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Sunday,
October 28, 2001, Chandigarh, India  
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The
changing face of terrorism: The
CIA’s one billion dollar job |
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Triple
divorce should be abolished Asghar Ali Engineer THE Christian divorce law is being amended. It was quite outdated and heavily loaded in favour of man since it was enacted by the British Government in 19th century. Today women, especially urban women are quite educated and conscious of their rights. They are no more ready to accept laws heavily loaded in favour of men, be they secular laws or be they practised in the name of religion. Tackling anthrax
Info gap
leaves many red faces in BJP
Humra Quraishi
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The changing face of terrorism: A global view THE concept and nature of classical terrorism is being re-shaped in the modern era. There is an ongoing “Revolution in Terrorist Affairs” (RTA) due to the impact of modern technology, globalisation and the proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD). However, the classical definition of terrorism and its causal factors continue to have the same historical roots as hither-to-fore. As we transcend the new millennium, we can marginally see the transformation in the changing nature and shades of terrorism. The ongoing evolution of operational philosophy of terrorist groups, now appears to be even encompassing the upper limit of the spectrum of violence ranging from the lower level of sub-nationalism, ideological fundamentalism and to the extreme end of transnational state sponsored terrorism precipitating, may be into a WMD related threat in a future scenario. Terrorism means intimidation by the ‘systematic use of violence’ as a means of both governing and opposing existing governments. The current western usage has restructured the sense, on purely ideological grounds, to the retail violence of those who oppose the established order. Historically speaking, one can trace certain aspects of the traits of terrorism to the ancient civilisations of Greece and Rome. Even the Vedas and Mahabharat have glimpses of terrorist acts. It thrives on fear psychosis. By manipulating fear in a special way, terrorists have always been able to effect human behaviour in a fashion disproportionate to their effort. All violence, as Hannah Arendt has reminded us, is unpredictable. Unlike power, force or strength, violence is always applied with unforeseeable effects. The turn of the century has distinctly seen a resurgence of religious (Islamic) oriented terrorist groups (like Taliban etc) giving the essence of a Pan Islamic agenda. The terrorist groups’ intellectual and spiritual role model have been a gallery of heroes featuring Marx, Lenin, Trotsky, Sorel, Marighella, Mao, Giap, Fanon, Marcuse, Malcolm X, Guevara, Debray, and Guillen and now Osama bin Laden. At the global level, the classical definition of terrorism and the causal factors bear the same roots as over the centuries. However, what is perceptually changing is the nature of terrorism and its tools due to multifarious factors. The new millennium is ushering in many scientific revolutions. Simultaneously, after the demise of the Soviet Union, there is a new world order, which is emerging and causing reconfigurations in international alignment, coupled with the proliferation of WMD technology. For example, there are no more (few?) communist sponsors for Leftist movements. There is yet another phenomenon of the revival of societal and religious fundamentalism tending to culminate towards the theory of civilisation related clashes. This in turn is causing neo-religious fanaticism which is transcending state boundaries and polarising nations based on religious cultures. (The same philosophy can be traced to the times of Ismailis-Nizari, who operated from 1090 to 1275 with the view of Islamist extremists’ purified version of Islam). There is yet another linkage to this phenomenon, i.e. the challenge to nations for maintaining their strategic autonomy. This is causing an organisational backlash by a religious community, causing accentuation of ad hoc radical fundamentalism like the attack by the Islamic group on New York’s World Trade Center. However, this phenomenon does not hold theoretically when applied in areas other than West Asia and Asia. The new millennium, which has been blessed by a Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA), is also augmenting the potential of the new ‘high-tech’ terrorists. To properly understand the decisional calculus of terrorist groups, we must identify certain core issues and attributes. Is there a particular attribute common to all terrorists groups, or is there significant variation from one group to another? If it can be determined that many or all terrorist groups actually share a basic hierarchy of wants, a general strategy of ‘Counter-WMD-Terrorist Operations’ (CWMDTO) can begin to be shaped. Alternatively, if significant variation in preference orderings can be detected between terrorist groups, myriad strategies of an individually tailored nature will have to be identified. A panorama of global terrorism hotpots and their analysis will show the pattern giving the existing gradation of terrorist infested continents. Globalisation is making WMD terrorism a looming threat in today’s society, necessitating mock response practice. (Even cyber-terrorism is being categorised as a potential next millennium threat). Osama bin Laden has declared war on the USA. His involvement in the ongoing terrorist attacks in the Asian region is well known. In 1989, scholar on terrorism Robert H. Kupperman gave a foreboding assessment: “Speculation about whether terrorist groups would ever dare to use extreme weaponry such as nuclear explosives or biological, chemical or radiological agents that can inflict mass destruction is often dismissed as sensationalist. It is argued that the lack of availability of nuclear materials and the universal horror surrounding the use of chemical or biological weapons would deter their use. The unfortunate reality is that the materials for such weapons have proliferated widely, that the expertise required is actually within their grasp, and that horror is the name of the terrorism game”. The subject got validated very soon, after AumShinrikyo’s 1995 poison gas attack in Tokyo, when media coverage ensured that policy makers and the public could hardly avoid it. Much of what was said had doomsday overtones. For example, expert Walter Laqueur stated that some terrorists “almost certainly will” use WMD, and a Harvard study accentuated the country’s vulnerability to unconventional terrorism attack, concluding that thousands of people could perish in a bio-terrorist attack and many could meet similar fate in the case of a chemical attack. The tools that terrorists applied earlier were of the conventional variety as they had to keep their popular support intact. Minimum casualty has been their forte. As Brian Jenkins’ well-known saying goes, “terrorists want a lot of people watching, not a lot of people dead”. Terrorists, it seemed, observed certain ethical boundaries. In the words of a student of terrorist behavior, “terrorism has traditionally used relatively unsophisticated weapons in a limited number of ways to inflict relatively little damage”. Another authority on terrorism offers the reminder that terrorism “is not about killing. It is a form of psychological warfare in which the killing of a small number of people convinces the rest of us that we are next in line”. Even though terrorists did some shocking things, scholars could ascribe an element of predictability to terrorism. For this analogy, many can still argue that the common terrorist will not cross the threshold of WMD terrorism unless it is supported by a state for political reasons. Proliferation of biological agents and use of bio-technology for military or terrorist purpose is an issue of concern. Such technologies will make warfare anonymous and essentially dangerous for human civilisation. The covert delivery of such systems would be very easy. Even terrorist carrying such agents cannot be detected by the current international detection systems in international airports. Therefore, a massive funding is required towards this end. The deduction in summation, which emerge so as to ground and concretise the threat in South Asia are as follows: (i) The psychology of religion based terrorist is more prone to use WMD tool of terrorism. Moreover, it gets the moral backing of the clerics. (ii) In the aftermath of breaking of the Soviet Union and the existence of a nuclear infrastructure, proliferation and pilferage of nuclear weapons (tactical) and fissile material in the hands of such groups cannot be ruled out. (iii) Existing terrorist structures make the following groups amenable to enact a WMD act in the following priority: Osama bin Laden, LTTE, other pan Islamic groups, especially Lashkar-e-Toiba and even Hamas (out of South Asian region). (iv) It is feasible for terrorist groups to procure technology and construct chemical weapons and even bio-weapons in a future scenario, may be by 2005-10. (The chemical and the bio-black markets are proliferating. State support would further complicate the issue.) However, use of chemical weapon is more likely in comparison due to simplicity in its handling. And (v) It may be possible to construct crude nuclear weapons in a future scenario. However, such a terrorist group would need expertise/state support. With empowerment of citizens, rising aspirations, the suffusion of consumerism and easy availability of dual-use technology, we are going to see the emergence of “techno-terrorists”, who will take resort to sophisticated means of violence to hurt society by use of WMD. Nuclear terrorism and the use of chemical and biological agents are commonly bracketed as WMD. To this can be added cyber terrorism and eco-terrorism. As the concept of no war in its classic Clausewitzian form becomes increasingly irrelevant, we are going to experience greater frequency of sub-conventional forms of conflict. In the event war does occur the adversary could take resort to the use of WMD through terrorists and information warfare weapons. It is in order for an adversary to employ covertly hired terrorist organisations or even its special forces as force multipliers, to support attacks during the command and control and critical infrastructure, destruction phase, the purpose being to cause strategic dislocation. For example, the efficacy of terrorism as a state instrument may fetch more results than conventional high technology. Conventional operations in Kosovo have opened the debate on the relevance and method of such operations, which may have been less catastrophe oriented, had they been planned by employing cyber, information, and covert terrorist operations, even hired, who would have addressed and neutralised the command and control structure without collateral damage including loss of life. The writer, a retired Colonel, is Fellow, Institute of Defence Studies and Analyses, New Delhi. |
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The CIA’s one billion dollar job THERE must be lots of laughter and good cheer at the Central Intelligence Agency. ‘Happy days are here again’, the personnel from the Department of Dirty Tricks (DDT) must be singing. The CIA can now kill without fear. The Big Chief had spoken. President Bush wants Osama bin Laden’s head. Better dead than alive. This was because if Laden was captured, put on trial and finally executed, every single day of his custody will create new problems for his captors. Planes could be hijacked, suicide bombers sent on action, leaders kidnapped and held to ransom. No one can effectively police the entire world against the supporters of the fanatic. The killing job has been given to the CIA and the budget is a whopping one billion dollars. Money-wise and ‘prestige’ wise this must be the plummest job which had landed on the CIA lap. One billion dollars in the kitty and no questions asked. Well, even traditional foes like Fidel Castro, Saddam Hussein and Col. Quaddhafi did not merit such a bonanza. There had been some kind of inherent revulsion in the American democracy over the cold blooded killings of foreign leaders. The US Congress had banned such a move for years and the CIA was forbidden assassination attempts. Of course, US agents had killed leaders of nations which did not see eye to eye with America on many issues. But public pressure and high level media publicity prompted Congress to act on this issue. Intelligence agencies all over the world never had any qualms about killings, both at home and abroad. The Israeli intelligence agency MOSSAD seldom spared Arab enemies it had targeted and many of its efforts were messy. Yet, the Israeli government always supported its actions and saw to it that the media did not get access to the details of the killings. Both in fact and fiction, British agents killed without any scruples. James Bond, agent 007, whose section was licensed to kill, was not purely out of imagination. His creator Ian Fleming knew a thing or two about the operation of the British secret services. In Frederick Forsyth’s gripping thriller, ‘The Day of the Jackal’, enemies of General De Gaulle, settled for a British assassin to try and kill the French President. They did not recruit any one from the US nor seek the help of some former CIA agents. Perhaps, the men who were after De Gaulle’s blood, knew about the history of CIA botching up its killings. When the CIA was created as the OSS at the end of World War II, it was meant as a spying agency. The allies were still on friendly terms with the Soviet Union but the facade was cracking up fast. The Soviets wanted large chunks of Europe for their war booty and the allies had to concede most of the demands. It was certain that the Soviet Union, war time friend and ally, would turn into a bitter rival and enemy. The OSS had its job cut out. While spying on the Soviet Union and the ‘Yellow Peril’ China were the major jobs of the CIA, it had to be very active nearer home, in Latin America. Highly volatile, the region had attained notoriety for never ending military coups with one tin pot military dictator succeeding another. At the height of the Cold War, the USA never bothered about the niceties of the democratic system. Any military dictator in the region who declared himself an anti-Communist was favoured despite the ruthlessness he exhibited towards his people. Since successive governments in the USA have regarded Latin America as their own backyard, any type of friendship with the USSR was frowned upon. The CIA’s spy operations were active in the region. Some of the dictators and military hot shots who failed to toe the US line were eliminated by the CIA which had a field day during this time. Woe to the Latin American leader who cared for his people and was prepared to accept Soviet aid. The CIA brought about the death of Chile’s Marxist President, Salvadore Allende, a true democrat at heart. For decades, Cuba, under its maverick president, Fidel Castro, thumbed its nose at the Big Bully next door. The CIA-engineered ‘Bay of Pigs’ invasion failed miserably and President John Kennedy, who was new to the White House, never trusted the agency again. Undaunted, the CIA tried again and again to assassinate President Castro. Some of the plans, like concealing an explosive in his favourite Havana cigars, were quite bizarre but the agency seldom learnt to differentiate between what was possible and what was just a fantasy. The agency also played an important role in Africa plotting the death of Patrice Lumumba, who for the first time realised the problems of impoverished people of Congo. His mistake was aligning too closely with the Soviets. The CIA actively backed large numbers of cut-throat Belgian mercenaries recruited from Belgium which never approved of a free Congo. Throughout the bloody Vietnam War, the CIA had no qualms over the killing of thousands of Viet Cong supporters adopting bizarre means of execution. Once it forced down a plane load of Viet Cong suspects into the open sea! The Vietnam defeat and the blood thirsty actions of the agency, perhaps, influenced the American administration to control some of the wilder elements in the agency. One of the rulings was the ban on the assassination attempts of foreign leaders. Perhaps, the US administration was alarmed at the blunders of the CIA and the resultant bad publicity. While the media highlighted these blunders, thousands of books, films and TV shows glorified the ‘G’ Men (FBI personnel) and the CIA agents. Secret agents were endowed with superhuman powers and were portrayed as invincible. Unfortunately, the USA had no one like John Le Carre who, in his brilliant novels, rubbished the aura surrounding the service and showed that it was ridden with factionalism, incompetence, greed and inter-departmental rivalry. The Military Intelligence was ready to sacrifice people in operations where the only ‘benefit’ was the extra funding and the allocation of additional cars! Human lives, even those of its personnel, had no value. The USA had Nick Carter for whom the agents were super men! Right wing elements in the US which had supported unlimited funds and power for the CIA, argued that it was turned into a toothless tiger because of adverse publicity and the recruitment of ‘Eastern liberals’ from Ivy League colleges. These men were more into the theory of spying and did not order executions at the slightest excuse. The right wing American leadership wanted hard-headed, anti-Communist professionals who would not baulk at killings at the slightest whim. Someone with the image of a John Wayne, the Hollywood actor and super patriot! President Bush whose father former President George Bush, was once head of the CIA must be aware of these facts. That was why, while endowing the responsibility of killing bin Laden at a budget of one billion dollars, he clarified that he was willing to risk failure in the pursuit of ultimate victory, even if there were some embarrassing set backs in the individual operations. The CIA, of course, had worked closely with bin Laden and the Taliban while over throwing the Communist regime in Afghanistan during the late 1970’s. At that time, the enigmatic Laden was a kind of folk hero to the Americans. No one questions the might of the CIA. It has unlimited funds and the latest gadgets in technology, even assassination technology. But in this case, it had to operate against the native cunning of a well-entrenched enemy who is enveloped in a religious halo. Bin Laden has been on the run for quite sometime. Reading spy thrillers one understood the role of moles, double or triple agents. There are rumours that bin Laden has several doubles. Will the CIA get at the right bin Laden? We have to wait and see. The CIA must have found out that elimination of political leaders was not all that difficult. They operated on well known terrain, not in caves and bunkers in an unfriendly territory. Can the CIA penetrate the hard core Taliban network which is prepared to die for and with its charismatic leader? In its new assignments, the CIA had caught by its tail, a most ferocious tiger! |
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Triple divorce should be abolished THE Christian divorce law is being amended. It was quite outdated and heavily loaded in favour of man since it was enacted by the British Government in 19th century. Today women, especially urban women are quite educated and conscious of their rights. They are no more ready to accept laws heavily loaded in favour of men, be they secular laws or be they practised in the name of religion. Today there is great need for all personal laws to be made gender just in spirit. What are supposedly religious laws they were either made by men in those days or even if based on scripture or religious tradition, it is nothing but interpretation by men. The Qur’anic laws for women are highly just. Not only that woman was recognised by the Qur’an, for the first time, as a legal entity which was just unthinkable 1400 years ago. Islam thus was the first religion, which gave right to women to marriage, to divorce and in inheritance. For marriage her approval in presence of two adult witnesses was made compulsory and that too with right invested in her to stipulate conditions which included demanding dower money (mehr) as high as she wanted (it could be even equal to the heap of gold, according to the Qur’an). Similarly, she was given right to divorce which is absolute (referred to in the Qur’an in verse 2:229). But it has been so interpreted by male jurists so as to make husband’s consent necessary even for Khula’ divorce. Recently, President Husni Mubarak moved a bill in Egyptian Parliament to give this right of Khula’ to women but the traditional ‘Ulama showed stiff opposition on grounds that it would destabilise families since women are emotional and make hasty decisions. Triple divorce in one sitting in fact was pre-Islamic practice, which was highly loaded against women. It was used by pre-Islamic men to terrorise women and to keep them in a state of fear. The Prophet prohibited it as the hadith of Rukkana shows. When some one gave triple divorce in one sitting and the Prophet came to know of it he was so angry that his face turned red with anger and he said he was playing with the law of Allah in my own life time. Unfortunately, despite all this, the practice of triple divorce came back in Islamic shari’ah due to various reasons not to be discussed here. The Qur’an has given the most modern concept of arbitration before divorce in case of dispute between husband and wife. Thus the Qur’an says, “And if you fear breach between the two, an arbiter from his people (i.e. husband’s people) and an arbiter from her people. If they both desire agreement, Allah will effect harmony between them.” (4:35). It is unfortunate that such a clear Qur’anic injunction which is just both for husband and wife is not being implemented by our “Ulama in India. Hazrat ‘Ali was of the opinion that the decision of the arbitrators would be binding on the Qadi. President Ayub Khan made it applicable in Pakistan through Muslim Family Law Ordinance in 1962, which is being followed both in Pakistan and Bangladesh. Jordan, which is a Sunni Hanafi country, has also implemented this verse on arbitration and has abolished triple divorce in one sitting altogether because it is so unjust to women. It is also to be noted that there is no unanimity on triple divorce in one sitting even among Sunni Muslims themselves, let alone Shi’ as, Isma ili and other Muslims. Among Sunni Muslims Hanbalis and Malikis as well as Ahl-e-Hedith do not accept triple divorce. They consider it only one and if husband wants, he can take his wife back after it. Ibn Taymiyyah, an eminent medieval jurist wrote a volume arguing against triple divorce. Thus it is high time that triple divorce is abolished in India also. Many Muslim women are suffering because of this form of arbitrary divorce in which wife has no say at all. The husband pronounces triple divorce and wife is out from husband’s house. Islamic law can never be so unjust and totally arbitrary. Now there is increasing pressure from educated urban Muslim women on the Muslim Personal Law Board to reform the law. In a conference in April in Delhi, large number of Muslim women spoke against this practice and demanded change in the law. It was difficult for the Muslim Personal Law Board to defend the practice. The Christian women themselves took the initiative and convinced the church leaders to amend the outdated Christian Divorce Law. There is no doubt Christian women are more educated than Muslim women. But now more and more Muslim women are also getting educated and becoming more and more conscious about women’s rights. Thus it would be increasingly difficult for the Personal Law Board to stand by triple divorce. As time passes the demand will be voiced from various Muslim women fora. The wisdom lies in anticipating the future and initiating constructive dialogue with Muslim women’s organisations and preparing a draft law banning triple divorce and strictly regulating polygamy. This purpose can also be served by codifying the Muslim Personal Law. Unfortunately, even today, it is mostly based on colonial court’s judgements and Baily’s and Mulla’s books on Muslim law. What is being enforced in India in the name of Islamic law is essentially an Anglo-Muhammaden law enacted by the British rulers. The first attempt was made in 1937 to codify Muslim law through enactment of dissolution of Muslim Marriage Act. An eminent Muslim jurist Maulana Ashraf Thanavi and other ‘Ulama had taken initiative as many Muslim women were facing sever problem due to disappearance of their husbands without trace. According to the Hanafi law they had to wait for 90 years before getting divorce. To mitigate their woes, this Act was enacted and since Maliki law allowed waiting of only four years it was adopted and many other grounds were included for dissolution of Muslim marriage. This Act of 1937 provided great relief to those suffering women. There is great need today to codify the Muslim law and provide relief to suffering Muslim women on account of triple divorce. The Hanbali law does not recognise triple divorce and same can be adopted as the Maliki law was adopted for dissolution of Muslim marriage in 1937. Abolition of triple divorce will provide great relief to Muslim women. The Qur’anic concept of arbitration can be enforced. A hadith cannot overrule Qur’an, Qur’an can certainly overrule hadith and that too a hadith which is not accepted unanimously by all Muslims. The Qur’anic concept of divorce is most modern and does full justice to women. |
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Tackling
anthrax Anthracinum is the nosode of the abominable and infectious disease ‘anthrax’. A dose of its homoeopathic dilution (potency 200 or above) prevents one from the attack of the disease. It needs to be repeated where the number of sufferers of the disease soars high, but not before a week. A reproductive cell of anthrax can be killed by boiling it for ten minutes. As some countries have been receiving packets of powder, suspected to contain spores of anthrax, the following precautions need to be taken to escape from anthrax. One, we should not touch the packet. Either margosa (neem) oil should be applied to the exposed body surface or a pair of tongs can be used to take it from one place to another. Rubber gloves, can also be used. Two, a simple and easy way of tackling the problem is to burn the packet. And three, those who have touched the outer part of the packet/s may take ‘Anthracinum’ as above. They could also take a course of antibiotics like penicillin, tetracycline, chloramphenicol, erythromycin or straptomycin on medical advice. The packet should neither be thrown into any canal, lake or river nor buried. Initial symptoms of attack of anthrax are mild fever, headache, uneasiness and an ulcer surrounded by abnormal accumulation of fluid in inter-celluer spaces. Generally, anthracinum cures this condition. If the patient has many ulcers coupled with high fever and weakness and if antibiotics appear to be failing, then a high dose of homoeopathic medicine Pyrogen (potency 200 or above) will help. Inchoherent relationship between temperature and pulse rate (i.e. though the temperature is high, pulse is abnormally slow) confirms the symptom of this dose. Gun powder is another homoeopathic system of medicine which can be used for treating anthrax. Septicaemia (a morbid condition due to presence and reproduction of pathogenic bacteria in the blood) could be easily cured by potencised gun powder. A low potency of six, repeated twice or thrice a day, will help. It can co-exist with any other medication. Anthrax phobia can also be cured by its nosode ‘anthracinum’. One should avoid infected semi-cooked meat. |
Ambassador Khalili’s
passport saved his life GRIEVOUSLY
injured but miraculously survived Afghanistan’s Ambassador to India, Masood Khalili, is back on his job in New Delhi. The powerful explosion triggered by two suicide bombers, posing as television journalists, killed 49-year old Commander Ahmed Shah Masood, military head of the anti-Taliban alliance, known as Northern Alliance and his spokesman. Only a day before Commander Masood had requested Ambassador Khalili, his close aide and friend, to be present in an interview he had granted to the TV journalists. Khalili, like Gen. Masood, was injured in the blast but the lion of Panjshir valley succumbed to his injuries and his friend, though equally seriously wounded, survived. Ambassador Khalili is the only eye-witness to the dastardly blast. Call it a quirk of destiny, he was, coincidentally, in Khodja Bahauddin town in Takhar province that fateful day — September 9 -- and asked to join the TV interview. “I was only reborn 45 days back”, says envoy of ousted Burhanuddin Rabbani’s government having embassies in India and several other countries and still holding a seat in the United Nations. During his long tenure in New Delhi Ambassador Khalili has made many friends in Delhi’s press corps. Robust in health before he left to keep his tryst with destiny at the sleepy town of Khodja Bahauddin, Fifty-three-year Khalili was virtually a vegetable when he came in a wheel chair to address his first press conference last Thursday. His right leg has been disabled following surgery five times and the left has received countless stitches. It may take another six months for him to be on his legs. According to the Ambassador he lost 95 per cent of sight in the right eye and hearing power of the right ear badly impaired. Having undergone treatment in Germany he has just returned to India. Mentally as alert and sharp as ever, he is now more determined to fight terrorism. He squarely holds Osama-bin Laden and his Al-Quida network responsible for attack on Commander Masood and himself. “I and my people have been fighting against the terrorism of the type let loose of Osama”, he says. Khalili says insistence of Commander Masood that “I should keep my thick leather bound passport in my left pocket, close to my heart, saved my life”. The commander saw the leather covering of the passport and said: “it is beautiful; insisted shortly before the fateful interview that I should keep it in my left pocket. Later my wife found eight sharpeners stuck in the pages. Had I not kept the passport close to my chest, I would have been dead by now”. Khalali cannot erase from his mind the face of Commander Masood before he (Ambassador) fainted. “I will never forget my friend’s bloodstained face”. His last words, perhaps, were: “Is Fahim around ask him to takeover”. Gen. Fahim has now succeeded Commander Masood. The Ambassador recalls that the assassin had tied one bomb -- laden belt to his wait and another strapped inside the huge TV camera with big lenses. He had a “nasty” smile of his face. His limbs were torn apart after the blast; the leg going in one direction and the hand in the other. The two interviewers, stocky, short and blue eyed had waited for fifteen days to have an audience with Commander Masood . “An unsuspecting Commander, always decent to journalist, did not want them to wait more and called them in”, the Afghan Envoy said. Asked to identify themselves, they said they belonged to Islamic centre in Europe. They submitted a list containing 15 questions and one related to Osama; “Why do you call Osama a killer ? Is he not serving the cause of Islam? Khalili has been an staunch anti-Taliban and reacted sharply when Bamyan Buddhas were demolished. He had blamed the fundamentalists groups in Pakistan and the Arab world for provoking Taliban’s decision. “The Taliban had decided to embark upon this vandalism under the influence of some fanatic groups in Pakistan and other Arab countries”, he said, stressing “heritage is no one’s domain. It belongs to humanity. The tallest Buddhas in the world have been standing there for over 1,500 years and are of the country’s rich cultural heritage”. Khalili has himself been brought up in rich cultural traditions. Son of the famous Afghan point Mahmoud Khalili, he joined the Jamiat-e Islami party in his young days. After the fall of Kabul to Mujahiddin in 1992, he held various jobs in the Rabbani government. Since capture of Kabul by the Taliban in 1996, he has been serving as the deposed government’s Ambassador to India. |
Info gap leaves many red faces in BJP NEVER has a comment made in jest provoked so many red faces. Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, who is in his elements these days, took a dig at top managers of the BJP for poor handling of the golden jubilee celebration of the party. He was upset that he was not called for the flag-hoisting ceremony at the Jana Sangh- BJP function. In fact he used the occasion to highlight the communication gap between the BJP and the Government. The observation led to many faces turning red in the party, particularly BJP President Jana Krishnamurthy. The latter regretted the observation and pointed out that there was no lapse on the part of the party. The BJP had informed the Prime Minister’s office about the function. When Vajpayee realised that the goof-up was at his end, he promptly blamed the media for it. He said media reports about his remarks about a communication gap between BJP and the Government was exaggerated. He clarified that the BJP was not to blame as his office had the entire information. Only the information did not reach him. Now who is to blame?
Unknown dynasty Mediapersons were looking with askance at each other when names of a six-member delegation to China were announced at the BJP headquarters the other day. While five members, including the leader of the delegation Bhairon Singh Shekhawat were well known, the sixth Narpat Singh Rajvi was a surprise inclusion. Word soon went around about Rajvi who? A party member was hardly useful when he merely mentioned that Rajvi’s inclusion shows that even the BJP is suffering from the dynastic malaise that had affected the opposition Congress for several decades now. The import of his remarks became clear when it was clarified by party sources that Rajvi was included at the behest of the former Rajasthan Chief Minister Bhairon Singh Shekhawat. Shekhawat, the BJP old war horse from Rajasthan and a confidante of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, was keen to groom his successor and Rajvi was none other than his son-in-law, a senior leader pointed out. They also added in the same vein that the western state of Rajasthan has deep rooted royal traditions. Is the country going to see a clash of the bahu and jamai in the political arena in the future?
Big B campaign The return of the prodigal son, Amitabh Bachchan, to his birthplace in Allahabad the other day generated much interest not only in the town but the entire Uttar Pradesh. It was not unusual to see the people of Allahabad giving a rousing welcome to ‘Chora Ganga kinare wala’. However, what was unusual was the presence of Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav at the function. This fuelled speculation whether the Bollywood megastar would also campaign for the party which is yet not confident of winning the coming Assembly elections. Though Big B subseqently denied media reports regarding his comeback to politics, a little bird tells us that industrialist turned politician Amar Singh has assured his political master that not only will the megastar campaign for the Samajwadi Party but also help facilitate an understanding with the Congress which alone would ensure Mulayam Singh Yadav the Chief Minister’s chair in Lucknow.
Rampaging youth For the BJP that takes pride in talking about its disciplined cadres, the conduct of its student wing is more than shocking. Although the Bharatiya Janta Yuva Morcha claimed to have issued a circular forbidding delegates from smoking, tobacco chewing and sight-seeing to all BJYM State presidents and party presidents before the recent two-day convention at Agra, the vandalism at Taj Mahal proved clear defiance. The convention acclaimed to be the largest gathering of youth activists of a political party since Independence, made lead news for all the wrong reasons. Hooting, shouting and eve-teasing evoked a suo motu cognisance of the incident by the Supreme Court. The activists took advantage of free entry to the monument as the convention coincided with Shah Jahan Urs. The party’s crisis managers have not yet been able to counter the criticism through any damage control exercise.
WTO blues The Indian Government is jittery about the forthcoming WTO ministerial meet at Doha. It realises that the meet is going to leave the opposition with ample ammunition to attack the Government in the winter session of Parliament. That is the reason that the Government has tried to evolve a consensus for the meet by taking the entire polity into confidence. There is even a Cabinet Committee on the WTO, chaired by the Prime Minister, which is looking at the issues that are likely to emerge at the meet. On the face of it, the Government has said that it would oppose any fresh round of negotiations at the WTO and insist on resolving the implementation issues first. Easier said than done. There is a section within the Government which feels that it would be the major trading powers that would call the shots and India has to be prepared for the worst. Even within the cabinet, it is understood the External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh wanted the Government to give some flexibility to the negotiators. Union Commerce Minister Murasoli Maran himself went public in an interview to a daily that India’s case was as good as lost at the WTO meet. Officials in the Commerce Ministry were at a loss to explain on what prompted the Minister to say that. They did not know in what frame of mind the Minister had said that and they were not even sure whether he had been quoted correctly. To add insult to injury, the US embassy here was quick to react to Maran’s interview and they welcomed India’s changed perception. In fact they called it a step forward for both the countries. Not heard from Maran after that.
Sukhbir’s successor It is a different matter that Sukhbir Singh Badal has yet to don the political mantle of his father Parkash Singh Badal. But there is already talk of a successor for Badal junior. The talk has been prompted by the arrival of a new born at the Sukhbir household here. After two daughters, Badal junior is the proud father of a son. Contributed by T.V. Lakshminarayan, Satish Misra and Tripti Nath. |
Widening disparities among religious groups WHAT can be termed as a post-September 11 development is that we have begun to talk .Yes, talk and discuss. Talk about the whys -- why more and more people are becoming frustrated, which in turn is leading them up the path of violence. Talking to several West Asian diplomats posted here one gets the impression that though their governments are trying to put up a neutral front (where the US and its allies are concerned) the masses are simmering with anti-US sentiments. As a senior diplomat told me last month, the long list of terrorists is partly a result of the US policies and double speak vis-a-vis Iraq and Palestine. “In the occupied territories, our children are treated worse than street dogs...the stones that they throw in sheer frustration is matched by rockets and bulldozers ...every single family is affected and the anger has to vent itself ...” At the SAHMAT organised anti-war and anti-US meet last Saturday several speakers from the who’s who category spoke of the disasters round the corner in our own country if the doublespeak of these politicians is allowed to carry on any further. Whilst some like Shabana Azmi voiced their views rather openly, others like Sharmila Tagore did so with the help of popular verse. But the planners of the country should not raise their shoulders to shrug off responsibility vis-a-vis the imminent disaster. When the National Council of Applied Economics Research senior economist Abusaleh Shariff had compiled the report on the economic state of the human beings in rural India, the disparities came to the forefront (disparities vis-a-vis religious groups, communities, rural and urban classes). Shariff had then told me that most of these disparities have either been caused by political or historical reasons. The findings of that report continue to haunt: about half the rural population is illiterate and suffers from poverty and about 40 per
cent have poor income, only 43 per cent households have domestic lighting, only 25 per cent have access to tap water, only 33 per cent utilise the public distribution system ...the relatively poor spend disproportionately large amounts on health and education. For example, those who are in the lower segment below the poverty line spend as much as 19 per cent of their annual income on healthcare alone ...” His team’s findings vis-a-vis the largest minority group of the country could settle some notions getting circulated by this Right Wing government. I quote from this report dated March 8,1998 entitled `Relative socio-economic deprivation of Indian Muslims’: “The Indian Censuses and government controlled NSSO surveys are good sources of socio-economic data but they are not made easily available largely due to political reasons. Official sources do not make available estimates which can highlight social and economic backwardness among various religious groups... the
distribution of population according to ‘monthly per capita expenditure’ class is a good indicator of relative levels of living. Accordingly about 53 per cent of Muslims fall into the category of less
than Rs 160 MPCE, this percentage was only 36 among the Hindus. Overall the Head Count Poverty and Capability Poverty ratios are considerably higher for the Muslims compared with the all India average and the caste Hindus. The percentage of population below poverty line is 43 for Muslims compared with only 32 for caste Hindus and 39 for the whole population...however the relative position of Muslims is better compared with SCs and STs who are at the lowest levels in many spheres of economic indicators ...relative levels of income and also human development among the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes are the least in rural India...” Before I move any further, I must make mention of another report which when published could make one ponder at our ineffectiveness in trying to counter the damage the visual media is making vis-a-vis members of minority communities \groups and the backlash that could directly or indirectly come about . Srinagar’s newly appointed Divisional Commissioner Parvez Dewan had been working for several years on how the media has been responsible for stereotyping communities. Based on the visual media (films, serials, television programmes), his findings state that “the Muslims are getting increasingly portrayed as dons, Christian women as though they’re all miniskirted and easy to get a hold of and Christian men as alcoholics, tribal women as though forever bathing and sitting near river banks...” I could go on and on with the details of Dewan’s findings but the curx is that this image of minority groups/communities seems to be suiting this government, otherwise it is time it asked for a change in this biased portrayal and present a more authentic picture of the minority groups of the country. |
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Harihar Swarup
