P A G E
Tuesday, July 7, 1998
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E D I T O R I A L P A G E |
Tuesday, July 7, 1998 |
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Nursing J&K's economy A decade of militancy has crippled Jammu and Kashmir in two different ways. One, it has made the State bear the strain of security-related expenditure, with the bill in the past eight years coming to a whopping Rs 1,684 crore. The Centre did reimburse about half of it but the balance still stands in J&K's name. The second and more debilitating has been the destruction of infrastructure. Tourism, carpet and shawl industries, which were the backbone of the State's economy, are tottering on their knees. Hydroelectric projects are hanging fire. The State has hardly any other resources and has been in the hand-to-mouth mode for quite some time. Central aid is not just desirable but essential for it. After all these years of pleadings, a high-level meeting led by Mr Lal Krishan Advani has announced that Rs 250 crore will be released to overcome the financial crisis. This will come in handy to bridge the resource gaps and to provide funds for a suitable plan size. The stated goals can be achieved only if measures are taken in advance to ensure that the massive leakages for which the State is notorious do not take place this time. Otherwise, the story of the North-East will be repeated here, with the money vanishing into the pockets of a few favoured ones, without ameliorating the lot of the common man in any way. Not only that, the Centre has also expressed its willingness to meet the security-related expenses of the insurgency. That is how it should be. What is being waged by a neighbouring country in the State is a proxy war but it is not the war of Jammu and Kashmir alone. It is the burden of the country as a whole and the entire nation should bear it. That is exactly what was sought to be done in the case of Punjab also. The Centre has also promised to provide additional funds in a phased manner for the Dal Lake conservation plan and for the reconstruction of damaged infrastructures. Sooner or later, things are bound to look upwards for the strategic State. When that happens, these are the sectors which will lead its march out of the tunnel. Amid all this generosity, hopes have been raised that the State will be able to improve its own resources by better collection of revenue and recovery. Unfortunately, this is easier said than done. Business is down to a trickle and any attempt to extract taxes from people whom the country has not even been able to provide security would end up appearing to be draconian. For quite some time to come, the Centre will need to keep its purse-strings lose. If a relatively peaceful State like Himachal Pradesh can be given as much as Rs 300 crore, there is no reason why the Centre cannot be much more liberal while dealing with Dr Farooq Abdullah. In fact, the State's debt burden has ballooned to over Rs 25,000 crore mainly because the 90 per cent aid and 10 per cent loan formula for the special category States was made applicable to Jammu and Kashmir only in 1991. Several other States have been enjoying this benefit since 1968. (The formula was 70 per cent loan and 30 per cent aid before 1991.) The aid makes a lot of political sense too. The recent spurt in militancy-related crimes has shaken the public's faith in the State Government and Dr Abdullah's position is vulnerable. Only by improving civic amenities can he hope to recover the lost ground. One can be almost certain that Pakistan is not going to mend its ways in the near future. The mischief has to be fought and neutralised to the best extent possible. This drive should in no way fall a victim to lack of funds.  |
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| Centre and security The anger and anguish expressed in the Lok Sabha by distinguished members over the apparent inaction on the issue of the murder of a former Bihar Minister in judicial custody are understandable — and justified. The killing of the late Brij Bihari Prasad was no routine criminal act. The well-known political leader was facing certain allegations. He was under the CBI's "protection" during detention. His wife, Mrs Rama Devi, an MP, had brought the fact of his harassment by the investigating agency and the perceived threat to his life to the notice of the Prime Minister and the Speaker. Mrs Rama Devi wants justice and says that the guilty must be brought to book speedily and punished. Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee has offered to expand the scope of the Privileges Committee dealing with the case or order a CBI or judicial enquiry. The present committee does not seem to have made a breakthrough; the expansion of its scope can mean more deliberation and more delay in finding answers to the widow's questions: "Why did you not listen to me when I raised the issue earlier?.... Who will bring my husband back to me?" She has stated that she too is being harassed by the CBI. So, what is the point in having a CBI probe? A judicial enquiry is already going on in Patna. No, Mr Prime Minister, this case is too serious to brook any procedural delay or to allow the law to take its proverbial course. In a surprising move, the subject was mentioned in the Lok Sabha by a member of Mr Vajpayee's own party — the BJP. Chief Minister Rabri Devi's defence of the activity of the law and order machinery in Bihar is being taken care of by her husband and back-seat driver, Mr Laloo Yadav. Mr Yadav alleges a conspiracy. The BJP-Samata combine is "indulging in engineering shocking and spectacular incidents to justify its demand for the imposition of President's rule on the state." The BJP is being accused of criminal intentions. The same BJP raises the issue in Parliament. What kind of politicking is this? An MLA of the CPM, Ajit Sarkar, was murdered with two or three of his partymen in broad daylight barely 18 hours after the murder of Mrs Rama Devi's husband. Nobody has mentioned this popular and progressive leader's elimination in Parliament. Not even the CPM! Callousness and absurdity too have their limits! The BJP president, Mr Kushabhau Thakre, has expressed concern over the law and order situation in UP. But he has his own way of fixing responsibility. Since neither the BJP nor Mr Kalyan Singh, the king, can do any wrong, Mr Thakre says: "The support of the people is the foremost condition for improving the performance of the government." He is "happy with the overall performance" of the UP administration. Alleluia! Long live the king's rule; if even the state capital is facing murder, rape and robbery with an alarming frequency, the people must know their responsibility—their support is the "foremost (and unforthcoming) condition". The Home Minister, Mr L.K. Advani, is never tired of talking about grassroots resilience. He does not, however, realise that the concept of grassroots is good only in idealistic terms. There is grass in Bihar and UP. There are roots too. But if this grass is merely Central BJP leaders' parthenium grass, it should be described as a weed and its roots should be constantly watched with caution. Political pranks and administrative manipulation do not let the people assert their rights. The Centre, which has a legitimate right to intervene in lawless areas with regard to state subjects also, should be accountable to the people of Bihar and UP particularly. What is it waiting for? |
| Discipline overdrive A proxy war has broken out in the Maharashtra Congress with distinct portents of degenerating into an ugly turf war between the state party strongman, Mr Sharad Pawar, and his detractors long reduced to political memory. In this old game of “I wouldn’t grow, I wouldn’t allow you to grow” played by middle-level Congressmen, the high command has got sucked in. Thus it gives the impression of being a Pawar versus Mrs Sonia Gandhi row, at least that is the impression sedulously created by the media, the private television channels in the main. But subtle undercurrents suggest a slightly different scenario. The trouble started with the defeat of former Union Home Secretary, Mr R.D. Pradhan, in the Rajya Sabha election last month. There were two curious facts about his unexpected reverse. He was one of the two official Congress nominees and that too handpicked by the party president. He is associated with the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation and Mrs Gandhi obviously wanted him to head her office as Congress president. While he lost rather badly, a Congress-supported independent sailed through, adding to the embarrassment of the party. The second point is that Mr Pawar stationed himself in Mumbai for a few weeks before the poll with the sole aim of defeating his fan-turned-foe, Mr Suresh Kalmadi. Here Mr Pawar had to face a reverse. Mrs Gandhi, stung by the defeat of her personal nominee, rushed a three-man team to Mumbai and it says that eight MLAs voted for non-Congressmen in the Rajya Sabha elections. It selected two as the first instalment for punishment — an MP who pleads not guilty and an MLA from Nagpur who ignored the show cause notice and invited suspension. Incidentally, he is a long-time Pawar detractor.The proxy war has nothing to do with these two men, but everything to do with the forced resignation of PCC president Ranjit Deshmukh. He is a staunch Pawar loyalist and helped Mr Pawar tightly control the state unit of the party; a hold on the party is essential for him if he has to retain his present pre-eminent position at the all-India level. Thus the cross-voting issue has been turned into an open struggle for the control of the party. All the noises emanating from the Pawar camp is a fire cover for the tough negotiation on the choice of a successor to Mr Deshmukh. Mr Pawar’s man for the post is the former Shiv Sena leader and an outstanding election campaigner in last Lok Sabha elections, Mr Chhagan Bhujbal. He is the leader of the Congress party in the Legislative Council. Mr Pawar may yet have his way, but if the several spent-forces manage to frustrate him, the loser will be the party, the most dynamic Congress unit in the entire country. Pessimists see the so-called drive against indiscipline turning into a witch-hunt, while the thinning group of optimists are sure of peace breaking out between Mr Pawar and Mrs Sonia Gandhi. The show cause notice to ten MLAs for signing the nomination papers of a former party man fighting the Legislative Council election as an independent is a side show, not worth even a sideways glance. |
| The
Kashmir
question Zigzag story of LoC by A.N. Dar Once in a while the LoC (Line of Control) jumps into the headlines, many believing that this could offer the blueprint for a final settlement of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute. But then after a while everyone washes his hands off it and the LoC lapses into obscurity — to spring up again into a controversy for some time. The everlasting question is whether the two sides, India and Pakistan, would some day grow tired of fulminating at each other to finally say let bygones be bygones and each one keep what it has and live happily ever after. No one dare say that now. The Prime Minister’s special envoy, Mr Jaswant Singh, did not say it but was recently interpreted to have said it and there was rightly a rash of denials.The LoC came into prominence after the 1971 war when India unilaterally ended the fighting in the western sector after Pakistan had surrendered in the east and Bangladesh had been born. It cuts off from Jammu province and goes along Hajipir, Poonch, Uri and beyond with Gurez on one side and Skardu on the other. The armies of the two sides face each other in strength.There was a line of control earlier too where the armies of India and Pakistan stood still after the ceasefire of January 1,1949, when the first war of Kashmir ended. It was breached in the 1965 war when Pakistan thought that its invasion of Kashmir would be confined only to Kashmir and it could cut the lifelink between Kashmir and the rest of India. But the Prime Minister, Lal Bahadur Shastri, heavily supported by the then Army Chief, Gen Chaudhury, crossed the international frontier and the Pakistani pressure on Kashmir along the ceasefire line was relieved.The line of control achieved a new importance after the 1971 war, particularly at the Shimla Summit between Indira Gandhi and Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. In the first few days the talks floundered with no agreement and on the last day, July 2, 1972, Bhutto announced that the negotiations had failed and he was going back home empty-handed. Indira Gandhi was reluctant to let the talks fail which would have sent Bhutto back without his having to show to his people that he had achieved something for them, like the release of the prisoners of war and the return of captured territory. She wanted an agreement. She thought that this would strengthen the democratic process in Pakistan which had brought Bhutto into focus after the years of dictatorship.In the last hours at the banquet which Bhutto gave to say farewell, he assured Indira Gandhi that the line of control could in time become the international border.This was revealed more than two decades later by P.N. Dhar, who was then Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister and a member of the Indian delegation. Bhutto told her that this could be done but it should not be put into the Shimla document because of the domestic complications it would create for him. Indira Gandhi, eager to have an agreement, believed Bhutto, and the Shimla Agreement was signed around midnight. It can thus be said that the unsigned, oral assurance on the LoC brought about the Shimla pact.His parting words after spelling out this assurance to her were: “Aap mujh par bharosa kijiye” (Please have trust in me). But soon conditions changed in Pakistan, leaving at the end a Bhutto hanged in the gallows. Everybody forgot about the need to give a de jure recognition to the LoC. India had nothing written to go by.This is the history of the Shimla Agreement. It said in para IV: “In order to initiate the process of the establishment of durable peace, both governments agree that : (i) Indian and Pakistani forces shall be withdrawn to their side of the international border (ii) In Jammu and Kashmir, the line of control resulting from the ceasefire of December 17, 1971, shall be respected by both sides without prejudice to the recognised position of either side. Neither side shall seek to alter it unilaterally, irrespective of mutual differences and legal interpretations. Both sides further undertake to refrain from the threat or the use of force in violation of this line.”The last paragraph of the agreement said: “Both governments agree that their respective heads will meet again at a mutually convenient time in the future and that, in the meanwhile the representatives of the two sides will meet to discuss further the modalities and arrangements for the establishment of durable peace and normalisation of relations, including the questions of repatriation of prisoners of war and civilian internees, a final settlement of Jammu and Kashmir and the resumption of diplomatic relations.”In the years that followed the LoC had more or less been a tranquil border until Pakistan’s ISI set to start a new programme, that of going to war with India by proxy. It started puncturing the line of control at places to send in armed infiltrators who after crossing the mountain passes hid their equipment in jungles and in the homes of pro-Pakistan militants and reached up to Srinagar and brought about much destruction. Pakistan was helped by the end of the Afghan war, which resulted in sophisticated equipment that America had given Pakistan to fight the Russians in Afghanistan being made over to the ISI-militants and training camps set up for Pakistani and Afghan militants not only to be sent to the Indian side of Kashmir but also to other countries where Islamic militancy has spread, like Algeria and Egypt.With the passing of years the Kashmir issue has become complicated. A big part of Kashmir is controlled by Pakistan. Many in India say that it was a mistake to accept the ceasefire in 1949 because India was at that time in a position to drive out the Pakistani armed and unarmed personnel. Because of the ceasefire, Pakistan stayed on in what it has occupied, which gives it the advantage of occupancy.Kashmir has been a plump cake for others to walk away with its territory. China has taken away 2,600 square km of Jammu and Kashmir territory from Pakistan. This is apart from its occupying 38,000 sq km of the territory in Aksai Chin. Will China be in a position to bless a Kashmir solution which would let it give up this territory?Yet the LoC is looked on by many still as a possible line of agreement between India and Pakistan. After he came back to power in 1996 Dr Farooq Abdullah said that the LoC could become the international boundary between India and Pakistan. He perhaps thought that this was what might help reach an agreement. But Pakistan’s main attraction is the valley which an agreement on the LoC would not give it.But before Dr Farooq Abdullah’s view could gather support New Delhi shot it down, saying that the only question was to vacate the Pakistani aggression of Jammu and Kashmir and the withdrawal of its forces from the area it holds. This was followed by a resolution passed by Parliament which declared that Kashmir was a part of India. Without amending that resolution, it would be difficult for the LoC to be turned into an international border.Yet suggestions keep on coming. The latest was when Mr Jaswant Singh, the Prime Minister’s envoy, was interviewed on TV. The interviewer tried his best to make him say that the LoC accord could be a proposal which India would favour. But, to be fair to Mr Jaswant Singh, he didn’t. The government later said: “Our position is that Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India....All discussions (with Pakistan) shall be held in the light of that.”The LoC now waits to see what the authorities on the two sides of it think of dealing with it. |
| Free
market
isn’t self-correcting by Munetsi Madakufamba Although southern Africa has generally enjoyed increasing gross domestic product (GDP) in recent years, unemployment levels have been steadily rising, leading to a decline in real living standards of most of the region’s citizens.As governments continue to relax labour laws in line with the liberalisation of the global economy, more and more people are finding themselves made jobless, joining thousands of others who have virtually given up job-hunting.In South Africa, the region’s economic power-house, in 1997 as many as 100,000 people lost their jobs in the formal non-agricultural sector, dampening government hopes of creating more than 40,000 jobs a year by 2000. Thirty per cent of South Africa’s 15 million employable population is jobless.Unemployment is a major headache for Mozambique, a country whose economy is currently growing in leaps and bounds after two decades of civil war which cost up to a million lives and an estimated $30 billion worth of damage to the economy.Mozambican Finance Minister Tomas Salomao has predicted that the economy will grow by 9.5 per cent in 1998 compared to 6.6 per cent in 1997, with inflation expected to remain below 10 per cent. But there will be serious inequitable distribution of the national cake, according to Deputy Labour Minister Adelaide Amurane, who reported in October, 1997, that more than half of the country’s economically active population remained unemployed.The situation is even worse in more established economies such as Botswana and Zimbabwe. President Ketumile Masire, who announced his retirement effective March 31, 1998, has left behind a well-performing economy in terms of high GDP, a health budget surplus and low inflation. However, the prosperous Botswana economy, powered by diamond exports, has not been able to create enough jobs for its 1.5 million people, even with the added advantage that significant number of its population is working in neighbouring South Africa.Similarly, Zimbabwe, the region’s second largest economy after South Africa, has only managed to create 30,000 jobs per annum, enough for only 10 per cent of 300,000 school-leavers who join the labour market annually.Economists say 50 per cent of the economically active people are not gainfully employed in Zimbabwe, a country currently facing a tense and unpredictable mood in the labour market which has already erupted twice in the last two months.In January, 1998, demonstrations in protest against the escalating prices of food turned violent in major urban centres in Zimbabwe. Analysts blamed looting that took place during the demonstrations on unemployed youths and a generally disillusioned workforce whose quality of life is being eroded by the declining dollar, among others.Between 1996 and 1997, the public sector, the major employer in southern Africa, experienced some of the worst industrial strikes in the region as civil servants fought for better living conditions. But as governments across the region move rapidly to shrink their public sectors, the life of an ordinary citizen seems to be heading for even tougher times.The difficulty of finding ways to create employment for southern Africa’s educated and increasingly vocal youth has been exacerbated by the region’s integration into the global economy — which has meant lifting of government protection, worsened by declining commodity prices and shrinking domestic demand.The dimensions of unemployment in southern Africa, like in most parts of the developing world, go beyond mere shortage of job opportunities of underutilisation and low productivity of those who work long hours. It also includes a growing divergence between inflated attitudes and job expectations, particularly among the educated youths, and what is actually available on the market. Southern Africa inherited an educational system that is white-collar-oriented.As a result, students from local colleges would ostensibly dislike manual or agricultural work easily available in a developing society. Unlike in the developed world, the service industry in southern Africa has not evolved enough to cater for all students from the white-collar-oriented educational system in the region.While globalisation has made it possible for investors to put their money where they wish, at the touch of a computer button, the recent situation in Asia has shown that this model is certainly not self-correcting. Millions of jobs are under serious threat in South-East Asia, where Malaysia has asked its thousands of expatriates to “go back home”, as have Indonesia and Thailand. — TWNF |
| Atop
the Summerhill by N. S. Tasneem IT is difficult for me to disentangle the cobwebs of time. When I alight at the Summerhill railway station these days, my steps lead me to the top of the hill where Rashtrapati Nivas (nee Viceregal Lodge) is located. While climbing up I look back at the path that led me to the government houses on the slopes in the early fifties. Indeed, it has been an uphill task for me to be where I am at present as the journey has all along been from the monologue to the dialogue. The emergence of a concept that first matures in the inner recesses of the mind and then reveals itself in full effulgence to the outside world.To go back is not an easy task as all the paths point out to the future. The present moment is like the setting sun that hangs for some time over the Jutog hill and illuminates in that brief period the buildings on the slopes of Shimla before sliding down to oblivion. While passing through Boileauganj, I fancy the past years roll by me in the form of a whirligig. The houses and the shops of this sleepy little hamlet are familiar to my eyes in all their details but the residents appear to be total strangers.Still the remoteness vanishes when I talk to them over the counter of reminiscences. Soon that pall of lonesomeness is uplifted, revealing underneath the same old prism of warm human relationships. But the intervening period rattles in the mind persistently. It has perhaps washed the shores of the time so relentlessly and for so long that the shingles
of melancholy have gutted out in the stream of my
consciousness.But time stands still when I enter the
portico of the Nivas where the Indian Institute of
Advanced Study is established. In its corridors history
has curled itself up for a long siesta, rather it is now
in the grip of a deep slumber. The wooden staircase, so
wide and majestic, fills the person who climbs it up with
the sense of awe and wonder. He finds himself in touch
with the era that shaped the destiny of India. All this
happened half a century ago, yet it seems to be real and
palpable still.The breath of the days gone by can still
be felt on one’s neck. Suddenly one is filled with
new determination and unnamed desires. Once in his study,
the scholar visualises new prospects of gaining knowledge
that leads to the domain of wisdom. New territories of
erudition have to be conquered and new horizons of
understanding established. T.S. Eliot lamented that most
of the life is lost in living. Here living is the
secondary aspect of existence. The primary concept is
that of drinking deep “the Pierian spring”.The
hushed silence in the library first wraps up the soul of
the seeker of knowledge in its thin veil and then it
communicates directly with the diverse faculties of his
mind. The butterfly flits across the wide expanses of the
open shelves and flutters its wings incessantly before
alighting on a half-opened flower to urge it to reveal
its inner secrets. The aroma of human endeavour to know
all that is knowable under the sun wafts along the spaces
among the old as well as new structures in the sanctum
sanctorum of this temple of learning.Nothing matters
except the sunrays that filter through the windowpanes.
The wind that blows among the branches of the oaks,
deodars and exotic trees uplifts the spirits that
sometimes droop under the weight of the demands of life.
The rains, sudden and surprising, snap the links with the
outside world but at the same time they open up new
vistas of thought and expression. The cool breezes and
the icy winds are both welcome when creativity and
critical appraisal find themselves like Juno’s swans
— “still-coupled and inseparable”. How
else could I, the wanderer for long in the realms of
gold, find artistic repose atop the Summerhill? |
 75 YEARS AGO U.P. Ministerial appointments Talukdars to be appointed Lucknow: His Excellency Sir William Morris has not yet made his choice of his Education Minister.Both Pandit Gokaran Nath Misra and Rai Sahib Sita Ram, who interviewed the Governor at Nainital in this connection, have declined to accept the offer of the ministry on the ground that they were not agreeable to hold office with a talukdar (landlord) as their colleague.But His Excellency, it is understood, has made a definite offer of the Ministry of Local Self-Government to Raja Parmanand which has been accepted.The ground for his choice is that the talukdars (landlords) form an enormous majority in the council. As a matter of fact, of the 100 elected sets in the United Provinces Council, over 60 are held by talukdars and their partisans.It is rumoured that the choice of Education Minister is now confined to three Oudh landlords and, in all probability, Thakur Jagannath B. Singh will succeed Mr Chintamani as Education Minister. |
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