 |
Wednesday, August 20, 2003, Chandigarh,
India 
|
An
election-year exercise Call off the
boycott No props for
PSUs |
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|
Interlinking
of the rivers
A wedding to
remember
Taliban
remnants regrouping in Afghanistan
No dual
citizenship for NRIs in EU
|
An election-year
exercise THE
numerical advantage that the ruling
coalition enjoyed was well-known to the Opposition. Still if it brought
forth a no-confidence motion, it was not in any fond hope that it would be
able to topple the Vajpayee government. The real motive was to set the
ball rolling for the forthcoming elections by discrediting the government
to the maximum extent possible. National security is the lynchpin of the
BJP’s poll strategy and that is why the concerted attack was on this plank
carried out by pointing out the numerous shortcomings on the defence
front. In fact, there was no shortage of sticks to beat the government
with. The nine-point chargesheet included everything from the
“coffin-gate” scandal to destroying the country’s social fabric to
indulging in corruption. It is just that the Opposition parties could not
marshal their resources too well, whereas the ruling combine fared
marginally better. The fault perhaps lay with the lack of coordination.
The decision of the Congress to hear out Defence Minister George Fernandes
and that of the left parties and the Rashtriya Janata Dal to stage a
walkout was a clear indicator of the divergence of views. The exit of old
warhorses Vasant Sathe and NKP Salve from the Congress just hours before
the crucial debate also left a shadow on the proceedings.
The NDA did not really have convincing answers to many questions but
its leaders used their debating skills to sidetrack various issues. While
serious issues are pending before the country, the debate at times
degenerated into sheer noise and avoidable acrimony. The people would have
appreciated debate of better quality.
The debate served the Congress party’s keenness to push Mrs Sonia
Gandhi onto the centrestage as a combative leader and she did not
disappoint the faithfuls and cheerleaders. But she tended to be shrill and
brash, a weakness which stalwarts like Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Mr L.K.
Advani exploited to the hilt. The NDA had chosen its speakers after much
deliberation to give a befitting reply. If they managed to fend off
everything that the Opposition threw at them without going on the
backfoot, the secret lay in anticipating what the opponents were going to
say. CPM leader Somnath Chatterjee was not exactly jesting when he said
that the motion had been moved primarily to get a reply from the Prime
Minister. Mr Vajpayee did that in style, and converted the occasion into
an opportunity to list out the various “achievements” of his government.
Mr Vajpayee had himself spoken in many a no-confidence motion in the past.
This was the first time he was facing one. It was moved a bit late in the
day as a new Lok Sabha is to be elected in a year’s time. The Lok Sabha by
defeating the motion has thrown the ball into the people’s
court. |
|
Call off the
boycott ONE
issue that had dominated the two-day debate on the no-confidence motion
moved by the Opposition against Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s government is
the boycott of Defence Minister George Fernandes by the Opposition since
his re-induction into the Union Cabinet late last year. On Monday, though
the Congress members heard Mr Fernandes’ 90-minute speech, it is not clear
whether they have finally lifted their boycott on him. But the so-called
unity among the Opposition members over this issue stood exposed when the
Left and Rashtriya Janata Dal members staged a walkout the moment Mr
Fernandes stood up to make his speech. Clearly, the manner in which the
Opposition has been treating Mr Fernandes during the past 22 months is
unwarranted. The boycott of Mr Fernandes is not only an insult to the
Defence Minister but also goes against well-established parliamentary
norms and decorum.
In a parliamentary democracy, the Opposition may have differences of
opinion with the government on matters of policy and decision-making. It
may also have reservations on the conduct and functioning of individual
ministers. But the legitimate forum for the Opposition to sort out its
differences with the government or individual ministers is the floor of
Parliament. How can the Opposition refuse to recognise a person as Defence
Minister when he is duly sworn in as minister by the President on the
advice of the Prime Minister? The only way by which the Opposition can get
rid of a minister is to vote him out, but it can do so only through a vote
against the government. The no-confidence vote on Tuesday reaffirmed that
it simply did not have the numbers needed for ousting the government or Mr
Fernandes.
Now when the motion has been discussed and the opposition has had its
say on the NDA government’s performance, it should call off Mr Fernandes’
boycott. It may not speak well of Parliament if members submit questions
but do not listen to the answers by the Minister? It is time the
Opposition realised its constitutional role in a parliamentary democracy.
Even though the all-party meeting convened by the Lok Sabha Speaker
recently had failed to end the impasse, there is still reason for hope.
The Opposition need not overstretch its point. |
|
No props for
PSUs THE
Supreme Court judgement declaring that employees of public sector
undertakings are not on a par with the government staff is bound to have
wide repercussions. Dismissing a writ petition filed by employees of the
sick Indian Drug and Pharmaceuticals Ltd seeking a direction to the Centre
to raise their salaries by implementing the pay commission’s
recommendations, the apex court has made it clear that the employees of
government companies cannot claim a legal right to demand higher pay
scales from the state government. Although in this particular case the
employees were offered an exit through a voluntary retirement scheme,
there is a clear message for other government undertakings and their
employees that their fortunes are linked and they would all swim and sink
together.
If a government undertaking suffers losses, its management and
employees are bound to suffer the consequences. What happened in the case
of Punwire is still fresh in memory. Its employees paid a heavy price for
the mismanagement of the government company. The Punjab Government did not
come to their rescue. On the other hand, if a public sector undertaking
performs well, it is free to reward the employees accordingly. There are
some well-managed PSUs whose employees’ perks and pay scales are better
than those of government employees. It all depends on how they and their
organisation perform. The judgement affirms the autonomous character of
the state undertakings.
As part of the economic reforms, the Centre and states have been forced
to pursue the disinvestment programme, offloading the government stake in
PSUs. It is because of the realisation that the government has no business
to be in business. Government officials cannot run hotels and other
services as efficiently as those in the private sector. The exchequer has
been bled white by bad investments in business projects that have failed
or given poor returns. The state electricity boards all over the country
are into heavy losses. How long can the state governments pay for their
mismanagement? But it is unfair to make the employees alone pay for the
non-performance of their organisation. Political heads and IAS officers
managing government companies should also be held responsible. Quite often
it is because of the bureaucracy and political managers that a government
company collapses and both get away. They must be held
accountable. Democracy means government by discussion, but it is only effective if you can stop people talking. — Clement Attlee |
Interlinking of the
rivers ARDENT supporters of the government’s ambitions river-linking
project ask the opposition to shut up; an opposition comprising stalwarts
in the field of hydrology, engineering, management and environment led by
none other than Ramaswamy Iyer, former Secretary, Water Resources, and
many others with impeccable credentials. At stake are the lives of at
least three million Indians, an 8,000 square-mile landmass that will be
flooded and the great Indian ecosystem that will be violated in a manner
that has never been attempted before, courtesy a nation-wide river-link
project.
This becomes doubly ominous considering India’s inglorious record with
its big dams, with some 3,000 dams representing a story that is “littered
with failures” and the ill-conceived and delusory $120 billion project
that believes that Indian rivers can be strung up like a garland in a
final solution to India’s acute water stress. Imagine the consequences of
asking Andhra Pradesh to share the Godavari waters with Tamil Nadu!
Imagine Bangladesh waiting quietly while India redraws the hydrology map.
Why is India so water stressed? Environmental and hydro-geologist
Subrata Sinha promptly points to the large-scale replacement of
traditional drought and flood resistant plants by exotic, hybrid and
high-yielding brands which guzzle water. The greatest mismanagement around
Indian agriculture has been in tempting farmers to grow more by
subsidising irrigation even where water is not available with grievous
long-term consequences for agriculture itself. The slightest monsoon
variation leads to calamities and the water-loving agri-system invariably
ends up degrading the soil and eventually causing a drop in productivity.
The long-term solution would then lie in rationalising agriculture in
conformity with land and climate.
Thus, at hand is the task of bringing the glacial waters of the melting
Himalayan snows to the parched Indian peninsula by literally trapping the
flood waters from 14 Himalayan tributaries of the Ganga and the
Brahmaputra in North India and Nepal and transferring them to the South
via a series of canals and pumping stations, across the Vindhya mountains
to replenish 17 southern rivers, including the Godavari, the Krishna and
the Cauvery. This contractors’ dream project will entail constructing some
300 reservoirs and digging more than 1,000 km of canals. River-link
proponents theorise that two-thirds of the 1.9 trillion cubic metres of
rainwater in the Indian rivers goes into the sea and should be impounded
to relieve the water stress. Adding grist to their mill has been the
Supreme Court order to complete the gigantic project within a decade and a
half. Is this a blessing in disguise? As the environmentalist insists,
there is no shadow of a doubt that the river-link will violate the
environmental laws of the land. The question is who can tell about
respecting laws in a country where the Taj Mahal was on the verge of being
converted into Taj Mall.
The Task Force on Interlinking of Rivers has reportedly finalised its
Action Plan-I. The peninsular links would be taken up first. Like
Prometheus Unbound, India seeks to tame nature. How will the Vindhyas be
negotiated? Dr S. Kalayanaraman, former Asian Development Bank executive,
responds that it would not be done by lifting water but by
circumnavigating the mountains: “north of the mountains the flow of the
link between the Ganga and the Mahanadi will be from the west/north-east
to the south-east (by gravity) and the south of the Vindhya mountains, the
flow of the link between the Mahanadi and the Godavari will be from the
east to the south-west/south (by gravity)”. Geologists find this
hilarious. “Transferring water from one valley to another across the water
divide is a geographical and physical near-impossibility”, says Debasish
Chatterjee. He should know as he was the geomorphologist in charge of the
Geological Survey of India, Eastern Region, when geological investigations
for the Mahanadi-Godavari link were taken up.
The end results will be alarming: River-linking will not ensure water
for all but impound huge tracts of food-growing soil. It will not stop the
flooding because the rivers are often simultaneously in spate: the
Gangetic plain can hardly deal with the excess Brahmaputra waters when the
Ganga is overflowing. It will not solve water disputes but place every
state against the other over riparian rights. It will not bring peace but,
by displacing some three million people, will tear asunder societies all
over the country. It will provide no permanent solutions but temporary
ones, a la the Bhakra Nangal dam that helped the first burst of the Green
Revolution but made Punjab the land of flash-floods, thanks to the silting
that reduced the storage capacity in the Gobind Sagar and necessitated the
catastrophic opening of the floodgates in the eighties with another dam
required to supplement the supply of water into the main dam. It will
upset India’s neighbours, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Nepal, whose riparian
rights will be tampered with.
As the Brahmaputra is linked to the Ganga, waters will be forced across
Himalayan streams and through the topography through aqueducts and
structures, impairing the hydrological balance, geohydrological setting of
the entire Himalayan water system in a region that is seismically
sensitive to boot. Besides, rivers have a logic as they carry soil and
water depositing them along the way and meeting the sea after forming a
rich delta. Violating this natural course on a mass scale can only have
serious consequences.
When rivers become one, this marine biodiversity is destroyed because
rivers being natural systems are “connected like a web in a macro-dynamics
of nature, its floral-faunal milieu, and not merely conduits of water”.
Worse, joining polluted waters with clean ones would make sewers of them
all.
Juxtaposed with this hypnotic logic of transporting waters down
thousands of kilometres is the humble concept of collecting water just
where the rains drop it. Unfortunately, this does not need international
agencies. It involves going back to grassroots knowledge and decentralised
water management technology that would involve planners in New Delhi
learning from tradition. It means harvesting rainwater from rooftops and
open areas in urban areas and rural check-dams and soak pits, naturally or
artificially allowing the run-off to percolate into the ground and
recharging soils. This simple process would help soil retain moisture and
the topsoil by checking erosion while retaining the green cover as well.
Water percolation has, in fact, brought back dry seasonal rivers to life
in Rajasthan and Karnataka, which have major success stories.
What chance does the home-made remedy have against the
contractor-driven thinking in New Delhi, especially in an election year
when access to poll funds are in direct proportion to contracting orders
or even a promise thereof? Also, how better can the order book get? The
contractors expect to be digging the entire length and breadth of the
country and then building again as water is transported from Assam to
Kerala, through the farmlands of Bihar, for instance. There are no fears
of Bihar villagers pilfering water or not giving up their lands for the
canals to ferry water for their Keralite brethren without demur!
Why this haste in bulldozing ahead with a proposition of this magnitude
that would entail years of planning when there was no mention of this
proposal even in the 10th Plan document. Earlier proposals along these
lines, from the days of Sir Arthur Cotton and later Captain Dinshaw
Dastur, the pilot who wanted to string up the rivers in the mid-thirties,
have been discussed threadbare and abandoned because of the sheer human
and environmental agony and the financial cost that rendered them
non-starters. |
A wedding to
remember THE
recent killing of Uday Saddam Hussein, his brother Qusay and nephew at
Mosul by US troops vividly brought to my mind Uday’s wedding some 10 years
ago at Baghdad.
I was sitting in my office sometime in July, 1993, and was quite
pleasantly surprised to receive a communication from Barazan Al-Tikriti,
the stepbrother of the then President Saddam Hussein. Barazan himself was
a powerful figure in the regime and I was at once curious and a little
anxious to see what was in the envelope. On opening the envelope I found
an invitation for myself as the Indian Ambassador and for my wife to
attend the wedding of his daughter to Uday Saddam Hussein. In those days
we never declined such an invitation, but more than that I was curious to
meet the President’s family and that too in informal surroundings. Many
thoughts raced through my mind. Everyone in Baghdad was petrified of Uday.
Some suggested he was an alcoholic, some a killer and a philanderer. I was
not going to miss this opportunity! I was keen to meet him.
July 29, 1993 was the appointed day. We arrived at Barazan Al-Tikriti’s
house, which was located at Jadriya, a fashionable district just behind
Baghdad University. It was a hot evening and our expectations arose as we
entered the house. As expected security was indeed tight. Barazan’s house
was a large one with splendid gardens. Inside, the furnishings were
extraordinarily bright with marble floorings and expensive chandeliers. It
was fully airconditioned. The back lawns opened onto the river Tigris and
sitting in the gardens we could see the river flow by ever so slowly. It
was indeed a beautiful view, just like that in a fashion magazine.
As we entered the main hall Barazan and his wife greeted us quite
warmly. Standing nearby was Uday Saddam Hussein and a little further away
Qusay and their family members. Uday greeted us warmly and spoke good
English, as did his brother Qusay. Uday Saddam Hussein was about 5’11”
tall and was wearing a smart brown jacket with an open collar. He had a
crew cut and a thin day-old beard. Qusay on the other hand was a little
shorter, thinner, was clean-shaven with a moustache much like his
father’s. He was wearing a dark suit with a tie. Qusay spoke about
Indo-Iraq relations whereas Uday was content to make small talk. The
family members were well dressed and was obviously enjoying themselves.
The cream of Iraqi society was present, including generals in uniform
and ministers. Liquor flowed freely and imported food (in spite of the
sanctions) was plentiful. A band was in attendance and they played popular
music, which consisted of mostly old American songs. The women were all
well dressed in western style clothes and showed no inhibitions when it
came to consuming champagne. Looking at the party, the food, and the music
it seemed all so unreal. All the efforts being made to make the sanctions
more stringent against Iraq obviously had no effect on the leadership.
Only the people of Iraq seemed to be suffering. I wondered whether Western
governments, pushing for sanctions realised this.
There was one surprise at the party. Present were the Bishops of the
Syrian church and the Orthodox Church as also some well-known gentlemen
from northern Iraq in Kurdish dress. Obviously they were hedging their
bets!
Finally came the time to depart. Uday escorted us to the door and said
his goodbyes like a gentleman. Was it real, was he a murderer, an
alcoholic? Now that they are no more, it is best left to history to
decide.
Ranjit Singh Kalha retired as a Secretary to the Government of India
(MEA) and served as India’s Ambassador to Iraq from 1992 to
1994. |
Taliban remnants regrouping
in Afghanistan
THE
Afghans are feeling like an abandoned child. The US-led international
coalition forces destroyed whatever facilities the country had like roads,
hospitals, schools and trade infrastructure while trying to eliminate the
Taliban and Al-Qaeda. But the reconstruction promises are yet to be
fulfilled. Some aid has reportedly come to keep the Hamid Karzai
government going, but that is too little keeping in view the vast
requirement.
President Karzai’s problems are growing. Provincial governors follow
only those guidelines from Kabul which suit them. They are mostly the
warlords of their particular areas and, therefore, Kabul cannot afford to
replace them. Mr Karzai is derisively called the mayor of Kabul because
his writ hardly runs beyond the national capital.
Exploiting the sentiments of the disgruntled Afghans, the remnants of
the Taliban and Al-Qaeda seem to be regrouping. An August 13-datelined
report from Kabul said that the country experienced the most serious
outbreak of violence when 61 people lost their lives in 24 hours. While 25
deaths occurred in clashes between the forces of a sacked district
official and those of his successor in Urzgan province, 15 died in Helmand
province when a bus was blown apart by a bomb blast, believed to be the
handiwork of the Taliban. The rest of the casualties were reported from
other parts of the country, mostly a result of attacks by the Taliban.
Helmand was one of the bastions of the Taliban before the ouster of the
fundamentalist outfit’s regime in the wake of 9/11.
On August 16 and 17 Taliban activists targeted two police stations in
Paktika province in areas bordering Pakistan, killing more than 22
persons. There may be more such incidents which go unreported because of
various reasons. Taliban guerrillas are active in most of their previous
strongholds, particularly in the areas bordering Pakistan. They hit a
target and run away to safer places in Pakistan’s Pashtun-dominated
provinces. Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry admits this fact, yet very little
is being done to take on the extremists effectively.
The re-emergence of the Taliban has come about despite the presence of
12,500 US-led coalition troops and the arrival of 5,000 NATO fighters in
Kabul. That too when the primary job of the foreign troops is to hunt for
the Taliban and Al-Qaeda activists. The Karzai government and the UN have
been pressing for the deployment of NATO fighters in the lawless provinces
too, but in vain. NATO’s activities are confined to Kabul and the
surrounding areas.
Since restoring law and order is the most difficult task before the
Karzai government, it recently created a special force for the purpose —
the Afghan National Army. Initially, it has 5000 men, functioning as
national guards, but there is a plan to increase its strength to 70,000
fighters. They are intended to replace the factional militias, coming in
the way of transforming Afghanistan into an orderly country. Reports say
that the government has received over $ 400 million from various foreign
donors, including the US, and recruitment to the army is on at Gardez,
Kunduz, Bamyan, etc.
However, the Karzai regime is struggling for survival. Its fate largely
depends on the growth of the National Army into a well-trained and
properly equipped force.The upsetting development for him and his
sympathisers, within the country and abroad, is that the army expansion
project is being resisted by the Defence Minister, Marshal Mohammad Qasim
Fahim, an ethnic Tajik. A key member of the ruling Northern Alliance,
composed of mainly Tajiks and Uzbeks, Mr Fahim, perhaps, feels that the
emergence of a strong army will weaken his position in the government.
The army is bound to have a strong Pashtun presence because of
Afghanistan being a Pashtun-majority state. The minority tribes,
controlling the levers of power, are unprepared to accept this because of
their history of tribal distrust and the Pashtun character of the ousted
regime. The state of affairs is quite depressing for Mr Karzai, who has to
face elections in June next year. Being a Pashtun, he is hopeful of being
back in the saddle, but he wants to take no chances. He is contemplating
calling a Loya Jirga ( assembly of tribal chiefs) to make his
uncooperating colleagues and provincial chieftains fall in line.
The situation is taking an interesting turn for India. President Karzai
and his colleagues realise that America cannot concentrate on Afghanistan
as much as it did before it opened the Iraq front. Islamabad has its own
games to play using the Pashtun card, as Pakistan’s NWFP and Baluchistan
provinces have a majority Pashtun population. Iran is not welcome owing to
its strongly anti-American policy and the Shia factor. The circumstances
have never been so favourable for India. This is an ideal opportunity for
New Delhi to strengthen its position in that strategically significant
country by helping Kabul in different areas like infrastructure
development and food supply. |
No dual citizenship for NRIs in EU AN
NRI association in France finds it illogical that the Vajpayee government
should deny dual citizenship to Indians in European Union countries. The
Union Cabinet had decided recently to grant dual citizenship to NRIs in
the US, the UK, Australia, Finland, Ireland, the Netherland and Italy. A
Bill in this regard is to be introduced in the winter session of
Parliament to amend the Citizenship Act, 1955.
While it is easy to understand why NRIs in the US, the UK, Australia
and the Netherland are being granted dual citizenship, the choice of other
European countries like Italy and Finland is hard to understand. It is not
clear why France, Germany and Portugal having significant communities of
Indian origin have been excluded, though they permit their citizens to
hold dual citizenship. Tough contest for Shiela
Dikshit?
The war horse of yesteryear M L Sondhi appears to be in the reckoning
again. Delhi BJP president Madan Lal Khurana is believed to have taken up
his cause with the BJP and RSS brass to pit Sondhi gainst Delhi Chief
Minister Shiela Dikshit from the Gole market assembly segment in the
coming November elections.
The BJP’s chief ministerial candidate Khurana believes that Shiela
Dikshit will have no opposition worth the name if the party fields Poonam
Azad against her. Former Delhi BJP chief M L Garg appears to be pushing
Poonam’s case. Sondhi’s likely nomination has led to a churning and
rethink in the DPCC as it might tie down Shiela Dikshit to campaigning in
the Gole market constituency rather than covering the entire ground of the
NCT of Delhi. The buzz in IPS
circles
The buzz in the higher echelons of the Indian Police Service is about
the prospects of P C Sharma, who is shortly retiring as the Director of
the Central Bureau of Investigation, being picked for a gubernatorial
assignment. Without losing much sleep on who is likely to be the next CBI
chief, these officials have no doubt that Sharma may either be picked for
a foreign assignment or be appointed as Governor of Pondicherry. Sharma
reportedly has the eyes and ears of certain important functionaries in the
all important Prime Minister’s Office. TV crew earns securitymen’s
ire
The breaching of security in the Parliament House complex by a
look-alike of Union Shipping Minister and Rajya Sabha MP Shatrughan Sinha
recently has embarrassed the watch and ward staff no end. It has put the
entire security apparatus into a tizzy. At the end of the day the usual
blame game was in evidence. However, the ire of the security personnel is
directed against private TV news channels which captured the Sinha
imposter making his way into the portals of the country’s highest
legislative body. Kalyan Singh at Liberahan
panel
Former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Kalyan Singh, who has been avoiding
the Liberahan Commission all these years, is seriously contemplating
deposing before it. The obvious aim is to bring top BJP leaders like
Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani, Dr Murli Manohar Joshi and even Prime
Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee under a cloud of suspicion. He has been
advised by his friends that his political graph could rise again if he
went hammer and tongs against his erstwhile party colleagues. The advice
appears to have had some impact on him as he was reportedly at the
commission’s office in Vigyan Bhavan recently to consult officials about
the prospects of his deposing before it.
Contributed by TRR and Satish Misra |
He who grasps the truth, realises
that there is but one religion of all mankind; as God is one and has ever
been the same.
— Guru Nanak
This body is like a boat intended to ferry a person across the ocean of
birth and death, leading him to the shore of immortality.
— Chaitanya Mahaprabhu
What we are today come from our thoughts of yesterday, and our present
thoughts build our life of tomorrow: our life is the creation of our mind.
— The Dhammapada
The gateway of hell leading to the ruin of the soul is threefold —
lust, anger and greed. Therefore, these three, one should abandon.
— The Bhagavad Gita |
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