home, she would still opt for Kolkata, despite the fact that she had to leave the city humiliated and hounded. Like a good host, Pranab Mukherjee has said all arrangements would be made for a safe stay of a guest in the country but how far that 'safe stay', which amounts to being under house arrest, would appeal to Taslima is something time will tell. But as of now, it would be only fair to extend hospitality to a writer who has been barred from entering her own country for years.

 

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TIMES OF INDIA

Q&A

'WOMEN'S REPRESENTATION IS VITAL TO DEEPEN DEMOCRACY'

 

Ines Alberdi, a professor of socio-logy at Madrid University who was elected to the Madrid Assembly, is at present executive director of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM). Pamela Philipose interviewed her in New Delhi recently:

With a career spanning over 25 years studying gender, how do you perceive the situation of women today?
The situation of women all over the world has improved enormously. At the same time differences and discriminations persist. This means the question of gender equality remains as important as ever. For me the starting point of the process of empowerment began in 1975 with the UN Declaration on Women. We can see the differences between the 1970s and the present. Today, women's rights are recognised as human rights. But you can also see that innumerable women continue to be denied their rights. Therefore, governments and the international community are obliged to continue in their efforts to make real their commitments.

Do you think that commitments are made but not achieved?

Take Security Council Resolution 1325 about the need to have women involved in conflict resolution. It is a very important declaration - next year will mark its 10th anniversary - but the real situation is not optimistic. We have a lot of mediation efforts, peace agreements, but women continue to be largely outside these processes. I don't deny the importance of resolutions because every resolution is an international obligation. But what is equally important is their implementation.

You were once an elected deputy in the Madrid Assembly. How important is women's political empowerment?
Extremely important for the simple reason women comprise half the population and their representation is vital to deepen democracy. On international fora they are now discussing about how we can achieve fair representation of men and women, whether in parliament or in the corporate world, and they have come up with the 40:60 formula. Each gender should have no more than 60 per cent and no less than 40 per cent representation. I think we can achieve equilibrium through such a formula.

How would you rate the progress achieved on some central issues of 30 years ago - for instance, violence?
Violence against women remains a real problem, cutting across national borders, social classes, races and even age. It is a pandemic that needs to be addressed. To my mind, it is important to have both a legal as well as political definition of violence so that we can address it better. Recently, for instance, the 1888 Security Council resolution has defined sexual violence in conflict not just in terms of justice but also in terms of security.

 

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TIMES OF INDIA

SUBVERSE

PLASTIC DEVI

JUG SURAIYA 

 

The face of the goddess is 25,645 feet from the crown of her head to her chin, and she is smiling at me. Her name is Nanda Devi, and she is part of the great Himalayan massif, of which i have a grandstand view from the garden of The Deodars, on Almora ridge, the beautifully preserved 150-year-old bungalow where Richard Wheeler and his charming wife, Elizabeth, are gracious hosts to lucky friends like me. The Deodars' kitchen produces excellent fare, and an even more sumptuous visual repast is offered by the stunning view of the high Himalayas, dominated by Nanda Devi.

 

Looking at her you can clearly see the two dark lustrous eyes on her snow-white face, the straight line of her nose, and the serene smile. The eyes, the nose, the mouth are of course natural formations of rock and ice. But equally naturally they lend themselves to an imaginative invocation of an eternal deity.

 

Looking at the Devi, i can't help but think how blessed we are to have such wondrous mountains and hills that we can call our own. Or rather how privileged we are to belong to them. And how do we repay that privilege? How do we pay homage to not just the highest of all the world's mountains, but also the youngest, and still growing by some six centimetres a year? We contribute to their growth. The Himalayas were formed aeons ago by a tectonic plate shift which caused what is now subcontinental India to press up against the bulwark of Central Asia; the impact giving rise to the towering majesty of the Himalayan range, which continues to grow thanks to the pressure still being exerted by geological forces. To which we Indians - patriotic citizens one and all - are contributing our mite. Or should that be might? And what has been our contribution to the further growth and crowning glory of the world's most magnificent mountains? Plastic. Plastic in all sizes, shapes, forms and avatars: water bottles, pouches, bags, cups, sheets, plastic in all its myriad manifestations.

 

Our love of plastic is well known. We have choked all our cities, towns, villages and countryside with the stuff. Mera Bharat Mahaan? Dunno about that. Mera Bharat maha plastic? Most certainly. And having smothered all our plains with plastic, we're now carrying our plastic ambitions to new heights: we're increasing the altitude of our hills and mountains by heaping them higher with mounds of plastic.

 

From Almora we drive to Binsar where the hills huddle like giants under the green blanket of pine forests and the high cold air is crisp as a sip of dry champagne. We take a day trip to Bhimtal, a jewel box with its emerald lake basking under an aquamarine sky, where the staff of The Fisherman's Lodge, a boutique hideaway designed and run by Bindu Sethi and Bunty Singh, serve us a cordon bleu lunch. All in all, a scenario where every prospect pleases, and only plastic is vile. There is plastic everywhere; by the roadside, in nullahs and streams and valleys, in green pastures and verdant woods. All sheathed and swaddled in plastic. Each car that passes us - with number plates from Delhi, UP, Gujarat, you name it - pitches in to help, chucking out of the window an empty bottle, wrapper, packet, whatever, anything so long as it's plastic.

 

Why are we doing it? Why are we burying alive our country, particularly our mountains and forests, in plastic? Are we congenital vandals, inveterate garbage dumpers? Of course not. We are covering our beloved country in plastic to protect and preserve it. From global warming which will melt the Himalayas and flood the plains. So put it all - mountains, plains, everything - under plastic wraps. Plastic is the most imperishable of man-made substances. It'll be around for 10,000 years, doing its job of preserving the beauty and loveliness of our land. Not only from climate change but also from our gaze. I take a last look at Nanda Devi's smile, before it gets hidden forever by our terminal plastic surgery.

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HINDUSTAN TIMES

EDITORIAL

ENGAGEMENT IS NOT SUPPORT

 

Like a seasonal malady, the old chestnut about Islamic clerics opposing the recitation of the 'alternative' national anthem 'Vande Mataram' resurfaced this week. Considering a fatwa was issued by Islamic clerics at the final day of the three-day conference of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Hind at Deoband in Uttar Pradesh, there was nothing really surprising about such a reaffirmation. The origins of 'Vande Mataram' — Bankimchandra Chattopadhyaya's 19th century Hindu nationalistic novel, Anandamath — and its excised anti-Muslim connotations will continue to be fodder for future debates. But the twist in this continuing tale this time came in the form of criticisms from some quarters that Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram has kept quiet about the fatwa so as not to ruffle any feathers. This, frankly, is making the proverbial mountain out of the proverbial molehill.

 

Mr Chidambaram, along with leaders from various other political parties, addressed clerics on Tuesday. It would be, however, silly to expect him to be involved in — or in the know about — all the proceedings of the seminary. Mr Chidambaram was not even present when the fatwa was announced. To expect him to be in cahoots with those who had issued the fatwa would be akin to mistaking his presence at the meet as support to the Jamiat's regressive social priorities. And therein lies the rub: Mr Chidambaram attending the Jamiat conclave. It would be obvious to anyone running a finger down the list of the Jamiat's priorities that they are in dissonance with those of the UPA government. The dismissal of the Centre's plan for a central madrasa board by the Jamiat is just one such disagreement. But Mr Chidambaram's role as a representative of the Union government is not to engage only with the 'converted' but also with groups who do not agree with the State policies. To engage with the Jamiat — which commands the allegiance of a significant number of Muslims in India whether one likes it or not — is not to support it but to seek a corridor for dialogue and, ultimately, seek the body to join the mainstream by way of ushering social reforms.

 

Mr Chidambaram's speech at Deoband, in which he drove home the point of the "golden rule of democracy": the "duty of the majority to protect the minority" is not something that any secular Indian will have a problem with. His approval of the Jamiat's February 2008 fatwa against terrorism was also an audible part of the rules of engagement. And engaging — even with a 'fringe' — is a job that is so much more commendable than to not talk to anyone who disagrees with the government.

 

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HINDUSTAN TIMES

EDITORIAL

EDITOR ZINDABAD!

 

Yup, we're biased. So blame us for violently shaking our heads in agreement with Vice-President Hamid Ansari when he spoke on Wednesday about the "challenge of bringing back the decisive role of the editor" in newspapers. In these hoary times, when 'journalists' are tagged as 'content providers' and editors are seen as silly tips of icebergs that come in the way of titanic marketing forces plying the choppy seas of Indian media, Mr Ansari's view is as wonderfully unfashionable as it is music to our ears. Yes, the editor is supreme.

 

Perhaps the word 'supreme' will make many suited gents in the media business squirm, as it will remind them why in the first place they rushed in to a space that angels feared to tread. But here Mr Ansari's observations — "Quality of news coverage has suffered and commercial  logic has come into play more prominently in the running of media organisations" — subtly tells us a story of the division between the editorial universe whose job it is to cook up a mean dish and the commercial one whose job is to see that the meals reach the tables of customers. When the waiter plays chef, you get a rubbery product. When the chef plays waiter, you have an empty restaurant.

 

So in this delicate tango, the editor is the guy with the rose between his teeth. Our marketing team told us to say that. Something about 'branding', the guys insist.

 

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HINDUSTAN TIMES

EDITORIAL

POLITICS OF POPCORN

SOUMITRO DAS

 

There are two reasons why Karan Johar apologised last month to Raj Thackeray after Maharashtra Navnirman Sena members forcibly stopped the screening of Johar's new film, Wake Up Sid: 1) A lot of money was involved in the movie, 2) It doesn't really matter in aesthetic  terms or in terms of value or belief systems whether people say Mumbai or Bombay. A Bollywood film is artistically meaningless. Which is why I am always surprised when I hear someone calling a Bollywood film 'good' or 'bad'. They are neither 'good' nor 'bad'. The limited sense of beauty that a Bollywood film might convey comes from the physical beauty of the actors and the 'beauty' of the sentiments expressed in the film.

 

There is no such thing as the beauty of the image or of the narrative in the Bollywood trope. They are about defending Indian culture, or, to be more precise, upper caste Punjabi Hindu culture taken as representing Indian culture as a whole. They are about defending arranged marriage, correctly understood as the fulcrum or foundation of the value systems and the belief systems that make up the Hindu world. They are, ultimately, about defending caste society, even though — and that is the wonder of it — the word 'caste' never finds any mention in Bollywood films.

 

The enemy is sexual freedom, especially for women. If a woman is free to choose anyone she likes as a sexual partner or husband, it is possible that she might choose a Dalit or a Muslim. Sexual freedom for women in Bollywood films is the purveyor of anarchy. Also, the enemy is the West that is the source of the sexual emancipation of women.

 

So, to rephrase our basic proposition: Bollywood films are about defending the institution of arranged marriage against westernised sexual  freedom. To take it a little further, it is about defending caste society against the values of freedom and equality that come to us from the West. It is about defending the indefensible.

 

If you ask a Bollywood filmmaker whether this is actually what he is defending, he will be surprised. He believes that the values he is defending in his film are universal —  love, family, country, religion... The word 'caste' would never cross his mind. Then how do we say that Bollywood films defend caste society?

 

The arranged marriage or marriage with parental sanction is an institution that supports, that takes the load of caste society through absolute parental authority when it comes to marriage or any other kind of relationship  with the opposite sex. This parental authority is taken for granted in Bollywood films. There is no need to even explain it. The world of Bollywood cinema is so cleansed of caste  and religion that one is almost tempted to believe that one is dealing with a bunch of ultra-liberals for whom caste and religion do not define the human personality. But the real reason for this absence is that women must not make the wrong sexual choice that could lead to the collapse of society as we know it. So, the world of Bollywood cinema is shown to be a 'natural' world, where upper caste Punjabi men are linked up with upper caste Punjabi women  without the problematic obstacle of caste ever coming in the way of their union. Whereas, in reality, especially for the middle-class, caste is an overriding factor in marriage in particular and sexual relations in general.

 

Even if the West is the 'enemy', it is never designated as such. This is partly because Bollywood films work in an implicit way, taking things for granted that explicitly stated would sound absurd. Besides, the West cannot be totally rejected, unless one wants to live in a fundamentalist society. The West is fabulously wealthy, powerful and culturally mighty. This last proposition is the one that is most consistently challenged in Bollywood films.

 

There are two aspects to Bollywood films' response to the West. A certain degree of freedom of social intercourse between boys and girls, such as that which takes place in colleges, has to be accepted. But having granted this limited freedom of social interaction, this is brought under an intense scrutiny in order to drain it of all sexual content. In any confrontation between Indian social values (read upper caste Punjabi Hindu values) and Western values, it is the former that invariably triumphs.

 

If you put the question in so many words: how is an arranged marriage with full parental  and social sanction — therefore, suppressing the individual to a lesser or greater extent, and affirming conformity with all existing social  hierarchy a superiority to love — it is one to which Bollywood films have no rational answer. Western values are immoral and bring misery whereas Indian values bring happiness and social cohesion. The manner in which this proposition is affirmed would be the equivalent of judging the entire edifice of Hindu thought through the narrow prism of the institution of sati. It is impossible for Bollywood filmmakers to shake off the suspicion that there is an organic link between Western values and Western  achievements, just as there is a connection between Indian values and Indian under-achievement. So Hindi filmmakers have to constantly ask themselves: to what extent is westernisation safe?

 

Bollywood cinema ultimately deals in fantasies, in wish-fulfilment. And the wish that it wants fulfilled is one of wealth, power, sexual pleasure and, above all, cultural harmony. The questions to ask about a Bollywood film are not whether they are aesthetically good or bad, but how  effective they are socially and politically. Do they add strength to caste society and its institutions? Or do they promote sexual freedom and social anarchy? Artistically, Bollywood films are meaningless.

 

Soumitro Das is a Kolkata-based writer. The views expressed by the author are personal.

 

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HINDUSTAN TIMES

EDITORIAL

 

BITTERSWEET TIDINGS

ASHOK GULATI AND TEJINDER NARANG

 

Sugar, to mix one's metaphors, is heading for a perfect storm. And this is being made because of our own policies. By the year-end, retail prices of sugar in Delhi and Mumbai may cross the Rs 40 per kg barrier — an almost 150 per cent increase in less than 15 months. And no, you can't blame climate change or monsoon failures for this.

 

So, what triggered the sugar crisis? In 2006-07, India harvested 355 million tonnes of sugarcane breaking all records. This resulted in 28 million tonnes of sugar production. With the ratoon crop, the 2007-08 performance — harvesting 348 million tonnes resulting in 26 million tonnes of sugar — was almost repeated. India's domestic consumption of sugar hovers around 20-22 million tonnes. The international price of raw sugar in 2006-07 and 2007-08 hovered between 15 and 18 cents per pound, not very attractive for exports of white sugar.

 

Sugar stocks at home peaked at 10-11 million tonnes at the end of the sugar seasons 2006-07 and 2007-08. India exported roughly 8 million tonnes of sugar during 2007-08 and 2008-09 for around $2 billion and liquidated much of the sugar stocks by giving a freight subsidy (Rs 1,350-1,450 per tonne) for exports. It was clear by June-July 2008 that sugarcane production will drop significantly in the 2008-09 season, while continuation of export scheme till September 2008 remains puzzling. Was it an error of judgement? Or was it simple ignorance? Only policy-makers can explain.

 

It was only in February 2009 that imports of raw sugar were permitted. Import duty on refined white sugar was lifted (from an earlier 60 per cent) in a kneejerk reaction in April 2009. But it was already too late and global prices of white sugar spiked from 15-18 cents per pound in 2006-07 and 2007-08 to 25 cents per pound now. The futures for the month of December 2009 and March 2010 show no respite. The sugar storm, in all probability, will hit India in November-December when temporary relief from the de-stocking drive subsides.

 

It will continue on its rampage for much of 2010 when sugar price in retail will remain above Rs 40 per kg. What can help bring it down is the strengthening of the rupee against the dollar, or a huge import subsidy on government account to protect the retail consumers, or minimising cane usage for gur (or liquor) or ethanol, etc. Imports of 5-7 million tonnes of sugar seem imminent, especially for bulk consumers. But today, imports on private account have slowed down as the de-stocking drive by the government to hold the price line at festive season has marginally brought the domestic price under check. But with import supply lines being half empty it can suddenly erupt into a price inferno.

 

Can we take pre-emptive policy action to avoid such situations? In 2006-07 and 2007-08, sugarcane farmers in Uttar Pradesh were getting a State Advised Price (SAP) of about Rs 120 per quintal against a Statutory Minimum Price (SMP) of Rs 80 per quintal, which led to a swing of area in favour of sugarcane over wheat and rice. Farmers had difficulty in selling their cane and cane arrears amounted to more than Rs 1,000 crore. Here the gur industry came to the rescue of farmers by making prompt payments. Today, virtually the entire quantity of gur is being used to make alcohol.

 

Also, India fell short of wheat and imported about 6 million tonnes of wheat during 2006-08, which made policy-makers nervous about food security. As a result, they started raising the SMP of wheat and paddy substantially to attract more sowing. No wonder then that by 2008-09, farmers in UP switched back from sugarcane to grains. Result: a shortage of sugar and abundance of grains.

 

Today, there is demand for SMP of cane to be raised to Rs 200 per quintal. If agreed, two years from today, India will again have a glut of sugar and shortage of grains. Policy-makers need to break this three-year cycle by reforming the administrative price regime, making it market-friendly and forward-looking. Not the stuff of kneejerk reactions and complying to political considerations.

 

Ashok Gulati is Director, Asia for the International Food Policy Research Institute.

 

Tejinder Narang is a freelance specialist on commodity markets. The views expressed by the authors are personal.

 

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HINDUSTAN TIMES

THE RAW & THE COOK

CLAUDE LÉVI-STRAUSS SHOWED US THAT TO GRASP THE REAL DIFFERENCES BETWEEN ONE MOMENT AND ANOTHER, YOU NEED TO COMPREHEND THE VAST STRUCTURE OF EVERYDAY PHENOMENA

JONATHAN JONES

 

The news that Claude Lévi-Strauss has died at the grand age of 100 brings back memories of my student days, which coincided with the intellectual dominance of this great French anthropologist.

 

For young would-be intellectuals in the 1980s, his books The Savage Mind and The Raw and the Cooked had a biblical status. Lévi-Strauss was the high priest of structuralism.

Building on the linguistic ideas of Ferdinand de Saussure, he argued that all myth, and, hence, all pre-scientific thought can be understood in terms of binary oppositions -- such as, er, raw and cooked.

 

The strange and troubling grandeur of Lévi-Strauss lay in his insistence on the `synchronic' and contempt for the `diachronic': that is, he was interested in structures of thinking that endure over the very long term. He was apparently not interested in history, in change. Paradoxically, his ideas were of great interest to historians.

 

I first encountered his work through a history book by Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie that applied his methods to an 18th century French folk tale. Other French thinkers, notably Michel Foucault in The Order of Things, sought to switch attention to the violent breaks and transformations of one intellectual order into another. But Lévi-Strauss reflected a deep, and great, tendency in French historiography to draw attention to the `longue durée'.

 

History and art history really demand to be thought of in this way. When you read a story about, say, the marriages of Henry VIII or the life of Caravaggio, it's easy to fool yourself into believing you are glimpsing a world much like our own. To grasp the real, radical differences between one moment and another, you need to comprehend the vast web of everyday phenomena (food, illness, buildings ...) that shaped everyone's existence.

 

These things tend to change very slowly (at any time before 1900) and Claude Lévi-Strauss directed our attention to them.

His influence is subtle and will endure.

The news that Claude Lévi-Strauss has died at the grand age of 100 brings back memories of my student days, which coincided with the intellectual dominance of this great French anthropologist.

For young would-be intellectuals in the 1980s, his books The Savage Mind and The Raw and the Cooked had a biblical status. Lévi-Strauss was the high priest of structuralism.
Building on the linguistic ideas of Ferdinand de Saussure, he argued that all myth, and, hence, all pre-scientific thought can be understood in terms of binary oppositions -- such as, er, raw and cooked.

The strange and troubling grandeur of Lévi-Strauss lay in his insistence on the `synchronic' and contempt for the `diachronic': that is, he was interested in structures of thinking that endure over the very long term. He was apparently not interested in history, in change. Paradoxically, his ideas were of great interest to historians.

I first encountered his work through a history book by Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie that applied his methods to an 18th century French folk tale. Other French thinkers, notably Michel Foucault in The Order of Things, sought to switch attention to the violent breaks and transformations of one intellectual order into another. But Lévi-Strauss reflected a deep, and great, tendency in French historiography to draw attention to the `longue durée'.

History and art history really demand to be thought of in this way. When you read a story about, say, the marriages of Henry VIII or the life of Caravaggio, it's easy to fool yourself into believing you are glimpsing a world much like our own. To grasp the real, radical differences between one moment and another, you need to comprehend the vast web of everyday phenomena (food, illness, buildings ...) that shaped everyone's existence.

These things tend to change very slowly (at any time before 1900) and Claude Lévi-Strauss directed our attention to them.
His influence is subtle and will endure.

 

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HINDUSTAN TIMES

BIG PICTURE

CELLULAR CURE

WORK IN PROGRESS INDIAN REGULATION OF STEM CELL RESEARCH IS STILL PATCHY, BUT PATIENTS ARE BEING TREATED FOR DIABETES, MUSCULAR DYSTROPHY, EYE DISEASES, CANCERS, AND NERVE AND SKIN DISORDERS ( ( STEM CELLS CAN BE MATURED INTO ANY TISSUE TYPE AND USED FOR THE FUNCTIONAL REPAIR AND REPLACEMENT OF DISEASED ORGANS AND TISSUES D R V . M . K AT O C H , SECRETARY, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH RESEARCH, UNION HEALTH MINISTRY.

 SANCHITA SHARMA NEW DELHI

 

sanchitasharma@hindustantimes.com Imagine having a failing heart and doctors injecting healthy stem cells to replace the damaged ones.

 

Or surgeons replacing a defective bladder not with a donor organ, but with a healthy, lab-grown one.

 

While experts are working on the first, the latter has been done successfully.

 

Stem cell treatment is offering cures that would have been called miracles just a decade ago. Clinical trials are under way to use stem cells to treat incurable conditions such as Parkinson's disease, diabetes, muscular dystrophy, leukemia; lymphoma, ovarian cancer, breast cancer, kidney and urinary cancer, skin tumour, blindness, among others.

 

There have been several successes.

Scientists at the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine at WinstonSalem ­ situated in the east coast state of North Carolina in the US ­ implanted bladders developed from stem cells in patients in 2006. Three years on, all of them are healthy.

HOPE AND HYPE Hopes aroused by advances in stem cell research were what prompted the family of senior Congressman and former cabinet minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi to take him to Germany for stem cell therapy after he remained in a coma one year after a heart attack.

 

Dasmunsi was admitted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences on October 12 last year following a heart attack, from which he has not recovered. He was shifted to Apollo Hospitals, where his condition remained stable but unchanged for over 12 months.

 

"In India, we got in touch with people like Dr Geeta Shroff but weren't convinced with the way she conducted the procedure. The German doctors appeared to be more transparent in their approach. They will take cells from his body and culture them for use in his treatment," said his wife, Deepa Dasmunsi, who has accompanied her husband to Germany.

 

IVF specialist-turned-stem cell expert Dr Geeta Shroff of NuTech Mediworld in central Delhi's Gautam Nagar, claims to use embryonic stem cell lines developed from patients themselves and unused embryos of patients who visit her in-vitro fertilisation clinic, but inspections by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) ­ the overarching monitoring body that published the Ethical Guidelines for Biomedical Research on Human Subjects ­ surveyed her centre and found her claims unconvincing. Dr Shroff refused to comment.

 

IVF, short for in-vitro fertilisation, is an infertility treatment in which eggs are fertilised with the sperm outside the womb. More than one embryo is fertilised and the healthiest implanted back in the womb. Stem cells derived from the inner cell mass of the discarded early-stage embryos, called blastocysts, are called embryonic stem cells.

 

Hers is not the only clinic promising quick-fix stem cell cure for diseases ranging from muscular dystrophy to diabetes. "Not realising that stem cell treatment is still at an experimental stage, desperate patients are risking potentially dangerous side effects by becoming unsuspecting guinea pigs," said Dr Katoch.

THE FUTURE IS HERE "We are now working to engineer more than 20 different tissues a kidney, muscle, blood vessel, lung, heart and liver, using stem cells and in some cases, a patient's own cells," Dr George Weightman, chief operating officer, Wake Forest Institute of Regenerative Medicine, told Hindustan Times.

 

The range sums up the potential of stem cells, which are the foundation cells for every organ and tissue in the body. "Stem cells can be matured into any tissue type and used for the functional repair and replacement of diseased organs and tissues," said Dr V.M.Katoch, secretary, department of health research, Union health ministry.

 

The market size for stem cell therapy is projected to increase from an estimated $30 billion (Rs 1,44,000 crore) in 2008 to $96 billion (Rs 4,60,800 crore) by 2015, giving hope to millions not responding to conventional treatment.

MONITORING CURE Along with the department of biotechnology, the ICMR is finalising the Biomedical Research on Human Subjects (Promotion and Regulation) Bill, which will be tabled in Parliament next year. "The Ethical Guidelines are indirectly mandated through the Drugs and Cosmetics Act Schedule Y and amendments to the Medical and Health Council Act 2002, so action can be taken against researchers offering dubious treatment to patients desperate for a cure. Ethical researchers, however, always follow guidelines as they want validation for their work," said Dr Nandini Kumar, deputy director general, ICMR.

 

Among the centres with validated projects are the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi; Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad; Reliance Life Science, Navi Mumbai; Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore; and L V Prasad Eye Institute, Hyderabad. Research here focuses on treating nerve disorders, diabetes, muscular dystrophy, eye diseases (such as corneal blindness), cancers (blood, kidney and ovarian) and skin disorders.

 

"The Bill allows stem cell research and therapeutic cloning but restricts human cloning till its safety and benefits are proven. Effective regulation will give stem cell research the impetus it needs," said Dr Katoch.

Regulation will also help weed out unscrupulous doctors hoodwinking chronically ill patients with promise of a cure.

 

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INDIAN EXPRESS

EDITORIAL

DANGEROUS FEARS

 

The RBI has made clear its intent to tighten monetary policy in the near future in no uncertain terms. Unfortunately, the reality of the growth versus inflation trade-off at this point in time does not support the RBI's stated policy position. While there is anxiety about the rise in prices, it is largely confined to the price of food items which have little do with the underlying demand conditions in the economy. The inflation we are experiencing now is a supply-side phenomenon — inflation according to textbook economics can be either the result of excess demand or insufficient supply — and a supply-side issue cannot be addressed by monetary policy except in a very crude fashion. If there is a monetary squeeze for long enough, food prices too will fall but with considerable collateral damage to the real economy.

 

If on the other hand we look at the one indicator that does provide an accurate picture of underlying demand — credit off-take — the scenario turns out to be pretty bleak for growth. According to the latest data, credit growth dropped to a single-digit level (9.66 per cent on a year-on-year basis through October 23) for the first time in 12 years. In fact, the growth in credit off-take, an indicator of consumer demand and corporate investment plans, has been declining since August, ironically the same period that the RBI has started hinting at tightening monetary policy.

 

Needless to say, banks are playing safe — just as they have done since September 2008 — and have parked a record amount of funds with the RBI through the reverse repo window. Companies, aware of an imminent interest rate hike, are going slow on borrowing. With a view to protect their fragile profit margins, they are instead trying to access alternative sources of funds including the cheaper but riskier option of borrowing abroad. Smaller companies and individual consumers already face very high interest rate burdens, comfortably in double digits. The segment of the economy and population which does not have access to cheap finance — they cannot borrow abroad or via equity — is going to bear the brunt of the RBI's irrational fear of inflation. Of course, if these segments suffer because of expensive money, then the economy as a whole will also pay a price in terms of lower growth, a price we can't afford to pay.

 

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INDIAN EXPRESS

EDITORIAL

IDEAS OF PROGRESS

 

The debates raging currently on Maoism are inordinately adversarial. And to go by the battlelines being drawn, the fight is for the right to determine who it is that can speak for the inhabitants of the "red corridor" under the sway of the Maoists. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has stepped away from this pointless confrontation, and reconfigured the debate. To those who sympathise with the Maoists, those "who claim to speak for the tribals", he has put forth a simple question: do they actually have any "alternate economic or social path that is viable"?

 

To ask that question is to admit, as the prime minister did, that India has been found wanting in giving its tribal populations a stake in "modern economic processes that inexorably intrude into their living spaces". And he rallied a conference of chief ministers and state tribal ministers on Wednesday to take the benefits of the development process to tribals. It is in this delivery that the darkest, most sinister aspects of Maoism are made evident. On the map of India, the "red corridor" of Maoist influence overlaps neatly with some of the most under-developed parts of the country. These are also areas rich in forests and mineral wealth, and are inhabited by many of this country's diverse tribal peoples. With this overlap, a specious connect is often sought to be made by those who justify aspects of the Maoist agenda — that the Maoists are, with their admittedly regrettable use of violence, somehow filling the void left by the state, that they are heeding a moral duty to deliver social goods unavailable to the local populations. Certainly, the Maoists have found it easiest to raise their flag in areas where the state's footprint is light. But track their record once they are entrenched in an area: it is one of kangaroo courts, extortion, and obstruction to any development work and even to the sparse social services that may be available.

 

It is good that the argument with Maoist "sympathisers" has been joined at the highest levels of government. But re-affirming commitment to vast swathes of India's population is valuable for much more than simply winning that argument.

 

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INDIAN EXPRESS

EDITORIAL

439, 2009

 

Generations of Indians can remember the first time they heard the name Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar: in late February of 1988, when they opened their newspapers to discover that a couple of schoolboys named Kambli and Tendulkar had put together a partnership of 664 runs for their school, Shardashram, against St. Xavier's. Vinod Kambli made 349, and his friend and team-mate made 329. Barely a couple of years later, Tendulkar was launching Abdul Qadir into the Gujranwala stands, his role as the mainstay of India's batting begun.

 

But the individual marks set then — which were not, in any case, the highest in the competition's storied history — have been eclipsed by a twelve-year old. Sarfaraz Khan, the son of a cricket coach and a student at past champions Rizvi Springfield, hammered out 439 off 421 deliveries. Bombay's inter-school tournament has set many stories in motion in its 112-year history; it is named for England's second-ever Test captain, Lord Harris — later a head of the MCC and governor of Bombay, where he did a lot for Indian cricket (and also where, at least according to the television series Bodyline, he set one of cricket's greatest stories rolling by presenting the young Douglas Jardine with a bat.)

 

Young Khan, from a cricketing family, will have had some sense of history. He had trouble sleeping the night before the record — at stumps, he had scored 235. In a post-match interview, he extolled the virtues of footwork, watching the ball, and playing it late. Whether or not Khan's story becomes one of those that we remember 20 years from now, one thing at least is clear: as Sachin Tendulkar's matchless career enters its twilight years, we will look at such schoolboy feats with a certain breathless hope.

 

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INDIAN EXPRESS

COLUMN

LAYERS OF INSECURITY

INDER MALHOTRA

 

Recall what happened on October 2, 1986 when Rajiv Gandhi went to Rajghat. As it later i transpired, the intelligence agencies had an inkling of a possible terrorist attack on the prime p minister on this occasion. The horror is that nothing f was done about this dire danger.

 

 Why cannot security drills be undertaken efficiently yet humanely?

 

THERE can be no doubt at all about Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's agony over the avoidable death of a critically ill patient unable to enter Chandigarh's Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Research because of the utter insensitivity and incompetence of the PM's security detail.

On the other hand, there can be no two opinions on the imperative of protecting the prime minister and other leaders most diligently and effectively. It should not be necessary to say this after what happened to Indira Gandhi in 1984 and Rajiv Gandhi seven years later.

 

The key question, however, is why cannot this essential task be undertaken efficiently yet humanely? Only in the world's largest democracy does the security establishment treat the people as dumb, driven cattle and get away with it. What drives me to despair is that the more the government talks about reforming and streamlining the security setup, the worse it becomes. It is the nature of the beast. As the Urdu poet said: "Marz barhta gaya, joon joon dwa ki (the more the medication, the worse became the ailment)".

 

During the recent talkathon on Indira Gandhi's life, times and legacy, Arun Nehru made the startling revelation that on October 31, 1984, when he and some other members of the family mournfully returned from the AIIMS to the prime minister's house there was total confusion: not a single securityperson could be found on the premises.
(Whether anybody took any action against the absentees no one knows.) It can perhaps be argued that circumstances on that egregiously black day had unhinged almost everyone. But did things improve even two years later?

Just please try to recall what happened on October 2, 1986 when Rajiv Gandhi went to Rajghat to pay homage to the Mahatma. As it later transpired, the intelligence agencies had an inkling of a possible terrorist attack on the prime minister on this occasion. The horror is that nothing was done about this dire danger. So much so that the assailant, who did shoot at Rajiv twice, had been able to merrily spend the previous night at Rajghat. Worse, when he fired the first shot (luckily he was a poor marksman), the prime minister's "protectors" blandly assured him that someone's motorcycle had backfired! When the second bullet followed, Rajiv was the only one to realise what was afoot. The security stalwarts were still clueless and complacent.

 

Characteristically, the government never disclosed why the intelligence warning was not taken seriously and acted upon promptly. Years later I learned that the joint secretary in the Union home ministry got the warning and his comment typed out and dispatched to Delhi's police commissioner by the fastest means at his disposal -- a motorcycle dispatch rider. The communication reached the police headquarters after the commissioner had left for the day. Since it was an "eyes only" document nobody else dared open it. When I got the opportunity I asked the then home secretary how on earth could such a casual, clumsy and tardy procedure be adopted when there was grave risk to the prime minister's life? His reply: "What did you expect me to do when I used to get four such IB warnings on every working day?" It is time to rewind and go back to 1980 when there was no visible risk to Indira Gandhi's life at home but the Anand Margis in Australia were threatening to kill her whenever she arrived in Melbourne to attend the conference of Commonwealth heads of government. On the second day of the conference, the Australian officer in charge of Indira Gandhi's personal security asked to see a senior member of the prime minister's entourage, and was taken to Ramji Nath Kao, her most trusted security adviser and the legendary founder of RAW, the external intelligence agency.

 

The Australian said to Kao that the Indian prime minister was not only a great leader but also a gracious lady. "I would lay down my life to ensure that no harm comes to her. But I have a problem. The greatest danger to her is while getting into or getting out of the car. That is when I must have my both hands totally free.
But that is precisely the moment when, presumably in continuation of the practice back home, the prime minister hands her purse over to me." Kao Sahib acted quietly and quickly.

 

Fast forward to the year 2000.

One of the ministries in Delhi had invited a distinguished foreign scholar, whose name escapes me at the moment, to deliver a lecture at Vigyan Bhavan. No problem with that. But all hell broke loose when, at the last minute, President K.R. Narayanan, aware of the guest's eminence, decided to join the audience. Security reinforcements were rushed to the venue, and all concerned ran helter-skelter.

 

When, after long introductory speeches, the honoured guest was asked to speak, he got up to confess that he was "speechless". The hysterical SPG had confiscated the text he had brought in a briefcase. Amidst the embarrassed flurry that followed a sheepish security office eventually brought in the black briefcase and the proceedings began. The Chandigarh infamy is the latest chapter in this shameful saga of stupidities but by no means the last.

 

All of us have stories of infuriating encounters with security. Let me narrate mine. In the days when P.V. Narasimha Rao was prime minister, I was walking from the India International Centre to Khan Market. Suddenly a police inspector stopped to say that I couldn't go any further until the prime minister's "carcade" had driven by. I said that was fine with me. But it was not enough for him. "You stand and turn your back to the road," he ordered. I testily replied that this I would never do, whatever the consequences. I would rather go back to where I came from.

But before leaving I asked him: "Officer, please tell me: is it the prime minister in his Ambassador car or Lady Godiva on horseback?" Unable to get it, he left me alone. The writer is a Delhi-based commentator express@expressindia.com

 

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INDIAN EXPRESS

COLUMN

NOT BY PAY ALONE

AJU JOHN

 

Making the bench attractive requires raising both pay and prestige The issue really lies at the lower end of the judiciary, as the bench seeks to bring in legal talent choosing a career.

 

AN anomalous conclusion presents itself if we place the recent "voluntary" disclosure of assets by Supreme Court judges in the context of the amounts made by other members of the legal profession.

Over the past decade, the practice of law has became much more attractive, financially.

There has been an infusion of youth into the Supreme Court bar in the last five years, the market for corporate transaction advisory practices has exploded, and the salaries on offer when firms and companies recruit graduates from India's leading law schools has gone through the roof. However, as with any discussion on the salaries of Indian public officials, we need to consider the easy and convenient link to corruption, and the need to attract good talent.

 

On the corporate practice side, a salaried partner (typically under-35, and working in metropolitan cities) at a large national corporate law firm today earns above Rs 60 lakh a year. Lawyers working within legal teams in Indian companies make tidy sums too. The growth of the profession has also opened up lucrative options for graduating law students who have the option of starting at salaries in excess of Rs 12 lakh a year.

 

On the litigation side, lawyers have to spend years negotiating non-viable monthly income in the hope of increasing their independent practice and obtaining financial security.

Today many senior advocates of the Supreme Court are sensitive to the financial security of their juniors. This turnaround is reason for cautious optimism.

Many experienced litigators in the country make enough in one week to make the annual salary of many professionals seem a pittance. (Rightfully so, as the returns in litigation are skewed towards the later years of practice.) So what are judges paid in India? In September 2008, the Sixth Pay Commission recommended a three-fold increase in salaries for the higher judiciary.

All judges of the Supreme Court now receive Rs 1 lakh a month; the Chief Justice earns 1.1, and sitting judges of the High Courts 90,000. In the lower judiciary, pay is far lower. Justice E.

Padmanabhan, appointed by the Supreme Court in April to recommend pay revisions in the lower judiciary, has submitted a report recommending a 3.07fold hike in salaries. The starting salary of a civil judge (junior division) is now expected to rise to around Rs 35,000 per month.

(In addition, judges in India enjoy several perks beyond their basic salary like travel, electricity and telephone allowances and infrastructure support.) It is with this backdrop that the Chief Justice of India has declared a Santro car, 20 sovereigns of gold jewellery and real estate worth 18 lakh rupees.

(These figures should be only be taken for what they are: the declared assets of judges at the top of the judiciary who were paid on a scale since revised.) We need to be mindful of the fact that in joining the judiciary, respect and authority of the position and the opportunity to be a key instrument of legal reform are major attractions, and are granted irrespective of success. This is not true anywhere else in the legal profession. Further, the prestige of the position does translate to some form of financial gain as postretirement. Judges have the built fairly lucrative practices providing opinions on legal issues and arbitrating in proceedings between parties.

 

The Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court makes around $217,000 (about Rs 1 crore) a year, comparable to associates at top US law firms. However the fact that the US judiciary manages to tap good legal talent is evidence of having balanced the prestige of the position with the amount required for judges to not worry about their financial status or be led astray.

 

This balance between financial security and the prestige of a position on the bench is what needs to be examined and the issue really lies at the lower end of the judiciary, as the bench seeks to bring in legal talent choosing a career.

 

For young lawyers and law students (especially from top law schools), a decision to join the judicial cadre does seem financially unsound when compared to other avenues that are open to them. However, irrespective of pay increases, quality legal talent will move towards the lower judiciary only if the prestige of the position is improved.

 

Should judicial pay scales be further revised? Yes, but the members of the higher judiciary need to focus now on raising the pay scales and perks for the lower judiciary - both to stem corruption, and importantly, to build the right systems that will attract legal talent to the bench. After that, an increased pay scale for the higher judiciary would not even be a question of debate.

 

The writer works for a Mumbai based legal-services organisation express@expressindia.com

 

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INDIAN EXPRESS

PRINTLINE

NO BERETS PLEASE, WE'RE BRITISH

 

Why can't more countries adore their intellectuals, like the French?

 

THE death of Claude Lévi-Strauss reminds us, again, of the moment in our planet's geological history when the Earth tipped violently and all the intellectuals in the world ended up in France. No other country has quite this same cadre of men and women who can be introduced as "intellectuals" without making everyone else struggle to contain a smirk. In Britain, "intellectual" is almost a term of abuse, rarely used in polite company. Instead, we use euphemisms, like "too clever by half", as if to voice a stupider opinion would be worthier.

And we are the poorer for it.

 

In France, thinkers like Lévi-Strauss, Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir and Raymond Aron are so confident about flaunting their opinions that they never beg forgiveness; they beg only to differ...
Bernard Henri-Lévy fills as many gossip columns as Catherine Deneuve -- even if he is an intellectual poseur who is known as much for the hairy chest that peeps from his white shirt as for his views on existentialism.

 

And their amorous liaisons give the lie to the old quip that intellectuals are people who have discovered something more interesting than sex. Their Left Bank cafés are well known to Parisians.

Their views are craved and courted on chat shows. Our chat shows court soap stars.

 

Yes, Britain has scholars and pundits. But on the intellectual spectrum they enjoy a status somewhere between being and nothingness... Intellectuals lift the national debate. They fertilise political thought. A country too embarrassed to embrace them is, well, too stupid by half.

 

From a leader in the London `Times'

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INDIAN EXPRESS

OPED

GOING… GOING… GONE

VINOD DHALL

 

The spectrum allotment saga is back where it always belonged — at the centre of controversy. The Central Vigilance Commission has raised questions about the manner in which the 2G telecom licenses bundled with spectrum were given away in early 2008, and the CBI has raided the telecom ministry offices and the premises of select beneficiaries. It has done India — an emerging global power and one of the fastest expanding telecom markets — little good for its image in that we could not get our governance right in so vital an area of economic policy.

 

The burden of this article is not about the suspected corruption in this episode; that is the area for the vigilance organisations, and we hope (though, piously and against past experiences) that the guilty will be brought to book. On the other hand, the concern in this article is on the policy issue — how in the face of global experiences and economic logic, a seriously flawed route was pursued in favour of administrative and arbitrary allotment of spectrum instead of giving it out through competitive bidding.

 

Spectrum is a valuable and non-renewable natural resource; it belongs to the people of India. It should be allocated to those who can make the most efficient use of it and will not trade or hoard it. And it should fetch the state a fair, neither too low nor exorbitant, market price. The best course for determining the fair price is through competitive bidding. Other natural resources such as oil, gas and coal, even the concessions for infrastructure projects under the PPP model like airports, bridges and highways, are auctioned by us. What justification then is there for not following the same principle for spectrum? This has never been properly explained by the telecom authorities to the public.

 

Two grounds against competitive bidding have been generally mentioned: one, competitive bidding will raise costs of the service providers and thereby make mobile telephony services more expensive for the common consumer; and two, it will lead to speculative bidding which will be unsustainable in the long run as indeed had happened in the poorly executed auctions in the first round of spectrum sale in India.

 

Both arguments are rather specious. In a competitive market, the consumer prices of mobile services are more directly dependent on the prevailing market prices; so if Airtel or Idea is charging 60 paise a minute, a spectrum bidder cannot hope to charge higher and yet survive in the market. Further, 2008 was not the same as 2001; in those seven years, the market had grown far more competitive. For example, Vodafone paid a hefty price for buying out Hutch, but it has had to match rivals' prices in the market, and in fact competition has led to an all round fall in tariffs. As for discouraging speculative bidding, the auction process can certainly be designed on sound economic principles, and sufficient experience and expertise are available worldwide, if only we are willing to learn from them.

 

In most countries today, auction is the accepted norm for selling spectrum. In the US, initially the spectrum was given away administratively (as in India in 2008). The process was inefficient, unfair, encouraged rent seeking, and sometimes led to bizarre results. In one case, a group of dentists (yes, dentists) won the license for the Cape Cod area and promptly sold it to Southwestern Bell for US$ 41 million (a'la Unitech and Swan in India). Finally, Congress directed the US Federal Communications Commission to resort to auctioning. The FCC in turn engaged game theory economists to design the auction. The bidders too employed game theorists to guide them towards rational bidding. The auction, billed by The New York Times as the "greatest auction ever", was a resounding success.

 

Since then, the US and other governments, such as the UK, Germany, Australia, and New Zealand, et al have earned large amounts from spectrum auctions instead of the windfalls being reaped by private bidders. Only in a handful of cases, the auctions were not properly designed on economic principles, and these resulted in speculative bids or dirt cheap bids winning the auction. Corrective action was taken by these governments later. Why were we keen on repeating their mistakes, instead of learning from them?

 

In December, 2007, while I was head of the Competition Commission of India, my article, "Spectrum Bids and the Beautiful Mind" arguing for competitive bidding appeared in the financial press. The Competition Commission of India wrote to the Ministry of Telecommunications and met senior officers at the ministry. But the ministry never replied to the Commission's arguments, and persisted in its flawed policy. My efforts with some other high government functionaries on this issue also bore no result at that time. Reportedly though, Government has recently decided to auction the 3G spectrum.

 

It is only to be hoped that in all future spectrum sales (3G and beyond), not only will competitive bidding remain the definitive norm, but that the bidding process will be professionally designed, with expert economic advice, to ensure its success and inter alia, to discourage speculative bidding on the one hand, and throw away prices on the other.

 

The writer was former secretary, Corporate Affairs, and is acting chairman, Competition Commission of India

 

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INDIAN EXPRESS

OPED

SAFETY IN NUMBERS

ROHITKUMARSINGH

 

The recently concluded Assembly elections in three states have put the focus back on the integrity of the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM). Some say that the machines can be manipulated; others say these can be hacked to favour a particular candidate. The machines are sometimes labeled faulty and unreliable.

 

I recently attended a meeting in Maharashtra as the observer of the Election Commission of India (ECI) where this issue was hotly debated. Representatives of some political parties wanted us to ensure that the machines were not manipulated through remote control. On another occasion, a senior IT professional wondered: what if a software module is embedded in the hardware, hidden in the sleeper mode, that could be activated to corrupt the machine at a later time. He was drawing a parallel with the Bluetooth feature that Apple has provided in one of the models of their iPhone that is to be activated at a later date. Both apprehensions are reasonable.

 

To examine the veracity of such claims and apprehensions, the voting process through EVMs needs to be put into perspective. For the uninitiated, the EVMs comprise two interconnected units. The first, called the control unit, lets the polling official enable the voter to cast her vote once her identity is verified. This unit also stores and computes the poll-related data like number of votes polled for each candidate and total number of votes. In the second unit, called the ballot unit, the voter casts her vote by pressing a button alongside the name of the candidate and symbol of the political party.

 

Universally, the electronic voting based election process consists of five stages: (1) device initialisation or preparation, (2) voting, (3) early reporting — in case of India, only the total is tallied with the voters' register, (4) tabulation, and (5) auditing.

 

Now, consider the hacking possibilities. Any electronic or IT-enabled system could be hacked or have its security compromised either by (1) an outsider attack, or (2) manipulation by people who officially manage the process (an insider job). Let us examine the risks on both counts and see how these are mitigated in the Indian context.

 

For an outsider attack to be possible, the fpre-requisite is access. As opposed to many other computerised voting systems, our EVMs, manufactured by Bharat Electronics Limited and Electronics Corporation of India Limited, are designed to work as standalone systems.

 

Other computer based voting systems use generalised hardware and operating systems/applications (usually written in C++ family of languages) resident in flash memories, rendering them susceptible to manipulation. On the other hand, the software in the EVM is fused permanently onto the integrated circuits that cannot be retrieved, altered or accessed. According to the manufacturer BEL, the unique signature of every controller used in the machine is checked for authenticity, generating evidences if tampered with. During voting and the subsequent counting process, the EVMs are never connected to any network or device.

 

Other skeptics express apprehensions about the possibility of manipulation by way of an insider job. For this, we need to understand the complete voting process where EVMs are used. When the EVMs are prepared a few days prior to polling day, the candidates are permitted to inspect each machine and witness mock poll demonstrations. Subsequently, these machines are securely stored in rooms that are sealed in the presence of the candidates, with apt security. Before the actual voting begins at 8 AM on the poll day, the polling officers at each booth are required to hold mock polls from 7 AM to 8 AM in front of election agents. Let us assume a worst-case scenario where a polling official changes the hardware module causing the machine to malfunction. This is bound to be detected during the mock poll, either at the preparation stage, or on the poll day. In that eventuality, the faulty EVM is immediately replaced. Let us go a step further and assume that a smarter devil somehow accesses the hardware and programmes the machine in such a way that the machine works perfectly during the mock poll but malfunctions during the actual poll. Since nobody, including our "hacker", knows the number of mock-poll iterations after which the actual poll will be held, he cannot succeed through a pre-written malicious software. Finally, during counting of votes, the tabulation of results is done manually in the presence of counting agents of political parties. In addition, the audit of one-fifth of the machines, selected at random, is required to be done by the ECI observer. Hence the integrity of these processes cannot be compromised.

 

As an abundant precaution that mitigates further risk of an insider job, the Election Commission of India has introduced randomisation at different stages. The EVMs are assigned to various constituencies through a software-driven randomised allocation. Even within a constituency, allocation to a particular polling booth is randomised. As a further check, randomisation is done in presence of the representatives of political parties and contesting candidates, and is supervised by an independent ECI observer.

 

Does it then mean that our EVMs are so hi-tech that they are superior to the computer based voting systems practiced worldwide, especially in the US? I put forth this very question to Harvard Professor L. Jean Camp on a snowy day in the spring of 2004, while attending her course on (Cyber) Security and Privacy. After detailed discussions and several cups of coffee, the conclusion was: a big yes.

 

The writer is an IAS officer working in Rajasthan. Views expressed are personal

 

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INDIAN EXPRESS

THE HINGE OF HISTORY

 

Ever since June 15 in Tehran I've been asking the most alluring and treacherous of historical questions: "What if?"

 

What if the vast protesting crowd of perhaps three million people had turned from Azadi (Freedom) Square toward the presidential complex? What if Mir Hussein Moussavi, the opposition leader, had stood before the throng and said, "Here I stand with you and here I will fall?" What, in short, if Azadi had been Prague's Wenceslas Square of 20 years ago and Moussavi had been Vaclav Havel?

 

In history, of course, the hypothetical has little value even if at any one moment — like that one in the Iranian capital three days after the disputed election — any number of outcomes was as plausible as what came to pass. Retrospective determinism (Henri Bergson's phrase) now makes it hard to imagine anything other than the brutal clampdown that has pushed Iranian anger beneath the surface. Yet of course things might have ended differently.

 

In 1989, the revolutionary year, the Tiananmen Square massacre happened in Beijing and, five months later, the division of Europe ended with the fall of the Wall in Berlin. Could it have been otherwise? Might China have opened to greater democracy while European uprisings were shot down?

 

We cannot know any more than we know what lies on the road not taken or what a pregnant glance exchanged but never explored might have yielded. All we know, as Timothy Garton Ash observes in The New York Review of Books, is, "The fact that Tiananmen happened in China is one of the reasons it did not happen in Europe."

 

And now those events of 20 years ago — Europe's 11/9 — are pored over by historians in search of definitive answers to how that world-changing moment transpired, and pored over by 21st-century repressive governments to ascertain wherein exactly lay the weakness (as they see it) of Mikhail Gorbachev, the man who would not open fire. The history of 1989 is still being written — a plethora of new books testify to that. The history of Iran in 2009 will also be written many times over. Truth is elusive, but it's worth recalling that beyond the inexorable historical forces at work in moments of crisis, there often lies one person's decision in a particular confused moment.

 

The hinge of history hangs on a heartbeat.

 

Harald Jaeger is a good reminder of that. I first met him in Berlin a decade ago. He's the former officer in the East German border guards who, on the night of November 9, 1989, opened the gate at Berlin's Bornholmer Strasse, ending the Cold War. Now 66, Jaeger recently retired to a small town near Berlin where he cultivates his garden. When I saw him a few weeks ago, he was wearing a blue T-shirt and gold-rimmed spectacles: an ordinary-looking gray-haired guy with a frank gaze. He's not been invited to the elaborate 20th-anniversary celebrations but bears no rancour. "To put it in a nutshell," he told me, "It was a lucky moment." I tried to imagine him at his post 20 years ago, facing a growing crowd, defending the border that had been his life, knowing that a senior official (Günter Schabowski) had just said East Germans could travel "without meeting special provisions," unable to get clear orders from his superior, wavering, alone.

 

Just after 11 PM, he gave the order to open the gate. How did he feel? "Sweat was pouring down my neck and my legs were trembling. I knew what I had done. I knew immediately. That's it, I thought, East Germany is finished." Jaeger had not set out to terminate a country. Behind him lay great forces: Pope John Paul II; Lech Walesa and the heroic Poles of Solidarity; Soviet economic collapse; Ronald Reagan's "tear down this wall;" Gorbachev's refusal to go the Tiananmen route; the irrepressible stirring of the myriad European souls imprisoned at Yalta.

 

Yet, despite all this (history's long arc), the event itself — the unimaginable event — still needed a single beleaguered officer to open a gate rather than open fire. A decade ago, Jaeger told me: "I did not free Europe. It was the crowd in front of me, and the hopeless confusion of my leadership, that opened those gates."

 

Having been in that Tehran crowd, I know the force was with it. I felt myself how fear evaporates with such numbers. Nobody, not in 2009, can slay millions. Behind those Iranians, too, lay greater forces, all Iran's centennial and unquenchable quest for some stable balance between representative government and religious faith.

 

The millions didn't want to overthrow the Islamic Republic; they just wanted the second word in that revolutionary name to mean something — enough, anyway, for their votes to count.

 

What if they had wheeled and borne down on the fissured heart of power in the instant of its disarray? What if this had been Iran's "lucky moment?" I have no answer to my "what if?" but 1989 suggests this: One day the dam must break when a repressive regime and the society it rules march in opposite directions.

 

The New York Times

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INDIAN EXPRESS

OPED

L'AFFAIRE MADHU KODA

SEEMA CHISHTI

 

The big financial scandal allegedly involving the former Jharkhand Chief Minister, Madhu Koda, has resulted in editorial comments by many papers. Describing the sequence of events in the fast rise of the 38-year old former CM in politics, Rashtriya Sahara, in its editorial (November 2) "Loot of public wealth", writes: "The short story of Madhu Koda's political rise at least speaks of the fact that he may be young in age but his deeds could surprise even politicians double his age." The paper further states: "This is not the first instance of any financial corruption on the part of a politician. From time to time stories of financial corruption of different individuals have been coming to the open. These instances prove that a considerable number of our politicians are up to their neck in muddy pools of corruption. Needless to point out that the role for us, the common people, in giving encouragement to such corrupt politicians (sar charhaney mein) is also not any good. Along with strict legal action against such persons, they should also be rejected by the people and their membership of Assembly or Parliament should be revoked."

 

Delhi-based daily Hindustan Express in its editorial entitled, "Koda par korey lekin..." (whiplashes on Koda, but...), writes (November 3): "Undoubtedly, our government is aware of the tricky world of flow of black money and income tax evasion and also serious about putting a stop to it. FM Pranab Mukherjee is struggling with the heaven of tax evaders — Swiss banks — so that the country's wealth could be bought back from there. But we cannot succeed in this campaign as long as the law does not catch hold of elements who produce Madhu Kodas. What is needed for this is firm political resolve, inflexible honesty and courage."

 

Hit at saffron parties

The results of the recent Assembly elections in Maharashtra, Haryana and Arunachal Pradesh have been generally viewed as a great loss to saffron parties. Hyderabad-based daily, Rahnuma-e-Deccan, in its editorial entitled "Firqa parast taqaton par ek aur zarb" (another hit at communal forces) (October 23) writes: "Communal parties, after coming to power, instead of working for the welfare of the people and their progress and for removing their difficulties, had made the people themselves strangers to each other, made them fight each other and get beaten up and destroyed their peace and tranquility — Now the democratic rights of the people have shattered to pieces these communal forces' dream (converting the world's largest democracy into a 'Hindu Rashtra')".

 

Jamaat-e-Islami's biweekly, Daawat, in a commentary (November 1) says: "The foundations of saffron parties and organisations are shaking." It writes: "The question is not only of continuous defeat of the BJP. The pitiable condition of all organisations of the Sangh Parivar, even RSS, is not different from that of the BJP. There is need for treatment of not only the BJP but of the entire Sangh Parivar. And it is possible only if destructive, riotous and communal viewpoints are made constructive, objective and better in the interest of the country and the nation."

 

Commenting on the delay in the formation of the Congress-NCP coalition government in Maharashtra, the Delhi, Lucknow, Dehradun and Mumbai-based daily Sahafat (November 3) writes: "Due to the delay of over a week (in forming the government), a very wrong message is going out. There are whispers now that when there is so much delay in forming the government, what all cannot happen in running the government. This situation is not very pleasant in totality for the state." The paper says that following Sonia Gandhi's refusal to become the country's prime minister and Dr Manmohan Singh becoming the prime minister for the second time, "differences of Sharad Pawar and his party with the Congress are difficult to understand... Sharad Pawar too has never made clear the reasons for his opposition to the Congress now."

Pak's baseless allegations

Recent allegations of an Indian hand in some disturbances in Pakistan have given rise to some very agitated reactions. Kolkata and Delhi-based daily, Akhbar-e-Mashriq, in its editorial (October 28) entitled, "ulta chor kotwal ko daantey" (popular proverb about the thief audaciously accusing the police official) writes: "Whenever there is any crisis in Pakistan, it creates an enemy to give childish consolation to the people. Obviously who else except India can be this enemy?"

 

Commenting on the frequent "baseless allegations" made by Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik, the paper writes: "The fact is that at the international level such comic personalities keep emerging regularly that beat the clowns of circus companies hollow. Janab Rehman Malik too is one of such personalities in business. One can only despair at his baseless flights of imagination."

 

Rashtriya Sahara, in an editorial (November 1), quotes US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton who, during her recent visit to Pakistan "very clearly" told journalists that "America, so far, has no proof about India's interference in Balochistan." The paper says: "She paid no heed to such allegations made by Pakistan against India during her press conference, something that made Pakistani journalists quite disappointed."

 

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FINANCIAL EXPRESS

EDITORIAL

LEND A HAND, NOW

The central bank's clear signal that it intends to tighten monetary policy is already showing on bank credit off-take. For the first time in 12 years, credit growth dropped to a single-digit level, at 9.66% on a year-on-year basis through October 23, against 10.75% recorded up to October 9. Playing safe, banks have parked a record

 

Rs 1,33,295 crore with RBI through the reverse repo window that is used to suck out excess liquidity from the system. This will have far-reaching consequences on consumer demand and expansion plans of companies at a time when we are seeing some recovery in certain sectors. Requirements for working capital have not yet picked up, indicating lack of credit demand from the manufacturing sector, which accounts for the bulk of credit off-take. Anticipating interest rates to go up, companies drawing up expansion plans are now tapping non-bank sources such as commercial paper and initial public offerings. These sources, which are cheaper than borrowing from banks, account for about 70% of India Inc's long-term fund requirements. Companies are also finding global market more lucrative to borrow from as the credit default spread has come down to the same level as it was before the collapse of Lehman Brothers. Also, one of the reasons for the low credit off-take is the lower demand of funds from oil and fertiliser companies. In fact, last year these companies had borrowed heavily with the government deferring subsidy payments on fuel prices. While there were signs of an increase in the disbursal of loans sanctioned by banks, companies are now deferring disbursement of their sanctioned loans, anticipating interest rates to go up, which will be a drag on their profit margins.

 

The sluggish credit off-take in the first half of the financial year will make it difficult for banks to meet RBI's revised credit off-take target of 18% this financial, as against 20% estimated in April 2009. Though buoyancy in credit demand will not take place until some large projects take off and the global markets fully recover, credit at low interest rates in sectors like infrastructure, housing and consumer durables should continue for a sustained recovery. Real demand needs to pick up in non-metro and rural markets, which are crucial to sustain overall growth for the manufacturing industry. Banks have become wary of incremental exposure to real estate, gems & jewellery, textiles, leather, auto-ancillary and non-banking financial companies, but these are the sectors that were the main growth drivers of the economy. The central bank's signal on tightening the expansionary monetary policy to contain rising inflation, which is a supply-side problem, will undoubtedly stall the growth process. That can't be a good thing.

 

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FINANCIAL EXPRESS

EDITORIAL

HIT THE ROAD

Minister Kamal Nath is a go-getter. He has been putting much-needed energies into the road transport and highways sector, which fell into an unforgivable rut over the past few years. At a recent interaction—the Idea Exchange—with The Express Group journalists, he said he would build more roads in a year than were built over five years of the NDA's tenure. There's, of course, UPA-I's abysmal record on roads. But what lends credence to his promise of constructing 7,000 km per year across all states, or 20 km a day, is the constancy with which he has been pursuing the target, across various mechanisms. It's not just the roadshows he has been holding in major capitals to encourage foreign investment for India's road projects; he enjoys great credibility today also because of how he has been trying to get domestic processes streamlined. The latest victory in this chapter involves the government's resolution to let the road transport & highways ministry decide on bidding procedures and make changes to bid documents. This effectively sidelines a dated Planning Commission regime that had introduced a string of tricky clauses in the bid documents, making the clearing of both requests for qualification and requests for proposal long-drawn, inefficient processes. According to the ministry, 27 projects involving about Rs 30,000 crore in investment are currently on hold, on account of obscure bid procedures. Nath can now clear these on an expedited basis, which will not only get the concerned road projects off the ground, but also help improve the general investment climate for the crucial infrastructure sector.

 

A crucial constriction has been the conflict of interest clause, with restrictive termination clauses, exit clauses, forfeiture of bid security clauses and so on also playing spoilsport in the game of getting investors interested. The global economic downturn obviously took an additional toll on investor interest. At the same time, we are told that India still remains a favourite investment destination. If we are to make the best of this guarded investor interest, it makes sense to give the minister enough room to try out the new process. As we have argued earlier, government concerns about bunching of projects in a few hands and any consequent time overruns could be better addressed through a properly balanced incentive structure that would reward timely completion of projects, penalise the laggards, plus perform a quick appraisal of the strength and capabilities of individual players based on past record. Nath has done well so far. But the clock has begun to really tick for him now.

 

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FINANCIAL EXPRESS

COLUMN

DOES RBI GET IT? THERE IS NO CREDIT

P VAIDYANATHAN IYER

 

Much as one would like to give kudos to Reserve Bank of India for quietly putting the focus back on liberalisation of the financial sector in its recent review of the monetary policy, its stoic silence on how to grow credit when India's growth pattern is still wavy and fragile is regretful. Just for record, India's non-farm food credit has dropped to single-digit level to 9.66% after 12 years for the year up to October 23.

 

RBI governor Duvvuri Subbarao has deftly shifted the debate from the need to boost economic growth to managing inflationary expectations. He is clearly more concerned about rising prices today, though everyone reckons that much of the increase in the wholesale price index is because of food items. It is not unknown either that the significantly higher consumer price inflation (CPI) also derives from rising prices of food products that have a higher weightage in the CPI.

 

That India's recovery needs deeper nurturing by making credit available at affordable rates did not seem to have cut much ice with RBI, despite the fact that many sources of funding available last year have disappeared. Instead, it has sought to justify the low credit offtake by citing poor demand from the industry. This argument is specious, more because banks don't want to lend. They have turned pessimists for fear of delinquencies. A clear pointer to this is their huge investment in government securities—almost 30% of deposits—compared to the statutory liquidity requirement of 25%. While larger corporates get all the money at best rates, the small & medium enterprises never make the grade.

 

Strategically and systematically, the central bank had started building a case for unwinding of the easy monetary stance from the beginning of this financial year. Way back in April, RBI was worried about the consumer price index that was in double digits. And then by August-end, it turned squeamish about rising prices and had said that keeping the monetary policy loose will endanger growth prospects in the medium term. The wholesale price index based inflation then stood at -0.21% for the week ended August 22.

 

In the second week of September, Subbarao told an international audience in Basel that India may have to reverse its easy monetary policy stance sooner than other economies. Many could have seen it coming, given that inflation had just turned positive to 0.12% for the week ended September 5, after a 13-week stay in the negative territory. Of course, nobody disputes that central banks around the world are finicky about inflation. In India, it has been no different. But during difficult times, governments and monetary authorities worldwide work in tandem to nurse the economy back to a firm recovery. In fact, the governments play a more proactive role—not to conclude that the monetary authorities are losing their independence. So, while RBI thinks that inflation is a bigger concern than growth, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee feels inflation is not a pressing area of concern as yet.

 

What is unique about RBI is its mandate to strive for growth as well as financial stability with the same intensity as it is to anchor inflationary expectations. The strong double-digit growth rate of industrial output in August possibly egged on the central bank to decisively signal an exit in its recent review. Subbarao hiked the statutory liquidity ratio (the portion of deposits banks have to invest in approved government securities) by 100 basis points to 25%, directed banks to increase their provisioning cover against non-performing assets to 70% by September next and also made it more expensive for the commercial real estate sector to take loans from banks.

 

After the robust double-digit growth in the index of industrial production (IIP) in August, the 4% growth in the infrastructure output in September has left policy-makers more circumspect about the sustainability of the recovery. As Mukherjee said on Tuesday at the Economic Editors' Conference in Delhi, India cannot afford to drop guard.

 

The economic stimulus has to run its full course. Fiscal deficit is indeed a cause for concern, he acknowledges, but there is no need to panic.

 

It is the political economy—need for creating more jobs, protecting the interests and incomes of the existing labour force and increasing household incomes—that Mukherjee is bothered about. Rightfully, the FM expressed concern about poor credit offtake to employment generating sectors—the micro, small & medium sectors and agriculture.

 

So, the least to expect from RBI was to exhort banks to lend more to the SMEs, the backbone of India's manufacturing sector. But it pared the credit growth target for the financial year to 18% from 20%, tacitly encouraging banks to safely lock their moneys in g-secs. It also stressed more on financial stability by asking banks to provision more towards net NPAs. The country's largest banks, State Bank of India and ICICI Bank, are already expecting RBI to review this decision.

 

pv.iyer@expressindia.com

 

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FINANCIAL EXPRESS

COLUMN

MUST CLIMATE RESEARCH BE OUTSOURCED?

YOGINDER K ALAGH

The plea that private think tanks should be involved in energy futures is correct. The idea that only private think tanks should do it is wrong, as it takes a lot of in-house mindsets and skills to use a model for public policy. The critique that minister Jairam Ramesh should not set up a modelling unit at Isro, but give the money to private consultants is interesting. There is a long tradition in the Indian Planning Commission to use university and non-government specialists for energy modelling. Ram Prasad Sengupta was doing this work outside the Commission decades ago. In the mid-eighties, I remember the secretary of the Energy Policy Group under KC Pant, civil servant VB Easwaran coming to me in the Planning Commission to argue for import of wood to save our trees. On his behalf, the argument for OGL import of wood was made passionately by a young MIT-trained engineer who was consulting with the Energy Policy Group. He was so convincing that in the days of near-complete import licensing, we allowed import of wood on OGL with zero tariffs. His name was Jairam Ramesh.

 

A policy model is not just fun and games. It has to answer specific questions that the Cabinet may ask or that may arise in global negotiations. The other guy will have his answers and you have to push your interest. Again, you have to be consistent with the numbers and arguments you have used earlier, unless you are building up a new ball park, which is seldom the case. In theory, all of this can be given to an outsider. In practice, it becomes difficult. These difficulties arise for different reasons. All the data may not be available in the public domain. For example, you cannot, under the law, give out the numbers relating to a company or a person even if it is large. In fact, you can't do so for two persons or companies, for then one of them can subtract his numbers from what you have released and arrive at his competitor's numbers, and this is illegal in the Statistics Act.

 

I always publish reports when I work for the government and I discovered a long time ago that secrecy is a mugs game, and no governments fall when a sarkari economist prints his work. As the chairman of BICP, I wanted to publish the reports that were used to decontrol but had to hire economists, now all stars, to aggregate the tables for three companies. Studies on the Structure of the Industrial Economy that resulted, made the economists famous, but were read only by a few.

 

More importantly, the context can change quickly in a rapidly changing world and if you have the model in your laptop and knowhow, you can work out the new scenario in a matter of seconds. I remember the Plan models we used to run for hours can now be loaded on my mobile or computer diary, and one can play around with new export or rainfall data in plane journeys. In the 11th Plan they have largely subcontracted the statistical work. KL Datta has written an interesting history of the work, and its current state is supposed to be reported, although the Yojana Bhavan Web site hasn't reported it until now. But in the published version of the Plan, the numbers between different chapters are inconsistent, leading to many awkward questions. This is so for sectors like energy, employment and the demographic dividend.

 

On the other hand, it is extremely unlikely that government in its current avatar will have the patience and put aside the resources for doing all the work in-house. A strong integrating group within the establishment with most of the detailed work subcontracted and done with periodic interaction seems to be the best bet. You need a lot of expertise to use experts. Defining the needs of decision making is not easy Normally, when the work is contracted out, you have to first state the terms of reference in a non-trivial fashion. Only the gifted, and in their absence the experienced, can spell out problems in a manner that the study does not reinvent what is already known in a more fashionable manner. Then when work is under way you need to review progress unless you want to be taken for a ride or led into interesting side paths of great interest for curiosity but not policy relevance. Also, since public money is at stake, the work has to be as laid out and paid for. Finally, preliminary results and drafts have to be commented upon. All of this will need expertise. You need a lot of expertise to use experts.

 

The minister should be encouraged to work in public-private partnership on climate modelling in Isro. That outfit has a long tradition of modelling, going back to Satish Dhawan and should soon give the Swiss and French energy modellers a run for their money. India led this kind of work in my youth. We can do it again. As a past president of the Indian Econometric Society, I'll be happy.

 

The author is a former Union minister

 

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FINANCIAL EXPRESS

COLUMN

FAST MOVING FMCG

LALITHA SRINIVASAN

The Rs 86,000-crore Indian FMCG industry is on a roll. Compared to other corporate sectors in India, the FMCG industry has performed well in Q2 FY10.While many Indian corporates have reported heavy losses, major FMCG companies have posted a double digit growth in Q2 FY10. As a result, the industry has registered a 12% volume growth in Q2 despite the economic downturn and poor monsoon.

 

Backed by the softening of commodity prices, benefits of lower excise and on the back of a low base, the industry has registered a healthy growth in Q2. In fact, the industry is expected to register a double-digit growth in the next two quarters of this fiscal.

 

Sample this: FMCG major Dabur India has posted a 30.7% increase in its consolidated net profit for the second quarter ended September at Rs 140.3 crore, as compared to Rs 107.4 crore in the year-ago period on the back of strong volume growth across key categories.

 

While Tata Tea Ltd has reported a 32% increase in its consolidated net profit at Rs 287.44 crore for the second quarter ended September 30, 2009, Marico Ltd's total income has increased from Rs 495.21 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2008, to Rs 519.29 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2009.

 

Likewise, other FMCG companies such as Godrej Consumer Products Ltd, Emami, Britannia Industries and Colgate Palmolive India have posted double-digit growth in Q2 FY10.

 

Industry captains in the FMCG sector are optimistic about the sector's performance in Q3 FY10. "I think the Indian FMCG industry is doing pretty well. Many companies have posted healthy growth in the second quarter of this fiscal," said Adi Godrej, chairman of the Godrej group.

 

Just what fuels the growth of this sector even during tough times? The logic is fairly simple. Consumers can do away with luxury items to tide over the economic downturn. But they vitally need their soaps and soups to lead a normal life.

 

Recession or no recession, consumers want to eat and live well. Hence, FMCG products will always be in demand.

 

lalitha.srinivasan@expressindia.com

 

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FINANCIAL EXPRESS

REPORT CARD

 

The literature on conflict and terrorism has paid little attention to the economic costs of terrorism for the perpetrators. This paper* aims to fill that gap by examining the economic costs of committing suicide terror attacks:

 

Using data covering Palestinian suicide terrorists during the second Palestinian uprising, combined with data from the Palestinian Labour Force Survey, we identify and quantify the impact of a successful attack on unemployment and wages. We find robust evidence that terror attacks have important economic costs. The results suggest that a successful attack causes an increase of 5.3% in unemployment, increases the likelihood that the district's average wages fall in the quarter following an attack by more than 20%, and reduces the number of Palestinians working in Israel by 6.7% relative to its mean. Importantly, these effects are persistent and last for at least six months after the attack. These findings are important for a variety of reasons. Beyond their direct interpretation they highlight the importance of informing the leaders and the general population of areas harbouring terrorism about the extent of the associated costs. Perhaps this information would help to dissuade terror organisations' supporters, and strengthen the arguments used by the more moderate voices against terror attacks.

 

Efraim Benmelech, Claude Berrebi and Esteban F Klor, The Economic Cost of Harbouring Terrorism, Working Paper 15465; National Bureau of Economic Research, October 2009

 

This paper* discusses some of the impacts attributed to climate change that are likely to hit Southern Africa as a result of increasing global GHG emissions:

 

As South Africa is a significant contributor to GHG emissions and is currently the top-most emitter in Africa, the paper assesses the country's GHG emissions profile and possible future implications. It then discusses the strategic interventions proposed by South Africa to reduce the gap in emissions between what is required by science and what would happen if development continues without abating GHG emissions. Given that majority of emissions are as a result of energy consumption, the paper provides practical solutions to themes such as energy efficiency. With international treaties on the reduction of GHG emissions, there are business opportunities in the area of climate change mitigation. Thus, the paper finally discusses the Clean Development Mechanism scenario in South Africa and how the country can benefit from other emission-trading schemes being practiced in different regions of the world.

 

Jongikhaya Witi, Vaibhav Chaturvedi; Climate Change Mitigation Potential in South Africa:

A National to Sectoral Analysis; WP No 2009-10-02, IIM Ahmedabad, October 2009

 

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THE HINDU

EDITORIAL

ENFORCING THE RULE STRICTLY

 

It is a well-settled principle of law that the presence of a conflict of interest — actual or potential — is sufficient to disqualify judges from participating in legal proceedings. The rule against bias emerges from the maxim 'Nemo judex in causa sua', which means no man should be a judge in his own cause. The withdrawal of two Supreme Court judges on a single day is a reminder of the principles of judicial recusal and the importance of satisfying a fundamental tenet in the administration of justice — that justice should not only be done but also be manifestly seen to be done. The recusal of Justice R.V. Raveendran in a high profile gas dispute case involving the Ambani brothers on learning that his daughter was associated with a solicitor's firm advising one of the two parties underlines a basic point about the applicability of the rule of bias. It is nobody's case that Justice Raveendran's judgment would have been influenced or impaired by his daughter's link with the firm; conflicts of interest in the judicial realm are rarely about real bias. Rather, they relate to what is described as apparent or unconscious bias, concepts founded on the principle that there should not be even a smidgeon of doubt about external factors interfering in the course of justice.

 

Justice Raveendran, who had offered to pull out of the case earlier on the ground that he had shares in companies promoted by both the Ambani brothers, was persuaded to stay by the opposing lawyers. Strictly, the principles governing pecuniary bias demand that any financial interest, however small, disqualify a person from adjudicating. Justice Markandeya Katju was right in informing the two sides that he could not participate in another case involving Reliance Industries since his wife owned shares in the company. That even the slightest appearance of bias is enough to ruin a case is reflected in one relating to Chile's General Augusto Pinochet, who challenged an adverse order by Britain's House of Lords on the ground that one of the law lords, Lord Hoffman, was a Director of a registered charity connected with Amnesty International, a party to the case. Pinochet's lawyers did not allege actual bias, but a challenge on appearance of bias was sufficient to have the order set aside (see www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/

 

ld199899/ldjudgmt/jd990115/pino01.htm). It is not uncommon for judges to withdraw from cases in India. The present system of a judge merely declaring his interest and leaving it to the lawyers to object to, or accept, his hearing a case is clearly unsatisfactory. The rule against bias needs to be applied strictly and the recusal of a judge who has any kind of interest should be automatic and be done at the earliest.

 

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THE HINDU

EDITORIAL

HYPING SCIENCE

 

When a two-decade-long search for an effective vaccine to prevent HIV infection has been a failure, the pressure to hype and provide spin to make results of a trial look successful increases. More so as only two trials have managed to reach Phase III, the final step in testing a vaccine. Aidsvax, the first Phase III vaccine trial done on more than 5,000 volunteers in Thailand, was found to be a failure in November 2003. The Phase II Merck trial in 2007 not merely failed; it increased the risk of HIV infection in those vaccinated. Unsurprisingly, the pressure to make the latest Phase III trial, conducted in Thailand on more than 16,000 volunteers, seem successful became overpowering. How else to explain the compulsions behind the positive portrayal of the Thai trial (RV144) results on September 24? It was announced that the trial using two different vaccines in a prime-boost regimen produced a modest preventive effect of 31 per cent in those who received the vaccine. What followed was euphoria among those working in the HIV vaccine field; this was the first time a vaccine was found to have the long-sought-after preventive effect.

 

The euphoria gave way to disappointment when the full results were announced in Paris on October 20 and published simultaneously in The New England Journal of Medicine. The paper contained other data (intention to treat, and per protocol) not mentioned in the initial announcement; and they failed to show a statistically significant protective effect. Why did the sponsors who were aware of these data in September not disclose them? The modified intention-to-treat analysis, which was not part of the original protocol design, was added six months before the data were analysed. This design helped remove seven volunteers who tested positive, thereby increasing the odds of a successful outcome. Unlike other HIV vaccine trials, this one had 76 per cent of individuals at low- and moderate-risk. The trials' claim to success was based on moderate protection seen in those at low- and moderate-risk and not in those at high-risk of infection. This vital information was withheld initially. By cherry-picking the positive results, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), one of the sponsors of the trial, has laid itself open to the charge of breaching the ethical norms for reporting clinical trial results. Hyping results and imparting spin to the interpretation of trial data is clearly detrimental to science, and is not something expected from a nodal agency responsible for oversight.

 

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THE HINDU

LEADER PAGE ARTICLES

IN KASHMIR, THE PRICE OF PEACE ISN'T RIGHT

KASHMIR'S SECESSIONISTS WANT SOMETHING NEW DELHI DOESN'T HAVE — AND AT A PRICE IT CAN'T AFFORD.

PRAVEEN SWAMI

 

More than three years ago, Kashmiri secessionist leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq made a dramatic admission of failure. "Our fight on the political, diplomatic and military fronts […has] not achieved anything other than creating more graveyards," the Srinagar cleric said during a speech at a January 20, 2006 dinner hosted by the former Pakistan-administered Kashmir Prime Minister, Sardar Attique Khan.

 

Late last month, Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram told journalists that he was committed to breaking the deadlock that has led to so many graves being dug since that historic speech. "We will consult every shade of political opinion," he promised, "but it will be done quietly, far away from the glare of the media."

 

Off-screen, as it were, the dialogue process is progressing. In September, highly-placed Jammu and Kashmir government sources have told The Hindu, the Minister met Mirwaiz Farooq face to face in New Delhi before the cleric left for an Organisation of the Islamic Conference meeting in New York. Neither Mr. Chidambaram nor Mirwaiz Farooq will confirm that he met the other, but authoritative sources said the two men discussed the prospects of the Hurriyat Conference bringing to the table a clear manifesto for talks. Mr. Chidambaram's quiet diplomacy is not, as many media accounts have suggested, a radical departure from the past.

 

In November 2005, Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front leader Mohammad Yasin Malik was escorted by Intelligence Bureau personnel to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh — part of a process of high-level contact that paved the way for talks between the Hurriyat and the Centre the following year. Later, in January 2006, National Security Advisor M.K. Narayanan met Farooq Kathwari, a United States-based ethnic Kashmiri magnate with high-level links in Pakistan. Mirwaiz Farooq also arranged a meeting in December 2006 with N.N. Vohra, New Delhi's former interlocutor on Jammu and Kashmir and now Governor.

 

But the contacts achieved little. Like the three rounds between the government and the Hurriyat which had preceded them, the 2005 talks were a photo opportunity; the secessionists later resiled on the promise to participate in the all-party conference called by Dr. Singh the following year. This independence day, Dr. Singh — the most committed supporter of dialogue on Jammu and Kashmir in the United Progressive Alliance government — made clear that he saw "no place for separatist thought." Many in New Delhi's policy establishment, among them Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Defence Minister A.K. Antony and Mr. Narayanan, are thought to be less than enthused by the prospects of talks. For its part, the Hurriyat is divided between pro-dialogue elements and rejectionists.

 

Key to the problem is the dilemma so familiar to South Asians who enjoy the art of street bargaining: the customer doesn't have enough cash and a shopkeeper doesn't have the right goods. The Hurriyat is willing to settle for an arrangement falling short of independence if it is guaranteed a share of power — and, moreover, if the deal is endorsed by its Islamist adversaries within Kashmir, as well as Pakistan and the jihadist groups based there. New Delhi — like Islamabad, which is increasingly mired in a worsening war with Islamists — simply does not have the influence to deliver on these demands.

 

SHIFTING GOALPOSTS

New Delhi's efforts to reach out to the Kashmiri secessionists rest on the fact that a peace deal with Pakistan is now improbable. Besieged by the religious right, Pakistan's political elite cannot risk being seen as selling out on Jammu and Kashmir.

Envoys S.K. Lambah and Tariq Aziz, through 2006, hammered out the broad contours of a secret deal on Jammu and Kashmir that both Islamabad and New Delhi believed they could live with. Five principles — first reported in this newspaper — formed the foundations of the deal. The Line of Control would form a border, but there would be freedom of movement of trade and movement across it. Both sides would separately decide what quantum of autonomy their parts of Kashmir would have, and there would be some cooperative institutions. Finally, the State and the Line of Control would be demilitarised, as peace set in.

 

"I think the agenda is pretty much set," the Mirwaiz told an interviewer in April 2007. "It is September 2007," he continued, "that India and Pakistan are looking at, in terms of announcing something on Kashmir".

 

But President Pervez Musharraf was swept away — and with him, the deal Mr. Lambah and Mr. Aziz hammered out. Desperate, the Hurriyat leadership reached out again to New Delhi. "Let us come out of our delusions," urged the Mirwaiz at a 2008 seminar in Srinagar. His colleague Abdul Gani Butt, similarly, called on the National Conference and the People's Democratic Party to work with the secessionist formation to "mutually work out a joint settlement." For his part, the People's Conference chief Sajjad Lone called on the secessionists to focus on the "achievable."

 

Rejectionists hostile to the five-principle deal, though, soon demonstrated that they, rather than the poorly-organised doves grouped around Mirwaiz Farooq, had the power to impose unities of direction on events on the ground. Kashmir's Islamist patriarch, Syed Ali Shah Geelani, adroitly used ethnic-communal issues to mobilise against what he described as a sell-out.

 

The chauvinist storms unleashed by the former Governor, S.K. Sinha's decision to grant land-use rights to Shri Amarnath Shrine Board was used by Mr. Geelani to bring the Hurriyat to its knees. In 2003, Mr. Geelani formed his rival Tehreek-i-Hurriyat faction in protest against the Hurriyat's willingness to talk to New Delhi, and the decision of one of its constituents to contest elections. Five years on, he secured the Mirwaiz's submission. In a June 19, 2008 declaration, authored in the midst of the Shrine Board violence, the Mirwaiz dropped the option of direct talks with the government and agreed that his action would be bound by the decisions of a Coordination Committee involving both factions. "Both sides," the document states, "after considerable argument and discussion, reached the conclusion that the Hurriyat Conference will continue its political struggle for self-determination, which can be achieved through tripartite talks [involving India, Pakistan and the Kashmiri leadership]".

 

Now, painfully aware that Mr. Geelani and the jihadists who support him can undermine the Hurriyat's credibility and its bargaining position, the Mirwaiz has set up a committee to build a new consensus.

 

Mr. Geelani isn't biting, though. The Tehreek-i-Hurriyat leader has made clear that his hardline coalition will oppose negotiations with New Delhi. "During the formation of the Coordination Committee," he said last month, "we [the two Hurriyat factions] had agreed on two points: one, that the right to self-determination would be our basic demand; and, second, that only a tripartite dialogue among India, Pakistan and Kashmir would be acceptable and only after India accepted that Jammu and Kashmir is a disputed territory. If anyone from either Hurriyat enters into a bilateral dialogue, he will breach that agreement."

 

"Fighting for azaadi [independence] without also demanding an Islamic state is useless," he added before a gathering of lower-court lawyers in Srinagar on October 24.

 

Mirwaiz Farooq faces resistance from within the ranks of his organisation too. Late last month, Democratic Freedom Party leader Shabbir Shah said negotiations with the government would breach the June 19, 2008 agreement. He backed Mr. Geelani, arguing that the June 19 declaration would bind secessionists to "engage in dialogue only if it was trilateral and if it was focussed on the right of self-determination."

No one knows for certain just how the disputation will play out — but Mirwaiz Farooq repeatedly backed away from confrontation in the past, playing for time to build an evidently-elusive consensus.

 

Meanwhile, Jammu and Kashmir's major political groups have increasingly drawn on key elements of secessionist rhetoric, hoping to deny their potential rivals space should a deal go through. In a November 1 speech, PDP leader Mehbooba Mufti argued that accession to India had proved calamitous to Jammu and Kashmir — in terms that could have been used by any Hurriyat leader. "After 1947," she said, "we were forced to surrender everything to India, including our water resources. We even lost our strategic geographic advantage. The state that should have been the hub of activities in central Asia turned into a land-locked territory. We have been living under an economic and physical siege since the State's accession."

 

For its part, the National Conference has been left insecure by a dialogue that appears to exclude it — and hold out, moreover, the prospect of its adversaries emerging strengthened. In practice, that has been characterised by a slowing down of counter-terrorism effort, and a marked softening of posture on the Hurriyat.

 

Where might the new New Delhi-Hurriyat engagement head? The best-case scenario is that a gradual process of dialogue will lead the Hurriyat's constituency to accept the inevitable — thus marginalising the Islamist-led rejectionists. But there are also substantial perils. Mr. Chidambaram — and the Mirwaiz — must be applauded for walking the road to peace. But they must step with care, for the path head is pitted with booby traps and mines.

 

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THE HINDU

NEWS ANALYSIS   

INDIAN DISORDER AND ENGLISH PRECISION

INDISCIPLINE MAY BE AN INDIAN HALLMARK BUT, AS THE QUEEN'S WELCOME TO PRESIDENT PRATIBHA PATIL SUGGESTS, IT MAKES BUSINESS SENSE TO COURT INDIA.

VIDYA SUBRAHMANIAM

 

Part superpower-in-the-making, and part infuriatingly dysfunctional democracy — the India that Pratibha Patil's recent tour of the United Kingdom showcased was truly a chronicler's delight.

 

The visit presented a kaleidoscope of contrasts. British and Indian functions made for charming opposites: on the one hand was the British obsession with precision and order, and on the other the Indian inability to be anything but unruly and chaotic.

 

Equally striking was the divergence between official United Kingdom's heavy wooing of newly ascendant India, and the English public and media's grand indifference to what to all appearances was a great story: The spectacle of the once imperial power wining and dining its former colony.

 

Anyone attending the Indian High Commission's reception for Ms Patil at a London hotel would surely have marvelled at Indian disorderliness having survived over a century of stern British rule. If the entrance was blocked by crowds stampeding to get in, bedlam reigned in the dining hall with the guests resolutely resisting the organisers' attempts to usher them into their designated seats.

 

More commotion followed once the organisers decided to invite the guests, table by table, for a photo-op with the visiting President. The invitees rose all at once, and rushed to the dais. The result was a hilarious mismatch between the names being called out and those turning up to be photographed. A fresh, young face among a group of supposed industrialists turned out to be Olympics gold medal winner Abhinav Bindra.

 

A surprise guest at the function was 2009 Nobel winner for Chemistry, Venkatraman Ramakrishnan. Everyone wanted a piece of the man whose discomfort at the fussing was only too evident. Mr. Ramakrishnan would tell an agency reporter later that his Nobel was a "bigger deal in India" than in Cambridge where he was one of 15 Nobel laureates. Yet at the High Commission his presence would cause mayhem, with fans jamming the traffic to and from the presidential podium.

 

At a briefing by the Queen's staff the same evening, the Indian media accompanying the President got a foretaste of what awaited us the following morning at the Windsor Castle, where the President and the Queen would arrive in a horse-carriage procession. Each of us was given a booklet with minute-by-minute instructions and a colour-coded card that showed the precise spot where we would stand for the five-odd hours it would take for the ceremony to end.

 

At the appointed hour, we were led into our respective enclosures. We took in the elegance of the 900-year old, muted grey castle with its grass and gravel quadrangle. But of course there was no question that we could stop to take pictures or try and exchange our coded cards or wander around for a better view of the palace. "No straying" we were told, and that was the way it was, never mind that it had started to drizzle, our legs ached, and we were hungry. We longingly thought of the many different ways we could beat the system in India.

 

Yet the ceremony had only to begin for us to forget our ordeal. The quadrangle was doused in brilliant colour and piped music as the queen and the Duke of Edinburgh emerged from the Sovereign Entrance in their chocolate brown Bentley. They would soon return with their Indian guests in a ceremonial procession.

 

The visual extravaganza we witnessed over the next half hour left us spellbound. There was no way to describe it except in clichés and hyperbole; indeed, overused as the expression was, this was true pomp and pageantry. The splendid Australian State Coach brought the Queen and Ms Patil. Following them in their own separate coaches were the two spouses, Prince Charles and Camilla and Indian officials forming the Presidential entourage.

 

We could have set our watches by the military precision of the pageant. At exactly 20 past 12, the Guard of Honour gave a royal salute and minutes later the Mounted Band of the Blues and Royals were leading the way for a spectacular marchpast by the King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery.

 

The next day we found ourselves at India House (for the handing over of Gandhi memorabilia to Ms Patil) — to some more official fumbling. The organisers had forgotten to provide for the visiting Indian media which meant that we would spill out of chairs hastily placed in the aisle.

 

By evening we were again in "prim and proper" mode — this time for a State banquet hosted by the Lord Mayor at the magnificently-built Guildhall. The invitation came with a map, instructions and a chart showing the exact seating arrangement. In all, 700 invitees would take their seats behind 18 tables — ladies in billowing period costumes, judges and aldermen in their cascading laces and scarlet robes besides a host of fashionable Londoners showing off their designer labels. Ms Patil arrived in a procession led by State marshals, trumpeters playing fanfares and sword and maces bearers. The banquet proceeded like clockwork — grace was duly said, toasts were raised and the invitees slow-clapped as the State guest departed, again in a procession.

 

We were in turn impressed and irked by British discipline that kept us imprisoned through the visit. At the Queen's Baton Relay for the Commonwealth Games on our last day in London, our hosts ruled out our leaving our allotted seats to take close-up photos. As for chatting up the Indian athletes, "no way". As we filed out of the venue, a colleague turned back to look at the podium, only to be told by our minder to "look ahead and keep walking."

 

And yet, really, what was the iron discipline and fussing all about? The U.K. was an ageing, declining power, hit by recession and looking somehow to hold its place in the comity of nations. India was messy, the bulk of its people were desperately poor, and even the better-off exasperated with their disregard for rule. Yet in a world that measured a country's worth by its money, India, with its vast markets and a recession-time growth of 6.5 per cent, counted for more than the U.K. And indeed, if the Queen made her Indian guest feel special, which she did by all accounts, it was in recognition of this truth.

 

The Queen's staff spent valuable time telling the Indian media of the charm offensive laid out for Ms Patil, who was only the seventh State guest since 1998 to stay in the Windsor castle. The Queen' royal collection displayed painstakingly selected items of common interest, including a shawl made from threads spun by Mahatma Gandhi and given over as a wedding gift to Elizabeth II, and the Queen spent an extra hour at the banquet where she toasted India thus: "Five years ago, our two governments launched a new strategic partnership which was founded on the sure knowledge that India's emergence on the world stage would be one of the main forces shaping the 21st century."

 

Prince Charles intensely quizzed Minister of State for Human Resource Development D. Purandareswari on the Indian education scene, and was stunned when told of the more than 500 Indian universities. The education market came up repeatedly in conversations that Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Leader of the Opposition David Cameron had with the Indian delegation.

 

Clearly it made business sense to court India. Yet there was also the U.K public-media indifference to the Indian President's visit. As a rare English hack present at the Windsor ceremony remarked, "it will take a while before the altered U.K-India equation sinks in."

 

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THE HINDU

NEWS ANALYSIS   

AUSTRALIA PUTS ITS REFUGEE PROBLEM ON A REMOTE ISLAND

REGARDLESS OF HOW CLOSE A BOAT MAY HAVE GOTTEN TO THE MAINLAND, THE AUSTRALIAN AUTHORITIES STEER IT TO CHRISTMAS ISLAND WHICH REMAINED UNINHABITED UNTIL ABOUT A CENTURY AGO.

NORIMITSU ONISHI

 

Deep in the remote jungle of Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean, Australia's new $370 million refugee detention centre reaches its full power after its lights come on at dusk. Bracketed by rain forest, steep cliffs and the sea, it rises from the enveloping darkness and becomes visible from the island's only inhabited corner, about 10 miles away.

 

The centre — opened a few days before Christmas but now nearly full with refugees from Afghanistan and Sri Lanka — has come to symbolise what many call one of Australia's defining fears: the arrival of boat people from Asia.

 

All boat people seeking asylum in Australia are first brought here to Christmas Island, just over 350 kms south of Indonesia but over 1,600 kms from the Australian mainland, and most are now held at enormous cost within the centre's electrified, 13-foot-high razor-wire fences.

 

But even as boats arrive every few days, advocates for refugees and even the government's own human rights commission are urging the government to close the place down and sort the asylum-seekers on the mainland. They compare Christmas Island to Guantanamo Bay or describe it as a reincarnation of the many notorious prison islands in Australia's convict history.

 

"They put this centre way out here on this remote island, and then they built it way, way, way out on the island in the jungle," said Charlene Thompson, a social worker who counsels asylum-seekers here. She equated the new centre to Port Arthur, a 19th-century penal colony in Tasmania, Australia's southernmost island. "It's a jail, a high-security jail, and it feels like the asylum-seekers are being treated as criminals." The influx of boat people, which has swung elections in the past, has rattled the government of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd a year before another election.

 

Recently, Mr. Rudd, accused by the opposition of being soft on illegal immigration, personally asked Indonesia's President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, to intercept a wooden cargo ship from Malaysia with 260 Sri Lankans bound for Australia.

 

If the Sri Lankans, now held in Indonesia, had been brought here, their numbers would probably have pushed the centre beyond its capacity of 1,200. That, in turn, could have forced the government to start processing the boat people on the mainland.

 

"I make absolutely no apology whatsoever for taking a hard line on illegal immigration to Australia," said Mr. Rudd, who had initially won praise from refugee advocates for reversing some of the harshest anti-immigration measures of his predecessor, John Howard, including charging asylum seekers for their stay in government facilities.

 

"EXCISION" POLICY

Mr. Rudd has continued to send boat people here for processing. He has also retained his predecessor's "excision" policy, under which asylum-seekers on islands like this one are barred from the mainland's refugee review system. At first reluctant to use the new centre, the symbol of his predecessor's policies, Mr. Rudd housed the boat people in an older facility here.

 

But a surge of asylum-seekers late last year forced the authorities to start using the new centre. Nearly 2,000 boat people have been sent to Christmas Island this year. Currently, their numbers are believed to match the island's local population of 1,100. The boat people constitute only about 10 per cent of all asylum-seekers to Australia, according to immigration officials, with most simply arriving by plane. What is more, the boat people are far more likely to be recognised as political refugees after their applications are reviewed over a period of three to four months here.

 

Nevertheless, the arrival of illegal boats filled with Asians evokes a primordial fear here, one that has been instilled over past decades of anti-Asian immigration policies and is still stoked by conservative politicians.

 

"There is considerable anxiety about people coming by boat and from the north," said Bernadette McGrath, the director of Survivors of Torture and Trauma Assistance and Rehabilitation Service, who spent six months investigating the government's treatment of refugees here. "It's very deep in our psyche."

 

So regardless of how close a boat may have gotten to the mainland, the Australian authorities first steer it to Christmas Island, linked to the mainland only by a four-hour flight to Perth, about 2,650 kms to the southeast, that operates four times a week. A supply ship docks here every five or six weeks. Newspapers are delivered 10 days late. The Internet remains costly and slow.

 

Named by a British navigator who spotted it on Christmas Day in 1643, the island remained uninhabited until about a century ago, when phosphate was discovered. The British brought indentured workers from Asia to Christmas Island, which became part of Australia half a century ago. Until the 1980s, the island was racially stratified, with white Australian managers overseeing Asian workers barred from whites-only neighbourhoods.

 

Boat people who were interviewed said they were surprised to find themselves on an island they had never heard of.

 

According to a recent report by the Australian Human Rights Commission, a government organisation, the new centre "looks and feels like a prison." It called the security measures "excessive and inappropriate for accommodating asylum seekers." Inside the main fence, the report said, each compound is enclosed in a separate fence, and walkways are "enclosed within cagelike structures."

 

The Immigration Department rejected the commission's recommendation to stop using Christmas Island for detention. It described the use of islands like this one as "essential components of strong border control."

 

About 50 asylum-seekers, mostly families with children, have been permitted to stay in residential neighbourhoods on the island. Despite some local grumbling about the flood of boat people and immigration workers, the asylum-seekers said they felt welcomed.

 

"People here are all good," said a 35-year-old Iranian man who was staying with his wife and two sons on a block with Sri Lankan and Afghan asylum-seekers, and whose refugee application had just been approved.

 

The other morning at a local public school that the refugees' children attend daily, the young immigrants practised English composition, played polo hockey or baked chocolate chip cookies.

 

"The children's knowledge of Australia is very limited," said Mary Ford, 29, who began teaching here five months ago after moving from the mainland. "They wouldn't know Australia's cities.

"None of them have ever heard of Christmas Island. Most Australians haven't. I didn't know, geographically, where it was until I moved here. People kept asking me, 'Christmas Island? Where's that?'" — © 2009 The New York Times News Service

 

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   THE HINDU

NEWS ANALYSIS

IVORY COAST: TOXIC WASTE VICTIMS' MONEY FROZEN

LAWYERS SAY THAT MONEY MAY SIMPLY DISAPPEAR.

DAVID LEIGH

 

1. U.K. trial judge in the compensation case says the court is "deeply concerned"
2. The vulnerability of officials to corruption formed part of the background to the disaster

 

A pot of £30m compensation due to be paid to thousands of African victims of toxic waste may end up being stolen thanks to the Ivory Coast regime's corruption, their lawyers said.

 

The money was handed over by oil traders Trafigura in an out-of-court settlement in London and deposited in a bank in the West African state's capital, Abidjan, ready to be shared out in cash to each of the 30,000 victims. But the entire sum has been frozen in a sudden move backed by the local state prosecutor, according to Martyn Day, the senior partner at Leigh Day, the London lawyers who won the landmark settlement.

 

Moves are now in train, he said, to order all the cash to be handed over to a local group claiming to represent the victims. At the same time, Day has received a request to meet representatives of a senior Ivorian figure in Paris, to agree to come to an "arrangement."

 

"Blatant corruption" could be occurring, Day, who has flown back to London from Ivory Coast, said on Wednesday. "There is a very serious risk that the compensation monies will simply disappear and our clients will see none of it."

 

Mr. Justice MacDuff, the U.K. trial judge in the compensation case, issued a declaration on Wednesday saying that the court was "deeply concerned" because to hand over the £30m to anyone else would frustrate the order of the English court.

 

The local court in Abidjan is due to rule on the claim this week.

 

These developments follow the resolution of a bitterly fought compensation case in which Trafigura, a London-based multinational oil-trading company, became internationally notorious after issuing a so-called super-injunction, which had the effect of preventing reports of a question asked in parliament.

 

Hundreds of tonnes of sulphur-contaminated toxic oil waste were cheaply dumped on landfills and in ditches around Abidjan in 2006. The cargo ship had been chartered by Trafigura. In the weeks after, the fumes caused thousands of sick people to besiege local hospitals.

 

Day said on Wednesday that, after Trafigura agreed to hand over £30m to compensate those made ill, his firm had arranged an elaborate system of pin cards with the bank in Abidjan to allow local people, most of whom did not have bank accounts, to withdraw cash worth approximately £1,000 each. He said: "On October 22, we were served with an order freezing the payment of the compensation."

 

A local figure claimed to be president of the "National Co-Ordination of Toxic Waste Victims of Cote d'Ivoire," which was said to represent the victims. He applied to have all the money transferred to the alleged association's account and out of Leigh Day's hands.

 

Day said the association's claims were "false in all respects."

 

One of the lawyers' local employees then warned "he had been contacted by a highly influential figure within Ivorian judicial and financial circles ... This man had requested to meet me in Paris to see if an 'arrangement' could be reached in relation to the interest accruing on the clients' account. He let it be known he could arrange for the freezing order to be dropped if I agreed to the interest being paid to him."

 

Day refused to go along with this suggestion. A few days later, the Ivorian state prosecutor announced that the compensation money should be transferred — a stance that local lawyers said the Abidjan court was likely to accept.

 

"We are extremely wary that if the funds are transferred the compensation will not be distributed among the claimants," Day said. Instead, it was likely to end up in the hands of shadowy powerful figures.

 

The vulnerability of Ivory Coast officials to corruption formed part of the background to the original environmental disaster when the waste was dumped.

 

A by-product of primitive attempts to decontaminate a tanker-load of cheap Mexican gasoline, Trafigura's toxic waste consisted of hazardous and unstable sulphurous compounds that should have been disposed of by expensive specialist treatment. Eventually a contractor with no experience or facilities agreed to truck away the waste cheaply.

 

 © Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2009

 

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  THE ASIAN AGE

EDITORIAL

INDIA'S STIMULUS: TO END, OR NOT TO END...

 

The monetary and fiscal authorities in this country have considered withdrawal of stimulus packages; and while the Union finance minister stressed these would remain for the time being, he also clearly said that the government would wait for third-quarter GDP numbers and advance tax collection figures to determine if the economy was solidly on the path of recovery before taking a call on ending the stimulus measures. Mr Pranab Mukherjee had voiced concern on the moderation of growth in September after signs of a pickup in industrial growth in the past few months. Exports to Europe, North America and Japan were down 32.7 per cent: these countries together account for 60-65 per cent of our total exports. He also articulated the need to return to fiscal prudence as soon as the economic circumstances permit. All in all, there are signs that unwinding of the stimulus package is not very far from the government's radar. The G-20 nations too feel it is time for countries to draw up exit strategies; and every time this is publicly spelt out, stockmarkets around the world go into a tailspin. The G-20 had earlier said there was no question of an exit till mid-2010; but today some countries like Australia and Norway — admittedly none of the major economies — have already taken steps in that direction by raising interest rates. The United States, Britain, and the major European countries are, of course, in no mood to dismantle stimulus packages yet.

 

This divergence of views about the immediate future — with a part of the world following an easy money policy and the other on a different trajectory — could well impact world financial markets. Australia, for instance, has raised interest rates, so US dollars could well flow there since the US and Europe have almost zero interest rates. If different nations follow different policies, there will be another round of adjustments. The Reserve Bank of India, for example, will have to absorb the capital inflow of funds, and has little choice but to absorb the foreign exchange at a cost. It will have to sterilise these dollars, which in turn will lead to a chain reaction. An easy money policy will also lead to a rise in the prices of crude, commodities, gold, etc, and this could have an inflationary impact as these commodities are rising due to speculation and not demand and supply.

 

There is, however, a positive side to the West continuing stimulus packages. Emerging markets such as India, China and some others in Southeast Asia, which depend on exports to the US and Europe, will benefit if these countries continue to import. There are exciting times ahead for the world's financial architecture as a whole new set of dynamics will start. A coordinated withdrawal of stimulus packages would be ideal, but if this is not on the radar of many nations, nothing much can be done about it. India, for one, will have to take a decision keeping domestic priorities in mind, but also not forgetting that there will be consequences given that we live in an interdependent world. India was not as badly hit by the global financial crisis as some other countries, therefore its stimulus packages were also not of the same quality as some others — such as the United States and even China. Fortunately, these packages coincided with the Lok Sabha elections in India, so it had a further dimension here. Of late, while the government has talked about withdrawing fertiliser and oil subsidies, nothing has been said about a waiver of farm loans this year even though farmers are in distress due to the drought in the kharif season and suicides by farmers continue.

 

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THE ASIAN AGE

OPED

CERN: WILL OUTCOME MATCH AMBITION?

S.H. VENKATRAMANI

 

There is an intriguing question mark over the resumption and continuation of the path-breaking experiments on fundamental particle physics at the Centre for European Nuclear Research (CERN). CERN had initiated a path-breaking project to observe and investigate the formation of matter in the immediate aftermath of the Big Bang, i.e. precisely during a time span of 10 seconds after the cosmic Big Bang explosion. By simulating the Big Bang in the laboratory, the physicists of our planet were hoping to gain invaluable insights into the creation and dissolution of matter, or, for that matter, anti-matter!

 

With the largest particle accelerators on planet earth, including a few of the largest Linear Hadron colliders, CERN was slated to resume its exploration into the macrocosm cooped up inside the microcosm of the atom in November 2009. But overwhelming safety considerations cried a halt to the unfolding rapid pace of this stimulating subatomic research over a year ago.

 

But right now the buzz in the campus and its neighbourhood, strategically located 100 miles below the surface of the earth, is that it will take at least a few more months for the institution to hum again with its phalanx of exciting research projects. November 2009 will be an impossibly tall order as a deadline for the research establishment to meticulously pick up the threads of its full scale research once again and get going full steam. The CERN racing track is the longest racing track in the world, stretching to a total of 27 kilometres.

 

There is also a sullen undercurrent of resentment that is snowballing against the grandiose project. Poised, as mankind is, on the tingling threshold of a daunting and demanding 21st century, we are no techno-geeks and ning-nongs to cower and crouch at the feeblest hint of a pulley, a lever or a word processor. So why can't the CERN establishment make itself transparent and take all of us interested and concerned folks into confidence as to what is happening inside the hermetically-sealed and formidable fortification of European Nuclear Research? The complex is also home to 9,300 magnets as part of the infrastructure for accelerating the sub-atomic particles.

 

Another disappointment is that the heaviest sub-atomic particle discovered so far, the Higgs' Boson, is not likely to materialise in CERN as promised. The talk in town is that the particle is so repulsive that it will be done away with soon after its creation.

 

The precise reason as to why CERN applied the brakes to its fundamental particle research has itself not been clearly spelt out so far. A large number of people in Geneva believe that the leakage of some radioactive material from the campus was the reason behind the abundantly cautious cessation of scientific research activity. In the absence of open communication, ripples of fear spasms gnaw at the vitals and viscera of the local people every now and then. A lot of the inhibition is about the foolhardiness of man trying to play God! There is understandable concern about upstart man tilting at divine windmills!

 

Down the ages, time and again the point has been driven home to us that conquering and vanquishing nature is all fine up to a point. But when push comes to shove, we should respect divine turf. That is why whenever we have deigned to ask fundamental questions, nature has drawn the blinds and played its cards close to its chest. It should not become a case of fools rushing in where angels fear to tread.

 

At a meeting of the International Congress of Mathematicians on December 31, 1899, David Hilbert, a British mathematician and president of the Congress, threw the gauntlet to fellow mathematicians. He observed that mathematicians had, till then, been happily cruising along on the basis of deductive logic and self-evident axioms. But can we be sure that deductive logic will not lead us to any self-contradiction? How can we be sure that we will not contradict ourselves if we continue evolving and enunciating ever newer theorems through deductive logic?

 

Mathematicians diligently went to work to prove the absolute internal consistency of their discipline. But three decades later Kurt Godel in Germany proved that it was impossible to meet Hilbert's challenge. Even if such a proof, as to the internal harmony of deductive logic, were possible, what tool would that proof use? Again, only deductive logic. Using deductive logic to drive home the sanctity of deductive logic is like presuming what has to be established. It will be a classic case of "post hoc, ergo proctor hoc", a splendid illustration of begging the question.

 

It is one thing to anticipate and pre-empt the onslaught of an approaching infection. To cautiously inoculate yourself to anticipate and ward off a viral infection is perfectly in order. But if you want to dismantle and understand the theoretical foundations of the universe, then, as William Wordsworth warned us, "We (have to) murder to dissect". If you are going to rock the infrastructure of the world, then God had better sit up and take note.

 

Bertrand Russell used to recount the story of a Cretan who once observed that "Cretans are always liars". Was this statement of the Cretan true, or was it false?

 

If this generalisation was true, then in accordance with it, this Cretan himself must have been telling a lie when he made the statement. If, on the other hand, the statement was untrue, that would imply that Cretans are generally in the habit of lying. Therefore, the statement should be deemed to be true. So, if he was speaking the truth, he was uttering a falsehood. And conversely too.

 

Bertrand Russell's classic conundrum was that of the barber in town whose brief was to shave everyone who did not shave himself. But did the barber shave himself or not? If he did not, he did. And if he did, he did not.

 

With such treacherous pitfalls in the domain of mathematical logic, the CERN project is not going to be a fast track one.

 

S.H. Venkatramani is a former journalist, critic and commentator based in New Delhi

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THE ASIAN AGE

OPED

FISH OUT OF WATER?

SHEKHAR BHATIA

 

What is it about fish that fascinates the young and old? And why is it so restful to watch them swimming in a pond or an aquarium?

 

We have a small outdoor pond, four feet either way, with some golden Koi carp in it, and quite often when visitors come to our house they stop near the pond and say, "Oh, you have fish in it". A child once asked me if I had a seahorse. He had never seen one in real life.

 

The first time I saw a seahorse was in the Taraporewala Aquarium on Marine Drive in Mumbai. I was very young, and captivated by it. Years later, I visited the aquarium in Kolkata with my son but it was so dirty and pathetic that even the few fish that were there looked listless and morose.  

 

When I bought my first indoor aquarium (I say first because I have been through a few), I casually asked the shopkeeper if he had seahorses. He just laughed. Seahorses are delicate, saltwater creatures; they require special tanks that are very expensive, and need a lot of looking after. In short, they are not for the novice. I recently read about a book on seahorses called Poseidon's Steed: The Story of Seahorses From Myth to Reality by Helen Scales, a marine biologist. She has a fascinating description of the sex life of seahorses and how the male gets pregnant. They are also monogamous.

 

My pond is low-cost, low-maintenance and has a dozen carp in it, an inexpensive, hardy variation of its look-alike, the goldfish. I like to believe the whole effect is Japanese though minimalist would be more appropriate. Japanese garden ponds are intricate and more like art; every pebble merges with nature.

 

I built my pond because I like water; what's more, I like the sound of running water. Late in the evening, when the traffic outside the house ceases, the sound of water fills your ears. It's a nice, soothing feeling.

 

I put a green mesh over the pond because the leaves from the surrounding trees would fall into it and I would have to clean it every two weeks, which was quite a hassle. Then there was the kingfisher. I would often see it perched on a tree directly above the pond — a beautiful turquoise blue and chocolate-brown bird. It's easy to spot those brilliant colours on a tree.

 

I was so fascinated by it that I went out and bought a bird book, A Photographic Guide to the Birds of India. My birdwatcher friend tells me it's a white-throated kingfisher — also called white-breasted — and in fact quite common in this part of the world. I have actually seen it swoop down into the pond, catch a three-inch fish, and fly off to the perch with the catch in its beak — all in a matter of maybe five seconds. I wouldn't stop the bird because that's the law of nature. It stopped coming regularly when I put the mesh over the pond to catch the falling leaves.

 

When I go near the pond in the morning to switch on the water pump, the fish surge to the surface, expecting food. Contrary to popular belief that fish have a three-second memory, research has revealed that some may even have long-term memory. An example: Salmon return to the same stream they were born in during mating season. If they did not have memory, how could they make this journey? Goldfish have a memory span of up to three months. If fish did not have memory, how come Omega 3, a fat found in fish oil and prescribed to humans, is considered to be good for memory? 

 

Come November in Delhi, the water starts to turn cold and the fish in the pond become lethargic. They frolic in the water only when the rays of the sun reach the pond and water becomes a bit warm. I have no idea when they eat the pellets that are tossed into the water in the morning because I never see them near the surface in winter. They lie still at the bottom.

 

I know only the strong ones will survive the winter. Last year, just two lived. This happens every year since I built the pond. Every March or April, I go to the aquarium shop to replace the fish that have died. And every time I ask the shopkeeper if they will survive the winter. He says they are hardy cold-water fish. "They will survive even in freezing temperatures", he says. I know this is his sales spiel.

 

The option now is to let the fish stay in the pond and keep my fingers crossed that they don't freeze to death — or remove the mesh and expose them to the kingfisher. Within days this predator will consume most of the fish in my pond. 

 

My household tells me they have seen the pandubbia (vernacular for kingfisher) and have also heard its cackling call. Maybe it knows it's that time of year again and I will soon lift the mesh. At least the kingfisher will have a feast and it won't prick my conscience.

 

Shekhar Bhatia can be contacted at shekhar.bhatia@gmail.com

 

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THE ASIAN AGE

PED

INNOVATE WHERE YOU ARE

ROBIN SHARMA

 

 It is absolutely essential to become an excellent innovator — relentlessly making things better and passionately discovering new ways to add value to everything. Working smarter and moving faster are core creative traits that the best in business live by. And to be astonishingly creative and generate those big ideas that catapult you to your highest level, you don't need to go walking in the woods or find some sanctuary. Some of the best insights come from innovating and thinking outside of the box at the very place where you now stand. As Tom Kelley, president of the Silicon Valley-based design firm IDEO, observed, "Brainstorming at ski lodges and beach resorts can be counterproductive. Do you want your team members to think that creativity and inspiration can only happen at high altitudes or within walking distance from an ocean? Don't get me wrong: Off-sites are fine. But remember, you want to buzz off creativity to blow through your offices as regularly as a breeze at the beach". So perfectly said.

 

— Excerpted from The Greatness Guide 2

 

by Robin Sharma. Published by Jaico

 

Publishing House, jaicopub@vsnl.com

 

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THE ASIAN AGE

COLUMN

MAOISTS TALK ONLY TO THE POWER OF A GUN

BALBIR K. PUNJ

 

Normally, we would have welcomed home minister P. Chidambaram's offer to the Maoists to discuss problems like land acquisition, forest rights of tribals, discrimination et cetera. However, our home minister — though quite intelligent and dynamic (especially when compared to his predecessor) — seems to have not read his full brief on the Maoists. He says that he is not asking them to give up arms but to only eschew violence as a means of redressing their grievances since the government is willing to talk to them.

 

Mr Chidambaram said at a press conference on October 30: "The Centre had never asked the Maoists to lay down arms since it was not a realistic expectation. We have always asked them to halt violence… They should come forward for talks if they consider themselves serious champions of the poor".

 

Such an approach presupposes that the Maoists are interested in solving the problems of the tribals and other neglected sections of society, and that they have taken up arms mainly because the democratic machinery refused to talk about these problems, much less solve them. But Mr Chidambaram errs. For all his tough talk and devising (at last) a national anti-Naxal strategy, he should be aware of what happened when the late Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy made a similar offer in 2004 and allowed Naxal leaders and cadres to go around freely, with their arms on display.

 

It is futile to ask the Maoists to give up their arms or engage them in talks. Maoists do not believe in dialogue. Lenin, who laid down the guidelines for the proletarian revolution, urged his cadres to use all types of deceit and arms to capture power. And once in power, they should eliminate their "class enemies", including other political parties. The state apparatus is to be used without mercy for this purpose. No other criteria for political morality exist in the Marxist-Maoist book.

 

The history of the Communist movement in the former Soviet Union, in China, in Vietnam, in Cambodia and elsewhere is replete with such instances. Lenin used violence, deception and treachery first to gain ascendance over the Mensheviks and then over his colleagues. Stalin used the state apparatus first to eliminate the Mensheviks and other Opposition political forces and then to finish his own colleagues one by one, starting with Trotsky. The Stalinist trials of the 1930s give a graphic insight into Communist tactics.

 

In eastern Europe just before the end of World War II, the Communists who were then in minority managed to come to power by collaborating with others. But soon they destroyed their allies from within, one by one, in a policy nicknamed "Salami tactics".

 

In China, Mao Zedong turned against his revolutionary colleague Liu Shao-chi and then Mao's wife formed the "Gang of Four" that sent several Communist leaders, including the most famous among them, Deng Xiaoping, packing to hard labour.

 

In Cambodia, the most gruesome killing spree in human history took place under a maniacal Communist leader. Poor peasants who found their land taken away for the collectivisation died in all these countries. India, either under the Maoists or Marxists, will have no different fate.

 

The ideological paradigm of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) and the Maoists is one. Look at the Marxists who are in power in West Bengal and Kerala. They are no different from the Maoists in dealing with their political opponents. Having state power in their hand, the Marxists threaten and blackmail to smother political dissent. How the Communists succeeded in entrenching themselves in West Bengal over 30 long years has been exposed. Their unions hold several top-level Bengali newspapers under their thumb, so it is not easy to carry anti-Marxist news stories in prominent newspapers and television channels. The fearless among Bengal's journalists have been publicly beaten up by Marxist goondas.

 

In Marxist-ruled Kerala complete dominance is not possible as the state has been governed by the Congress-led United Democratic Front and Communist-led Left Democratic Front with the non-Communist political forces also gaining strength. Yet the Marxists seek to make up for this weakness by targeting newspapers and journalists at every turn.

 

In effect, there is little to choose between the Marxists and the Maoists — the former use violence under the cover of the state government while the latter use armed violence in their attempt to seize power.

 

If the Marxists appear to be working within the constitutional framework, it is because they have tried and failed to seize the state apparatus through violence. Now they are working to wreck the system from within.

 

The Maoists are convinced that they can seize the state apparatus through armed attacks on the state. There is hardly any doubt that if the Maoists succeed, the bulk of the Communist cadre would shift their allegiance to the Maoist leadership.

 

Communists of all hues believe in a proletarian takeover of the state through whatever means available. Such a takeover, according to the Leninist-Maoist line, should be followed by imposing the dictatorship of the Communist Party and ruthless suppression of all dissent, even internal, among the Communist leadership.

 

In this framework of faith in violence and dictatorship, does it serve any purpose to ask the Maoists to give up violence and open talks with the government?

 

Balbir K. Punj can be contacted at punjbk@gmail.com

 

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DNA

EDITORIAL

CORRUPTION INC 

 

Corruption in public life has almost become a norm, shockingly so. But even with the bizarre tales of corruption that do the rounds, the details of illegal assets of former Jharkhand chief minister Madhu Koda, amounting to an astronomical thousands of crores of rupees, are indeed astounding.

 

He seems to have accumulated much of his Himalayan hoard during the anomalous period he was chief minister from 2006 to 2008 and led a government as an independent candidate. The alleged billionaire with his unaccounted wealth is not yet 40 years old.

 

The allegations, as yet unproven show how the son of a simple farmer rose to this level in such a short time. That this should happen in a state with rich resources and extremely poor tribal people of Jharkhand is doubly fantastic.

 

The state was formed just nine years ago with the explicit assumption that the tribal-dominated area was being neglected as part of a larger Bihar and that local leaders, with an understanding of local issues, would be best equipped to run it for the welfare of the citizens.

 

Instead, the leaders who had pressed for a tribal state for its people have acquired the unenviable reputation of practising corruption of high proportion and who seem to vie to outdo each other in sleaze.

 

Koda is part of a corrupt system which involves not just other politicians, but also bureaucrats, businessmen and sundry money-changers, who operate across the country and beyond as well. This was a sophisticated operation which used hawala operators in the commercial capital of the country, Mumbai, who had links abroad. The tentacles of corruption are thus spread deep and wide.

 

Who are the people then who sustain this system? There are businessmen, industrialists, bureaucrats, middlemen contractors and politicians, all of whom understand the value of the mineral wealth of the state. It is not to be missed that in many other states -- Karnataka is a recent case -- mining groups have emerged as the new rich who like to dabble in politics.

 

Allegations against corruption at high levels are not new. Regrettably, few if not none of these allegations get proven or result in justice being meted out. In a case of these proportions, gathering evidence should not be difficult, if there is a political will to do so, of course. Bringing the guilty to justice will be the big challenge for the investigating agencies.

 

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DNA

EDITORIAL

BATTLE CONTINUES 

 

By opting out of the post of chief election commissioner for India and deciding instead to be the state information commissioner for Jammu & Kashmir, Wajahat Habibullah has emphasised the importance of the Right to Information.

 

This weapon, somewhat reluctantly handed to the citizens of India -- or some might say wrested from the government -- is essential to both increasing the common man's participation in governance as well as to ensure accountability.

 

Habibullah feels that he has served his time at the Centre and now needs to use that experience to make RTI work in a crucial state like Jammu & Kashmir. He said in an interview to DNA that the right will go a long way in "calming" the state.

 

This is a very significant statement in that it acknowledges the efficacy of this law to empower citizens. Because RTI allows you to ask questions of government, it removes or at any rate reduces the feeling that you are helpless.

 

But much as RTI is the answer to many problems, it has not been a seamless exercise in participatory democracy. Government departments across the country have tried their best to stonewall, stymie and in any way possible handicap the free flow of information.

 

Although RTI in India comes with a penalty clause, the fear of loss of salary has still not deterred many from withholding facts and details. All kinds of stratagems, from delays to invoking confidentiality to even giving half-baked information have been deployed to undermine RTI. Activists have been fighting this and Habibullah has passed several strictures on defaulters but not to much avail. He will be challenged in Jammu and Kashmir.

 

There has been needless controversy on his successor at the Centre and while a debate on what kind of a person should be the chief information commissioner is necessary, it is unfortunately turning into a personality and ego battle.

 

There is a fear that a bureaucrat in that position could be a hindrance, on the other hand civil servants also know the system well, so could be useful. The objective should be to get an efficient person and ensure the RTI becomes stronger and does not get diluted.

 

The fact is that government is used to being secretive. But the fight to open government up must continue. In the immortal words of the poet Arthur Hughes Clough, "say not the struggle naught availeth"; the tougher the battle, the more it must be fought. RTI is here to stay. Government has to make the necessary adjustments.

 

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DNA

COLUMN

THE HEAT IS ON

ARATI R JERATH

 

India's climate change negotiators were understandably outraged by the contents of a recent confidential note from environment minister Jairam Ramesh to prime minister Manmohan Singh. The note, mysteriously "leaked'' for public consumption, proposed what would have amounted to a U-turn in India's negotiating position on climate change.

 

As storm clouds gathered (one top negotiator wanted to resign immediately and the Congress party refused to endorse the proposals), the PM's office moved quickly to cap the controversy. It clarified that the note was only a discussion paper, not government policy.

 

The PMO's attempt to clear the air has only succeeded in creating confusion. By describing Ramesh's note as a discussion paper, the PMO seems to be suggesting that the issue is open to debate and review. Is the government then contemplating a shift in India's position before the December Copenhagen meet where a new roadmap will be drawn to address the critical question of global warming? Was Ramesh's note a trial balloon, floated to gauge public opinion before making the shift?

 

Or was the note part of a turf war between a pro-active environment minister intent on grabbing a lead role in the international debate on this century's most important challenge and diplomats already in the thick of ongoing negotiations?

 

The questions need answers quickly. As the countdown to the Copenhagen conference begins and negotiators from the developed and developing world move into top gear for the showdown that seems inevitable, it is essential that India is not seen as faltering before the finishing line.

 

Any misstep at this critical juncture has implications not only for our growth and development as a leading emerging economy but also for our aspirations as a global player of substance.

 

India's position in the runup deliberations before the Copenhagen meet places us squarely with the G-77 and China on two key demands: one, that developed countries agree to deep internationally binding cuts in carbon emissions and two, that mitigation targets for developing nations be accompanied by cheap and easy access to green technologies.

 

The argument of "common but differentiated responsibility'' flows out of our need to maintain growth trajectory while simultaneously addressing the effects of global warming on our climate, ecology, agriculture and other sectors. The position has evolved after intensive internal debates by successive governments in conjunction with other developing countries, especially the emerging economies like Brazil, South Africa, Mexico and China.
The suggestion, thrown in almost casually at the end of Ramesh's controversial note, that India "must not stick to G-77 alone and must realise that it is now embedded in G-20'' is patently absurd and naive. It also betrays profound ignorance of the dynamics of international power equations.

 

If India has been invited to sit at the international high table of the G-20 today, it's because we are poised to be an economic powerhouse of the 21st century. If the rich and powerful of the G-20 listen to what we say intently, it's because we, together with other emerging economies, have carved out an important space for ourselves at the negotiating table by standing united on key issues.

 

If the developed nations, led by the United States and the European Union, are trying to woo, pressurise and strongarm us into re-aligning our position so that it conforms with theirs, it's only because prising India out of the G-77 will hobble an important counterveiling force by depriving it of one of its main support pillars.

 

The diplomatic and political consequences of crossing the floor are enormous. The ongoing climate conference in Barcelona has seen major fireworks as members of the G-77 put up a brave fight to secure their right to economic growth and development.

 

Abandoning the coalition at this point will be seen a betrayal of everything that India has ever stood for. The inevitable isolation from our traditional constituency will have a spillover effect at other international fora, the most critical of which is the World Trade Organisation where the developed and developing countries are in the throes of the Doha Development Round of negotiations for equitable terms of trade.

 

It is ironic that China, which is within blinking distance of joining the ranks of the developed nations, is making an aggressive bid to assume leadership of the developing world through huge investments in Africa and Latin America. A section of policymakers here, on the other hand, seems to have bought into the glamour of sitting at the high table and rubbing shoulders with the rich and the powerful at the cost of dumping old friends.

 

As the Congress attempts to revive Indira Gandhi's legacy, its government would do well to remember her mastery over international power play. She had many warts but she left behind a strong legacy in the G-77 by honing it into a diplomatic instrument of considerable influence. There is no place for eager-to-please Uncle Toms in the emerging brave new world.

 

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DNA

CHOICES WE MAKE

 

Philosophy is, in its essence, the quest of reality. In the attempt to determine what is real, one has to choose, in the first instance, between the percipient self and the things that it perceives.

 

This choice may seem to be purely metaphysical, but sooner or later it becomes a moral choice and one which is decisive of the chooser's destiny. For him who can face the problem steadily there is but one possible solution of it. If we may assume that each term of the given antithesis has some measure of reality, we need be in no doubt as to which is the more real.

 

The problem solves itself, for the simple reason that the decision as to whether the self or the outward world is real rests with the self. It is I who have to make the choice between myself and the world that surrounds me; and I have to make it to my own satisfaction.

 

If I invest the outward world with reality of any degree or kind, the fact remains that it is I who am guaranteeing its reality; and, that being so, the question inevitably suggests itself: If the guarantor is metaphysically insolvent, what is the value of his guarantee?

 

It is sometimes said that the idealist starts with himself, and never gets to the outward world. There are certain dialectical developments of idealism of which this criticism may perhaps hold good; but, as a general criticism of idealism, it is, I think, entirely untrue.

 

The idealist starts, where every thinker must start, with provisional acceptance of the outward world as well as of the percipient self; but, in the act of guaranteeing its reality, he guarantees a fuller measure and a higher degree of reality to himself. Nor is the value of the latter guarantee impaired by the patent fact that it is illogical to go surety for oneself.

 

To prove the reality of what alone enables one to prove reality is, for obvious reasons, impossible.

 

From The Creed of Buddha byEdmond Holmes

 

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DNA

A NATION CAPTURED IN ARRESTING IMAGES

MADHU JAIN

 

Finally, I reached the boiling point. In metaphorical terms: the precise moment when the dal on the stove froths over into a messy hot puddle on the kitchen floor.

 

In other words: basta is basta. One of the national dailies had three (or was it four) consecutive pages filled with just page3 folk. Yet another paper had an entire column on how to be a socialite, an "occupation" that bestows the credentials to have your mug -- and the rest of you -- on the hallowed pages. This for many has come to signify heaven-on-earth. And for much of our media the face of shining India they like to put on show.

 

It was that very day, later in the evening, that I went to an exhibition of photographs by octogenarian Ram Dhamija, titled Preoccupations: Forty Years of Imaging India. The bad mood vanished and hope was restored. The contrast between the current crop of quick-on-the-draw chroniclers of our times and what I saw here could not have been starker.

 

Through these black and white photographs, predominantly portraits, Dhamija has tracked the journey of an emergent nation, spanning four decades from the late 1940s through much of the 1970s.

 

It is the silent pulse of history of a nation walking towards a promising dawn that we hear beating beneath these arresting images. The photographs are portrayals of the quotidian moment and of quotidian lives, several with wit and a tinge of humour. There's no big drama here nor are there any oh-my-gosh pictorial epiphanies. No tricks of technology but the magic of the moment frozen in time.

 

You see the big story behind the little stories: a highway in Rajasthan in the 1960s, a man with a child in a drought-ravaged Rajasthan in 1969, a pucca sahib in a suit and hat with a pipe in his mouth inspecting a canal in Punjab in the early 1950s, architect Le Corbusier at a construction site in Chandigarh in the 1950s, a soldier in Ladakh in 1962 during the India-China war, sadhus at a Kumbh mela in 1954, MF Husain painting outside Jama Masjid in the 1970s, a sequence of images of the legendary Balasaraswati dancing, up close and personal.

 

You also see a relatively young Indira Gandhi in 1968 in Bhutan with hair made untidy by a stubborn wind, a coat casually flung over her shoulders like a woman of the world. Dhamija has caught her in an indeterminate mood -- a hint of both a frown and a smile on a face more filled out than we are used to seeing and a chin not so sharply defined as it came to be later.

 

Dhamija, a writer and editor and aficionado of the arts (performing as well as crafts) he worked for the Press Information Bureau. The job required constant travelling to all corners of the country with his Rolleicord camera as a constant companion.

 

Consequently, there is an ethnographer's eye at work: the portraits include tribal women, sadhus, farmers, porters and pilgrims in far corners of India. However, you don't feel the distance between the photographer and his subjects. They seem to be at ease. Particularly alluring is the portrait of Simkie, Uday Shankar's French dance partner who obviously shared a special relationship with the photographer: warmth radiates from the image.

 

Dhamija neither exoticised nor eroticised his subjects, unlike our shutterbugs who zoom in on bits and parts of the neo-tribes of today's instant celebrities. Dhamija's son, cinematographer Himman Dhamija (Mangal Pandey, Chandni Chowk to China, Little Zizou) has curated this exhibition, culling the images from thousands of negatives lying round in his father's Press Enclave flat.

 

Dhamija had put away his camera years earlier, disillusioned by the direction in which India was heading -- corruption was his bete noir. I hope this exhibition will prod the idealist-turned-cynic to pick up his camera once again and go out and capture the India of today.

 

The writer is a Delhi-based journalist

 

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DNA

OBAMA OR O'BAMA

 

Whether it's at TF Green or Chicago O'Hare or General Edward Lawrence Logan International Airport, the Transportation Security Administration will soon be matching the fine print on passengers' boarding passes to their IDs — down to the hyphens, initials, and apostrophes. That means that Barack Obama won't be able to board a plane with a college ID calling him Barry Obama. But what happens to someone named, say, Bernard O'Bama? Some airline ticketing systems wouldn't even pick up the apostrophe in his name.

In fact, many airline and travel websites do not yet allow passengers to register their names exactly as they appear on their driver's licenses and passports. They require travelers to shed their Irish apostrophes, fuse what lies on either side of their hyphens, and clip their polymerous Spanish surnames.
Some don't have space for full middle names, others not even for middle initials. Yet, once the new security rules are strictly enforced, if a driver's license says Mary Katherine O'Brien, a boarding pass that says Mary OBrien won't fly.

Since August, some air travel websites have begun requesting the date of birth and gender of passengers to comply with TSA rules. Let's hope they also accept reservations for all kinds of names soon.
Regardless, the new rules mean all air travelers need to make sure their photo IDs, airline tickets, frequent flyer accounts — and quite often the credit cards they use to book their flights — all show the exact same name. Yes, it's a small price to pay for a safe flight. But it's one that the whole air travel industry should make easier.
—The Boston Globe (USA)

 

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DNA

 INBOX...

DON'T ALIENATE THE TRIBALS

 

Prime minister Manmohan Singh's admission that 'there has been a systemic failure in giving tribals a stake in the modern economic processes' calls for serious introspection ('PM admits failure in giving tribals a stake in growth', DNA, November 5). The scheduled tribes remain low in our social order even after six decades of Independence. Their inability to integrate with the mainstream society pose a serious threat to India's security perspective. The problems of poverty and landlessness should be addressed in a time bound manner. The socio-economic factors such as social injustice, discrimination, no means for livelihood and oppression are the main reasons for the spread of Naxalism in the tribal areas.

Mathew Oommen, Pune

ILL-GOTTEN WEALTH

Apropos the report, 'BJP seeks inquiry into Cong chief's Koda connection', (DNA, November 5), Jharkhand CM Madhu Koda deserves to be arrested for illegal and hawala transactions amounting to more than Rs4000 crore. The BJP is now demanding an enquiry into Maharashtra Congress President Kripashankar Singh's alleged connections to Koda through Kamlesh Singh (NCP MLA of Jharkhand and Kripashankar's son's father-in-law). The bank accounts of Koda and Kamlesh Singh should be frozen.

 Achyut Railkar, Mumbai

 

A HISTORIC JUDGMENT

The historic and landmark judgment from the state charity commissioner refusing to allow the sale of transfer of development rights of St Peters Church, Mazgaon is really excellent ('State charity commissioner nixes BDTA plans for St Peters Church', DNA, November 4). All the so-called custodian trustees of the BDTA are liable for criminal action and prosecution. St. Peters Church was constructed and dedicated in 1858. The land for the St. Peter's Church was given on lease by the secretary of state in Bombay. Various grants were given by the state government to construct buildings as mentioned in the original lease deed documents of the secretary of state of Bombay. In such a case the change of user is strictly prohibited.

Cyril Dara, via email

RIGHT TO REFUSE

It is heartening to note that Supreme Court judge Justice RV Raveendran withdrew himself from hearing of Ambani brothers' gas dispute case ('Two SC judges exit from Ambani cases', DNA, November 5). It is important to note that the lawyers of both the parties had no objection to him hearing the case. Justice Raveendran is absolutely right in his refusal. Every judge should emulate his example.
MH Nayak, Mumbai

 

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THE TRIBUNE

EDITORIAL

OPTING OUT OF RELIANCE CASES

SC JUDGES SET A HEALTHY PRECEDENT

 

Supreme Court Judges Justice R.V. Raveendran and Justice Markandey Katju have set a healthy precedent by recusing themselves from hearing two corporate cases relating to the Ambani brothers, citing conflict of interest. This will, certainly, set a new benchmark for judicial conduct. Justice Raveendran has said that since his daughter is associated with a solicitors' firm in Bangalore which is advising the Mukesh Ambani group on global acquisitions, it would not be fair on his part to hear the gas dispute. His conscience was "clear", he said, citing the judiciary's time-tested principle that justice should not only be done but must also seem to be done. Likewise, Justice Katju, heading a Bench with Justice A.K. Ganguly, recused himself in another case between the Reliance Industries Limited and the Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited on the ground that his wife held shares in RIL.

 

At a time when the judiciary is passing through a bad patch following complaints of corruption and misconduct against some judges, the example set by Justice Raveendran and Justice Katju is timely. This needs to be emulated by all judges of the high courts, especially while adjudicating on corporate and related matters. The judiciary is the protector and watchdog of the Constitution. Thus, the judges need to protect its fair image and reputation. It is only by setting such examples that the judges can help restore the people's confidence in the judiciary.

 

It may be recalled how Chief Justice of India Justice K.G. Balakrishnan had recused from hearing the infamous Ghaziabad PF scam in which many judges are allegedly involved. When the counsel pointed out that the CJI, having sent a questionnaire to the erring judges in the scandal in the exercise of his administrative powers, could not hear the case from the judicial side, the CJI promptly recused himself. Clearly, this issue cannot be codified under any statute or regulation. It is purely a question of judicial propriety — which Justice Raveendran and Justice Katju have amply demonstrated.

 

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THE TRIBUNE

EDITORIAL

DESIGNS ON INDIA

PAKISTAN MUST NOT FORGET ITS PLEDGE ON TERRORISM

 

The disclosures made by the FBI following the arrest of two Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) operatives — David Coleman Headley alias Daood Gilani and Tahawwur Hussain Rana — provide enough proof of this banned terrorist outfit being actively engaged in implementing its destructive agenda. The two men in FBI custody, who had been assigned the task of carrying out another 26/11-type terrorist attack, had been looking for an opportunity to strike at India's National Defence College in the national Capital. Among the LeT's other targets in India have been two elite schools in Uttarakhand, popular tourist resorts and many key installations. Rana, a Pakistan-born Canadian national, had been a frequent visitor to Pakistan.

 

What is, however, more surprising is that the LeT, which had started functioning as the Jamaat-ud-Dawa after it was banned, appears to have become overactive as the Pakistan Army is concentrating on its fight against the Taliban in South Waziristan. This indicates that the terrorist outfits targeting India are being allowed to have a free run under the guidance of the ISI. This means that despite the spate of terrorist attacks in Pakistan, there is no change in its policy of using terrorism as an instrument of state policy against India.

 

The ISI's effort to revive terrorism in Punjab appears to be linked to its ill- thought-out policy vis-à-vis India. Punjab police chief Paramdeep Singh Gill on Wednesday stated that these days the ISI was busy roping in the activists of dysfunctional terrorist outfits like the Babar Khalsa International and the Khalistan Zindabad Force. Some of those suspected to have been involved in the ISI's terrorism revival plan have been arrested. India cannot allow Pakistan to succeed in carrying out this destabilising agenda. The ISI's audacious act is a matter of grave concern. Pakistan must remember the pledge it has made more than once that it will not allow any territory under its control to be used for spreading terrorism in India and anywhere else. It will have to bear the consequences if it fails to live up to its promise.

 

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THE TRIBUNE

EDITORIAL

DISINVESTMENT ON AGENDA

GOVT MUST PROCEED WITH CAUTION

 

Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia's suggestion about "aggressive disinvestment" is welcome but to fetch a right price, stock market conditions and public and institutional appetite for PSU shares have to be considered too. The government cannot hurriedly offload its stakes in assets, built over the years with public money, at whatever price available and to whomsoever it feels like. The mistakes committed by the NDA government should not be repeated. The IPO route is proper but the public and PSU shares have to be properly priced. Foreign and domestic institutional investors may be offered shares through bidding in a bullish market so that the best possible price is realised.

 

The second issue is how to utilise the proceeds. Earlier, the government had set up the National Investment Fund (NIF) where the money raised through the sale of PSU shares was to be parked for financing social sector schemes and meeting capital requirements of public enterprises. Dr Ahluwalia has suggested that the proceeds from disinvestment should be used to fund new projects. The third possibility is the government may use the money to bridge the huge fiscal deficit it has run up by announcing two stimulus packages and tax concessions for saving the industry from a downturn. The government should stick to the NIF scheme since social sector spending should be a priority, while new projects can be financed through direct foreign investment by removing procedural, administrative and policy bottlenecks.

 

The third issue is which PSUs should be chosen for disinvestment. Only the profit-making government firms will get a good price. The others may be given more time, financial help and managerial autonomy to turn around. Those which keep making losses should be privatised. They cannot be allowed to bleed the exchequer forever just to keep some jobs. The labour laws need suitable changes so that PSUs are not caught in endless legal wrangles.

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THE TRIBUNE

COLUMN

CHINESE PINPRICKS OVER ARUNACHAL

WHAT REALPOLITIK DEMANDS

BY  PUNYAPRIYA DASGUPTA

 

One midnight in April 1960 Zhou Enlai addressed a Press conference in New Delhi.  It was so crowded that in my firsthand memory I can see a couple of journalists standing on a window sill to be sure of being able to shoot their questions. The Chinese Premier suggested a compromise settlement of the then hotting up border issue between the two countries.  His offer was for China conceding to India what was then the North-East Frontier Agency, now Arunachal Pradesh, in exchange for India withdrawing its claim to Aksai Chin in Kashmir.

 

Zhou brought the matter out of the diplomatic closet and hoped for public opinion in India to press Jawaharlal Nehru to accept this swap offer.  There were signs that Nehru personally was inclined to view the proposed formula favourably but as Prime Minister of India he could not ignore the political forces arrayed against.  He was even reported to have said that if he surrendered Aksai Chin he would "cease to be Prime Minister". Zhou's mission failed.What followed was the India's utter humiliation in 1962. Unending logrolling has gone on since then with China scoring an advantage most of the time.

 

In the latest phase China has been creating problems on visas for residents of Arunachal, protested against Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to India's north-easternmost state and the Dalai Lama's tour of Tawang.  Has Beijing then withdrawn the swap offer Zhou Enlai made nearly 50 years ago?  Perhaps, not.  Why then is it refusing to accept the status quo south of the McMahon Line?  One important fact should not be forgotten.  In 1962 the victorious Chinese march stopped on its own at NEFA's internal boundary with Assam although Nehru declared that his heart went out to Assam, clearly meaning that the despirited Prime Minister had given up that state too as lost.  The Chinese went back to their side of the McMahon Line. Had they been serious about treating that line, which they have never formally accepted, as irrelevant for them they would not have vacated Arunachal. They never retreated even an inch from what they took in Aksai Chin

 

On the Indian side, patriotism has played a role all along in holding up a settlement.  The people and Parliament have accepted the Nehru government's version of the dispute as the only truth and supported it fully.  It is, of course, true that India has never in its history been an expansive country.  In fact, post-1947 India has showed some keenness to humour some neighbours  which led to domestic protests. West Bengal stopped Jawaharlal Nehru from handing over Berubari to East Pakistan (now Bangladesh).  Indira Gandhi ceded to Sri Lanka the tiny island of Kachchativu over Tamil protests.  With China it has been different. In spite of "Hindi Chini bhai bhai", the Indian establishment has eyed Communist China with suspicion after its occupation of Tibet.  May be, that was not unjustified then.

 

China clashed soon after with the Soviet Union and Vietnam over their borders. The hostilities on the Burma (now Myanmar) border were an extension of the Chinese communist-nationalist civil war with the Burmese facilitating the task of the communists. All of the Chinese border problems have been sorted out except the one with India.

 

In 1947 India inherited the border with Tibet-China from the British. The British rulers had no problem drawing lines on the map as they thought fit.  On the Kashmir-Tibet border they, in fact, drew more than one. One British official was censured for taking his line too far to the east but he had the satisfaction of seeing his projection as the claim line of the imperialism he had tried to expand.  Neither this one nor the McMahon Line in the east was ever accepted by China but it was in no position then to make an issue of maps.

 

Tibet remained unconcerned since the situation on the ground remained anchored in tradition, unchanged by cartography.  It was only when the assertive Chinese communists occupied Tibet and extended their sway up to the Indian border that questions arose.  India decided to go by the maximum of the British claims.  But since these were not always supported by  ground reality New Delhi considered it expedient to withhold all maps of the Chinese border from all but a few and so too literature which created doubts about New Delhi's arguments. The bureaucrats went to absurd lengths. After Major Kathing with an army detachment raced to Tawang and expelled the Tibetan officials from there and ensured Indian control, the government tried to censor, officially or unofficially, all references to the area as Tibetan.

 

In his "History of Frontier Areas Bordering on Assam" Robert Reid, one of the last British Governors of

Assam, wrote in 1942 that the 1914 convention resulting in the McMahon Line was never published nor was

anything done to give effect to it because the Chinese never accepted it.  As a consequence, many maps by the British "still show the frontier of India along the administered border of Assam" that is, the status of the whole of NEFA or Arunachal was left undetermined.

 

Reid's book somehow went out of circulation a decade before Zhou Enlai said that although he did not accept

India's claim to NEFA, he was willing to concede in exchange for India's forgetting Aksai Chin, which was, to him, indubitably Tibetan-Chinese.  In its zeal for concealing unhelpful maps, New Delhi went to absurd lengths.

 

B.K. Nehru, Jawaharlal's nephew and one of India's ablest administrator-diplomats ever, wrote in his memoirs that in 1962, when he was India's Ambassador in Washington, he asked his defence attaches to show him maps of the NEFA area the Chinese had marched into and he was told those were classified and even they were not entitled to see them. The ambassador found the "classified" maps sold across the counter at the National Geographic. Two decades later, as Governor of Kashmir, B.K. Nehru wanted detailed maps of the Kashmir valley he was touring and was told that for "security reasons" those did not exist. Again, according to this Nehru, the maps he wanted "were available for public sale only in Washington.  At the same time the government did not even know for a few years that the Chinese had built roads in the territory claimed as India's.

 

Machiavelli laid down the principle: ends justify means. The assumption is that the ends will be achieved.  In the present context India's ends have not been achieved — at least not yet. India was also not prepared for war, even as a contingency, at any time. Jawaharlal Nehru believed that India and China would not fight each other in his lifetime. Yet he precipitately ordered the Army in 1962 to "throw them (the Chinese) out". 

 

After the disaster that followed, Parliament in New Delhi resolved to recover every inch of lost territory and Nehru led a marching contingent of MPs in the next Republic Day parade. But nothing worked and yet the Parliament resolution is still treated as unalterable.It would have been great statecraft had India been able to implement that resolution. 

 

Everyone knows that this parliamentary pledge cannot be redeemed in the foreseeable future. Not unnaturally, problems have been arising for half a century now. The Chinese are giving India pinpricks over Arunachal. It would be realpolitik for New Delhi to take facts into full account if it wants to root out the problem with China.

 

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THE TRIBUNE

COLUMN

ANGER — A RIFTY GIFT

BY CHETANA VAISHNAVI

 

A hungry man is an angry man and an angry man is a savage. Josephine Licciardello warns us saying, "Anger is just one letter away from danger!" Anger is an emotional state from minor irritation to intense rage making one to punish oneself with other people's mistakes. It is a part of fight or flight response to certain real or perceived threats.

 

Phil Barker describes anger as a natural and potentially productive emotion. It can serve positive functions when expressed properly. A certain amount of anger is in fact necessary as it allows us to defend ourselves and can be useful in expressing how we feel to others.

 

Expressing anger makes one feel more powerful than the other. At times it can even help to solve a problem. But venting anger does not always work.

 

Anger can be suppressed by focussing it on something else. Well-wishers often advise us to count ten before saying or doing anything. It has been rightly said, "Never reply a letter when you are angry!" If you are prone to violence then walk away from the provocation before pressure builds up. You can calm down by taking a deep breath and relaxing. You may not get what you want at all, and yet in remaining calm, you may discover something else that you need even more than what you thought you wanted.

 

People who become social doormats do not admit feeling hurt about anything, but usually have resentment underneath their calm appearance. Whining, as said by Al Franken, is anger through a small opening. Apathy is a veiled form of anger with deep sorrow for all humanity. People get angry when their expectations are not met. Personal biases and emotions take over leading to aggression. Anger is the wish for harm to come upon someone that one believes has injured one. Often an angry person hurts innocent persons by manipulating circumstances.

 

Remember that when the boss slams his fist on the table and yells, "I'm the BOSS!" - he no longer is! Anger takes him off his rocker, thereby sending him up the air to hit the ceiling! He starts going bananas and beats his breast in anger, crying out aloud. This makes him lose his cool, his blood begins to boil and most likely he would have burst a blood vessel by looking daggers at someone!

 

Nevertheless, the best form of revenge is to forgive and never allow the sun to go down on your anger so that you can balance your stress.

 

Angry people commit many mistakes in life. But mistakes that lighten your mood can be real fun. For example, a furious teacher says, "Write down your name and father of your name!" Yet another one shouts, "Why are you looking at the monkeys outside when I am in the class?"

 

May God increase such angry people's tribe! After all, like laughter, anger is also nature's gift to us!

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THE TRIBUNE

OPED

ONE-CHILD LEGISLATION LEAVES CHINA'S AGED IN COLD

BY VIJAY SANGHVI, WHO WAS RECENTLY IN BEIJING

 

China has fast become old before it could become rich. The unwelcome and undesirable demonstration of the law of unintended consequences and a positive impact of its health care services have become a serious matter of worry for the authorities as the proportion of the aged population, people above 65, has already crossed a mark of 10 per cent.

 

But more worrisome is the problem that the proportion of the population in the age group of zero to 14 has registered a heavy drop. It will be telling on China in the next four years when China suffers labour shortage and shrinking of the state revenue and will need more funds for the care of its growing and graying population.

 

In a country where care for the aged is a cultural tradition from the time of Confucius, the issue has become a major worry for the nation and the authorities as less than 30 per cent of the aged have benefits of pensions and social securities.

 

They had worked for the public sector before retiring. Hence, they have some support system but the remaining 70 per cent have to depend entirely on the state, which is already suffering from a resource crunch.

 

A 97-year-old farmer, Ma Wenlong, is a worried person in the state-run home for seniors in a suburb of Beijing as he has none to look after him. His two sons are already above 70 and need care themselves. His grandsons are above 50 and close to retirement and do not have any child to look after them in the old age.

 

The entire family does not have benefits of social security and pensions as none of them had worked in the public sector ever. No one had obviously anticipated that the consequences of their policy measures would be so undesirable.

 

There is an improvement in the life expectancy due to various factors, including the health care schemes of the last 60 years. The life expectancy when China became independent in 1949 was 35 years. It is more than 73 years now, according to the official statistics. Hence more people are surviving today to grow old.

 

But the drastic impact was caused by the policy measure that China implemented nearly 40 years ago when it made it compulsory by a stringent law for one family to have one child. It was then hailed as a revolutionary measure for birth control that no other country had adopted.

 

The birth rate certainly dropped but now the country has to grapple with a bulging problem of seniors who have fewer relatives to take care of them in their old age.

 

The work force is also fast dwindling. More alarming for the authorities is the drop in the young population of China. It means more old men and women on hand and lesser numbers available as its work force. Every country suffers from the problem of an increasing number of old people due to improvements in life expectancy but it has become acute in China because the per capita incomes in China are only one-fifth of the developed nations.

 

That is why it can be said that China has become old before it could become rich unlike Japan that became rich before it became old. Japan and Italy are other nations that are also plagued by the problem of a fast-ageing population but they have a much higher per capita income as well as the young in the family to take care of the ageing people.

 

Zhuang Jian, a senior economist with the Asian Development Bank, feels that the ageing of society is coming much faster and much earlier than expected in China. Caring for such an enormous number of old people would be a burden as China is not well prepared for such dramatic demographic changes in such a short time and at a pace unseen in human history.

 

By 2030 China's 65-plus population would almost double from more than a hundred million now. It was estimated to cross the mark of 235 million. Five years before that stage is reached one in every five Chinese would be above the age of 65 years. A similar pattern can be seen only in two other nations with much higher per capita gross national product.

 

However, Cai Fang, Director of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, is more worried about a different aspect. He sees a fast drop in the work force available in China sooner than expected.

 

China's rapid economic growth was entirely due to the availability of a cheap labour force. It made China a fast-growing manufacturing hub of the world with its manufactured goods flooding the world markets in the last two decades.

 

However, the demographic advantage that China has enjoyed for the past two decades will soon begin to diminish. In fact, he predicts that China would begin to suffer from a shortage of labour.

 

There are no prospects of improvement in the situation for a long time as other features of the Chinese demography are even more alarming. The proportion of the population in the age group of zero to 14 has registered an arming drop from 40.6 per cent in 1964 to 17.8 per cent in 2007.

 

In other words, the work force will continue to shrink and the number of the aged continue to increase. Thus, it will automatically lead to a heavy crunch of resources. The young may not be able to maintain the age-old tradition of caring for their elderly as their work removes them from their homes.

 

The private sector has grown fast in the recent years but the private sector does not provide social security and old-age pensions or insurance. So also millions of farm workers and odd-job men and women are without such benefits of social security.

 

The World Bank statistics released recently paint a horrible picture of future. It estimated that only 160 million urban people nearly 15 per cent of the population, will have the protection of a social security net. The rest will need to depend on the ability and mercy of the state. A more pessimistic projection of the World Bank is that China has already suffered from a shortage of resources. Its need for expenditure was one and a half times more than its fiscal revenue last year.

 

The pension and social security system of China is already under-funded. However, it will come under a severe strain when medical expanses increase due to health problems of the aged.

 

The fast-ageing population and shrinking work force will have a double impact on the economic system of China as the revenue will decrease while the need for spending increase. It is a perfect prescription for undermining the fiscal position of China in future.

 

World economists and social scientists are watching the developments in China as the fastest-growing economy in the world aspires to reach the top in a few years. A report by the Strategic and International Studies says that the economic and social stakes are so high that China's leadership, despite being in the midst of a financial crisis, cannot afford to delay necessary changes in its policy.

 

How China navigates its coming demographic transformation will go a long way toward determining whether it achieves its aspiration of becoming a prosperous, stable and developed country with an expanding role in the global economic and political order.

 

Economist Zhuang says that the graying of China must be on the top of the political agenda of the leadership with immediate measures as well a long-term strategy. It will require political ingenuity that understands both the economy and human aspirations and knows the art of combining both the without creating new problems. The law imposed of one child per family was hailed as a revolutionary step only 40 years ago. It is now looked upon as a measure that brought only human miseries.

 

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THE TRIBUNE

OPED

WARMING UP FOR GAMES

BY V.S. AILAWADI

 

The baton-handing ceremony for the Commonwealth Games 2010 was held in London's Buckingham Palace on October 28 with the usual fanfare. But with this begins the countdown.

 

The recent spat between Kalmadi and a CWG Federation official raised a question mark about our preparations and readiness for the event. It is unfortunate that a seasoned sports administrator like Kalmadi should have chosen this time to express his ire on an important official and it was aptly commented that it was a wrong fight.

 

That there is growing uneasiness about the apparent delay in completing the important infrastructure projects can't be called unwarranted. The CWG OG is coming under fire because one of the reasons is that it has centralised every activity.

 

The organisational structure is different than what was at the time of Asian Games. There was high-powered co-ordination under the respective administrative heads, e.g. Lt Governor was the key stake-holder for all works to be executed by DDA, NDMC and NCT and the Urban Development Secretary was responsible for the infrastructure works entrusted to CPWD and so on in order to fix responsibility.

 

During 1980-82 an important feature was active coordination, cooperation and confidence building with various stake-holders and watching progress of the works by the Press and sports federations' representatives.

 

One believes that institutional arrangements made for the Commonwealth Games are well thought out, but somewhere effective coordination seems to be lacking.

 

For Delhi to host the 2010 Games, there were never more fortuitous circumstances; CM Sheila Dikshit and the UPA government getting the mandate for continuity, ensuring smooth flow of funds. Expert advice is freely available from CGF officials like Mike Fennel, Michael Hooper and even Sebastian Coe, Chairman, OG committee for London Olympic Games. Shenanigans of the CWG OC have never missed the opportunity to interact with them here or in London.

 

Former Sports Minister Manishankar Iyer, may have been critical of huge public spending on some of the avoidable projects, but he was quite firm on fixing responsibility for the implementation. He had set up sub-committees with domain knowledge and experience in project implementation, in technology and in banking and finance. That is now history.

 

What matters now is to ensure that the projects are completed in time. The OC is not to be blamed entirely because even as late in 2007 projects like Games village had not been approved. It is unfortunate that planning and approvals for the projects went beyond the standard practice followed for hosting such mega sports events.

 

But given that, the organisers had sufficient time for completing several of the venue projects — Games village, LNL stadium, Indra Gandhi Indoor stadium — all of which are running behind the target dates for completion. Completion of all infrastructure projects for the Games are important.

 

All facilities which are mandatory are to be checked from the point of view of international standards. The Commonwealth Federation officers will carry out checks on the standard of facilities created in the Games village. Various functionaries of different bodies will check all ancillary facilities to satisfy the standards required.

 

It may be stated here that during Asiad'82 the international authorities checked the accuracy and adequacy of facilities provided in the completed works a few days before the date of the event, and certain important deficiencies / defects were found. It was very difficult to rectify the same at the last moment.

 

Public memory is short and we seem to have forgotten that an entirely new infrastructure was to be created for the Asian Games. But until 1980 it was uncertain whether we would be able to host the Asian Games as the janata govt had been dragging its feet. It was in February 1980 the then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, took the decision to hold the Asian Games and the entire infrastructure was to be created in about 22 months.

 

Many had doubted the country's capability and there were similar visits by the Asian Games Federations to Delhi to take stock of the situation. But the various bodies which had been entrusted to do the unthinkable had risen to the challenge, and pulled about a fine example of giving the country the best of the sporting infrastructure and winning accolade from international federations.

 

Sports Minister MS Gill assures us that Commonwealth Games "di gaddi ab tez chalegi….." To complete all infrastructures in the next 200 days will be a herculean task. We, the people, particularly the Dehliites, have a stake to give the country the honour it deserves and ensure an orderly conduct of the Games to save the honour of the country. It is possible, indeed.

 

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THE TRIBUNE

CAN'T WE LATCH ON TO THE AFFIRMATIVE?

BY CHRISTINA PATTERSON

 

Newspaper offices waste quite a lot of paper. So, in fact, do newspapers, as yesterday's splendid pine tree becomes (depending on your point of view) today's finely crafted chronicle of our times, or semi-literate showbiz goss, and tomorrow's guinea-pig toilet.

 

They like flights, too – indeed they have entire sections devoted to jetting round the world, and not just to report on wars, or elections, or famines, or corruption, but on luxury holidays in the Caribbean, or spas in the Seychelles, or massages in the Maldives. It's disgusting. It's really disgusting. I'm going to complain to the editor. In fact, I think I'll take him to tribunal.

 

There are other things I could mention, too. Women, for example. Newspapers like pictures of women. In this one, they usually have their clothes on, but not, frankly, always that many. I think the women could have more clothes.

 

And while we're at it, what's with the gloom? Why do we have to write about people dying, and starving, and killing, and embezzling, and fiddling elections, and fiddling expenses, and abusing, and being abused, and generally being miserable? Can't we, you know, ac-cent-tchu-uate the positive, eliminate the negative, latch on to the affirmative?

 

Can't we write stories about people who've been happily married for 40 years, who have held on to their jobs, which they enjoy, and who go on nice holidays where they don't get food poisoning or drown?

 

You see, I'm a feminine feminist environmentalist positive thinker, and my beliefs are very important to me – so important that you could regard them as a philosophy, a religion, even, and I think that by disregarding my beliefs (my religion!) my employer is discriminating against me.

 

This, apparently, is the view of Tim Nicholson, the "head of sustainability" (whatever that might be) of one of Britain's biggest property firms, who was very, very, very cross when his boss did things like tell a colleague to get on a plane, when he shouldn't, because flying when you shouldn't is very bad. It's not against the law, but it's naughty. And people shouldn't be naughty. Tender-hearted Tim (the kind of man, one assumes, who has ten different bins in his kitchen and gives his children lovely wooden toys for Christmas), was made redundant last July, and went weeping to his lawyers.

 

Now a Mr Justice Michael Burton has ruled that his beliefs about climate change qualify as a philosophy or a religion and are therefore subject to the laws applying to religious discrimination. Yes, he has. He really has.

 

So, cheer up, everyone! The floodgates are open. And it's all about you. Vegetarian offended by your colleague's bacon sarnie? Bring on the lawyers! Feminist, who thinks that girl in advertising's skirt is just a little bit too short? Bring on the lawyers! Fundamentalist Muslim who doesn't like being told what to do by a woman? Well, gosh, that one's a tiny bit complicated.

 

 By arrangement with The Independent

 

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THE ASSAM TRIBUME

EDITORIAL

UNCONTROLLED PRICES

 

Though wholesale price index-based inflation is still below 2 per cent, the consumer price index in the last one year has increased by more than 12 per cent with uncontrolled rise in prices of almost all essential commodities. It is important to note that food prices are the pace-setters for general increase in consumer price index and it spreads quickly to non-food grains areas of consumer services. The Centre, of late, has alerted its own administration as well as the States to take drastic measures to encounter the situation arising out of unscrupulous traders taking advantage of delayed and deficient monsoon in different parts of the country. Addressing a State Chief Secretaries conference around three months back at New Delhi, Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh said that the Centre and the States should not hesitate to take strong measures including those against hoarders and black marketeers to check the spiralling prices of essential commodities like pulses, sugar, edible oil, some vegetables like potatoes and onions, etc. The Chief Secretaries were also advised to take proactive measures with immediate effect to make ready contingency plans for crops, drinking water, human and animal health, fodder, etc. keeping a close watch on availability of food grains and prices of essential commodities.

This was urgent in the wake of some 141 districts of the country having been declared drought-affected and possibility of reduced production of Kharif-crops by around 16 million tonnes in terms of rice alone, which could lead to further rise in prices of food items in coming months. The price of processed food and cash crops along with dairy, poultry and live-stock products are continuously on the rise. The Prime Minister also reiterated that the Centre and the States must work together to take effective measures to tide over the situation and activise public distribution system which is an important safety-net and which has been subjected to numerous scandals and corrupt practices. What action the government has taken in last three months is best known to it though the impact is yet to reach the common consumer. It is good that the Centre is now planning to import 2 million tonnes of rice from Thailand and Vietnam. It is important to note that the country has already imported 2.6 million tonnes of food grains in the current year. There is no reason, therefore, for such a rise in prices of food articles which is being experienced at the moment unless there is black marketing, hoarding and malpractices in public distribution system. One fails to understand if the State governments, particularly of this region like Assam have completely surrendered to the whims of trade bodies. The absence of any concerted consumer movement is also to be equally blamed. The State need not wait for Centre's caution and is supposed to always keep a vigil on prices and verify justification of its hike by traders. The State should lose no more time to take stern measures against artificial scarcity of essential commodities and their continuous rise in prices to stabilise the ongoing volatile market.

 

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THE ASSAM TRIBUME

EDITORIAL

DEATH OF A BEAR

 

In an incident that exemplifies appalling human cruelty to mute and defenceless creatures, a Himalayan black bear which happened to stray into a village from Manas Tiger Reserve was beaten to death by the people. It was a long and agonizing death, and the ordeal lasted hours as more and more people joined the 'fun.' To the credit of the Forest Department, all this took place in the presence of the supposed protectors of wildlife besides NGO activists, and police, paramilitary and media personnel. Shamefully, no intervention came from any of the authorities. And even as the dying bear was taking its last breaths, the people literally jumped upon it to get its claws, teeth, fur, and the bile. Later the incident was shown by TV channels, and the viewers must have got a taste of humanity degenerating into an abyss. Or could it be that we are now too insensitive to pause and ponder over such 'trivial' matters? Probably we have few believers in Mahatma Gandhi's famous words that the greatness and moral progress of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated.

The horrific incident exposes that notwithstanding our so-called progress, we are yet to leave behind the trait of primordial blood thirstiness. Kindness and compassion which we boast of being an integral part of our philosophy are rarely practised. This incident is not an aberration – such happenings are taking place as a matter of routine, with only a few getting adequately reported. The tragedy also raises several important questions, the foremost being the inaction of the Forest Department in saving a Schedule-I animal even though it had several hours to do so. The bear was first spotted early morning when it injured two persons after the duo tried to kill it, taking it to be a wild boar (which is also a protected species). It has also been reported that poachers have been very active in the area, which made the bear stray into the village. If such abysmal security marks as important a conservation area as Manas, the less said about other lesser-known forests the better. The incident is a blot on Manas which is struggling to regain its World Heritage Site status. It is an open secret that poachers are having a field day inside many of our protected areas and reserve forests, decimating wildlife at will. Another disquieting concern is the poor awareness level of the people living in fringe areas of forests. Notwithstanding tall talks by the Government, little has been done to make the people understand the value of forests and wildlife and turn them into stakeholders in the conservation process. We have no dearth of NGOs working in the field but the prevailing awareness belies any genuine work on such a crucial front.

 

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THE ASSAM TRIBUME

EDITORIAL

US INVASION OF GRENADA AND ITS RELEVANCE

SAZZAD HUSSAIN

 

The invasion of the tiny Caribbean state of Grenada by superpower America remains one of the most dubious examples of unjust war and military adventurism violating all international law to expand hegemony. It was almost three decades ago, on October 25, 1983, when the US President Ronald Reagan sent troops to Grenada, an island 1,500 miles off its southeast coast to end its internal power struggle and expel the Soviets and Cuban. This infamous invasion had started what we later saw in the military intervention by America for different excuses as in Panama (1989), Iraq (1991 and 2003) and in Afghanistan (2001).

When President Ronals Reagan assumed office in 1980, the world was heading for a collision course, polarised with doubt and hatred. It was the height of the Cold War and Reagan wanted to expand the influence of US hegemony in different parts of the world. The Grenada invasion was one soft target to show American power and serve its corporate interests.

An internal power struggle in Grenada preceded the US invasion. Prime Minister Maurice Bishop appeared to be an irritant for America for his growing ties with Cuba. On October 13, 1983 Granada's power was illegally seized by Deputy Prime Minister Bernard Coard who murdered Prime Minister Bishop and ordered massacre of government officials This prompted the army under Hudson Austin to intervene by forming a military council to rule the country It appears strange how America felt threatened when a Cuban allied, pro-Communist ruler was overthrown and murdered in an internal power struggle of a tiny island nation.

America's Caribbean allies Dominica, Barbados and Jamaica appealed to Reagan for military assistance to intervene in Grenada. However, according to Mythu Sivapalan of The New York Times that appeal was made at the behest of the US government who had already decided to take military action in Grenada. It was a pre-emptive strike to destroy the emerging infrastructure of the Point Salines International Airport in Granada which, the US had doubted, would be developed into a Soviet base. The invasion was also aimed to evict the Cubans from Grenada,

Bishop's government started constructing the Point Salines International Airport on its capital with the help of Cuba, Libya, Algeria and Britain, its former colonial ruler and fellow Commonwealth state. Designed by Canada and constructed by a London-based firm, the airport was built to accommodate commercial flights to carry tourists. The US had been accusing the Bishop government of constructing the airport for Soviet-Cuban military build-up to transport weapons to insurgents in El Salvador and Guatemala. However, in reality, the Point Salines International Airport was too small for giant Soviet aircrafts carrying military hardware to land and there was no scope for any expansion of its runway as it abutted onto mountain. Earlier in 1982, Ron Dellums, member of US House of_ Representatives, travelled to Grenada in a fact-finding mission. In his report to the Congress, he rubbished the US claim. He said that "it is absurd, patronising and totally unwarranted for the United States Government to charge that this airport poses a military threat to United States' national security". However, the Reagan administration went ahead to invade Grenada claiming the large fuel reservoir at the airport meant for Soviet-Cuban military planes and for the safety of American medical students which could be taken hostage by the Grenadian authorities like the embassy siege by Iran after the 1979 Revolution.

Thus flagrantly violating every international law and arguing on false claims, President Reagan ordered the invasion of Grenada on October 25, 1983. Seven thousand US forces, along with 353 troops from its Caribbean allies, attacked Grenada, in what is known as Operation Urgent Fury. The American forces captured the Point Salines airport and evicted 60 advisors from the USSR, North Korea, East Germany, Bulgaria and Libya, Resistance was given by 1,500 Grenadian soldiers and 700 Cuban, most of them construction workers. About 45 Grenadian soldiers and 24 civilians lost their lives during the combat and the Cubans lost 25. On October 22, 1983, Fidel Castro, deeply mourning the murder of Grenadian Prime Minister Bishop, sent a message to Cuban workers in Grenada not to take any action in the event of a US invasion, unless "directly attacked" and sent diplomatic communications to Washington assuring US concerns about the airport build-up. This was also reported by Alma Guillermo Prieto in The Washington Post. But the Reagan administration rejected the Cuban assurance as "floating craps game - and went ahead to attack Grenada The US forces remained there till December, 1983.

The invasion of Grenada by the US was opposed and criticised by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher of Britain, one of the closest allies of President Reagan. Canada, Trinidad and Tobago also opposed it. China, the USSR and several other countries deplored the invasion, while UN General Assembly, by a vote of 122 to 9 with 27 abstentions, "deeply deplored the armed intervention in Grenada which had constituted a flagrant violation of international law and of the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of that state. In the US the Time magazine described the invasion as having "broad popular support". However, Congressman Louis Stocks criticised it and seven Democrat Congressmen led by Ted Weiss attempted to impeach Reagan over the issues.

On a very false pretext America invaded Grenada and Reagan even lied to Mrs Thatcher that war was not contemplated. Similar falsehood was adopted by George W Bush in order to invade Iraq on the pretax of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs).

The Grenada invasion, twenty six years ago, was launched to experiment the US military adventurism for a long and far-reaching objective of global dominance and hegemony. Before Grenada American forces had never been engaged in any combat since the Vietnam War. The American forces needed exposure to alien landscapes and Grenada proved to be the ideal soft target. The action the GIs and Marines experienced in Grenada proved to be productive for the military intervention of Panama in 1989 when Reagan's successor George Bush sent troops to arrest its President Manuel Noriega. Two years later the deputy commander of US forces in the invasion of Grenada, Gen, Norman Schwarzkopf, became the commander of the coalition forces in Kuwait to liberate it from Iraqi occupation. The Gulf War of 1991 was overseen by Secretary of Defence Dick Cheney, who became the staunch advocate of the Iraq war in 2003 as the Vice President of Bush Junior. The military adventurism by the US from the Cold War period to the present situation in Iraq and Afghanistan, has been run by the same war-mongering conservative Republican establishment and it all started from Grenada. The Grenada invasion showed how a war can be waged by concealing truths and following a policy of bullying and intimidation based on conceit and falsehood. However, history never forgives anyone. In 2008, the government of Grenada and Cuba agreed to build a memorial site for the slain Grenadian and Cuban nationals in the US invasion. In May this year, the Point Salines International Airport was named after Maurice Bishop and the invasion day, the 25th of October, is celebrated as national holiday to commemorate those killed in the invasion.

(The writer teaches English in Lakhimpur Commerce College)

 

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THE ASSAM TRIBUME

EDITORIAL

BRONZING – A SERIOUS DISORDER IN RICE

DR BHAGAWAN BHARALI

 

Rice is cultivated in Assam over an area of about 2.525 million hectares covering Kharif (70 per cent), Ahu (23 per cent) and Boro (7 per cent) paddy. Rice is the staple food of more than 70 per cent people in the region. Many efforts have been made to increase the yield of this crop and bring it to the national average productivity level. The occasional adverse natural situations like drought or flood apart, bronzing is one of the major nutritional disorders that cause low rice yield in Assam.

Bronzing refers commonly to the iron toxicity in rice on acidic soil. Since the beginning of the nineteenth century, it has been popularly known as bhabani in Darbhanga ufre in Muzaffarpur, chatra in Sahabad, bhanjiphuti in Sambalpur, yellowing or browning in Orissa, akiochi in Korea, akagree in Orissa, akiochi in Korea, akagree in Japan, penyakit merah in Malay, mentek in Indonesia, panserk in Bangladesh and bronzing in Sri Lanka.

Bronzing is a chronic disorder in rice soils in the North East India. The soils turn acidic in reaction due to leaching of base cations during the usual course of high rainfall. In fact, there is a wide distribution of acidic soils in the North Eastern plains due to diverse climatic conditions in landscape, geology and vegetation. These soils are light-textured, poor in exchangeable bases, high in sesquioxides, have high phosphate fixing ability, and are poor in organic matter (except in the forest areas). Exchangeable iron plays an important role in developing acidity in soils along with other factors like availability of extractable monomeric aluminium and hydrogen ions, strong organic and inorganic acids, period of submergence, etc.

In Assam, iron-bearing minerals compose the majority of soils. This is why the total iron content in ground water ranges from 0.25-10.13 ppm in Dibrugarh, 4-23.3 ppm in Sivasagar, 0.70-71.0 ppm in Jorhat, 12-24.3 ppm in Golaghat, 1-93.8 ppm in Lakhimpur, 3.5-67.5 ppm in Sonitpur and 13.9-29.0 ppm in Nagaon districts of Assam. From these common scenarios, it is easily predictable that unless purified, the ground water is not fit either for drinking or for irrigation in cultivable land, except in Dibrugarh. A glaring situation prevails in the Boro rice-cultivated areas of the central Brahmaputra Valley zone of Assam, where shallow tubewells have been in practice frequently to supply irrigated water. Nevertheless, in Barak Valley zone of Assam, the cultivable land has been enriched with appreciable amount of soluble iron and suspended organic matter under the condition of high attitude (over 1200 metres) by deposition of alluvial soil from the downhills of Himalayas along with the inundating rainwater in rainy season.

Iron toxicity is a common feature in raw sulphate soils, poorly drained alkaloid soils, in valley receiving inter flow of water from adjacent arid highlands, clayey soils, and peaty soils. Toxicity of iron in acidic soils is dynamic in nature, because the critical concentrations of iron in the soil solution for rice vary greatly within a wider range i.e. 45 to 500 ppm. Despite this, in bronzed plants, the iron content usually remains as high as 200 to 600 ppm. This implies a significant increase in iron content in rice shoot with increase in the level of iron in the growth medium. In bronzed plants, the shoot contains considerably a several-fold higher iron than in a normal one.

Without doubt, bronzing is a yield-limiting factor in rice. The available ferrous iron absorbed by the root rhizosphere in rice is further mobilised into plant cells for localisation in organelles. Chloroplast, the food-manufacturing factory in plant cells, contains as high as 90 per cent of the absorbed iron in plants. Below the critical limit iron is non-toxic, generally while it is present in the form of phytoferretin, various cytochromes essential for energy metabolism, and iron sulphur protein. The rest ten per cent of iron is well distributed in the cytoplasm and other chambers which institutes haeme and iron sulphur bearing proteins. Overriding the threshold limit of iron, chloroplastic abberations like a decrease in size and inflammation of grana lamella occur, which cause reduction of green light harvesting chlorophyll molecules required for photosynthesis. Obviously, this phenomenon is associated with low rate of carbon assimilation due to apparent downfall of electron transport compounds.

Irrespective of the forms of iron as ferretin or ferredoxin, it catalyses the creation of highly damaging hydroxyl radical from superoxide or its dismuted product– hydrogen peroxide. The activated oxygen from hydroxyl molecule initiates breakdown of lipids and causes dysfunction of the membrane. Following this, solutes leak out from the cell through the fractured membrane, and membrane integrity is lost, leading to dislocalisation and changes in spatial relationship among the cellular component. Now, the cell becomes invalued. So, the final impacts of iron toxicity are grave and it needs stern action to combat this menace to increase productivity of rice in Assam.

Several common practices are generally suggested to overcome this acute problem. Out of these, the prominent means are application of potlassic fertilisers on plant and soil, water management, use of lime materials, and farm yard manures, adoption of iron-resistant rice varieties in Kharif season. Lime application is assumed costly for the marginal farmers. Also, lime-induced changes in acidity greater than a PH value 5.7 upto 6.5 may induce deficiencies of many nutrients, even iron. So, we should perhaps consider an alternative phyto-prophylactic measure in case of iron toxicity in rice in the greater interest of the farming community.

 

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

EDITORIAL

NEITHER FAIR NOR SWEET

 

Sugar is turning bitter for the cane farmer, at a time when sugar prices are at an all-time high. And the reason is new regulation that replaces an older system that, imperfect as it was, still aligned, to an extent, the interests of farmers and the mills.

 

Under the new regulation, mills have to pay a fair and remunerative price for the cane they buy, the FRP being fixed by the central government, and nothing more. If the state government fixes a higher price, then it has to bear the cost, a provision which reins in state governments.

So the FRP effectively serves as the ceiling price, particularly in a state like Uttar Pradesh, which has put in place zoning restrictions: farmers in a locality can sell their cane only to a particular mill, and to no one else. This has created a situation in which the ruling price of sugar is sky-high, the mills rake in profits but the farmers get a price that is actually lower than the price they used to get when sugar prices were much lower.

This is patently unfair. Sugar and sugarcane are caught up in a special relationship that prevents the normal working of market economics. Cane has to be crushed soon after being harvested, in order to recover sugar from the sap. This makes mills monopoly buyers (monopsonists, in the jargon) for cane growers in the neighbourhood, even without zoning restrictions. This dependence is not one-way, however.

Mills too will face a shortage of cane, if farmers in the neighbourhood decide to not grow cane or to reduce the scale of their crop, in retaliation for poor prices in the previous season. This kind of inter-dependence makes an ideal case for regulation or integrating cane growing and cane crushing into a single enterprise. Sugar cooperatives should work, but most of them have been captured by politicians. And in UP, where there are few cooperatives, regulation is the sole solution. And that regulation should share the rewards of high sugar prices between the mills and the farmers. The simplest way to do that is to link sugarcane prices to the price of sugar.

The trigger for the new regulation was a Supreme Court order saying that the government should pay for levy sugar a price linked to the actual cost of cane, not the much lower statutory minimum price fixed by the government. The government's gain cannot be at the cost of the farmer.

 

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

EDITORIAL

AN AUTOMOBILE STIMULUS

 

In a turnaround economy like India, small can mean handsome returns. Ask auto makers Suzuki and Hyundai, focused on the sub-compact segment. It is thanks to buoyant small-car sales by their subsidiaries here that both Hyundai and Suzuki have posted record earnings growth, in the midst of a severe global downturn.

It suggests a growth-driver role for the domestic automobile industry, and not merely in terms of volumes and sales. A whole gamut of innovations-from green, energy technologies, to new materials and novel onboard computers-seem likely to be increasingly commonplace in the automobile industry. So proactive policy for the latter would have beneficial effects and spillovers across a panoply of sectors as varied as energy systems, value-added plastics and information technology.

It is true that a significant component of the recent spurt in small-car demand is due to pay revision in the government sector, reduction in excise duty and fuel-consumption subsidies. Besides, stepped-up small-car exports from India is also due to fiscal and monetary largesse in the mature markets. And these demand-side developments are a one-off boost, unlikely to be replicated.

However, the fact remains that domestic demand for transport equipment would remain strong, given our huge growth potential. We need forward-looking policy to rev up production of value-added offerings that have high fuel efficiency, safety and smart systems. This does not mean, however, distortionary tax breaks and holidays.

In an integrated value-added tax regime, exemptions would wreak havoc. What's necessary instead is policy to upgrade industrial skills, encourage a web of supplier networks and provide for critical policy infrastructure, apart from motorable roads. Land acquisition for factories, SME finance, labour laws need urgent attention. Organised bus fleets that run according to GPS-monitored timetables should be the mainstay of urban public transport. The increasingly technology-intensive nature of auto manufacturing would raise productivity across the board.

 

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

 

THE CYCLING CEOS

 

There is this Tamil movie where a character boasts that no one can predict what he will do next since he is like the Chennai driver who switches on his right-side indicator, gives a hand-signal that he is going to turn to the left and then proceeds to drive straight ahead.

 

Which could be one reason why, just the other day, CNN noted that "A form of Machiavellian realpolitik governs Indian roads. Lorries and buses coerce their way through traffic with their sheer size and power, overshadowing auto-rickshaws and motor-cycles and then bull their way through lanes. In the grand pecking order of the streets, one would think that cyclists would come second-to-last, just ahead of pedestrians."

However, CNN noted that Amit Bhowmik, founder of India's first social network for cyclists, was categorical that cycling on India's roads was picking up pace. Bhownik went on to add that "Cycling is safer than people think because you are doing it on the extreme left. It's safer to travel in Mumbai by cycle than in other cities like Bangalore where the lanes are narrower."

Not that everyone would agree with Bhowmik who owns a webs-solutions business and bikes to meetings and back. A decade before CNN quoted Bhowmik on biking in Mumbai, Philips Innovation Campus CEO Bob Hoekstra was pedalling to work and back in India's Garden City. On weekends, Hoekstra even pedalled all the way to the hill station of Nandi Hills, some 65 km from Bangalore.

Hoekstra has left India but is still remembered for inspiring the Netherlands deputy PM I J Brinkhorst and the ambassador to India Eric Niche to cycle with him through Bangalore's Cubbon Park on October 23, 2005. On that occasion, Hoekstra had stated that "Traffic is a big problem in Bangalore. It is much safer to cycle on these streets." Going by Hoekstra's statement that Philips R&D centre had registered an annual growth-rate of 35% a year, may be more and more CEOs should start pedalling!

 

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

PERILS OF DOLLAR CARRY TRADE

SUNIL KEWALRAMANI

 

Over the past year, the dollar has increasingly been at the epicentre of a so-called "carry trade." The Fed has been injecting liquidity into the monetary system to stimulate lending. Banks have the options of putting this money at the Fed at 0.25% (on excess reserves at 0.15%) or invest it in assets providing better returns. With interest rates effectively at zero in the US, stock and commodity traders are borrowing risk-free dollar at negative 20% interest rates (the fall in the US dollar leads to massive capital gains on short dollar positions) and investing in higher-yielding currencies and assets, such as stocks, commodities, oil, gold and emerging markets.

 

The announcement at the end of the two-day FOMC (Federal Open Market Committee) meeting on November 4 that policy interest rates will stay "exceptionally low" for "an extended period flashes a green light for the dollar-funded carry trade that has suddenly come in fashion and is conceivably behind the all-asset rally that has gained momentum since March 2009.

In the process, the 'dollar carry trade' will accentuate what is already a wide gap between valuations and the outlook for economic fundamentals in 2010. People's sense of the value at risk (VAR) of their aggregate portfolios ought to be increasing due to a rising correlation of the risks between different asset classes, all of which are driven by common monetary policy of central banks and the dollar carry trade.

Last year, anyone borrowing in yen to buy Australian dollars, a popular trade with Japanese housewives ('Mrs Watanabe'), would have lost 45% of their money in three months. That is why some equate carry trading with holding equities — both are great investments until they blow up. Still, carry strategies have outperformed cash since 1999 by an annualised 8%, rising by a fifth this year alone. Currently, carry trades have got ahead of themselves, returning to 2006 levels whereas equities trail three years behind.

What is more, if carry trades are the rage again due to animal spirits, why is ultra-safe gold at an all-time high? The yen and Swiss franc, traditional borrowing currencies, are also rallying. Perhaps investors reckon they are onto a "sure thing". And we all know — there is no such "sure thing".

Japanese investors are another big engine behind this new carry trade dynamic. When Japanese institutions invest in US dollar denominated assets, they become exposed to forex risk. As a natural hedge, they can make their liabilities also dollar denominated. In other words, they can borrow in ever-diminishing-in-value dollars to finance their investments. The graph below shows a clear correlation between the lower rates in US and the recent yen appreciation. The Japanese yen closely tracks US LIBOR. Why carry trade is dangerous ?

Firstly, The perils of the carry trade were seen in October 1998. Russia's debt default and the implosion of Long-Term Capital Management LP devastated global markets. It was a decidedly panicky period culminating in the yen, which had been weakening for years, surging 20% in less than two months.

Secondly, when the yen rebounds against the dollar, it often snaps back very fast. A graph of the yen/dollar exchange rate shows very rapid bounces that are equal to or bigger than the April's rally in almost every year for the past decade. So carry trades can go from profit to loss with almost no warning.

Thirdly, if there is no forex intervention and foreign currencies appreciate, the negative borrowing cost of the carry trade becomes more negative. If intervention or open market operations control currency appreciation, the ensuing domestic monetary easing feeds an asset bubble in these destination-economies. So the perfectly correlated bubble across all global asset classes gets bigger and frothier by the day.

Fourthly, many asset prices now seem to be extremely dependent on the glut of cheap liquidity that comes from the dollar carry trade; if you look a chart of the dollar/emerging market exchange rate against the MSCI emerging markets index this year, the correlation between the two is very striking. The implication is that if the dollar rises and carry traders bail out of their assets again, we'll probably see another sharp global sell-off in all assets.

World of contradictions confirm carry-trade-financed global asset bubble: Those who believe the worst is over have been merrily buying equities since March. They are also pushing oil and commodity prices higher, expecting global demand to recover to pre-crisis levels reasonably quickly. Simultaenously, for opposite reasons, doom-mongers are piling into bonds.

Oil is on a boil just when demand is easing. Buoyant traders wanting risk are loving Australian dollars and Brazilian reals. But safe-haven currencies such as the Japanese yen are rallying as well. Likewise, gold investors are schizophrenic; encouraging signs and negative news both seem reasons to buy.

The parallel universes existing in the world today merely reflect the inconsistency of fundamental data. Why are US retail sales improving while unemployment and foreclosures continue to rise, consumer credit is shrinking and consumer confidence still fragile? Export-heavy nations such as Germany are recovering just as their currencies are getting more expensive. Dodgy emerging market sovereign debt or US municipal bonds are priced as if riskless. Since early March, a Brazilian 10-year sovereign bond has seen its yield drop 208 basis points even as the US 10-year note's yield has risen 52bp.

Markets can remain irrational for a long time but the reality check will be brutal for some. To the extent that carry trade is supporting money growth, the Fed could be deceived into thinking monetary policy is looser than it really is. That could set up the markets for a nasty shock, in which the Fed signals an end to accommodation, the dollar surges, and the carry trade reverses.

Such carry trade reversal could bring the whole pack of global asset cards down with it.

(The author is CEO, Global Money Investor)

 

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

EDITORIAL

 

RICE SURPRISE - THE INDIAN MOVE

TEJINDER NARANG

 

After almost 20 years, non-basmati rice import has been authorised last week on the government account. Imports on the private account are not commercially viable. The first tranche of government-sponsored import tenders of 30, 000 mt rice are opening soon. And market reports are projecting import of 3-4 million tonnes in the coming year.

 

This reflects a visionary approach on the government's part to pre-empt an immediate or long-term shortfall in domestic paddy/rice production. In these days of climate change, the weather can prove to be a rude shock for production estimates. Given that, the theoretical projection of sufficiency of supply in India (85 mt production+15mt carry-over) can prove to be lesser than the demand pull (of 93mt), leading to food security issues. The government has rightly decided to err on side of caution. The premise is simple: it is no use speculating whether next year's paddy crop will be inadequate or abundant, but be prepared.

India's entry into the world market has been marked with speed and surprise. Before India presses the accelerator, other nations/governments/traders abroad will attempt to promptly cover their requirements. Larger demand on an immediate basis has already emerged from major importers like Philippines, Iraq and Japan, as they would like to buy (but will not be able to) their requirements at current price levels (around $400/mt fob for 25% broken white rice of Thai and Vietnamese origin and $340 for the Pakistani variety). Prices are likely to spike by 25-50% — $75 to $150 pmt or even more — when subsequent tenders are issued by Indian PSUs.

Only 30 mt of rice is traded worldwide and that includes six mt of Basmati rice exported both by India and Pakistan. Net availability of non-basmati rice is 24 mt. If the Philippines and India together secure six mt in 2010, that would account for 25% of traded rice, which makes for a very bullish price signal. Indeed, rice markets are ablaze as suppliers in Thailand and Vietnam have effectively stopped quoting prices. All producers (Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar and Pakistan) will hold back their stocks for higher price realisation, with traders and buying nations frantically chasing them.

Thus, rice inflation is on the cards globally. But Indian domestic prices will remain stable to firm as the government has taken advance action to curb speculative interest and will also subsidise imported cargoes. India might review its rice requirements after July-Aug 2010 depending upon the intensity of monsoons. That might also mean a decline in international prices if India curtails its import demand after August 2010.

But the process of import itself is not so easy. Defined specifications of rice ensure that some varieties are not commonly traded. The Myanmar-origin, for instance, falls short of compliance as its grain length is less than six mm; the Viet and Thai-origin has to factor in a "on two-third broken basis" and chalky content, etc. Pakistani rice may too have some general quality and photo-sanitary issues. In fact, some of the parameters are so stringent that samples will have to be dispatched to Europe for testing. So, specification compliance will make imported rice more expensive than normally traded rice.

Vietnam's current crop season is ending and their next crop will arrive by March 2010. They have large existing commitments to Philippines and elsewhere and have already exported more than five million tonnes this year. Any worthwhile shipments from Vietnam to India would be feasible only from March/April 2010. Pakistani rice may be competitive, but could create a host of problems both for the buyers and the sellers. The safest, Thailand-origin variety is the most expensive.

India consumes 10,000 mt rice per hour (the basis being the annual demand of 93mt). The current tenders for 30,000 mt rice, thus, cover only three hours of that demand. Given the "trend is the friend" adage, it will be advisable to contract as large a quantity as available in a tender since much higher values will have to be paid for the subsequent purchases.

Post-contracting, execution could also prove to be very hard. With prices rising after each tender, old contracts could face defaults — not because the traders are not willing to supply, but because their vendors might either breach the contracts or foreign governments can step in to limit or ban exports to ensure their own food security.

The Rice Traders Weekly has commented: "Tenders may not be the best tool for a market short in supply. The mood is bullish and India will lead trends in the short term. Tenders in such a market are not the best method of obtaining a good price; tenders are more effective when supply is not questioned. Expect some very interesting pricing decisions with the winners likely to be those prepared to be less greedy and be prepared for a fixed return based on costs and the ability to secure supplies and partners for these tenders."

For India, as well as the rest of the world, the season of surprises in the rice trade has just begun.

(The author, a freelance commodity analyst, is a former director of PEC Ltd)

           

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

EDITORIAL

LIVING WITH THE DEEPER REALITY

MUKUL SHARMA

 

The Seeker asked: "How can I know if what you tell me is true?" To this, the Ancient One (for only a person of very aged pedigree can impress upon the novice such imposing ripostes) replied: "I tell you, seeker, that unless it exists, you cannot know the Truth. For if there is no objective Truth, then why go on deluding yourself through an entire lifetime? Would it not be better instead to try to enjoy the brief period left to your pointless existence? However, what if a deeper reality does exist? To be real, the Truth must stand alone; everything contradicting it has to be counterfeit."

But does a deeper reality of truth exist? In some cases, such as in mathematics, it seems like it definitely does. Two plus two add up to four, period. Whether minds, consciousnesses or people exist or not, whether the world or the universe exists or not, whether a creator or the entire cosmos exists or not, it seems extremely unlikely — if not totally implausible — that two of something and two more of the same would not total up to four of them. In terms of mathematical truth, as understood within the context of logical thought of deduction and induction, this suggests that such truths are pre-existent and thus discovered from within the realm of pure form. There's no getting away.

But now consider faith. The statement most followers of some religions would accept as truth is: "There is only one deity, and that God is an indivisible unity." Other followers of other religions — not to mention atheists and agnostics — however, would say the statement is false. The truth is that it's either true or false and a correct answer probably exists in some realm of pure form. But we can only know for sure which viewpoint is counterfeit if we were privy to all knowledge.

So the Seeker thought for a while and rephrased his question: "How can I know if what you tell me is counterfeit?" To this the Ancient One (with the same credentials) replied: "When you can justify your curiosity with your own answers to questions that have no solutions in the realm of pure form, you become your own fount of pre-existing knowledge and then are no longer deluding yourself or enjoying the brief period left to your pointless existence. But the problem is, such kind of knowledge puts a great burden of counterfeit. Will you consider yourself to be a valuable person thereafter and be able to live, like I do, with that deeper reality?"

 

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

EDITORIAL

WE ARE ONLY FOR UPGRADATION OF MARATHI

 

There is an absolute ruckus over the swearing-in ceremony in Vidhan sabha — which hopefully will take place very soon. One fails to understand the confusion, as there is no concrete foundation to debate.

This ceremony completely belongs to Maharashtra and Marathi being the state language, there should not be a commotion over the choice of language. It's absurd to think it unreasonable for us to demand Marathi as the language at the swearing-in ceremony.

Hindustan is one and complete. And the oneness has a beautiful existence of unity in diversity. But our Constitution itself has created different states and different state languages are given their importance in order to promote smooth functioning in every nook and corner of our country.

There is nothing derogatory or criminal in promoting a language of a particular state for the progress of the citizens residing within the boundary of that state. Marathi is the common man's language in the state. It is also the commercial language of our financial capital, Mumbai. The government recognises Marathi as the official language.

The assembly also confirms Marathi as the language of the functioning. Then why should not Abu Azmi, the Samajwadi Party MLA, understand or use this language after residing in the state for years, and after being elected an MLA here?

And yes, there is no reason to object to Hindi. Actually, there should not be any opposition to any language in Hindustan. Raj Thackeray himself, and his party associates, have already circulated election appeal letters to voters in Hindi and Urdu. So Hindi does not become a part of the argument.

We are concerned with the upgradation of Marathi, not the degradation of any other language. Raising this issue is just a publicity stunt to capture the headlines.

 

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

EDITORIAL

A MOVE TO REVIVE POLITICS OF REGIONAL IDENTITY

 

India is a country of different and contrasting cultures and its linguistic chart is just as diverse. But there are certain groups of people who are trying to vitiate national unity and integration just to hide their recent poll embarrassment.

By calling for taking oath only in Marathi, the Maharashtra Navanirmana Sena has only revealed its inheritance of the hatred and vicious cultural xenophobia of the Shiv Sena. It is an attempt to revive the politics of regional identity and sub-nationalism that has been created by Shiv Sena, and Raj Thackeray is only giving new forms to this chauvinism.

Constitutionally, a member of the Maharashtra House can take oath in any of the around 15 notified languages. No one can decide for a member the language in which he or she should take oath. Even earlier, members have taken oath in Hindi, Gujarati, Urdu, Sanskrit and English, besides Marathi, so why the fuss today?

No one objected when some Maharashtra MPs took oath in the Lok Sabha in Marathi. Who is Raj Thackeray to force MLAs to choose a language? His diktat to legislators shows his disregard for rules of legislative business and procedure.

The MNS's anti-Hindi and anti-migrants campaign is a deliberate strategy to return to a hatred/majoritarian agenda because of the failure of Hindutva politics of Shiv Sena. The Congress is instigating the MNS against the Shiv Sena by making a sharp division of Marathi votes and thus created a clear path for itself with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) to form a new government in Maharashtra.

Samajwadi Party believes in national unity and integrity and has no such vicious agenda to malign any language. The SP has great respect for all Indian languages. But it cannot tolerate if someone, in a lumpen manner, tries to malign the Hindi language. Therefore, the party supports the cause of its member Abu Azmi's desire to take oath in Hindi.

 

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

EDITORIAL

OATH IN MARATHI' CALL MERE POSTURING?

WE ARE ONLY FOR UPGRADATION OF MARTHI

There is an absolute ruckus over the swearing-in ceremony in Vidhan sabha — which hopefully will take place very soon. One fails to understand the confusion, as there is no concrete foundation to debate.

This ceremony completely belongs to Maharashtra and Marathi being the state language, there should not be a commotion over the choice of language. It's absurd to think it unreasonable for us to demand Marathi as the language at the swearing-in ceremony.

Hindustan is one and complete. And the oneness has a beautiful existence of unity in diversity. But our Constitution itself has created different states and different state languages are given their importance in order to promote smooth functioning in every nook and corner of our country.

There is nothing derogatory or criminal in promoting a language of a particular state for the progress of the citizens residing within the boundary of that state. Marathi is the common man's language in the state. It is also the commercial language of our financial capital, Mumbai. The government recognises Marathi as the official language.

The assembly also confirms Marathi as the language of the functioning. Then why should not Abu Azmi, the Samajwadi Party MLA, understand or use this language after residing in the state for years, and after being elected an MLA here?

And yes, there is no reason to object to Hindi. Actually, there should not be any opposition to any language in Hindustan. Raj Thackeray himself, and his party associates, have already circulated election appeal letters to voters in Hindi and Urdu. So Hindi does not become a part of the argument.

We are concerned with the upgradation of Marathi, not the degradation of any other language. Raising this issue is just a publicity stunt to capture the headlines.

 

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

EDITORIAL

A MOVE TO REVIVE POLITICS OF REGIONAL IDENTITY

India is a country of different and contrasting cultures and its linguistic chart is just as diverse. But there are certain groups of people who are trying to vitiate national unity and integration just to hide their recent poll embarrassment.

By calling for taking oath only in Marathi, the Maharashtra Navanirmana Sena has only revealed its inheritance of the hatred and vicious cultural xenophobia of the Shiv Sena. It is an attempt to revive the politics of regional identity and sub-nationalism that has been created by Shiv Sena, and Raj Thackeray is only giving new forms to this chauvinism.

Constitutionally, a member of the Maharashtra House can take oath in any of the around 15 notified languages. No one can decide for a member the language in which he or she should take oath. Even earlier, members have taken oath in Hindi, Gujarati, Urdu, Sanskrit and English, besides Marathi, so why the fuss today?

No one objected when some Maharashtra MPs took oath in the Lok Sabha in Marathi. Who is Raj Thackeray to force MLAs to choose a language? His diktat to legislators shows his disregard for rules of legislative business and procedure.

The MNS's anti-Hindi and anti-migrants campaign is a deliberate strategy to return to a hatred/majoritarian agenda because of the failure of Hindutva politics of Shiv Sena. The Congress is instigating the MNS against the Shiv Sena by making a sharp division of Marathi votes and thus created a clear path for itself with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) to form a new government in Maharashtra.

Samajwadi Party believes in national unity and integrity and has no such vicious agenda to malign any language. The SP has great respect for all Indian languages. But it cannot tolerate if someone, in a lumpen manner, tries to malign the Hindi language. Therefore, the party supports the cause of its member Abu Azmi's desire to take oath in Hindi.

 

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

EDITORIAL

THERE WON'T BE ECONOMIC ARMAGEDDON

SHAILESH DOBHAL

 

As the scion of the one of the world's most influential business families — that own more than 100 companies, such as ABB, Ericsson, Electrolux, Saab and AstraZeneca — the 53-year-old Marcus Wallenberg has an unparalleled inside view of global businesses across sectors as varied as consumer goods, defence systems, telecommunications, pharmaceuticals and financial services.

 

Mr Wallenberg is the chairman of Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken (SEB), Saab, Electrolux, and the deputy chairman of Ericsson. He is also a director on the board of drug maker AstraZeneca, on behalf of the Wallenberg family's holding company — Investor, that has a market value of over $20 billion — which he led as CEO for six years between 1999 and 2005. On a recent visit to India as part of a European Union business delegation, Mr Wallenberg shared his views on the economic recovery under way, the importance to push the envelope on global trade and the role of family in global businesses with ET in a freewheeling interview. xcerpts:

Is the global economic recovery for real?

None of us has been through anything like this before. Therefore, you should be very cautious in trying to make a prediction. But, I think, there are a number of signs pointing in the right direction. Are there great threats or imbalances on the way? Yes, sure. But, fundamentally, we are not going to see an economic Armageddon, the one we were all thinking of just 12-18 months ago. I think it (the recovery) will take time because we have been through such a tough time, and it must take time.

One of the major issues when you think about the recovery is that we have to be very careful so that protectionism does not take over. India has been one of the countries that has been very vocal in saying that it is important, the trade issue and that we have to get to the (conclusion of) Doha round. But I think you have to realise that in difficult times, politicians are very much under pressure from domestic forces. And then you need even more leadership to get there. I think India has shown great leadership recently and that's very good.

 

What happens when governments withdraw stimulus measures they announced in the past year?
I think people are very careful and they should be careful. This is exactly (premature withdrawal of stimulus measures) what happened in 1930s (during the Great Depression) when they (the government) stopped the stimulus, when they didn't have to. With equity, commodity and real estate markets already beginning to overheat, is the financial sector again racing ahead of the real economy?

You have to wonder. The dollar and the oil have a sort of correlation — a negative one. We could have higher oil prices, but that's not good. Personally, I think there are many more aspects that come into this. I am not in a position to say if it is speculation or not. But the long-term energy needs of some of the world's largest countries like India, China and Brazil — if they continue to have such strong economic growth — that would create continued demand. We don't know if there is speculation or hedging.

Most of your companies have had a presence in India for a long time now. Why has Investor not invested directly in India as yet?

I am not here to do (direct) investment. We had done some indirect investments with some Indian friends here. But, we have not come in directly. We have been careful, and so far, have not seen a suitable opportunity to invest. We are focusing on indirect initiatives. It is basically Indians living here who have taken initiatives to do certain things here. I think it is now evident that in India, it is very important to find partners to do things. If you come here with a view to find a good home for your money, then it's important to find a good partner and you really have to stay close to the market, spend time, because you don't know the place.

So, as of now, you are not looking at investing directly in India via Investor or some India-focused fund?

No, not that I know of.

You have been coming here for the past 4-5 years now. You know the areas that are opening up. What are the areas of opportunity here?

I think, if you look at what Ericsson has done here in the past few years, they are very strong. I think all the companies are looking at this market with such growth rate.

 

What about the huge opportunity in the defence sector?

We (Saab) are a very small company, but we have technology for India, and good partners will help us. But it's a very competitive market, and we have some competitors, but we can handle that.

What's the role of the family in a global, multicultural business?

I think values are important. We plan for the long-term, try to keep things together and try to be together. In our family, there has always been a lot of focus around collaborators — who can you bring along, who can you work together with. We have to work together as a team with a long-term aim to build the company.

What's the role of sovereign wealth funds in the future? (Mr Wallenberg sits on the Temasek board)

I think most of them seem to be focusing on maintaining their asset value and to deliver (good) returns. Which I think is what they have tried to say for a long time (only that people were assigning other reasons to their investment strategy).

 

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

EDITORIAL

HCL CHIEF RULES OUT PLANS TO SET UP VC FUND

CHANDRA RANGANATHAN

 

At a time when IT czars are foraying into venture capital, Shiv Nadar, chairman of the country's fourth-largest software services provider HCL Technologies, is fighting shy of any such plan.

 

The reason — Mr Nadar sees a conflict of interest in starting a venture capital fund, while he's still part of HCL, a stand contrary to that taken by his industry peers — Infosys chief mentor NR Narayana Murthy and Wipro chairman Azim Premji. While Mr Premji runs a private equity fund called Premji Invest, Narayana Murthy and his wife Sudha Murthy trimmed their stake in Infosys to start a fund called Catamaran that would invest in Indian companies.

In the past few years, Mr Nadar has taken a backseat from the day-to-day operations at HCL and is focused on carving an overall vision for the group. As part of the Shiv Nadar foundation, he runs the SSN College of engineering in Chennai.

Excerpts from an exclusive interview:

 

You're already doing a lot of work in the area of education through the Shiv Nadar foundation. As an extension, would you also look at doing something to encourage entrepreneurs? Some of your industry peers have turned venture capitalists.

No. I have no intention of doing that at all. We have two institutions — HCL technologies and HCL Infosystems — and that's what we have. The rest is for pure philanthropy.

But aren't you looking at creating more entrepreneurs?

I can't do anything, which is in conflict with the institutions I built. That's not where we go at all.

NR Narayana Murthy is starting a fund. Premji has a private equity fund. Why would you not do the same?

I will not. I quite enjoy philanthropy. Every time I come to Chennai, have you seen me coming for a business trip? No, it's always SSN. I don't even go to the city. I come here only for this because I feel very fulfiled.

So you're not changing your mind on that anytime soon?

No, not me.

 

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

EDITORIAL

STASH YOUR GOLD AWAY SAFE AND SOUND, IT'S STILL THE BEST BET

 

Superfund is a managed futures hedge fund which trades in futures across a large number of markets. The fund trades both commodities futures and financial products. Aaron Smith, MD, Superfund Financial spoke to ET NOW.

Why do you believe that systematic investing is dead?

That was the investment strategy of the past century. The investment strategy of this century will be in systematic trading like managed futures funds, products that can give returns in bull as well as bear markets. The past decade has proved that equity markets are just a big roller coaster and no one can pick the bottoms or the tops perfectly.

So it is much more important to have a systematic trading strategy where portfolio managers, human emotions, are taken out of the equation and you are able to just follow the discipline. After all, 80% of the futures markets worldwide are already electronic.

Why are you super bullish on gold?

In 2004-2005, our founder Christian Baha had told me that he thought gold would go to $1000 per ounce. Now Christian believes that gold will trade easily at $2000 per ounce in the next three to five years. It is just a question of how much money is printed and we do not even know anymore how much money is being printed... Of the $5.1 trillion worth of gold in the world, $800 billion is in Indian households.

The temptation for Indian investors will be to sell when gold hits the 1,100-1,200-1,500 mark, but you would be best to put your gold away, put it in the safe, forget about it and let your grand-children have it and use it in the future.

What's your own view on the dollar, going ahead?

It has gone straight down since 2001, with the exception of the first quarter of last year. The question is, what kind of effect will inflation have on all currencies. If you allow your local currency to get stronger against
the dollar, that is going to hurt your economy.

So all the economies around the world will be forced in this Catch 22 decision of whether to strengthen their currency, protect their purchasing power and kill their economy or depreciate their currency, which is I think is what they are more likely to do. The good thing about gold is gold has no GDP. It has no variables, it has no debt, so you can trust it.

Do you believe that soft commodities will see an exceptional run over the next few years? Or will they trade at the levels they are currently at?

That is another great reason to buy gold because it has 81% correla-tion to commodities since 1980. If you look at spot gold versus the Goldman Sachs commodity India index, that has a 81% correlation. Soft commodities have a tremendous upside.

At Superfund, we have long trading positions, technical trading positions in sugar and cocoa as well as other soft commodities. At the same time, we have taken short positions in some commodities like corn and wheat, where the trend for the past few months has actually been on the downside.

Besides gold, what asset classes would you advise diversifying into?

Well, agricultural land is a very good buy although it is difficult to purchase, and then we have liquidity issues. By 2050, 15% of the arable land in the world will not be farmable because of global warming.

 

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

EDITORIAL

'SHARE OF SMES IN CREDIT FLOW HAS INCREASED'

In the last one year, while overall credit flow declined, credit to the SME sector grew an encouraging 28%. In an interview with ET's Ravi Teja Sharma, IDBI's executive director and SME head, TR Bajalia, however points out that the money raised isn't going into expansion projects.

 

Has credit flow for SMEs improved now?

Credit flow in the first eight months of 2009 for SMEs is up around 28% over the same period last year. Micro and small enterprises have seen a credit flow of Rs 40,146 crore this year compared to Rs 23,865 crore in 2008. The total credit flow in this period was down from Rs 4,84,805 crore in 2008 to Rs 3,08,718 crore. The share of SMEs in the overall credit flow has increased in this period from 4.9% to 13%.

When the government of India announced a policy package in 2005, the total bank exposure to MSMEs was Rs 67,600 crore. All banks were instructed to ensure 20% increase in credit to MSMEs every year so that it doubles in five years by 2010. In March 2009, the exposure stood at Rs 2,57,000 crore which is almost four times. The government should not forget this sector which contributes 40% to the country's manufacturing production and about 35% to its exports.

What has been IDBI's exposure to SMEs?

IDBIs total exposure to SMEs till March 2009 was about 12,000 crore or 11% of total exposure. From April to date, we have sanctioned over Rs 3,000 crore for SMEs of which Rs 2,000 crore has been disbursed. For IDBI, this is the second year of operations in the SME segment. The segment is starting to look up with sectors such as auto, pharma and textiles seeing improved growth.

What has been the nature of borrowing by SMEs in the recent past?

There is a slightly disturbing trend here. New capital investments are not happening. Most new sanctions have happened for additional working capital, new working capital and for non-fund based requests like bank guarantees and letter of credit facility. Very few requests have come in for expansion plans, technology upgradation and other capital investments.

Small companies are worried about the impact of the recent monetary policy. Are these concerns valid and will interest rates go up?

According to indications in the market, interest rates may harden. Liquidity is available but inflation is high so there might be an increase in interest rates but only if inflation rises further. There will not be any increase in the immediate term. Rates may go up by the end of the fiscal if inflation is not controlled.

How has external credit rating of SMEs helped banks in lending?

With Basel II norms coming in, all exposures over Rs 10 crore have to be rated by an external agency. Rating helps in faster processing by banks. With better rating, an SME can negotiate better interest rates. It can benchmark for improvement in the rating or can compare with peers. Rating gives an SME better standing in the market and confidence to the lender, suppliers, buyers and employees.

How is IDBI reaching out to SMEs?

We are creating a hub-and-spoke model where all SME branches having dedicated teams source business which is processed at a centralised processing centre. All branches try to clear loans up to Rs 5 crore in 10 days. We are trying to keep the turnaround time to a maximum of two weeks for small cases.

 

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                                                                                                               DECCAN CHRONICAL

EDITORIAL

INDIA'S STIMULUS: TO END, OR NOT TO END...

 

The monetary and fiscal authorities in this country have considered withdrawal of stimulus packages; and while the Union finance minister stressed these would remain for the time being, he also clearly said that the government would wait for third-quarter GDP numbers and advance tax collection figures to determine if the economy was solidly on the path of recovery before taking a call on ending the stimulus measures. Mr Pranab Mukherjee had voiced concern on the moderation of growth in September after signs of a pickup in industrial growth in the past few months. Exports to Europe, North America and Japan were down 32.7 per cent: these countries together account for 60-65 per cent of our total exports. He also articulated the need to return to fiscal prudence as soon as the economic circumstances permit. All in all, there are signs that unwinding of the stimulus package is not very far from the government's radar. The G-20 nations too feel it is time for countries to draw up exit strategies; and every time this is publicly spelt out, stockmarkets around the world go into a tailspin. The G-20 had earlier said there was no question of an exit till mid-2010; but today some countries like Australia and Norway — admittedly none of the major economies — have already taken steps in that direction by raising interest rates. The United States, Britain, and the major European countries are, of course, in no mood to dismantle stimulus packages yet. This divergence of views about the immediate future — with a part of the world following an easy money policy and the other on a different trajectory — could well impact world financial markets. Australia, for instance, has raised interest rates, so US dollars could well flow there since the US and Europe have almost zero interest rates. If different nations follow different policies, there will be another round of adjustments. The Reserve Bank of India, for example, will have to absorb the capital inflow of funds, and has little choice but to absorb the foreign exchange at a cost. It will have to sterilise these dollars, which in turn will lead to a chain reaction. An easy money policy will also lead to a rise in the prices of crude, commodities, gold, etc, and this could have an inflationary impact as these commodities are rising due to speculation and not demand and supply. There is, however, a positive side to the West continuing stimulus packages. Emerging markets such as India, China and some others in Southeast Asia, which depend on exports to the US and Europe, will benefit if these countries continue to import. There are exciting times ahead for the world's financial architecture as a whole new set of dynamics will start. A coordinated withdrawal of stimulus packages would be ideal, but if this is not on the radar of many nations, nothing much can be done about it. India, for one, will have to take a decision keeping domestic priorities in mind, but also not forgetting that there will be consequences given that we live in an interdependent world. India was not as badly hit by the global financial crisis as some other countries, therefore its stimulus packages were also not of the same quality like the US and even China. Fortunately, these packages coincided with the LS elections, so it had a further dimension here. While the government has talked about withdrawing fertiliser and oil subsidies, nothing has been said about a waiver of farm loans even though farmers are in distress due to drought and suicides by farmers continue.

 

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DECCAN CHRONICAL

EDITORIAL

MAOISTS TALK ONLY TO THE POWER OF A GUN

BY BALBIR K. PUNJ

 

Normally, we would have welcomed the home minister, Mr P. Chidambaram's offer to the Maoists to discuss problems like land acquisition, forest rights of tribals, discrimination et cetera. However, our home minister — though quite intelligent and dynamic (especially when compared to his predecessor) — seems to have not read his full brief on the Maoists. He says that he is not asking them to give up arms but to only eschew violence as a means of redressing their grievances since the government is willing to talk to them.

Mr Chidambaram said at a press conference on October 30: "The Centre had never asked the Maoists to lay down arms since it was not a realistic expectation. We have always asked them to halt violence… They should come forward for talks if they consider themselves serious champions of the poor".

Such an approach presupposes that the Maoists are interested in solving the problems of the tribals and other neglected sections of society, and that they have taken up arms mainly because the democratic machinery refused to talk about these problems, much less solve them. But Mr Chidambaram errs. For all his tough talk and devising (at last) a national anti-Naxal strategy, he should be aware of what happened when the late Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy made a similar offer in 2004 and allowed Naxal leaders and cadres to go around freely, with their arms on display.

It is futile to ask the Maoists to give up their arms or engage them in talks. Maoists do not believe in dialogue. Lenin, who laid down the guidelines for the proletarian revolution, urged his cadres to use all types of deceit and arms to capture power. And once in power, they should eliminate their "class enemies", including other political parties. The state apparatus is to be used without mercy for this purpose. No other criteria for political morality exist in the Marxist-Maoist book.

The history of the Communist movement in the former Soviet Union, in China, in Vietnam, in Cambodia and elsewhere is replete with such instances. Lenin used violence, deception and treachery first to gain ascendance over the Mensheviks and then over his colleagues. Stalin used the state apparatus first to eliminate the Mensheviks and other Opposition political forces and then to finish his own colleagues one by one, starting with Trotsky. The Stalinist trials of the 1930s give a graphic insight into Communist tactics.

In eastern Europe just before the end of World War II, the Communists who were then in minority managed to come to power by collaborating with others. But soon they destroyed their allies from within, one by one, in a policy nicknamed "Salami tactics".

In China, Mao Zedong turned against his revolutionary colleague Liu Shao-chi and then Mao's wife formed the "Gang of Four" that sent several Communist leaders, including the most famous among them, Deng Xiaoping, packing to hard labour.

In Cambodia, the most gruesome killing spree in human history took place under a maniacal Communist leader. Poor peasants who found their land taken away for the collectivisation died in all these countries. India, either under the Maoists or Marxists, will have no different fate.

The ideological paradigm of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) and the Maoists is one. Look at the Marxists who are in power in West Bengal and Kerala. They are no different from the Maoists in dealing with their political opponents. Having state power in their hand, the Marxists threaten and blackmail to smother political dissent. How the Communists succeeded in entrenching themselves in West Bengal over 30 long years has been exposed. Their unions hold several top-level Bengali newspapers under their thumb, so it is not easy to carry anti-Marxist news stories in prominent newspapers and television channels. The fearless among Bengal's journalists have been publicly beaten up by Marxist goondas.

In Marxist-ruled Kerala complete dominance is not possible as the state has been governed by the Congress-led United Democratic Front and Communist-led Left Democratic Front with the non-Communist political forces also gaining strength. Yet the Marxists seek to make up for this weakness by targeting newspapers and journalists at every turn.

In effect, there is little to choose between the Marxists and the Maoists — the former use violence under the cover of the state government while the latter use armed violence in their attempt to seize power.
If the Marxists appear to be working within the constitutional framework, it is because they have tried and failed to seize the state apparatus through violence. Now they are working to wreck the system from within.
The Maoists are convinced that they can seize the state apparatus through armed attacks on the state. There is hardly any doubt that if the Maoists succeed, the bulk of the Communist cadre would shift their allegiance to the Maoist leadership.

Communists of all hues believe in a proletarian takeover of the state through whatever means available. Such a takeover, according to the Leninist-Maoist line, should be followed by imposing the dictatorship of the Communist Party and ruthless suppression of all dissent, even internal, among the Communist leadership.
In this framework of faith in violence and dictatorship, does it serve any purpose to ask the Maoists to give up violence and open talks with the government?

 

Balbir K. Punj can be contacted at punjbk@gmail.com [1]

 

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DECCAN CHRONICAL

EDITORIAL

PAK MUST ACCEPT INDIA'S OFFER OF PEACE

BY I.A. REHMAN

 

REGARDLESS of the views of the hawks in Pakistan's establishment, and howsoever strong they may be, Islamabad must give a positive response to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's offer of peace.
Normal relations and mutually-beneficial cooperation between the two closest South Asian neighbours has always been desirable for many reasons but their urgency has been increased many times over by the extremists' challenge to the Pakistan state.

No sane person on either side of the border can deny that the threat to the stability of Pakistan is also a threat to India's vital interests, and their joint efforts are needed to ensure victory over the terrorists.
That Pakistan needs peace along its border with India in order to be free to deal with the conflict in its tribal areas is only part of the argument for establishing peace in the subcontinent. Much more urgent is the need for India-Pakistan cooperation for winning the battle for democracy, tolerance and social justice. Losses in this battle will plunge the people of both India and Pakistan into unimaginable ordeals.

Hitherto a common view in Pakistan has been that India is ignoring the threat to itself posed by the terrorists' campaign against Pakistan.

There was reason to believe that the pro-confrontation lobby in India saw in Pakistan's predicament an opportunity to squeeze it for concessions it might not be willing to make in normal times. Such elements should not be expected to stop undermining the Indian Prime Minister's initiative.

It is in Pakistan's interest to ensure that he is not forced by anyone to withdraw his offer.

The Pakistan government too will be under pressure from hardliners in its ranks and outside. Any compromise with such elements will cause Pakistan irreparable harm. Islamabad should, therefore, press for the earliest possible resumption of the composite dialogue with India.

Unfortunately, several new factors have fuelled tension between India and Pakistan. One of them is the way the Ajmal Amir Kasab affair has been dealt with by both sides.
The unnecessarily prolonged haggle over Kasab's confessional statement merely exposed the size of the trust deficit. Was it impossible for India to supply Pakistan with an English translation of the court and police record in Marathi and was it impossible for Pakistan to get this work done?

Questions regarding the admissibility of a text not officially admitted by India could have been sorted out in due course. The two sides have to act in a spirit of cooperation to put the Mumbai outrage behind them. Pakistani authorities have been accusing India of interference in Balochistan and the tribal areas. One hopes they have much more credible evidence to support their charges than the use of Indian-made weapons by the Taliban in Waziristan or the receipt of some funds by the Baloch nationalists from Afghanistan.

The extremists' access to arms manufactured in a particular country is no decisive proof of that country's support for their cause and experts in money-laundering have considerable experience in using channels through any country. In any case, these complaints should be addressed on an urgent basis at India-Pakistan joint meetings.

This matter will assume greater seriousness as India's relations with Afghanistan are likely to grow with faster speed than at present. If Pakistan succumbs to the temptation of opposing India's overtures to Afghanistan it will only reduce the chances of normalisation of relations with both Afghanistan and India.

A better way of protecting Pakistan's interests in a democratic Afghanistan would be to grant the latter its due place in South Asian councils and develop a regional response to the twin curse of foreign intervention and civil war that are perpetuating the Afghan people's three decades-long tribulations. No single power can guarantee Afghanistan's recovery and peaceful progress; the task can only be accomplished by countries in Afghanistan's vicinity (all of them, including Pakistan and India) acting in concert.

The significance of the fact that Dr Singh chose to extend his hand of peace while on a visit to Srinagar is unlikely to be missed by Pakistani hawks. They will again advance settlement of the Kashmir issue as a precondition for normal relations with India.

Nobody can deny the importance of the Kashmir issue, especially to the people of Jammu and Kashmir who have been wronged by both India and Pakistan.

But the disastrous consequences of sustaining a costly confrontation until the Kashmir issue is resolved are too apparent to permit persistence in this policy.

While talks to move towards a Kashmir settlement acceptable not only to India and Pakistan but also, and more essentially, to the people of Jammu and Kashmir, should continue, progress or setbacks in this area must not obstruct other initiatives for cementing India-Pakistan friendship and cooperation. More and more people are realising that a Kashmir settlement will follow India-Pakistan friendship and not precede it.
Above all, peace-loving people in both India and Pakistan are getting weary of meetings and talks that do not result in increasing India's stakes in a stable and prosperous Pakistan and Pakistan's stakes in a stable and prosperous India. Apart from giving a boost to India-Pakistan trade it is necessary to think of joint industrial ventures and meaningful cooperation in the fields of agriculture, education, health and culture.
It is possible that the current political crisis in Pakistan will be advanced by one side or another to put India-Pakistan bilateral talks on hold. The time for using such arguments has passed. In today's situation the only sensible course is to press on with establishing peace in the subcontinent regardless of the political crises in either country or a change of regime here or there.

 

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DECCAN CHRONICAL

OPED

DIFFERENT STROKES ON PEOPLE WHO PRODUCE MORE MELANIN

BY COLSON WHITEHEAD

 

One year ago on November 3, America officially became a postracial society. Fifty-three per cent of the voters opted for the candidate who would be the first President of African descent, and in doing so eradicated racism forever.

How do I know? I have observed that journalists employ Google searches to lend credence to trend articles, so I compared recent hits on the word "postracial" with those of a previous year. There have been more than 500,000 online mentions of postraciality this year, as opposed to absolutely zero in 1982. Some say that's because the Internet didn't really exist back then. I prefer to think it's because we've come a long way as a country.

There are naysayers, however, who believe that we can't erase centuries of entrenched prejudice, cultivated hatred and institutionalised dehumanisation overnight. Maybe we haven't come as far as we think. That's why I'd like to throw my hat in the ring for the position of secretary of postracial affairs. (I like postracial czar, but czars have been getting a bad rap lately.)

Call me presumptuous, but I've already bought three-by-five cards and jotted down notes. To wit: Sociologists say that racism is a construct, which means that our predicament is what we in the business world call a "branding problem". Time and time again, attempts to reduce a wildly diverse community to an ineffectual blanket term have yielded diminishing results. "Coloured" lasted 82.3 years, "Negro" less than half that. "African-American" was challenged by "People of colour" after an even shorter reign. May I suggest "People Whose Bodies Just Happen to Produce More Melanin, and That's OK", or PWBJHTPMMATOK? It's factually accurate, non-threatening and quite pithy. The National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People says it's on board if we pitch in for changing the letterhead.

Pop culture is the arena for our hopes, our fears and our most cherished dreams. It is our greatest export to the world. That's why as the secretary of postracial affairs I'll concentrate on the entertainment industry.
Some changes will be minor. In television, Diff'rent Strokes and What's Happening!! will now be known as Different Strokes and What Is Happening? Other changes will be more drastic. Sanford and Son trafficked in demeaning stereotypes. In these more enlightened times, everyone knows that one person's "junk" is another's compulsive eBay purchase. A more postracially robust version features Sanford pere as the genius behind a community-based auction site, with his son, Lamont, the reluctant Webmaster. Think of the opportunities for fleet-footed banter and sophisticated, pun-based aperþus. Like Frasier, but postracial.

Sitcoms about impoverished PWBJHTPMMATOKs adopted by rich white people will have to be a thing of the past. It makes one uneasy, this retrograde idea that societal ills can be alleviated by the paternalistic Caucasian embrace. Less inflammatory, cute and, therefore, worthy orphans will come from a different sector, like those suffering from restless leg syndrome, a neurological disorder that affects an estimated 12 million people nationwide. Those living with restless leg syndrome often refuse treatment due to fears of social stigma, and I think a show like the one described above could raise awareness.

And literature? Take Beloved, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Toni Morrison. Angry and hostile PWBJHTPMMATOKs have no place in this new world, whether corporeal or ectoplasmic. Can we dial it down to "slightly miffed" or "had a bad morning" PWBJHTPMMATOKs?

Let us improve Morrison's timeless classic. We keep the name — it's so totally, invitingly postracial — but make the eponymous ghost more Casper-like. Without making her Casper-looking. That would totally change the aesthetic intent of the book.

Film is similarly problematic. A reimagined Do the Right Thing should reflect Brooklyn's changing demographics, with a group of multicultural Brooklyn writers — subletting realists, couch-surfing post-modernists, landlords whose metier is haiku — getting together on a mildly hot summer afternoon, not too humid, to host a block party, the proceeds of which go to a charity for restless leg syndrome, an affliction that mildly inconveniences more people than you think.

In her seminal essay Pimpin' as Metaphor, Susan Sontag wrote that "Given our nostalgia-mad society, a Blaxploitation revival is inevitable". But one wonders, how do you stick it to The Man when The Man Is A Bro? We also need to up the ante of these neo-blaxploitation films by giving the protagonists additional obstacles to overcome and let me tell you, restless leg syndrome is quite the obstacle, what with the anguished tossing and turning, tortuous shooting pains, and vain cries for sweet, merciful release from an unfeeling or absent God.

My plans aren't mere abstract theorising. As the secretary of postracial affairs, I want to get out there and engage the people, organise town halls, get up in people's homes and faces. Eat their food. There's a variation on an old parlour game that I use to ease people in. You write down on a card what race you were pre-postraciality, and stick it on your forehead so the other players can see. Then, prompted by their clues, you try to figure out what colour you were before everything changed. It's a real icebreaker.

I can't do it alone. We each have to do our part. I'm just a sad, lonely man trying to piggyback on this whole postracial thing to educate folks about my restless leg syndrome.

 

 Colson Whitehead is the author, most recently, of the novel Sag Harbor

 

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DECCAN CHRONICAL

OPED

CERN: WILL OUTCOME MATCH THE AMBITION?

BY S.H. VENKATRAMANI

 

There is an intriguing question mark over the resumption and continuation of the path-breaking experiments on fundamental particle physics at the Centre for European Nuclear Research ( Cern).

Cern had initiated a path-breaking project to observe and investigate the formation of matter in the immediate aftermath of the Big Bang, i.e. precisely during a time span of 10 seconds after the cosmic Big Bang explosion. By simulating the Big Bang in the laboratory, the physicists of our planet were hoping to gain invaluable insights into the creation and dissolution of matter, or, for that matter, anti-matter!
With the largest particle accelerators on planet earth, including a few of the largest Linear Hadron colliders, Cern was slated to resume its exploration into the macrocosm cooped up inside the microcosm of the atom in November 2009.

But overwhelming safety considerations cried a halt to the unfolding rapid pace of this stimulating subatomic research over a year ago.

But right now the buzz in the campus and its neighbourhood, strategically located 100 miles below the surface of the earth, is that it will take at least a few more months for the institution to hum again with its phalanx of exciting research projects. November 2009 will be an impossibly tall order as a deadline for the research establishment to meticulously pick up the threads of its full scale research once again and get going full steam.
The Cern racing track is the longest racing track in the world, stretching to a total of 27 kilometres.

There is also a sullen undercurrent of resentment that is snowballing against the grandiose project. Poised, as mankind is, on the tingling threshold of a daunting and demanding 21st century, we are no techno-geeks and ning-nongs to cower and crouch at the feeblest hint of a pulley, a lever or a word processor. So why can't the Cern establishment make itself transparent and take all of us interested and concerned folks into confidence as to what is happening inside the hermetically-sealed and formidable fortification of European Nuclear Research? The complex is also home to 9,300 magnets as part of the infrastructure for accelerating the sub-atomic particles.

Another disappointment is that the heaviest sub-atomic particle discovered so far, the Higgs' Boson, is not likely to materialise in Cern as promised. The talk in town is that the particle is so repulsive that it will be done away with soon after its creation.

The precise reason as to why Cern applied the brakes to its fundamental particle research has itself not been clearly spelt out so far.

A large number of people in Geneva believe that the leakage of some radioactive material from the campus was the reason behind the abundantly cautious cessation of scientific research activity. In the absence of open communication, ripples of fear spasms gnaw at the vitals and viscera of the local people every now and then. A lot of the inhibition is about the foolhardiness of man trying to play God! There is understandable concern about upstart man tilting at divine windmills!

Down the ages, time and again the point has been driven home to us that conquering and vanquishing nature is all fine up to a point. But when push comes to shove, we should respect divine turf. That is why whenever we have deigned to ask fundamental questions, nature has drawn the blinds and played its cards close to its chest. It should not become a case of fools rushing in where angels fear to tread.

At a meeting of the International Congress of Mathematicians on December 31, 1899, David Hilbert, a British mathematician and president of the Congress, threw the gauntlet to fellow mathematicians. He observed that mathematicians had, till then, been happily cruising along on the basis of deductive logic and self-evident axioms. But can we be sure that deductive logic will not lead us to any self-contradiction? How can we be sure that we will not contradict ourselves if we continue evolving and enunciating ever newer theorems through deductive logic?

Mathematicians diligently went to work to prove the absolute internal consistency of their discipline. But three decades later Kurt Godel in Germany proved that it was impossible to meet Hilbert's challenge. Even if such a proof, as to the internal harmony of deductive logic, were possible, what tool would that proof use? Again, only deductive logic. Using deductive logic to drive home the sanctity of deductive logic is like presuming what has to be established. It will be a classic case of "post hoc, ergo proctor hoc", a splendid illustration of begging the question.

It is one thing to anticipate and pre-empt the onslaught of an approaching infection. To cautiously inoculate yourself to anticipate and ward off a viral infection is perfectly in order. But if you want to dismantle and understand the theoretical foundations of the universe, then, as William Wordsworth warned us, "We (have to) murder to dissect". If you are going to rock the infrastructure of the world, then God had better sit up and take note.
Bertrand Russell used to recount the story of a Cretan who once observed that "Cretans are always liars". Was this statement of the Cretan true, or was it false?

If this generalisation was true, then in accordance with it, this Cretan himself must have been telling a lie when he made the statement. If, on the other hand, the statement was untrue, that would imply that Cretans are generally in the habit of lying. Therefore, the statement should be deemed to be true. So, if he was speaking the truth, he was uttering a falsehood. And conversely too.

Bertrand Russell's classic conundrum was that of the barber in town whose brief was to shave everyone who did not shave himself. But did the barber shave himself or not? If he did not, he did. And if he did, he did not.
With such treacherous pitfalls in the domain of mathematical logic, the Cern project is not going to be a fast track one.

 

S.H. Venkatramani is a former journalist, critic and commentator based in New Delhi

 

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DECCAN CHRONICAL

OPED

VOTERS SPEAK, HEADS ROLL

BY BY GAIL COLLINS

 

Cincinnati, Ohio

In Ohio, citizens marched to the polls on Tuesday and voted to allow gambling casinos in the state. This was obviously a message to US President Barack Obama that independent voters are not happy with the way the healthcare bill is going. Really, I don't see how else you can interpret it. Ohioans were looking forward to the lower insurance costs that would come with a robust public option, and if the President can't deliver, they're planning to pay their future medical bills with their winnings at the roulette wheel.

Also, people here in Cincinnati rejected a proposal that would have made it harder for the city to expand mass transit. Meanwhile, both Atlanta and Houston voted on mayoral races, and in each city there is now going to be a runoff between a woman and a black guy. You think this is a coincidence? The meaning could not be clearer if the ballots had a "maybe we should have gone for Hillary" line.

There seems to be a semi-consensus across the land that the myriad decisions voters made all across America this week added up to a terrible blow to the White House. If that's the way we're going to go, I don't think it's fair to dump all the blame on gubernatorial contests in New Jersey and Virginia. Although there is no way to deny that New Jersey and Virginia were terrible, horrible, disastrous, cataclysmic blows to Obama's prestige. No wonder the White House said he was not watching the results come in. How could the man have gotten any sleep after he realised that his lukewarm support of an inept candidate whose most notable claim to fame was experience in hog castration was not enough to ensure a Democratic victory in Virginia?

New Jersey was even worse. The defeat of Governor Jon Corzine made it clear that the young and minority voters who turned out for Obama will not necessarily show up at the polls in order to re-elect an uncharismatic former Wall Street big shot who failed to deliver on his most important campaign promises while serving as the public face of a state party that specialises in getting indicted.

They would not rally around Corzine even when the President asked them! Really, what good are coattails if they can't drag an unlovable guy from a deeply corrupt party into a second term? Also, we have heard a lot about the fact that Corzine's campaign made sport of his rather chunky opponent, Chris Christie. It was not until Wednesday morning that it became obvious that Christie's victory was actually an outcry by average, pudgy Americans against a President who has to continuously battle against a tendency to lose weight.

We have a dramatic saga storyline brewing here, and I do not want to mess it up by pointing out that Obama's party won the only two elections that actually had anything to do with the President's agenda. Those were the special Congressional races in California and upstate New York. But they reflect only a very narrow voter sentiment, since one involved a district that was safe for the Democrats and the other a district that had not been represented by the party since 1872. On the other hand, Mayor Michael Bloomberg's victory clearly fits into the pattern of voter outrage against an unsuccessful White House. Initially, New York City residents couldn't figure out how to send their message of inchoate rage against all that Obama stands for, since Bloomberg is neither a Republican nor a Democrat, but a member of the well-known splinter group, Extremely Rich White Persons. Also, Obama had backed his opponent, Bill Thompson, with an endorsement that could not have been more half-hearted if he had sent it via Candygram.

In the end, everyone got together and decided to re-elect Bloomberg by a margin that was much narrower than expected. I know this is the first time that you are hearing this, but I voted on my way out of town on Tuesday, and I can assure you that everyone in New York intended to convey their unhappiness with the administration's foreign policy by electing Bloomberg by a margin of five percentage points — exactly the average number of letters in "Iran" and "Israel".

The voters were directed by a crack team of political operatives disguised as elementary school bake-sale ladies, who spelled out their orders with chocolate chip cookies. The national news media missed this entirely, but insiders could tell that the cookie people were working under cover, since the school system banned genuine pastry sales as part of Bloomberg's healthier-than-thou initiative.

I hope Obama has gotten the message and he shapes up and completely transforms the way Washington works before the next election. Otherwise, another governor's head could roll.

 

By arrangement with the New York Times

 

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THE STATEMAN

EDITORIAL

MR BASU'S APPEAL

TO THE VOTER AND THE PARTY NO LESS

THE party is decidedly desperate six months after the Lok Sabha denouement. It is of lesser moment whether Sunday's appeal by Mr Jyoti Basu came off his own bat or was advanced at the behest of the party. Indubitable is the fact that Alimuddin Street has once again taken a bow in the direction of Indira Bhavan. It is more than a mere coincidence that the war cry on the eve of the ten assembly by-elections was in parallel with Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee's disarming candour in the pretty much helpless expression that "we have realised that a political change has come to Bengal". Unmistakable are two critical features in Mr Basu's "request" to "Congress supporters to support the Left for the sake of peace, order and development when the state is facing danger". It is quite another story whether any of the stated objectives will materialise should the voter abide by his advice. On the face of it, this is concordant with his post-Ayodhya political philosophy that the Communist Party of India (Marxist) reach an understanding with the Indian National Congress to confront the adversary. "We had supported the Congress unconditionally against communalism in the interest of the country." The adversary today is not the equally down-at-heel Bharatiya Janata Party, but the Trinamul Congress. In his reckoning, the strategy advanced in the mid-nineties is no less relevant today though this time the perceived nexus between the Trinamul and the Maoists appears to be the underpinning.

Second, the appeal mirrors the Bengal school's perception that the Karat lobby's decision to dump the Congress had done the party in in the Lok Sabha election. Mr Basu has made it quite transparent that the party had committed a tactical blunder. It bears recall that the Congress had waited and then tied up with the Trinamul only after the CPI-M resolved to effect a parting of the ways. The Left dumped the Congress, not the Congress the Left. Has Mr Basu pitched for a reversal of the process? He has studiously left it to the electorate to take the decision. Also clear is the intent to drive a wedge in the Opposition ranks. The subtext of the message is addressed no less to Prakash Karat and his acolytes. Bengal has reached a grim pass and the transition in 2011 ~ whichever way the vote goes on 7 November ~ will be still more violent.

 

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THE STATEMAN

EDITORIAL

VALUELESS VALOUR

RELOCATION IS SURRENDER

RATHER than inspire others in J&K to emulate her heroism, developments in the Ruksana of Rajouri saga are likely to convince the common folk that resisting militants is an invitation to the kind of threat against which the state offers no shield. For despite all the trumpet-blowing from the Governor downwards, all the media splashes about a turnaround in the offing, the authorities are contemplating relocating the young braveheart to the Capital after a grenade attack on her house in Shahdra Sharif village exposed as hollow all promises to accord her due protection. No relief is to be drawn from the fact that there was nobody at home when the militants ~ supposedly LeT fighters ~ came calling again, even if it were on the advice of the police that everybody had moved away. Simply because even the presence of a police picket in the locality testifies to the lack of deterrence, and suggests that "revival" of the J&K police is far from what it is being cranked up to be. The village has been virtually deserted after the attack on Friday night. Even before that Ruksana's family had been ostracised by the local community because it feared that associating with them would attract the militant's wrath, an apprehension that now appears warranted. The police has further eroded its credibility by giving vent to its failure-induced anger on the village youth. The typical danda reaction only enhances alienation, and pushes young folk to the "other side".

For Omar Abdullah and his government the inability to adequately protect a "trophy target" is yet another major failure, and a loss of credibility that must extend itself to other spheres of governance as well. Now that the euphoria of electoral success has dissipated it is becoming apparent that even though well-intentioned, he requires much administrative and political support to turn the situation around ~ a task not limited to countering Mehbooba Mufti, nor something which a railway line will redeem. The issue under focus points to a dangerous gap between ground realities and Srinagar and New Delhi's projections of normality returning. The common folk have suffered enough to know who is calling the shots and to bend in which direction. In that context, while her personal safety may be enhanced, the relocation of Ruksana equates with surrender to militant diktat. 

 

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THE STATEMAN

EDITORIAL

ONE-HORSE RACE

FRESH AFGHAN CRISIS DEEPENS US DILEMMA

Afghanistan grapples with a fresh crisis barely a week before the run-off election. That exercise may turn out to a one-horse race with Dr Abdullah Abdullah's withdrawal in the face of President Hamid Karzai's refusal to remove key election officials. The motions of a run-off on 7 November are bereft of substance; Karzai is set to retain the office of President despite a fraudulent election which had turned out to be a matter of concern for the Western powers, not least Barack Obama. There is no denying that his administration will be considerably weakened, indeed shorn of legitimacy. The denouement in Kabul can only intensify the US President's dilemma over whether to beef up the military presence to confront the Taliban in a fractious land. And the decision will not be easy as the internal affairs of Afghanistan become increasingly puzzling. It bears recall that Karzai had agreed belatedly to a run-off only after considerable pressure from the US administration. Hillary Clinton puts up a feeble defence that "I don't think it has anything to do with the legitimacy of the election. It's a matter of personal choice." What the Secretary of State deems as Abdullah's "personal choice'' will only reinforce Karzai's fraudulence. The Islamist militant must now be laughing up his sleeve.

It is significant that weekend efforts by American and UN officials to reach a power-sharing deal had collapsed in the face of Abdullah's reservations on the credibility of the run-off under the supervision of the present set of election officials. Much as he is opposed to the proposed patchwork quilt of a coalition arrangement, he has conveyed the message to the West that a fraud-free set-up is still not in place. The presidential election has not been able to achieve the goalpost ~ post-Taliban Afghanistan's march, however tortuous, to democracy. The democratic exercise remains ever so mired in controversy. Abdullah has quite plainly taken the high moral ground, and 7 November is set to witness the renewal of a spurious presidency.

 

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THE STATEMAN

EDITORIAL

WAR CRY FOR ART. 356~I

PERVERSE INTERPRETATION TO SCORE POLITICAL BROWNIE POINTS

ABHIJIT CHATTERJEE

THE people of West Bengal have of late repeatedly heard certain demands raised by the leader of the state's main opposition party and presently an important union minister. Chief among them is that the Centre should invoke the powers of the President under Article 356 of the Constitution to dismiss the government in West Bengal.

Such demands have been made in the context of several developments that have occurred in the state in the recent past. Similar war cries were heard in 2008, alleging that the state government was guilty of violating an agreement on Singur, one that was concluded in the presence of the Governor.

As a lawyer, I am pained by this political jingoism or "jargonism", if one is permitted to coin an expression. It rides roughshod over well-settled constitutional and legal principles and positions. Political rhetoric is a legitimate tool of a politician, but constitutional and legal principles should not be allowed to be turned on their heads while resorting to such rhetoric. That would be misleading the people. Senior politicians, and particularly ministers who have pledged their oath to uphold the Constitution, are expected to know the basic constitutional tenets and cannot be allowed to use a perverse interpretation of constitutional powers and positions to score political brownie points.

Incorrect perception

THE frequent demands for invoking Article 356 create an incorrect perception in the popular mind, i.e. that the Central Government is the guardian of the governments of the states, and is the disciplinary authority of the state governments. The Centre has not been conferred with such powers; indeed, to confer such powers would be inconsistent with the concept of federalism embodied in our Constitution.

The exercise of powers under Article 356 entails grave consequences. I shall focus on the scope and contours of Article 356 in order to put the matter in perspective and leave the issue of the so-called Singur agreement for discussion in a later piece.

In expressing my views on Article 356, I shall carefully avoid reference to the discussions, reports and recommendations of various commissions, committees and study groups regarding its merits and demerits in the context of the federal structure of our Constitution. As a practising lawyer, my endeavour will be to focus on Article 356 as it stands and the history behind its incorporation in our Constitution and the way it has been judicially interpreted.

It is imperative for the purpose of my exercise to reproduce the material part of Article 356 as it stands:
"356(1): If the President, on receipt of a report from the Governor or otherwise, is satisfied that a situation has arisen in which the government of the State cannot be carried on in accordance with the provisions of this Constitution, the President may by Proclamation ...".

Any study of the scope and applicability of Article 356 will be incomplete and an exercise in futility, without alluding to the history behind its incorporation in the supreme document of our nation, including similar provisions in pre-constitutional legislation that governed the field at the material time. It is also important to emphasise the basic fact that the founding fathers have framed a Constitution with a federal structure with a strong unitary bias.

The observations of HM Seervai, the eminent jurist and constitutional expert, are instructive: "The test laid down by Prof Wheare in his classic work has been generally applied to our Constitution and, broadly speaking, that test can be accepted, subject to its being supplemented by the illuminating discussion of Prof. Sawer in which he rightly said that it is necessary to enquire whether a federal situation existed in a country before it adopted a federal constitution".

Referring to India, he said: "The subcontinent of India was another area which by reason of size, population, regional (including linguistic) differences and communication problems presented an obvious federal situation, if not the possibility of several distinct nations". The following historical account of how our Constitution adopted the federal solution supports Prof. Sawer's conclusion that "a federal situation clearly existed in India...

 

Conditions existed in India which pointed to a federal solution as the right one for a sovereign democratic Republic and the solution was embodied in our Constitution."

A Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court of India has held in the case of SR Bommai vs. Union of India reported in 1994(3) SCC 1 that democracy and federalism are the essential features of our Constitution and are part of its basic structure.

The present Article 356, which was Article 278 of the original draft, has been the subject matter of intense debate in the Constituent Assembly and the deliberations are highly instructive on appreciating the objectives of the founding fathers of our Constitution. However, it would be on anachronism to skip the provisions of the Government of India Act, 1935 before embarking on any discussion on our Constitution. As observed by the Supreme Court in MPV Sundaramier vs. A.P. (1958) SCR 1422: "Our Constitution was not written on a tabula rasa,  that a Federal Constitution had been established under the Government of India Act, 1935, and though that had undergone considerable change by way of repeal, modification and addition, it still remains the framework on which the present Constitution is built, and that the provisions of the Constitution must accordingly be read in the light of the Government of India Act."

Constitutional machinery

SECTION 45 of the Government of India Act, 1935 provided for failure of the constitutional machinery for the Federation in Part-II, Chapter V of the Act. Section 45(1) insofar as it is material ran as follows:
"45. Power of Governor-General to issue Proclamations ~ (1) If at any time the Governor-General is satisfied that a situation has arisen in which the government of the Federation cannot be carried on in accordance with the provisions of this Act, he may by proclamation ~

(a) declare that his functions shall to such extent as may be specified in the proclamation be exercised by him in his discretion;

 

(b) assume to himself all or any of the powers vested in or exercisable by any Federal body or authority".

Section 93 of the Act of 1935 was on the same lines as Section 45 except that the Governors of provinces were substituted for the Governor-General, and that the government of the province was substituted for the Government of the Federation. Seervai has observed that the provisions of the Act of 1935 were enacted because one section of the Congress had declared its intention to enter the legislatures only in order to wreck them from within, since they fell short of the party's demand for full self- government.

Section 12(1)(a) of the Act of 1935 provided that in the exercise of his function, the Governor-General shall have, interalia, the special responsibility to prevent any grave menace to the peace or tranquility of India or any part thereof. The amendment moved by the Marquess of Lothian in the House of Lords to add the following words "for subversion of the institutions set up under this Act" as a special responsibility was withdrawn on an assurance by the Marquess of Zetland that if a really serious attempt was made to subvert the Constitution, even by constitutional means, it would be contrary to the general scheme set up in the 1935 Act and the Governor-General would be justified in taking action under Section 45. The reference to the provisions of the 1935 Act, which were the precursors to the present Article 356 and in particular the situations they were intended to deal with, has been made to demonstrate the situations in which such powers under the Act of 1935 were intended to be exercised.

(To be concluded)

 

The writer is Senior Advocate, Calcutta High Court

 

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THE STATEMAN

EDITORIAL

OBESITY 'CAN KILL YOUR SEX LIFE'

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Washington, 2 NOV: Here's another reason why you should shed the flab ~ excess weight can hamper your bedroom life, for a study has found that obese people have less sex.

An international team, led by Professor Frances Quirk of James Cook University, has carried out the study and found that in addition to increasing health risks, obesity can kill overweight people's sex lives.
According to researchers, there are several biological and physical factors which could lead to a decrease in sexual functionality. "Sexual dysfunction is very personal and even within a relationship lots of couples find it very difficult to talk about changes. One partner may say: 'I think something has changed and I don't know what it is, while the other is thinking 'they've gone off me'.

"Excessive weight gain may lead one partner to find the other less physically attractive, a change in hormone production and lower energy levels and all these things can have a negative impact on your sex life," Prof Quirk said.

According to the researchers, people are likely to be attracted to certain body shapes in the opposite sex.
"When men see women with a small waistline and broad hips the are just primed to respond to those shapes, while women are attracted to the triangular shape of a man. These body types are indicative of hormonal and physiological characteristics that are naturally attractive.

"With a round body shape all of those cues are hidden so what you're relying on in terms of your own sexual response to someone is subjective feelings," Prof Quirk said.

 

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THE TELEGRAPH

EDITORIAL

OLD FORM

 

The government led by Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee seems to have been seized with fatalism. Not only has it proven itself to be inefficient on most counts, but it is also refusing to make an effort to look smarter and more active in the months that are left for the assembly elections in West Bengal. Ways to do this were provided by the recommendations of the administrative reforms committee headed by the former chief secretary, Amit Kiran Deb, a committee that the chief minister had asked for. But most of the recommendations of the committee will now be ignored, because the suggestions are likely to seriously upset the status quo. The committee recommends that 16 departments of the government with overlapping functions be reduced to eight. This would eliminate delays, lack of coordination, the spinning out of red tape and the stifling layers of obfuscation. But all that is better — in other words, people's harassment and administrative inefficiency are better, whatever the price, than upsetting coalition partners who must have a required number of departments under their control. The Communist Party of India (Marxist), now a little shaken by signs of its unpopularity that it cannot ignore even at its most arrogant, obviously feels it cannot afford to upset its allies. With the gradual lessening of its contact with reality and its slightly unbalanced focus on every breath that the Opposition draws, the CPI(M) is probably finding that the state and its voters have somehow become dimmer than the party's immediate interests.

 

In spite of frequently pronounced brave words, evidently the CPI(M)-led government feels that it is walking a tightrope. So there can be no question of merging, for example, the agriculture department with agricultural marketing as recommended, or fisheries with animal resources development, or school education with mass education extension, and so on. Only civil defence and disaster management have been brought together. But the government has also rejected the recommendation to divide six of the larger districts into smaller units for the sake of more efficient governance. All of which leads to a puzzling question: since reforms are intended to change things, did the West Bengal chief minister expect that reforms in the case of a CPI(M)-led government would mean something novel, defined as something that suits the Left Front government alone?

 

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THE TELEGRAPH

EDITORIAL

HARD REALITY

 

Even a Nobel laureate might end up feeling miserable, especially if he happens to be the president of the United States of America. What good is a peace prize given by a Swedish committee when people at home consider their president's party unworthy of their vote? Barack Obama, "surprised and humbled" by the Nobel peace prize, justified the honour as "a call to action". He need not have waited that long. It has been a year since Americans have elected their first black president. In these 12 months, Mr Obama has made too many tall promises and delivered too little on the ground. The national economy, in spite of the revival package, is yet to recover appreciably. Healthcare and tax reforms have put off the middle-class whites (who form the Republican support base), and Afghanistan is going from bad to worse. So Mr Obama should be the last person to be surprised by the Republican resurgence, as the results of the recent state elections across the US show. The Democrats have not only performed dismally, losing important gubernatorial posts in Virginia and New Jersey, but their defeats have also cost their president dearly. Since his inauguration in January this year, Mr Obama's approval ratings have been going down from an initial whopping 70 per cent. In July, his ratings were worse than what George W. Bush had enjoyed in the same period of his own presidency. By mid-October, the figure had plunged to 50 per cent, making Mr Obama's popularity slightly below the average for all US presidents since World War II.

 

Clearly, the aura of romance and heroism that the US media had so expertly cultivated around Mr Obama has finally started to fade. However, the time for a "Republican renaissance" — to quote Michael Steele, the chairman of the Republican national committee — may not have arrived just yet. Although the Republicans have secured a number of key states, a clash of interests between the moderates and the hardliners within the party persists. There is no reason for the Republicans to forget just yet that their last president was voted out of power as one of the most unpopular leaders of the nation. Or put behind the fact that most of the crosses that Mr Obama is now burdened with were the fruits of Mr Bush's eight-year misrule. Equally, Mr Obama should also snap out of the fairy tale that has been spun around him by the liberal press. Romance must give way to real life.

 

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THE TELEGRAPH

EDITORIAL

FATED TO FADE AWAY

IT IS HIGH TIME THE LEFT WORE ITS THINKING CAP AGAIN

CUTTING CORNERS - ASHOK MITRA

 

A faded group photograph one chances upon shows the faces of the earnest members of the first national executive committee of the Congress Socialist Party formed exactly 75 years ago, in 1934. The CSP was put together within the folds of the Indian National Congress as a kind of ginger group to push the lugubrious juggernaut of the great parent party towards a more radical direction. The elderly caretakers of the Congress listened — half-mockingly, half-patronizingly — to the new breed who talked of such exotic things as happenings in the Soviet Union and the rise of the Nazis in Germany and the fascists in Italy as direct spin-offs of economic depression and mass unemployment. Even in the United States of America, capitalism was said to be malfunctioning, the ranks of hunger marches swelled every day, extensive public works under State auspices were somehow saving the system. The dedicated crowd milling within the CSP were grappling with the significance of these events for India. The nation must of course be freed, here and now, from foreign shackles, but that was not enough. What sort of free India was it to be, what would be the contours of its social and economic order? India belonged to its masses: the overwhelming number of dispossessed peasantry and underpaid workers and artisans of various descriptions as well as the mute castes and tribes at the receiving end of exploitation over centuries. The Congress must adopt concrete programmes for a total reconstruction of the economy in post-independent India so that a proper kisan-mazdoor raj emerged. The CSP was going to see to all that.

 

Its first national executive committee, the faded photograph attests, was a curious mélange: Farid Ansari, E.M.S. Namboodiripad, Dinkar Mehta, Nabakrushna Choudhuri, Narendra Deva, P.Y. Deshpande, S.M. Joshi, Soli Batlivala, S. Sampurnanand, Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay, Jayaprakash Narayan, N.G. Goray, Achyut Patwardhan, Purushottam Trikamdas, Charles Mascarenhas. It was too improbable a combination to last long; it did not.

 

Communists like Namboodiripad, Batlivala and Dinkar Mehta left this clandestine shelter by 1941. Nabakrushna Choudhuri, the devout Gandhiite, also soon detached himself, and later became Congress chief minister of Orissa, and subsequently joined Vinoba Bhave in his bhoodaan mission. Sampurnanand too, at some point, became Congress chief minister of India's largest state; by then he was an arch-social conservative leaning towards Hindu orthodoxy. Minoo Masani, a great admirer of Soviet collectivization in the 1930s, somersaulted, ending up as a foaming-in-the-mouth anti-communist and co-founded the Swatantra Party. Narendra Deva, the gentlest of souls, gradually withdrew from active politics and remained satisfied with his role as an ideologue of socialism, a slice of Marx, a slice of Gandhi, mostly Rousseau. Jayaprakash Narayan, the underground hero of the 1942 Quit India movement, mellower with the years; most of the time he was with the Praja Socialist Party — the CSP's direct legatee — but was also with Vinoba Bhave. He finally led the nava nirman struggles in the 1970s to emerge as the father figure of the Janata Party, which demolished Indira Gandhi's Emergency. He was lucky to die before his handiwork broke into smithereens.

 

Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay was always a rebel of a woman in search of a cause, which at the end she discovered in cottage crafts and the theatre movement. Of the rest, S.M. Joshi, Achyut Patwardhan and N.G. Goray clung for long years to the Praja Socialist Party and its later incarnations, walked into the Janata Party when J.P. put it together, then migrated to the Janata Dal or one of its innumerable factions. Some of them had developed pockets of influence among a number of caste groups, 'other backward classes'; innate feudal instincts, however, drove them to waste their strength in endless internal squabbles until it was disaster time.

 

The Indian National Congress, it would seem, was both the curse and the ultimate provider of shelter for several of those rebels who loved to talk socialism in their calf days. It supposedly represented 'the stream of national consciousness'; its cloying charm was almost impossible to resist. For quite a few of them, the expression, 'national consensus', would have a bewitching effect: yes, engage in debate, let arguments and rhetoric have free flow, yet, at the end of it, it would be gross lack of patriotism not to fall in and join the national mainstream.

 

Others had disappeared; for the past few decades it is, therefore, only the communists who could claim the socialist inheritance. The Left and the communists became synonymous. Given their ideology, the communists, many had expected, would not get caught in the trap of 'national consensus'. Were not they the quintessential Left, the other side in the class war, where there could be no scope for compromise with adversarial forces? Their failure to tackle satisfactorily the class-caste dialectic was, however, a major problem. Equally ticklish was the issue of whether the global brotherhood of the working classes transcended national priorities. The communists have been extraordinarily cautious after the experience of 1962, and have taught themselves to be careful so that nobody could dub them as less than 'patriotic'. The Left led by the communists has, for instance, ceased to question the huge allocations in the name of defence and national security. The nuclear agreement signed with the US can be safely opposed; but courage fails when the question is one of across-the-board reduction in defence outlay; to argue for such reduction would not be 'politically correct'. The Left has thus modulated its ideology; it too must be an integral part of the patriotic front.

 

Consider this other instance. The Left in the past used to advocate the thesis that the Indian nation is a conglomerate of linguistic — and sometimes ethnic — sub-nationalities, and overall national progress was impossible if these sub-nationalities were left out in the cold. Its emphasis on an equitable structure of Centre-state relations stemmed directly from this understanding of the polity. They availed of the opportunity of the temporary decline of the Congress in the post-Emergency phase and were able to gain much credibility for their demand for expanded financial powers for the states. They dazzled only to disappoint. In the course of the past couple of decades, they have swung completely in the other direction: the state headed by the Left in West Bengal became most vocal in its support for full fiscal integration across the nation, a cause dear to the heart of the capitalists. It has indeed been a bizarre spectacle, the Left campaigning for a financial regime where the states will in effect be permanently at the mercy of the Centre.Even on the issue of globalization, the Left has succumbed to centripetal urges. The state governments under its control mouth the formal party line against economic liberalization. This is nonetheless being accompanied by a desperate zeal to invite capital, including foreign capital, into their premises. In a competitive environment, the Left, the argument goes, could not allow the territories under its influence to turn into an industry-less desert because of dearth of capital. Examining the feasibility of industrialization via the public sector route is no longer on the agenda.

 

Now for the tailpiece. The Congress ruling at the Centre, according to party theorem, represents feudal-bourgeois oppressor classes against whom the Left is to pursue a relentless battle. True, the Left is under great stress since the Maoists, for their own reason, have chosen the formal Left as their principal enemy. Even so, it is altogether incongruous how, to combat the Maoists, the Left has totally identified itself with the Centre. The incongruity appears all the greater because not so long ago the Left was vociferously opposed to the very concept of the Centre raising a police force; was not law and order a state subject?These are disturbing developments. Should not the Left re-wear its thinking cap? And, while doing so, should not it ask itself how a situation could be allowed to develop where Maoists can instantly mobilize a few thousands to lay siege on a railway station in a tribal belt, where a partisan of the Left dares not enter the area without adequate security guard?Or has a decision already been reached for self-destruction, the Left is to fade away — like the faded faces in that group photo discussed in the earlier paragraphs?

 

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THE TELEGRAPH

EDITORIAL

TIGER MEETS DRAGON

BONA FIDE - MALVIKA SINGH

 

With China damming the Brahmaputra and holding India to ransom, it is time the Indian government got proactive with other governments, including that of the United States of America, to ensure that this kind of rough-and-tough, old- fashioned way of bullying and threatening another sovereign nation is stopped. If China is sitting at the high table of the committee of world nations, it must be compelled to address international issues in a dignified and democratic fashion. Strong-arm tactic and denials emanating from the Chinese government are completely unwarranted. Technological and scientific mappings of the world show the many 'intrusions' and expose the many lies. Therefore, political and military tactics, too, must change with the times.

 

India and China should ideally work in tandem to secure and protect the region. Instead, there exists a deep lack of trust between the two. To exploit a population economically and politically because it is still not as empowered as those in other parts of the world is clearly unacceptable. Politically irresponsible dictatorships will not be able to restore the lost human values and ethics that inform mankind. This simplistic and aggressive attitude in a complex world where people are asserting their identity, and demanding dignity and justice can only aggravate an already volatile reality.Because of its communist legacy, China still seems to carry the baggage of that political truth, is unable to abandon dictatorial positions, and is unwilling to come to the discussion table to find solutions. Grabbing territory is old hat, and it is time China undertakes a fresh approach towards its neighbours. Human beings cannot be suppressed beyond a point. The Americans were defeated by the Vietnamese who had no military might compared to their enemy, but the people routed that superpower and debilitated the US foreign policy.

 

EMPTY SEAT

Gandhiji led Indians using the weapon of civil disobedience to vanquish a dominant colonial power. Hitler brutalized a people, Stalin and Mao Zedong repressed their own countrymen. This millennium must bring with it composite dialogue, appreciation and acceptance of differing views and ideologies. Nations and governments must try to reach a consensus and agree to disagree if there is a logjam, give in and adjust in an effort to maintain peace and enhance civil society. There is no other way to deliver the goods and services to all the people of the world at all levels of society.

 

China and India need to take the lead and set the example of dialogue and consensus, much like Jawaharlal Nehru's attempt at Panchsheel.Those notions of collective responsibility are now more valid than they were at the time they were enunciated. What is lacking today is solid leadership. Nasser, Tito, Nehru were intellectual comrades. Today, when one looks for similar relationships in the top echelons of international leadership, one is hardpressed to find such collective thinking. That is the primary problem. No one is pulling in the same direction with the same set of rules and similar goals of governance. People are united in the belief that their patience and goodwill are being exploited by all leaders everywhere. Someone from among them has to step out of the restrictive lakshman rekha and lead a collegium to change the trajectory collectively, retaining the many special 'identities' that make the earth a diverse place.

 

India could take the lead and win over the countries of the East as its allies. China and India could come together to check other superpowers and their clumsy assertions. South Asia and Europe could lead the change and thrash out new mechanisms for equitable growth. The 'seat' is empty and someone has to take up the challenge.

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DECCAN HERALD

EDITORIAL

MIND-BOGGLING FEAT

"KODA SYMBOLISES THE DEPTH OF CORRUPTION."

 

 

The investigations conducted by the Enforcement Directorate and the Income Tax Department against former Jharkhand chief minister Madhu Koda are the largest ever against any Indian politician in terms of the number of places and premises raided and the strength of the staff deployed for the purpose. The findings are also among the biggest ever — hundreds of crores in accounted wealth, thousands of crores of illegal money laundering and investments in places like Liberia and Dubai.

Investigations show that Koda has a network of people inside the country and outside who formed a web of corruption, illegalities and cheating. He was a labourer with no means before he joined politics 15 years ago and had meagre assets before he became a minister and later the chief minister. It is clear where the wealth that he possesses came from. He was the first independent MLA to become the chief minister of a state. The Congress and the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha had supported him.

Jharkhand is rich in minerals and successive chief ministers and ministers have looted its riches to make private and illegal gains. Political instability has also been exploited to maximise personal returns. One of the country's most notorious symbols of corruption, Shibu Soren, is from the state. The present raids are the result of six months of investigations against Koda and his colleagues, involving even international agencies. Two former ministers are already in jail on money laundering charges. The results confirm the suspicions that politicians have stashed away their ill-gotten wealth abroad.

Koda's charge that the raids are an attempt to tarnish his image will not find any takers. The state is going to have assembly elections later this month and Koda has said that he has been targeted because of that. But he has not explained how he has come to possess so much wealth. It is also not known why the investigating agencies have  targeted only independents, when leaders of political parties in Jharkhand are also considered to be neck-deep in corruption. What has been revealed might only be the tip of the iceberg in the state where a politician-bureaucrat-contractor nexus is very active. That is one reason for the growth of naxalism in the state. It is necessary to widen the scope of investigations, expedite them and ensure that they lead to punishment of the guilty. Often they are dumped when political equations change.

 

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DECCAN HERALD

EDITORIAL

POSITIVE OUTCOME

"THE PACT ON INVESTMENT WILL BENEFIT INDIA."

 

 

From India's point of view a  positive outcome of the seventh India-ASEAN summit which concluded in Thailand last week was the decision to expedite negotiations to finalise an agreement on investment and services. The call to set up an international university at Nalanda was another. The proposed agreement will be a follow-up to the India-ASEAN free trade agreement which has been concluded and it would benefit India more because the country, with the nature of its economy and its talent pool, can take better advantage of the opportunities in the south-east Asian region. India will have large deficits in its trade with the bloc, which is expected to grow to $50 billion by next year, but the advantage in the service and investment sectors will strengthen its economic relations with the region. The target date set for the agreement is December 2009 but it might take longer considering the long and difficult history of negotiations on the free trade agreement and the reluctance of the ASEAN countries to relax the barriers in the two areas.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's statement at the summit which called for promotion of trade, technology and investment flows through open, orderly and predictable channels pointed to the need for the new agreement. All this could help in better economic integration of India with the ASEAN countries and could lead to the creation of a wider Asian economic community. The prime minister also proposed the setting up of a joint task force to explore more areas of partnership so that the 10th India-ASEAN summit in 2012 would have a substantive outcome. The proposal jells with the idea of an East Asian Community, on the lines of the European Community, suggested at the main East Asia summit by Japan and Australia.

The proposal is still nebulous and has a long way to go. There are various views on its nature, structure and membership. The different historical experiences, cultural traditions and political systems and diverging interests of member countries are major challenges. But the very fact that it is being discussed shows the willingness to look for commonalities and build on them. The ASEAN will be the core of such a community but India, Australia and even the US would like to be a part of it.

 

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DECCAN HERALD

EDITORIAL

INDIRA, THE DESTROYER

DURING INDIRA GANDHI'S DRACONIAN RULE THE PRESS, THE JUDICIARY AND THE BUREAUCRACY COMPROMISED BECAUSE OF FEAR.

BY KULDIP NAYAR

If all the sponsored publicity by the Congress-ruled Central and state governments could efface the stigma of mis-governance on Indira Gandhi's part, it would have happened long ago. After 25 years of her death, the same sources did not have to go over the exercise all over again with crores of rupees going down the drain. The effort failed because there was no introspection, no regret.

Indira Gandhi's cardinal sin was not the imposition of the emergency but the elimination of morality from politics. She rubbed off the thin line that differentiates right from wrong, moral from immoral. Her demolition of values was so thorough that the dividing line stays erased even today.

In the first 19 years after independence, Jawaharlal Nehru and his successor, Lal Bahadur Shastri, saved the nation from becoming prey to power politics. They used their office to serve the nation. Never did pettiness or vindictiveness cross their mind. But Indira Gandhi was different. She had no qualms in making power the end by itself. She should have resigned on moral grounds when she was disqualified by the Allahabad high court for a poll offence. But how could she follow the rule of law when she was law unto herself?

Instead of resigning, she imposed the emergency to overturn the entire system to save her skin. She had parliament pass a legislation to remove the disqualification bar. She did not think it appropriate to consult even the cabinet, which was summoned in the morning to endorse the proclamation which the president had signed the night before.

Indira Gandhi was never happy with the press. Her first order was to gag it. The media has still not regained its equilibrium even after 34 years. It has now developed the quality to stay on the right side of every political party when in power. That is the reason why newspaper articles on her 25th death anniversary seldom mentioned her misdeeds either before the emergency or during the emergency. They were too laudatory even to shame the sycophants.

Mahatma Gandhi taught the nation to shed fear. Indira Gandhi recreated fear in the minds of people. Whether it was the press, the judiciary or the bureaucracy, they compromised because of fear. She decimated what was called the impartial bureaucracy. It caved in under pressure. Desire for self-preservation became the sole motivation for government servants' actions and behaviour. The fear generated by the mere threat made them pliable. They became a tool of tyranny in her hands.

Commitment re-defined

Indira Gandhi coined the word, commitment, long before the emergency to assess the loyalty of bureaucrats towards her. Some of them differed to say that their commitment was to the constitution of India. But they were either ignored at the time of promotion or sent to an unimportant position. This resulted in slow tracking of independent administrators, accustomed to note fearlessly on files.

The judiciary also felt the pressure of commitment. She superseded three Supreme Court judges to appoint her own person as the Chief Justice of India. He came in handy when the case of emergency's endorsement was before him. The Supreme Court judgment was 11 to 1. The lone dissenter, the senior most judge, was not made the Chief Justice when his turn came. It was rattling of Lewis Carroll's, "I will be the judge. I will be the jury, said the old cunning fury."

The biggest damage she did in her 18-year-rule was to the institutions which her father, Nehru, had founded and nourished. She manoeuvred even parliament when she lost the majority in the Lok Sabha in the wake of the party's split.

Indira Gandhi certainly began her political life with a remarkable mix of many things, a capacity to listen, to comprehend at different levels, to communicate with the last man. And she was strictly and totally secular in region and religion. These qualities underwent different permutations and combinations in later days. She would use every trick to win at the polls.

Somewhere along the way a new factor entered to restrict her vision. Her son, Sanjay Gandhi, became the extra-constitutional authority. He opened the doors to dubious muscles of lumpen youth. The order, built by him, has not been dismantled and one can see it in the governance even today. Indira Gandhi used all methods to break those who opposed her. I wonder if she would get even a footnote in history. If at all she gets mentioned, it would be because of Operation Bluestar against the Sikh's Vatican, the Golden Temple at Amritsar. She has had the tanks roll in within the precincts of the gurdwara.

She paid a heavy price for it. Her Sikh bodyguards killed her to avenge the attack on the Golden Temple. But then the government's retaliation was criminal. It did not act in 1984 for three days during which 3,000 Sikhs were butchered in Delhi in broad day light. It is an irony that the Sikhs have recalled the killings this weak, the 25th anniversary of the massacre, when the Congress party, too, has held meetings and photo exhibitions to glorify Indira Gandhi.

 

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DECCAN HERALD

EDITORIAL

ISRAEL'S BACKDOOR CONTACTS WITH IRAN

THE SAUDIS WERE INVITED TO BE PRESENT AT THE SERIES IRANIAN-ISRAELI MEETINGS IN SEPTEMBER.

BY SAEED NAQVI

 

That Moscow's support has been enlisted by the US in the diplomacy around Iran's nuclear plans has not been without considerable behind-the-scenes goading by France and Germany.

The very heart of 'Old Europe' was never comfortable with anti ballistic missile systems being positioned in what Donald Rumsfeld called 'New Europe,' namely the Czech Republic and Poland. After all, Moscow's diplomatic support on Iran was obtained only after Washington agreed to withdraw missiles from eastern Europe.

But for Moscow it has not been a mechanical quit-pro-quo. Political advisers around the Kremlin have done their homework and joined the Iranian diplomatic concert after extensive discussions with the key country in West Asia — Israel.At a recent seminar in Herzilia, Israel, senior members of the Jewish state's intelligence community like former Mossad chief Shabtai Shavit, argued that the west's adversarial relations with Moscow would worsen with the deployment of missiles in eastern Europe. Under these circumstances it would be impossible to have Russian support on the Iranian nuclear issue. Israel sees this as an existential problem.

But realism dictates that Israeli nuclear arsenal is, likewise, an existential issue for Iran. In this context, statements from Washington policy makers like Bruce Riedel are seen by Iranians as "being helpful." Riedel said that 'double standards' in West Asia on the nuclear issue are not conducive to peace.

Exposing Israel

Therefore, embedded somewhere in the sub text of all the moves whether in Geneva or Vienna is to bring out into the open Israel's nuclear arsenal. It is recognised that resistance to this within Israel and an influential segment of the US will be profound.

Meanwhile some direct Israeli-Iranian contacts have already been established. While Tel Aviv has confirmed the contact, Tehran has not.

It would be interesting to gauge the dynamics within Iran following the demonstrations against President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad's June 12 re-election led by former President Hashemi Rafsanjani and Mir Hussein Mousavi, the candidate who lost the disputed poll.

These are being hailed as the first contacts between Iran and Israel in 30 years when the Ayatuallahs first came to power in 1979. But this is in reality only a partial truth because in 1986, the Reagan administration made clandestine contacts with the Iranian regime. The story exploded as the infamous Iran-Contra deal or Irangate.
It was a complex deal in which Iran would be supplied Israeli arms to continue the war against Saddam Hussein's Iraq. Israel would be re-supplied the arms. But the money from the Iranian sales would be funnelled to the Contras who were waging a war against the pro Soviet Sandinistas in Nicaragua.

Reagan's National Security Adviser, Admiral Poindexter, declared that 'high level' contacts had been established in Tehran in the course of the controversial deal.

The high level contact turned out to be the then Speaker of the Iranian Majlis, Hashemi Rafsanjani, currently leading the charge against President Ahmedinejad.

Irangate
When Irangate exploded as a major scandal which crippled the Reagan presidency, the revelations did not seem to adversely affect Rafsanjani's political fortunes. He proceeded to become President in 1989 for two terms.

Also, the Irangate taint did not seem to rub off on the present spiritual leader, Ali Khameini. He happened to be president in 1986, the year of Irangate. It is unlikely that Speaker of the Majlis, Rafsanjani, would have embarked on an audacious foreign policy initiative with the US and Israel without clearance from the then president, Ali Khamenei. Despite Irangate, Khameini too earned a promotion: he is the spiritual leader today.

The interesting fact today is that Rafsanjani and Khameini are on opposite sides in the post election standoff.

Since the US ouster of Saddam Hussein in 2003, Saudi Arabia has watched developments with deep anxiety. Saddam was bad, but the emergence of Shia dominated Iraq next to Saudi oil bearing region of Damman, predominantly Shia, is something of a nightmare. Further, Shia majority in Bahrein, Lebanon, a large population of Shias in Kuwait are all morale boosters for Tehran.

Little wonder then that Saudis were invited to be present at the series Iranian-Israeli meetings in September. Also, Riadh has been encouraged to appoint a special envoy for Jammu and Kashmir under the auspices of the hurriedly rejuvenated OIC.

 

Mysteriously, neither the government nor the Indian media has taken much note of this development.

 

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DECCAN HERALD

EDITORIAL

TERRORISED CHICKEN

IN INDIA THOUSANDS OF ANIMALS ARE 'TERRORISED' DAILY, BUT NO ACTION IS EVER TAKEN.

BY NIVEDITA CHOUDHURI

My work as an interpreter in the UK brings me face-to-face with interesting people and situations. Most of my assignments are in hospitals (you could say that I am an interpreter of maladies). Therefore, I was pleasantly surprised the other day when I learnt that my services were required by The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA).

 

Intrigued, I made my way to the home of the lady whose address I had been supplied. The interview began after the arrival of a grim-faced RSPCA inspector.

I was absolutely taken aback at what followed. The lady, a mother of five children aged between one and 12, had been charged with failing to prevent her kids from 'terrorising' chickens. She faced a hefty fine and a court case for her 'misdemeanour'. In addition, she was from the Indian subcontinent and spoke no English. She looked absolutely blank when asked if she had contacted her solicitor and did not seem to understand the 'gravity' of the situation.

The family had purchased some chickens from a market and brought them home. The birds had been thrown into a small cage, but they had apparently been fed regularly by the lady. Trouble started when a friend of one of the boys came home and started playing with the chickens. He had tossed some of the chickens high up in the air. The squawks of the birds had attracted the neighbours' attention and one gentleman had photographed the incident on his mobile phone and sent off the clips to the RSPCA. The 'terrorised' birds had since been removed from the custody of the accused, but she was told she could get them back if she promised her children would behave well with the birds.

S
The inspector fired a volley of questions at the lady. Why did she buy the birds, what she had been feeding them, where she kept them at night and whether she had taught her children how to handle the chickens. The entire episode was an eye-opener for me. I'm sure in India thousands of animals are 'terrorised' every day, but no action is ever taken against offenders. And, in the UK, somebody had actually spent time and money (they had hired me after all) to defend 'terrorised' chickens. What a great country this is!

 

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THE JERUSALEM POST

EDITORIAL

US, THEM & OBAMA

 

This week marked the 30th anniversary of the 1979 seizure of the American Embassy in Teheran by followers of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. To celebrate the 444-day-long violation which came to personify the regime's sanctimonious thuggery and disdain for international norms, the mullahs organized yet more "Death to…" mass demonstrations.

 

Astoundingly, tens of thousands of anti-regime marchers piggy-backed on these rallies in Teheran, Tabriz, Isfahan and Shiraz - not to chant insults at America, but to plead: "Obama, Obama - either you're with them or you're with us."

 

The "them" is the syndicate dominated by capo di tutti capi Ali Khamenei, Revolutionary Guard sotto capo Mohammad Ali Jafari, and presidential mad-hatter Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

 

The "us" refers to an amalgamation of individuals and groups who are sick and tired of "Death to…" and want Iran to be a normal country.

 

PRESIDENT Barack Obama noted the anniversary by saying, "Iran must choose. We have heard for 30 years what the Iranian government is against; the question, now, is what kind of future it is for."

 

But this is a question the president, who this week marked the anniversary of his own election, cannot reasonably forever ask.

 

He has made it clear that he "wants to move beyond this past" and seek "a relationship with the Islamic Republic" rooted in "mutual interests and mutual respect."But Khamenei is not swayed. "The American government is a really arrogant power" and he's not "deceived" by Obama's "reconciliatory behavior…"

 

Khamenei needs America to be his Great Satan as the edifice of his regime slowly crumbles. Even some of the "students" who took over the US embassy are today locked-up as enemies of the state. The dissenters set out to create representative government with an Islamic face. What they got instead is authoritarian government with a stony Islamist facade. The revolution has consumed its makers.

 

Even the ruling clique has taken to internal bickering. This, in addition to Iran's standard one step forward, two steps backward "negotiating" technique, explains the latest flip-flopping about shipping enriched uranium out of the country.

 

IN ITS infancy, the mullahtocracy violated the extraterritorial sovereignty of the Israeli and American embassies. Thirty years on, Iran is on the brink of building an atom bomb and perfecting ballistic missiles capable of reaching beyond Europe. The Iranian regime is today the principal cause of instability in the Middle East; its ambitions extend to Latin America and Africa.

 

The world reacted to the capture by the Israel Navy of the Iranian arms ship Francop Wednesday with its usual attention deficit syndrome; a quick gasp… and then on to the World Series. The vessel was loaded with the equivalent of 20 cargo planes of weaponry and intended for Hizbullah, suzerain of Lebanon, proxy of Teheran. The Francop follows in the wake of the Santorini and the Karine-A. We shudder to think how many other ships have gone undetected.

 

Iran is now in naked contempt of clause 5 of UN Security Council Resolution 1747 (2007) which forbids it from exporting arms; and of clause 15(a) of Resolution 1701 (2006) which prohibits sending weapons to factions in Lebanon.

 

Last month, Yemen captured an Iranian ship laden with weapons intended for Shi'ite extremists fighting the country's ruler. It's no secret that Iran has been shipping weapons by sea to the Polisario rebels battling moderate Morocco. But in arming its Hizbullah and Hamas proxies, Iran pulls out all stops - truck convoys through Sudan, trains through Turkey, donkeys, tunnels - whatever it takes.

 

This week Israelis heard Major-General Amos Yadlin, chief of Military Intelligence, reveal that Iran has provided Hamas with rockets that have a 60-km. range capable of striking Tel Aviv. Hizbullah already has similar weaponry. Barring a "lucky" strike, the only practical use for such rockets is to slaughter Israeli civilians en masse.

 

WE CLOSE out the week on a glimmer of hope - the certainty that evil regimes don't have to last forever. Next week marks the fall of the Berlin Wall which led to the collapse of the Soviet Empire.

 

If only Barack Obama could walk in the footsteps of John F. Kennedy (Ich bin ein Berliner) and Ronald Reagan ("Tear down this wall!"), and provide the moral leadership the civilized world needs to help the people of Iran take down this regime.

 

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HAARETZ

EDITORIAL

THE WORST SHOW IN TOWN

 

When a show is received with booing from the crowd and is torn to bits by the critics, it is brought down, taken off the screen. This way at least some expenses are saved and the disappointment of all those affected - from the management to the actors, all the way to the general public - is expedited. But what can be done when the theater's building itself turns out to be both a fiasco at the bank and with the critics? Is there any power in the world that can remove it from the stage and replace it with something else?

This is the question that comes to mind at the sight of the travesty constructed in recent months at the national theater, Habima - or at least what has been built on the ruins of the previous structure: an enormous block of concrete, sealed by walls, rising like a dam along the street; walls that make all the surrounding buildings appear tiny, including the adjacent Mann Auditorium; a building which in its clumsy style reminds us more of an industrial-zone shopping center than a theater ensconced within its urban environment.

When every city resident wanting to expand a window or close off a balcony must go through the purgatory of municipal red tape, it is puzzling that such a brutal, environment-altering structure could have emerged in such an attractive part of central Tel Aviv. The planning was done without any public input, without a broad competition among architects, and with almost no public debate until after facts were already established on the ground.

 

In a controversial process - without a tender, and contrary to the recommendations of the city engineer at the time - the theater's board chose from only two options. It was the proposal of Ram Karmi, an architect of substantial achievement and an Israel Prize laureate who has also been associated with a series of grandiose and stylistically brutal projects that have drawn broad public criticism. These included the New Central Bus Station in Tel Aviv, as well as a plan (which has been rejected in the meantime) to transform the Prime Minister's residence into something resembling a fortress.

Habima is a nonprofit organization that doesn't require a process of tenders, but did those running it not understand the difference between farce and tragedy? And how is it possible that the Tel Aviv municipality did not take a decisive stance on such a critical change to the city's appearance?

If it's possible to put aside the architectural issue as a matter of taste, it is not so when it involves the conduct that is part of the "overhaul" - a process by which the divide between the artistic needs and the structural plans continues to grow, the timetable is plagued by delays and the growth of the building itself symbolizes the growth in costs, now nearing NIS 100 million: three times more than the original budget.

All of these delays and costs would have been forgotten if the actors and the audience could look forward to returning to a friendly, inviting and beloved building. But that is doubtful, mostly when comparing the emerging Habima building with similar structures around the world, which are characterized by a lighter and more open style. It is too late to drive this dybbuk from Habima, but perhaps other institutions will learn a lesson from this show - on proportionality, haste and megalomania.

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 HAARETZ

EDITORIAL

PRESERVE THE ATTORNEY GENERAL'S ROLE

BY URIEL PROCACCIA

Justice Minister Yaakov Neeman's proposal to deprive the attorney general of the jurisdiction to act as head of the state prosecution is unbecoming. The problem is not, as many believe, the "perfunctory" manner in which the idea was formulated, or the fact that the proper homework was not done to prepare for such a far-reaching step. On the contrary, one is overcome with the suspicion that the plan was thoroughly weighed right down to the last detail, and that it found favor with its advocates precisely because of its sinister content.

There are countries like the United States in which the principles of the rule of law, including fundamental human rights, are anchored in a written constitution that is regarded by a cross section of the public, both right and left, as a sacrosanct document (even if at times it is interpreted in various, contradictory ways). There are other countries like Britain which do not have a constitution, though they do boast a democratic tradition that is nurtured and guarded to a point that ensures the existence of the rule of law and human rights despite the absence of a constitution.

Israel is unlike either of the aforementioned countries. On the one hand, it possesses nothing but a tiny fragment of a constitution (in the form of two Basic Laws), from which a significant chunk of human rights were knowingly excised. Despite its truncated nature, many consider it a historic accident that happened by chance or fraudulently. On the other hand, our country does not have a noted tradition of democracy, perhaps because most of the people who have settled in Zion were originally from a diaspora that encompasses Eastern Europe and the Middle East, places where human rights and the rule of law were not a part of the cultural tradition.

 

Without a real constitution and given that we have a democracy as fragile as it is, the principles of the rule of law and human rights are on shaky ground, for we have no guarantee that these principles will not be swept away in a wave of engulfing nihilism.

Our judicial history has proven that we have two main instruments that are relied upon in order to somewhat lessen the risk factors mentioned above. They provide a sliver of hope that the rule of law and human rights can be preserved. These are the Supreme Court and the attorney general. Much has already been written of the attempts to mar the constitutional underpinnings of the former. That same malevolent spirit is now seeking to curtail the functions of the attorney general.

The job of the attorney general in Israel is a unique concept in comparative law. The attorney general is not a consigliere for the Benizris, the Hirchsons and their ilk - the rich and powerful. Rather, it is a job that requires him or her to be an attack dog who carefully scrutinizes the government's actions, the rule of law and human rights, issues that are of little concern to the powers that be.

In the days when our most renowned attorneys general were in office, in line with the tradition pioneered by Meir Shamgar, the rule by which all government agencies and bodies must accept the attorney general's recommendations on legal matters was engrained and adopted. Woe be unto us in the event that the government did as it pleased without a seal of legal approval with which it is bestowed, like a precious gift, by virtue of the job done by the attorney general.

The fact that the attorney general is also the head of the state prosecution is what gives the watchdog its teeth. Removing that function from his jurisdiction and granting it to another official is akin to denying the watchdog the ability to bite those who act waywardly and, by extension, denying the government and the voters who entrusted that government to preserve the principles of the rule of law and human rights.

What are these principles? They are known to all: equality before the law for everyone, irrespective of nationality, religion, political views, skin color or sexual preference; distance between the government and one's private matters; preserving the right to live a lifestyle that conforms to law; freedom of debate, political expression and property acquisition.

While these principles may be cherished by some of us, they are a nuisance for others. Thus, why shouldn't those others object to the equal application of the law to both Jews and Arabs? Why shouldn't they object to equality before the law for men and women, heterosexuals and homosexuals, those who support the government and those who oppose it, our enemies who violate the law and do us harm in the process as well as those who violate the law to do our enemies harm, the affluent and the common man?

Weakening the attorney general post while encroaching on the authority of the Supreme Court is a calculated, carefully considered way to undermine the principles of the rule of law and transform it into something else entirely.

The writer is a professor of law at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya and a former dean at the Faculty of Law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

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 HAARETZ

EDITORIAL

OPERATION IMMUNIZE ISRAEL

BY YOSSI SARID

 

The government and the man heading it are doing a good thing by vaccinating the population against viruses in Operation Immunize Israel - and not only against swine flu, which is by no means the greatest threat to our public health. There are graver menaces at our doorstep.

Some top ministers have shown determination to extricate us from all of the 49 gates of contamination and defilement. What a pity that they themselves are not the strictest observers of the rules of hygiene; even as they execute this sacred work they clear their throats and spit, sneeze, cough, without always bothering to cover their mouths or wear surgical masks.

It was Vice Prime Minister Moshe Ya'alon who launched the campaign not long ago, after he was the first to identify that dangerous virus - the left-winger - and especially its most virulent form, Peace Now, in our bloodstream. Since his diagnosis, it's been easier to combat those disease-bearing Sternhells.

 

Throwing his weight behind the decontamination campaign this week was the interior minister, who's also some kind of a vice or deputy premier or some-such position. On this occasion, for a change, he wasn't out to exterminate germs of the Arab, left-wing, or even homosexual (they're sick, poor things) varieties. No, this time he sounded the alarm against migrant workers and their children, who he said were known to carry infectious bacteria "such as hepatitis and tuberculosis and AIDS, and are endangering the Zionist enterprise." He's worth listening to, Eli Yishai. He certainly must have read the chapter in his history book on unclean nations who should be gotten rid of, along with the lice they are infested with. Meanwhile, we can keep them in forced labor camps.

Not only politicians, but also certain competent health authorities have been attacked by this obsessive-compulsive anxiety of late. A friend recently sent me a Magen David Adom blood donors' form, which demonstrates that nothing has changed since the great scandal a few years ago concerning discrimination between blood taken from various "categories" of people. The form is worded quite cleanly, but its purpose was and remains filthy: Homosexuals and Ethiopians were then and still are not wanted at blood banks - and if they do donate, their blood will simply be destroyed. This then is the overall picture of the viral and/or bacterial hazards thwarting each and every attempt to turn this land into a sterile living space, with only pure blood allowed in. And this was the list used by Jack Teitel the serial killer: lefties, homos, Arabs, messianic Jews, migrant workers, or even local ones as long as they're black or slant-eyed.

At least the Ethiopians could derive some cheer from one item that emerged this week: "The army is training Ethiopian trackers to guard the nuclear reactor at Dimona," reports said, adding that, "For reasons of security classification, the use of Bedouin trackers is not permitted." An old-time officer in the trackers unit explained: "A true tracker has to be someone who grew up outdoors, in conditions of poverty and hardship, and who went out to the desert or the hills with the herds from a young age." By virtue of their deprived childhood, and of their anti-Bedouin virus and high-security clearance, a new blood-brotherhood has been formed - for which the Druze and Bedouin have already paid the price.

At last, the Ethiopians will be allowed to serve as the bloodhounds and guard dogs of the self-defending Jewish democracy. They will be allowed to contribute blood to us without being suspected of carrying viruses, if not through Magen David Adom then at least through the Israel Defense Forces.

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 HAARETZ

EDITORIAL

YES TO WORK AND NO TO WELFARE

BY NEHEMIAH STRASSLER

 

The media responded to the annual report on poverty, released this week, with disappointment. The expectation was for an incisive report, which would prove just how severe the situation had become and show how the cruel state continues to abuse its poor citizens and push them further down below the poverty line. But we received a different report, a much more moderate one. And so it was buried in the inside pages of the newspapers, because where there is no drama, there is no headline.

The new report on poverty reveals that in 2008 the situation did not worsen, but remained stable in relation to 2007. And furthermore, sectors of the population which had starred in previous reports - Arabs, children and new immigrants - actually improved their standing.

The truth is that maintaining stable levels of poverty is practically a miracle. Due to the dominance of two sectors - the ultra-Orthodox Jewish population and the Muslim Arab population (including the Bedouin) - we operate on a kind of automatic pilot that increases poverty annually.

 

Each additional child in the average ultra-Orthodox or Arab family immediately affects poverty statistics. And because these sectors increase in size faster than the average, the number of families living below the poverty line must naturally grow each year; if this does not happen, it's a great achievement.

A Bank of Israel study shows that if these two sectors are "neutralized" statistically, the poverty rate for the remainder of the population falls to 13 percent, a decent figure by Western standards.

The fact is, the problem can be increasingly seen among the ultra-Orthodox, and not among the Arabs. Many studies show that the number of children in Bedouin and Arab families is on the decline in the wake of cultural changes, an increase in the level of education, and awareness on the part of young Arab couples that, in modern reality, it's impossible to accommodate the needs of children in large families. We are seeing an increasing number of young Arab families with just two or three children.

The poverty report also reveals an increase in the number of wage-earners in the Arab sector. More and more Arabs are entering the work force, and if we add to this the reduction in the number of children, it is clear why poverty in the Arab sector is on the decline.

The situation is completely different among the ultra-Orthodox population. The report shows almost no reduction in the average number of children per family, which continues to stand at eight (compared to three or four in the 1950s). It must be understood that when it comes to such large families - who in the best-case scenario depend on one wage earner, and in many cases on a wage-earner who works only part-time - there is hardly any way to escape poverty. In order to maintain a family with eight children above the poverty line, one has to earn more than NIS 10,000 per month - and it's obvious that this is not the case in ultra-Orthodox families.

And so it's not enough to say that we have too many poor children. One must say, in all honesty, that the reason for this is that poor families have too many children. According to the statistics, 63 percent of families in which both parents do not work will live below the poverty line; when one parent works, 24 percent of the families live below that line; when both parents work, only 3.5 percent of families are poor. Basically, everything depends on work and on the size of one's family.

The economic history of Israel can be separated into two periods. During the first 30 years, working was the norm. People were ashamed not to work. They fought over a day's work, and would never ask for a single handout. But 30 years later, a fundamental change has taken place. We have moved from a culture of work to a culture of welfare. Successive governments gave in to political pressure and increased the size of welfare payments (for children and for a guaranteed minimum income) dramatically.

As a result, it has become less worthwhile to go out and work, and more worthwhile to establish a large family and live on welfare. But then came the second intifada, which caused great deficits in the budget and led to sharp welfare cuts, starting in 2003. The result was impressive growth and 500,000 people entering the job market.

The graph shown here teaches us that the first response to the cut in welfare payments was an increase in poverty - but that starting in 2005, poverty decreased due to a return to the work market.

And so the solution to the problem of poverty may be found in encouraging employment, encouraging education, and reducing the number of poor families. That's where efforts should be focused - not in increasing welfare.

 

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 HAARETZ

EDITORIAL

THE DEAL THAT WAS NOT

BY EMANUELE OTTOLENGHI

 

The uranium transfer agreement reached in Vienna last month between Iran, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), France, Russia and the United States is a bad deal. Its details are still not public, and Iran refuses to endorse it. Still, its general terms are known: Iran would ship a significant amount of its low-enriched uranium (LEU) stockpile to Russia for further enrichment. That would then be processed into fuel rods (in France) and returned to Iran for use in its Tehran research reactor, under IAEA safeguards. These terms leave some critical matters essentially unresolved.

First, Iran has no right to enrich uranium - not since the IAEA found Iran in noncompliance with its Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) obligations and referred the matter to the UN Security Council. The Security Council said just that, in five successive Chapter VII resolutions. By negotiating a deal over Iran's illegally enriched uranium that does not even ensure a halt to all future enrichment, the United States, Russia and France - the three powers negotiating with Iran in Vienna - have effectively undermined the UN Security Council and handed a victory to Tehran: Its enrichment can continue.

Second, unless Iran's enrichment activities are verifiably suspended, the deal will gain the international community only a little time. The offer aims to reduce Iran's 1,500-kilogram LEU stockpile to the point where it will not have enough declared fissile material to build a nuclear weapon. It needs a minimum of approximately one ton - and under the deal, Iran would send 1.2 tons abroad by the end of the year. But according to IAEA reports, Iran's centrifuges enrich an average of 2.77 kilograms of uranium per day. At that pace, Iran could quickly replenish its stockpile - it would take it only 253 days to return to the level of one ton. If nothing else changes, we'll be back to square one by next summer.

 

Third, the deal does not address the issue of undeclared nuclear sites. Given that Iran is still refusing to provide information about the new nuclear power plant it intends to build in Darkhovin; the recent exposure of the clandestine underground enrichment facility at an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps base near Qom; and fresh allegations of an underground detonator test site near Tehran, any deal should include at least an Iranian agreement to immediately implement the Additional Protocol to the NPT that it signed (but did not ratify) in late 2003.

Fourth, the deal disregards various clauses in the aforementioned UN resolutions, which expressly forbid other countries from taking nuclear material from Iran and prohibit Iran from exporting it. Such a deal would require the Security Council to reverse itself - a dramatic and unprecedented step that would no doubt be noted by any other nation planning to undertake a clandestine nuclear program.

That is why Iran can consider this a significant victory: The Vienna agreement has it conceding little in exchange for significant international concessions. Why, then, would it reject such an advantageous deal?

Iran is not interested in solving the nuclear impasse - it is merely seeking to gain its scientists time while shifting the West's red lines. Though bewildering, Iran's diplomatic dance was a familiar one. One spokesman rejected the deal; a second suggested a compromise could still be reached; a third said Iran was still studying the offer; a fourth called the deal the work of the Great Satan; a fifth admonished the other four that it was up to the Supreme Leader; and Iran's president eventually rejected it, but his foreign minister quickly added that there was still room to salvage the deal. Some observers interpreted this as a sign of internal division, yet anyone who has followed the past seven years of negotiations knows that this is how Iran responds to proposals. Having already bagged not only the deal but also its endorsement by the West, Iran is now pushing for more concessions.

Iran used the deal to show how vacuous American ultimatums are. President Barack Obama said Iran should agree to talks by mid-September, or else. Or else what? Iran stretched that deadline to October. Obama thought exposing the clandestine Qom enrichment site to a stunned world would checkmate the Iranians. But Iran, having perfected the game of chess more than a thousand years ago, took its time opening the site to IAEA inspectors - after a thorough clean-up - and made it look like it was a concession, rather than the belated fulfillment of an obligation. By the time the deal was initially sealed in Vienna, Iran had gained another three weeks - and then it proceeded to mock another deadline, by not responding on time.

The international community should prepare for more of the same. Iran will keep its interlocutors hanging, and exploit its Russian backing, European divisions on sanctions and America's lack of resolve to gain more time.

This is why anyone concerned about Iran's nuclear ambitions should breathe a sigh of relief if the deal collapses, and demand of America that it recognize now - and not six months from now - that this deal was engagement's litmus test. Iran flunked, and it is time to use other, tougher means of persuasion.

Dr. Emanuele Ottolenghi is executive director of the Transatlantic Institute, in Brussels, and author of the recently published "Under a Mushroom Cloud: Europe, Iran and the Bomb" (Profile Books).

 

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HAARETZ

EDITORIAL

 

EYES TO THE FUTURE

BY AHARON HORWITZ AND ARIEL BEERY

 

Scarcity. It's a word that evokes dread in the minds of Jewish organizational professionals struggling to meet their budgets while they continue to provide for their constituents. The sustenance of thousands in need - whether elderly, young children, immigrants, the destitute or others - stands or falls on the strength of the infrastructure the Jewish people have built in Israel and around the world over the past century. Reacting to the gloomy predicament caused by the international recession, Jewish institutions and organizations worldwide have moved to reduce expenditures and focus on their core agenda: cutting pay, shedding staff, and even shortening work weeks. Some federations in the United States have even been forced to cut allocations to service organizations - such as the 20-percent cut in Milwaukee's funding of the agencies it generally sponsors.

These cuts don't always preserve the core. In Chicago, Jewish United Fund agencies reported in June that state cuts would mean that "600 frail older adults who depend on these vital services [will] remain in their own homes, cut off from services, 226 no longer receiving home-delivered meals, 516 no longer receiving personal care services, 160 no longer receiving transportation, 120 no longer receiving care management services," among other challenges. What could be a more heart-rending call for action?

It's natural, then, that community leaders would question whether our dwindling resources should continue to go to what has been called Jewish innovation programming - generally, small projects in early phases, such as alternative prayer groups, cultural productions or new methods of education, which attract only a handful of people and follow-on dollars.

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Unfortunately, when seeking to answer the question, organizational leaders and philanthropists often focus on the $100 million that was invested in this sector in 2008 alone - a figure arrived at by a study conducted by the organization Jewish Jumpstart - rather than on the future returns on investment that this truly innovative programming will offer. Instead of thinking about only the immediate effect of the investment, we need to keep our eyes directed toward the future.

Businesses understand the importance of investing in innovation, as do armies, scientists, and not-for-profit organizations. New ideas that can be used to solve problems more effectively and efficiently rarely come from the center of an establishment - and such ideas are crucial when developing products and services to meet the needs of constituencies.

If we believe the Jewish people have a role to play in this world, we must also invest in new ideas, products and services, even during the slow times. The question, then, should not be whether to fund innovation - but rather, how to tie that innovation back into the core of our institutions, enabling our people to upgrade our operations for the future. It is rare that this line of questioning is pursued in the boardrooms where funding decisions are made - and yet introducing it will lead to a new perspective on establishment-innovator relationships, and will enhance the value of innovation to our global community.

The means of tying innovation into the core include "tech transfer" departments, similar to those in universities, working to ensure that projects being developed can effectively transition into established programs - or at least that the lessons learned by entrepreneurs are taught to institutional professionals.

Taking examples from fellows graduating from our PresenTense Institute, Jewish schools could learn from, and adapt lessons learned by Matt Bar and Ori Salzberg, in the realm of multimedia educational projects, and seen on Biblerapsnation.com; or from Rabbi Matthew Berkowitz and Elyssa Moss Rabinowitz's blending of visual art and midrash, at KolHaot.com. Hillel International could pick up on Eli Winkelman's take on education for social action through Challah for Hunger; and the Joint Distribution Committee could learn from Bradley Cohen's work on All for the Kids.

By tapping into lessons and innovations developed in fast-moving, low-cost social ventures, our communal institutions could incorporate the implicit knowledge of the field into their structures at a fraction of the cost it would take for them to develop and test parallel structures.

Organizations could invest thought - as well as adapt ideas from the business world, like those seen in Cisco's recent reorganization - in building an environment that attracts the most creative talents to organizations without squashing their energy. The Jewish people could make their organizations environments that the best innovators clamor to join or be acquired by - instead of environments with serious problems of professional continuity.

If we are to build community institutions that serve the future, we should stop speaking of an innovation ecosystem existing alongside an establishment, and rather understand the Jewish community as a holistic environment that needs both the new and the current to thrive. As the old Jewish hymn goes, "What is good and pleasant? When we dwell together in unity."

Aharon Horwitz and Ariel Beery are co-directors of the PresenTense Group, which is focused on upgrading the Jewish people's "operating system" for the 21st century.

 

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HAARETZ

EDITORIAL

ABROAD DOESN'T HAVE TO MEAN LOST

BY NIR COHEN AND ISRAEL PUPKO

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is correct in drawing the government's attention to the human capital that exists among Israelis living abroad. A great many citizens have chosen to make their homes outside of Israel, and some of them have done very well for themselves, in the worlds of academia, business and culture. At the same time, the premier is wrong in limiting the discussion to the question of encouraging their return to Israel by offering financial incentives - an approach that has been tried, and has failed, many times in the past.

According to estimates, between 500,000 and 750,000 Israelis reside abroad permanently. Despite programs aimed at luring them back home over the years, studies have shown that only a small proportion actually return, and even among these, the official "basket" of incentives has played only a marginal role in their decision.

In the reality of a knowledge economy, it's understandable that our leaders would want to recruit the Israeli (and Jewish) human capital living in the Diaspora. But in the Web-connected world of today, it's not necessary for them to return physically in order to make use of their knowledge and skills. Cheaper modes of transportation and advanced communication infrastructures allow even developing countries - not to mention developed ones like Israel - to import this knowledge without actually importing the citizens.

 

Beyond the ethical problems implicit in the idea of appealing to a handful of "stars" and ignoring the others living abroad, the central question need not be how to stop the brain drain. It's clear that the majority of those who left would have difficulty finding employment appropriate to their skills back home (as evidenced by hundreds if not thousands of Israelis with Ph.Ds who have been unable to find work in the academic world in Israel, which is collapsing under shrinking budgets).

Rather, the state should preserve and even strengthen the link with citizens living overseas. Successful efforts by other countries - in Europe, Asia, Latin America and Oceania - show that investment of financial resources in preservation of that link is likely to yield scientific, economic and diplomatic fruits of the first order. For this reason, France, for example, spends some 3.5 million euros a year supporting its citizens living abroad; Switzerland allots $1 million annually for support of Swiss civil organizations in other countries; and the Irish foreign ministry designated 15 million euros in 2007 to institutions operating in expatriate communities around the world.

Recruitment of the human capital of Israeli citizens living abroad does not require moving them here. All that's needed is a conceptual change, and adoption of a policy based on several simple principles. First, we have to understand that strengthening Israeli populations abroad is a national interest of the highest priority, and public and private funds must be invested to support and encourage community initiatives among them, be it programming or organizations. In Melbourne, London, New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles, there already exist local umbrella organizations for this purpose, and all that is required is for additional resources to be allocated to stabilize and augment them.

Second, considering that Israelis abroad have an interest in maintaining and passing on to the younger generation Israeli culture and the Hebrew language, it would be worthwhile trying to answer this need, in cooperation with local Jewish federations. Israeli schools and cultural centers abroad would not only help preserve the Jewish-Israeli identity of these citizens and their children, but could also serve as focal points for disseminating Israeli culture internationally.

Third, an international council should be created that represents Israelis abroad, and it should be seen as a strategic partner in advancing economic, political and cultural programs that will enhance their ties to Israel.

Fourth, special channels should be developed to allow Israelis abroad to become involved in social-welfare projects and other initiatives close to their hearts that are taking place in Israel. Finally, it's time to conduct a public discussion about the possibility of allowing Israelis living abroad the right to vote in elections back home.

Israel's desire to bring back its overseas sons and daughters is clear and understandable, but years of making attempts to do just that (some of them quite patronizing in nature) have not led to the desired increase in returnees. In order to contend with the central challenges facing it, the State of Israel requires the services of the best minds available to it. But they don't necessarily need to be here.

`
Israel Pupko and Nir Cohen are co-directors of the organization Mishelanu: For Israelis Abroad.

 

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HAARETZ

EDITORIAL

THE POISONOUS WELL OF ANTI-JEWISH RHETORIC

BY MORDECAI PALDIEL

 

Protestant theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer is famously remembered for his reported response to the Kristallnacht burning of German synagogues, 71 years ago this coming Monday, when he commented to a colleague, "If the synagogues are set on fire today, it will be the churches that will be burned tomorrow."

It is not clear what he meant by this. Perhaps he was simply warning of the Nazis' intention to target the churches as well, without any reference to the distress of the Jewish people. For, in June 1933, three months after the Nazi rise to power - after the publication of the first anti-Jewish laws, which dismissed all Jewish teachers and professors from their positions - Bonhoeffer wrote, in a church periodical, that ever since the Jews had "nailed the Redeemer of the world to the cross," they had been forced to bear an eternal "curse" through a long history of suffering, one that would end only "in the conversion of Israel to Christ."

At the same time, Bonhoeffer, who is often remembered as a staunch and courageous anti-Nazi, initially and half-heartedly excused the Nazi regime for its anti-Jewish measures. "Without a doubt the Jewish question is one of the historical problems which our state must deal with," he asserted in the same article, "and without a doubt the state is justified in adopting new methods here." The only instance in which the Church was, in his words, obligated to object would be if the state took steps to prohibit missionary work by the Church among Jews.

 

The post-war exculpatory words of another anti-Nazi theologian, Martin Niemoeller, are displayed in many Holocaust museums and often quoted. Indeed, he lamented that he did not speak out on the Jewish issue at the time, "because I was not a Jew." Sadly, the record shows that Niemoeller did speak out about the Jews - though not in their defense. In a 1935 sermon, he spoke of the Jews as a people that "can neither live nor die, because it is under a curse which forbids it to do either." He also noted, in case his meaning is in doubt, that whatever the Jews take up "becomes poisoned, and all that they ever reap is contempt and hatred," because the world "notices the deception and avenges itself in its own way." As for the future, he added, the Jewish people must continue to suffer for the crime of deicide, and indeed, "now it bears the curse."

Karl Barth was another staunch anti-Nazi Protestant theologian who dipped into the well of anti-Jewish rhetoric, while at the same time condemning anti-Semitism. In the 1930s, he too charged the Jews with the death of Jesus - something they undertook not "in foolish over-haste" or misunderstanding, but, he asserted, as a "deliberate" act. Then, in 1942, from his base in Switzerland, in his theological work "Church Dogmatics," Barth castigated Judaism as a "synagogue of death," a "tragic, pitiable figure with covered eyes," a religion characterized by "conceited lying," and the "enemy of God." If the church needed the Jews, he felt, it was only as a negative symbol, for they are a mirror of man's rebellion against God, against which Christians must continually struggle.

The Catholic cleric Bernhard Lichtenberg reacted differently. As Kristallnacht was taking place outside, with synagogues, Jewish-owned businesses and other institutions under attack, he declared from the pulpit of St. Hedwig's Cathedral in Berlin: "Let us pray for the persecuted ones, the non-Aryan Christians and the Jews ... Outside, the temple is in flames. That too is a place of worship to God."

He included all Jews in his prayers, not only (as did some others) ones who had been baptized. In mid-October 1941, Lichtenberg responded this way to an anti-Jewish publication by Josef Goebbels: "This pamphlet states that every German who supports Jews with an ostensibly false sentimentality ... practices treason against his people. Let us not be misled by this un-Christian way of thinking, but follow the strict command of Jesus Christ, 'You shall love your neighbor as thyself.'"

He was arrested a short time later, and in his interrogation by the Gestapo, he admitted having prayed for the Jews, and added, "I totally reject the 'evacuation' [i.e., deportation] with all the accompanying measures, since it stands in opposition to the Christian command of 'Love your neighbor as thyself.' And I consider the Jews also as my neighbor since they too were created in the divine image."

In March 1942, Lichtenberg was sentenced to two years' imprisonment. Berlin Bishop Konrad von Preysing told him the Gestapo had offered not to re-arrest him upon his release, on the condition that he remain silent, but Lichtenberg declined to accept. He died while being transported to Dachau, and appears on Yad Vashem's list of Righteous Among the Nations.

In 1978, Emil Fackenheim wrote, "How different would Bonhoeffer's struggle have been if he had repudiated the 'Christian tradition of the curse' from the start! How different would Jewish fate have been in our time had his whole church repudiated it!"

Bonhoeffer, Niemoeller and Barth - all fierce opponents of Nazism - could not divorce themselves from a poisonous theological anti-Semitism, although they paradoxically condemned anti-Semitism as un-Christian. They joined the chorus of those who pilloried the Jews, even if it was for reasons the Nazis cared little about, such as because of the Jewish refusal to acknowledge the Christian messiah. Therefore, they too must bear responsibility for contributing to the climate that made possible the burning of synagogues during Kristallnacht.

Mordecai Paldiel, a former director of the Righteous Among the Nations Department at Yad Vashem, is a consultant for the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation.

 

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THE NEW YORK TIMES

TRIBAL CHIEFS AND THE PRESIDENT

 

White House receptions of American Indian leaders have too often been patronizing historical footnotes. President Obama opened what we hope will be a more promising chapter on Thursday when he met with the leaders from all 564 federally recognized tribes. He vowed that there would be no more "going through the motions" and that his administration would finally face the severe economic and social problems that are the result of centuries of federal abuse and neglect.

 

This is no easy vow, but Mr. Obama has taken important first steps: naming American Indians to senior policy and health positions and earmarking $3 billion of the stimulus package to tribal programs. The president told the leaders that he was ordering his cabinet members to come up with plans on how to improve relations with the sovereign tribes.

 

Already this week, Interior Department officials told Congress that they would work to overhaul the often intractable, decades-consuming process by which tribes apply for federal recognition. Recognition is required for tribes interested in seeking revenue by opening a casino. But, more importantly, recognition is the key for tribes ravaged by poverty and joblessness — and there are far more of those — to qualify for federal aid programs.

 

The tribes gathered at an interesting point in history. The last four censuses show tribal populations booming, where extinction had been the experts' prediction a century ago. Stirred by the Red Power movement of the civil rights era, more and more people have self-identified as American Indians, raising the census count to more than four million.

 

Not all are in recognized tribes, and there is no agreement, even among tribal leaders, on what factors define American Indian-ness. But the vitality is stirring and must be met by greater sensitivity, creativity and sustained attention from Washington.

 

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THE NEW YORK TIMES

EDITORIAL

APPLES, APPLES, APPLES

BY VERLYN KLINKENBORG

 

One good way to think about modern agriculture is to think about apples. For part of our history, culminating around the end of the 19th century, there was something about us — about our appetite, our farms, our economy — that loved diversity in apples. One standard reference, from 1905, lists more than 6,500 distinct varieties. There are apples for keeping, cooking, eating and the making of ciders, with names as colorful as they are various: Scollop Gillyflower, Red Winter Pearmain, Kansas Keeper.

 

Modern agriculture, as well as our carefully created preference for processed over fresh food, has pushed us in the opposite direction, toward uniformity. Apple production has been outsourced, driven to China like so much else. And even in formerly great apple-growing states, including New York, the number of different apples has greatly diminished. According to one estimate, only 11 varieties make up 90 percent of all the apples sold in this country, and Red Delicious alone counts for nearly half of that.

 

The good news is that apple trees don't vanish when the harvest is over. Nor are they solely commercial. Every farmer, every homesteader in an apple climate, seems to have planted an apple tree. Many have been lost, but some still stand — old, overgrown trees producing long-forgotten varieties.

 

Researchers from the National Center for Genetic Resources Preservation have been studying genetic markers in 280 venerable apple trees growing on old farmsteads in the Southwest. Some came from commercial nurseries, others from agriculture experiment stations, but most were unique.

 

Those trees are an archive of apple diversity, holding out the possibility of preserving apple genotypes that might otherwise have vanished. But the research makes a broader point. If all that 19th-century apple diversity reflected different purposes and different needs, it also reflected a taste for difference. So the next apple you buy, think about all its hundreds and thousands of abandoned cousins. Think also of the agricultural biodiversity they represented; think, too, of the diversity of tastes that made them possible.

 

We live now in the world of the generic apple, in large part because our taste buds have gone generic. Cultivating ourselves is the first step toward rediversifying the fields and orchards around us. VERLYN KLINKENBORG

 

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THE NEW YORK TIMES

EDITORIAL

THE REPUBLICAN HEALTH PLAN

 

House Republican leaders have produced their own health care reform bill. Here is the first thing you need to know: It would do almost nothing to reduce the scandalously high number of Americans who have no insurance. And it makes only a token stab at slowing the relentlessly rising costs of medical care.

 

Despite that, the Republicans are pitching their bill as far more affordable than the Democrats' approach. And you are sure to hear a lot in coming days about how it could reduce health insurance premiums. How it compares in that respect with the Democratic proposal is not yet clear. But a lot of the Republicans' savings on premiums come from reduced coverage. Pay less and get less.

 

The good news is that this bill has no chance of passing. The bad news is that unless the White House and Congressional Democrats push back with the hard facts, the Republicans could use it to spread false hope of a "cheaper" alternative to scuttle real health care reform.

 

There's no question that the Republicans' bill is cheaper because it does so little to help the uninsured. According to the Congressional Budget Office, it would provide $61 billion over 10 years to expand coverage, compared with more than $1 trillion in the Democrats' bill.

 

That paltry effort, the budget office estimates, would extend coverage to a few million people who would otherwise be uninsured in 2019, leaving 52 million citizens and legal residents below Medicare age without coverage or about 17 percent of that population, right where it is today. This is a dismaying abdication of responsibility.

 

The Republican bill is an amalgam of market-oriented and state-based reforms that conservatives have long proposed, including enhancement of tax-sheltered accounts to help pay premiums and allowing people to buy insurance in other states that might permit skimpier benefits than their home state.

 

It has some good provisions, such as prohibiting insurers from imposing annual or lifetime caps on what they will pay and automatic enrollment of workers in employer-sponsored group coverage. But it would not prevent insurers from denying coverage or charging higher premiums based on pre-existing conditions.

 

The Republicans have been railing that the Democratic reforms will do little to slow the rapid rise in medical costs. But neither party has a solution. The Republican bill would cap malpractice awards — a clear infringement of the rights of injured patients. It would get lesser savings by requiring electronic transactions for administrative tasks and opening an approval process for generic biological medicines. The Democratic bills would use both of those for savings and initiate an array of pilot projects to try to find solutions.

 

The Republican bill's main emphasis is on reducing the cost of health insurance premiums, a real concern. Compared with current trends, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that under the Republican bill, the average premium would drop by 7 to 10 percent for employees enrolled in group plans at small businesses and by 5 to 8 percent for people who buy their own policies. At large employers, where most Americans get group coverage, the average premium might drop by a modest 0 to 3 percent.

 

Part of the premium reduction was attributed to savings in the cost of medical services. But much was attributed to shrinking the services covered. The Democrats plan to set minimum benefit requirements to protect people from skimpy policies that leave them without adequate protection when they need it.

The budget office is planning to estimate how the far more complex Democratic bills would affect premiums. Americans need to know that so they can make a full comparison. But there should be no illusions here. The "affordable" Republican health care reform isn't health care reform.

 

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THE NEW YORK TIMES

EDITORIAL

A BAD WAY TO SPEND MONEY

 

Congress threw good money after bad this week when it voted to extend and expand a wasteful home buyer's tax credit set to expire at the end of the month.

 

The new program, which will continue through the spring, is being portrayed as a rescue plan for the ailing housing market. But this costly giveaway to the real estate and mortgage industry will spend far more in taxpayers' dollars than it can ever deliver in economic benefit. As happened with the cash-for-clunkers program in the automobile industry, the program will make housing look momentarily better but is unlikely to contribute to long-term recovery.

 

The original program allowed a credit of $8,000 for first-time home buyers who earn up to $75,000 individually or $150,000 filing jointly. The program got a black eye earlier this month when the Treasury Department's inspector general for tax administration reported that tens of thousands of people had exploited loopholes in the law to claim credits for which they appeared not to be eligible.

 

But even before that, housing analysts were finding that the tax credit did little for home sales. Between 80 percent and 90 percent of the people who have bought homes using the credit would have purchased those homes without it. To put it another way, the tax credit has been wasteful spending, not stimulus spending.

 

The bill that passed both houses of Congress this week extends the program through April 2010 and grants the full tax credit to couples who earn up to $225,000. The expanded program introduces a $6,500 tax credit for people who already own homes but want to buy new ones.

 

The vote gives campaigning lawmakers something to crow about on the stump. But the new tax credit appeals primarily to affluent voters who do not need the government's help buying property. And encouraging buyers to leave one house for another does nothing to reduce the glut of homes on the market, which is an important factor driving down housing prices. Finally, the tax credit does nothing about the central housing problem, which is foreclosure.

 

If Congress wants to spend the taxpayers' money to do something about the struggling housing market — and it should — it should invest the money where it is most needed, in better programs that help people avoid foreclosure and stay in their homes.

 

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THE NEW YORK TIMES

OPED

CHRIS CHRISTIE CONFIDENTIAL

BY HARLAN COBEN

 

Ridgewood, N.J.

I AM in Chris Christie campaign headquarters on election night. Broadcasters are about to call the race. Pollsters in the room huddle and whisper numbers. The air crackles with words like "victory" and "change." But I'm lost in a bearhug with Chris, my childhood friend, and now the next governor of New Jersey. If you've seen Chris, you can probably imagine that he can bearhug with the best of them. This one lasts an especially long time, and corny to say, I relish it.

 

Suddenly I flash back to the Meadowbook Little League ball field. I am 10 years old again and scared. Because of a bout with rheumatic fever, I've missed the first half of the season. This is my first game back, and I'm standing there in my baggy green and white uniform, not sure what to do. A roly-poly kid in catcher's gear sees my hesitation. He hurries over with a big smile, calls me by my name, tells me how excited he is that I'm finally ready to play.

 

He introduces himself. His name is Chris Christie and he, this remarkable 10-year-old boy, spends the rest of the day going out of his way to make me feel welcome. Being the cynical one in this relationship, I wonder if he's for real. I will wonder that a lot over the years, but the answer will always be yes.

 

Growing up in Livingston, N.J., Chris and I both attended Heritage Junior High and Livingston High School. Chris was always quick with a smile, loved to do impressions of the teachers, had an easy laugh. When we were in seventh grade, our homeroom team won the intramural basketball championship. Chris wasn't the best player on that team, but he was the glue. He would seek out each player's strength and talk it up (to a terrible athlete: "Harry, you are an amazing defensive player!"). If he hadn't gone into politics, he'd have made an excellent coach.

 

Chris and I had parallel New Jersey upbringings. We were both born in Newark in 1962. Our fathers were both conservatives, our mothers skewed more liberal. But while Chris favored Dad's political viewpoint, I ended up a mama's boy. From a fairly young age, we began to disagree on a host of issues, though we never fought about it. I credit him for this — he's always been more tolerant than me.

 

In our senior year at Livingston High School, Chris is elected president of the class for the fourth year in a row (no surprise), and I'm elected president of the student council (burning-bush-type miracle). I practice what Chris now sort of preaches — lesser government. In short, I do nothing. Chris is far more diligent. He sets up meetings, fights for off-campus lunch privileges, oversees the prom, tries to raise money. I keep chocolate milk on the lunch menu.

 

Like most good friends, Chris and I haven't always gotten along. There was a rough spot sometime during that senior year, though I don't remember why anymore. I'm pretty sure it was my fault. But maybe it had something to do with Chris, too. He had an honesty that bordered on arrogance. As easygoing as he was, he tended to ignore those gray areas, seeing the world as black and white — admirable in a way but also occasionally irksome.

 

Still, I've noticed that this aspect of his personality has slipped away as he's grown older, as he's earned his battle scars. In the beginning of the campaign Chris told me that he would not resort to negative personal attacks on his opponent. One can argue how much of the pledge was kept, but I know that many in his party urged him to attack Gov. Jon Corzine on personal matters. Chris refused — even when his opponents unloaded a nonstop barrage of attacks about him, his appearance, and even his brother.

 

He did this, I think, for three reasons. One, the obvious: he claimed that fighting in the gutter would tarnish his dignity and he'd rather lose the race than lose his soul. Two, the strategic: Chris believed that going negative would backfire. You can decide if he was right.

 

And three, the most revealing: Chris doesn't like to break a promise. He has been criticized by many — this friend included — for deflecting questions on what will get slashed and how, with a projected $8 billion deficit, he will be able to cut taxes. But Chris isn't being vague for political gain. He fears being specific because that may mean breaking a promise, going back on his word.

 

Chris and I are in our junior year. We're on a special committee to help select the new principal, interviewing the candidates and bored to tears, until one tells us he used to be vice principal of Freehold High, Bruce Springsteen's alma mater. "Did you know Bruce?" we ask. He says yes and we practically fall off our chairs. After firing a bunch of "Was Bruce the coolest thing ever?" questions at the man, we're satisfied. We vote for him and he gets the job. Springsteen is one issue Chris and I agree on.

 

A few weeks ago, during a Springsteen show at Giants Stadium, we texted back and forth about the pure joy of hearing the Boss play the "Born to Run" album in sequence. He argues that "Thunder Road" is the best song, but I side with "Jungleland." The texts about the concert continue the next morning before I shift gears and tell him that I abhor his stand against gay marriage. I call him out on this issue, even saying that "it's not you." He does not get defensive. We agree to discuss this when there is more time. And we will. He will remain calm. I will probably be the one who gets heated. He's used to this.

 

Whenever a new kid showed up at school, Chris was the first to greet him. Watch video of Chris on the campaign trail — he still finds the person in the back corner, the ill-at-ease one, and shakes his hand, brings him into the fold. On election night, when I entered his hotel suite, I was that person. Because of some weird hate mail after a TV appearance — I made the mistake of admitting to Sean Hannity that I voted for Barack Obama — I decided not to publicly support either candidate, even backing out of a fund-raiser Chris and I were hosting together.

 

Chris didn't look at this as a betrayal. He understood my problem. When I entered the hotel suite on election night, he saw that I felt awkward and, as he did so many years ago on that baseball field, my roly-poly friend rushed over and made me feel welcome.

 

Cue the big bearhug.

 

Harlan Coben is the author, most recently, of "Long Lost."

 

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THE NEW YORK TIMES

OPED

OBAMA FACES HIS ANZIO

BY PAUL KRUGMAN

 

Remember those Republican boasts that they would turn health care into President Obama's Waterloo? Well, exit polls suggest that to the extent that health care was an issue in Tuesday's elections, it worked in Democrats' favor. But while health care won't be Mr. Obama's Waterloo, economic policy is starting to look like his Anzio.

 

True, the elections weren't a referendum on Mr. Obama. Most voters focused on local issues — and those who did focus on national issues tended, if anything, to go Democratic. In New Jersey, voters who considered health care the top issue went for Gov. Jon Corzine by a 4-to-1 margin; Chris Christie won voters who were concerned about property taxes and corruption.

 

Yet there was a national element to the election. Voters across America are in a bad mood, largely because of the still-grim economic situation. And when voters are feeling bad, they turn on whomever currently holds office. Even Michael Bloomberg, the mayor of New York City, saw his supposedly easy reelection turn into a tight race.

 

And challengers did well even if they had no coherent alternative to offer. Mr. Christie never explained how he can reduce property taxes given New Jersey's dire fiscal straits — but voters were nonetheless willing to take a flier.

 

This bodes ill for the Democrats in the midterm elections next year — not because voters will reject their agenda, but because all indications are that a year from now unemployment will still be painfully high. And Republicans may well benefit, despite having become the party of no ideas.

 

Which brings me to the Anzio analogy.

 

The World War II battle of Anzio was a classic example of the perils of being too cautious. Allied forces landed far behind enemy lines, catching their opponents by surprise. Instead of following up on this advantage, however, the American commander hunkered down in his beachhead — and soon found himself penned in by German forces on the surrounding hills, suffering heavy casualties.

 

The parallel with current economic policy runs as follows: early this year, President Obama came into office with a strong mandate and proclaimed the need to take bold action on the economy. His actual actions, however, were cautious rather than bold. They were enough to pull the economy back from the brink, but not enough to bring unemployment down.

 

Thus the stimulus bill fell far short of what many economists — including some in the administration itself — considered appropriate. According to The New Yorker, Christina Romer, the chairwoman of the president's Council of Economic Advisers, estimated that a package of more than $1.2 trillion was justified.

 

Meanwhile, the administration balked at proposals to put large amounts of additional capital into banks, which would probably have required temporary nationalization of the weakest institutions. Instead, it turned to a strategy of benign neglect — basically, hoping that the banks could earn their way back to financial health.

 

Administration officials would presumably argue that they were constrained by political realities, that a bolder policy couldn't have passed Congress. But they never tested that assumption, and they also never gave any public indication that they were doing less than they wanted. The official line was that policy was just right, making it hard to explain now why more is needed.

 

And more is needed. Yes, the economy grew fairly fast in the third quarter — but not fast enough to make significant progress on jobs. And there's little reason to expect things to look better going forward. The stimulus has already had its maximum effect on growth. Even Timothy Geithner, the Treasury secretary, admits that banks remain reluctant to lend. Many economists predict that the economy's growth, such as it is, will fade out over the course of next year.

 

The problem is that it's not clear what Mr. Obama can do about this prospect. Conventional wisdom in Washington seems to have congealed around the view that budget deficits preclude any further fiscal stimulus — a view that's all wrong on the economics, but that doesn't seem to matter. Meanwhile, the Democratic base, so energized last year, has lost much of its passion, at least partly because the administration's soft-touch approach to Wall Street has seemed to many like a betrayal of their ideals.

 

The president, then, having failed to exploit his early opportunities, is pinned down in his too-small beachhead.

 

If the Democrats lose badly in the midterms, the talking heads will say that Mr. Obama tried to do too much, this is a center-right nation, and so on. But the truth is that Mr. Obama put his agenda at risk by doing too little. The fateful decision, early this year, to go for economic half-measures may haunt Democrats for years to come.

 

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THE NEW YORK TIMES

OPED

WHAT INDEPENDENTS WANT

BY DAVID BROOKS

 

Liberals and conservatives each have their own intellectual food chains. They have their own think tanks to provide arguments, politicians and pundits to amplify them, and news media outlets to deliver streams of prejudice-affirming stories.

 

Independents, who are the largest group in the electorate, don't have any of this. They don't have institutional affiliations. They don't look to certain activist lobbies for guidance. There aren't many commentators who come from an independent perspective.

 

Independents are herds of cats who find out what they think through a meandering process of discovery. Right now, independent voters are astonishingly volatile. Democrats did poorly in elections on Tuesday partly because of disappointed liberals who think that President Obama is moving too slowly, but mostly because of anxious suburban independents who think he is moving too fast. In Pennsylvania, there was an eight-point swing away from the Democrats among independents from a year ago. In New Jersey, there was a 12-point swing. In Virginia, there was a 13-point swing.

 

The most telling races this year were the suburban rebellions across the country. For example, in Westchester and Nassau counties in New York, Republican candidates came from nowhere to defeat entrenched Democratic county officials. In blue Pennsylvania, the G.O.P. won six out of seven statewide offices.

 

Middle-class suburban voters who have been trending Democratic for a decade suddenly lurched out of the Democratic camp — and are now in play.

 

Why? What do these voters want?

 

The first thing to say is that this recession has hit the new suburbs hardest, exactly where independents are

likely to live. According to a survey by the National Center for Suburban Studies at Hofstra University, 76 percent of suburbanites say they or someone they know have lost a job in the past year.

 

The second thing to say is that in this time of need, these voters are not turning to government for support. Trust in government is at its lowest level in recent memory. Over the past year, there has been a shift to the right on issue after issue. According to Gallup, the percentage of Americans who believe that there is too much government regulation rose from 38 percent in 2008 to 45 percent in 2009. The percentage of Americans who want unions to have less influence rose from 32 percent to a record 42 percent.

 

Americans have moved to the right on abortion, immigration and global warming. Over the past seven months, the number of people who say government is doing too many things better left to business has jumped from 40 percent to 48 percent, according to a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll.

 

According to that same survey, only 31 percent of Americans believe that the president and Congress "should worry more about boosting the economy even though it may mean larger budget deficits." Sixty-two percent, twice as many, believe the president and Congress "should worry more about keeping the deficit down, even though it may mean it will take longer for the economy to recover."

 

These shifts have not occurred because conservatives and liberals have changed their minds. They haven't. The shift is among independents.

 

According to Gallup, the share of independents who describe their views as conservative has moved from 29 percent last year to 35 percent today. The share of independents who believe there is too much government regulation of business has jumped from 38 percent to 50 percent. Independents are in the position of a person who is feeling gravely ill at the same time he has lost faith in his doctor.

 

This does not mean that independents are turning into Republicans. G.O.P. ratings are still in the toilet. But it does mean the Democrats have to fight to regain some of their most crucial supporters.

 

If I were a politician trying to win back independents, I'd say something like this: When I was a kid, I had a jigsaw puzzle of the U.S. Each state was a piece, and on it there was a drawing showing what people made there. California might have movies; Washington State, apples; New York, fashion or publishing. That puzzle represented an economy that was diverse and deeply rooted.

 

We've lost that. First Wall Street got disproportionately big, then Washington. It's time to return to fundamentals. No short-term fixes. Government should do what it's supposed to do: schools, roads, basic research. It should not be picking C.E.O.'s or setting pay or fizzing up the economy with more debt. It should give people the tools to compete, not rig the competition. Lines of restraint have dissolved, and they need to be restored.

 

Independents support the party that seems most likely to establish a frame of stability and order, within which they can lead their lives. They can't always articulate what they want, but they withdraw from any party that threatens turmoil and risk. As always, they're looking for a safe pair of hands.

 

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 I. THE NEWS

SEDITORIAL

END IN SIGHT?

 

Surprisingly quickly troops seem to have completed a rout of militants in South Waziristan. According to reports coming out from the area, most key towns have been taken including those considered key militant strongholds. The second phase of the operation, in which hamlets and smaller outposts controlled by the Taliban are to be seized to consolidate gains in the tribal agency, is due to begin. On the surface at least there appears to be cause for celebration. Almost all military experts and analysts, prior to the launch of the operation, had predicted a long, hard battle in South Waziristan. Indeed some insiders say that even army officers have been surprised by the pace of the victory. Certainly prior experience in the area had been quite different, with soldiers struggling to assert themselves over the Taliban. It is possible the split within the organization and the talks that have persuaded key tribal factions to go against the men of Hakimullah Mehsud and Waliur Rehman have had a positive impact.

But there have also been words of warning. Some suggest the lack of resistance put up by the militants is a tactic. That rather than taking on determined troops in South Waziristan, they have deliberately withdrawn to the mountains and to the more treacherous terrain of regions that include North Waziristan, hoping to draw in forces to an arena more suited to guerrilla war. Others suggest key leaders have re-located to Balochistan, to Karachi, to southern Punjab and other places, making plans to keep up their battle from there. We continue to hope of course that the gains in South Waziristan mark a genuine end to Taliban control over the area and that they will result in a decline in terrorism and the instability it creates. But we must also be mentally prepared for the possibility that a longer, tougher fight still lies ahead. It is also important to think beyond military strategy. The Pakistan army has performed the task assigned to it heroically. We all owe it appreciation. It is time now for the government to demonstrate what it is capable of by announcing a plan of action for the future of FATA and the people there. Unless this happens, the victory being anticipated now could be rendered meaningless, with a new generation of militants rising to take the place of those who, we all hope, now stand defeated.

 

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I. THE NEWS

EDITORIAL

HOT AIR

 

Having painted itself into a corner with the electricity crisis, the government in its infinite wisdom has decided to shoot itself and anybody who uses compressed natural gas (CNG) in both feet. As an exercise in futility the proposed two-day closure for all industrial units and CNG stations in NWFP and Punjab is surpassed only by the hunt for mare's nests. CNG stations are to close on a rotational basis for eight days a month in zones to be defined by the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Ltd (SNGPL). We are told that this decision has been taken by the federal cabinet in order to address the expected shortfall in gas supplies between December and March, when there is a sharp rise in gas consumption in Punjab and NWFP during cold weather. Whilst any attempt to manage a predicted crisis is welcome in a nation which tends towards the reactive rather than the proactive, this proposal smacks of expediency and a chronic lack of what in modern management terms is called 'joined up thinking.'

The CNG station owners are already crying 'foul' and saying they were not consulted about this change in their business practice. Motorists are reportedly hoarding petrol against a future shortage of that commodity. There will doubtless be attempts to circumvent the new regulations and anybody who is a CNG user in southern Punjab is going to be looking to northern Sindh for their supplies after November 15, when the regulations are reportedly to come into force. Innumerable questions arise. If the CNG station owners refuse to comply and remain open on days they should not, how are they to be penalized? What is to stop industry that uses CNG from bulk-buying to see it through the 'closed' days? Who will police the regulations – the police? And have they not got enough on their plates with a national security crisis? At the very least the government needs to be talking to the gas retail sector in order to gain their cooperation before implementing any crisis-management plan. CNG is a vital national resource in which government and industry have invested heavily in the last decade – to the satisfaction and success of both. Imposing a top-down solution to a problem that is likely to provoke a strong bottom-up reaction is no way to do business. We need a little more joined up thinking and a little less hot air, both before November 15.

 

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I. THE NEWS

EDITORIAL

A WIN FOR WOMEN

 

It is easy to say that we have a situation in which there is virtually no governance at all. This is true in most spheres, but there are exceptions. One of these is in the passage of legislation aimed at protecting the rights of women and other vulnerable groups, including children. The Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill, passed unanimously by the National Assembly, amends existing legislation to impose a jail sentence up to three years and a fine of up to 500,000 for sexual harassment. Previously, the crime was rather loosely defined and provided for a sentence of up to a year. The law is the second within three months which seeks to improve the situation for women victims of violence. In August a bill on domestic abuse was adopted by both houses of parliament. Another bill, seeking penalties for harassment in the work place, is also likely to be tabled within weeks.

The credit for all this goes to women activists, both within and outside parliament, who have worked tirelessly for a cause they believe in. According to the figures from international human rights groups, up to 80 per cent of women in the country face violence in one form or the other, and this goes to show how significant this legislation is. The passage of the laws highlights advantages of having a larger number of women in parliament. It is true that only a handful among them are directly elected and that a significant number are the relatives of key male politicians. But despite this their presence has resulted in issues that have an impact on the lives of women being discussed far more frequently, thus giving a louder voice to 50 per cent of citizens who so often go unheard.

 

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I. THE NEWS

EDITORIAL

WHAT FURTHER TRIALS FOR A SORELY-TRIED NATION?

AYAZ AMIR

President Zardari was not a secret sprung upon an unsuspecting nation. We knew all about him: that he was no graduate of any academy of higher management sciences; that his talents lay in the murkier aspects of high finance; that the only thing on his calling card which compelled attention was his marital connection to Benazir Bhutto.

So it was wholly predictable that when, out of the blue, he aspired to become the president of this ailing republic, we (its hapless citizens) were taken by surprise. We were glad to be rid of Musharraf. No doubts on that score. Our cup of patience was full and we could take no more of him or his shenanigans. But Mr Zardari taking over from where Musharraf had left off? This went beyond our worst nightmares.

But inured to the malevolence of fate, we gave Zardari the benefit of the doubt. We thought that his very ascension to the highest office in the land would have a chastening effect upon him. The awe of his position, and the fact that the people of Pakistan through their chosen representatives in parliament and the provincial assemblies were electing him, would transform him and make him if not someone worthy of our trust at least someone who would not go out of his way to abuse that trust.

But over the year or so that he has been president, Zardari has made the nation undergo a very unsentimental education, stripping the nation of any illusions it may have nursed on his account. For he has surpassed the misgivings of his worst critics and turned out to be more inept than any of them could have predicted.

Zardari could have kept his promises to Nawaz Sharif and earned himself some badly-needed credibility. But he made fun of his own pledges and said they were not decrees from heaven. He could have restored the judges and earned credit for himself. But such a step, to all appearances, lay beyond the confines of his narrow vision. Where he should have cast a critical eye over the Kerry-Lugar Bill (KLB), he became its loud champion, calling it a historic achievement. Any fool could have told him, and many did, that placing the NRO before the parliament would tempt the fury of the heavens. But disregarding all the omens -- or in his ignorance being simply unaware of them -- he stepped in where angels would have feared to tread.

This parliament could have swallowed anything. After all, it had swallowed the Swat Nizam-e-Adl Regulation of unhappy memory. But even for its tough stomach, the NRO was a bit too much to take. So it revolted against the latter.

Zardari was already a vulnerable figure before this debacle. Now it seems he is well and truly on the skids. For the first time in a year-and-a-half, the PPP benches in the National Assembly give a glum look, as they have every reason to do knowing that the knives are out for their Godfather -- who remains a godfather in more senses than one --and vultures are circling the skies. Even Fauzia Wahab looks depressed, and that's saying something.

But has Zardari learnt anything? The Sage of North Edgeware (London), Altaf bhai, was the first person to publicly endorse his name for president. He is the first person to ask him to step down. But Zardari is still hoping to keep the MQM on his side, for which purpose -- in keeping with our penchant for having our problems solved abroad -- talks are to be held in Dubai.

The MQM fields some of the world's toughest negotiators who could give Shylock lessons in extracting their pound of flesh, modern science yet to discover a formula to satisfy the MQM's demands -- which, much like the universe, are forever expanding -- and keep it happy. In trying once again to placate the MQM, Zardari is reaching out for the unreachable.

A simple truth eludes Zardari. The Sage of North Edgeware can subject him to a further round of Chinese torture (supping with the MQM being akin to that) but he can't rescue him. Nor can that ace of political gymnasts, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, another firm believer in the theory of extracted pounds of flesh, although on a lower scale than the maestros of the MQM. The only person standing between Zardari and imminent destruction is someone he has a disliking for the most, Nawaz Sharif.

But for Nawaz Sharif and his adamant refusal, often in the face of much opposition from within his own party, to pay heed to the siren calls of a minus-one formula, the game would be up for Zardari. In Nawaz Sharif's breast, the memory of Zardari's broken promises rankle, but in today's charged political atmosphere, he remains the one person who is alive to the ramifications of Aabpara-driven political manoeuvres.

On a flight to Karachi where he had to make a court appearance, Nawaz Sharif was handcuffed to his seat. The iron may have been on his wrist but it may have entered his soul. Who is the mortal without weaknesses? Nawaz Sharif has his share of them. But, to give credit where it is due, adversity has tempered him. Of all the lessons he may have taken to heart, none seems more abiding than the belief, born of his own experiences, that military intervention in politics is the road to hell paved with good intentions. Small wonder, all talk of minus this or that leaves him utterly cold.

There are hawks in the PML-N's inner circle who chafe at the label of a 'friendly opposition', the gibe directed most frequently at the party nowadays. They would love nothing better than a call to arms. But Nawaz Sharif remains unmoved. Who would have thought ten years ago that he had an eye for the larger canvas? But that's what he is displaying now.

Zardari may fall upon his sword himself, or circumstances otherwise may crush him, in the form of corruption cases being revived against his closest companions. That would be another matter. But being a party to any move emanating from the hidden corners of Pakistan's political tapestry is certainly not something Nawaz Sharif appears to be for.

At the time of his election as president, Zardari, in an expansive moment, boasted that he would continue to teach politics to Nawaz Sharif. Is he still riding that high horse? What options does he have now? He can fall upon his sword and quit of his own accord. This, given his tough streak -- and there is no denying he has one -- is unlikely. So the danger is that if the pressure is piled on him he may choose to dig in his heels and, like Samson, wish to bring the temple down with him.

But there is a way out of the hole he is in. He wins himself a reprieve if he takes two steps: accelerates the process of undoing the 17th Amendment, transferring his substantive powers to the prime minister; and gets rid of that deadly circle of cronies whose presence near the helm of power is an affront to the nation. The nation may have its faults but it surely deserves better than these faces out of a rogue's gallery. The anger of the gods will be appeased with nothing less than this double sacrifice.

But acceleration is the key word here. There is only a very tiny window of opportunity to exploit. Zardari takes these steps and he perhaps saves himself and Pakistan's fledgling democracy. But if he remains true to himself, a prisoner of his limitations, the doors begin to shut and the sky becomes more overcast than it already is.

Email: winlust@yahoo.com

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I. THE NEWS

EDITORIAL

SCAM IN THE MAKING?

AHMAD RAFAY ALAM

The Lahore Development Authority (LDA) has proudly unveiled what they tout is their new Commercialisation Policy, 2009. It is a list of roads that the LDA will allow "commercial activity" on, even though they were originally planned, plotted and lived in as residential areas.

"Commercialisation" is the word used in our urban management world to describe the following, and only the following, activity: the permission, by a competent authority, to allow non-residential activity on a property situated in an area zoned as residential. Too often it is mixed up with the notion of commercial activity, which it is not.

Commercial activity is the thriving trade of goods and services everyone can see on our city streets. But, to be sure, commercialisation does not mean commercial activity.

The act of allowing commercialisation presumes that the plot or area being commercialised was part of a planned scheme in which the original intention of the urban fathers was to allocate specific areas of the city for residential use, commercial activity and for the trade and industry that give cities their vitality. Such plans or schemes theoretically take into account how a city will grow and then literally plot out the shape our urban future will take.

The big question is: If such planning for a scheme took into account the future growth of the city, then how come the plan or scheme warrants the commercialisation granted years later? Surely, if someone wanted to engage in commercial activity, they would go to the nearby commercial area to see if there was space to rent or buy. Why, for instance, was commercial activity permitted way back along the residential promenade that was Davis Road? How come the companies and businesses that desperately needed office space did not think of investing within the walled city or along the Mall or Multan Road?

It's because commercialisation makes sense to a property owner who wants to make some quick money. Permission to use residentially classified land for commercial purposes increases its value, so the property owner will make a premium if permission is granted. The act of constructing a building, going by the construction technology currently employed, is not terribly technical. If the building constructed is successful – that is, if its office space is sold or leased out – the end result is a property owner who now has a means of income that will not only offset the cost of construction but also provide him a comfortable nest egg.

Commercialisation is nothing more than a modern twist on the old system of jagirdari. Anyone blessed with a large plot from the evacuee pool, a luxury residential plot in Gulberg or elsewhere or even a small plot along a wide road in any of the LDA's many approved schemes has the opportunity, if he gets commercialised, to opt out of the rat race and become, in that derogatory economics phrase, a rent-seeker. This shouldn't, but also does, make sense to the LDA.

Under the LDA Act 1975, it is an offence punishable with a fine of Rs500 a day and imprisonment of up to one year for a person to use his property for a purpose different than the one provided under a scheme unless he has the approval of the LDA. Let's be clear about this: the commercialisation of residential plots is illegal under the LDA. So why does it permit commercialisation and what, therefore, is the meaning of this new commercialisation policy that allows commercial activity in residential areas along the 31 various stretches of Lahore's roads?

The answer is simple: when you take away provincial government receipts and the dubious account entry of Rs500 million (as income for sale of land for a building, the ground-breaking of which hasn't even taken place yet), receipts from permitting commercialisation are one of LDA's main source of income. When the Government of Punjab froze its power to authorise commercialisation some two years ago, the LDA lost a major source of its revenue. So pathetic is its financial state that, the last time I checked, it had not passed a budget for this financial year – which is a legal requirement. One wonders who is paying the LDA salaries? Given this dismal situation, the income commercialisationwill bring will be a much needed shot in the arm for the LDA, even if this analogy resembles heroin use.

The LDA's Commercialisation Policy, 2009 is less of a policy than it is merely the decision to approve, on payment of fees of course, commercial activity on a number of residential plots in the city. Given the well-documented environmental havoc commercialisation brings in its wake (traffic, air pollution, solid waste, noise, the fall in property prices and the destruction of neighbourhood networks), the announcement of the policy is like dark clouds gathering over this city. Under the LDA Land Use (Classification, Reclassification and Redevelopment) Rules 2009, a District Planning and Design Committee is to approve a list of roads the LDA submits to it for permission to allow carte-blanche commercial activity. However, there is no indication that the permission granted to conduct commercial activity on the many residentially zoned roads in the policy was duly notified by such a committee. The Government of Punjab had constituted several committees, ostensibly on the finalisation of a commercialisation policy, but these are not the District Planning and Design Committee for the purposes of the law.

The new policy does come with a vision statement. There is much good in this statement, but before one can take it seriously, the fine print on the title page informs you that it is not part of any government notification and it is not a legal document. One can view it on the LDA's website but don't print it because, sadly, it isn't worth the paper it will be printed on. A lot of good work has been wasted by treating the vision statement and the spirit of the LDA's own laws in this manner.

The only purpose one can make of the statement is to equip the LDA with a defence to questions on why it will permit commercial activity on some city roads and not on others. This is necessary because Malik sahib will certainly cry discrimination when he can't commercialise his plot but Shah sahib on the other side of the road can. The ostensible answer given in the statement are that the LDA wants to encourage "central business districts" and that allowing commercial activity outside the limits of such districts will ruin the authority's plan to bring foreign investment in the property market. Anyone who buys this will probably also tell you that there is potential for a JW Marriott to open up on Lahore jail.

The other central flaw in the vision is the fact that the LDA treats Lahore as isolated from the commercial and residential developments taking place in the cantonment in the many phases of DHA. How can one take the reasoning of the LDA, as set out in the statement, seriously when it isn't even a coordinated attempt to plan for the future of the city? Once again, vested property interests have succeeded in convincing the government that it acting for the benefit of the people when, in fact, the only development the LDA is doing is for itself.

The writer is an advocate of the high court and a member of the adjunct faculty at LUMS. He has an interest in urban planning. Email: ralam@nexlinx.net.pk

 

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I. THE NEWS

EDITORIAL

PAMPERING THE MULLAH

TALAT FAROOQ

After the government crackdown on certain madrassas in Islamabad recently, the representatives of the Wafaq-ul-Madaris aired their indignation on TV channels. They criticised the action on the grounds that madrassas have always been weapon/terror-free -- including, if you please, the Lal Masjid -- and, as such, cannot be held responsible for any anti-state activities The went on to add thatif the government officials wish to visit any of the premises, they must do so with the permission of Wafaq-ul-Madaris. In answer to such defiant outbursts, the interior minister meekly assured the Wafaq that the government never meant to violate the sanctity of these great places of learning and knowledge, and is only looking for some foreign Imams residing in some madressahs illegally. One fails to understand why the government has to be apologetic in carrying out such actions against any institution in Pakistan if it has reports of illegal activity there, especially when we are in a state of war. Madressahs, even if registered, are not sacrosanct or above the law. Unfortunately, it is this obsequiousness of our rulers toward the mullah since the creation of Pakistan that has emboldened the extremists over the last six decades.

The Muslim struggle for Pakistan did not include the Deoband or the Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Hind who opposed the idea of Pakistan tooth and nail. Nonetheless, once Pakistan became a reality the Wahabi-Deobandi groups made gradual inroads as our leaders acquiesced to their demands within a few years of independence. Since then their influence has remained unchecked by the state as it focused on short-term political goals, it is therefore not surprising that they have eventually assumed the mantle of our self-proclaimed saviours and architects of the national identity of Pakistan.

Be it the Objectives Resolution or the timing of the Anti-Ahmadiyya movement in the 50s that facilitated the first martial law; the ban on alcohol and declaration of Friday as a weekly holiday by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Naseerullah Babar's Taliban idea during Benazir's government, or Nawaz Sharif's Shariah Bill of the 90s, staying on the right side of Maulana Fazl ur Rahman by successive governments or the on-going pampering of Wafaq-ul-Madaris by the incumbent administration, the political players of Pakistan have always put their own narrow interests before the interests of the nation.

The military dictatorships on the other hand have used the mullah to further their own specific interests. From Ayub Khan to Musharraf, all military regimes have sought the cooperation of one religious sect or the other. Zia in particular played the mullah card to promote American interests and Arab culture simultaneously, destroying national institutions in the process while Musharraf's post-9/11 two-faced strategy ensured the continuity of extremism. Jointly, the politicians and the military dictators, with help from America and Saudi Arabia, have managed to create a monster that feeds on violence and bloodshed.

The religious clerics, whether Muslim or non Muslim, derive their political power from exploiting the insecurities of the masses by focusing on differences in religious and socio-cultural beliefs, thus leading to social divisions. In a multi-ethnic Pakistani society with a sizeable non-Muslim population, this has spelled disaster. Over the last three decades, the Deobandi/Wahabi mindset has transmuted ideological divisions into militant sectarianism that has been duly exploited by the Taliban and their domestic sympathisers that include mainstream religious-political parties.

Muslim states like Turkey, in keeping with the Ottoman tradition, have managed to keep their clerics under state control to ensure social order. In Pakistan, they have been given a free hand; what we are witnessing today in the shape of violence is the dark side of religiosity infused by religious extremists into the psyche of both the uneducated masses and the unsuspecting educated elite. This has transpired due to the manipulation of religious sentiments by vested interests and festering socio-economic and governance issues all rolled into one. But above all, this is due to the deliberate omission of critical thinking skills and philosophical knowledge from the national curricula, thus rendering a large majority of Pakistani population incapable of objective assessment. This omission is largely attributable to the direct or indirect influence of the mullah especially during and after the Zia era.

Today the same extremist elements continue to spread their hatred of one another as well as propagate against Pakistan's national interests by promoting conspiracy theories and blind anti-Americanism from the pulpit. And while doing so, they fail to mention the negative influence of certain policies of the Saudi government toward Pakistan. The anti-American and anti-government slogans after the Islamic University bombing would have sounded more genuine had they been accompanied with anti-Taliban slogans. Pakistan will never become a self-respecting nation unless it disengages itself from not only American shackles but also the ones imported from Saudi Arabia. This requires a mature political leadership that believes in impartial analyses and practical strategies, not to mention courage and wisdom.

The Waziristan operation is in full swing and if the religious parties cannot support it for fear of life, they can at least remain quiet. By stoking the fire of anti-Americanism to garner support for the Taliban through ill-timed rallies and referendums, they are doing no service to Pakistan. The nation is being driven into a frenzy that can only spread more intolerance and spawn fear and anxiety. Furthermore, it serves as a diversion because it deflects people's attention from the real issue of good governance and allows religious and secular leaders, whether in the government or opposition or outside the parliament, to play their petty games without having to shoulder the required responsibilities to steer the country out of the present quagmire.

Religion is a strong social phenomenon and has been employed by many in human history to serve political ends. Muslim history is no exception. The mullahs of Pakistan have employed the same dispensation since 1947 to gain political power. This has eventually led to the rise of a ferocious militant element never known in Muslim history. Not even the Hashashins of Hassan Sabah killed with such merry abandon. It is high time for the state to check the spread of unbridled hatred. It is time to stop pampering the mullah.

The writer is executive editor of Criterion, Islamabad. Email: talatfarooq11@gmail.com

 

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I. THE NEWS

EDITORIAL

WHERE IS THE GOVERNMENT?

DR MASOODA BANO

The magnitude of the tragedies resulting from the current round of suicide bombings in Pakistan is unprecedented. The recent attack in Peshawar, which has resulted in death of over 110 people, was one of the very cruel attacks. It targeted a shopping area, which, as a routine, is full of women and children and they indeed ended up being the main victims. In addition to those dead, there were the injured and worst still those who had gone missing, whose families can't even locate their bodies leaving them in agony to wonder whether the missing children have been killed or simply kidnapped during this chaos. This is horrible. The agony-stricken faces of the family members of the victims looking for bodies, as captured by the media, have been most disturbing. Yet, the brutal continuity of these attacks and their growing intensity fails to trigger any change in the working of the government.

It is business as usual with the president, the prime minister and members of the parliament. Though the elected representatives of the people, the holders of these offices don't even feel the need to face the public or hold a special address apologising to the masses for this complete break-down of law and order across the country. There is simply no willingness to take any responsibility that comes with the holding of these offices. This is not just true for those holding the ministerial and senior positions but also for ordinary members of the parliament. The apathy of the members of the parliament, the ministers and top leadership is shocking. People are dying every day in violent attacks and these representatives don't even make the effort to visit the scene of crime, talk to the victims or meet their family members.

There are two distinct issues here. The first is the government's complete failure to check growing violence in the country. Not only is the government militarist strategy repeatedly failing to check the so-called Talibans, worst still is the fact that we are no better informed today than at the time of the formation of this government (for example, who are these Taliban, who is arming and funding them etc). We are repeatedly going in circles not even sure of nationalists, sometimes attributing all blame to the foreign Taliban and sometime on the so-called Pakistani ones. The government has provided the public no convincing evidence to illustrate that it actually is making progress in understanding who the real enemy is.

This is a huge failure, especially after the intensive military operations approved by this government. The top militant leaders might escape in these attacks but the military operations should have definitely led to capture of some of these Taliban and the reclaiming of the Taliban-controlled areas must have led to confiscation of their belongings that can help reveal their background and their motives. Yet, the success of these forces to continue to carry out such deadly suicide attacks on a daily basis shows that the government has made no progress at all in this regard.

While the failure of the government is now a regular feature of public debate, the less addressed but equally worrying issue is the callousness of the elected representatives to reach out to the victims of these attacks and to make an effort to go out and understand what is happening. All they seem to be capable of is sitting comfortably in the parliament, very few of these elected representatives had the guts to venture out to Swat when it was apparently under the Taliban hold; even fewer have contemplated visits to tribal belts and there aren't many physically moving around in the areas after an attack to assess the scene of the crime. How many of the female parliamentarians sitting on reserved seats and drawing parliamentary salaries and benefits from national exchequer have been out to help the families that have lost their mothers, sisters, daughters in the attack in Peshawar?

This apathy of the elected members towards the lives of the ordinary people is unacceptable by any standard. The government's unstated policy now is that Pakistanis must consider these attacks as a given and live with them. But the public should not tolerant this callous behaviour. There should be more calls on the elected representatives to actually visit the areas in which military operations are carried out and also the areas where the attacks take place. Spending time at these places and engaging with the communities will give these representatives a much better understanding of the forces out to destabilise Pakistan than shuttling in their protected cars between parliament and television talk shows.

The writer is a research fellow at the Oxford University. Email: mb294@ hotmail.com

 

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I. THE NEWS

EDITORIAL

ARE WE READY FOR THE LONG WAR?

SHAFQAT MAHMOOD

The South Waziristan operation seems to be going well. After tough fighting, major terror centres have been captured and the militants are on the run. This is a credit to the bravery and spirit of sacrifice among officers and men of the armed forces. It is also a tribute to the meticulous preparation and thorough planning of the army leadership.

Much has been written about Gen Kayani, most of it in the context of the perpetual political drama in the country, but too little about his ability as a military commander. It is this capability that is of crucial importance in the fight against the barbarians. Having little understanding of military matters, I am not qualified to do it, but I wish others would.

We are in a state of war, and all indications are that it is going to be a long struggle. We have to prepare for it politically, as a society and militarily. The strengths and weaknesses of our military leaders are as important to it as of top officeholders in government. In the press of the United States -- another country in the midst of a long war -- American military figures are discussed in detail from a professional perspective. Why not here?

Acknowledging again my lack of understanding of military matters, what gives me comfort about Gen Kayani as a commander is his personality. He is thorough, deliberate, and careful, unlike Musharraf who was impulsive and reckless. He also has the ability to take a long view and calculate beyond the immediate and the visible.

It was Musharraf's impetuous nature and lack of ability to think through all aspects of the conflict that got us into Kargil. The result was a disaster. Kayani's personality is such that it is difficult to believe he will go into a military campaign before analysing everything in detail and preparing for all eventualities. He may not win everything, but it won't be for lack of deliberation and hard work.

An aspect of that is visible in the current Waziristan campaign. First, it is in the targeting of the anti-Pakistan Tehrik Taliban (TTP) and its foreign allies in the Mehsud area. The Wazirs in the shape of Gul Bahadur and Maulvi Nazir have been left alone, and in effect neutralised. This despite American pressure to take them on as they have links with the Afghan Taliban, particularly the Haqqani group. This has ensured protection of an important flank of the campaign.

Secondly, from a layman's perspective the Waziristan operation is proceeding step by small step, carefully and unhurriedly. In this process own casualties are being minimised and important terror centres being taken over. The careful use of air power and artillery has forced the terrorists to run, and although fighting at times is furious, it would have been far more hazardous if not all elements of military power had been deployed judiciously.

Of course, in a campaign like this, the capture of territory is only a small part of the larger war. Breaking up the organisation and fighting ability of the militancy is of greater importance. The test after the capture of South Waziristan would be to take on fighters that have dispersed to other agencies and even into Balochistan.

Orakzai Agency, according to press reports, is emerging as the next battleground. Wherever it is, victory in the Waziristan battle would have to be followed up by success in other battles, and this includes more than a victory of arms. It means, to use a cliché, winning hearts and minds of people in the battle zone and taking out roots of militancy in other parts of the country. It is a long war because winning it not only requires a military victory but changing of mindsets.

It is here that the political part becomes so critical. People of battle zones, whether in Malakand or various agencies of FATA, have been displaced and suffered terrible hardships. They have to be rehabilitated and looked after. Their lives and infrastructure have to be rebuilt. This requires focused political initiatives and a great deal of competence.

Militancy will also have to be taken on with determination in other parts of the country, which requires a strong political will. If some madressahs and mosques are being used to spread hatred or prepare foot soldiers for the militancy, they have to be identified and confronted. If social or political organisations are, wittingly or otherwise, providing comfort to the terrorists, they have to be proceeded against.

If this is done, there will be reaction, some from the extremists, but also from ordinary people who do not understand the larger reality. This would mean putting at risk a degree of popular approval, which is difficult for politicians to do, but it will have to be done. When the future of the country is at stake, political considerations have to take a backseat.

This does not mean that we need military rule. This long war against militancy cannot be won without popular support, and for that democracy is essential. However, within the structure of democracy it is critical for the political players to focus their energies and employ their talents of leadership towards combating militancy. If this requires expending some political capital, it would have to be done. Otherwise, this war cannot be won.

It also means that we need a political leadership that has respect among the people. This is only possible if there is some moral basis to governance. This is where the corruption stories regarding the president, his friends and others in the political field become important. They create an aura of stink around the leadership that not only angers people but makes them lose respect for it. This compromises the war effort, because no one believes what the leaders say.

It is in this context that the outcome of the controversy surrounding President Zardari becomes critical. He had a difficult start because of his image and he has compounded it by allowing his friends and cronies to further tarnish his reputation. His handling of the judicial crisis and now the NRO has also called into question his political abilities. Is he in a position to lead the nation during the difficult time ahead?

The short answer in the democratic context would be that he is elected and this gives him the right to be the president of this country for five years. I am not questioning his legitimacy, though it seems that the courts would soon be asked to judge his eligibility for the high office. My concern is whether he has the moral standing to be the spearhead of a national effort in the long war ahead.

There are no easy alternatives, although talk has started of this or that person being more suitable for the president's position. Unless Mr Zardari resigns, of which I think the possibilities are remote despite Mr Altaf Hussain's advice, the legal and political battle may last for a while.

Email: shafqatmd@gmail.com

 

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I. THE NEWS

EDITORIAL

SOVEREIGNTY, WHOSE?

HARRIS KHALIQUE

Who wouldn't want to be sovereign? Every state wants to be independent and every individual wants to be free. We are born free. It is our birth right to remain free all our lives, to do what we wish to do without being cumbersome for the community in which we live and the global human society of which we are an integral part. We should be free without being violent in our pursuits and by acknowledging that all humanity deserves the same rights and privileges which we demand for ourselves.

But this world is an unjust place. It begins with the family – the first oppressive social institution, particularly in conservative societies like ours. Then we come across stringent values in our communities, perpetuated by the powerful in the name of morality, so that their grip on our lives is not weakened.

Coming to Pakistan as a state, we have laws that discriminate against many of our citizens. Dispensation of justice in favour of the disadvantaged and realisation of things that are good in our constitution, like Article 38, to give an example, remain a distant dream. Nevertheless, we continue with the resolve to change the status quo.

Some concerned citizens of this country, public intellectuals, a section of civil society and many in the media, continue to struggle. Progressive forces are disjointed and puny at the moment, but they are there. A regaining of social and political consciousness can be witnessed in different quarters of our society, including young people after a period of disinterest and lull for almost twenty years. The change is good but hasn't borne fruit yet.

Then, there are foreign forces which uphold carefully designed international institutional arrangements biased towards maintaining power of the rich nations over the poor. But I do not blame them for our ills, for they act in their own interest. It is up to us to articulate our interests better, come to a stage where we are able to negotiate our terms from a position of strength and while siding with the weak and the disempowered, grow to become strong and powerful in the comity of nations.

Now, the question is, how do we come to a stage like that? It is going to be a long haul, but not as long as some analysts would like us to believe. The recent debate over the Kerry-Lugar Law, passed by the US Congress and endorsed by President Obama, has to be taken to a different level if we are serious about our prosperity and sovereignty.

One, the criticism that the law receives in Pakistani media is misplaced, out of context and of a knee-jerk type. There are parts of the text where the language is inappropriate in diplomatic terms, but it is up to us to refuse it. But could we ever do that? Never. Be it the incumbent PPP, the opposition PML-N or someone like Musharraf, they would have accepted it. Read the terms of the World Bank, IMF and ADB loans we accept.

Why? Because we have never been sovereign, we were never serious in changing the cruel economic order in our country which systematically marginalises the majority, we never let the interests of the common people of Pakistan be served by reforming agriculture, promoting industrialisation and making quality education available to all children. Whose sovereignty our television anchors and their guests are harping about? The landless peasant of Nawabshah, the poor shepherd of Kharan, the bonded brick-kiln worker of Muzaffargarh or the terror-stricken young woman of Swat?

 

The writer is an Islamabad-based poet and rights campaigner. Email: harris@ spopk.org

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PAKISTAN OBSERVER

EDITORIAL

FOOLISH IDEA OF TWO WEEKLY HOLIDAYS

 

IT is good that the Cabinet has delayed a decision on two weekly holidays to overcome the energy crisis. We would advise the Government to give serious consideration to the foolish idea, which would have disastrous consequences for the economy of the country.

We wonder how the Cabinet thought it appropriate to give even consideration to the very idea which appears to be the brainchild of inefficient officials who have no capacity to confront the challenges from the front with visionary approach and are making such recommendations without realizing that two weekly holidays scheme once introduced in the past proved a total failure. We may look a bit crazy to say that keeping in view the present economic downslide, even one weekly holiday is a luxury and the situation demands that everyone must put in extra time to boost production and in the service of the nation. We have totally forgotten the saying of the founder of Pakistan "work, work and work" to make Pakistan economically strong and prosperous. As the media on Wednesday reported that the Cabinet was going to consider two weekly holidays, majority of people from different walks of life in interviews on TV channels opposed it in general while the business community in particular gave its consensus verdict against it. President of FPCCI Sultan Ahmed Chawla and former President S M Munir opposing the move said it would severely hamper the working schedules, reduce production capacity of the industry and export earnings rather than saving energy. With this ill thought action around 40 per cent labour working in different industries and other sectors as daily wagers would lose their one-day earnings. No one can deny that the problem of energy is there but it could be handled through effective management. The Prime Minister, we are confident looks at all the pros and cons before taking decisions on key issues and wonder how the Cabinet Division agreed to inclusion of this item in the agenda of the Cabinet meeting without taking into account the losses it would cause to economy and the poor masses. We would therefore caution the Government that the country cannot afford the luxury of two holidays as being practised in the developed world and let us work hard for six days in a week and try to stand on our feet feet instead of taking begging bowl every now and then for assistance from abroad.

 

 

 

 

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PAKISTAN OBSERVER

EDITORIAL

GAS CUT: ANOTHER BLOW TO INDUSTRY

 

WHAT a shame that after hue and cry over electricity shortages and blackouts across the country for the past two years and with no end in sight, now there is gas shortage and the Cabinet meeting on Wednesday decided to cut-off its supply to the industrial sector for two days a week. A roster has been approved to manage the shortage but one is justified to question as to whether the Cabinet asked the Ministry concerned what steps it took during the last one year to increase production as similar shortage was faced during the last winter season.

We agree that demand for gas is on the increase while Sui gas field production is depleting but there had been several discoveries in Sindh province and one in the NWFP in the recent past. The authorities must have persuaded the exploration companies to bring the proven gas fields on production line on a fast track basis to overcome the shortfall. Unfortunately a culture has developed in the country to leave everything to move on its routine rather than according priority and pushing the companies concerned and their heads for expediting the tasks. It is evident from the happenings of the past one and a half years that the entire attention of the administration is focussed on political issues, in which the common man and even the industry is least interested and no attention is being paid to deliver on economic front, on which depends the very survival of the country. Two day cut-off of gas supply to vital industrial sector means that either the industries would remain closed for these days or they would have to shift to imported fuel. That would raise the cost of production and hence make the commodities less competitive in the international and domestic markets. For the last over a decade we have been hearing sermons for the import of gas from Iran, Qatar and the Central Asian Republics yet nothing concrete is on the ground. If the cost of two-day gas cut-off is measured, it comes into billions of rupees. Had the former rulers and the present one given a serious thought, at least work on laying of gas pipeline from Iran would have been in progress by now and the resources could have been generated for this all important project by avoiding the losses that we would be suffering from load management but who cares?

 

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PAKISTAN OBSERVER

EDITORIAL

ILLEGAL ISRAELI SETTLEMENTS

 

WINDING up her Middle East tour, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton repeated on Wednesday that the Obama administration rejects the legitimacy of Israeli settlement expansion but at the same time she endorsed the Israeli Prime Minister's statement that Israeli-Palestinian negotiations should precede a permanent freeze on such construction.

Speaking after talks with President Mubarak in Cairo, Clinton said that ending all settlement activity, current and future, would be preferable, meaning that the US would not pressurize the Jewish State to put a freeze. Her arguments conflict with Arab and Palestinian demands that all settlement activity be frozen before resumption of talks. Palestinian negotiator Saab Erekat looked so frustrated over the comments of top American diplomat that he advised President Mahmoud Abbas to tell his people the truth, that with the continuation of settlement activities, the two-state solution is no longer an option. New settlements mean that Israel continues to strengthen its hold on the occupied land, no negotiations and an unending agony of the hapless Palestinian people. It is a well-known fact that without tacit approval of the United States, Israel cannot dare to go for building more settlements. We would therefore impress upon the OIC and the Arab League to mobilize international opinion particularly the United States to put a stop to the settlements and force Israel to agree to the creation of an Independent Palestinian State. We would also appeal King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, who is perhaps the only Arab Statesman enjoying tremendous goodwill in Washington and other world Capitals to exercise his good offices and re-initiate his Middle East peace plan for the settlement of the lingering Palestinian problem.

 

 

 

 

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PAKISTAN OBSERVER

EDITORIAL

WILL INDIANS & PAKISTANIS LOSE THEIR CULTURE?

M D NALAPAT

It used to be said that Indians were different, and that — unlike in the Gulf countries or in East Asia - most middle and even upper class Indians stayed aloof from the craze for premium European brands. Whatever their income level, Bollywood was preferred to Hollywood, tandoori chicken to the European continent's baked variety. In motorcars, the music heard was seldom that of Michael Jackson, the preference being for Indian singers,including the greats of times past,Lata Mangeshkar and Mohammad Rafi. And of course,Pierce Bosnan or Madonna would have very little danger of getting mobbed in a shopping mall,unlike the wildly popular Shahrukh Khan or the earthy Tabu (Tabassum).

While it is true that there are far more people in the Arabian Gulf countries or in China who buy up Gucci handbags or Cartier watches,or feel deprived without a Bentley or a BMW, yet the number of those with what Vidia Naipaul described as the Indian "craze for foreign" seems on the rise. This columnist (who is vegetarian) loves his "dal-chawal" and his "alu subzi and roti". He would walk several miles to tuck into a pile of succulent "idlies" (the rice cakes popular in the south of India) mixed with chutney. Which is why he dreads dinner invitations from his fancy friends these days.For,instead of the usual fare,what gets placed on his plate is a succession of indigestible French dishes,or - horror of horrors - pasty made gooey with some sauce "imported specially from Milano".Unless he feigns delight,the hostess and the host will consider him an ignorant country bumpkin (which,born as he was in a village,he is). Steadily, tastes and attitudes in India are losing their moorings and floating towards the fate of being cultural clones of natives of France or Italy. Many of those with the money take time off to spend "heritage time" in various scenic locations in Europe, practising their foreign accents or tasting wines and cheeses. This always creates a (hidden) laugh in uncultured minds like that of your columnist, for the reason that most of those from our part of the world who pretend to be more French than those born in Nancy or Rouen are in their hearts yearning to return to "masala chaat". The foundation for national resilience is culture. While this can adopt other strands - and indeed should - yet such adaptation ought not to be so significant as to affect the basic qualities of a civilisation. Let us take the case of India,Pakistan and Bangla Desh,where the basic culture of the people is to be warm and hospitable. To be polite and respectful. However, in each of the three countries more and more people are adopting a culture of hatred and intolerance that is completely at variance with their own. They are adopting the same attuitude of intolerance and hatred towards those who reject their views as the multiple nationalities in Europe did against each other in the first half of the previous century.

It is in the context of growing fanaticism that the difference between those who absorb the good elements in other cultures and integrate them in their own and those who uncritically attempt to copycat foreign ways becomes important. For,fanatics can be fought only by those with an inborn confidence in their own culture (albeit woven out of multiple strands) rather than by those who feel like aliens in their own country. Sadly,our schools teach us to be contemptous of our own traditions and history,and regard as central the events that took place within countries that once ruled over us. Even today,more attention is paid to the history of Europe than to the history of Asia. The past is still taught the way it was a century ago, when what was local was derided and only that which came from afar was judged to be worthy of attention. Unless such outdated curricula get replaced by others that mix traditional values with modern knowledge, the fanatics will continue to spread. One of the problems being faced within the region is the fact that too many young people are made to study in exclusively religious schools. The teaching of Religion is like a spoonful of sugar that needs to be put into a glass of "water" ( in other words,conventional education), so as to make the "water" sweet. It should not be seen as a substitute for conventional scholing,the way it is in so many parts of South Asia. Schools that teach the young the expertise needed for a productive life in a modern economy need to be emphasized,as also the teaching of an international language suich as Eglish.In this connection,the experience of India is instructive. In South India, the teaching of English was encouraged,except in the Communist-ruled state of Kerala.

In contrast,northern states such as Uttar Pradesh and Bihar restricted the teaching of English to very few,with the result that today,it is majorly the people of the South that are grabbing most of the best jobs in the Knowledge Industry. Incidentally,the only southern state lagging behind the rest in thois field is Kerala,which for ideological reasons downplayed the teaching of English in past decades. Learning English is not the same thing as slavishly following an alien culture,for language is less a medium of culture than it is an instrument for self-advancement. A person speaking Chinese or Russian cannot be said to be adopting the culture of China or Russia,but those who deny the poor the right to learn English say that knowledge of the international link language "dilutes culture". In fact,they are behaving the way upper castes behaved in ancient India,when they denied education to the lower castes,thus seeking to keep them in permament servitude. To deny access to modern schooling and knowledge of English to the poor is to perpetuate the ancient Indian caste system, no matter if this take place in Pakistan, India or Bangla Desh. The modern casteists of Pakistan ensure by their neglect of conventional education that this gets denied to the poor,while their Indian counterparts shut the door on the teaching of English in the name of "preserving local culture".

In fact,what such disastrous policies are encouraging is the spread of fanaticism, the common enemy of all the countries of South Asia. What needs to be done is to avoid being a clone of Europeans, clutching premium bags, wearing super-expensive branded shoes, clothes and watches and refusing to stir out without "Made in Europe" all over them.All that such a profusion of premium brands reveals is their deep sense of inferiority and their contempt towards their own cultural and natural genes,a state of being that makes them unable to mount a serious challenge to the fanatics. Next,to oppose those who have revived (only this time in Asia) the visceral hatreds of the Europe of the 1930s.The people of that continent paid a heavy price in blood for their intolerance of each other.This sad history must not get repeated in Asia,esecially in our region. India and Pakistan need once again to be proud of who they are,what they represent, so that the people of the region can unitedly beat back the waves of hatred generated by a few. Indeed,such a process seems to be taking place in Pakistan,where the population is seeing the effects of the actions of un-Islamic militias such as the Taliban. Were FATA and the Swat valley well-endowed with modern schools, it would not have been possible for the Taliban to gain in support in these regions. The culture of India and Pakistan is both moderate and modern. Both need to be encouraged,so that the two countries will continue to be showcases of a vibrant cultural tradition.

 

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PAKISTAN OBSERVER

EDITORIAL

BANALITY OF TERROR

SULTAN M HALI

We live under continual threat of two equally fearful, but seemingly opposed, destinies: unremitting banality and inconceivable terror." — Susan Sontag

The rise in terror attacks has perhaps numbed our feelings and our attitudes towards the fear of terror attacks. We used to feel sorry for the Iraqis, who were faced with constant terror attacks in the near past. Unfortunately, Pakistan is beset with a greater magnitude of attacks, taking a high toll of human lives. The constant exposure to fear has perhaps numbed our sensitivity. A banality of terror appears to be setting in. The other day, while visiting a private news agency, which provides visual news service to international TV channels, breaking news of the deadly bomb blast in Peshawar just after Hillary Clinton's arrival in Islamabad was received. The News agency apprised its clients of the event and at that time the initial news still filtering in indicated a death toll of eight. The Client News Channels were not interested. It was shocking for me; and only when the death toll crossed 40, the channels jumped into action and commissioned news footage and detailed news stories.

We are in a 'state of war' and should move beyond the doubting Thomases asking "whose war is it?" Our very survival depends on how we conduct ourselves. The targets have shifted from security forces and their infrastructure to schools, colleges, shopping areas inhabiting the lower class, and ordinary plebeians queued up to receive their humble salary at local banks. The farcical shroud of imposing "Shariat" or Islamic values has been shredded by the attacks on women and children. No tenet of Islam, what to say of ordain, even forgives those who take up arms against women, children and the weak and feeble. The time for paying heed to pleas of going for 'talks, not war' has passed.

The assailants are armed with such sophisticated weaponry, their communication infrastructure is so highly developed, and the level of advanced training, which has been imparted, has mutated ordinary citizens into ruthless killing machines that resorting to peace talks now would be an indication of weakness. The hand of the decision makers has been forced by the incessant and increasingly vicious attacks. We have trodden the path of targeting the strongholds of miscreants and then entering into dialogues for peace earlier too. Leaving the task half-done and then ensuing for dialogue only provided much needed breathing time to the terror leaders, allowing them to replenish their weaponry, gain more time to train fresh recruits and deploy them into the heartland of urban centers to unleash terror whenever triggered into action. The task cannot be left unfinished this time, however painful it may be for us. Backing off now would only embolden the terror merchants to extract their pound of flesh as well as keep us hostage to their terms of foreboding and shock. Indeed a heavy price will be extracted of us in precious lives and our mental peace. The choice is ours, go after the harbingers of doom and gloom in one swoop and endeavour to finish them once for all or continue cowering in fear and be picked out as targets of terror attacks one by one.

Playing with human lives is no easy matter. The US and most western countries are sensitive to casualties. The number of body bags sent home in their wars overseas, can upset the people back home into pressing for calling off the war. We have to own the fact that this however odious war, is now inevitable. Instead of running endless debates into its causes and who brought it upon us, we need to protect our civilians from further harm, not by waving the white flag for peace for that would be tantamount to surrender but by gearing ourselves up for action. We need to support the war effort wholeheartedly, the people dying in the streets, schools and places of worship are our own people. Yes the government needs to declare 'a state of war' so that we can take actions, which are tantamount to being under such a siege. We all have to gear up and do our bit to contribute to the war effort. During the Indo-Pak War, we were youngsters and had voluntarily organized ourselves into groups who used to keep vigil. The impending threat then was from aerial bombardment, we used to patrol the streets, ensuring that proper blackout was maintained when air raids took place and supervising the digging of trenches. There was a scare that enemy paratroopers would be dropped close to air bases and vulnerable points. Whether any actual paratroopers were dropped by the enemy or not, we beat up a few people whom we suspected of being intruders and thus falling into the category of possible paratroopers. Such was our enthusiasm and zeal that some of our excesses were condoned by our elders. Today the enemy is within us, he is faceless and stealthy. We all have to be vigilant and wary to thwart his dastardly deed of blowing himself up and taking numerous others with him. It calls for a different level of awareness. Unless each one of us takes it upon himself/herself to point at intruders, strangers or those apparently indulging in suspicious activities, we cannot win this war. We also need to reach out to the IDPs of Waziristan. Somehow the spirit that had guided us in the wake of the deadly earthquake of 2005 or the Swat Operations appears to be waning now. Unless we welcome the poor souls, who were earlier held hostage by the Terrorists, we may drive them into becoming cannon fodder for the terror merchants through our callousness.

Such is the insensitivity, which sets in. We need to guard ourselves against banality; every life is precious. We are virtually on our own in this war and instead of looking externally for sustenance and support, let us enedeavour to help ourselves by tighteneing our belt, rationing scarce resources and most importantly, uniting in this war effort.

 

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PAKISTAN OBSERVER

EDITORIAL

NON-VIOLENCE AND ISLAM

MAULANA WAHIDUDDIN KHAN

Non-violence should never be confused with inaction or passivity. Non-violence is action in the full sense of the word. Rather it is more forceful an action than that of violence. It is a fact that non-violent activism is more powerful and effective than violent activism. Non-violent activism is not limited in its sphere. It is a course of action which may be followed in all matters. Whenever individuals, groups or communities are faced with a problem, one way to solve it is by resorting to violence. The better way is to attempt to solve the problem by peaceful means, avoiding violence and confrontation. Peaceful means may take various forms. In fact, it is the nature of the problem which will determine which of these peaceful methods is applicable to the given situation.

Islam is a religion which teaches non-violence. According to the Holy Qur'an, God does not love fasad, violence. What is meant here by fasad is clearly expressed in verse 205 of the second Surah. Basically, fasad is that action which results in disruption of the social system, causing huge losses in terms of lives and property. Conversely, we can say with certainty that God loves non-violence. He abhors violent activity being indulged in human society, as a result of which people have to pay the price with their possessions and lives. This is supported by other statements in the Qur'an. For instance, we are told in the Qur'an that peace is one of God's names (59:23). Those who seek to please God are assured by verse 5 of the sixteenth surah that they will be guided by Him to "the paths of peace." Paradise, which is the final destination of the society of God's choice, is referred to in the Qur'an as "the home of peace" (89:30), etc. The entire spirit of the Qur'an is in consonance with this concept. For instance, the Qur'an attaches great importance to patience. In fact, patience is set above all other Islamic virtues with the exceptional promise of reward beyond measure. (39:10). Patience implies a peaceful response or reaction, whereas impatience implies a violent response. The word Sabr exactly expresses the notion of non-violence as it is understood in modern times. That patient action is non-violent action has been clearly expressed in the Qur'an. According to one tradition, the Prophet of Islam observed: God grants to rifq (gentleness) what he does not grant to unf (violence). (Sunan, Abu Dawood, 4/255) The word rifq has been used in this hadith as an antithesis to unf.

These terms convey exactly what is meant by violence and non-violence in present times. This hadith clearly indicates the superiority of the non-violent method. God grants on non-violence what He does not grant to violence is no simple matter. It has very wide and deep implications. It embodies an eternal law of nature. By the very law of nature all bad things are associated with violence, while all good things are associated with non-violence.Violent activities breed hatred in society, while non-violent activities elicit love. Violence is the way of destruction while non-violence is the way of construction. In an atmosphere of violence, it is enmity which flourishes, while in an atmosphere of non-violence, it is friendship which flourishes. The method of violence gives way to negative values while the method of non-violence is marked by positive values. The method of violence embroils people in problems, while the method of non-violence leads people to the exploiting of opportunities. In short, violence is death, non-violence is life.

Jihad means struggle, to struggle one's utmost. It must be appreciated at the outset that this word is used for non-violent struggle as opposed to violent struggle. One clear proof of this is the verse of the Qur'an (25:52) which says: Perform jihad with this (i.e. the word of the Qur'an) most strenuously. The Qur'an is not a sword or a gun. It is a book of ideology. In such a case performing jihad with the Qur'an would mean an ideological struggle to conquer peoples' hearts and minds through Islam's superior philosophy. In the light of this verse of the Qur'an, jihad in actual fact is another name for peaceful activism or non-violent activism. Where qital is violent activism, jihad is non-violent activism. When the Qur'an began to be revealed, the first verse of the revelation conveyed the injunction: 'Read!' (Iqra) (96:1). By perusing this verse we learn about the initiation of Islamic action. It begins from the point where there is hope of continuing the movement along peaceful lines, and not from that point where there are chances of its being marred by violence.

Leaving aside these options, the path followed was that of reading the Qur'an, an activity that could be with certainty continued along peaceful lines: no violent reaction would ensue from engaging in such an activity. The Prophet of Islam followed this principle throughout his life. His policy was that of adopting non-violent methods in preference to violent methods. It is this policy which was referred to by Aishah, the Prophet's wife, in these words: Whenever the Prophet had to opt for one of two ways, he almost always opted for the easier one. (Fathul Bari 6/654)

A great advantage of the non-violent method is that, by following it, no part of one's time is wasted. The opportunities available in any given situation may then be exploited to the fullest extent—as happened after the no-war pact of Hudaybiya. This peace treaty enabled the energies of the believers to be utilized in peaceful constructive activities instead of being dissipated in a futile armed encounter. One great harm done by violent activism is the breaking of social traditions in the launching of militant movements. Conversely, the great benefit that accrues from non-violent activism is that it can be initiated and prolonged with no damage to tradition. Generally speaking, attempts to improve or replace existing systems by violent activism are counter-productive.
 

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PAKISTAN OBSERVER

EDITORIAL

NAXALITES: OPPRESSOR OR SUPPRESSED?

FATIMA SYED

Maoists detained the New Delhi-Bhubaneswar Rajdhani Express near Jhargram in West Bengal's Paschim Medinipur district on Tuesday for five hours. Commenting on the incident Maoist Polit Bureau member Koteswar Rao alias Kishanji said, "We want to teach the upper classes a lesson and change their narrow class outlook through this incident". The incident came on the first day of a bandh (Strike) called by the Maoists in protest against atrocities by security forces on villagers. On Monday Security force personnel ransacked several homes and even molested women in various villages of West Bengal. This is not the first incident of this kind; Maoist rebels regularly attack goods trains and have in the past even hijacked a few local passenger trains in remote districts of India before fleeing.

The Maoist rebellion began four decades ago championing the cause of poor peasants in the east, but has now spread to about 20 of India's 29 states, with the rebels targeting police and government property in hit-and-run attacks. Even the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh admitted that Naxalite activities are the single largest threat to India's security. Naxalites in India have repeatedly resorted to violence, and their armed campaigns have resulted in loss of life and property. Ever since 2005, India has been witness to an average of 1,500 incidents of Naxal violence, resulting in the death of over 750 people i.e. five incidents of Naxal violence every day and sixty killings every month. Naxal movement is gaining momentum with the passing time. It has spread to both urban and rural areas, ranging 160 districts of India, particularly affecting the entire eastern corridor; the states of Bihar, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh and parts of Orissa, Kerala and Madhya Pradesh.

All this raises the suspicions that whether Naxalites are irrational people causing so much damage to life and property without any reason. In reality, Naxalites are really working for the poor people and are active in the areas where the poorest of the poor live. Primary government facilities like schools and health care centers are practically absent in the Naxal infested areas. Infant mortality rates are among the highest in the world in the region, owing to malnutrition and hunger. Estimates suggest the infant mortality rate to be at 47 percent in the Naxalite affected regions of the country, a condition worse than Sub-Saharan Africa. According to ShankkerAiyar, "Each of the 80 worst Naxal affected districts have no schools, poor heath care, exploitative feudalism, no employment opportunities, pathetic social infrastructure". Over three lakh villages have no road connectivity. For example Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh is on the list of 100 worst districts list for the past two decades. So despite well aware of the reasons that are behind the rise of Naxalism Indian government is only depending upon force to end that problem. It is paying no heed to the problems that gave rise to Naxalism. In fact in the mind of Indian administration Naxalism is a war that has to be tackled through force. It most of the time forgot that Naxals are alienated Indian citizens and once their grievances will overcome Naxal movement will come to an end. India's Naxal problem is complex and tends to find its justification in the deep-rooted and centuries-old exploitation of the poor, particularly the tribal community, by local landlords and corrupt politicians. There is a high incidence of crimes committed against the tribal community. These include bonded labour, rape of women and girls, and silencing any opposition or dissent by murder and other violence. The landlords who commit these evils escape prosecution and punishment due to the support of corrupt and failing state agencies like the police. The Indian government has made no attempt to reach out to these citizens and address their problems, or to prosecute those who have committed crimes. The poor are systematically denied official assistance to address issues including food security, unemployment and the depletion of natural resources. Neither the state nor the central government has attempted to identify whether official schemes such as public food distribution shops or government health services are available to people in the region.

In addition to the failure of public welfare schemes, the government is also responsible for sponsoring indiscriminate mining and the destruction of natural resources in the region all in the name of development. In Chhattisgarh for instance, several large-scale mining operations have been commissioned in the past six years with complete disregard to the life and security of community members living there. A government website highlights the state's 'red-carpet' policy to private entities extracting mineral resources, but makes no mention of policies regarding people's loss of livelihoods and displacement, or the operations' environmental impact. It is thus clear that state governments in Naxalite affected regions have failed to address deep-rooted issues plaguing the population living below the poverty line. Haplessly, it is this deprived and oppressed population that falls prey to the Naxalite ideology.

Naxal problem is a result of ignoring 'basic realities' such as underdevelopment of their areas and their severe deprivation and backwardness. The Naxal movement gets sustenance because the government does not treat it as a politico-ideological and socio-economic problem and that the movement is symptomatic of a society which is anxious to usher in social change. Basically, it is the failure of the State machinery and the bankruptcy of official policy which explains the growing clout of the Naxalites. It is the rising consciousness of the deprived sections of society, who are today more determined than ever before to struggle for land, forest resources, minimum wages, social dignity and self-governance. But Indian administration always handles the issue through force by claiming that Naxals are involved in aimless violence.

Repression and violence against a population forms fertile ground for rebellious ideologies. The Naxalite movement is thus made up of individuals who believe in and justify defensive violence. It is unfortunate that the response by the Indian government has also been the use of force, often brutal. However it is an established rule that violence can neither resolve problems nor be a mode of communication. Any call for violence negates the premise of rule of law.

Violence presupposes guilt and perpetuates disagreement. Moreover, it affects and diminishes the space for dialogue, an essential component in any democracy. The only way the Naxalite problem can be resolved is by genuine negotiations and trying to provide answers to their age-old problems.

 

 

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PAKISTAN OBSERVER

EDITORIAL

CHEMO FOR THE BJP..!

ROBERT CLEMENTS

In another stinging blow to the faction feud ridden BJP,RSS boss Mohan Bhagwat has diagnosed that the party is grappling with a life threatening ailment that needs nothing short of drastic surgery or even chemotherapy…TOI, 28th Oct.

Now that's pretty drastic isn't it? Telling your party it needs chemotherapy? I mean it's like telling somebody who's got what he thinks is a simple cough and cold that he's on his deathbed. I'm nor sure the BJP needs such severe treatment, but I do know harsh medication has its side effects, and maybe the chief should be told the side effects of chemo:

Anxiety: This is a serious side affect of the treatment the RSS chief has recommended for his BJP and he should be prepared for it, "Hello! Hello!" "Who is it?" "Advani!"

What is it Advaniji?" "I would like to lead our party to victory in the next general elections!" "But that is five years away!""Yes but I am anxious to be announced as the next prime minister designate!" "Just go back to the hospital will you!"

Confusion: According to the medical profession, patients of chemo go through bouts of confusion, and this could create chaos for the party. There is some speculation in the country that this is what caused some befuddlement when Advani visited Pakistan: "Jinnah is a great leader!"

Who?" "Jinnah!" And later Jaswant Singh, "Jinnah is not to blame for partition!"

Eye Problems: Having problems with your vision is one of the serious side affects that the RSS chief may have to contend with, especially when he raises the temple issue: "We need to build the temple!" "It is already built!" "Are you blind what are you talking about?"

God resides in our hearts, the temple is already there!" Memory Loss: Yes loss of memory Mr Bhagwat is also a very serious side effect: "Who are you?"

I am the RSS chief!" "What's that?" "What's what?" "The RSS!"

Now sir I am sure you agree by now that chemotherapy is too strong a treatment. Maybe a dose of Democracy

and meditation on the Constitution could work wonders sir! Maybe..!

 

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THE INDEPENDENT

EDITORIAL

CHANGING THE CONSTITUTION

CONSENSUS NEEDS TO BE BUILT

It is not for the first time that prime minister Sheikh Hasina has assured the nation that her government will revert to the original Constitution adopted by the Bangladesh constituent assembly in November 1972. Theoretically, there should be no problem with it, now that parliamentary democracy has been restored in the country. But below the surface controversy brews, as the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) upholds many of the amendments brought about since then.

Much of the debate centers on the ideological slant of the Constitution and has nothing to do with sharing of power between the state organs. Most of the post-75 governments included religion as an important element of the Constitution, which was not there in the original version. The Awami League has also found it difficult to ignore the new twist and the prime minister has promised that there will be some amendments in response to the "sensitivities" of the people.

There is no gainsaying that the 1972 Constitution fully reflected the hopes and aspirations of the newly independent people of the sovereign Bangladesh. But in subsequent years during the martial law and the autocratic regimes, basic plank of the Constitution was changed robbing it of its original character.
For a democracy to operate effectively there must be some consensus on basic national issues including the Constitution, which is the basic law of the land. Hopefully, the government will use the current opportunity to move forward with caution. Although the ruling grand alliance has the required two-thirds majority for any constitutional change, it will be advisable to avoid exacerbating the already tense political divide.

 

Consensus for constitutional change

Although ideological issues have dominated the country's politics, it is also important to address much more functional issues like the "checks-and-balances." Evidently, in the almost forty years of our existence as a sovereign country we have failed to evolve a functional polity based on consensus and reason. It is important that the government take all parties, including the main opposition, into confidence before bringing about major changes to the Constitution.

 

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THE INDEPENDENT

EDITORIAL

VACANT POSTS

ADMINISTRATION SUFFERS

The government, according to reports, has about two lakh posts lying vacant, of which 26, 696 are in the class I category. When so many vacancies are there to be filled up, 505 officers have been made officers on special duty (OSD) who together are drawing salaries to the tune of Taka 1.49 crore. No wonder that the administration, more often than not, finds itself in sticky situations. In a country where unemployment is high and expenditure of money demands maximum utility and efficiency, both vacancies and payment of officers and employees for no work, go directly against the interests of the Republic. Also, the administration suffers morally on both counts.

Except when posts are created on political and parochial considerations, they should be manned by competent people willing to take up the challenges. This creates opportunities for the recruits to contribute to the overall governance of a country, making all parties beneficiaries. So there is no point leaving genuine government positions vacant and also sidelining some of the veteran hands simply because they do not fit into the political scheme. If there are superfluous positions, those can be abolished on practical grounds.

 

Compelling reason for job creation

The rationale behind keeping the administration trim cannot be disputed but there are other more compelling considerations as well. This concerns the explosive issue of unemployment of a vast number of highly educated youth. They have to be provided with jobs and made to take over charges from the old guards. Job creation is fundamental to economic growth and when a country can plan for their productive absorption, it makes big strides on the path to development. We surely have a clear case here for filling up the vacant posts and also creating new employment opportunities.

 

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THE INDEPENDENT

BOB'S BANTER

THIS TOO SHALL PASS...!

 

A king once came to Solomon and asked him for a motto, "It must be one", said he, "that shall be as much use to me in times of trouble as in times of prosperity." The wise Solomon gave the king these words, and he had it engraved on a ring, which he wore continually. The wise words were, "This too shall pass." A couple of years ago, one morning, just before I sat to write this column, I was visited by a grieving lady who was weeping bitterly; I knew her husband was in hospital and that he'd suffered a stroke. She had three small children, who had entrusted me with their little lovebird before they were shifted to a relative's house so their mother could spend time next to her very sick husband. She had spent days and nights in the hospital and now she cried out of sheer exhaustion and grief. I looked at her and sat down with her. Searched in my mind for words of comfort, words of strength, but the thoughts that came, seemed hollow and empty. Suddenly I remembered the words of King Solomon. "This too shall pass" I told her, "Even this will pass!" Today when I see her family, I remember those words and smile. Her husband is much better, though he walks with a limp. The children have grown well and are strong for the trials they went through. She has finished her teacher's training and works as a teacher and a friend gave them a lovely flat to stay in. The trials she went through passed on! Here's a poem by Helen Steiner Rice I'd like to share.

If I can endure for this minute, whatever is happening to me,
No matter how heavy my heart is or how dark the moment may be
If I can remain calm and quiet with all the world, crashing about me,
Secure in the knowledge God loves me when everyone else seems to doubt me
If I can but keep on believing what I know in my heart to be true,
That darkness will fade with the morning and that this will pass away, too.
Then nothing in life can defeat me for as long as this knowledge remains
I can suffer whatever is happening for I know God will break all of the chains
That are binding me tight in the darkness and trying to fill me with fear
For there is no night without dawning and I know that my morning is near!
Yes dear friend, whatever you're going through right now, it will pass…!
bobsbanter@gmail.com

 

 

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THE INDEPENDENT

EDITORIAL

DISPUTE OVER MARITIME BOUNDARY

NILRATAN HALDER

 

From relative obscurity, the issue of maritime boundary has suddenly been catapulted as a hot topic into our daily discourse. This has been the case with Bangladesh seeking to resolve its maritime boundary disputes with its neighbours India and Myanmar through mediation of the Arbitration Tribunal of the United Nations. It is quite understandable as offshore and deep-sea resources are likely to sustain countries with long seacoasts for centuries. Ironically, though, the country that boasts the framing of a law on maritime boundary and offshore area as early as 1974, eight years before even the United Nations could pass the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), now finds itself at the receiving end. This is simply because, it went into a deep slumber at a time when its bigger neighbour and eastern one ruled by a military junta made the first moves from both sides to claim their shares of the sea bounty much beyond their territorial waters.

Bangladesh is at a disadvantage for a number of technical reasons as also for its geographical location. Sandwiched between India and Myanmar, its interests clash with those of both. The emergence of Talpatty island has only made the matter more complicated with India staking a claim on it. But according to M Habibur Rahman, an expert in sea law, Talpatty will belong to either India or Bangladesh depending on the passage of the combined currents from the Raimangal River from our side and the Hariabhanga River on the border. If the current passes by the western side of the island, Talpatty is ours and if it passes alongside the eastern part, it will be India's.

In that case, India will have the advantage of claiming its economic zone upto 200 miles from that point. Already with a coast formation of concave type (where the sea has made its inroad into our coast), it becomes a difficult job to decide our base line from where the 12-mile sovereign state area, 200 nautical-mile exclusive economic zone and 350-mile or more areas of greater area of maritime interests are drawn. If the coastline with a stretch of shallow waterfront is considered the baseline, we have every possibility of being deprived of our rightful claim.

This warrants fixing of draught-based method of baseline under which it will be drawn from a point at a distance of 10 fathom. Only then will justice be done to us. In a similar case where Germany, like us located in between Denmark and the Netherlands and contending maritime areas of the North Sea, went to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in 1967. And the ICJ gave the verdict that the demarcation of maritime boundary has to be completed according to UNCLOS-Article 74 that provides for the principle of justice through mutual agreement. Accordingly, Germany got 7,000 square kilometres from Denmark and 5,000 kilometres from the Netherlands.

What holds true for Germany should hold for us because our interests as opposed to India's and Myanmar's are comparable with those of Germany because both Denmark and the Netherlands' exclusive economic zones overlapped with that middle country. If the same principle is applied, we surely have a strong case. But this needs presentation of our case convincingly at the tribunal. So we have to collect facts, figures and other related information and get those in the form of analytical data and for us to complete all this the deadline is not later than 2011.

Apart from Talpatty, India has the advantage of possessing the Andaman and Nicobar islands where from they enjoy an extra mileage. Its and Myanmar's cases are further enhanced by the convex nature of their coastlines. Above everything else, though, on one count Bangladesh has failed to react timely when both India and Myanmar started exploring natural gas and oil a few years back by drawing their gas blocks within its territorial waters. It should have raised a strong objection then but it did not. Now with the announcement of 10 offshore and 20 deep-sea gas blocks by Bangladesh, both its neighbours have raised objection as these overlap with theirs. The reason for Myanmar to venture into our territorial waters is its striking of big gas reserve in one of its blocks in close proximity with ours. Similar is the case with India, which has struck a huge reserve in deep sea. No wonder, when in November last Myanmar sent an exploration expedition in one such disputed area - Myanmar claiming it to be their AD-7 block and Bangladesh identifying its as the number 13 block - with a reputed South Korean company carrying out the exploration in that country's favour, Bangladesh objected to it.

 

There was a kind of military showdown when Bangladesh had to send a Navy ship. Considered against this background, it is always better to seek justice from international forums. There are instances of such disputes leading to bloody wars between contending countries. So by placing the issue at the UN's Arbitration Tribunal, Bangladesh has done the right thing. The next step would be to get the homework done properly and this constitutes collection of information and facts relating to the resources underneath the sea by means of a thorough survey. While the process of arbitration continues, we should work for carrying on joint surveys to know exactly what we all are looking for. If joint survey is impossible, we need to do it ourselves. Our arguments must be substantiated by facts and figures. We can also try for bilateral negotiation on this matter. If the dispute can be settled amicably through such negotiations, nothing like it.

One thing is clear, Bangladesh has been a little late to pursue its interests and case. Now that it has opted for international arbitration, the move should be treated as a point of no return. After all, at stake is no less an issue than the national interest and by extension the future of the country. If India and Myanmar can establish their claims on the disputed areas, we run the risk of being sea-locked. That would be the last nail in our coffin. Our politicians and policymakers should realize the extent of this threat and act accordingly. If necessary, they should put their heads together to devise a plan for making the most effective approach possible to the matter. Constitution of an expert technical committee may be considered. This committee should work together with a panel of lawyers preferably of international repute so that we do not have to rue over missed chances and all because we were not mindful enough.

 

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THE INDEPENDENT

EDITORIAL

REMEMBERING KHURRUM KHAN PANNI

WAJID ALI KHAN PANNI

(FROM PREVIOUS ISSUE)

 

After partition, he continued his political career. However, soon after independence and partition, Muslim League became unpopular in East Pakistan. He could not succeed in Tangail constituency as majority of former ML leaders joined hands in opposition (United Front) and defeated the Muslim League and the party was almost wiped out. KKP stayed quiet. Later, when Ayub Khan who took over in a bloodless coup in 1958 under martial law, he declared the path towards democracy and held election in 1962. KKP was elected unopposed as an independent candidate and became a member of the East Pakistan Provincial Assembly. He later joined the ruling party and became the Chief Whip of the ruling party in the assembly.

Since 1963 KKP started another turn in his career as a diplomat. In 1963, he was appointed as Pakistan Commissioner to the East African countries - Kenya, Uganda, Tanganyika and Zanzibar. Later in the same year these countries became independent from British colonial rule and he was upgraded to High Commissioner accredited to most of the East African countries like Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania (Tanganyika and Zanzibar united), Zambia and Ethiopia. I got an opportunity to be with him during his diplomatic career in Africa. He had an amazing level of integrity and dedication towards the causes he stood for. I learned the basics of managing international diplomacy during this period and this exposure has indeed helped me enormously to deal with the problems of Bangladeshis in Malaysia while I was serving as High Commissioner. 

In 1966 he was appointed as Pakistan Ambassador to Argentina where he opened the Pakistan mission. In 1969 he was appointed Pakistan Ambassador to Philippines. However, he was unhappy during these days as I could recall his dilemma in continuing as Ambassador when his heart and soul stood for the cause of East Pakistan Bangalee identity and right to self-determination. In early 1970, he visited East Pakistan and propagated for Awami League when he visited Tangail and Karatia. He strongly believed in AL's power to bring the rightful choice to the suffering and exploited people of the then East Pakistan. In 1971, when the freedom movement started, he opted out of the post of Ambassador of Pakistan and openly declared his loyalty to Mujib and AL and the freedom struggle for an independent Bangladesh.

Karamatullah K Ghori, who was the number two in Pakistan Mission in Philippines later, wrote about this incident. KKP called a press conference at the embassy residence. A reporter asked him at the press conference: "What is your number two doing. Is he also walking out on Pakistan?"

"No," said KKP, "But years from now when he looks back at this period he might regret he didn't make the right choice." These were prophetic words, Karamatullah Ghori confessed later in his column.

In June 1971 he was appointed as the Roving Ambassador of the Mujibnagar government, the government in exile of Bangladesh. He travelled all over the South East Asian countries and Australia seeking support for the freedom movement. Interestingly, most of the countries did extend support. Malaysia was a bit hesitant to openly support. In 1965, during Indo Pakistan war, Malaysian representative in UN (Who was of Indian origin) had declared that Pakistan was the aggressor. As result, Pakistan had broken diplomatic ties with Malaysia, which was restored later. Hence Malaysia was a bit careful but after liberation, Malaysia was the first Muslim country to recognise independent Bangladesh, followed by Indonesia. KKP was sent to Jakarta as the first Ambassador of independent Bangladesh.

It was a tough time for Bangladesh as majority of the Muslim countries and China did not recognise Bangladesh as an independent nation. They supported Pakistan. Lobbying was going on vigorously for this block of countries to accept this new independent Bangladesh. Indonesia, being one of the largest Muslim countries also played an important role to convince other countries to recognise Bangladesh. KKP used his diplomatic skill to lobby for Bangladesh and to get its due place among the international community. Bangabandhu was keen to get membership in the Organisation of Islamic countries [OIC] as well. Pakistan gave its condition to recognise Bangladesh if prisoners of war were get released without trail. In this - exchange offer - Indonesia played the vital role as a mediator and KKP as the Ambassador was the mediator on behalf of Bangabandhu. Finally the assurance was given to Pakistan through Indonesia and Pakistan accepted Bangladesh as an independent country and so did other states of the Muslim block. Bangabandhu attended OIC meeting as well. However, there was a big problem waiting. We had not taken India's approval before announcing the release of prisoners as they were actually India's prisoners and not of Bangladesh. India raised serious but genuine objections and it became an issue. Finally KKP was victimised for the whole proceedings and it was declared that Ambassador did this without prior approval from the legitimate government. Pakistan, China and the entire block accepted Bangladesh. But KKP who had struggled tirelessly to get his country accepted in international forum was sidelined, victimised and was held responsible for the whole episode. He was upset and deeply wounded. Yet he did not say anything against the government and Bangabandhu for making him a scapegoat. Because his dedication to the newborn country and its complex problems and of course his loyalty to Bangabandhu was unparalleled.  Later he told me "I gave my word to Bangabandhu not to make any statement and accepted to gracefully hand over and move out of the Embassy."

He was always of the opinion that Bangabandhu has played vital role in emancipation of the Bangalee cause and brought about the independence. Bangladesh owes its independent existence to him and his agitation. He was proud of the new sovereign country and hence preferred to keep silence on his personal insult and agony. He was a great admirer and supporter of Bangabandhu and advised me to join and support Awami League.
The somewhat betrayal, however, affected him and he discontinued active politics and diplomatic career after that. In 1975 he went to USA where two of his younger sons and daughter were settled. He settled in Seattle.  He was very ill during his last three to four years and could not walk, was almost bed ridden. When mother passed away in 1995, I used to go often to USA and stayed for months to look after, nurse and cook for him. He was so pleased and I think our bond as father and son became strong during the last period of his life. Since I studied in boarding school and he was very busy with his political engagements we hardly did get time to share ideas when I was young. So I felt grateful to Almighty for giving me an opportunity to look after him when he was weak and frail. He used to share his experience as a politician and diplomat and cherish the nostalgic memories of Karatia, Calcutta and Dhaka and of course Bangabandhu. He asked me to join Awami League as he felt this is what he owed to Bangbandhu. When he visited Bangladesh in 1980, he was shocked that there were no pictures of Bangbandhu anywhere and no one talked about this great man and then he commented sadly; "Is our nation so ungrateful?"

He died on 25th January, 1997. I am happy that I could keep my promise to him. 

As a person KKP was warm, friendly and loveable. It was well known that he is a person whom no one can greet first. He was polite and gentle to everyone irrespective of class, politics and nationality. His manners were impeccable, a true aristocrat with great manners, yet humble and honest. He was always vivacious and dynamic. When he was a young man, he was a great horse rider and played polo with the princes in India. His hobby was flying and had a PPL (Private Pilot's License]. He also sang well.

No man could be a better host than him. He was charming, in him elegance combined with simplicity and sincerity. He was always attentive to his guests, and admired art and music. He encouraged us to learn music and musical instruments. He enjoyed interesting conversation and his own contribution during long hours of chatting were lively and calm voiced. He appeared well dressed and grace was natural to him. As a father he was the embodiment of affection and discipline.

While looking back, I feel so proud to be the son of KKP. I cannot claim that I had inherited many of his best qualities as a human being and a great leader. But, I am sure he had profound influence on my personality, political views and attitude to common man and his myriad problems.

And above all I feel that I had inherited the most important part of his will - Love for our own Bangladesh. Whatever his success or failure, his misjudgements and misgivings, he stood for shaping and nurturing Sonar Bangla as envisaged and dreamt by Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. I am so proud to inherit the spirit of his will and desire to watch Bangladesh  achieving the zenith of its glory.

[Concluded]

 

(The writer is former Deputy Foreign Minister and High Commissioner of Bangladesh.)

 

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THE INDEPENDENT

EDITORIAL

INLAND PORT AT MAWA

NEHAL ADIL

 

Vikrampur was South and South East Asia's leading port in the first millennium. As we are in the third millennium, the inhabitants of the region have still held the name Vikrampur to a definite geographical region of our glorious ancient capital. The port of Mawa is identified by many to be heir to Vikrampur. It is situated in Medini Mandal. According to late journalist Shafiuddin Ahmed - Medini Mandal means head of the Earth as such it could be very much the capital of the vast naval empire of the Pal dynasty spread over in South And South East Asia.

 

There is coastal tide upto Mawa. This means it was once on the seacoast. Then by forming chain of islands the land area of the country expanded to Barisal to the end of Kuakata. Many of the country's great sons including one of the world's first nuclear scientists Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose was born here. Many leading families of the subcontinent could find some link with Vikrampur including that of Sarojini Naidu, a common friend of Gandhi and Jinnah. Hundreds of thousands of people who pass through Mawa has little time to ponder about it. It is now the major ferry station that connects the national capital Dhaka with Southern Bangladesh, which has a population of sixty million. Many want to name the Padma Bridge or Mawa Bridge as Sher-e-Bangla Bridge after the great son of southern Bangladesh. Many families of Barisal actually originated from Vikrampur, like Sher-e-Bangla - a Qazi of Chakhar had told me. He was also an old friend of Sarojini Naidu. Through Sarojini Naidu, Sher-e-Bangla brought Mohammad Ali Jinnah to Muslim League. Sher-e-Bangla had relations in Kartikpur. Whatever name you can give to the bridge, it might bring doom to Mawa, local residents fear. Notice has been served to the local residents for land acquisition. But where will they move to, how much compensation would they get or how would they spend the money - are important questions needing answers. An expert engineer told me the bridge is not likely to be completed before 2020 and at the earliest 2015. What will be the economy of the area by then?

Now Mawa is not only a ferry station, it is also the country's leading inland port like Baghabari on the Jamuna. Inland Water Transport Authority has an office and Bungalow here. If Sonadia is developed as deep sea port - goods could be directly transhipped to Mawa and sent to Dhaka by land transport. At the moment a number of land and river transport companies are operating in Mawa. If the billion dollar Mawa Bridge project is facilitated a temporary boom economy could blossom but it could very much evaporate as did in the case of Jamuna Bridge, leaving people in dire poverty, a local journalist told me. But economic activity enriches a nation. It does not make it poorer. There is talk of another bridge on the Padma-Jamuna joint flow at Goalunda.

They could be complementary not competitive

This could turn the whole ancient Vikrampur region the industrial hub of the country. If we study the natural history of Bangladesh, we find the present flows of Padma-Jamuna conjuncture was not there. Vikrampur was extended to present day Rajbari-Pabna-Manikganj-Tangail. The Ganges, which has turned Padma, flowed as Vagirathi to the sea in West Bengal. The Jamuna flowed as Brahmaputra towards Bhairab, which the Arabs called Bahr Al Ab. Actually the conjuncture of the mighty river systems east of Mawa looks like Bahr or sea. The question is what will happen to the river port at Mawa after the Mawa Bridge is completed. The editor of a respected daily and a beloved son of Vikrampur told me it will bring doom to Vikrampur as people would drive direct to Dhaka ignoring Vikrampur. People who are planning to build Padma Resort City, do not think so. They think it would instead bring resource boom in the area.

In Vikrampur, except Sylhet, we have the greatest number of people who are working abroad. But the expatriates from Vikrampur constitute mostly professionals. I met Rupa from New York in an art gallery. She is a Syed from Kusumpur. When she comes to Bangladesh, she stays in Dhaka, since not much is left in Kusumpur. Mr Mawla, a retired gentleman and relation of a former navy chief cater for those expatriates plans to return to the country. He said that it would be better to be a fisherman at Mawa than a millionaire in New York.

Mawa has the country's largest fishing fleet. Fishermen are both Hindus and Muslims reflecting the traditional secular spirit of Vikrampur. Mr Shafiuddin Ahmed, whom late President Ziaur Rahman called a banyan tree of Bangladesh's grass root journalism expired recently, according to late Shafuiddin this secular spirit gave the birth to Bangladesh. Apu, son of Mr Mawla, local correspondent of Daily Naya Diganta, says the glory of the past will not save Mawa - or Medini Mandal. He thinks the people are in dire poverty. The best thing is to make the river port of Mawa rejuvenated to withstand the closure of the ferry after the completion of the Mawa bridge. Taslima of the Kazi family of Medini Mandal who works at a bank in Dhaka thinks that if the entrepreneurs of Vikrampur invest their money in Mawa instead of New York, the face of the country would change. But the distant shore calls Kazal. He wants to fly to Cyprus to take a low paid job. Will he return as millionaire? We do not know. The ferry moves southwestward. The inland port will remain there. Apu thinks the importance is to utilise connectivity of Mawa to both eastern and Western, Northern and Southern parts of Bangladesh to bring the common prosperity of Bangladesh for its hundred and fifty million people. The boatmen are there in the confluence of Ganges and Brahmaputra - the planet's two biggest river systems.

 

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THE AUSTRALIAN

EDITORIAL

TALKBACK TO THE FUTURE

KEVIN RUDD CANNOT WALK BOTH SIDES OF THE BARBED WIRE FENCE

 

AFTER two years of tweeting, blogging and chatting with voters on Facebook and MySpace, Kevin Rudd has ventured into what for him is largely uncharted media territory - talkback radio. John Howard favoured the medium for its broad audience and the generally sympathetic treatment from high-rating hosts, including Alan Jones, Neil Mitchell and the now-retired John Laws. When the Prime Minister, in contrast, has ventured beyond cyberspace to the popular, traditional media, he has tended to favour FM radio and popular entertainment programs such as Rove Live.

 

Mr Rudd insists his current blitz on the commercial and ABC airwaves in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane and Adelaide has nothing to do with his government's 7 per cent slump in primary votes in the latest Newspoll. He just happened to be readily available this week because parliament is not sitting, and he will be overseas next week. Right.

 

What Mr Rudd and his advisers should consider as well as the medium, however, is the message, which needs to be clear and unambiguous, especially on the government's response to the boatloads of people attempting to reach Australia. Yesterday morning's interview with Fran Kelly on ABC radio was a good example. Mr Rudd began with his familiar line that his government was "hardline when it comes to people-smugglers" and humane when dealing with asylum-seekers. The two-pronged approach appears designed to placate polarised opinions across the electorate. These range from the so-called "doctors' wives" in urban seats such as Bradfield on Sydney's north shore, who favour a more open-door policy, to One Nation-style voters in Queensland who approved of Mr Howard's hardline approach. The problem for Mr Rudd is that it is increasingly difficult for him to walk both sides of the razor wire.

 

His round of radio interviews this week - 15 at the last count - has served only to amplify the inherent contradictions in his message. When asked a straight question, such as whether the 78 asylum-seekers aboard the Oceanic Viking would under any circumstances be landed on Christmas Island, Mr Rudd would not offer an unequivocal "yes" or "no" but insisted they were being processed in Indonesia. He promises to "deal with each individual vessel", explaining that "each practical set of circumstances (is) based on the challenges that arise from that vessel". Case by case situation ethics, however, is no basis for managing the challenge of asylum-seekers and the criminals exploiting their misery by charging them thousands of dollars for the chance to venture across the seas on potential death traps.

 

That said, we would not want to discourage Mr Rudd from further radio appearances. Far from it. For any leader in a robust democracy, accountability to the public, through being available for in-depth questioning by seasoned political journalists in both the print and electronic media, is an essential part of the job. Mr Rudd's newfound enthusiasm for talkback radio will spark debate. His challenge now is to get the message right.

 

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THE AUSTRALIAN

EDITORIAL

AUSTRALIA: IT'S TIME TO REOPEN FOR BUSINESS

AFTER THE GFC, TAX IS THE NEXT CHALLENGE FOR GOVERNMENT

 

AS they celebrate the second anniversary of their election, Kevin Rudd and his colleagues face hard choices if they are to make good their claim as economic champions. Unlike the relentless reformers - Bob Hawke, Paul Keating, John Howard and Peter Costello - who preceded them, this Labor group is yet to demonstrate the policy courage and political skill needed to ensure a sustained recovery.

 

Understandably preoccupied with the global financial crisis, the Prime Minister has for a year avoided the hard grind of reform for the more populist and exciting reaches of "rescue economics". The government must be given due credit for steering the country through turbulent times, but that does not give it a licence to avoid reform or, worse still, unwind the advances of the past. Yesterday, Wayne Swan signalled that Labor is prepared to fight the 2010 election on a 10-year plan for tax reform. This is good news, but it will be a big test, given recent interventions have created some doubt about Mr Rudd's free-market bona fides.

 

Yesterday, the wake-up call came from the Productivity Commission, which said it was time for the government to reassess its schools stimulus spending - the ill-conceived project at the centre of its rescue strategy. As the commission's chairman, Gary Banks, told the Road to Recovery conference in Melbourne (presented by The Australian and the Melbourne Institute), this program was seen as a key mechanism for stimulating employment. But now might be a chance to draw breath.

 

This newspaper has never argued against spending money on infrastructure, but we have unashamedly pursued the government about the quality of the projects it is funding. Now, as growth kicks in, the game is up. The government's refusal to significantly amend its spending means redundant school halls will continue to be built around the country for the next three or four years. It is not just the budget deficit (estimated to be with us until 2015) that should worry taxpayers; it is that this building bonanza will squeeze out private effort as projects compete for workers, materials and funding. And yet it is private investment and entrepreneurship that drives market economies.

 

Equally disappointing is the information revealed in Melbourne about delays in implementing reforms through the Council of Australian Governments. Mr Rudd campaigned on COAG at the 2007 election, promising to end the "blame game" between the states and the commonwealth, to take over hospitals and fix the Murray-Darling. Last year, he announced extra spending through COAG, a body to which he turns often. Last week, for example, he told the Business Council of Australia that COAG would be the vehicle for his plan to have Canberra plan our cities. The scorecard, however, shows a failure to address the key infrastructure challenges facing the nation. This is not just about specific projects that have not been adequately costed or the failure to end the bottlenecks at our ports or address water and energy needs. It is also about a failure to appreciate how a less-flexible labour market and a return to a protectionist mindset, such as that behind support for "green" cars, work against economic efficiency. In this context, we welcome the Treasurer's outline on tax - that reforms will be based on the key principles of fairness, simplicity and competitiveness. The last two in particular are the areas where most work is needed. There are real productivity gains to be had from simplifying tax and an internationally competitive system is crucial to investment.

 

Tax represents an opportunity for the Rudd government to build its reform credentials. Truly embracing this agenda would demonstrate an acknowledgement of the economic foundation on which it came to power, a foundation built up over 25 years. The floating of the dollar and the liberation of the financial sector in the early 1980s was just the start. The detail of that big picture was painstakingly filled in during the early 1990s as Mr Keating embraced a competition agenda that, on the surface, was deeply inimical to Labor. Yet he was able to sell those policies as a positive to consumers, workers and taxpayers. Mr Swan faces a similar challenge on tax. He told the Melbourne conference that some of the proposals in the forthcoming Henry review would be unpopular but the government would work towards winning community support. That will indeed be the test - to stand fast on true tax reform that is about wealth creation, not wealth redistribution. It will be a challenge for a government which, aside from its interventions on the GFC, has sometimes seemed more comfortable with reports and reviews than action. We acknowledge the real reforms being undertaken by Julia Gillard in her education portfolio, including the announcements yesterday of a dramatic expansion of training places. But in other areas there has been less resolve. One small example shows the problem. It seems the government might squib a micro-reform that ought to be like taking candy from a baby - the removal of protection for local book publishers.

 

Our Prime Minister's political style is to talk to all sides, not necessarily to achieve consensus for action but to win support. This is not conducive to making hard economic decisions that inevitably involve losers as well as winners. A productive and efficient economy is built on attractive taxation and monetary settings, labour market flexibility and efficient transport and energy infrastructure. All involve trade-offs, which Mr Swan will soon learn. As the government gears up to the tax debate, it is worth noting that generating business confidence is about tone as well as policy. Here, Mr Rudd must overcome the image he has created through his essays on social democracy as being temperamentally more attuned to big government than the market. He yearns to be a radical reformer but as Reserve Bank governor Glenn Stevens told yesterday's conference, there is no such thing as "effortless, or riskless, prosperity". The challenge rests with Mr Rudd.

 

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THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD

EDITORIAL

ANGRY OWNERS ON THE BLOWER

 

AT WEDNESDAY'S annual general meeting of Telstra shareholders, loud cheers followed those speeches from the floor which criticised the Federal Government's policy of dividing the company into two. Institutional shareholders have been lobbying hard against the Rudd Government's ultimatum to Telstra to split into two or take no part in developing the proposed $43 billion national broadband network. But the Government will be far more fearful of the company's small shareholders. They, too, have a stake in keeping the Telstra monopoly intact, and banking the steady stream of dividends paid from the profits it earns. They not only express their genuine outrage at shareholder meetings, they vote, too - and there are 1.4 million of them.

 

The Rudd Government is not known for its political courage. It can look decisive when polls have shown it the public will approve, but when things get tough it generally prefers the pre-emptive buckle. Entrenched interests with the slightest hint of righteous anger have it looking both ways for the exit. Exhibit A: its timid carbon pollution reduction scheme, which bends over backwards to accommodate big polluters and big energy users - and undercuts the scheme. Fired-up Telstra shareholders - solid, middle-class investors trying to provide for their future and not be a burden on the state - are just the sort of opponents it fears.

 

And those investors have a point: the company a federal government encouraged them to invest in is about to be broken up and have its profitability threatened by another federal government.

 

Yet the Rudd Government also has a point which, if only it sticks to it, is the stronger one. Leaving aside the lamentable history of Telstra's relations with the Government, in which the company lost no opportunity to do the wrong thing, the public interest demands freer competition in telecommunications. While Telstra both runs the network and operates as one retail service provider competing with others, it has an unfair advantage, and competition is reduced. The Government promised to build a broadband network; if done well it will be a major piece of infrastructure contributing to economic growth and prosperity. The Government has quite astutely used it to nudge Telstra towards breaking itself up and ensuring more even competition.

 

Telstra's shareholders, who were led to believe their company's grip on Australia's communications would persist when it was first floated, deserve a sympathetic hearing, certainly. But so do the ordinary Australian users of communications networks, whose interests are diametrically opposite. And - let our timid Government note - there are more of the latter.

 

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THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD

EDITORIAL

TURNING OFF FIJI'S TAP

 

FIJI'S decision to expel the Australian and New Zealand high commissioners and an outspoken academic is a sign of Frank Bainimarama's irritation at the way diplomacy is constricting his freedom of movement. It does not show, though, that change is on the way.

 

Bainimarama needs to pay the police and army to maintain their loyalty, but has little money available. Fiji is struggling economically. Inflation is rising, as is its national deficit. The World Bank has estimated that floods in January cost Fiji the equivalent of 5 per cent of its gross domestic product. Fiji's troops have been barred recently from joining any new United Nations peacekeeping force because of their role in ending the rule of law, thus throttling a significant source of foreign exchange. And, although Australia and New Zealand have chosen not to impose trade sanctions in response to Bainimarama's failure to subsequently restore Fiji to democracy, their targeted cuts to military and public service aid have hurt him.

 

Australia offended the commodore by undermining his attempt to appoint Sri Lankan lawyers as judges to replace independent-minded judges he had earlier sacked. His hope that his new appointments would make it look as if Fiji had an independent judiciary attractive to foreign investment was always a mirage, but the Federal Government is blamed for exposing it.

 

The Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, is right to warn of the danger of a coup culture developing in the vulnerable countries of our region: it could create a downward spiral of economic malaise followed by populist adventurism, each reinforcing the other. Although Bainimarama's essentially race-based policies have not been disturbed by international disapproval, there is some encouraging evidence elsewhere that the longstanding Pacific antipathy to Western democracy is weakening. The 16 members of the Pacific Island Forum have recently agreed to involve themselves as a region in each other's political affairs. Tonga, which had democracy riots in 2006, plans elections next year and will report its findings on constitutional reform to its parliament today. The Solomon Islands wants to expand its cabinet to make its executive better able to withstand parliamentary challenge. Although dominated by a single party, Samoa's democracy has been stable and secure for 25 years.

 

Progress back towards a democratic and open Fiji will not be rapid. The Federal Government's actions - including its expulsion of Fiji's acting high commissioner - were justified as well as effective, in the short term at least. But Australia should look for other ways to pressure the illegal regime. As should the UN, which might consider as its next step cancelling the use of Fiji's troops altogether

 

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THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD

EDITORIAL

IT'S TIME TO GROW UP, AND REVIVE THE REPUBLICAN CAUSE

A PLEBISCITE THAT OFFERS A REAL CHOICE SHOULD BE HELD AT THE NEXT ELECTION.

 

NATIONS tend to be spoken of as if they were individuals, marching through a lifetime of experience. The narrative is one of progression; nations are born, suffer growing pains, reach maturity. The Age has long believed that severing vestigial ties with the British monarchy and becoming a republic will be a crucial mark of Australia's adulthood. Sadly, the past decade has witnessed a national retreat into childhood.

 

Today is the 10th anniversary of the failed referendum on a republic, and the contrast between the national mood then and now is stark. Then, a week after the referendum's defeat, popular sentiment ran as high as 57 per cent in favour of a republic; now that figure hovers on a precarious 50 to 52 per cent. Then, the republican cause was stymied by a monarchist prime minister, John Howard; now Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull are both avowed republicans. Popular fervour for the republic might have waned for a host of reasons during the past decade, but if ever there was a time for a bipartisan push to advance the cause it is now. And yet, these days republicanism is commonly referred to as a ''second-order issue''. The Federal Government hosed down the enthusiastic endorsement of republicanism at last year's 2020 Summit with a bureaucratically worded promise of ''ongoing reform of the constitution where appropriate''. MPs continue to mumble oaths of allegiance to the Queen and the country remains trapped in anachronism. How is this apparent malaise to be explained?

 

Malcolm Turnbull, who as Australian Republican Movement chairman in 1999 accused Mr Howard of breaking the nation's heart by refusing to support the yes case in the referendum, now argues that the issue would be best revived when the Queen dies. Because the nation missed its moment 10 years ago, he thinks, it would be prudent to wait for the present monarch, who is widely liked and respected, to pass, and then begin with a clean slate.

 

It is a depressing proposition: that an endeavour as serious as constitutional change and the forging of national identity should hinge on the life or death of an individual, however imposing. This aside, the strategy would almost certainly fail. As Major-General Mike Keating, Mr Turnbull's latest successor at the helm of the ARM, has observed, it's highly likely that after the Queen's death the Australian ethos of the ''fair go'' would probably deliver the next monarch, whether Charles III or William V, an extended period of grace. As rallying cries go, ''The Queen is dead! Death to the monarchy!'' seems unedifying - and highly likely to be ridiculed and rejected.

 

The political dithering on a republic is best understood by revisiting the lessons of the 1999 referendum. The double-barrelled question asked voters if they wanted Australia to become a republic, ''with the Queen and governor-general being replaced by a president appointed by a two-thirds majority of the members of the Commonwealth Parliament''. In other words only the ''minimalist'' model was on offer, despite the polls showing that a majority of Australians - monarchists included - preferred the idea of a democratically elected head of state. This split in the republican vote, together with the opposition of the prime minister, doomed the referendum to fail.

 

Popular support for a direct-election model continues, and still causes disquiet in the political establishment. Politicians fear that direct election would undermine the system of parliamentary government, by giving the president and the prime minister rival sources of authority. It is a reasonable concern, and The Age believes that the referendum model had the great merit of avoiding this danger. But it must be recognised, too, there are stable parliamentary democracies with a popularly elected head of state, and that eminent jurists have proposed constitutional provisions that would codify and limit the powers of an elected president.

General Keating estimates that at least 12 months of public consultation would be needed to prepare for a plebiscite on the republic, with a constitutional convention and referendum further down the track. That process ought to begin now. A two-part plebiscite that asks the threshold question - should Australia become a republic - and then offers voters a choice of republican models could cheaply and conveniently be held at the time of the next federal election.

 

Regardless of the model Australians ultimately choose, trust is the moral of the story: for change to happen, political leaders and the people need to trust each other.

 

Source: The Age

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THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD

EDITORIAL

LIFE ON EARTH IS VANISHING BEFORE OUR UNSEEING EYES

 

THE diversity of life on Earth makes it unique, yet most of us take our living planet for granted. We discover species all the time - Australian scientists described 100 new sharks and rays in the past two years - and our areas of ignorance are vast. Some species vanish without record. For 60 years, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's Red List has recorded the status of species and the vast majority are yet to be assessed. However, the 2009 update, issued this week, points to an extinction crisis.

 

Of 47,677 assessed species, 17,291 are threatened - 70 per cent of the plants, 37 per cent of freshwater fish, 35 per cent of invertebrates, 30 per cent of amphibians, 21 per cent of mammals and 12 per cent of birds. Australians may think conservation laws and programs now offer good protection, after 55 species were lost, including almost half the world's mammal extinctions in the past 200 years. Federal law lists 427 animal species, 1324 plants and 46 ecological communities as threatened. Listing is not protection enough. Queensland cleared up to 446,000 hectares a year from 1997-99. In 2007, before that state halted broadscale clearing, the nation lost 300,000 hectares of habitat, taking species closer to the brink.

 

Isolated progress has been made: the Australian grayling has been upgraded from vulnerable to near-threatened. The number of northern hairy-nosed wombats has risen from 65 to 138. But Treasury secretary and wombat campaigner Ken Henry notes that their fate depends on private funding, as $3 million from miner Xstrata enabled a second colony to be set up: ''We don't as a society actually take much interest in these things.'' Governments talk up the value of biodiversity, but do not back it with dollars. As the IUCN says, on the eve of the International Year of Biodiversity, governments must ''start getting serious about saving species … we're rapidly running out of time''.

 

Source: The Age

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THE GURDIAN

EDITORIAL

IN PRAISE OF… THE DIPLOMATIC ARTS

 

If war is the continuation of politics by other means, the converse is also true. There are times when diplomatic words are fashioned into a weapon of attack, as France's Europe minister, Pierre Lellouche, demonstrated this week by telling the Guardian how "autistic" Tory plans to repatriate EU powers would "castrate" the nation, words surely designed to maximise collateral damage, even if there were a few faux amis. The perpetual risk of getting lost in translation is merely one of the reasons why practitioners of the diplomatic arts deserve respect. Another is the extraordinary range of tones that it is necessary to strike over the Ferrero Rochers. The traditional brutal brand of statecraft, epitomised in stories of Churchill and Stalin staying up late to exchange domination of Poland for control of Greece on scribbled scraps of paper, nowadays comes alongside the soft-power strain, taken to new heights this week by Fu Ying, Beijing's woman in London. Faced with damaging reports that she was grumpy about the noise next door to her embassy, in the property where ITV's popular show The X Factor houses its wannabe stars, the ambassador wrote to the Sun to declare how much she enjoyed the show, and explain how similar programmes in the People's Republic illustrated its progress. She even ventured views on individual contestants – Stacey, Jamie and the risibly dismal Jedward. With exquisite diplomacy, though, she stopped short of saying who she wanted to win.

 

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THE GURDIAN

EDITORIAL

PALESTINIAN PRESIDENT: A DREAM TURNED SOUR

 

Whether he makes good on the pledge he made last night not to stand in next year's elections, or whether he is eventually persuaded to stay, the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, has had enough already. And it is clear why. He was elected nearly five years ago to negotiate a Palestinian state and has got nowhere, even with two Israeli governments who understand that the alternatives to his leadership are worse. But even the best Palestinian president that Israel is going to get could not stop settlement construction, an obligation Israel signed up to in 2003. Even he could not stop the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, saying in Cairo at the weekend that Binyamin Netanyahu's offer of a partial freeze (the continued construction of 3,000 settler homes, continued building in East Jerusalem and all public projects in settlements) was "unprecedented". Mr Abbas has threatened to quit before. This time he means it.

 

If he does, a large building block, if not the foundation stone, of the US and Israel's plans to fashion a settlement with one half of the Palestinian people could disappear with him. Much of their current policy – not just theirs but the Quartet's and the EU's – is predicated on the assumption that Palestinians can be divided into "good" West Bankers and "bad" Gazans. With one, Israel can negotiate. With the other, Israel can only fight. But if the best West Banker of them all walks out of the Mukataa compound in Ramallah, all bets are also off not only about negotiations, but who should lead them. It could be a non-Fatah person like the prime minister Salam Fayyad. It could be a former Fatah strongman like Mohammed Dahlan or Jibril Rajoub. But this is too unlikely.

 

The absence of Mr Abbas would more likely clear the path for Marwan Barghouti to run. He is a popular leader, recently elected to Fatah's central committee. He is all the more acceptable to the Palestinian street for the fact that he is currently serving five life terms in an Israeli jail. Mr Barghouti's ascension would complicate life for the Fatah old guard. But as a Palestinian who still regards resistance as a legitimate response to the occupation, Mr Barghouti would narrow the gap between the leadership in the West Bank and Hamas in Gaza on this point alone. All of this is as yet hypothetical. But the mere sketching of a post-Abbas scenario underlines how much could change, and how radically, a few kilometres from Jerusalem's borders. Which explains why, within short order yesterday, Mr Abbas's phone was burning with calls from the presidents of Egypt and Israel, the king of Jordan and Israel's defence minister, all pleading with him to stay.

 

There are many ambiguities in the president's current position. Mr Abbas's mandate ran out in January, and he remains president only because another title was found for him, although not one based on a popular vote. There are also doubts about when a Palestinian election will be held. It is slated for January, but an election commission will almost certainly find that it is impossible to hold one in Hamas-run Gaza. It could then be delayed until June, in the hope that reconciliation could be arranged with Hamas. So even if the president makes good on his threat to leave, he could remain in office well into next year.

 

So often used to micromanage and manoeuvre personalities, US diplomats should step back and look at the bigger picture. It is one in which the dream of a two-state solution is souring. They should take this prospect seriously and assess which of two options poses the greater threat to US regional interests: forcing Israel, if necessary by withholding money or arms, to abide by a commitment which poses no existential threat to the Israeli state, or letting the impasse continue until a third Palestinian uprising ignites. Behind Mr Abbas's actions, serious and widespread frustration lies. And we know from past experience into whose hands this plays.

 

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THE GURDIAN

                                                                                                                                                             EDITORIAL

BANK OF ENGLAND: THE TREATMENT ISN'T WORKING

 

For months, the UK economy has been in intensive care, with government ministers and central bankers trying every measure in the textbook – and a few that are not. Yet – as the grim economic statistics show – nothing has got the patient off life support, let alone out of the sickbed. Not the government's billions of extra spending, nor the devaluation-in-all-but-name of the pound. Not even the nuclear option of the Bank of England pumping £175bn into the financial system seems to be doing more than stabilising the patient. Mervyn King and his colleagues yesterday rightly decided that the quantitative easing would carry on for another three months – but they clearly plan to end this experiment in British monetary policy soon. And the outlook for the economy will get even bleaker.

 

True, the Bank's policy has not worked as well as hoped. When he launched QE back in March, Mr King set himself the target of raising the amount of money being circulated outside the banking sector – the point being that he wanted the programme to encourage financial institutions to lend more to businesses and consumers, who would in turn invest and spend more. Yet eight months and £175bn has done nothing to lift that all-important measure – as the Bank now admits. If more of that money had been targeted at helping smaller companies to borrow, the story today might be different. Instead the Bank's policy has probably helped to prevent the economy and the banking sector from going into a death spiral, but financiers have taken their central bank subsidies and used them to play asset-market Monopoly, buying up shares and property. This was not what the doctor ordered.

 

No surprise then that the Bank now plans to reduce the mega-doses of QE, and pump in only another £25bn over the next three months. No surprise, but still a huge worry, since the economy remains very far from anything that looks like a sustainable recovery. Indeed it may be heading next spring for something considerably worse: a massive relapse back into a slump, and a huge panic.

 

Mr King is not the only one who plans to withdraw his medicine. So does Alistair Darling, who, come the end of this year, will take back his budget giveaways. If George Osborne moves into No 11 next spring, he has made it clear that he will cut spending sharply and rely on the Bank of England to do the heavy lifting through rate cuts. This is daft. If monetary policy is not having the desired effect and the economy is having a near-death experience next year then the government will have to spend more. Otherwise, the spectre of the great depression is likely to return.

 

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DAILY EXPRESS

COMMENT

THESE FIVE DEATHS PROVE WE HAVE TO LEAVE AFGHANISTAN

BY KEVIN TOOLIS

 

THE treacherous killing of five British soldiers inside their Shin Kalay base in Helmand by a "rogue" policeman is bitter proof of the failure of our Afghan war. After eight years, 229 British lives and billions spent we are still unable to distinguish friend from foe. But this tragedy highlights a wider truth.

 

In Afghanistan our enemy is everywhere: in the next Tali- ban-controlled village, in the presidential palace in Kabul and now even within the ranks of the Afghan "police".

We have lost this war even from the beginning because no Western political leader can actually explain what our troops are fighting for.

Instead we have been told an ever-changing series of lies by Blair, Brown and Bush that the troops were dying for "democracy, women's rights, development and the War on Terror".

But Afghanistan has never been a state in our meaning of the word. There has never been a national Afghan army or an Afghan police force. Despite the patent farce of the last so-called elections Afghanistanis still a medieval land of warlords and hostile tribes. We will never change that.

British troops are not just fighting an external Taliban enemy, they are at war with an enemy within – the milling chaotic tribes who occupy the country we call Afghanistan.

I first walked into Afghanistan in 1990 just after the Soviets left. It was a perilous journey. We had to disguise ourselves as women and wear the all-encompassing burka. Our Mujahideen bodyguards were afraid we would be kidnapped by another Afghan faction.

Even the Afghan "jihad" against godless Soviet communism was riddled with internecine butchery.

Without the Russians as an enemy to unite them Afghanistan's different ethnic militias  – Pashtuns, Uzbeks, hazaras, Tajiks – soon got down to their real passion: civil war and growing opium to supply the world with

eroin.

After overthrowing the Tali- ban, with the aid of other Afghan tribes, president Bush installed hamid Karzai as  president. And we in the West took over from the Soviets. In reality Karzai is nothing more than a puppet ruler whose personal bodyguards, tellingly, are American mercenaries. A  couple of years ago Karzai was mocked as being little more than the "Mayor of Kabul". But since then his power base has shrunk away. even the streets of his capital are now far too dangerous for him ever to visit.

There is nothing new about puppet rulers. herod, king of the Jews, was installed in power by a roman emperor. And the British empire was stuffed and staffed with a host of petty, compliant rulers.

The trick about being a successful puppet is that you have to persuade your own people that your bark is a hell of a lot better than the bite of the roman legions. And you have to make life easier for the real foreign rulers.

But this is something Karzai has patently failed to do. Instead he has presided over a corrupt government that is the biggest drugs gang in the world, which profit from the supply of heroin to addicts in Britain. Is that really what British troops are dying for? To keep in power a gang of drug dealers who wreak havoc on the streets of our major cities?

Unfortunately it's all true. Ninety per cent of the entire world's heroin supply comes from Afghanistan and the crop is worth £3.2billion a year. Opium is the only real export the country has.

One of the biggest drug dealers, according to American intelligence sources, is the president's brother Ahmed Wali Karzai, who is also suspected of sharing some of those drug profits with the Taliban enemy. Ironically Wali Karzai is also paid large sums of protection money by the CIA.

A fish rots from the head and unsurprisingly President Karzai, despite the fancy karakul hats and silk suits, has failed to win any real legitimacy among the wider Afghan electorate. He is now not even a puppet ruler, he is just a pretend ruler.

For British troops Afghanistan is a classic counter-insurgency struggle where you try to separate out the hostile Taliban gunmen from the innocent villagers. You risk your own life to help build roads, schools, a stronger government and a better future. But we know that can never happen now in Afghanistan. All we are really doing is bolstering one tribe against the other.

Worse still, our very presence as "foreign crusading invaders" is a rallying call for the Taliban's recruiters and their brain-washed followers. It is time to stop pretending we can turn Afghanistan into a democratic state or save the Afghans from their own destructive future.

The West does have real enemies in the region. Most of the terror plots directed against our country have their origins in Pakistan and the border badlands where Osama Bin Laden is supposed to be hiding. We need to concentrate our firepower on where our real enemies are hidden. We need to use our technological strengths, predator drones and satellite technology and old-fashioned intelligence to pinpoint and destroy those who plan to attack here in the UK.

By reducing our "footprint" on the ground we weaken the Taliban enemy who no longer have a cause to unite around. And we should leave the Afghans to get on with their own wars.

 

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DAILY EXPRESS

COMMENT

NEW MPS ARE LIKELY TO BE BRIGHT AND HARD-WORKING

 

FEW spectacles are so gruesome as the sight of MPs whining about having their expenses curtailed. But an entirely predictable chorus of complaint has arisen in the wake of the report into cleaning up the abused allowance system.

 

Labour's Austin Mitchell seriously seeks to suggest that the British public will suffer because many MPs will stand down. He claims there is a danger of creating a "weak Parliament with members who aren't well paid enough to do their job".

 

This presupposes that the Commons has hitherto been brimming with high-calibre people determined to hold the executive to account at every turn. Yet nothing could be further from the truth. With their long summer recesses and obsession with ingratiating themselves with party whips in order to facilitate personal advancement, many of our MPs have failed to put the interests of their constituents first.

 

Mr Mitchell's Labour colleague Andrew Dismore claims: "People are trying to work out whether they can afford to stay in Parliament." If they cannot, then let them stand down. Their replacements are likely to be brighter, harder working and – wonder of wonders – in possession of a genuine interest in public service.

 

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DAILY EXPRESS

COLUMN

EXPENSES RULES ARE NOT RIGHT

BY FREDERICK FORSYTH

 

I NEVER thought it would come to this but I am beginning to sympathise with MPs. No, not the tawdry embezzlers exposed since May but two other categories.

 

The "Simon Pures" of that 647-member House, who charged us not a penny and whose expenses against the taxpayer were listed year after year as £0.

Credit to them at least: massive temptation on offer but they did not fall.

And the newcomers, up to 350 of them, who will be with us the day after the coming election and who are alsoclean. For I think Sir Christopher Kelly has been too harsh in two areas.

He has rightly said MPs with a constituency reachable by a reasonable commute need no resting pad in  London for those Monday- Thursday stints when the House is sitting. But he has drawn too large a circle.

He says "one hour" but means one hour by fast train: London terminus to local station.  Actually that is almost two hours door to door. That works if you rise from your London desk on the dot of five to be home at seven. But many MPs, especially when they hold office (ie up to 100) can never leave at five and would often be home not much before midnight. The M25 orbital motorway would have been a reasonable radius for an hour in tube, bus or car during both morning and evening rush hour.

This ruling favours wealthy MPs who can afford a London pied-a-terre off their town tab. But poorer MPs with a constituency station 59 minutes from Euston, Paddington, Liverpool Street or Victoria will have to be up to four
hours a day in transit. That is too much.

And the ban on any relatives at all, including wives, being constituency secretary is unfair.

Many wives were once secre taries and damn good ones. Why are constituents ill-served if Mrs MP is there to take the calls, answer the mail, craft the letters and pick up the phone? Living in with the MP, turning the spare bed-room when the kids have flown into the office would actually save taxpayers the cost of office rental.

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I think this all started with the wretched Derek Conway shovelling our money into his student sons' pockets as "researchers" when they were hundreds of miles away.

Now the many innocents are being punished for the sins of a small minority. Surely there must be a compromise that can distinguish between hardworking wife-cum-secretary and shameless rogue?

On these two, think again Sir Christopher.

 

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DAILY EXPRESS

COLUMN

WORLD CUP WILL BE A HOOT FOR OUR STARS

THIS IS THE LAND WHERE FOOTBALL FANS TAKE LOAVES OF BREAD INTO THE STANDS TO WAVE AT OPPOSITION SUPPORTERS AND SCRAWL FELT-TIP MESSAGES TO THE MANAGER AND THE CHAIRMAN ON THEIR BLOOMERS AND THEIR BAGUETTES.

 

Others brandish telephones above their heads while many dress in miners' hats or wear huge, Elton John-style sunglasses, decorated with team colours and adorned with ribbons, flags and enormous cardboard cut-outs of club badges and favourite players.

 

Up in the seats, the Diski Dance never stops, and neither does the racket of the vuvuzela horns.

 

Oh yes, it's different all right and next year's World Cup here is going to be extraordinary.

 

South Africa, however, is also the country where Manchester United and Liverpool seem to get more coverage in the newspapers than local teams.

 

It's where every barman tells you that he loves Wayne Rooney or Steven Gerrard and where, even in the HQ of the Football Association on Wednesday, all the television screens were showing a rerun of Newcastle versus Sheffield United even though there were live games taking place in the home Premier League. So, amid all the exotica, it's a football home-from-home too.

 

There is much talk about how England's big clubs plan to conquer the world with their commercial 'brands' and their marketing machines. Here, it has already happened. The job has been done.

 

It was Lyon's late equaliser against Liverpool which sent a waiter at the famous Butcher Shop grill in Johannesburg into a rage of despair on Wednesday, not the news that the Orlando Pirates had just drawn 1-1 with Maritzburg United and have gone seven games without a win. Nobody even mentioned that game and it had been played to a stadium less than a quarter full, even though Orlando are one of the Big Two here along with the Kaizer Chiefs.

 

Against the successes of the Springbok rugby and cricket teams, the local football outfits have a battle on their hands to win widespread support among the white community here. And although the black community has played and followed football for so long, it is no surprise they are more attracted by the vastly superior quality of the games broadcast from England. If you want to see the power of our Premier League, this is the place.

 

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And you have to guess that as the story gets better, as the drama of the league they call the EPL (English Premier League) gets ever more intense and more thrilling for TV, China, Singapore, Vietnam and all the rest of the marketing men's targets are going to fall into line too.

 

Real Madrid have the most money just now, loaned by Spain's compliant banks, and Barcelona have the European Cup. But football goes in cycles.

 

If Jo'burg is a vision of how the global future is going to look, United and Liverpool will get massively more wealthy than the Spaniards who have just displaced them, and therefore become more and more powerful. Real, of course, have their own worldwide operation. But here in the English-speaking land where the World Cup will act as a showcase for the world's big-name players – their clubs and their marketing operations too – there seems to be little interest in the Spanish game. The Premier League is the daily fare.

That bread-waving, by the way. Its point is to say to the other side that "you are like our daily bread and we'll eat you up with no trouble".

 

The telephones sprung up when the Telkom company began sponsoring the league here. The miners' hats – also colourfully decorated and known as makarapas – were worn by Soweto workers who would head straight to watch the Orlando Pirates after finishing their shift digging for gold nearby. Or so the story goes.

 

Another tale suggests, however, that they were first worn in the Seventies as protection against bottles being hurled on the terraces.

 

How the managers and chairmen are supposed to read from 60 yards a slogan written on a slice of Hovis is beyond me.

 

How, also, does anyone stay upright or avoid walking into walls wearing those crazy shades which must impair the wearer's vision?

 

How does anyone stay sane amid the ceaseless racket of the vuvuzelas, the large tin horns which are blown from start to finish of every game here, making it sound as if a 10-million strong swarm of hornets has landed on the stadium roof?

 

FIFA, already, have said they are fine even though visiting players complained at the Confederations Cup last summer that they couldn't concentrate and TV and radio commentators said they couldn't be heard above the din.

 

It is going to be the sound of next summer and you can expect some bright spark in your local market or in your pub to be knocking them out in red-and-white next June, a fiver or so apiece. That will be the trade-off.

 

The roar of the Premier League has swamped the South African club game and the World Cup will increase its dominance here.

 

It's the least we can do to put up with a bit of hooting and squawking in return.

 

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THE KOREA HERALD

EDITORIAL

MORAL HIGH GROUND

 

Prosecutors are set to start investigating corruption cases involving nongovernmental organizations at the request of the Board of Audit and Investigation. A few days ago, the state watchdog said more than 10 percent of government subsidies provided for NGOs during the 2006-08 period was misappropriated or embezzled.

 

The watchdog audited 543 NGOs, each having received 80 million won ($46,000) or more each year from one of the three ministries of culture, sports and tourism, public administration and security, and environment. A wider audit may have shown that a much larger amount of money was mistakenly put to wrong use or fraudulently appropriated by NGO executives.

 

Of the 463.7 billion paid out in subsidies to the NGOs during the three-year period, the watchdog said, nearly 50 billion won was misappropriated by more than 140 NGOs. Some of the NGOs obtained subsidies by inappropriate or unlawful means, while others put subsidies they had obtained legitimately to wrongful use.

 

Worse still, the watchdog said it suspected 2.1 billion won found its way into the pockets of executives of 16 NGOs. It requested prosecutors look into the embezzlement cases involving 21 executives. Among them are civic advocacies and cultural and arts groups.

 

The news from the auditing board is truly disappointing, given that NGOs have widely been seen as striving to do all kinds of useful work - advancing civic causes, engaging in humanitarian projects, representing the voices of the conscientious, and many other worthwhile jobs. If the watchdog's allegations prove to be true, however, those suspect NGO executives are little different from common criminals.

 

The watchdog accused an official of submitting bogus underlying documents to pocket as much as 500 million won. It also alleged a different official used Photoshop to fake bank transfer receipts to take 280 million won for his personal use. These and other practices, if proven, were illegal acts deliberately committed with criminal intent. They were not committed accidentally out of ignorance or carelessness.

 

These alleged acts of crime not only caused seemingly irrecoverable damage to the NGOs involved but tarnished the image of all other NGOs, which used to occupy the high moral ground for all the good they have been doing. It is urgent for NGOs to regain the trust of the citizenry by guaranteeing transparency in their management and strictly adhering to the established accounting rules.

 

Some civic activists are voicing suspicions about the motivations behind the audit of NGOs by the state watchdog. Some are claiming that President Lee Myung-bak's conservative administration is attempting to annihilate progressive NGOs.

 

But such suspicions are undoubtedly misplaced, given that NGOs were not arbitrarily selected for auditing. Instead, 80 million won taken in subsidies each year was the threshold for the audit. No NGO, be it conservative or progressive, should be afraid of an audit by the watchdog or an investigation by prosecutors if it has abided by the law.

 

Indeed, the ideological orientation of an NGO should be of no concern to the watchdog, as it claims. Instead, it should faithfully follow the set rules in auditing subsidized NGOs.

In a democratic society, each legitimate NGO has its own distinctive role to play, with or without support from the government. As such, no NGO should be discriminated against because of its ideological orientation. By the same token, justice must be done to all errant NGOs.

 

It is necessary for the government to recover misused or embezzled subsidies and prosecute all the criminal suspects. At the same time, the government will have to discipline those officials that are found to have neglected their duty of supervising NGOs.

 

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THE KOREA HERALD

EDITORIAL

AGAIN, SEJONG CITY

 

Few national agenda items are as polarizing as the fate of Sejong City, a town being built in South Chungcheong Province as home to nine ministries and four sub-ministerial-level government agencies. A convincing case can be made either by those who insist that the administrative town should be built as planned or those that demand it be changed to a self-supporting academia-industry complex.

 

President Lee Myung-bak's administration, which wishes to change the town to one accommodating institutions of higher education and high-tech industries, now says it will come up with a detailed revised plan by January. But the proposed change is argued against not only by opposition parties but by a large faction of the ruling Grand National Party.

 

Rep. Park Geun-hye, former leader of the Grand National Party, claims that building an administrative town as planned is making good on a promise the National Assembly made to the public when it enacted the underlying law in 2005. To Rep. Park, who heads one of the two main party factions, the issue is a matter of trust.

 

But Prime Minister Chung Un-chan argues building a self-supporting town is a matter of great concern to the entire nation, overriding the need to remain trustworthy on the issue. He says the proposed relocation of 13 government agencies will not be enough to make a town with a population of half a million.

 

The administration promises to put the issue to public debate when a new plan on the town is finalized. The plan should be put under the scrutiny of expert urban planners as well as politicians. The outcome of the public hearings will certainly help sway public opinion one way or another.

 

But no less important to the administration than winning public support is successfully persuading the Park Geun-hye faction to endorse the new plan. Ultimately, it is the National Assembly that holds the key to the fate of the town.

 

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THE KOREA HERALD

EDITORIAL

POST-LEHMAN 'ZOMBIE ECONOMY' ERA

JASPER KIM

 

A year following last year's collapse of Lehman Brothers, are we entering a new post-Lehman "zombie economy" era?

 

The term "zombie bank" was originally used to denote banks that were propped up by government funding. In Japan's case, such funding was provided to avoid the bankruptcy of their domestic banks following the collapse of their real estate bubble in 1991. Yet despite such "free money" in the form of governmental financial support, many of such financial institutions did not derive profit - the very mandate of private institutions. Instead, they had the physical form of a living bank, but in form only, not in spirit. In other words, "zombie banks" were banks that superficially looked like a bank from the outside, but did not act like a real one in terms of creating positive value. In the 18 years since then, Japan has yet to fully recover from the bursting of its real estate bubble.

 

Similarly, around the time of the 2008 subprime mortgage financial meltdown, financial regulators across the globe made great efforts in front of the media to show a concerted and unified effort that they were actively engaged in thwarting a tailspin into a deep financial abyss not seen since the Great Depression of the 1930s. In the U.S. case, the initial financial bailout package involved nearly $700 million, separate from other related bailout funding for used cars (i.e., the government's "cash for clunkers" program), mortgage loan modification programs, and other related programs that in total well exceeded $1 trillion.

 

One main risk that U.S. regulators faced was how to avoid the same financial quandary in the United States for its subprime crisis as Japan faced during its real estate bubble crisis in the early 1990s. During last year's debate relating to the passage of the bailout bill, many Republicans argued that institutions that failed to make a profit should be left to their own devices, and not receive government funding, in the Darwinian spirit of the free market system. The Democrat faction was more divided with many arguing to support, and thus provide government funding for such a bailout program, even if it risked substantially worsening the U.S. deficit.

 

Because of the subprime mortgage crisis, and subsequent U.S. government's massive bailout and stimulus packages, funding power shifted from private banking institutions in New York City to the federal government in Washington, D.C.

 

Since the Lehman fallout, we have born witness to an era where many formerly prominent institutions in the private sector are in the unusual position of playing an almost subordinate role to the public sector. This was most evident when large financial titans like Citigroup and Bank of America received government funding to maintain their financial viability, or at least the perception of financial viability.

 

The power shift to the public sector and government represents a distinct shift in terms of what type of financial era in which we live.

 

Following the collapse of Lehman Brothers in Sept. 15, 2008, we now may live in a post-Lehman "zombie economy" era.

 

A zombie economy is like a zombie bank, but at a macro scale. It can be described as an era that has the following characteristics. First, it is an economic era in which many formerly large and prominent institutions have, are or may be at risk of failing. This was certainly the case of such institutions as Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers last year, just to name a few. Second, this is then followed by a massive public sector effort to resuscitate such institutions. But for such government efforts, such institutions would in effect be corporate corpses with no sustainable life (i.e., they would be declared bankrupt and liquidated). Third, in our ongoing post-Lehman zombie economy era, a notable period of anemic or flat growth will continue in the private sector, domestic consumption, financial markets, and consumer sentiment in the short to medium term. Fourth and finally, institutions that both received and did not receive government bailout funding will exist but will remain relatively dormant and relatively risk-averse. This is due to their own internal risk assessments, but also due to a new post-Lehman regulatory framework that covers broad-ranging areas, including wages for executives.

 

In form, a post-Lehman "zombie economy" era may look like near-healthy economies seen in the past. But in this new reality, economic growth will not exhibit the full breadth and depth of life of economic eras in the past.

 

A zombie economy is not a "U," "W," or "L" type of economic forecast. If anything, it is an era whereby the largest pickup in growth has already been realized from March to October this year. This may then be represented by a square root symbol with a squiggly (rather than flat) line that reflects a narrow bandwidth of market and economic fluctuation, both positive and negative.

 

With so many so-called experts trying to predict the type of "recovery" we may experience going forward, keep this in mind: only two people were truly able to accurately predict the downfall that foreshadowed the global subprime mortgage crisis - Robert Shiller (at Yale University) and Nouriel Roubini (at New York University) - so how are we trust that so many "experts" will get it right this time?

 

Jasper Kim is department chair of the Graduate School of International Studies at Ewha, and former in-house legal counsel with Lehman Brothers. - Ed.

 

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THE JAPAN TIMES

EDITORIAL

CONFUSING APPROACH TO GOALS

 

Under the slogan "Politics that values humans, not concrete," the Hatoyama administration is taking a different direction from that of the Liberal Democratic Party when it was the ruling party. Symbolic of the change are decisions to stop the Yanba dam project in Gunma Prefecture and to introduce monthly child-rearing allowances.

 

Inevitably, perhaps, the new administration's approach to achieving its goals appears confusing and incoherent at times, but that impression must not be allowed to continue for long. A conspicuous example of such confusion is the attitudes of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada and Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa on the issue of where to relocate the U.S. Marine Corps' Futenma Air Station, now in the southern part of Okinawa Island.

 

Mr. Kitazawa appears to basically accept the 2006 Japan-U.S. accord to move the Futenma base to Camp Schwab, in the northern part of the island, while Mr. Okada calls for moving it to Kadena Air Base in the central part of the island. Mr. Hatoyama sounds unclear about his preference, and does not seem to be in a hurry to make a final decision. Putting the matter off without working towards a clear decision on the new site could harm Japan's relationship with the United States.

 

Separately, the new administration has picked Mr. Jiro Saito, a former vice finance minister, as the new president of Japan Post Holding Co. Two new vice presidents of the company are also former bureaucrats. These appointments are thus viewed as running counter to the Democratic Party of Japan's wish to end bureaucrat-dominated politics. The government must strive to have Japan Post fulfill the difficult task of increasing its efficiency and profitability while improving services in the countryside.

 

Meanwhile, the governments' budgetary requests for 2010 have topped ¥95 trillion and there exists the possibility that fiscal discipline will be lost. Mr. Hatoyama should prioritize policies in earnest and cap bond issuance, to prevent future generations having to pay for benefits that only the present generation may be able to enjoy.

 

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THE JAPAN TIMES

EDITORIAL

SEPARATE SURNAME OPTION

 

Justice Minister Keiko Chiba is so eager to revise the Civil Law that the government is likely to submit a related bill to the Diet next year. One of the changes proposed will be to allow all people to retain their existing surnames after getting married, if they so choose. At present, following the principle introduced in 1898, either the man or the woman must adopt the other's surname upon getting married.

 

Ms. Chiba's move is based on a proposal made in 1996 by the Justice Ministry's Legislative Council. It proposed allowing a man and a woman, when they marry, to either each keep their own surname or follow the single-surname policy. A married couple with different surnames would choose one to be given as a surname to their children. The Democratic Party of Japan has in the past submitted bills to the Diet proposing that a couple with separate surnames be able to decide on the surname of each child at birth.

 

The Liberal Democratic Party quashed the council's 1996 proposal, saying that use of separate surnames by a couple would lead to the collapse of the family system. In a 2007 Cabinet Office poll, 36.6 percent of respondents supported the use of separate surnames while 35 percent were against it. But even under the current system there are many divorces, and many unregistered marriages in which the man and woman use separate surnames. Many working women are inconvenienced by the single-surname system.

 

In view of the fact that family values and lifestyles have diversified, allowing a married couple to legally use separate surnames would help many people live a life that is in sync with their value system.

 

The council also proposed ensuring that legitimate and illegitimate children have equal inheritance rights to parents' estates; setting the minimum age for marriage at 18 for both sexes (currently it is 18 for men and 16 for women); and shortening the period in which women are prohibited from remarrying after divorce from the current six months to 100 days. These seem to be reasonable proposals from the viewpoint of respecting the dignity of individuals and equality between sexes.

 

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THE JAPAN TIMES

EDITORIAL

RECALLING A SAINT'S LEGACY TO LEPROSY VICTIMS

BY YOHEI SASAKAWA

 

In early October, "Father Damien" was canonized by Pope Benedict XVI in Rome. This religious and spiritual ceremony is an opportunity to reflect on Father Damien's life and the lives of those with whom he was most closely associated — people affected by leprosy.

 

In 1873, Father Damien, a Belgian priest, went to live among people with leprosy who had been exiled to a peninsula on Molokai Island in Hawaii. It was when leprosy was feared as a dangerous, contagious disease that had no cure.

 

The world is dotted with islands and other isolated areas where people with leprosy were once banished, including Robben Island in South Africa, where Nelson Mandela would later serve time as a political prisoner; Culion Island in the Philippines; various islands in the Mediterranean; and five islands in Japan.

 

For 16 years after his arrival on Molokai — until he died of the disease — Father Damien devoted his life to the welfare of people affected by leprosy.

 

Today, leprosy is curable. Since multidrug therapy became available in the early 1980s, some 16 million people have been cured. In 1985, when the World Health Organization set a target of reducing the prevalence of the disease in each country to less than 1 case per 10,000 people, 122 countries had yet to achieve that goal. Today, only three have still to do so. It won't be long before the disease is no longer a major public health problem anywhere.

 

The fight against leprosy has another aspect. By way of explanation, I often use the example of a motorcycle: The front wheel represents the medical battle to eliminate the disease; the back wheel symbolizes the effort on a social level to tackle the stigma and discrimination that leprosy causes.

 

All over the world, people affected by leprosy and their family members have suffered from social discrimination. To escape it, many were forced to form colonies and live on the margins of society. Segregated communities are still found today, and it is extremely unfortunate to find responsible newspapers frequently referring to their occupants by the pejorative term "leper." Such stigmatizing terminology assaults the dignity of people affected by leprosy and is a major cause of the discrimination and prejudice that they suffer.

 

Over the years, people affected by leprosy have had their natural rights denied to them with regard to education, employment, marriage and participation in community life. Even their perfectly healthy children suffer. Hotels and restaurants have been known to refuse entry to people affected by leprosy, who are often denied access to public services. Discrimination is a constant feature in many aspects of their lives.

 

Stanley Stein, who spent some 40 years behind barbed wire as a patient and patient activist at the now-closed leprosarium in Carville, Louisiana, once wrote, "The ravages of the stigma of this disease are as great as the ravages of the germ."

 

I wonder how many people know that the United States, a champion of human rights, denied the vote to people with leprosy until after World War II.

 

The back wheel of the motorcycle belatedly began to turn when a resolution submitted by the Japanese government calling for an end to discrimination against people affected by leprosy and their family members was passed unanimously at the Human Rights Council in June last year.

 

Since then, draft principles and guidelines for ending discrimination have been drawn up by the Council's Advisory Committee. These were submitted to the council's recently concluded 12th session, where members resolved to have a finalized draft presented at its 15th session next year.

 

Slowly but surely, the fight to recognize the rights of people affected by leprosy is bearing fruit. As we celebrate the canonization of Father Damien and a life of selfless service, let us acknowledge that it takes all of us to rid the world of discrimination.

 

Yohei Sasakawa is the World Health Organization's goodwill ambassador for the Elimination of Leprosy, Japanese government goodwill ambassador for the Human Rights of People Affected by Leprosy, and chairman of The Nippon Foundation. © 2009 Project Syndicate (www.project-syndicate.org)

 

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THE JAPAN TIMES

EDITORIAL

THE HUMAN RIGHTS OUTLOOK AND NEW JUSTICE MINISTER

BY LAWRENCE REPETA

 

Ever since the historic landslide victory of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) in the Lower House elections, we have wondered how the new government will wield its power. In the area of human rights protection, at least, there is cause to expect dramatic change. One of the more startling appointments to the new Cabinet is that of Yokohama lawyer Keiko Chiba as minister of justice. The progressive attitude of the new minister contrasts sharply with what we've seen in the past. Her appointment will be heartily welcomed throughout the global legal community.

 

Chiba's opposition to the death penalty has made headlines, but that's only one example of her political philosophy. Among other things, she has supported local voting rights for foreign permanent residents, clear recognition of the injuries suffered by "comfort women" and other victims of Japan's past aggressions, and admission of more refugees to Japan.

 

Chiba's track record should provide clues to the kind of attitude she brings to her new post. If there was any doubt on this score, she wiped it away in formal comments released Sept. 16, the day the new Cabinet took office.

 

In her first message to the nation, the new minister declared that her mission is to help build a society that respects human rights and a judicial system that is "close to the people" (kokumin ni mijika na shiho). To achieve this, she listed three specific steps: (1) establishment of a new human rights agency, (2) ratification of "optional protocols" to human rights treaties, and (3) more transparency in criminal interrogations.

 

Her selection of these particular measures for the spotlight displays ambition to make significant institutional reform. They strike at the heart of an established regime that allows arbitrary power to police and other officials. All three measures have been recommended many times by U.N. human rights bodies and other international organizations, but were categorically rejected by Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) governments. The proposals for an independent human rights commission and the expansion of human rights treaties seek to provide individuals with the opportunity to bring their complaints to bodies outside the control of the government and the courts.

 

The effort to establish an independent human rights institution in Japan has had a tortuous history. Following hearings it conducted in 1998, the U.N. Human Rights Committee declared that it was "concerned about the lack of institutional mechanisms available for investigating violations of human rights and for providing redress to the complainants." It went on to say, "The committee strongly recommends to the State party (Japan) to set up an independent mechanism for investigating complaints of violations of human rights."

 

Why was this so important? The committee explained that "there is no independent authority to which complaints of ill treatment by the police and immigration officials can be addressed for investigation and redress."

 

More than 100 countries have established such an "independent authority." The Koizumi administration responded to this recommendation in a half-hearted manner, proposing a bill in 2002 that was roundly criticized as creating a vehicle that would rest securely under the thumb of the Ministry of Justice. As the debate moved forward, newspapers suddenly were filled with stories of the brutal treatment of inmates at Nagoya Prison and other penal facilities, including cases of excessive force leading to inmate deaths. One cannot imagine a better illustration of the need for investigation by an outside watchdog. The LDP proposal would have simply led to the government examining itself, yet the 2002 "human rights bill" was allowed to expire without formal Diet action. It has not been revived since.

 

Likewise, Chiba's second proposal would enable individuals to bring their complaints directly to new tribunals — to multinational committees charged with overseeing treaty compliance. Japan has ratified six major human rights treaties, but has never agreed to any protocol or treaty provision that would empower individuals to plead a case before such an international forum. This is a popular reform in the international community adopted by many countries. But the opposition of LDP governments to demands for this reform has been steadfast. Chiba, on the other hand, has long been a supporter. Her Sept. 16 declaration indicates that the government position on this issue has also been reversed.

 

The third item on the minister's shortlist is also familiar to international organizations. Japan's extended police interrogations have shocked international observers for years. In October 2008, the U.N. Human Rights Committee wrote that lengthy detention of suspects in police jails "increases the risk of abusive interrogation methods with the aim of obtaining a confession." These words echoed those of the U.N. Committee Against Torture issued the year before when that committee wrote that lengthy interrogations outside the presence of counsel "increases the possibilities of abuse of their rights, and may lead to a de facto disrespect of the principles of presumption of innocence, right to silence and right of defense."

 

U.N. committees have recommended video-recording the entire interrogation process as the best means of creating a reliable record and reducing the number of coerced confessions. Chiba agrees. In fact, she joined other opposition legislators in submitting a transparency bill in 2007, which was rejected by the LDP-controlled Diet at the time.

 

Implementing these measures will take work. Establishing an independent commission and ratifying treaty protocols requires Diet action. Although the DPJ holds strong majorities, there will surely be voices seeking to protect the status quo. Although video-recording interrogations will not require a new law, it strikes close to the bone of deeply entrenched practices of the police and prosecutors. Internal opposition could be fierce.

 

Following through on these promises will be a real test of political will. Whatever the result, there is no doubt that this government takes a fundamentally different view of its obligations under Japanese law and human rights treaties from what we have seen in the past.

 

Lawrence Repeta is a law professor at Omiya Law School in Japan and currently a visiting scholar at the University of Washington.

 

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THE JAKARTA POST

EDITORIAL

NEW CLUBS IN TOWN

 

A hand to rock the cradle, another to fix the roof. One to cook the food, another to offer a shoulder to cry on. From a distance, we can only imagine the domestic bliss of  four husbands and  a wife in the hamlets of eastern Bhutan. The men, all brothers, seem to have no problem with the arrangement, writes Her Majesty the Queen from her treks up and down the mountains.

 

Many Indonesians who are familiar with polygamous marriages have difficulties catching up with cousins and aunts, great uncles and nephews from grandmother number one, two and three.

 

Far from remnants of the past, we now occasionally hear news of someone we know taking a second wife, with male contemporaries  wondering whether they would one day dare to join that growing breed — the "modern", financially secured Indonesians, now free to adopt an "Islamic" way of life. One  said to offer a radical, sensible solution to "natural" urges, rather than sleeping around or living a double life with a mistress or two.

 

And who wouldn't pause to think about a chance to be promiscuous and holy at the same time?

 

The catch remains in convincing the modern wife, steeped as she is in her firm belief in equal rights to happiness. Reading the Koran, she finds the note on polygamy, that if a husband cannot be just to all wives, he had better stick to one, and that he probably wouldn't be able to do so anyway.

 

Many women were glad to hear of an "anti-polygamy club", set up last week by a number of men in reaction to the new Indonesian chapter of a Malaysia-based polygamy group. The latter aimed to share how polygamous households could be blissful. The first was set up with men saying the view that males must have more than one spouse is akin to regarding all men as animals, an encouraging but small voice amid recent temptations for men.

 

The glowing  brides-to-be in today's wedding invitations need not worry about being dragged into arranged marriages; they neither expect becoming second or third fiddle. Women also have taken it for granted that while many of those entering such  marriages are uneducated or widows, such marriages are unlikely sanctioned by state nor society. The marriage law clearly spells out conditions for Muslim men intending to take on extra wives — the first condition being the permission of his earlier wife or wives.

 

Sixty years after independence, female citizens sadly sense they are no longer under automatic state protection. Increasingly, they will have to look out for themselves, as their fate is left to what direction the political wind blows, leading to more space for those who now can casually say it is "Islam" they will listen to, and "who cares about the law?" — an eerie parallel to the words of deeply devout terrorists.

 

Our leaders need to show where they stand, on whether indeed one is free to choose between whatever we understand of religion and our laws. Otherwise it would be incredulously hypocritical for us to say that thanks to reformasi, each and every Indonesian has a free choice.

 

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THE JAKARTA POST

EDITORIAL

ON THE QUESTION OF POLYGAMY

ABDUL KADIR RIYADI

 

Amid the great anticipation that women in Indonesia may be emancipated in their educational, social, political and cultural life, we as a nation were astounded by the media news that a polygamy club with international networks was established in the town of Bandung, with hundreds of families having already joined.

 

In a somewhat unprecedented manner, the members of the club emerged on TV, giving testimonies on the benefits and goodness of polygamy. These members — many of them women — testify that through polygamous marriage they are happier and more stable both in their family and social lives.

 

But there are also equally great concerns being expressed on the nature of both polygamy and the club.  One would first of all wonder why there should be a club to promote such an institution? Is polygamy something good that needs to be promoted and propagated? Is it normal or even necessary?

 

Whatever answer we may have to these questions, it seems clear that for many of us in this country polygamy is one of the discredited institutions of marriage.  We have seen so many cases where public figures lose their integrity because of their involvement in polygamous marriages.

 

However, for men polygamy has become a popular "culture", even though the practice indeed has haunting consequences of dismantling the family structure or destroying one's economic advantages.

 

And while members of the club were seemingly confident that polygamy was the answer for the many social malaises and even economic-related problems, it is all a bit too lovey-dovey, frankly, that co-wives can just adore one another, and "can't imagine home" without each other.

 

Far from it, a husband can never divide his heart equally between two wives or more, nor can he enjoy a fully vibrant conscience or heart, or a happy matrimony such as that which comes from fidelity to a single wife.

 

A polygamous marriage is often based on sexual desire rather than love, honor and understanding. It also has no strong grounding in Islam. Many polygamous Muslims miss the point that the Koran regards men and women as on par, and that — by virtue of the conditions laid down — Islam never advocates polygamy. Islam adopts the idea of compatibility between husband and wife, men and women.

 

To think polygamy is accepted easily by Islam is disappointing. Polygamy, in essence, is little more than conjugal betrayal to the marriage, and Islam therefore discourages it.  

 

The Koran does speak of polygamy, but the verse is subject to intense controversy.  Some Muslims have even gone so far as to say that in essence polygamy is not Islamic.  It is permitted only — and only — under certain strict conditions such as a man's first wife being barren or seriously ill.  

 

The historical reading of the polygamy verse, meanwhile, reveals that when Islam appeared and sanctioned polygamy it saw the benefits behind it. But it also introduced safeguards against the detrimental aspects of this practice by restricting the number of the wives to four. Prior to Islam there were no limits on the number of wives a man could be married.

 

Islam also makes additional marriages conditional upon the husband's commitment to treating his wives fairly and equitably. This condition, if taken literally leaves no room for a man to marry a second wife because "no man could be fair to multiple wives" the Koran implies.

 

The only reading of the Koranic verse that would justify polygamy as permissible is a patriarchal reading. The changing of social scene in the majority of Islamic societies is the key reason behind the emergence of this form of interpretation. The reading basically maintains that women have no equal pride or place in society.  

 

If anything, the argument that Islam enshrines women's status as inferior to men indicates inadequate knowledge of Islam and its law. A careful examination of the Islamic philosophy concerning the relations between men and women reveals that Islam considers them absolutely equal.  

The false image of women in Islam has nothing to do with the teaching and ideals of Islam as with the erroneous, gender-focused reading of it.

 

What this means we — as Muslims — must speak out and promote the true ideals of Islam as far as marriage and family life is concerned. Polygamy cannot be justified and must therefore be stopped.  

 

We should keep in mind that all practices that harm women, no matter how deeply they are embedded in culture, must be eradicated. After all, when Islam was first propagated by the holy prophet, it provided a framework for change, supplying guidelines for establishing equality for all servants of God — irrespective of their color, religion, culture or gender.

The writer graduated from al-Azhar University, Cairo, and currently teaches at the Islamic Institute of Islamic Studies (IAIN) in Surabaya

 

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CHINA DAILY

EDITORIAL

SOCCER SCOURGE

 

Men's soccer in China has long been considered as something that we need but don't want because of its terrible performance in international competitions. The exposure on the involvement of some from soccer clubs - including players - in the manipulation of matches for booty from soccer gambling points to even more serious problems.

 

It was reported that more than 100 people within the circle had been investigated for their involvement in soccer gambling. A soccer betting case cracked indicates that the insiders detained did not just bet on a particular match. They also manipulated the matches by fixing the result in advance in order to make money from gambling.

 

Long before the exposure of this scandal, men's soccer has been bombarded by criticism and even accusations about the decadent lifestyle of players. The most notorious was that some players in the national team reportedly visited prostitutes the night before important matches and some players were bribed to cheat in matches.

 

There is a consensus that lack of due dedication to the sport on the part of quite a number of players has contributed tremendously to the underdevelopment of this particular sport. What the clampdown on inside manipulation of matches for the sake of gambling has come as a bombshell. Chinese soccer premier league, rather than helping elevate the level of the sport, has turned out to be a money vending machine manipulated by some insiders for dirty money.

 

Little wonder then that the performance of Chinese national team is so poor in international matches that it can lose to a team from a foreign country, whose population is not as large as that of a medium-sized Chinese city. Why should they care about such matches as long as they can get good money from under-the-table gambling games?

 

Obviously the inside manipulation of matches constitutes not just an insult to soccer fans, whose enthusiastic support has made it possible for the premier league to exist. It undermines the healthy development of soccer by draining professional dedication and ethics from players, coaches, club managers and officials in charge of the sport.

 

With more insiders being investigated and exposure of the fixed models for manipulating matches, it seems what these bad apples have done is quite similar to what the organized crime gangs are up to. They bribe coaches and key players to fix the result of a match in advance and they have connections with soccer gambling rings.

 

Once an insider joked that an outsider could hardly image how dirty the soccer circle was. Now we know it is really dirty, dirtier than we can imagine.

 

We support and appreciate the determination of the central government and the public security department to crack down on soccer insider gambling.

 

We hope that they show no mercy to anyone involved, no matter how big the person is. We hope that the crackdown will eradicate the rot in Chinese soccer and re-establish professional dedication and ethics among players.

 

Therein lies the hope of Chinese soccer.

 

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CHINA DAILY

EDITORIAL

STOP UNLICENSED PRACTICE

 

Driving without a valid driver's license could be sentenced to jail. But what will happen to medical practitioners if they do not conduct operations with a license?

 

The natural answer is that they should never be given the chance in the first place, and that's exactly what the Medical Licensing Law stipulates.

 

However, a CCTV news program on Tuesday revealed this is not the case at the Peking University First Hospital, one of the capital's best medical institutions.

 

The report alleged that the practices of unlicensed doctors at the hospital were responsible for the death of a medical professor and two other patients. The next day, a statement from the hospital dismissed CCTV's report as groundless.

 

The husband of the medical professor, who died after orthopedic surgery at the hospital almost four years ago, appeared at the Beijing Higher People's Court yesterday. The Ministry of Health ordered an investigation into the case. We hope the results can help clarify some key questions in order to restore public confidence in hospitals and medical authorities.

 

Truth must be found out whether the postgraduate medical students at Peking University were merely shadowing a doctor or practicing on their own at the hospital. Under the law, medical students who work under the guidance of a licensed doctor to gain clinical experience are not regarded as illegal practitioners. But if the medical history of the dead patients the CCTV showed and the interview the TV station conducted at the hospital with hidden cameras are true, the hospital must be stopped from leaving the fate of patients in the hands of inexperienced and illegal practitioners.

 

While attacking the work ethics of CCTV for hidden camera and "misleadingly conducted" interview, the hospital admitted that the postgraduate student in question made prescriptions without doctor's guidance. But the hospital went on to say this is only a single case involving individual conduct.

 

We doubt if this is truly a single case at the hospital. Even if it is individual behavior, the hospital cannot shirk its responsibility. It should plug the loopholes in the administration to ensure that interns always work under the guidance of licensed doctors.

 

The hospital is by no means the only one that has this problem. In recent years, we have heard many cases of similar kind. It is found that some doctors do not perform their duty conscientiously. They are too busy chasing money or fame by moonlighting at other hospitals or publishing medical papers. They allegedly leave medical interns on their own to practice, which leads to accidents in some cases.

 

And the investigation must also find out if the medical history of these patients has been doctored by the hospital to evade legal responsibility as CCTV has reported. The hospital has the right to demand factual and unbiased report from news organizations. The hospital also has the obligation to provide true and undoctored record to prove that it is worthy of patients' trust.

 

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CHINA DAILY

EDITORIAL

HOW TO HANDLE GLOBAL ECONOMIC IMBALANCES

 

Regardless of whether we admit it or not, the financial crisis is deeply related to global economic imbalances. Currently, the world seems to have weathered the crisis and people envisage a new, post-crisis world order. If global imbalances are to be blamed for the crisis, then it is of little significance to discuss a new world order before identifying the causes of imbalances.

 

It is generally believed that the overspending spree in countries with huge trade deficits and the excessive savings in trade-surplus states caused global economic imbalances. Outwardly, this argument is reasonable and has been accepted by academicians and policymakers. Based on the assumption, economists wrote a "prescription" for avoiding crises: Increase consumption in trade-surplus countries and savings in trade-deficit countries. Indeed, since the beginning of this year, some positive signs seem to be emerging in countries with trade deficit, such as increasing savings in the US. So, people began to suspect that with the decline of the US spending, whether the export-oriented growth pattern in trade-surplus countries, with China as the representative, could keep up.

 

Unfortunately, the rising deposit in the US is very likely to be temporary and irrespective of people's will, and trade-surplus countries will still maintain the export-oriented growth model. I believe that it is the long-term factors that influenced the international division of labor, causing imbalances that could not be avoided through readjusting short-dated factors.

 

Moreover, global imbalances are rational to some extent, because they are the outcome of the international division of labor, and both trade-surplus and deficit countries could benefit from them. In the short term, the policies of various countries and international organizations should focus on reducing the negative influence of global imbalances; in the long term, countries should change the long-term factors that impact the international division of labor through restructuring so as to avoid global imbalances.

 

In order to reduce external imbalance, China must engage in structural adjustment, especially in speeding up the process of urbanization and financial system reform. The goal of urbanization is to boost domestic consumption while reforming the financial system aiming at better utilizing the savings provided by current account surpluses.

 

The direct effect of improving the rate of urbanization is to increase domestic spending. Once a rural resident comes to the cities, his or her income would increase without much training or learning. Because in rural areas, farmers' income improvement is constrained by the fixed factor - land, while in cities their labor is based on capital, which could be expanded. In other words, urbanization could raise the income of migrant workers at "zero cost" as well as per capita income countrywide. At present, urban per capita consumer spending is 2.57 times that in rural areas. Therefore, urbanization will boost domestic consumption level.

 

On the other hand, China's backward financial system led to the waste of national savings. If we have a well-established financial system, the large amount of foreign exchange brought by exporting could become bank loans or financing in capital market, which can enable enterprises and residents to buy imported products, and our trade surplus will not be so huge. Even if holding tremendous trade surplus, a developed financial system still could transfer the capital into domestic or offshore fund and reduce current account surplus.

 

One of the problems facing China's financial system is the absence of small- and medium-sized banks. At present, there are only 18 major commercial banks and more than 110 city commercial banks in China. Although the number of rural credit cooperatives is huge, most of them are not in good shape. While in the US, there are 7,500 commercial banks, 886 savings and loan associations, 400 mutual savings banks and 9,900 credit cooperatives nationwide.

 

Erecting more small- and medium-sized banks would be conducive to relieving China's economic imbalance. First, these banks prefer to issue loans to small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which have financing difficulties for a long time. China's savings rate has surpassed 50 percent in recent years while domestic investment rate is about 42 percent, which means that savings equivalent to nearly 10 percent of the GDP have not been used each year. In a financial system dominated by large banks, the problem of loan difficulties facing SMEs cannot be solved effectively. With abundant funds, big banks would like to issue loans on a big scale to large enterprises, which could bring stable returns and lower their cost. While, small- and medium-sized banks with a few funds can operate flexibly and would like to issue loans to SMEs. So boosting the development of small- and medium-sized banks could increase domestic investment and improve the utilization rate of savings.

 

Second, SMEs can promote employment. The same amount of capital invested in SMEs would bring more job opportunities than that in large enterprises. With more employment, the labor payment ratio of the GDP will rise, which would change the current income allocation pattern so as to increase domestic spending and reduce dependence on export.

 

Another major flaw of China's financial system is the lack of regional capital markets. The population and acreage of each Chinese province is equivalent to a medium- or large-scale country, but there are only two stock markets and only about 1,500 listed enterprises. Even considering the newly launched Growth Enterprise Market, the scale of China's capital market is still relatively small. Moreover, China basically has no enterprise bond market and very few other financing channels. The consequence of lacking regional capital markets is the frequent recourse to illegal funds. We should, however, be aware that the large scale illegal fund raising signals SMEs' high demand for capital and people's desire to deploy spare capital.

 

Financial markets should not only play a role as an intermediate agent but also as a means for ordinary residents to share the fruit of the current high-speed economic growth. In the current allocation structure of China's GDP, the ratio of labor income is declining while capital income rising. Reforming the financial system could raise the proportion of labor income and could increase the ratio of capital income possessing by residents through encouraging private investment.

 

The author is deputy dean of the School of National Development, Peking University.

 

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CHINA DAILY

EDITORIAL

CHINA, AFRICA BOUND ON DEVELOPMENT ROAD

 

The fourth ministerial meeting of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) has acquired special significance because it is being held at a time when both China and African countries are suffering from the impact of the global financial crisis.

 

Since the meeting, which Premier Wen Jiabao will attend on Nov 8 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, will help consolidate China-Africa relations it has drawn international attention, too.

 

Beijing hosted the first FOCAC summit in November 2006, which was attended by leaders of 48 African countries. President Hu Jintao had then announced that China would double its aid to Africa by 2009.

 

During the past three years, China has fulfilled the commitments it made, and by the end of September it had completed 90 percent of its scheduled projects in Africa.

 

China's aid to Africa is aimed mainly for economic and social development of the respective countries. China has helped African nations mainly in the fields of infrastructure, agricultural and food production, medical care, education and human resource development. Projects are in line with the New Partnership for African Development.

 

In agriculture, China has sent about 100 senior technical experts in agriculture to Africa and set up 10 agricultural technique demonstration centers there.

 

In healthcare, it has helped build 30 hospitals and provided 300 million yuan ($43.9 million) free aid to help African governments prevent and treat malaria.

 

China began sending medical teams to Africa in the 1960s, and since then Chinese experts have also trained many medical personnel.

 

Since 2006, 42 medical teams have been dispatched to Africa, which along with the hospitals cover urban and rural areas both. This has, to a large extent, helped countries that have a dearth of doctors and medicines to fight diseases.

 

Beijing has helped build 126 schools in African countries' rural areas, too.

 

Another focus of Chinese aid is to strengthen African countries' nation-building capability. China has always attached importance to their nation-building capability and talent development. As a saying goes, it not only "offers fish", but also "teaches fishing" so that the recipient takes the road to sustainable development.

 

China has organized about 700 classes in three years to train government officials, technicians and administrative staff of African countries. About 15,000 people from 20 different fields, including trade, diplomacy, medical care, education, environmental protection, telecommunication and energy, have attended the training sessions.

 

No relationship is without hiccups, and China-Africa ties have had their share of twists and turns, too, some of which are still to be straightened out. But the rising pitch of Western countries' accusation that "China is peddling colonialism in Africa" has at least something to do with the hiccups. This is an area where the intellectuals of China and African countries need to respond together, expose the motives behind the accusation and try to eliminate the hurdles on the road to better ties. Only by doing so can we refute the West's accusation.

 

In fact, Western countries are at the root of most of the problems that African countries face today. They colonized or subjugated the countries, exploited their resources and manpower and left the people to suffer the pangs of abject poverty. Such was the level of exploitation that even after winning independence most of the African countries could not reconstruct their economies.

 

The story doesn't end there. African nations are still denied their right to be represented and heard at international forums. The North always talks about strengthening North-South dialogue because that would be to the benefit of Western powers. The West rarely talks about South-South cooperation because that would mean a consolidation of developing countries, which China is.

 

China cooperates with Africa not only because of its resources because it will never exploit another country. Instead, China's aim is to help African countries' realize economic development.

 

To ensure that Chinese enterprises in African countries fulfill their social responsibility, the Chinese government has asked them to upgrade the industrial structure there and create more jobs for local people.

 

All these factors make the fourth FOCAC meeting very important. The function of a forum is to analyze existing problems and find solutions for them, which it will do.

 

And as good partners, China and African countries take care of each other's concerns, enhance trust, cooperate for mutual benefits and respect each other's culture to take their relationship to new heights.

 

The author is a researcher with the Western Asia and Africa Studies Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

 

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THE MOSCOW TIMES

EDITORIAL

SPENDING MONEY HAND OVER FIST

BY MICHELE A. BERDY

 

Транжира: spendthrift, wastrel, big spender, high roller

 

The thing about ремонт квартиры (apartment remodeling) is that it's expensive. After a month of trips to the building supply markets, tile stores, kitchen stores, bathroom stores, lighting stores and big box home repair stores, you begin to feel like a human ATM. It's gotten to the point that as soon as I see my contractor, I reach for my wallet. Деньги уходят как песок сквозь пальцы! (Money flows through my fingers like sand!)

 

But because every experience is grist for the learning-Russian mill, this got me thinking about Russian terms for spending money.

 

In Russian, расточитель is a spendthrift. In the 19th and early 20th century, it seems to have been a rather common word, but today my friends say it is slightly bookish. They would be more likely to use the adjectival form — расточительный (profligate) — in reference to, say, state spending: Генеральная прокуратура выявила факты расточительного расходования бюджетных средств (The prosecutor general uncovered evidence of wasteful spending of budgetary funds).

 

Today if you want to describe a spendthrift, you might use the word транжира. This noun is derived from the verb транжирить (to spend wastefully) and came to Russian from the French. It can be applied to both sexes. Транжира — идеальный ухажёр, но проблемный муж (A big spender is an ideal boyfriend, but a problematic husband). Я транжира, причём неисправимая! Люблю я туфли. (I spend money like water, and I can't change! I just love shoes.)

 

You might also call this kind of person мот (lavish spender), from the verb мотать (among several meanings: to spend money extravagantly). The poet Alexander Pushkin once wrote: Я не мот; я знаю цену деньгам. (I don't squander money; I know its worth.) Judging by his life-long debts, this wasn't true. But who wants to admit that he spends money like it was going out of style?

 

If someone spends money foolishly on things that he doesn't need or even want, you might say: Он бросает деньги на ветер (He flushes money down the drain; literally, "He throws money to the wind"). You can also use a phrase with an English analog: Она разбрасывает деньги налево и направо (She spends money right and left).

 

If someone maintains an extravagant lifestyle, you might say of them: Он живёт на широкую ногу (literally, "he lives on a wide foot"). Etymologists quibble about the origins of this phrase. A few insist that it comes from the expensive fashion of long-toed shoes that appeared in various European courts in various centuries. Others believe that it is a native Russian expression that is derived from the notion of a foot as a measurement. In any case, it means: "He lives high on the hog."

 

What if you don't generally blow money but are prepared to pay whatever it takes to get, say, your roof repaired? You might say: Я заплачу любые деньги! (I'll pay whatever it costs!) Or: Я за ценой не постою (literally, I won't stand on the price). This phrase is most often associated with the song by bard Bulat Okudzhava for the film "Белорусский вокзал" ("Belorussky Station"). In the song, it refers to winning the Great Patriotic War, and the "price" was in lives and suffering. But today it might be used to mean: I don't care what the price tag is.

 

In the Russian glossy women's magazines, you can also find the loan word шопоголик (shopaholic). Soon I'm

sure there will also be self-help groups called анонимные шопоголики (Shopaholics Anonymous).

 

Michele A. Berdy is a Moscow-based translator and interpreter.

 

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THE MOSCOW TIMES

EDITORIAL

VERY LITTLE TO CELEBRATE

BY VLADIMIR RYZHKOV

 

Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, the man who ended the Cold War and forever ended the threat of a global nuclear holocaust, has a simple answer for those who continue to blame him for the collapse of the Soviet Union and for "giving away" the former Soviet satellite states to the West. "What did I give away?" Gorbachev asks. "I gave Poland to the Poles and Czechoslovakia to the Czechs and Slavs." And as it turned out, Russia went to the Russians as well.

 

Gorbachev never tires of reminding people of his political program at the time that the Berlin Wall fell: "We made an agreement [with Western leaders] to build a free Europe, a unified system of security … that would serve the interests of Germans, Russians, Europe and the whole world." That is the principle value of perestroika, glasnost and Gorbachev's "new thinking": Every individual was given the chance to determine his own path. The only problem is that everyone chose different paths and traveled down differing roads over the past two decades.

 

Now, 20 years after the Berlin Wall fell Nov. 9, 1989, we see how much Europe and Asia have expanded and become stronger, while Russia has declined and continues to lag behind.

 

From the moment that the Cold War ended, the West started expanding and strengthening its two principal economic, political and security structures — NATO and the European Union. NATO experienced three waves of expansion, adding 12 new states and bringing its total number of members up to 28. The EU also expanded three times, bringing its number of member states to 27 with a combined population of almost 500 million. The number of countries aspiring to join both organizations also increased.

 

The East has gone through its own period of intense development. It has become an engine of growth for the global economy. China began its unprecedented perestroika even before the Gorbachev era. In 1990, the size of China's economy ranked No. 11 in terms of gross domestic product, and today it is No. 3. Even during the current crisis, China has maintained a GDP growth rate of about 8 percent. As a whole, Asia took advantage of the end of the Cold War to open its doors to globalization and to become the second-largest economic center in the world after the combined force of the United States and the EU. The other major power in the East, India, has also strengthened both its democracy — the largest in the world — and its economy since the Berlin Wall fell.

 

In contrast to the successes in the East and West, Russia — the country that did so much to inspire all these changes — has ended up the biggest loser in the post-Cold War era. Twenty years later, the country has experienced a triple defeat. First, Russia has failed to modernize its economy or social sphere. Second, it has not been able to build an effective political system, creating instead a one-man authoritarian regime. Russia has lost its international reputation and its former superpower status, leaving it almost entirely without allies or the support of global public opinion.

 

The structure of Russia's economy has significantly worsened over the last 20 years, and it continues to deteriorate. Fully 86 percent of Russia's exports, constituting up to one-third of the country's entire GDP, consist of raw materials, while 80 percent of the country's imports are finished products. By comparison, Soviet-era raw material exports accounted for only 48 percent of GDP. Today, hydrocarbon exports account for up to 70 percent of Russia's consolidated budget income. More than 70 percent of all shares traded on the Russian stock market are for companies from the raw materials sector.

Moreover, every attempt to create a modern, high-tech economy has ended in failure. The average Russian income remains at almost the same level as it was 20 years ago, while 20 percent of Russians now live below the poverty line. A mere 10 percent of the population earns more than 50 percent of all wealth in the country, and in 2008 the country's 53 wealthiest Russians owned capital equaling 30 percent of the national GDP. In the World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness Report, Russia dropped 12 places since last year, down to 63rd of 132 countries. For the first time, Russia fell behind countries such as Turkey, Mexico, Brazil, Indonesia and even Azerbaijan.

 

Similar declines were seen in recent years in the areas of democracy and human rights. According to Freedom House, Russia moved from being a "free" state in the early 1990s to becoming firmly entrenched on the list of "unfree" states. According to a democracy rating conducted by The Economist magazine, in 2008 Russia found itself at the record-low 108th place among 167 countries. The picture is similarly bleak for ratings of freedom of speech, freedoms of nongovernmental organizations and so on.

 

This degradation has not been lost on Russia's neighbors, which are distancing themselves as much as possible from Moscow. Instead, they consider Western institutions to be the better model for development. Only five former Soviet republics have relatively good ties with Russia — Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan — and even they are taking cautious steps backward. The other former Soviet republics  have either distanced themselves from Moscow or else broken ranks with Russia completely. The Kremlin is rapidly losing its two major means of influencing others — the "hard power" of economic and military incentives and threats and the "soft power" of attracting partners through its own example, culture and policies.

 

In short, Moscow is finding itself increasingly isolated from the international community. While the rest of the world is commemorating the 20th-year anniversary of the fall of the Iron Curtain, Russia is left wondering why it has so little to celebrate.

 

Vladimir Ryzhkov, a State Duma deputy from 1993 to 2007, hosts a political talk show on Ekho Moskvy radio.

 

The president had invited government officials and Naftogaz managers to discuss the problem, but none of them had come.

 

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