by Harihar Swarup
A misadventure that cut Sharif to size
HOW does Nawaz Sharif look like after Pakistan’s Kargil misadventure? He has been cut in size by, at least, a foot. He is under fire domestically and isolated internationally; his Kashmir facade stands busted. President Clinton, as if, caught him by the neck like an errant boy and asked him to stop bullying others; pull back his troops from the Kargil region and respect the LoC. The entire Western world and “time-tested friend China” lined against him.

Govt speaking in many voices
ON Thursday, the Ministry of External Affairs spokesman was caught unawares when a scribe asked him if the government had agreed to extend the time of the Pakistani withdrawal. On being told that this was told to the electronic media by the Principal Secretary to Prime Minister, the spokesman was lost for a moment.

75 Years Ago

The Hindu Beopar Mahavidyalaya
THE anniversary of the Mahavidyalaya was celebrated on the 15th and 16th instant. The proceedings of the first day were presided over by Lala Bhim Sen Sachar and those of the second day by Mr Labh Singh, Bar-at-Law.

by Harihar Swarup
A misadventure that cut Sharif to size

HOW does Nawaz Sharif look like after Pakistan’s Kargil misadventure? He has been cut in size by, at least, a foot. He is under fire domestically and isolated internationally; his Kashmir facade stands busted. President Clinton, as if, caught him by the neck like an errant boy and asked him to stop bullying others; pull back his troops from the Kargil region and respect the LoC. The entire Western world and “time-tested friend China” lined against him. Even Iran and other Muslim countries, which discreetly helped Islamabad in the past, kept their distance from Pakistan’s Prime Minister. No head of government or head of state, even though some were military dictators, was ever thrown in such a log-jam as Nawaz Sharif. The devil-and-deep-sea-like situation was of his own making.

Apart from losing credibility at home, he has been facing the wrath of militant outfits which have, of late, sprouted unchecked like mushrooms in Pakistan. In no civilised country such a fanatic band of extremists would have been allowed; they appear worse than Hitler’s storm troopers. They are now turning against their own democratically elected Prime Minister. Fanaticism knows no boundary, recognises no leader.

The Lashkar-e-Toiba, a frontline military outfit, has virtually issued a decree asking Nawaz Sharif to apologise to Allah for committing a crime against the “Kashmiri Jehad”. As if in reply to the Prime Minister’s televised address to the nation Lashkar chief, Hafiz Mohammad Sayeed, went to the extent of saying that if Sharif followed the path dictated by Bill Clinton, then he was not fit to be the Prime Minister of Pakistan. Mujahideens also threatened to create “a new Kargil”.

The address has also evoked a wave of protest from a rather weak and divided Opposition whose leaders described Nawaz Sharif’s televised speech as “a confession of his failures” and boycotted an official briefing on the Kargil situation and Sharif-Clinton talks. The Prime Minister’s strength lies in his steamroller majority in Parliament and lack of representation by the protesting parties in the legislature. His two-thirds majority gives him the biggest protective umbrella against domestic onslaught.

Nawaz Sharif’s address, analysts even in Pakistan say, was “a bundle of contradictions”, manifestation of desperation and an attempt to defend the indefensible. On one hand, they point out, the Prime Minister claims that the decision to withdraw troop from Kargil has not been taken under pressure while on the other he expresses his helplessness. “On the diplomatic front serious difficulties had cropped up which were beyond my control”, he says without elaborating.

A leading Pakistan daily feels that Sharif embarked on the Kargil adventure to divert people’s attention to gigantic domestic problems. “As long as war lasts, public attention in Pakistan will remain diverted. This suits the government as it gives it a breathing space to further crack down on political opponents and further enlarge its power base”, says the Frontier Post. As the guns thundered in the snow-clad mountains, Nawaz Sharif quickly moved to consolidate his hold on Sindh province where the Opposition parties together command a parliamentary majority. The non-partisan Governor of the province run under emergency provisions was replaced by a business man, a Sharif loyalist and an office-bearer of the ruling party.

The highhandedness, says the Post, reached the “nadir”. Political workers were detained under anti-terrorism law and there was a crackdown on the Press. The Editor of the Friday Times, Najam Sethi, and the noted columnist, Hussain Haqqani were arrested and Pakistan’s largest publication group, “The Jang”, was implicated in criminal charges on the pretext of tax evasion. The Editor of “The Jang”, Maleeha Lodhi, was forbidden from writing under her byline.

The economy, according to the daily, was in shambles; it was caught in deep recession. The budget showed a huge deficit despite a bailout of five billion dollars by international donors and none of the promises made in the previous budgets were fulfilled. The tax revenue realisation dipped sharply and the tax payment was evaded on the plea that “when rulers and political masters of the country pay little tax, the rest of the country follows suit”. The banking sector showed sign of crumbling under the weight of politically inspired loans.

Nawaz Sharif comes from the business class and he furthered trading interests of his family members. So much so that the BBC made a film on the alleged involvement of the Prime Minister’s family members in the graft. The charges of corruption against him were gathering momentum when the Kargil conflict broke. The Frontier Post says: “The fighting provided a respite to the beleaguered government which, despite claims of heavy mandate, has been feeling terribly insecure”.

Nawaz Sharif emerged as the tallest leader of Pakistan when he began his second term as Prime Minister in February, 1977, having secured a massive mandate — 181 — in a 217-member lower house. He succeeded Benazir Bhutto, who was removed by the then President, Farooq Leghari, following charges of corruption against her and her husband.

In the first months of his government, Nawaz Sharif succeeded in bringing about constitutional changes of far reaching importance. Under the new provision, the President was deprived of the power to fire an elected government. He also sacked Admiral Mansurul Haq, the Naval Chief, following corruption charges. Only months back he unceremoniously removed the army chief, Gen Jehangir Karamat, and replaced him by Gen Pervaiz Musharraf, a Mohajir, said to be close to him. There was widespread resentment in the army and the impression went round that an elected Prime Minister has, for the first time, acquired full control over the military.

The Kargil misadventure has reduced a tall Nawaz Sharif into a dwarf. There has been wide speculation in Pakistan about his future. The question posed now is: how long will he last?

Govt speaking in many voices

ON Thursday, July 15, the Ministry of External Affairs spokesman was caught unawares when a scribe asked him if the Government of India had agreed to extend the time of the Pakistani withdrawal. On being told that this was told to the electronic media by none other than the Principal Secretary to Prime Minister Brajesh Mishra, the spokesman was lost for a moment. Soon, gathering his wits, he told newspersons that he would check with his bosses and would get back to the media.

Watching the spokesman’s discomfiture, a senior scribe commented “now that the Kargil operations are over, the BJP-led Government has once again started speaking in many voices”. The coordination of “war” times is apparently missing in times of peace.

BJP’s communication problems

BJP spokesman Narendra Modi had a tough time last week convincing mediapersons when he was asked to comment on the reported alliance between the BJP, the Janata Dal and the Lok Shakti in Karnataka.

Modi, who had described the Janata Dal and the J.H. Patel’s state administration a “liability” in Karnataka only the previous day, made an attempt to deny the development in Bangalore which had been adequately reported by the electronic media as well as the news agencies.

When Modi said that the BJP was following a policy of “wait and watch”, the reporters asked him if he would admit that there was a communication gap between the state unit and the central leadership of the party. The spokesman, while saying that there was perfect communication between the state unit and the central organisation, avoided any further enquiries saying the situation was developing very fast in Karnataka. Ultimately BJP shyed away from the moves of Karnataka’s JD Chief Minister, J.H. Patel.

Steering clear of controversies

A controversy is the last thing that the Vajpayee Government wants at this stage. But with an ever vigilant Opposition and an even more alert press, the caretaker government is finding the task difficult.

Last week it was the turn of the government to come under flak for its decision to shift the Managing Director of Maruti Udyog Limited, Mr R.S.S.L.N. Bhaskaruddu, to the less glamorous position of Member, Public Enterprise Selection Board. Having got wind of the impending decision, the media went to town about how the government was bending over its knees to oblige its other equal partner in Maruti Udyog Limited, the Suzuki Motor Corporation of Japan. There were hints that Mr Bhaskaruddu was being shifted as the Japanese company was not happy with his presence.

It was suggested that the MUL wanted to speed up its modernisation plans and introduce new models of cars in the market at the earliest to get even with the emerging competition from companies like Daewoo, Hyundai and Tatas. It was said that Mr Bhaskaruddu, whose term was to end on December 31, this year was being eased out to accommodate the Suzuki nominee and joint Managing Director, Mr Jagdish Khattar. Mr Khattar was to have taken over the post of Managing Director on January 1, 2000.

The government however, played smart and its appointment order for Bhaskaruddu gave him the option to join the PESB after his term in MUL ended. This move silenced the critics. Having achieved this objective, the government is now understood to be pressurising Bhaskaruddu to take up his new job in the PESB as in his absence work in the Board would come to a standstill. Mr Bhaskaruddu is understood to be in a dilemma. He has to decide between the devil and deep sea.

Testing waters

More on the controversial ways of the Vajpayee Government. Having been burdened with a swelling fiscal deficit, the government struck on a bright idea to capitalise on the surge of patriotism amongst the citizens after the Kargil conflict.

Mandarins in the Prime Ministers Office suggested that the time could be ripe to impose a “Kargil cess”. As a first step, the Union Finance Minister, Mr Yashwant Sinha, was sent to call on the President, Mr K.R. Narayanan, and brief him on the Kargil conflict’s impact on the economy. While officially the government maintained that it was a courtesy call, unofficially government sources made selective leaks in the media that there was a proposal to impose a Kargil cess.

Having triggered off a debate the Government then sat down to watch the reaction. During all this period there was no official word from either the Prime Minister or the Finance Minister. The Finance Minister continued to dismiss these reports as “speculations”.

Government insiders say the government was actually testing the waters. It was sure that the debate would give clear indications about the mood in the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and its allies. It also came to know what the Opposition parties thought about the idea. All these inputs would now be used by the government before it finally takes a decision on the Kargil cess. If the cess does not come about, the government can always claim it was the media and not the government which spoke about such a “smart” move.

Making good of elections

The Press Information Bureau has little to do ever since the Election Commission announced that the Model Code of Conduct had come into effect. There are not many official functions and Ministers have little to say at functions they attend.

Making good use of this lull in activities, senior officers in the PIB have decided to keep their officers busy. Training classes have been arranged for the officers to make them upto date with computer operations. Officials from the Department of Electronics have been entrusted with the task of making PIB officials computer savvy. The free training has however, not enthused the officers of the PIB.

The reason: A majority of them are already well versed with computer applications. Internet surfing has been a favourite pastime in the corridors of PIB for some time now. Having to go with the rigours of learning the ABC of computers all over again is a big pain. It would have been better if the computer teacher taught the boys some tips on interesting sites or rather sights.

PR Tours and Travels

Even before the war was over, Kargil had already become a tourist spot. Or so it seems from the number of people, specially those not connected even remotely with a reason to be there, being given permission to visit the forward locations and the briefing being carried out by the Army in the war zone.

After the initial two weeks, the Army had stopped the movement of journalists in the region and only the conducted tours were being carried out. However what has come as a surprise is that the Army officers, taking advantage of this arrangement have been giving permission to anyone and everyone known to them.

The condition of the Public Relations Officer (PRO) posted by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) in Srinagar to handle requests from journalists apparently was such that over and above the list he received from Delhi, he had to accommodate innumerable other visitors as part of the media team, for they were well connected and the officer through whom they were there had personally given him a call.

The PRO apparently has been spending a lot of time signing authority letters for such ‘unauthorised’ persons, which forced one of the visiting scribes to comment that he was apparently running a “PR tour and travels” company for the Army officers.

Publicity over bodies

The BJP-led coalition government now seems to be hung up upon deriving as much publicity as possible from the “Indian victory” in Kargil.

All the government agencies now seem to be working overtime to ensure that not only does the Indian victory be given as much publicity but the BJP-led government is also able to derive as much mileage out of it.

After Pakistan decided to give a call for withdrawal, the first reaction came from the Information and Broadcasting Ministry. Apparently, the I&B Secretary, probably working on the orders of his minister, was very interested in taking a media team to Mushkoh Valley, where a large number of bodies of Pakistani intruders were lying strewn around.

The idea was to specially take the Urdu Press, again with an apparent reason in mind. The I&B Secretary was very assertive and to the surprise of all the tour to the region was organised within two days of the first demand.

Although the press party was taken to Dras and not Mushkoh, but it did not consist just of the Urdu Press. The Directorate of Public Relations, Ministry of Defence, ensured that representatives even from foreign media and major newspapers were part of the team. The impression sent out was also clear that the trip was not to show the bodies, but then what is inexplicable is why was the trip organised in such a hurry?

(Contributed by SB, Satish Misra, T.V. Lakshminarayan, Girja Shankar Kaura and P.N. Andley)

75 YEARS AGO
The Hindu Beopar Mahavidyalaya

THE anniversary of the Mahavidyalaya was celebrated on the 15th and 16th instant. The proceedings of the first day were presided over by Lala Bhim Sen Sachar and those of the second day by Mr Labh Singh, Bar-at-Law.

The principal speakers at the two days’ meetings were Prof Jai Chand of the National College Lahore, Lala Bhim Sen Sachar, BA LLB, and Swami Daya Nanda.

The theme of all the speeches was national education. The necessity of imparting such education was greatly dwelt upon by all the speakers.