Bihar fiasco — Mk II
THERE are many losers in the Bihar Governor controversy, no matter how it ends. The biggest of them all is the BJP itself. It is projecting itself as a party that loves to wrangle in public and speak in clashing voices. The leaders talk to one another through the columns of newspapers and usually in terms of threats.

Pak military courts
THE Pakistan Supreme Court has dealt a powerful blow for the rule of law by declaring as unconstitutional the setting up of military courts for dispensing “instant” justice in terrorism-related cases in Sindh. However, in spite of the momentous verdict there are no visible signs of relief among the champions of human rights in Pakistan.

BUILDING ON EUPHORIA
by Hari Jaisingh
WILL Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee's much-publicised trip to Lahore turn the tide in Indo-Pak relations? This question is uppermost in the minds of most responsible persons in India and Pakistan, who have reasons to be sceptical after 51 years of animosity between the two countries.

Making history at Wagha
by Bharat Wariawalla
FEW politicians dare to defy history. Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee will be doing so when he crosses Wagha in a bus on February 20. Millions of Pakistanis and Indians, as also Bangladeshis, Nepalese and Sri Lankans, will watch the event with great joy and much expectations.

Thorny issue of unsafe abortion
By Daniel J. Shepard
The Hague: Greater efforts are needed to reduce the incidence of unsafe abortions which claim 78,000 women’s lives a year — this was the strong feeling expressed by many delegates in the main deliberation committee of the recent five-day International Conference of Population and Development (ICPD+5), also known as the Hague Forum.

India hopes for role in
Rim trade
By P. D. Sharma
EVERY one has heard of the Pacific Rim, the vast economic utopia stretching from the USA across the Pacific to Australia and Japan. The group of countries that border the Indian Ocean is hoping to strike gold through similar trade cooperation with the Indian Ocean Rim Association for Regional Cooperation holding its first meeting in Delhi.

In search of young writers
by M. K. Kohli
MORE than 10 years ago, The Tribune published my middle titled, “A matter of style”. One of the incidents mentioned in the piece described how after reading my paragraph on “the recess period”, my teacher of English in Class X, said: “Well, you’re a stylist.” I blushed red.

75 Years Ago

India and the Empire Exhibition
THERE has been some talk of boycotting the Empire Exhibition in London. It will be easy enough for the people of India as a whole to take this course, seeing that they have never approved of participation, but it would be extremely difficult for the Government to back out of it now, even if they had any desire to do so.

Bihar fiasco — Mk II

THERE are many losers in the Bihar Governor controversy, no matter how it ends. The biggest of them all is the BJP itself. It is projecting itself as a party that loves to wrangle in public and speak in clashing voices. The leaders talk to one another through the columns of newspapers and usually in terms of threats. It was Mr Madan Lal Khurana then and it is Mr Sunder Singh Bhandari and his staunch supporters now. Gone are the days when a word from the top was a command and even private murmurs of displeasure were a taboo. The Sangh Parivar used to boast that it has one soul but millions of bodies and that image is irretrievably lost. RSS veterans blame it all on the phenomenal expansion of the BJP and at a breakneck speed in the past one decade. That only partly explains the malady. When not in power, a political organisation can remain cohesive, since running a party calls for only a few decisions and they can be taken in a closed door meeting of the top few men. But once in power, there is the question of image and the enormous benefits to be distributed or sought and obtained. It prods everyone to think and a thinking man begins to differ and dissent.

In the Bihar Governor’s case, the top leadership has set off the implosion. Home Minister L.K.Advani allowed himself to be talked into installing a new Governor by the sleek Samata Party operator, Mr George Fernandes. It was his idea to have an apolitical administrator who would appear to be non-partisan. That was far from his real motive. His colleague, Mr Nitish Kumar, blurted out the truth. Mr Bhandari was partial to high castes, the Brahmins and the Kayasthas, he said and referred to the top appointments he had made. He wanted somebody who would be kind to the two backward castes the Samata represents — the Kurmis and the Keoris. It was a caste war, and the loud protest at the proposal to shift Mr Bhandari echoes this suppressed antagonism.

At a time when the Governor was trying to ward off pressure from all sides, including from RSS old guard, Mr Advani made the now infamous announcement. The fat was really on fire. Everything about Mr Advani’s casual remark was wrong. In a seniority-conscious parivar, he did not even consult, much less seek permission from, the very senior Mr Bhandari. Two, he was accused of being political and by implication a partisan and inefficient administrator. All in public! And the alternate slots offered were puny Orissa and Gujarat, now under another RSS strongman, Mr Keshubhai Patel. First he sulked but when his supporters protested, he too started feeling hot under the collar. Apologies flowed copiously from Delhi, from Prime Minister Vajpayee and Mr Advani downwards. BJP chief Kushabhau Thakre did a bit of firefighting by referring to the Centre’s second thoughts on the issue. Newspapers and TV channels had a swell time spicing up the report and managing to involve the Congress in all this. The wholly avoidable controversy has exposed the fissures at the top, the BJP-Samata tussle over running the administration and the mistake of taking for granted the good intentions of meddlers as Mr Advani has done vis-a-vis Mr Fernandes. Above all, there is nothing like prior consultation in matters important and not so important. Bihar should be made a lesson in a crash course in how to run a government.

Pak military courts

THE Pakistan Supreme Court has dealt a powerful blow for the rule of law by declaring as unconstitutional the setting up of military courts for dispensing “instant” justice in terrorism-related cases in Sindh. However, in spite of the momentous verdict there are no visible signs of relief among the champions of human rights in Pakistan. The courts were set up at the instance of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in spite of protests from human rights activists and opposition groups. Going by his track record there is an outside chance that Mr Nawaz Sharif may not order the dismantling of the military courts just because the Supreme Court has held their creation as unconstitutional. Legally the only option available to the government is to request the Supreme Court to review its verdict. It may even produce doctored evidence to show that the law and order situation in Karachi has improved after the setting up of the military courts. What would happen if the apex court rejects the request for review or sticks to its interpretation of the constitutional validity of the military courts? The sceptics believe that Mr Nawaz Sharif may bare his “dictatorial fangs” as he has done in the past to deal with those who have dared to question his authority. Who was the President of Pakistan, who was the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and who was the Chief of the Army Staff when Mr Nawaz Sharif became Prime Minister? The reason why they were replaced by men who presumably enjoy Mian’s confidence are well documented to bear repetition. Of course, to expect Mr Nawaz Sharif to change his style of functioning is to expect the leopard to shed its spots.

If the Prime Minister is serious about ending civil strife and sectarian killings in the country, he should have the political will to dig up the faulty foundations on which the present structure has been built. He must realise that mixing religion with politics can never pull out Pakistan from its current phase of social unrest and economic backwardness. Pakistan too is a multi-cultural, multi-linguistic and multi-religious country. By banning the members of the Ahmadiya sect from praying in mosques, imposing a rigid Islamic framework and introducing draconian blasphemy laws for non-Muslims successive Pakistani leaders have only sown the seeds of national disintegration. The insensitivity to the political aspirations of the people who spoke a different language resulted in the birth of Bangladesh. Can Pakistan introduce such Islamic laws as could end the centuries old Shia-Sunni discord? It cannot hope to end the incidents of mindless killings in Karachi and elsewhere by treating the Mohajirs as outsiders. As a reaction to the incidents of violence engineered by the Sipah-e-Sahaba and other fundamentalist groups the Christians in Pakistan have now formed what is being called Sipah-e-Masiha. Reports from Pakistan suggest that they have infiltered into Muslim groups and received training in the use of arms at terrorist-training camps. It is clear that by setting up military courts Mr Nawaz Sharif may succeed in effecting cosmetic peace in Pakistan. But such measures cannot effectively cap the volcano of social, ethnic, religious linguistic and cultural unrest. It is still not too late to resurrect Jinnah’s model of a secular state for sparing Pakistan further agony and possible disintegration.

BUILDING ON EUPHORIA
Real test before two PMs
by Hari Jaisingh

WILL Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee's much-publicised trip to Lahore turn the tide in Indo-Pak relations? This question is uppermost in the minds of most responsible persons in India and Pakistan, who have reasons to be sceptical after 51 years of animosity between the two countries.

There is, however, something extremely unusual about the present setting in the bilateral ties. All of a sudden the mood is upbeat. There is euphoria at the surface, at the level of popular perception, as reflected in and hyped up by the media.

One is, however, not sure whether at the deeper level of politics, the bureaucracy and the military, especially in Islamabad, there is favourable reaction to the new urge to get closer.

Interestingly, this new mood first surfaced at Chennai on a Sunday when Pakistan won a nail-biting cricket test, beating India by just 12 runs. And as the victorious team dared to run the victory lap, it ran into something stunning in its novelty, keeping in view the backdrop of hostility in the India-Pakistan ties.

The spectators gave the Pakistan team a standing ovation lasting several minutes. The visiting players felt they had conquered the world, and rightly so. The Indian commentators interpreted it to mean that the common man in this country, like those in the packed Chidambaram stadium, has overflowing affection for the neighbour and yearns for peace and normal relations.

There was nothing terribly wrong with this interpretation. Barring certain sections of hardliners, ordinary citizens would surely like the two countries to live like good neighbours. However, seen against the Chidambaram stadium background, it ignores a few relevant factors.

One, Chennai encourages boys from middle class homes to practise cricket for at least a few hours every week. So, the boys and the men and women who crowded the stadium that Sunday were knowledgeable the same way as the Australians are. They enjoy a good stroke or a ball well bowled, no matter which side the player belongs to. This is also largely true of the spectators in Calcutta. Anybody who saw the live TV coverage would attest to this.

The media went home building on this ovation when Shekhar Gupta of The Indian Express casually asked Mr Nawaz Sharif about the resumed bus service between Delhi and Lahore. Mr Sharif promptly sent a public invitation to Mr Vajpayee and the latter had no option but to accept it publicly, at a Press conference at Lucknow.

You can see the role of the Press and its eagerness to read the most positive meaning into unrelated, unintended and spontaneous reactions leading to the present stage of our Prime Minister going to Lahore to meet Mr Sharif.

So far so good. But the moot point is: if the current euphoria is the result of media hype, then how genuine is the new mood officially, especially among the politicians, the bureaucrats (they play a crucial role in both countries) and the military men (who are traditionally cautious). These are the people who shape the policy regarding India-Pakistan relations and later implement them. If they have not changed, there can be no change in the basics of Indo-Pak relations.

Ironically, this is clear from the published programme of the Prime Minister's visit. He will fly to Amritsar, ride the bus for seven kilometres and get into a helicopter with Mr Sharif and fly to Lahore. He will have a state dinner and, after a state lunch to Mr Sharif, visit a few politically correct places and sign a joint statement on weapons of mass destruction, giving a call for caution. All so expected and all so inane! Should we see the hand of the politicians, bureaucrats and army officers? Their fingerprints are everywhere.

Mr Vajpayee can still defeat this stonewalling. He has to realise that the whole new phase started with euphoria triggered by the cricket team's visit, its reception and the Chennai ovation.

The real point is: can Mr Vajpayee build on the euphoria and go flat out in building public opinion in Pakistan for improved bilateral ties? Can he project himself as a passenger of peace, a traveller of friendship and brotherhood? If the media could do it, there is no reason why the Prime Minister cannot do it. He is, after all, a pastmaster in the art of weaving a world of illusion.

The bus ride to Lahore ought to be seen in terms of creating the atmospherics. For this Mr Vajpayee will have to grow out of the bureaucratic worldview and creatively innovate to calibrate the emotions of Indians and Pakistanis — rather Indian Punjabis and Pakistani Punjabis — together. And let us not forget that the Punjabis are more than a part of the whole; they are the shakers and movers.

On the face of it, Mr Vajpayee has put himself on a fast track of friendship. Mr Nawaz Sharif, too, is full of warmth. His responses are positive and wholesome publicly.

Should this be taken as a change of heart on the part of the Pakistani Prime Minister? I gathered positive impressions about him after meeting him in Islamabad a year ago. But soon we saw the unfriendly face of Mr Sharif. Perhaps, this showed his domestic compulsions, especially emanating from the military establishment.

Has the Pakistani Prime Minister been able to get out of his external and internal inhibitions? Perhaps, not yet. All the same, he seems to be limping forward on the road to friendship. After all, in the prevailing economic mess he cannot ignore the wishes of Uncle Sam. This may even be true of India. In fact, whether we like it or not, the American factor is critical in mending the fence. If Washington conducts itself honestly and objectively, India-Pakistan relations will begin to have a reasonably realistic base.

The basic problem in bilateral ties emanates from a certain mindset which has its grounding in the history of Partition. Mutual suspicion and fear-psychosis added to religious bigotry, created an atmosphere of uncertainty which has, more often than not, been the handiwork of certain vested interests. In today's world, no purpose will be served by adopting negative attitudes and postures.

Indeed, the time has come to look at Indo-Pak relations in an entirely new perspective. This should be possible if leaders on both sides of the geographical divide show proper understanding of each other's problems.

I am convinced after visiting Pakistan that the people in India and Pakistan do want to build bridges of friendship and strengthen their social, cultural and economic ties.

This will mean Pakistan has to give up its one-point obsession on Kashmir. It should be willing to discuss all matters with an open mind with a view to finding a practical solution to the whole range of issues. Again, this should be possible if Islamabad recognises the fact that India is a secular state and that the Muslim population here —the second largest in the world after Indonesia—is as important in the Indian milieu as is the majority community of Hindus and other minorities. This is not a tall order.

The problem in Islamabad has been created by certain sectarian interests representing the military establishment and the Islamic fundamentalist forces. This has thrown up a virtual cold war-like situation in the subcontinent. The nuclear arms race has only added to the problems. Perhaps, it is too late to come out of it. But, then, the possession of nuclear bombs should give Islamabad some sense of psychological security howsoever misplaced it might be otherwise.

Of course, the start of the bus service between New Delhi and Lahore has to be seen as a symbolic act in breaking the psychological barriers between the two countries. This should be seen as a landmark development provided Mr Vajpayee and Mr Nawaz Sharif address themselves to the real issues of rebuilding relations at the people's level and in the field of economy.

In fact, economic cooperation between the two countries has to be given top priority. For, real strength of every country depends on the state of its economy. The economy in the two countries can look up once bilateral and regional cooperation is given a positive thrust in an agreed framework.

There is tremendous scope for such cooperation between India and Pakistan. If the leaders of the two countries concentrate on widening the area of economic cooperation, the face of the subcontinent will undergo a radical change. In fact, the leaders in the subcontinent should have a powerful stake in eradicating poverty and allied grey areas so that the people are not treated as third-rate citizens.

Already, the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) has unleashed a process of development. All that Pakistani leaders have to do now is to extend their hand of cooperation and participate enthusiastically in the growth of South Asia without any reservations.

Making history at Wagha
by Bharat Wariawalla

FEW politicians dare to defy history. Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee will be doing so when he crosses Wagha in a bus on February 20. Millions of Pakistanis and Indians, as also Bangladeshis, Nepalese and Sri Lankans, will watch the event with great joy and much expectations.

Actually it’s their expectations that will prod Mr Nawaz Sharif and Mr Vajpayee to make an effort to defy the 51-year-old history of India-Pakistan enmity. Mr Vajpayee’s visit is comparable to the momentous visit Anwar Sadat undertook to Jerusalem in 1977 to extend a hand of friendship to Menachen Begin of Israel. It is this visit that made the Camp David accord possible a year later and the beginning of the West Asian peace process. Without that visit, as the cool practitioner of real politic, Henry Kissinger said, West Asia would have remained a region of frozen hostility, periodically ruptured by wars.

It is Mr Vajpayee, a BJP leader who had been schooled in his formative years in the RSS shakhas, who is going to Pakistan. This lends great significance to the visit. Again there is a parallel to this visit. A known China baiter, in fact an impeccable enemy of communism, Richard Nixon, visited Beijing in 1971. It was not a soft liberal who was visiting China but a hardliner, and this impressed the Chinese of the seriousness of the visit.

Remember what Acharya Dharmendra of the VHP said: “Go in a tank. Use Bofors guns. Use the bombs which you tested in Pokhran. Hoist the flag of Hindutva on the banks of the Sindhu. These were the words of a Hindutva votary. Mr Vajpayee has ignored them.

There are other words too that retired diplomats and jaded security experts utter to caution Mr Vajpayee: “Don’t expect much; beware of crafty Sharif; Pakistan cannot afford friendship with us.” All this may well be true. But what is critically important at this time is just the atmospherics. Diplomacy under television glare is far more important than classical diplomacy around the green table at this time. We really don’t talk to each other; we only bellow at each other. Diplomats of both countries can, of course, meet, politely greet each other and at the end of the day relax themselves over a drink. But can babus do any more than that, when there is a complete political impasse? That is why Mr Nawaz Sharif stressed in a recent interview that a meeting at the very top level was necessary.

People are an inseparable part of relations between us. It is the people whom Mr Nawaz Sharif and Mr Vajpayee, perhaps, want to mobilise against all those who have an interest in Indo-Pak enmity: the religious bigots, vested bureaucratic and military interest groups, cynics and the assorted merchants of hate. It is the ordinary people of Pakistan and India who are now the most important peace constituencies of Nawaz Sharif and Mr Vajpayee.

I am not suggesting here that people are always for peace, but it is their leaders who dupe them into violent behaviour. When I talk of the people of India and Pakistan, I talk about the very large number of patriotic Indians and Pakistanis who have today come to acquire a stake in India-Pakistan peace. Perhaps they’ve done so not out of sentiments for peace but out of a realistic consideration, that wars are futile and now suicidal because both have nuclear weapons. Even what has come to prevail since the Simla Agreement of 1971, sustained hostility without war, is seen by people to be costly and unproductive.

It is this large mass of Indian and Pakistani people who have high hopes from Mr Vajpayee’s visit to Pakistan and Mr Sharif’s return visit to India. What they hope for is not a peaceful resolution of the Kashmir problem — they’re realistic enough not to expect such an unrealistic outcome — but a demonstration of the resolve on their leaders’ part to begin a peace process.

In concrete terms, the outcome of this summit meeting may not be much. Pakistan and India will reiterate their respective position on Kashmir, though Pakistan, I think, may reduce its involvement in Kashmir, it now realises that all the blood and money it has used there has produced little.

On one important issue there could be substantial progress: the nuclear issue. Both now know that the awesome power of the atom compels them to co-exist with each other. How they live is the central issue of the summit. South Asia as a nuclear safe zone is an idea worth pursuing. Pakistan has at present spurned our proposal for no-first-use, but it knows only too well that it cannot use nuclear weapons first without inviting its total destruction.

It wants to keep its right to use nuclear weapons or threaten to use it to offset what it thi”pons over them. This is an understandable concern of Pakistan, and we should respond to it in the spirit of a friendly neighbour.

This visit is all atmospherics. But that atmospherics is needed to begin a peace process in South Asia.

In search of young writers
by M. K. Kohli

MORE than 10 years ago, The Tribune published my middle titled, “A matter of style”. One of the incidents mentioned in the piece described how after reading my paragraph on “the recess period”, my teacher of English in Class X, said: “Well, you’re a stylist.” I blushed red. And my desk fellow, who later became a respectable Minister in Punjab, looked at me with envious eyes.

This incident of 1946 flashed across my mind when I read in The Tribune that in its continuing efforts to promote creativity among its young readers, the paper was organising an essay competition for school children.

My experience as teacher of English both at the school and college levels for 33 years — incidentally, I retired 10 years back — tells me that the writing talent in our educational institutions remains untapped. In a set up where examination results receive top priority, creativity is the biggest casualty.

Could I cite just one instance of how as editor of a college magazine I discovered and encouraged creative talent? The incident belongs to 1971.

One day I found a new face in the pre-medical class. I don’t remember her name but she looked like P.T.Usha. As I put her some questions, she spoke sensitive English. After a few days she met me in the corridor. I said to her: “Why don’t you write something for the college magazine?” “I have never written, sir,” she said, “and I don’t think I am capable of writing.” But I persuaded her to make an attempt. She promised.

And the very next day she came with a humorous piece describing how she and all the other students of the girls hostel went on hunger strike almost over nothing, how the superintendent and the warden tried in vain to persuade them to have their dinner, how the girls felt awfully hungry later, how they raided the kitchen at the stroke of the midnight hour and devoured everything worth eating, and how the superintendent and the warden appeared on the scene, etc. I felt happy. She too. Both had discovered the writer in her.

Now could I offer a few tips to the young writers? Think clearly, feel deeply, and express sincerely. Appreciate the value of logical writing. Select your words with meticulous care: one word may say a thousand things whereas a thousand words may say nothing. When you have finished your piece, ask yourself, “Am I fully satisfied?” Finally, never think that a lot of reading can make you a creative writer. Originality lies within. Tremendous are the creative powers of the mind. You are just to tap them. You are just to say: “Open Sesame.”

Thorny issue of unsafe abortion
By Daniel J. Shepard

THE Hague: Greater efforts are needed to reduce the incidence of unsafe abortions which claim 78,000 women’s lives a year — this was the strong feeling expressed by many delegates in the main deliberation committee of the recent five-day International Conference of Population and Development (ICPD+5), also known as the Hague Forum.

The forum, organised by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), and attended by national delegations from over 180 countries carried out a five-year review of the implementation of the Programme of Action chalked out at the first ICPD, in Cairo.

The discussions of the main committee at ICPD+5, which concluded on February 12, focused largely on recommendations to improve the delivery of reproductive health services.

Government delegates and NGOs urged paying more attention to the HIV/AIDS problem, especially for the youth. They also stressed the promotion of the reproductive rights of people with disabilities.

Greater emphasis on community-based reproductive health services, more male involvement and responsibility, emergency contraception, and the provision of a wide range of contraceptives were among the other issues discussed at the meetings.

It was the issue of abortion, however, that recalled the most contentious debates in the negotiating process leading up to Cairo, and which resulted in a major compromise, in 1994. The agreement that was reached in the Cairo Programme of Action, known as paragraph 8.25, provides that abortion should not be promoted as a method of family planning, but calls upon countries to treat the issue of unsafe abortions as a medical problem. It also states that in countries where abortion is not illegal, it should be safe.

However, to those countries that do not allow abortion, the debate over unsafe abortion is seen as a back door approach to establish a right to abortion.

Monsignor Frank J. Devine, head of the Holy See delegation, reminded the plenary session that Principle 1 of the Cairo document states the everyone has the right to life. He maintained that “there can be no surreptitious recognition of a right to abortion through policies aimed at creating new categories of personal rights or including health services which protect women’s lives by making possible ‘safe abortion”.

He also attacked the practice of “emergency contraception” and the use of the RU486, calling them “abortive practices, camouflaged as means of contraception”. They are contrary to national legislative systems which grant legal protection and safeguard to life from the moment of conception, he said.

Calling abortion “an attack on the most vulnerable”, Argentina also said it could not accept the inclusion of abortion as a reproductive health service or a regulated activity.

Mexican delegates, however, held that according to the Cairo document, abortion is a public health problem, and that emergency contraception is intended to prevent abortion. Representatives from Estonia, which suffers from a high incidence of abortion, said there is a need to implement the abortion provisions of the Cairo document, as well as to include emergency contraception.

But others like Susan Crane, representing a consortium of NGOs from the United Kingdom, told the main committee that the issue of unsafe abortions was just not being addressed. “It is clearly not happening”, she said.

A representative of the organisation of the Islamic Conference, said greater attention should be paid to the role of moral and religious values which can serve as an effective method to educate people. The Holy See also said that in matters of education pertaining to sexuality and reproduction, the rights and duties of parents should not be ignored.

Abortion opponents recalled that another compromise which broke the stalemate over the Programme of Action in Cairo provided that countries could implement the agenda in a manner consistent with national laws and development priorities, and with respect for religious and ethical values and cultural backgrounds.

Forum President Nicholaas Biegman, however, interpreted that compromise language from Cairo differently. “It doesn’t mean that compromise can do whatever they want”, he maintained. Rather, he said, the Cairo agreement provided that countries should implement the Programme of Action within the context of cultural and religious norms.

Unlike at other United Nations conferences, where the results of negotiations result in a consensus document, the Hague Forum aimed at concluding with a compilation of suggestions and recommendations gleaned from the UNFPA main committee and plenary, which is serving as the secretariat for the conference.

Biegman said the document would simply reflect things that have been said. “Otherwise, we would be here days and nights arguing over commas.”

Anwarul Karim Chowdhury, chairperson of the main committee, said a number of issues had emerged in the committee discussions so far concerning the creation of an enabling environment, gender equality, reproductive health, partnerships and resources.

He pointed to the HIV/AIDS problem as one such major issue. The delegates expressed the view that the situation had worsened since Cairo, particularly for young people. There was also some discussion on new contraceptives and drugs for HIV and how they might be provided to sufferers in developing countries.

Even the issues of trafficking of women and gender-based violence, mentioned in the Cairo document, came up in a big way at the Hague.

Chowdhury noted that there has been some amount of emphasis on the idea of a rights-based approach to implementing Cairo. Thus, many of the rights expounded at Cairo can be promoted as human rights. Therefore the machinery of governments and international organisations can be used to ensure that individual rights are protected.

— Women’s Feature Service

India hopes for role in Rim trade
By P. D. Sharma

EVERY one has heard of the Pacific Rim, the vast economic utopia stretching from the USA across the Pacific to Australia and Japan. The group of countries that border the Indian Ocean is hoping to strike gold through similar trade cooperation with the Indian Ocean Rim Association for Regional Cooperation (IORARC) holding its first meeting in Delhi.

The Indian Ocean carries half the world’s container shipping traffic, one-third of bulk cargo traffic and two-thirds of oil shipments. The annual global trade among Indian Rim nations already amounts to $ 1 trillion, 70 per cent of which is carried by the 14 members of the association alone. The IORARC countries have 75 per cent of the world’s oil reserves, over 80 per cent gold reserves and are responsible for supplies of copper, tin and rubber. Japan’s entire oil supplies from West Asia come through the Indian Ocean while Western Europe depends on this region for 70 per cent of its oil requirements. Many other raw materials are also available for industrial relations.

The IOR countries have one-third of the global population. India could play a vital role in this association because 60 per cent of India’s 15 million expatriates live on the Rim; 1.3 million of them in South Africa.

India conceived this idea followed by Australia. Kenya, Oman and Singapore joined the idea fructified in 1995 with seven members. Seven more members Indonesia, Madagascar, Malayasia, Mozambique, Sri Lanka, Tanzania and Yemen joined. So IOR has 14 members at present. Australia wants to open the group to all comers to swell the membership to 50. But India wants a more exclusive club with gradual expansion to less than 30. Applications from seven countries Bangladesh, Egypt, Pakistan, Saudia Arabia, Thailand and France are pending. France maintains the small reunion island colony near Mauritius. Japan wants to join as observer.

The concept of Rim countries getting together was unusual. These countries are neither contiguous nor do they share a similar culture. They have disparate religions, political systems and economies. It is too big and diverse a group to be effective quickly. Several world powers with stakes in the region or the ocean lanes manipulated events for several years. The IOR countries, therefore, have plans for preferential trade tariffs. Sensitive security issues are banned. Work has started on 10 projects, including standardisation of customs regulations and the organisation of a business centre and trade fair in India. Oceanic subjects such as port standards and marine pollution might be tackled later.

Trade among the Rim countries doubled between 1995 and 1998 and is growing at 3 per cent per year. India’s trade in this region is worth $ 8 billion and there is an excellent scope for growth. The future world scenario may move around hexagonal configuration. The sides of the hexagon could be the USA, Japan, Europe, China, Russia and India. At the moment India is relatively isolated in as far as trade block is concerned. From this angle also the IOR-ARC needs to be nurtured.

So far things have moved slowly but steadily. India is playing a role but not at the desired place. It has moved things through Mauritius to avoid the stigma of the “big brother” role. IOR-ARC allows India to have a horizon beyond SAARC.

South Africa, one of the prime movers of this concept, is now drifting towards Europe. The business community there prefers to trade with Europe and is apprehensive about the Indian trading community moving in and controlling South African markets as has happened in some African countries. Australia, another initiator of the association, has Western sympathies. Although it raised the issue of India not signing the CTBT but its trade and investments in India have multiplied. Australia in fact is in search of its own identity.

The IOR-ARC ministerial conference is likely to take place in March this year in Mozambique. Areas identified for this include promotion of investment and cooperation among members in agriculture, agri-based products, textiles, tourism and service sector etc. A lot of focus would be given to small and medium-scale industries and to promote cooperation between small business enterprises in member states.

India’s future economic might depends to a great extent on regional cooperation. The IOR-ARC seems to be the only workable block for this. Our exports are dwindling with yawning trade deficits.

75 YEARS AGO

India and the Empire Exhibition

THERE has been some talk of boycotting the Empire Exhibition in London. It will be easy enough for the people of India as a whole to take this course, seeing that they have never approved of participation, but it would be extremely difficult for the Government to back out of it now, even if they had any desire to do so.

Their commitments have already been carried too far for that to be feasible. A great deal of the pound 2 lakh sanctioned by the Legislative Council has already been spent and the additional sums voted by the Provincial Legislatures (amounting to nearly pound 1.30 lakh) have also been largely drawn upon.

Most of the characters are, in fact, already under execution. The construction of the main Indian pavilion is now far advanced. The floor space is completed, the wall work of the minarets is in position. Thousands of tons of concrete have been used. The building will be entirely completed by the middle of October this year and most of the available exhibition space has been provisionally allotted.

In this connection, it has also to be remembered that the Government of India have made arrangements with various Indian states to whom has been apportioned about one-sixth of the total space in the Indian pavilion, and further responsibilities have been incurred with a large number of private exhibitors.