P A G E
Wednesday, June 30, 1999
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E D I T O R I A L P A G E |
Wednesday, June 30, 1999 |
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Why
duck Rajya Sabha ?
VALUE-AIDED
GOVERNANCE |
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Stopping
more Kargils from happening
Professorial
marketing
Mahatmaji’s offer |
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Why duck Rajya Sabha ? IT is evident that the all-party meeting on Monday for discussing the Kargil crisis failed to break the deadlock over the question of convening a special Rajya Sabha session for discussing the issue. Neither Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee nor the Bharatiya Janata Party nor former Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar, who too is against a special Rajya Sabha session, need to be told about the importance of taking the nation into confidence about the measures being taken by the Government for effectively tackling the war-like situation forced on India by Pakistan-trained infiltrators in the Kargil region of Kashmir. The nation cannot be taken into confidence by addressing public meetings. It is difficult to understand Mr Vajpayee's diffidence on the issue. An all-party meeting cannot be treated as a substitute for a regular session of a constitutionally created forum of elder statesmen. By arranging a special briefing for the representatives of the political parties who attended the interaction with the Prime Minister, the Government merely repeated the mistake which it committed when it arranged a similar briefing for the BJP shortly after the military action against the infiltrators in Kargil. There would have been no substance in the objection against the special briefing had the three defence chiefs been invited to make a special presentation on the Kargil-related issues before the Rajya Sabha. The reasons so far
advanced by the Government for not calling a session of
the Rajya Sabha are unconvincing. If Mr Vajpayee were to
look up the response of the Opposition, in fact the
entire political class, during the crises the country
faced in 1962, 1965 and 1971, he may himself realise that
he has been grossly misled on the issue by his men in the
PMO and the party. He should also carefully study the
mature response of the political class to the war-like
situation. A major reason why the Government has thus far
succeeded in isolating Pakistan at the global level is
because of the unqualified support it received
domestically from every major political party. In any
case, the Prime Minister would only add to his stature as
an astute leader if he were to succeed in securing the
approval of the Opposition-dominated Rajya Sabha. Mr
Chandra Shekhar has been quoted as having said at the
all-party meeting that a special session of the Rajya
Sabha "could bring out political differences in the
open". It is surprising that a leader of his stature
could have advanced such a ridiculous reason for not
calling a special Rajya Sabha session. As of today the
BJP, the Congress, the Left and all the other political
parties are supporting the military action in Kargil
without any reservations. However, the moment they would
get an opportunity to discuss the issue in the Rajya
Sabha Mr Chandra Shekhar expects them to "bring out
their political differences in the open". In fact,
given the circumstances in which Mr Vajpayee is
continuing as Prime Minister he should have gone out of
his way to fully involve all the political parties in the
decision-making process so that the entire political
leadership could be held accountable for the post-Kargil
situation in the country. |
Sharif’s short visit PAKISTAN Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has pruned his six-day official visit to China to just two days and has returned home on Tuesday. This is not the only inexplicable thing about the much hyped visit. The effusive praise and high expectations pregnant in the statement he issued hours before he left for Beijing were missing in the official version of his talks with his Chinese counterpart, Mr Zhu Rongji. That was a matter-of-fact bland restatement of Pakistan’s known position. The abrupt shortening of the visit has raised three questions. Has Mr Sharif got what he wanted and returned home to build on the new concession? Is his action a signal of his dissatisfaction with his failure to get his hosts strike an anti-India stance? Or, has there been some major development in Islamabad warranting his presence? An affirmative answer to the first two questions will be to ignore the strong and subtle nature of relations between the two countries. Anyway, the present configuration of international and regional forces precludes China from openly taking sides in the Kargil conflict. Nor has Pakistan the liberty to be petulant at this time of increasing international diplomatic isolation. That brings the possibility of a domestic dimension to Mr Sharif’s decision to rush home. That is possibly linked to the hush-hush meeting of his personal envoy, Mr Niaz Naik, in Delhi on Sunday. Published reports make
two things clear. One, the USA is taking a tough line on
vacating intrusion and limiting the present fighting lest
it develops into a potential nuclear confrontation. This
has shut out several options for Pakistan. China too has
adopted a somewhat guarded posture, at least in public,
on the ongoing skirmish in the Kargil region. This is not
surprising. China is a staunch believer in solving
disputes bilaterally, rightly fearing third party
intervention and motivated mediation. Pakistan is shrewd
enough to realise this. Thus Beijing could not have
surprised the visiting dignitary in any manner. But the
way the Naik enterprise has gone must have irked the
Prime Minister. Somebody well up in Islamabad has decided
to sabotage the attempt in an unsubtle fashion like he or
his friends undid a proposed visit of the Prime Minister
to Washington. Not only was the trip to Delhi publicised
but later it was flatly denied subjecting Pakistan brand
of diplomacy to ridicule. Throw in the mysterious
appearance of a taped conversation of an extremely
sensitive nature between top military leaders, a pattern
emerges. Somebody is working overtime to block all
avenues of a diplomatic end to the intrusion and Mr
Sharif does not have much time to neutralise these
busibodies. Maybe he got some clue from his Chinese hosts
who boast of an excellent intelligence network in
Pakistan. The next few days, or weeks, should provide
exciting clues. |
Ropeway to disaster THE six-hour unmitigated agony on Monday for several cable-car-riders near Jabli in Himachal Pradesh should put Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal to durable, if not everlasting, anguish. He merrily inaugurated the K. K. Trams cable-car system with a joy-ride from Jabli to Kasauli in the august company of Railway Minister Nitish Kumar, a stoic train accident-watcher, a day earlier. Mid-air thrill does not appear to be a normal possibility for tourists in Himachal Pradesh. In 1992, the Timber Trail ropeway at Parwanoo was snapped abruptly. The unfortunate incident left two persons dead and quite a few hanging in the air for more than two days. The tourists at Jabli included nine children and a number of elderly persons. Six of the eight trolleys were involved in the ordeal. Most of the passengers were brought down with the help of ladders. The trolleys were manually operated to a safe point under the guidance of "a foreign technical expert" called from Chandigarh after a lot of time was wasted by the company's experts, who diagnosed the problem as "a technical snag". It is surprisingly easy to blame voltage fluctuation for the failure of power-propelled activities despite the availability of voltage-stabilisers and portable power-generators. In this case, the owners maintained that the main switch board developed a defect which led to the burning of a whole panel and the collapse of the entire computerised system. What an elaborate humbug of an explanation indeed! People have gone back to
Kanpur, Lucknow, Allahabad and Varanasi with sorrowful
memories of their last lap of tourist adventure. No less
sad was Mr Shashi Bhushan of Panchkula who had taken his
12-member family to the ropeway that caused a literal
experience of hanging. The last batch was rescued around
10 pm, says a report. The lesson from this gruelling
episode is that we cannot rely upon a novel tourist
scheme floated by any Himachal Pradesh agency —
public or private. It has been stated that even the
inaugural VVIP run was not trouble-free. There were 24
hours at the disposal of the cable-car-owners and they
should have tested and tried the system between Jabli and
Kasauli before putting so many lives and the reputation
of Himachal Tourism at risk. Cable-cars or ropeways are a
part of the routine passenger or goods transport system
even in certain areas of this country. It is a different
matter that the Himachal Pradesh government does not
differentiate between thrilling and killing. Listen to
the 67-year-old woman who was in one of the trolleys with
two small grand children: “We kept remembering God
all the while.” The spirit of adventure and the
expectation of joy are salient features of a tourist's
plan. If one gets into this kind of predicament, one
becomes a symbol of disillusionment, which is contagious.
Monday's incident has defaced the idyllic tourism chart
of Himachal Pradesh. That there is business as usual at
Timber Trail is not a matter of relief. The entire cable-
car system should be thoroughly checked. The Austrian
collaborators as well as the Indian partners should be
put in the dock. If the ropeway is not safe, it should be
scrapped. The present contract has a 10-year life-span.
Let the decade be made safe for fun-seeking travellers to
Himachal Pradesh. |
VALUE-AIDED
GOVERNANCE THERE has been a continuous growth in the size of government in India since Independence. In the first 20 years or so after Independence, there were justifiable grounds for the rapid growth in government expenditure relative to national income. During that period a government which hitherto had largely taken care of law and order only was being expanded to assume responsibilities in areas of economic and social development. The growth of population also required some increase in government personnel and in the expenditure on goods and services. However, the growth of the government during the past 30 years, in terms of areas of its activity, the number of government servants, the excessive growth of public enterprises and consequently in terms of the size of its expenditure, has been far higher than can be justified by the growth of population and the need to promote development. The total expenditure of the Central and state governments — the government sector — has increased from around 18 per cent of the GDP in 1970-71 to 27 per cent by 1995-96. In real terms, the increase has been more than 3.5 times — an annual rate of growth of 6.6 per cent. The growth in government expenditure has, therefore, been much higher than the average rate of growth of the GDP. Of the total combined expenditure of the government sector in 1995-96, expenditure on administrative services accounted for 13.3 per cent, and that on interest payments for 21.06 per cent. Expenditure under these two heads has grown quite fast during the past 20 years. As of now, together they account for 34.36 per cent of the total expenditure, amounting to 9.43 per cent of the GDP (this means that these two items use up nearly 50 per cent of the total revenues of the government sector). Interest payments alone amount to 5.66 per cent of the GDP. On the other hand, expenditure on education and health accounts for less than 16 per cent of the total. The staff strength of the Central government is now around 38.80 lakhs, as against 37.71 lakhs 20 years ago. On a conservative estimate, a quarter of the government staff is surplus. The same is true of the state governments. The staff strength is not only too much for the tasks to be performed but also too large to be controlled to function efficiently. As a result, the quality of governance has suffered and the cost has become exorbitant because (a) the surplus staff cast an unjustified burden on the tax-payers; (b) inefficiency arises from lack of control over an excessively large staff, whose accountability is now very low; and (c) the extension of government activity to and intervention in too many (non-public goods) areas mean an unjustified cost and hindrance to beneficial private activity. It has been recognised that to the extent the government undertakes productive capital formation, there is a role for loan finance. But loans taken for that purpose must be serviced out of the income from the investment. (The government may have to borrow during a war, but we have had no wars during the past 27 years.) In India, government borrowing was undertaken originally to finance development plans (capital formation); it has now become an “easy” means for financing growing public expenditure of every kind. During the past three decades or so, the government’s revenue expenditure, representing government consumption, has been growing faster than government revenues (incomes). Since mid-eighties governments have been running growing revenue deficits, meaning that an increasing part of the borrowing has been used to finance government consumption. (In the Union Budget for 1998-99, more than half the fiscal deficit of around Rs 91,000 crore will be used to meet revenue expenditure.) Use of loans to finance revenue expenditure, inefficient and unproductive deployment of capital funds and continuous increases in the level of borrowing have led to the mounting burden of interest payments on the budget with very little to compensate through capital income. This is the consequence of the uncontrolled growth of public debt: it has grown from around 40 per cent of the GDP in 1975-76 to 68 per cent in 1995-96. In absolute terms, the total public debt amounted to Rs 7,34,550 crore in 1995-96. The annual addition to public debt is currently in excess of Rs 1 lakh crore. The governments thus continue to pile up obligations for future generations. While government expenditure absorbs 27 per cent of the GDP (Rs 2.9 lakh crore), only a relatively small part of it goes to the social sectors — 15.6 per cent of the total. Subsidies — explicit and implicit — greatly exceed social expenditure. Today, the government in India has ceased to be an efficient or reliable means for the implementation of public policy. It is a rent-seeking super-structure, the benefits flowing from it being much less than the total costs (visible and hidden)of sustaining it. The net value of governance is minimal, excepting the defence of the country. The causes for such a state of affairs are: * Lack of accountability and pervasive inefficiency, which make every policy initiative yield far less than its full potential benefit. * In the service-oriented programmes, the intended beneficiaries receive only a portion of the benefits. In investment programmes, either higher unit costs of real investment or lower quality results from corruption. * The high cost of running the government. This is because, firstly, of the existence of a huge surplus staff, and, secondly, the widely prevalent practice of illegal use of facilities meant for providing public goods and services for private benefit by government personnel from the ministers downward. * Illegal exactions, in many cases, of money by government servants from citizens for the performance of services for which the former receive their salaries. These may be termed “unaccounted tax payments”. The actual tax ratio is likely to be at least 20 per cent higher than the legal tax ratio. * With high costs — visible and hidden — of providing services combined with below the standard performance resulting in a poor quality, and all of this supplemented by corruption and harassment, the value added by the government is quite low in relation to the cost. To remedy this deplorable situation, a moral regeneration of society is required. But apart from that, certain institutional and structural changes are needed. These can be brought about only with a radical change in the philosophy of the government’s role and intervention. Apart from maintaining law and order, the government has to act as an arbitrator, a regulator, a promoter through policy actions and a mitigator of inequalities. The emphasis should be on policy shifts and not on expenditure. With a change in philosophy, it would be possible to make the needed shifts. Some of the major steps would be as follows: * Cutting down the scope of government activity and decentralisation of expenditure responsibilities. * The government to retire from the production of all private goods gradually except those that are important from a strategic point of view. * Wherever public enterprises are allowed for the production of private goods, they should operate as far as possible in competition with private enterprise; such public enterprises should have large private share holding and should be made autonomous, subject only to the control of the board of directors. * There should be further liberalisation and reduction in the number of controls. All industries should be delicensed except defence and strategic ones. * There should be decentralisation of public expenditure so that there can be more local control. With the removal of duplication of services provided by the Centre and the states, and a reduction in the scope and area of government activity, the surplus staff in the government should be shed in course of the next five years. The administration and its staff should be compact and must be equipped with modern electronic aids. A smaller-sized staff should be paid better. * A system of reward and punishments related to performance should be introduced in consultation with the unions of government employees. * Tax administration should be reformed and modernised to increase the productivity of the tax system and to reduce harassment. * Keeping the level of public expenditure constant as a percentage of the GDP, the proportion of the expenditure on the social sectors and agriculture should be increased substantially. With tax reforms, the revenue ratio would go up. The article is based on
a paper contributed by the author as part of the JRD Tata
Memorial Lecture organised by ASSOCHAM in New Delhi. The
author is a well-known economist and currently Chairman,
National Institute of Public Finance and Policy. |
Cost of delayed equipment
procurement OFFICIALS in the Ministry of Defence (MoD) have failed to realise that any delay in the disposal of files, especially for the procurement of arms, ammunition and equipment, can endanger the life of a soldier in the battlefield. They, however, know how to ask questions which are already answered in the files and delay a decision to gain importance. The best of communication is provided to them for seeking clarification from their counterparts in the defence services headquarters. However, they would not do so because of ego problems. They feel it below their dignity to meet the officers in uniform and seek clarification wherever required. Here are some of the examples of their highhandedness. The MI-17 helicopter with four crew members, which was shot down by the intruders with the firing of a Stinger missile (acquired by the Taliban from the USA during the Afghan war), could have escaped the fire had it been given flares. These helicopters are meant to ferry troops and equipment, para-dropping and para-landing in the battlefield. They are not supposed to fly more than 16000 ft. high, but these machines were improvised as gunships to strafe the intruders in the Kargil sector. The courageous crew flew this helicopter over an altitude of 18000 ft against heavy odds, facing the missile and artillery shells of the Pakistanis. It was flying in the most adverse weather conditions. This helicopter was clearing the Tololing heights in support of the ground troops, but was shot down by the intruders by firing a Stinger missile. If only the MI-17 had flares, it could have been saved. The flares could have given the heat-seeking Stinger missiles an alternative target. The pilots could have dodged the missile. The flares could not be given because the bureaucrats sitting in the airconditioned rooms of South Block could not take the decision in time. It is a different matter that now they are ready to eliminate all the bureaucratic hurdles and supply whatsoever is required by the armed forces. In any case, it must be found out who is responsible for the brave crew’s loss of life. More than 20 MI-17 helicopters are lying in the hangers for want of spares. Some of the bureaucrats thought it prudent to raise objections so as to why these should be put to use. There are a large number of other helicopters that are grounded for want of spares. At least 30 engines for the helicopters are lying unused in Russian depots, whereas these are urgently required by the IAF. They are either to be shipped or airlifted depending on the urgency of these engines. Until the Kargil battle started the bureaucrats had been shuttling the files up and down for clarifications before the final clearance. The same is the case with the AN-32 and IL-76 transport fleet. More than 50 per cent of this fleet is grounded for want of spares. The transport fleet is doing a tremendous job, providing logistics support in the Kargil battle. Had there been more airworthy aircraft the efficiency of the soldiers would have improved and casualties reduced. The pilots are playing a stellar role in support of the ground forces. If more than 50 per cent of the fleet is grounded the overall efficiency of those participating in the operations suffers and the movement of troops, weapons and the equipment gets delayed. No one can be excused for the lackadaisical attitude on one’s part towards the defence forces with respect to the urgently needed arms and equipment. MoD officials have also delayed the purchase of infantry weapons and equipment like night-firing devices, radars for detecting the camouflaged enemy, etc. The artillery urgently required 155 self-propelled (SP) guns and mine-clearance trawls, but the files are still lying with the officials, waiting for clearance. The long-awaited Advanced Jet Trainers (AJT), besides training young pilots, would have been very useful for a ground support role in the Kargil sector but no one in the MoD bothers about it. The Defence Minister had done well in sending some of the bureaucrats to the Siachen area for familiarisation. Now they should be sent to the Kargil sector to feel the thunder of the Pakistani artillery shells and the bursting sound of machine gun fire. It is high time MoD officials started understanding the significance of defence requirements. They have to change their attitudes. It is essential to integrate the MoD with the services headquarters for better efficiency and quick disposal of files. (The author, a
retired Colonel, is a Research Fellow at the Strategic
Research Centre, Chandigarh.) |
Professorial
marketing IN your twilight years as you look back at those myriad peers with whom you worked and bantered, you especially remember those who struck you for their advertising capabilities. In the academia words like “advertising” or “marketing” may sound a bit outlandish, but it does have some savvy salesmen in the professoriate. While lecturers and readers may have quality products to sell, few pay attention to them. When a professor hawks his wares, scholars run to him the way believers run to a prophet. I remember one such professor with whom I once stayed in a guest house and learnt my first lesson in self-management. In a snazzy little bag he carried his published papers which he instantly pulled out whenever someone asked him about his “area of interest”. When he showed me his stationery and visiting cards — and discussed his strategies to remain in circulation — I knew he would have astonished even the corporate wizards. His solitary passion in professional life, he told me, was to excel his immediate rival in the department by having a larger number of scholars to guide for their research degrees. Since his “rival” asked his candidates to read first — and read extensively and get familiar with the Bible and Greek and Roman mythology — he had simply humanised his approach. He didn’t want his scholars to bleed in the library or feel dejected in their quest for topics. “I hate to torture those students who rush to me with all their enthusiasm to get a sense of direction for their focused reading. By giving them a ready-made subject I help them preserve their energy and balance,” he remarked. Once I was standing with this celebrity in the hallway of his department when a couple of scholars approached him for topics. He seemed to know them well since they were once in his fiction class. He immediately opened his deluxe diary and assigned topics on which they could cogitate and write dissertations. “The other fellow would have asked them to read for a year and then meet him for suitable topics while I help them at once,” he said while turning a few pages of his rare diary. Once we were browsing
through some books in the reference section of the campus
bookstore on a foreign soil. It was a sheer chance that I
picked up a volume with an intriguing title. Author-wise
it catalogued suggested topics for research. Instead of
carrying this nugget to India, the humane and imaginative
professor had transferred the contents to his diary, just
to salvage the lost souls on his home turf. |
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Stopping
more Kargils from happening WHILE visiting the units of the South Western Air Command, (SWAC) in Jamnagar on June 23, Mr George Fernandes said the decision to cross the LoC, (if considered necessary), would be taken at the “appropriate time”. On the same day in Lucknow, Home Minister L.K. Advani warned that, “a war could not be ruled out completely”, even if we in India did not want it. And then for the third time on the same day, the Army chief, Gen V.P. Malik, in a briefing (quite unprecedented if you ask me, since he himself briefed the press), stated that, “if it becomes necessary to cross the LoC in supreme national interest, the matter will be taken up with the Cabinet”. Quite suddenly, the LoC has become militarily and diplomatically alive, necessitating a hard look at the grim realities of a growing conflict, that bodes ill for both India and Pakistan, notwithstanding the fact that it is the latter which has carried out intrusions into Indian territory. Let us examine the strategic and the military angle first. It is clear that it is Pakistan’s aim to completely sever Ladakh from the Kashmir valley, and then take on both these segments, separately by military and psychological means. Lest we forget, in Ladakh our forces face the Chinese too, and the operations in Chorbatla and Tortuk at present, must be seen as an extension of further designs north eastwards to Siachen and beyond to the Line of Actual Control in the Chinese-occupied Aksai Chin region. Who can say that tomorrow Pakistan might even start calling J&K as Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh. This unfriendly interpretation must be exposed for whatever it is worth, with all the diplomatic and military might at our disposal. The second major objective of Pakistan is to interdict and make commercially and militarily unviable the use of the Srinagar-Kargil-Leh road, on which depends not only India’s military posture against Pakistan and China, but also the entire population of Jammu & Kashmir, for their growth and livelihood. One had brought this anomaly, (the single road artery, without any other road to duplicate the surface infrastructure), to the notice of the authorities concerned way back in 1970, and yet little has been done ever since to remedy matters. Mr Farooq Abdullah has now suddenly come up with the idea of the state government building another road through the Sunku valley, but do you not think it is a little late in the season for all that? How can a country (India) look after the security of its frontiers with two nuclear powers (China and Pakistan), with a single, fair-weather road, servicing the entire area, one might ask? Incidentally the Manali-Rohtang-Leh road is a long, fair-weather and slide-prone artery, suffering from much of the chronic ills of the Srinagar-Leh road. We need to immediately upgrade at any cost, the all-weather road infrastructure to Ladakh. The third major objective of Pakistan was to internationalise the Kashmir issue, and one must say that in that, they are well on the way to, achieving their aim. The Indian Foreign Minister’s visit to Beijing, (rather than a visit from Beijing, or even a call on us by the Chinese Ambassador in New Delhi, interaction with President Clinton on his support to India on the Kargil issue, the talks by Mr Brajesh Mishra with foreign diplomats, and our lobbying before the G-8 Summit, have in one way or the other, already brought Kashmir centre-stage, placing it as a close second to Kosovo, even in the western hemisphere. Yet if you read in-between the lines, the G-8 has nowhere clearly indicated as to who has crossed the LoC, and enjoins upon both India and Pakistan to deescalate the situation on the Kargil front. Even the Americans have moved the Chief of their Central Command looking after South Asia, for a trip to Pakistan, and there could be many many objectives and aims in this visit. The United Nations meet is due in September, and internationalisation or no internationalisation of the Kashmir issue, India must restore the LoC to its status-quo as it obtained before the May conflagration, so that our diplomats can then talk from some position of strength. Kashmir features on every world forum today, and the answer is to militarily and politically strengthen ourselves, and then counter the strategic and geo-political aims of Pakistan. No matter which way you look at it, both India and Pakistan should build up on the 50-year-old CFL-LoC, and formalise it into a defacto and dejure border between the two warring nations. But peacefully and without going to war over it. Another issue too, needs a little examination. Induction and move of troops into the theatre of operations could lead to the uncovering of some other fronts along the LoC, and this would need to be looked into. Even otherwise the Srinagar-Leh road can only sustain logistically and otherwise, ‘X’ number of troops, and congestion on the highways could lead to other operational problems. And militarily, one more issue that one is sure the planners are already seized of, (with the high intensity air and artillery, mainly Bofors and Howitzers) actions now under way, is the replenishment of our War Wastage Reserves, (WWR) for all categories of munitions, including for the Air Force. In addition, the provisioning of ground surveillance radars, light-pack night vision devices (NVDs), for the infantryman, high calorie-specific field rations, the best in the way of extreme cold climate (ECC), clothing and footwear, and yes, lighter web equipment for the jawans, are the need of the hour. One who has commanded a Brigade, a Division and an Area in the mountains and the High Altitude region, and knows from actual experience, that for best results, the jawan must not be burdened with too much weight and must be extremely mobile. Light-weight anti-personnel mines, lighter automatic weapons, and sturdy mules and pack animals for carrying replenishment and equipment would all make the task of the jawan easier, as he battles it out on those rugged heights. Two questions, many ask are, how long will this war last, and can we push back the intruders without having to cross the LoC. For the first there can be no time restriction, but it is absolutely essential that we restore the LoC soonest, but not later than August-end or early September, (when the mountain passes begin to close) and after which existence on the upper reaches becomes a matter of survival of the fittest. Also, the military situation has to be fully stabilised before the United Nations meets in September. As regards the second issue, it is felt that with the measure of success we have had at Pt 5140, Tololing and Chorbatla Top, and seeing the lie of the ground on the LoC, it should be possible to vacate the intrusions in totality, without resorting to the last resort. Crossing the LoC would raise the level of the conflict to a full-scale war, and all talks of “hot pursuit” and the like must be dispensed with. Both sides now possess a nuclear armoury, and anything could happen in an all-out, conflagration. The residents of the border states will suffer all over again, and great will be the destruction this time. It is surprising to see some defence experts even, suggesting the opening up of other fronts in the Kargil sector or elsewhere, when what needs to be done right now is to restore and localise the situation in the sector where the fighting is now raging. And thereafter, take other pre-emptive and preventive measures, that we are not caught on the backfoot ever again, on any border, and with any country in our neighbourhood. Shall we therefore,
cease all talk of “safe passage” and crossing
of the LoC, and actually get a move on, in first
bettering our foreign an field intelligence network in
immediate reequipping and reorientation of our mountain
brigades and division to move and fight fast, and ensure
and absolute first rate and professional press and media
coverage commensurate with the sacrifices the jawan is
making at Kargil everyday. Unlike 1962, it is time now,
that the military professionals are listened to, and have
their say in the conduct of the wars that the nation has
to fight from time to time. |
Mahatmaji’s offer IT will be remembered that in his recent speech in the Union Parliament Mr Duncan, Minister of the Interior, asserted that the agreement of 1914 did not bind the Union Government not to take away vested rights. In the latest issue of “Young India” Mahatma Gandhi definitely takes up the challenges implied in this assertion, and says that “it ought to carry with it the understanding that if such an agreement can be proved, the Class Areas Bill will not be proceeded with.” Mahatmaji goes on to make an offer which the South African Government is bound to avail itself of if it has any sense of fairness and justice left. He writes:— Even though a
non-co-operator, I beg to make the proposal that if the
Government of India receive an undertaking from the Union
Government that if the agreement can be proved to the
satisfaction of an impartial tribunal, they will suspend
the Bill pending such enquiry, I shall be prepared to
appear before such a tribunal to prove the agreement. |
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