Harshad Mehta’s hard days
AT a time when the country was about to forget the security scam, a special court in Mumbai has thrown the spotlight back on the sordid affair when anyone who had access to big money helped Big Bull Harshad Mehta to have a free run of the stock market.

Meaning of October 4
OCTOBER 4 may become the most unwise and destructive day so far in the history of Pakistan-sponsored terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir if the government in Islamabad does not take appropriate steps to stop the militants, army regulars disguised as "freedom fighters", and mercenaries on its side of the Line of Control.

Glorifying sati
WHEN Roop Kanwar committed sati in a village in Rajasthan some years ago the instigators were condemned by rationalists.

RESETTLEMENT OF NARMADA TRIBALS
A look at constitutional provisions
by S. Sahay
RECENTLY, a delegation opposed to the construction of the Narmada dam without proper rehabilitation of those affected by it met the President, Mr K.R. Narayanan, and impressed on him the need to do something positive in this regard.

Foreign credit flow in reverse gear
by Balraj Mehta
THE flow of foreign development credits, bilateral and multilateral, managed by the World Bank went in the reverse gear for India in the nineties.

Genesis of Kargil was Lahore bus drive: Gujral
MR INDER Kumar Gujral needs no introduction. Born at Jhelum in West Pakistan on December 4, 1919 he did his post graduation in economics and is a product of the freedom struggle. He became a member of the Rajya Sabha in April, 1964, and since then has remained a respected Parliamentarian. Mrs Indira Gandhi handpicked him to handle the Parliamentary Affairs and Communications portfolios as Union Minister of State in March, 1967.

The Company Bahadur
by Sarabjit Singh
THE East India Company was the first multinational. Its operations extended to the Indian subcontinent. It’s CEOs included men like Warren Hastings and Robert Clive. Like most multinationals the Company also expanded its operations to an unmanageable level and faced a series of problems, including a mutinous labour unrest in 1857, which took a long time, expense and casualties to control.

75 Years Ago

September 29, 1924
The Muslim Party in the Assembly
WHILE there is nothing in the professed aims and objects of the proposed Muslim Party in the Assembly, to which it is necessary to take exception.

Harshad Mehta’s hard days

AT a time when the country was about to forget the security scam, a special court in Mumbai has thrown the spotlight back on the sordid affair when anyone who had access to big money helped Big Bull Harshad Mehta to have a free run of the stock market. Banks ignored basic rules and companies handed out crores and with that mountain of unsecured cash, he bought dud shares, stoked a frenetic price rise, made his pile and returned the money to the lawful owners. It was a temporary misuse of an awful lot of bank money and many top officials sullied their hands and reputation and lost their job. They may ultimately lose their freedom as well if the Supreme Court were to confirm the sentence. That would take at least five more years during which time Harshad Mehta will face more sentences and will file more appeals in the apex court. This is the first judgement against him and the disposal of the second security scam-related case, the first relates to Hiten Dalal who generously dipped into the funds of Canara Bank before returning the last paisa. He too faces a jail term if the Supreme Court were to uphold the verdict of the special court. Mehta’s legal team as also that of Dalal are confident that their defence will get a more favourable hearing at the apex court. They have pleaded that nobody lost any money and they are at worst guilty of indulging in questionable practices for which a fine will be more appropriate than a jail term.

The security scam of the early nineties is not so much about the criminal deeds of a few dozen powerful men but about the law of the jungle that prevails in most financial and commercial institutions. A cursory reading of the prosecution story in the present case shows how shares are handed over to unauthorised persons, how misinformation is conveyed through letters, how cheques for crores of rupees are credited to wrong accounts and, finally, how the Maruti’s board of directors is routinely misled about financial dealings. Two inferences are compelling. One, procedures and supervision are slack and this encourages a few men with itchy palms to drain their employers of cash. Two, the criminal law is unduly liberal to big time crooks even while jailing a small fry for accepting a silly bribe. In this lethargic atmosphere deposit-collectors find it tempting and virtually safe to exploit gullible people with a small surplus; one newspaper found that the only remedy a cheated depositor has is to file a civil suit and wait for a decade or two to have the pleasure securing a favourable court order but not the money. The stock market is not for the innocent or the weak-hearted and people like Mehta only muddy it further. And liberalisation will worsen the situation unless the government wakes up to the threat and makes a jail term mandatory and prompt for every financial crime.

Meaning of October 4

OCTOBER 4 may become the most unwise and destructive day so far in the history of Pakistan-sponsored terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir if the government in Islamabad does not take appropriate steps to stop the militants, army regulars disguised as "freedom fighters", and mercenaries on its side of the Line of Control. The Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front does not have an independent status. It is an extension of the various groups and forces nurtured by the ISI with the clear objective of keeping the forcibly occupied part of the Indian state in perpetual bondage. Jammu and Kashmir has seen charlatans like B.B. Yaser Kashmiri alias Hyder Hijazi, the so-called secretary-general of the JKLF faction headed by Amanullah Khan, from close quarters. No doubt, there are serious attitudinal differences among Pakistan-supported agencies. Hurriyat is suffering from schizophrenia; its psyche fluctuates between India-baiting and Pakistan-hating. JKLF (A) is an opportunist splinter group with little relevance amidst instruments of terror like Lashkar-e-Toiba, Harkat-ul-Ansar, Al Badr and Tehrik-ul-Jehad. The sole common factor sustaining them is Pakistan's policy (and capability) to keep Jammu and Kashmir unstable, poor and terror-stricken. The JKLF (A) made attempts to cross the LoC on October 24, 1992, and on February 11, 1996. Pakistani soldiers "fired" at those who were "bent upon crossing the line". There were "casualties". The moves failed because they could not succeed. Most of the militants brain-washed by the Pakistani Army's insurgency -promoting units did not see martyrdom waiting for them on the Indian side of the LoC. They backed out.

This time, after its failure in what is euphemistically described as the battle of Kargil, Pakistan has decided to launch a different kind of offensive — to let its agents violate the sanctity of the LoC and put a veil on its failed strategy to create another Siachen. Abdul Ghani Lone is a well-tutored parrot. He criticises the Pakistan government and the army for taking "unnecessary risks" in the Indian mountain belt and then withdrawing with heavy losses in terms of men, arms and international reputation. Then he causes much noise by shouting "azaadi". The "non-interference policy" in respect of the proposed LoC crossing is an obvious facade. The myth is the "decision of the freedom fighters" to cross the LoC. The reality is the unsubtle move to see a large-scale infiltration materialising. The plan has a dangerous aspect. The task of keeping the trained transgressors away from the LoC will have to be tackled by the Indian security personnel who hate to use their guns against mobs. But will there be mobs on October 4? No. The Indian border guards will have to face Pakistani soldiers, terrorists, mercenaries and a few hotheads allowing themselves to be called Mujahideen or fundamentalists. The task of our armed men will be difficult. They will have to use the minimum force to achieve the maximum deterrence. It is time for the international community to pressure Pakistan to keep its agents in leash because such stunts may be used against them too. India is committed to the resolve of keeping the LoC inviolate. But timidity will not work either in the Poonch sector or elsewhere. One still hopes that October 4 will see a serene sundown on the LoC.

Glorifying sati

WHEN Roop Kanwar committed sati in a village in Rajasthan some years ago the instigators were condemned by rationalists. It was seen as an attempt to undo the reforms introduced at the initiative of Raja Ram Mohan Roy. A positive fallout of the Roop Kanwar episode was the introduction of stringent anti-sati laws. However, the controversy which has erupted in Meerut over the regrettable attempt to promote sati worship cannot evidently be defused through invoking the provisions of the anti-sati laws. The existing laws are meant to strike at the reprehensible custom of forcing widows to burn themselves at the pyre of their husbands. It does not seek to penalise those who practise and promote sati worship. The spot where Roop Kanwar ended her life on the pyre of her husband is now a shrine visited by countless followers of the cult of sati. In Meerut a Sati Devi shrine is at the root of the current controversy. According to the priest of the temple Gyano Kanwar, widow of a local Rajput, committed sati nearly 1000 years ago at the spot where the shrine is located. In the first week of September the priest, Vishnu Dutt Rishi, arranged a special "anniversary" worship at the shrine. The event may have passed off unnoticed had he limited the worship to performing a "shudha yajna". What raised the hackles of women activists was the release of a booklet written by Pandit Vishnu Dutt glorifying the tradition of sati apart from guiding the devotees to the correct performance of rituals. Even the distribution of the booklet may have been ignored by the women activists. They are angry, and rightly so, because of the active participation of Mrs Sundri Vishwanathan, wife of the Commissioner of Meerut Division, and Mrs Soni Aggarwal, wife of the District Magistrate.

The "first ladies" of the division and the district released the booklet amidst chanting of "shlokas" and "mantras". A number of women's organisations have not only condemned the association of the two ladies with "a ceremony which seeks to glorify sati and promote superstition among the illiterate" but have also demanded an impartial enquiry into the attempt to turn the clock back. A nonagenarian freedom fighter Shakuntala Goel has taken the lead in mobilising public opinion against the attempt to glorify sati. There is no reason to dispute her claim that even after having spent her life in Meerut she had never heard of the Sati Devi temple where the wives of the two top bureaucrats of the region lent legitimacy to the glorification of sati and the claim that the temple has existed at the spot for the past 1000 years. The freedom fighter had condemned the Roop Kanwar incident and is now demanding action against the bureaucrats for letting their wives take part in a questionable ritual at a disputed site. The controversy has put the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government in Uttar Pradesh in a spot of bother. The BJP had distanced itself from the Roop Kanwar controversy. Chief Minister Kalyan Singh, whose Hindutva does not reject sati as an obnoxious practice, is not likely to order an enquiry into the status of the so-called shrine in Meerut. Action against the bureaucrats too can be ruled out. The eruption of the controversy on the eve of the last phase of the Lok Sabha elections which, among other things, will decide the fate of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee may at best cause an inconsequential political ripple in UP.

RESETTLEMENT OF NARMADA TRIBALS
A look at constitutional provisions
by S. Sahay

RECENTLY, a delegation opposed to the construction of the Narmada dam without proper rehabilitation of those affected by it met the President, Mr K.R. Narayanan, and impressed on him the need to do something positive in this regard.

They got the impression that the President, who had received a large number of letters on the dam issue had already written to the Prime Minister, and had been assured that the issue had been taken care of by the authorities concerned.

This has also been the stand of the states concerned before the Supreme Court, which is seized of the matter. But it is the case of the agitationists that precious little has been done in this regard or even can be done.

In her booklet, “The Greater Common Good”, Arundhati Roy has mentioned that of the 200,000 people being uprooted in a particular area, 117,000 are tribals. She has asked: “How do you relocate them in a human fashion?

The delegation impressed on the President that the tribal villages of Jalsindhi and Domkhed were threatened with permanent submergence by the rising waters of the Narmada and Mr Narayanan had a constitutional obligation to safeguard their interests — irrespective of what the court or the executive might or might not do.

They appeared to have referred to the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution. Since this is a new line of thinking, let me deal with the relevant constitutional provisions.

The Constitution makes special provisions for the administration of the backward areas inhabited by the tribals. As is well known, Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram are, or were at the time of Independence (as in the case of Assam), predominantly tribal areas and hence special provisions were made for them (Article 244(1)).

As has been pointed at by D.D. Basu in his “Introduction to the Constitution of India”, the President has been given the power to declare an area in any state as a Scheduled Area. This has already been done through the Scheduled Area Order of 1950.

Article 371 makes special provisions for the states of Maharashtra and Gujarat. “Notwithstanding anything in this Constitution”, the President has been authorised to bestow special responsibility on the Governor for the establishment of development boards in Vidarbha, Marathwada and the rest of Maharashtra or, as the case may be, Saurashtra, Kutch and the rest of Gujarat. A report on the working of each of these boards has to be submitted each year to the respective state assemblies.

Further there has to be an equitable allocation of funds for development and also equitable arrangement for the imparting of technical education and vocational training and for adequate opportunities for employment in services.

What the Fifth Schedule does is to make it compulsory for the Governor of each Scheduled Area to submit an annual report to the President regarding the administration of the Scheduled Areas. What is more, the President is free to ask anytime, or as many times as he likes, for a report from the Governor.

The implications of the Fifth Schedule have been very well explained by D.D. Basu. The executive power of the Union extends to giving directions to the respective states regarding the administration of the Scheduled Area.

The Governor has been authorised to direct that a particular Act of Parliament or of the state legislature shall not apply to a Scheduled Area or shall apply only subject to exceptions or modifications. The Governor is also authorised to make regulations to prohibit or restrict the transfer of tribal lands.

The point to note is that, as far as the Scheduled Areas are concerned, the Governor combines in himself the powers of both the legislature and the executive, and the courts have no sway over them in this field, as long as the Governor has consulted the tribal council concerned and has got the regulation he has framed approved by the President.

What is crystal clear is that the Constitution-makers were so keen for the development and good governance of the tribal areas that they delinked the task from the functions of a state Cabinet, and bestowed upon the Governor special powers which he could exercise in his own discretion and with the approval of the President. Though the Constitution-makers provided for consultation with the tribal councils, consultation did not mean concurrence. The Governor was left free to act according to his own conscience and do what was good for the tribals.

This brings us to the crux of the matter. Since it is the tribals of Gujarat who are going to bear the consequences of the Narmada dam, the President would be within his rights in demanding from the Gujarat Governor a report how satisfactorily, if at all, the problem of the resettlement of the tribals concerned has been solved.

Two questions arise. Would it amount to an interference with the work of the apex court, which is seized of the matter? Secondly, whether while giving directions to the Governor, the President has to act in his own judgement or must he act on the advice of his Council of Ministers?

As for the first question, the apex court itself has ruled in a case that the court has no jurisdiction over the powers exercised by the Governor under the Fifth Schedule and that it can ignore any court decision on the subject. As for the second, since the Constitution has gone out of its way to make the Governor an independent functionary in relation to the state political executive, it stands to reason that the President ought not be dependent on the advice of the Union Council of Ministers for dealing with the Governor.

Anyway, the Constitution clearly provides that the executive power of the Union extends to giving directions to the states as far as tribal welfare is concerned. The President has written once to the Prime Minister, and it would be quite in order for him to write again and tell the Prime Minister that he intends to ask for the report from the Gujarat Governor, rather than rest satisfied with assertions made by the states concerned.

In all conscience, the Prime Minister will have to support the idea, and should the Governor report that not much has been done to rehabilitate the tribals, the President can instruct the Governor to make sure that the tribals are properly rehabilitated, before further work on the dam is allowed to continue.

Foreign credit flow in reverse gear
by Balraj Mehta

THE flow of foreign development credits, bilateral and multilateral, managed by the World Bank went in the reverse gear for India in the nineties. These credits have ceased to supplement and, on the contrary, are depleting exchange resources for the economic development of India.

According to the latest annual World Development Report sponsored by the World Bank, as against the disbursement of $ 2,636 million, still euphemistically advertised as development aid to India during 1994-1999, the interest and other service charges paid to the foreign creditors by India added up to $ 4703 million. The net outflow of capital from India was thus as much as $ 2157 million in the so-called aid transactions with the World Bank. India is reported to be the only country in South Asia in this position.

There was a shift from project aid to what was called fast disbursing credits to support the structural adjustment process initiated in 1991 for the liberalisation-privatisation-globalisation of the Indian economy. The fast disbursing credits, bilateral and multilateral, were not intended to aid economic development. Their purpose was to provide the financial “safety net” for the implementation of the structural adjustment programme delineated by the World Bank/IMF combine for India. New Delhi was asked to look for private investment, direct and portfolio, instead of credits from the World Bank and the developed countries to finance economic growth. In spite of many incentives and concessions, India has failed to attract much direct foreign private investment. The sizeable portfolio investment which has flown in is interested by its very nature in trading on the stock market to garner speculative profits for repatriation.

The fundamental distinction between the development credits of the World Bank and those from the developed countries to India and the balance of payments support which is in the ambit of IMF responsibility was obliterated in 1991. There were bound to be far-reaching implications of this event, not only economic but also political, which have steadily and relentlessly unfolded in the nineties. The surveillance of the World Bank/IMF combine no longer covers only the policies and performance of the government in India which may be related to the servicing of their credits or the country’s balance of payments position. It has been extended to wider economic, social and political-strategic matters of concern to their principals. Management of the exchange policy, the financial sector and the tax system was at once brought under the direct guidance and surveillance of the World Bank/IMF combine. The political-strategic matters, in particular the government’s expenditure on defence and internal security too have tended, step-by-step to come under question.

Political alignments in India have not escaped the attention of foreign creditor either. The World Bank/IMF combine and their political controllers have made it clear that the release of credits managed by the two institutions which would influence the flows of private capital to India as well, would be contingent on a satisfactory responses of India to all these issues. This position became stark with sanctions enforced against India for conducting the nuclear tests. It is significant that the World Bank in its annual report this year has openly and squarely held political instability and the nuclear tests responsible for the slowdown of the rate of economic growth in India. This is a gross interference in the exclusive internal sovereign domain of the country. Both the World Bank and the IMF have also called for the speeding up of the implementation of the structural adjustment programme along the lines laid down for India in 1991.

The World Bank/IMF had worked hard on their plan for the structural adjustment of the Indian economy during the eighties. The increasing balance of payments difficulties at the close of the last decade gave them the opportunity to goad the minority Congress government to accept their plan unconditionally in the middle of 1991. The World Bank followed up at once with the fast disbursing credits in contrast to the leisurely, even lethargic, negotiations held earlier on the disbursement of project-linked development credits. A big indeed the primary, part of responsibility for delays and cost overruns in the implementation of development projects funded by World Bank credits too must be attributed to the detailed supervision of the World Bank bureaucracy that has strong linkages with contractors, consultants and suppliers of equipment in the developed countries. The foreign contractors and consultants were able to inflate the prices of their hardware as well as software for the developing countries under the rules of so-called global competitive bidding. This, among other factors, has been a made-to-order inefficiency in project implementation and the balance of payments problems in the developing countries.

The position in respect of new investment and its efficiency has become worse still after the structural adjustment of the economy supported by the so-called fast disbursing credits of the World Bank. While project-linked credits have tended to be under-utilised, the structural adjustment measures have given a strong cutting edge to the liberalisation of imports of consumption goods, technical and marketing services and capital goods that have exposed Indian industry and services and indigenous consumption goods to unfair competition.

It is remarkable that in conjunction with the launching of the structural adjustment programme for the Indian economy, the credit rating of India too was dramatically pulled down by international agencies to the low speculative grade which has not since been improved significantly. This has raised barriers in the way of borrowing abroad on fair terms or attracting direct foreign investments on a competitive basis. Special incentives and concessions have been demanded and given to foreign investors so that the cost of foreign investment and returns on it have been inflated. This has strong long-term inflationary potential with an aggravating influence on the balance of payments position as well.

A major pick-up in preferred exports of developed countries to the mid-level developing countries such as India is possible, normally speaking, only if there is demand for them in excess of what indigenous capacities and capabilities can supply. But conditions have now been created in which imports from the developed countries are preferred at the cost of indigenous supplies. The World Bank/IMF credits have played a significant role in bringing about this state of affairs. Imports at the cost of the under-utilisation of indigenous production capacities and supplies and not so much for productive purposes but for current consumption have grown relentlessly in the last decade.

It would not have been possible for foreign creditors to advance their aims to such extent by mere cajoling or arm-twisting. But the structural adjustment process has nurtured domestic vested interests in the Indian economy and polity which are inclined to collaborate with foreign creditors and investors. The question is whether their cooperative relationship based on a narrow and fragile social base can be smooth and can survive the mass discontent and political tensions, which have already developed and are likely further to develop in India as the adjustment process is sought to the pushed ahead. The dazzling but totally false promises of transfer of capital and technology for growth and modernisation of the Indian economy is not providing either the financial “safety net” or the “psychological assurances”, with which the foreign creditors and their collaborators had expected to sustain the structural adjustment programme. The burden of the structural adjustment process is too harsh and intolerable to be acceptable in a democratic India.

The Company Bahadur
by Sarabjit Singh

THE East India Company was the first multinational. Its operations extended to the Indian subcontinent. It’s CEOs included men like Warren Hastings and Robert Clive.

Like most multinationals the Company also expanded its operations to an unmanageable level and faced a series of problems, including a mutinous labour unrest in 1857, which took a long time, expense and casualties to control. The company management then underwent a change and it became a PSU whose CEO was Queen Victoria, probably the earliest woman CEO of such a vast enterprise in corporate history.

A century later the same scenario was replicated in the Northwestern part of India. We shall refer to this as the North West India Company. Its HQ was at North Block in Delhi. The liability of the Directors, members, executives and flunkies was — and is — limited and was discharged by their surrogate organisation also known as PP.

This Company Bahadur sent its various plenipotentiaries to this State starting from 1983. However, since they met with limited success and the native revolt got out of hand the Company opted for drastic measures. A 20th century Warren Hastings was sent. Like the Company residents of old he was ostensibly a Resident Adviser to the local potentate. Yet by virtue of superior statecraft he dominated the native armed force and in course of time toppled the local potentate (one SSB) and paved the way for direct company rule. The company’s Viceroy supported his general to the hilt. However, superannuation came in the way and the general was applied the Peter’s principle and kicked upstairs as Adviser.

Enter the company’s new general, a son of the soil, so to say, but the company’s man.

A tall intellectual with a distinctly earthy bottom streak, he slipped into his role and many more things quite easily. His policy of double promotion became the hallmark of this new Field Marshal. This was a strictly production-linked incentive bonus scheme and was easily quantifiable.

All good things come to an end. And like in the case of the East India Company our Company also underwent a drastic overhauling. A democratic system was implemented in the State and a new assembly formed which elected a new CEO i.e Chief Minister. The Viceroy became a Constitutional authority and the generalissimo (sometimes called the Governor General) was subordinated to the new CEO.

The CEO met an unfortunate end, for which, the generalissimo owned up the blame but was still axed a few months later. And like Warren Hastings of the East India Company who was punished by the Privy Council our Bottom of the Earth generilissimo was prosecuted on the orders of its Indian counterpart. He was awarded punishment by one of its minor courts for his soil related ways and after probationary penance reverted to the limelight through appearances on the idiot Box.

Genesis of Kargil was Lahore bus drive: Gujral

MR INDER Kumar Gujral needs no introduction. Born at Jhelum in West Pakistan on December 4, 1919 he did his post graduation in economics and is a product of the freedom struggle. He became a member of the Rajya Sabha in April, 1964, and since then has remained a respected Parliamentarian. Mrs Indira Gandhi handpicked him to handle the Parliamentary Affairs and Communications portfolios as Union Minister of State in March, 1967. He handled Information and Broadcasting, Works, Housing and Urban Development and later Planning portfolios under Mrs Gandhi before being made the Ambassador of India to the USSR with a Cabinet Minister’s rank in 1976. The fact that the Janata government which came into power in 1977 did not disturb him from Moscow explains the respect Mr Gujral commands cutting across party lines. He remains unattached to either of the Janata factions, and is not contesting in the present elections.

When the National Front Government was formed in 1989, Mr I.K. Gujral became the Minister for External Affairs. ‘K. VaidIyanathan’ of ‘newscribe’, met this elder statesman in his Purana Quila Road residence in New Delhi to know his mind on various issues confronting the nation. Excerpts:

Q: Don’t you agree that our political parties and politicians have converted democracy into a farce?

A: Democracy basically is the concern of the citizen about the quality of governance. It is not just what the elected people decide, as we interpret it. The process of democracy will automatically generate that consciousness among the people and the concern.

Q: Do you think people are genuinely concerned about the way the nation is being governed, or for that matter, about their democratic rights?

A: The recent example we had was Kargil. How come that people from Kashmir to Kanyakumari cutting across all barriers came forward to contribute their mite to the war effort. There was no appeal by the government nor did any political party go down collecting money. It only shows their concern for the nation. In such critical moments in the past also we have shown our capacity as a nation to rise above small and petty divisiveness to assert our freedom. That is democracy.

Q: In times of war the man at the helm automatically becomes a hero and no one dares to question him or challenge him. Though the nation stood behind the army and the government during the intrusions Vajpayee has not emerged as an undisputed leader like Mrs Indira Gandhi in 1972. Why?

A: The support was spontaneous, no doubt. But questions are being raised because we have matured as a democracy. In a crisis like this the Army becomes the symbol of unity because the jawans do not belong to this party or that party. The Army belongs to the nation and not to any individual or political party. If the focus was on the army and not on the person who was the Prime Minister at that time it only goes to prove that we have matured as a democracy.

Q: Don’t you agree that Kargil has exposed our weaknesses more than the strengths?

A: Crisis always exposes both your strength and the weaknesses. In a democracy sometimes crisis is useful because we realise our weaknesses only then. In the normal course the administration, the bureaucracy and the Press keeps away from the Army. Therefore, we do not know the shortcomings of our defence forces. That time will never come in the life when there is no weakness. We have realised, of course, at the cost of hundreds of soldiers, what are the areas where we are lacking in terms of arms, ammunition, facilities, armaments, shoes and compensation to the martyrs of war.

Q: But can India afford to indulge in such a costly exercise to know its shortcomings?

A: We should not but then we are helpless. Recently while I was in Russia a senior diplomat told me that America used Kosovo to test its new armaments. That was quite possible. It is very callous to say this. But the reality is only at the time of war an Army’s efficiency, equipment and the guns are tested. We had the Bofors gun. Only after the Kargil operations, the efficacy of the Bofors guns could be tested.

Q: Does that mean that we should upgrade our armed forces with modern weapons? Are we making enough allocations to meet their requirements?

A: We have been doing it and I can swear that we will not be found wanting in technology when it comes to war. We did use sophisticated missiles even in Kargil operations which was one of the major reasons for the success of our efforts. But at the same time, every developing country should strive for peaceful co-existence with the neighbour so that the defence budget could be reduced and in turn used for other developmental activities.

“Requirement is always relative. Much of it has been exaggerated but I don’t think there was any serious handicap for the army. We must also understand that the security of a nation is not the army alone. We have seen the plight of the USSR which had a mighty army but still the Soviet Union collapsed. You could buy the most sophisticated weapon in Moscow but not a banana or vegetable. Such a type of disparity must never come”.

Q: Don’t you agree that Pakistan has virtually killed the Gujral doctrine after the Kargil war?

A: Cold war has ended and nations are now thinking in terms of regional cooperation. European Union, ASEAN, unity efforts between Latin American nations and African countries are the order of the day. We must also think in terms of regional cooperation in our area by strengthening the unity among the SAARC countries. In this region we are the largest, economically developed and militarily the most powerful nation. Therefore, we have to play a more leading role in the region.

Q: When you want to play a leading role, will it be acceptable by others?

A: That is what I am coming to say. When I became the Foreign Minister in the 1989 National Front government, I found that our relations with all our neighbours were not cordial. We had imposed an embargo on Nepal. We had our Army in Sri Lanka. A tense relationship existed between us and Bangladesh on the issue of water. With Pakistan our relationship was at an all time low. This was India. Was it satisfactory? The first thing I did when I stepped into the External Affairs was to withdraw our forces from Sri Lanka. I removed all the embargoes on Nepal and entered into a treaty arrangement. Then we started dialogues with Bangladesh. In my entire approach I had always been saying that India was willing to enter into non-reciprocal arrangements.

Q: Can what applies for other neighbours apply for Pakistan also?

A: In certain respects, yes. India-Pakistan relationship is on an entirely different footing unlike our friendship with other countries in the region. In the case of Pakistan we were following a two-pronged policy. One was to accelerate the process of SAARC cooperation to create a free trade zone which received an instant cooperation from Pakistan. The idea was to evolve a South Asian Community like the European Community. The second approach was to give some unilateral concessions to Pakistan like visas for travel.

Q: How do you say that the strength of a nation does not essentially depend on its defence forces alone?

A: In modern days it is only the total concept of a nation matters. It’s internal cohesion, its prosperity, its democratic attitudes and so on form the part of a country’s defence. Time and again, whenever India had been challenged, it could cope with it primarily because our democratic society has developed in all the people a sense of responsibility and participation. It does not matter how much money is allocated to the defence.

Q: Would you call the Kargil operations a victory when we have only pushed back the intruders from our territory and the entire operations were within our side of the LoC?

A: Please remember that Pakistan has been defeated and has not withdrawn. Nawaz Shariff went to the USA and met Bill Clinton to seek a cover for his defeat. Indian opinion must never be under the impression that the militants have withdrawn. They have been pushed back and defeated. The Indian Army has performed a miracle. We have paid a heavy price in our martyrs and we should not belittle the sacrifice by calling it a withdrawal.

Q: What really prompted Pakistan to embark upon such a plan?

A: Firstly, they indulged in it as an adventure, which lacked planning and foresight. Secondly, thanks to technology, the satellites made it known to the world that they had intruded into our territory. Facts were very much in favour. This type of Talibanisation is causing anxiety not only to us but all over the world. That is what happened in Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan and recently in Algeria.

Q: As far as Kargil is concerned the wider question is how the borders were left unprotected to allow the infiltrators to enter. Was your government also responsible for the careless vigil on the borders?

A: I was trying to build good relationship with Pakistan but at the same time I was equally vigilant on the borders. On that score I was very careful. The whole thing is being criticised because of the elections. It is in the national interest to play it down even if there had been some lapses because we should never give a wrong impression to the Army. Such enquiries cannot be a public enquiry. Those enquiries can be used only for corrections for the future and should not be politicised.

Q: As a senior expert in foreign affairs, how do you view the issue of CTBT which the next government will be asked to address itself?

A: The CTBT is a complicated topic. One implication of the CTBT is that monitoring stations can be set up. Once you sign that, any other country that has signed can ask for inspection of your sites. We are over simplifying the issue. Even America has not finalised the issue to its satisfaction.

Q: How do you look at the electoral scheme?

A: I wish Kargil should not have been made an electoral issue. This became so because elections came in the midst of war. Again the government did not fall on any issue but because of lack of cohesiveness with the ruling coalitions. Therefore, parties are in search of an issue. Kargil has, therefore, become an issue and it is already there.

Q: How do you look at the foreign national issue of Mrs Sonia Gandhi which has already split the Congress (I)?

A: It is non-issue. It is unfortunate that it has been raised. She is the elected president of a political party. The party has placed the trust in her. There is nothing that she has done to question her commitment to India. To raise such issue to take on her is like hitting a person below the belt. To ask why Mrs Sonia Gandhi did not take Indian citizenship immediately after the marriage has no meaning because sometimes it takes time to come to a decision. One might then go on to demand why she was not born in India. Why did not the BJP shelve the contentious issues right from the beginning? Indian democratic maturity demands that we should fight on programmes without personalising issues.

Q: Why is it that you have not made your stand clear as to whether you should align with the Janata Dal (United) or the Janata Dal (Secular)?

A: Reason is simple. I am watching the situation and am not able to take a decision because the split has occurred on the basis of local situations in Bihar and Karnataka. It is not correct that I did not join the Sharad Yadav group because he could not ensure my candidature from Jalandhar. No. I have had my innings and it is time that I retired from electoral politics. Let the elections be over and till such time let me watch the developments.

75 YEARS AGO

September 29, 1924
The Muslim Party in the Assembly

WHILE there is nothing in the professed aims and objects of the proposed Muslim Party in the Assembly, to which it is necessary to take exception.

We are among those who think that the present is not the time for the multiplication of parties on a communal basis, but rather for the closing of ranks and for the formation of parties of Hindus and Mussalmans with common political objects.

Communalism is already so rampant in the country that it needs no emphasis. Emphasis should rather be laid on curbing the forces of communalism and accentuating those of nationalism.