O P I N I O N S

EDITORIALS

Land grab in Haryana
Helping builders is ‘public purpose’
The Supreme Court has stopped construction activity on land acquired for developing some sectors of the Kalka-Pinjore urban complex in Haryana’s Panchkula district. Farmers of the area have moved the apex court after the Punjab and Haryana High Court dismissed their petition challenging the land acquisition. The Supreme Court feels the high court has been misled by a Haryana official who “deliberately omitted to place the facts and the records in correct perspective” in the affidavit.

A paradise lost to children
Should India penalise for bad parenting?
The two toddlers from Norway had to go through emotional trauma for compounded reasons. Are there lessons to be learnt from the issue, which was scrutinised by the media and political interests of varied hues? The fact that when people migrate to other countries, they need to respect the local laws and adapt to the cultural needs of the host country — even in domestic matters — is often overlooked, especially by Asian migrants.

Blood and diamonds
Dictator’s conviction sends out a message
A brutal warlord, Charles Taylor, had ruled Liberia for 13 years after he overthrew his predecessor, Samuel Doe, in 1989. Over two lakh people, many of them children, died in the bloody civil war that he presided over. The presence of Naomi Campbell lent a touch of glamour to the trail of one of the bloodiest dictators and it was blood and gore that dominated the testimony, although blood diamonds of the kind he presented to the supermodel also played a major role in funding the massacres not only in Liberia, but also in neighbouring Sierra Leone.

• Thought for the Day

ARTICLE

Finding a solution to Siachen
Need to make the map of Saltoro ridge public
by Air Commodore Jasjit Singh (retd)
More than a week after the terrible avalanche at Gayari (in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir) buried nearly 110 Pakistan Army soldiers and another 70-odd civilians, there is no sign of recovery in spite of Pakistan using every possible effort and even heavy machinery to shift the thousands of tonnes of snow that has settled above the unfortunate victims of nature's anger. Any and every human being who can visualise the tragedy cannot remain unaffected.

MIDDLE

Wit and wisdom behind wheels
by V. K. Kapoor
Life is a sum total of disparate happenings and people. Most people are the products of their landscape. Hardship produces strongly delineated characters, making issues black or white, right or wrong, good or evil.

OPED DEVELOPMENT

The series of decisions in the last few months for opening up trade between India and Pakistan, while holding promiseof easing tensions between the two neighbours, offer limitless economic opportunities for both Punjabs
An opportunity for two Punjabs
D S Jaspal
In his seminal work “The Competitive Advantage of Nations” the celebrated Harvard Business School Professor, Michael Porter, has illustrated through case studies how the competitive success of firms depends largely on the economic and cultural environments of countries in which they are based. Porter provides a great deal of analytical and conceptual insight into the complex mixture of regional synergies between competing firms within an industry, their clustering and unique supplier networks.

EDITORIALS

Land grab in Haryana
Helping builders is ‘public purpose’

The Supreme Court has stopped construction activity on land acquired for developing some sectors of the Kalka-Pinjore urban complex in Haryana’s Panchkula district. Farmers of the area have moved the apex court after the Punjab and Haryana High Court dismissed their petition challenging the land acquisition. The Supreme Court feels the high court has been misled by a Haryana official who “deliberately omitted to place the facts and the records in correct perspective” in the affidavit. Prima facie, the court says, there is a case to quash the entire land acquisition proceeding but it wants to hear the beneficiaries before taking a final decision.

The court order affects those who have booked flats and plots with private builders and the Haryana Urban Development Authority. Once again, it is a case of a government acquiring land at below market prices for a “public purpose” and passing it on to construction firms which make commercial use of it for hefty profits. Land acquisitions have run into trouble in recent times at various places in the country, including Singur in West Bengal and Greater Noida and Bhatta-Parsaul in Uttar Pradesh. Most disputes have been over compensation. The UPA’s draft Land Acquisition Bill says that compensation should be twice the market value if the land is situated in and around cities and six times in villages. Officials often fix the rates arbitrarily.

Ideally, the government should leave it to private builders to acquire land at mutually agreed prices in keeping with the land acquisition law. In a number of recent cases, courts have come down heavily on governments misusing the “public purpose” clause to benefit private builders. Apparently, in the Kalka-Pinjore case, the situation seems no different. Instead of rectifying a wrong or a mistake as soon as discovered, government officials force land owners into litigation and can go to the extent of misrepresenting facts in courts. Such government functionaries as deliberately enter into exploitative deals to benefit private parties should be made to pay the cost of litigation from their own pockets along with a suitable fine as a deterrent. 

A paradise lost to children
Should India penalise for bad parenting?

The two toddlers from Norway had to go through emotional trauma for compounded reasons. Are there lessons to be learnt from the issue, which was scrutinised by the media and political interests of varied hues? The fact that when people migrate to other countries, they need to respect the local laws and adapt to the cultural needs of the host country — even in domestic matters — is often overlooked, especially by Asian migrants. What happened in the unfortunate case of the toddlers is a reminder of the failure to do so by the parents, who, perhaps, could not appreciate the seriousness of the implementation of laws, which, in India, does not offer a reference point.

After a year-long clash of cultures, the children have finally been handed over to the custody of their uncle, which has made the country take a sigh of relief. When criticism was heaped on Norway’s Child Welfare Service officials for their insistence on sending the children to foster care, the point missed by the hounding, judgemental media was the care they accord to a child’s rights and basic dignity. This is taken for granted in the Indian way of parenting, where the will of the parent is supreme, in the name of tradition.

So, what happens to the children now? The Norwegian government did its best to protect the interests of the children by drafting an agreement which grants the custody of the little ones to their uncle till they gain adulthood. But right at their arrival, the tug of war between the two families began for the custody of the children. With maternal grandparents declaring that the children should live with their mother and the paternal side making claims that the clause of their uncle’s exclusive custody has been withdrawn, it is back to the Indian way of bringing up the children, with too much emotional claim and little concern for what is best for the child. This is so because bad parenting does not figure as an offence. 

Blood and diamonds
Dictator’s conviction sends out a message

A brutal warlord, Charles Taylor, had ruled Liberia for 13 years after he overthrew his predecessor, Samuel Doe, in 1989. Over two lakh people, many of them children, died in the bloody civil war that he presided over. The presence of Naomi Campbell lent a touch of glamour to the trail of one of the bloodiest dictators and it was blood and gore that dominated the testimony, although blood diamonds of the kind he presented to the supermodel also played a major role in funding the massacres not only in Liberia, but also in neighbouring Sierra Leone. The conflict left more than 50,000 dead, which, as Amnesty International says, "was characterised by some of the worst abuses known: widespread, deliberate and arbitrary killings of civilians, torture, including rape and deliberate amputation of limbs, and abduction and forced recruitment of large numbers of people, including children."

Taylor came from a family that traced its descent to one of the freed American slaves who established the Liberian republic in the 19th century. He studied in the US and got a degree in economics from Bentley College in Massachusetts. He worked while he studied, became a teacher and even joined Doe's government in 1980. He was later thrown out and accused of stealing Rs 9 lakh in US$ of Liberian government funds, a charge for which he spent a year in an American prison, before escaping and returning to Africa, where he successfully challenged Doe.

Now a United Nations-backed court has convicted Taylor of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Taylor is the first African leader to stand trial for war crimes, and the court found him guilty of providing weapons, food, medical supplies, fuel and equipment to forces in Sierra Leone that committed atrocities. However, he was found not guilty of planning or ordering operations. The verdict sends a powerful message that no one is above the law and even those who are at the highest positions can be held accountable for crimes committed under their watch. This will serve the cause of justice not only in Sierra Leone and Liberia, but also all over the world where despots rule. 

Thought for the Day

Don't forget to love yourself. — Soren Kierkegaard 

ARTICLE

Finding a solution to Siachen
Need to make the map of Saltoro ridge public
by Air Commodore Jasjit Singh (retd)

More than a week after the terrible avalanche at Gayari (in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir) buried nearly 110 Pakistan Army soldiers and another 70-odd civilians, there is no sign of recovery in spite of Pakistan using every possible effort and even heavy machinery to shift the thousands of tonnes of snow that has settled above the unfortunate victims of nature's anger. Any and every human being who can visualise the tragedy cannot remain unaffected.

General Kayani's anguish and palpable helplessness while on a visit to that area was writ large on his face and his words, and in our own helplessness we can only empathise with him and the Pakistan Army. The tragedy, so soon after the major earthquake further south, has once again brought the issue of the "Siachen conflict" to the fore, and the tragedy may still serve the two countries if a solution to it can be found on the basis of fair and established norms.

But the question now has to be raised: Can we look for a solution to this conflict and cooperatively try to maintain a peaceful environment in that region in the hope that natural disasters at least would become less frequent, if not totally eliminated? The obvious answer is yes, especially since the two countries had signed an agreement as far back as July 27, 1949, as to how the cease-fire line is to be drawn in this area; and this agreement has to be only implemented in word and spirit. That agreement, normally called the Karachi Agreement signed by senior military officers from both sides (as a follow-on to the cease-fire agreement), clearly demarcated the Cease-Fire Line (CFL) based on the factual position on the ground as on that day. However, the CFL was demarcated on a one-inch map but only up to what came to be known as Point NJ-9842. The bilateral agreement specifies that the final stages of the CFL would be demarcated up to Khor and "thence north to the glaciers."

Here we must note the use of plural in mentioning the CFL from this point onward. The CFL was left undemarcated at this point, no doubt, because it was not expected at that time that the high mountains to the north could become a source of conflict. But both governments had agreed that the line would continue to Khor, "thence north to the glaciers." Incidentally, the CFL (and its successor LoC) runs south to north for nearly 15-km before it stops at NJ-9842. The use of plural in mentioning glaciers clearly indicates that there is more than one glacier in consideration here. A well-established principle and custom of demarcating borders and lines of control in mountainous areas is to follow the high crest separating the two watersheds on either side. This is also why mountain passes usually mark the boundaries.

North of NJ-9842 there are two glaciers: the Siachen Glacier to the east of the high crest and the Baltoro Glacier (where the avalanche took place) to the west of the crest which goes by the name of the Saltoro Ridge. Indian Army posts defending the Siachen Glacier are located on the Saltoro Ridge which forms a natural watershed between the two glaciers; and hence natural and consistent with customary as well as formally defined borders. Logically, therefore, the Saltoro Ridge (which runs south to north before it alters towards the north-west closer to the K-2 mountain) should be defined and demarcated as the mutually acceptable line in terms of the Karachi Agreement.

Unfortunately, Pakistan has not been willing to accept what are well-established principles as well as the substance of the Karachi Agreement it had signed. The nomenclature of the AGPL (Actual Ground Position Line), adopted to give some space to Pakistan, which has told its people that its army is fighting in Siachen (though it is not even at its edge), does not provide any sanctity to the line. In terms of the terminology, the AGPL merely indicates the ground position of the two sides at a particular time with little or no obligation to maintain it at the CFL or LoC. The term was adopted on the request of Pakistan; but perhaps Pakistan did not realise that this would leave the region wide open to any future military deployment by either side since the LoC would not connect to a recognised and accepted border.

The term Siachen is used rather loosely even by people who know better; and so is the term "de-militarisation" which Pakistan has been seeking to adopt since 1948. De-militarisation is not an option unless we are willing to accept the same for the state of J&K! A few days earlier General Pervez Musharraf had claimed that Pakistan's aggression in Kargil was "tit for tat" for Siachen! He concedes that Pakistan had laid claim to some part of the Siachen Glacier which in his view was "no-man's land." This is indeed strange for a former DGMO, Army Chief and President of a country. Perhaps, the brave soldier had never read the Karachi Agreement? But responsible countries and professional armies don't start a war of aggression merely because the chief "felt very bad."

If we are to solve the problem in that area, the core issue is to make the map of Saltoro ridge and the location of Indian (and Pakistani) posts public. It is curious that such maps continue to be marked "Secret" even though the only people who know the exact position are the Indian and Pakistan armies along the Saltoro ridge! So, who are we keeping this secret from? Once the maps are made available to the public on both sides and its consistence with the Karachi Agreement re-emphasised, there would, no doubt, be greater acceptance of the reality and the utility of extending the LoC along the Saltoro ridge northward to K-2. Ultimately, this is the only solution to the battle against the elements.n

The writer is Director-General, Centre for Air Power Studies, New Delhi.

MIDDLE

Wit and wisdom behind wheels
by V. K. Kapoor

Life is a sum total of disparate happenings and people. Most people are the products of their landscape. Hardship produces strongly delineated characters, making issues black or white, right or wrong, good or evil.

A truck driver displays earthy wisdom and humour with correct situational awareness and feel of the ground. He has primitive emotional responses which hold the key to his survival. He is an optimist by nature, who maintains his cool under stress and does not falter. He is rooted in reality and lives in close proximity to actuality.

I find a lot of wit and wisdom behind their wheels. In Lahore I saw written behind a truck:

(A friend, weapon or relative should be tried before need)

Humour and romance are as old as the partition of sex cells into sperm and eggs. ‘Chharas’ (bachelors) and ‘Muttiars’ (young girls) find copious mention on the back of wheels:

On both sides of Wagah I found the same sentiments.

"Udikan terian" in India and "Intezar tera" in Lahore

(waiting for you).

Reams of Urdu poetry have been written on (Intezaar). Faiz Ahmed Faiz wrote on Partition:

The special relationship of the police with truck drivers finds mention in this way:

(God save us from police arrogance and the wiles of beautiful women)

I noticed behind a bus in Lahore:

(Authority and riches are temporary and they keep on changing their dwellings)

The hints of adultery can be seen.

(She blew the candle with her ‘pallu’ and indicated her intentions with her eyes)

There is the lewd stench of an adulterous bed. The romantic old man also finds mention:

(Make the old man happy by wearing purple colours)

Purple is the colour of passion. Passion holds the bottom of the world while genius paints its roof.

I found a lot of realism in the following:

(Beauty, youth and parents are never forever)

Some of these writings are naughty

(May you become widow after marriage because of the curse of bachelors)

Implicit faith in God is visible on both sides of Wagah. In India it is ‘Babe De Full Kirpa’ and in Pakistan, ‘Allah Ki Rehmat’.

In India Babas are everywhere. I found written behind a truck, Suraj aast Baba mast

(As the sun goes down, Baba jee gets intoxicated)

India is a very fertile ground for Babas. It is the most lucrative and interesting profession. I know a number of Babas and their escapades, which range from art world to the underworld.

One frequently finds it written behind the wheels:

(Out of hundred, ninety-nine are dishonest, even then my country is great)

This optimism of the common man keeps the functioning anarchy of our country on the road to progress.

OPED DEVELOPMENT

The series of decisions in the last few months for opening up trade between India and Pakistan, while holding promiseof easing tensions between the two neighbours, offer limitless economic opportunities for both Punjabs
An opportunity for two Punjabs
D S Jaspal

In his seminal work “The Competitive Advantage of Nations” the celebrated Harvard Business School Professor, Michael Porter, has illustrated through case studies how the competitive success of firms depends largely on the economic and cultural environments of countries in which they are based. Porter provides a great deal of analytical and conceptual insight into the complex mixture of regional synergies between competing firms within an industry, their clustering and unique supplier networks.

The gate opens to limitless possibilities: An Indian truck heads for Pakistan. Photo: Vishal Kumar

World renowned business strategist, Kenichi Ohmae, in his profoundly important book “The Death of the Nation State” has demonstrated how the new “region states”, which he calls the new engines of prosperity, have emerged, for example, between San Diego and Tijuana; Singapore and parts of Malaysia and Indonesia; Silicon valley and the Bay Area; and Hong Kong and the adjacent portion of the Chinese mainland.

He describes how these region states, each inhabited by 5 to 20 million people, have closer links to other region states in the global economy than to their “host” nations. Ohmae concludes by observing that region-states are more important than national boundaries and that their primary linkages tend to be with the global economy than with their nation states:

“The dynamics of the global economy foreshadow that open borders are as imminent as they are imperative. If the price of patriotism is payment of higher costs for raw materials and inputs then such a nation state is destined for economic martyrdom sooner than later”.

The series of decisions in the last few months for opening up trade between India and Pakistan, while holding promise of easing tensions between the two neighbors, offer limitless economic opportunities for both Punjabs

In particular, the decision by the Government of India to allow FDI from Pakistan can be a game changer for Punjab and transform the economic fortunes of this state in an unimaginable manner.

Because Pakistan is not an economic powerhouse does not imply negligible FDI from that country. On the contrary, the enterprising Punjabis across the border can leverage Pakistan’s ties with the petro-dollar economies of the Middle East, and also China, to mobilise a surprising robust surge of investment into India.

For Pakistani entrepreneurs, Punjabis would be their natural business partners, provided Punjab is able to create the right investment climate to absorb the investment at the point of entry at Attari. It would be unfortunate if Pakistani FDI, searching for the right investment environment, ends up in Gujarat, or even further, South.

Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, who has the vision, ambition and political clout, has a task cut out for him. From the handicap of a land-locked State, Punjab could become a port State and if Sukhbir Badal can do what Lee Kuan Yew did in Singapore, Punjab could emerge as the economic powerhouse of the country.

If we look westwards towards our immediate and distant neighbours in South Asia and beyond we find a huge and hungry market waiting to be born. Apart from our immediate neighbour, Pakistan, this region includes Afghanistan, Iran and the CIS countries of the former Soviet Union: Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan. Beyond, through Turkey, this region opens up to Europe.

The purchasing power of this region, flush with petro-dollars, is exponential. The specifications/standards of products required by this region are those which Indian industry can easily match. In case the gates at Attari-Wagah (as also Ferozepur, which in fact would be more appropriate for the movement of road cargo from New Delhi) are opened, Punjab would become a port State with the world’s largest market literally at its doorstep– if not feet.

The proximity of the South Asian market to Punjab in particular and the north-western States—Haryana, Himachal, Rajasthan, Gujarat—in general has the potential of creating a powerful regional trading block given the presence of a unique existing network of rail and road linking North West Punjab to Zahedan in Iran, which is further connected to the CIS countries by excellent road infrastructure.

The road network (in km)

The comparative road distances ex-Punjab to Mumbai and Zahedan are given below:

New Delhi-Ambala-Ludhiana-Amritsar-Lahore: 507

New Delhi-Rohtak-Hisar-Sirsa-Fazilka-Kasur-Lahore: 484

Lahore-Muzzafargarh-Rohri-Quetta-Dalbandin-Mihaveh-Zahedan 1700

Zahedan-Akshabad (Gateway To Central Asia) 1455

Amritsar – Zahedan 1780

Amritsar-Mumbai 1854

Ludhiana-Mumbai 1720

New Delhi-Mumbai 1450

A cargo truck from Amritsar (or even Delhi) can reach Zahedan (Iran) in about the same time it takes to reach Mumbai for further shipment of cargo by sea to foreign ports.

Similarly, a 1,676-km broad guage railway line running through Amritsar-Quetta-Dalbandin-Mirhaveh extends up to Zahedan. Since the guage is uniform throughout, no transhipment is involved.

The challenge before the Punjab government is to create a conducive investment environment, the key attributes of which are:

* Economic stability

* Strategic location

* Access to markets & sources of supply

* Communication infrastructure

* Financial services infrastructure

* Professional & workforce skills

* Entrepreneurship

* Government facilitation

* Wages & prices

* Work culture & quality of life

Since it is not possible for any place to meet all these requirements an investor will be attracted to the destination which offers the right combination. In scouting for the right destination, an investor is in the position of an automobile buyer. He has to decide which of the features being offered are critical to his requirement. Thus, while he may reject some of the fancy features and gadgetry, he will also not settle for non-critical factors being below a certain threshold level. However, while settling for less than maximum levels, it is also true that an investor will not accept less than minimum levels except in absolutely non-critical areas.

With the industry becoming technology driven, infrastructure has become a determinate factor; infrastructure both physical—power, transport, communication links etc—as well as non-physical—financial services, share markets, legal system and government facilitation. In addition to infrastructure, access to sources of supply and markets are the critical factors in any investment decision.

Singapore has developed into an international trading hub because its leader Lee Kuan Yew had the vision to create world-class physical and service infrastructure which was able to exploit Singapore’s unique strategic location. Location and infrastructure are thus inseparable and complement each other. Without one, the other is not of much use.

If we are to emulate Singapore, we should remember Lee Kuan Yew’s advice in his autobiography “From Third World to First”: “It is individuals who build institutions: institutions do not make individuals.” Out of the 13 experts Lee Kuan Yew selected for creating world-class infrastructure institutions in Singapore, as many as seven were Indians – and they were not party functionaries — just the best brains.

In our part of the country we create institutions for individuals – be they failed politicians, retired bureaucrats etc.

Both Sukhbir Singh Badal and Pakistani Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif have the historic opportunity of creating the most powerful economic entity – the “region state” of Kenichi Ohmae - in South Asia and take the people of Punjab towards the path of prosperity. The fulfilment of this dream requires bold decisions — the most important being dispensing with some of the feudal administrative legacies of the British Raj.

What needs to be done immediately (i) Create world-class infrastructure and institutions Attari port authority – To develop, maintain and manage world-class infrastructure and logistics handling at the border. Amritsar development authority – To turn Amritsar into a Singapore and prevent from becoming a Bangalore. Punjab- Punjab cooperation council – for cooperation between East and West Punjab in the economic, social and cultural spheres. (ii) Decentralise/debureaucratise decision-making The excessive over-centralisation in decision-making needs to be dispersed horizontally. This will not only help in speedy decision-making but also create multiple centers of responsibility, accountability and creativity. (ii) Intervene to check retrogressive features of Indo-Pak trade-visa accord: Proposed protocol makes Indo-Pak trade a preserve of big businesses: The proposed protocol envisages Indo-Pakistan trade between existing big business groups on both sides of the border. There is no window of opportunity for individual entrepreneurs. Punjab stands to lose the most as the benefits of its infrastructure and proximity to Pakistan will be enjoyed by big businesses, which are located outside Punjab. The same will be the fate of Punjabis on the other side of the border. Liberal visa regime only for big businesses: The proposed ‘liberal’ visa regime is highly discriminatory and bad in law, as it considers only big businessmen to be non-inflammable material and therefore entitled to liberal visa privileges, while students, academicians, small entrepreneurs, farmers, etc will have to go through the usual grind to procure visas. Punjab must strongly protest. Punjabis should be able to shake hands when they are at handshaking distance

The writer is a retired senior civil servant of Punjab. Email:dsjaspal@sify.com