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EDITORIAL As Jammuites mourn the death of five innocent truck drivers/conductors at the hands of blood thirsty hounds let loose on the State by Pakistan, several ponderables surface that demand cool, sanity and introspection asto why things go wrong and why people of this wretched State continue to be deprived of their right to life and property so indiscriminately. There is no denying the fact that instead of targetting security forces headquarters and personnel, the thrust of the enemy now is to carry out mindless massacres of the people belonging to minority community. This was so day before yesterday in Harni village massacre. The pattern is .....more Anti-encroachment drive launched by Jammu Municipality is meant to give the city neat look and permit smooth flow of both pedestrian and vehicular traffic on busy thoroughfares. There is no denying the fact that those owning shop establishments have extended their showcases sometime as much as 4 to 6 feet in quite disregard of the hinderance caused by such encroachments.......more |
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The academia and the defence
debate Relevance of Babasaheb
Ambedkar Lessons in Politics MNCs & LOCAL |
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EDITORIAL As Jammuites mourn the death of five innocent truck drivers/conductors at the hands of blood thirsty hounds let loose on the State by Pakistan, several ponderables surface that demand cool, sanity and introspection asto why things go wrong and why people of this wretched State continue to be deprived of their right to life and property so indiscriminately. There is no denying the fact that instead of targetting security forces headquarters and personnel, the thrust of the enemy now is to carry out mindless massacres of the people belonging to minority community. This was so day before yesterday in Harni village massacre. The pattern is similar in Qazigund when drivers and conductors were unloaded from trucks and asked to produce their identity papers. Only those belonging to minority community and hailing from Jammu region were brutally and mercilessly gunned down while others left untouched. The game plan is to communalise the situation so that Jammu is set afire by means fair or foul. These are the orders to the cronies operating in the State to subserve the interests of Pakistan. It goes to the credit of Jammuites that they have consistently refused to fall in the trap and did not react despite extreme provocations during the last 11 years of insurgency. There were sacrilegious acts, blasting of school going children matadors blasts in busy thoroughfares and indiscriminate massacres in Doda and some parts of Udhampur district where young women were widowed without celebrating even Suhaag raat. The resilience, fortitude and sanity displayed by Jammuites has no parallel in history of terrorism worldwide. They have invariably by registered their deep anguish, sorrow and hurt by resorting to voluntary bandhs and carrying out other peaceful protests which continue to fall on deaf ears. Transporters strike call also follows the same course. The second motive of those carrying out such brutalised acts is to cause ethnic cleansing based on fundamentalist themes that have no place in democratic and secular India. Their wanton target is the cherished values so dear to every Indian. It is strange that there is no word of condemnation from the Hurriyat which claims to represent people of Kashmir region. It is to be borne in mind that truck operators are the greatest friends of the valleyites. It is they who keep the life-line with truck-loads of supplies to reach every nook and corner of valley. They are quite unmindful of the threat to their lives and their sole mission is to serve the interests of the people. Those who have selectively killed them can never be friends of valleyites. Those who do not condemn the heinous act are also sailing in the same boat. Those in the hierarchy who prefer muteness to expression of few words of sympathy for the bereaved families are the greatest enemies of the people because they themselves buy peace while for themselves and their families safety even as their muteness causes untold miseries to the hapless citizens. But for loyalty, consistency and involvement of the truckers, things could be indeed awesome for the valleyites and other areas where they are wantonly targeted. It is high time that people not only condemn these acts but also identify the killers and prevent them from carrying out such anti-people acts. As regards role of the administration the less said the better. They continue to work on the same frequency i.e. condemn killings, announce ex-gratia relief and that is that. Viewed from the other side, they refuse to book those who are witness to the gory episodes. This includes belted men refusing to press the trigger against the perpetrators of death dance being performed with reckless ease and in their full view. This can be co-related to not only revocation of suspensions but positioning the facilitators of Kot Bhalwal jail escapades in plum posts. This puts a big question mark on the efficacy of the system in vogue-political, bureaucratic and police hierarchy alike. It seems all of them are out to buy peace from the ruggadised terrorists. With this psyche and self-aggrandisement late Z A Bhutto's advocacy of 1000 years war to annex Kashmir appears to hold good. As regards role of the security forces, one shudders to think that those assigned the task of ensuring safety of the life-line to valley also become sluggish. One would have expected uninterrupted flow of all types of traffic on the national highway and sub-highways as there was intelligence brief of enemy striking in a big way to choke the highways. It seems so-called extra and total alert is either not there or there is tendency to take it easy. Nothing else can explain inaction when para-military forces were just 200 yards away taking care of the FCI godown or those assigned to intensive patrolling of the highway to prevent any subversive act. There has got to be accountability at all levels and in every force. Unfortunately, accountability is conspicuous by its absence at all echelons and in every set up in the State, be it in the domain of State administration or relating to central dispensation. No wonder enemy comes and goes after inflicting massive injuries on the body and mind of the people as never before. It is high time state administration wakes up and clean the Augean stable. Even security forces operate under the overall control of Chief Minister. There has been massive augmentation in police strength during the last three years-equipmentwise, weaponwise, numberwise and otherwise. The end result however is the same as it was in 1989-90. Meanwhile our sympathies do go for the grief-stricken families. Our hats also off for Jammuites for the extraordinary restraint shown by them in not allowing the situation to get communalised. Anti-encroachment drive launched by Jammu Municipality is meant to give the city neat look and permit smooth flow of both pedestrian and vehicular traffic on busy thoroughfares. There is no denying the fact that those owning shop establishments have extended their showcases sometime as much as 4 to 6 feet in quite disregard of the hinderance caused by such encroachments. The pathways meant for the pedestrians are totally encroached compelling them to walk on the main road thereby interfering with the smooth flow of vehicular traffic. Sometime back voluntary withdrawal from the footpaths or the road was observed by shopkeepers of Raj Tilak Road with the active involvement of association functionaries. Needless to say that every bazar has an association and all traders are affiliated to the Chamber. There are retailers associations, wholesalers associations and many others. But it is a sorry commentry that voluntary restraint continues to yield to temptation of either extensions/encroachments or hiring out their fronts to footpath vendors. In the process Municipality is compelled to resort to forceful methods to remove such encroachments which is an affront to trading community. It is as much their duty to respect the law and give the city neat look as the Municipality which has to keep the city clean. The million dollar question is how encroachment persist even when many drives have been launched. This is not possible unless staffers acquiesce. Nothing else can explain menace of encroachments assuming recurring and menacing dimensions. |
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The
academia and the defence debate The erudite thoughts which started flowing out of the defence orientated academic community like an atomic chain reaction in the wake of the underground nuclear tests conducted by India in May 1998 deep beneath the sands of the Thar desert, instead of invigorating the deliberations in the realm of the national defence, have to some extent infected it with intellectual radio activity. While a lively debate on the pros and cons of going nuclear with its devastating negative effects on the innocent civilian human lives, property and ecology is always welcome, enmeshing the otherwise uncomplicated and fathomable contours of India’s national defence policy in the labyrinth of intellectually sophisticated doctrines can at times baffle the military commander’s straight forward operational mindset. The scholarly talk on Nuclear Policy, Grand strategy and Political Values in India, delivered by Professor Kanti Bajpai of the Jawahar Lal Nehru University on February,18 in New Delhi as part of the PC Lal Memorial Lecture under the aegis of the Air Force Association, an all India fraternity of IAF veterans, despite being brilliant in diction, was something like a piece of modern art on the canvas of national security done with deep philosophical hues. It certainly had an aroma of academic showmanship usually displayed by some of the highly learned university dons. No doubt the subject was spectacularly marshalled through out its hour long course of delivery only to be lost later on in the paradoxes of theories and schools of thoughts. To begin with, the talk rightly outlined the challenges before the Indian Air Force as the strategic nuclear deterrence, strategic bombing -with conventional weapons and tactical or ground support role as displayed during Pakistan’s covert war in Kargil in the summer of 99. Further, the responsibility for nuclear deterrence were foreseen to be solely with the air force for roughly a decade or so until the country’s naval power develops the SSBN and till a ground based strategic missile force is finally assembled. The air force, in view of the requirements of nuclear deterrence, will need the requisite updating and modernisation. Mercifully, there seems to be an awareness amongst those outside the force, of the imperatives and requirements of the country’s primary air arm. On the nuclear policy, three broad schools of thought have emerged on the strategic scene each contending for dominance — rejectionists, pragmatists and maximalists. Though all agree on India’s need to go nuclear, there are shades of disagreement on such issues as the nature of deterrent force and doctrine, participation in the CTBT and a future FMCT, as well as the feasibility and desirability of the eventual nuclear disarmament. The rejectionists hold that nuclear weapons are necessary for deterrence and feel that even a handful of weapons with adequate command and control would deter the potential rival. They are not in favour of India signing CTBT or the proposed FMCT though they underline the feasibility of disarmament. The pragmatists believe that India after having achieved nuclear weapons status, can join CTBT in return of de facto recognition of its nuclear status in order to enable the country to deploy its nukes. They are, however, sceptical about the desirability of global disarmament in the foreseeable future. On the other hand, the maximalists want India to arm itself as quickly as possible with nuclear weapons for security reasons and advocate an arsenal as big as that of China with a triad and sophisticated command and control. They are certainly against India joining any non-proliferation regime. Grand Strategy was defined as a plan that considers all the resources at the disposal of the nation and attempt to array them effectively to achieve security in both peace and war. The three quite distinct views of grand strategy were named as Nehruvianism, modernism and hyperrealism. The Nehruvians base internal security on a secular, democratic and socialist order. The use of force to regulate internal order in this view is an absolute last resort. In the context of national security, this idealistic school of thought believes in regional co-operation which includes economic co-operation, people to people contact, cultural interactions, sports links and other ways of track-II diplomacy. The modernists-- critics of the mixed economy, are fairly close to Nehruvians on internal security but differ with them on regional security. Their strategy is to spread India’s wings and to take it out of the region as much as possible—to West Asia and Central Asia for energy supplies, and to South East Asia for economic profit. They also want the country to stand tall amongst the great powers. For hyperrealists, the use force is a must against those who are undermining the internal peace. They want India to dominate the region and would like the country to gate crash into the inner circle of the great powers as in their view India is already a great power. The political values influence the nation’s internal security, regional security and equation with great powers. Three perspectives dominate in India – left liberalism, libertarianism, and conservatism. India’s leftists and left of the centre political parties are usually thought of as left liberals who have much in common with Nehruvian thought on grand strategy. Left liberalism can be seen as a shadow behind the conception and practice of non-alignment which is a refusal to be sucked into the strategic games of the great powers and is a doctrine of self assertion. Libertarianism is a political doctrine that is committed to emancipating the individual from institutions and ideas that obstruct one from realising one’s full potential. It is the bedrock of nuclear pragmatism which puts forwards the case for nuclear weapons not only for deterrence but also as a way of allowing India to break out of the technology related, international institutional constraints that are entangling Indian development process. Finally , conservatism is a political doctrine which believes in sticking to traditional, tried and true methods. Conservatives think of the state and its authority as virtually an end in itself and feel that those who rule and regulate societies are those who embody power, authority, and virtue. The contesting beliefs concerning the broad spectrum of the national security need to be resolved either by one side scoring over the others or through a synthesis of opposing elements. But in the final analysis, ‘the debate may resolve itself by not resolving itself.’ The various schools of thought will continue debating which is a sure sign of increasing participation in the national security affairs in a democratic system. The foregoing synopsis of the talk by the learned professor was a fine example of occasional interaction between the armed forces and the nation’s academic community. It is not surprising that the pen may turn out to be mightier than the proverbial sword but it certainly robs the swordsman of clarity and brevity of ideas leading to distraction from the sole objective of being the winners up if a war, however catastrophic it is with the nuclear backdrop, is thrust upon the country by a despotic enemy. Moreover, where is such debate wrapped up in sophisticated intellectual jargon? There have been certainly little sign of it in the national press. Let us not treat the subject matter of defence like mathematics, political science or economics where hypotheses, theorems, canons and schools of thoughts rule the roost. It concerns with our very existence as a nation and needs a pragmatic treatment. War is said to be much too serious a thing to be left to generals, admirals and air marshals and needs marshalling of all out national effort including from the nation’s academic community sans the myriad schools of thoughts. Let us not display the zeal of those medieval hermits who are said to have set up home on top of lofty pillars. |
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Lessons in Politics Indian politics is in flux. Though, BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) is in power at the Centre, but differences persist among the alliance partners. The Congress party has lost its support-base in many states, still it is the largest political outfit in the country. The chances of its revival appear to be dim. It also cannot be said categorically that it is time for coalition politics, because the experiment over the last four years has not delivered a stable government. In view of such uncertainties there has been call for introducing dramatic changes in the system, including a switch to the presidential form or fixing a mandatory five-year term for the Lok Sabha. Amidst all these alarums and excursions, however, what is ignored is the slow but sure manner in which politics is acquiring a new look, shedding some of the old perceptions and transforming with surprising rapidity even the relatively new ones. Left undisturbed, the process should usher in a new brand of politics with fresh alignments which were almost unthinkable not long ago. It is best, therefore, not to interfere with the present situation of flux, even if it is disquieting at times, and allow it to follow its own course. All that is needed is to ensure that the people can vote freely, a requirement whose value was probably genuinely appreciated for the first time in 1997. Once universal franchise is assured, the system will find the solution to its own problems. Probably nothing shows the manner in which the political scene is changing than the gradual anti-Congress sentiments gaining grounds, and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) turning out to be the biggest gainer. Political parties are ready to sacrifice their ideology at the altar of power. Indeed, starting with the communist slogan of yeh azadi jhooti hai soon after independence, anti-Congressism has become the central feature of contemporary politics. Not that the Congress did not help the process. Its arrogance and cynicism, steady descent into corruption and an abortive tryst with authoritarianism meant that even former Congressmen, like J. P. and V. P. Singh, known for their idealism and honesty, found it impossible to remain in the declining party. What is significant today, however, is that this attitude is changing. What no one would have thought possible in the seventies and eighties, as well as in the earlier decades, is happening at present with such inveterate opponents of the Congress like Jyoti Basu calling upon this party of "exploiters" virtually to save India from the ultra-right menace. The lesson which Basu and his friends in the socialist and other parties have learnt is that the blind antipathy towards the Congress which they had exhibited until now was a mistake. Essentially, it was a legacy of Ram Manohar Lohia who perceived the Congress as a giant oppressor of the downtrodden. Similarly, the communists looked upon the Congress as a replica of Chiang Kaishek's Kuomintang while they themselves were revolutionary Maoists intent on liberating India. In a way, nearly all of them, and particularly the communists, were living in a fairy world, trying to fit the conditions in India to their bookish theories and seeing themselves in the unreal role of the heroes of their theology. If the communists focused on class, others saw political redemption in the more home-grown concept of caste and build their parties and careers around it. As such fragmentation took root, the old ideal of an umbrella party trying to reach out to everyone appeared more and more tattered. The Congress, it seemed, was doomed. Indeed, even the future of such "national" parties with their all-India spread and membership seemingly representing a miniature India appeared bleak. Regionalism was the order of the day. As all those who were not with the Grand Old Party lined up against it, what they had curiously seemed oblivious about was the fact that they were harbouring the poison of majoritarian fundamentalism in their midst. In fact, it was even fashionable to argue that the so-called secular-communal divide is artificial, the reason apparently being that the Congress, too, harbours communal elements and was less than honest about its professed secularism. It is this kind of fatuity which tended to argue that all parties are really the same, which made even an unalloyed secularist like J. P. say a word in praise of the RSS during the Emergency, for his target of anger then was the Congress while the RSS had kept its virulent anti-minority and anti-liberal agenda well hidden. Such animus against the Congress, of which the communists were equally guilty, enabled the BJP and the Sangh parivar outfits to flourish and it is only now that the so-called Third Front parties have woken up to the danger. That the Congress harbours communal elements in its ranks is no secret. But its defining characteristic is not communalism. It does not have a book like Golwalkar's Bunch of thoughts, identifying Muslims and Christians as "internal threats", to guide its cadres. Instead, it had as leaders some of the most enlightened people the world has ever seen. It may have deviated from that glorious heritage because of the decline in the calibre of its leaders, but even they know that in the ultimate analysis, it is adherence to the party's traditional secular ethos which will save the organisation. If the Congress does have a defining characteristic, it is corruption, but not communalism which is the BJP's philosophy, or casteism which is the plank of some of the reconstructed socialists. It was the demolition of the Babri masjid which led to the drawing of the Lakshman rekha in Indian politics, marking the secular-communal divide and putting the Congress for the first time in the company of its former secular opponents. The BJP, too, is for the first time in the company of its natural allies like Bal Thackeray or George Fernandes who saw an "international conspiracy" in the Staines" murder after only an hour's flying visit to the scene of crime (perhaps he discerned it from the air!) or lost souls like Ramakrishna Hegde who jumped to the BJP's side after Sitaram Kesri shut the Congress's door or Mamata Banerjee who walked out of the Congress in a huff or Naveen Patnaik who is probably too busy learning Oriya to know much about politics. There will always be such unprincipled mavericks flitting in and out of the two camps, but the broad picture is now clear and what has helped to make it so is the BJP's emergence from the closet in its true colours. The latter, too, after what it must have regarded as a marvellous start, with a huge jump from who seats in Parliament in 1984 to a position where it has been able to form a government at the Centre, has not had a smooth run. The perception about it as a party with a difference has yielded place to one of being not only as unscrupulous as the others but perhaps even worse. The Sangh parivar has also realised that its cherished Hindu rashtra is dur ast, that democracy, and the country's liberal temper stand as almost insuperable obstacles to the fulfilment of its fundamentalist dream of "one people, one culture, one nation". It has learnt its lesson well enough even to give the BJP's token liberal a relatively free hand for the present to run the government. INAV |
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MNCs & LOCAL The terminator technology of Monsanto, Delta and Pine Land Co and the US agriculture department is causing, quite understandably, widespread alarm. The main motivation behind the development of terminator technology is to compel farmers to buy seeds every time they plant a crop, rather than use seeds from the previous crop as has always been the practice everywhere. The objective is sought to be achieved by introducing a terminator gene to prevent genetically modified plants from producing fertile seeds; or by developing genetically modified seeds which would turn on a special characteristic like repelling pests only if a specific chemical is applied to treat the seeds. Delta and Pine Land has already incorporated the terminator technology into cash crops like cotton and tobacco. The rapidly liberalising Indian market has prompted it to announce plans for applying the terminator technology to staple crops like rice wheat and sorghum as well. The terminator technology poses the gravest danger to poor agricultural countries like India. Many scientists and environmentalists fear that infiltration into India of the terminator gene could kill-off cereal varieties, developed over several millennia, through uncontrolled cross-pollination. In the worst-case scenario, thousands of crop varieties would give way to a few of genetically modified varieties promoted by US corporations. It is important to note some characteristics of the terminator technology. The development of technology involves use of enormous amounts of resources, not for creating or improving goods or services, but for their destruction. The entire motivation behind the development of technology is to gain control of agriculture. Most importantly the technology is predatory in character with the potential of being highly destructive. All these characteristics, of course, are anti-consumer. The process of integration of markets the world over is claimed to be in consumers' interests on the ground that the process results in a wider choice for them. Whatever merit there might be in the argument which associates enlargement of freedom of choice with enlargement and integration of markets, it is quite clear that the argument has no validity whatsoever in the case of goods and technologies which are predatory in character and which would consequently increase rather than decrease the control by producers over consumers. When consumption patterns are becoming homogeneous, it is natural to surmise that the predatory characteristic of the terminator technology products is probably shared by many more transnational goods than one would have suspected otherwise. If one considers individuals as individuals, and not as organisms who would react to the sensations and stimuli of goods in predictable ways, it is unthinkable that all individuals would tend to have the same innate preferences. If one is going to treat consumers for the purpose of explaining homogeneity of consumption patterns, as organisms who would react to stimuli of goods in predictable ways, then all considerations about consumers' welfare become meaningless. It is possible to argue that the increasing homogeneity of consumption patterns the would over is merely a reflection of the fact that the goods involved in the emerging pattern are in some "objective" sense superior to other goods, particularly the preexisting goods in the countries of marginalised civilisations. These "objective" criteria must be such that they transcend all considerations of climate, culture and history, if they are to provide an explanation of the "choices" being made. It is hard to see what possible criteria could there be of this kind. Indians born in early sixties or earlier would remember an extremely delicious summer fruit, called khirani, which used to be available in plenty, but now has almost vanished from most parts of the country. It is difficult to see by what objective criteria is it inferior to pesticide-fertiliser-vitamin rich apples or oranges flooding markets almost everywhere. On the contrary, classical Ayurvedic texts are full of praise for this tasty fruit for its nutritive and curative qualities. The question of survival seems to hinge on the convertibility or otherwise of a good into a transnational commodity. If one accords recognition to the fact that certain technologies and goods can be predatory, then it becomes clear that the two concomitant ongoing processes of integration of markets and homogenisation of consumption patterns are not reality two different processes but a single unified process; and that the homogenisation is not necessarily a consequence of free choice. In the case of genetically modified organisms there is widespread consumer resistance. It is in the face of this that the US has been consistently attempting, by various methods, to create conditions conducive to foisting these genetically modified products on unwilling consumers. The steadfast refusal of US authorities to labeling of food items containing genetically modified organisms has been a calculated policy decision to deny those consumers who do not wish to consume these products any freedom of choice. Given the enormous power of transnational corporations (TNCs) the one hand and the absence of any significant and concerted resistance on the part of third-world countries on the other, what is local, individual or specific has no realistic chance of survival against what is global and mass-produced by TNCs. Indeed, in the context of global markets it is difficult to think of anything more irrelevant than the preferences, interests or welfare of consumers. INAV |
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