EDITORIAL
Security, steps and
calculations
One did not expect that
the attack on the parliament would shake this country.
Indeed, this billion strong country is so firmly anchored
that it is well nigh impossible to move it not to speak
of shaking it. Panicking it into a hard retaliatory
action looks almost out of question. Some would say it is
the inertia that hinders movement in here. That the
nation is so heavy-footed that it would take a lot to
move this people. Possibly, there is also the complacence
that India can deal adequately with any type of threat
that allows it to react in so measured a manner. Over the
years the nation has seen many situations that should
have moved the mind of this nation but instead have ended
up desensitizing it. All that adds to give what is called
a maturity of action. The nation does not panic, it is
not moved, it goes about its jobs even as the highest
institution of the country is attacked. The president did
leave a function midway, but that is about all the
urgency there was. There indeed was a competition of
sorts betwixt two union ministers to be 'the last to
leave' the parliament house! And none did go to
'undisclosed destinations' in the air.
And the next day the
reporters had to eavesdrop on the groups of MNPs in the
parliament grounds to know that this indeed was the site
of a dastardly attack just twenty-four hours ago. The
response accordingly is not of urgent action but a
considered-careful, calculated?--bumbling around. Even as
the sound of gunshots was ringing into the country's
drawing rooms, the politicos were falling into their set
responses. The reaction to the most poignant threat was a
reiteration of the set stands. Of course, all praised the
valour of the security men and women, paid them high
tributes for saving their lives. That too is a settled
pattern now. After the Pokhran II, all political parties
praised the nuclear scientists of the country but none
except the ruling party appeared to favour the country
going nuclear. The hard decision that had been taken by
the government did not earn any merit or mention. The
same thing happened during Kargil. Everybody remembered
the bravery of the forces, praised the army men in the
operation. At the same time, they were reluctant to give
the Government of the day any credit.
It was magnanimity on
their part that they did not accuse the government of
instigating the whole thing. They could even go to that
extent, for the politics of this country has descended to
levels where the political calculation is so pervasive
that even truth has to be shrouded lest it go to the
credit of the opponent. That is how while the full
opinion of the nation is for 'strengthening the security
apparatus', one has changed stand on the most enabling of
the security instruments, POTO. The security men are
praised but so carefully, so selectively that the
political leadership should not get any credit. How so
encouraging that may be for the security, it does not
help the nation. It may be good for political scores but
it does not augur well for the Government of the day to
be adequately responsive. The result is that while there
is a fund of 'mature' and 'measured' responses, the
single decisive action that could put an end to the
menace once for all is not forthcoming. For, with
calculation all around, it is difficult to have any
clarity of thought and action.
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Will
the US economic recession endure?
By Sisir
Basu
Apprehensions
of a brooding global economic recession
originating in the slowdown of the U. S.
economy, have been the talking points in
international fora for months now. The
macabre terrorist onslaught on New York
and Washington of September 11 and the
probabilities of military conflicts
erupting in its wake, have only
heightened world-wide concerns about the
damaging ramifications of the U.S.
slowdown.
A week
before the terrorist strikes against
America, it was known that industrial
output in the U.S. had shown a decline
for eleven successive months till August.
The reckoning was that the GDP growth in
the U.S. during 2001 would be only 1.6
per cent as against 5 per cent in 2000
and 4.2 per cent in 1999. Clearly, in
terms of the average annual growth rate
of 3.4 per cent recorded during the
period, 1990-99, the U.S. economy, was
entering a phase of constriction.
The
unemployment rate had grown to 4.9 per
cent in August, up from 4.1 per cent a
year earlier. By the criterion of a GDP
growth rate of a minimum of 2.5 per cent,
the recession in the U.S. economy had
passed the zone of conjecture, much
before September 11.
The
central issue in the debate in the U.S.
on the sliding fortunes of the economy
was not whether the recession was a
reality or a mere contingency, the
question was about whether the recession
would be a prolonged period of economic
and social distress or one which could
reverse itself sharply during the
short-term.
The drift
of expert opinion during the
pre-September 11 period, seemed to be
markedly inclined towards the optimistic
expectation that the U.S. recession would
only be a passing phase.
It is
another matter that speculation in the
more recent period is focussing on how a
well-coordinated international campaign
against terrorism spearheaded by the
U.S., with its awesome military arsenal,
can make for global economic
uncertainties a scale and magnitude which
have not been experienced since World War
II. All this apart, the projections made
by the IMF in its World Economic
Outlook-October 2001 – which have
obviously not factored in the
post-September 11 scenario – appear
quite sanguine.
While the
IMF forecasts the GDP growth rate for the
developed countries to rise from 1.3 per
cent in 2001 to 2.1 per cent in 2002, its
projections for GDP growth in the
developing countries – 5.3 per cent
in 2002 as against 4.3 per cent in 2001,
appear even more comforting.
As the IMF
looks at it, China will continue to post
a 7 per cent plus growth in 2002 while in
the case of India, a projected growth
rate of 5.7 per cent for 2002 as against
4.5 per cent for 2001, does indeed appear
to dispel gloomy premonitions.
Where does
all this point to? That a hurricane-like
disruption of the global economy is most
unlikely even granting that the developed
countries – the U.S., Europe and
Japan – are currently caught in a
"synchronised slowdown".
For years,
the U.S. has been the global economic
giant – the prime-mover of the
world’s manufacturing, trading and
financial systems. With a GDP of $835
trillions in 1999, the U. S. accounted
for 22 per cent of global output of goods
and services. Its exports in 1998 were of
the order of $934 billions and imports,
of $1098 billions.
What is
perhaps, not well-known is that foreign
direct investments in the U.S. economy,
are of astronomical proportions. In 1998
alone, they were of the order of $193
billions!
Even more
than its massive size, the U.S. economy
is unique in that it is driven by the
services sector, which accounts for 72
per cent of its GDP while industry
represents 26 per cent and agriculture a
mere 2 per cent. High productivity
levels, technological innovations
constantly challenging the key players in
the competitive process and enormous
resources being pumped into the R&D
sectors – these are the factors
which make far a high degree of
resiliency of the U.S. economy towards
the winds of change.
The U.S.
is the celebrated exponent of a high mass
consumption society – the term which
is generally attributed to W.W. Rostow,
the author of "Stages of
Growth". In 1999, consumption
expenditure represented 83 per cent of
the U.S. GDP (of which private
consumption expenditure was as much as 68
per cent) while gross domestic savings
were 17 per cent of the GDP. This is the
strength and perhaps also the flaw of the
economy.
The
current malaise of excess capacity
(especially in the new economy), and the
decline in consumer spending largely
bring out the vulnerable dimension of a
consumerist society. But should the
faltering of consumer spending aggravated
by the terrorist vandalism, necessarily
become a self-perpetuating disequilibrium
in the system?
Michael
Porter ("The Competitive Advantage
of Nations), in bringing out the factor
which put the U.S. right on top of the
world’s economic hierarchy after the
World War II, draws attention to the
following :
(1) The
rich domestic endowment of national
resources. (2) Consistently high levels
of investment , R&D efforts,
technology and its pervasive
applications, improvement in the quality
of human resources. (3) A large and
affluent domestic market, standardised
mass production, mass markting, exports
(especially of the American way of life).
(4) Integrated industry clusters –
cars in Detroit and computers in Silicon
Valley, electronics and plastics (5)
Management excellence, high morale of
workers community respect for industry
and business and (6) Active role of
government as facilitator of industry and
as regulator of competition. The point is
that an economy built on such foundations
has an inherent vitality to weather
adversities of nature. Indeed Porter
talks of the World War II itself as a
"fluke factor" which buoyed up
the fortunes of the U.S. economy.
Events
during the last 10-weeks in the U.S.,
following the outrage in New York and
Washington, have been very much more than
a matter of the Government and civil
society steeling themselves to combat the
savagery of terrorism.
Long
before the September 11 visceral attacks
on values of human civilisation, the
U.S., policy regime and particularly, the
Federal Reserve authorities, had
demonstrated a clear preference for
lowering interest rates as a response to
declining spending in the economy and the
process is almost certain to continue.
In the
immediate aftermath of the attacks on
September 11, the Bush administration
came out with an unprecedented government
spending package of $40 billions for
relief and an equally revolutionary
bail-out package for $15 billions for the
airline industry – the worst
affected by recession compounded by the
post-hijack beefing-up of security
systems in around 19000 airports in the
U.S.
The
Congress has had no qualms in approving
the new bills which mark such an obvious
deviation from the cherished paradigm of
the minimalist state.
Indications
are clear that Keynesianism is back in
the centre-stage of U.S. economic
policy-making. Government cash injections
in the economy, cheap money policy,
bailout schemes for private corporate
industry, tax cuts, are all the
instruments of the strategy.
As
Professor Paul Krugman has recently
written (this was before September 11),
the U.S. might be preaching fiscal
austerity abroad but when it comes to
home remedies, it is Keynesianism which
is the preferred approach! INAV.
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Fighting
the guerilla army
By T. K.
Krishnamorthy
A number
of states are in the grip of insurgency.
About half a dozen militant groups are
operting in different parts of the
country. Prominent among such
organisations are the CPI(ML),
People’s War Groups (the PWG) and
the Maoist Communist Centre (MCC) and the
naxalities. The Centre has used the
controversial Prevention of Terrorism
Ordinance (POTO) to ban two outfits.
Earlier,
when Andhra Paradesh took the lead in
combating naxalism by proscribing the
PWG, neighbouring Orissa, Maharashtra,
Madhya Pradesh and Chhatisgarth did not
show the same enthusiasm. Perhaps, the
limited operations of the PWG in the
forest areas abutting Andhra Pradesh
lulled them into a false sense of
security. Either way, the decision-makers
always believed that left-wing extremism
was more a problem to be tackled by
Andhra Pradesh alone.
Now all
that has changed. Though Andhra Pradesh
bore the brunt of the recent upsurge in
naxalite violence, Chhatisgarth and
Orissa were also affected. There are also
indications that the ultras may be
working closer with the Maoists in Nepal.
A
difference between the MCC in Bihar and
the PWG in Andhra Pradesh is that the
latter managed to spread its activities
to new areas despite severe repression.
The PWG has spread its activity to
Maharashtra. Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and
Chhatisgarth – partly because of the
contiguous forest area, Dandakaranya,
that runs through these States. In these
areas, the PWG had been taking up the
issues of tribals and uniting them to
fight the Government.
But Andhra
Pradesh is where its growth has been most
spectacular. In the semi-forest areas and
the plains, the PWG has succeeded in
building up its movement despite the loss
of several of its important cadres and
gradually taken the naxalite movement
from the organsiation phase to the
guerilla warfare stage.
The PWG,
which strictly adheres to tactics and
strategies employed by Mao Zedong during
the Great March, now enjoys considerable
sway in as many as 15 districts in Andhra
Pradesh. It has already formed two
primary-level guerrilla zones – one
consisting of five districts of North
Telangana and the second comprising the
north coastal districts of Srikakulam,
Vizianagaram, the agency areas of
Visakhapatnam and East Godavari districts
of Andhra Pradesh and Malkangiri, Ganjam,
Gajapathi, Koraput and Raigarth districts
of Orissa.
Intelligence
source also believe that the PWG
leadership is toying with the idea of
forming "base areas" in the
large tracts of forest in Andhra Pradesh.
A guerilla zone, according to PWG
strategy, is an area where the
revolutionary and the "reactionary
state" are equally placed fighting
for control of the area. The base area
formation would technically be the later
stage of the guerilla zone where the
"revolutionaries" win the
battle with the state and establish their
control and governance in an area.
Is the PWG
really in such a strong position? The
police believe that the group’s
total strength in Andhra Pradesh does not
exceed 1,000 underground cadres and that
they do not have more than 800 guns which
range from the Chinese-made Kalashnikovs
to crude single-shot weapons, popularly
known as tapanchas.
How could
such a small force (when compared to the
massive strength of the police) become a
constant source of annoyance for the
State Governments? The answer to this
question lies in the "three S"
advantage of the PWG – secrecy,
speed and surprise. In addition is its
well-knit secret organsiational
structure.
Indeed, in
the late 1990s, the police managed to get
an upperhand through sustained
anti-extremist programmes such as
increased combing operations, the
development of a vast informant network
and, of course, by seriously addressing
the people’s problems. Be it primary
health care or education, laying roads or
providing some employment opportunities
for the rural populace. Over a period of
about five years, the Andhra Pradesh
Governments managed to really involve the
people in development works seriously and
the police did get an upperhand.
Scores of
top cadres of the PWG including three
Central Committee members and many
underground squads were
"liquidated". Essentially, the
police used the ultras’ strategy
against them. The highly-trained Grey
Hounds police unit was deployed which
effectively used the "3S"
formula.
So,
obviously the naxalites had to bring
about some changes in their mode of
functioning. Thus was born the
People’s Guerilla Army (PGA). All
squads and other party organsiations
functioning in the plains were summoned
to the forest areas. The PWG created
platoons consisting of 30 to 40 armed
extremists to move in the forest areas.
According to intelligence sources, there
are seven platoons in operation in Andhra
Pradesh and along its borders at present.
The
formation of the PGA appears to have
helped the naxalites regroup. For one, it
has increased the sense of security among
the underground cadre and stemmed the
spate of surrenders. For another, the
military nomenclature and structure and
the carefully-planned attacks on police
stations (in Orissa as well as Andhra
Pradesh) has boosted morale.
The PGA
formation also came at a crucial time for
another reason. The PWG had extended its
network to Bihar after another splinter
group, Party Unity, merged with It.
Though talks with the MCC for achieving a
broad understanding for working towards a
common goal could not be reached, there
was a cessation of armed conflict between
the two.
Internationally
also, the PWG has been getting good
exposure. Its representatives had
attended an international seminar
organsied by the Workers Party of Belgium
(WPB) in Brussels and the PWG managed to
get other Marxist-Leninist-Maoist parties
from Brazil, Chad, Mexico, Nepal,
Philippines, Senegal and the United
States to endorse "the people’s
war being led by the working class in
India".
The Maosit
uprising in Nepal has also come as a shot
in the arm for the naxalites in India.
The success stories of the CPN have
obviously enthused the PWG cadres. The
PWG had already brought into operation a
plan to open a "revolutionary"
corridor between Nepal and North
Telangana (Nepal to Dandakaranya)
traversing through Bihar, Madhya Pradesh
and Chhatisgarh.
It was
against this backdrop that the naxalites
recently stepped up violent activities,
in Andhra Pradesh and its neighbouring
States, to mark the first anniversary of
the PGA’s formation. In a clever
change of strategies, the PGA has been
targeting multinational companies (MNCs)
and also properties owned by politicians.
In Andhra
Pradesh alone, it blasted a granite unit
owned by the Union Minister of State for
Defence, Mr. U.V. Krishnam Raju, in Medak
district and the Heritage Milk chilling
unit in Chittoor district owned by the
family of the Chief Minister, Mr. N.
Chandrababu Naidu. The Coca Cola
manufacturing unit in Guntur and the Tata
instant coffee making unit in Medak were
also destroyed by the PGA during last
fortnight.
In Orissa,
a Minister’s house was blasted while
in Maharashtra two police stations came
under attack. One more police station was
targeted in Chhatisgarh. Though the PWG
does not generally resort to acts which
endanger the life of the common man, its
targeting of elected representatives and
MNCs must have pushed the Centre to ban
it under POTO. INAV
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India’s
security threatened from the north
By Avinash Shirodkar
It was waiting to
happen. Political analysts had been warning the
Government against the Maoists "unreasonable
demands" and political leaders - belonging
to the ruling Nepali Congress party as well as
the Opposition benches - had been raising the
issue time and again. However, nobody could
reckon it would happen so soon and so sudden.
The Himalayan
kingdom of Nepal, already in the turmoil - though
more of an emotional kind - following the royal
massacre and then the death of Princess Prekshaya
in an helicopter crash over Rara lake in Mugu
district, got two jolts simultaneously. One was
from mother nature and the other from the
Communist Party of Nepal (Maoists) leaders
Prachanda. An emergency was declared, this is the
first time the kingdom of Nepal is experiencing a
state of emergency. On November 13, a day after
Princess Prekshaya's death had clouded the fair
chances of the Sher Bahadur Deuba-led
government's representatives sitting across the
table with Maoist representatives, the government
was still amenable and agreeable to hold the
much-awaited third round of talks with Maoists on
their several demands and try and make them see
reason.
A couple of days
before that, senior Maoist leaders had emerged
from a "secret rendezvous somewhere in
India" where they had held parleys among
themselves on what issues to raise at the third
round of talks and whatever demands may be
withdrawn under pressure from the government and
the masses. But the meeting failed to reach any
conclusion and the Maoists stuck to their guns on
the demand for a Constituent Assembly.
The elected
representatives did not give in to this demand on
the premise that once the constitution is
scrapped and parliament and all other
constitutional bodies are disbanded, the
situation can trigger a political vacuum which
will be detrimental to the nation's interest and
favourable to the Maoists. Comrade Prachanda
alias Pushpa Kamal Dahal, who is the chairperson
of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoists), was
reported as late as on November 20 as saying that
his party had made several mistakes during the
six-year-old "people's war" and that he
had realised that it was time to correct his
cadres. He further said the party would carry out
a campaign to give workers at grassroots an
overdue chance to correct themselves and
re-vitalise the party. The Deuba government at
the time was making preparations for the fourth
round of talks with Prachanda's delegates. But
then something, somewhere went wrong, and
Prachanda took everybody by surprise, with the
announcement that the talks are off. Not only
this, hinting at what was in store for the
government and the common man, Prachanda released
a statement, saying that "our attempts to
establish peace in Nepal have been rendered
unsuccessful by reactionary and fascist
forces." Ominously, he added that the
development mean that there was no point for the
Maoists to continue with the ceasefire. Though he
claimed that "doors are still open for talks
under a new process", he did not elaborate
what the new process should be. Deuba was again
left only to react after the Maoists had acted.
He requested the Maoist party to reconsider its
decision and sit for a fourth round of talks in
the interest of the nation and peace. However,
the request was not heeded.
Two days after
Maoists slew nearly 40 armymen, which was a first
in the history of their armed struggle against
the state, and after consultations with King
Gyanendra, Deuba declared the state of emergency
in Nepal. On November 26, while promulgating the
terrorist and disruptive ordinance, the cabinet
declared Maoists extremists (so far they had been
referred to as rebels in the harshest terms used
against them.)
Nepal is a country
of sharp contrasts. The capital, Kathmandu, has
been on the international tourist map for over
three decades. The large sums of foreign aid
Nepal has received over the years has not been
utilised in productive ways to build
infrastructure or provide for employment
generation. Issues of economic development were
lost amidst the political infighting in
Kathmandu. The number of young men who hang
around the city corners are an indication of the
underemployment in the country. But its elite
lives a life of its own while the farmers in
distant villages eke a poor living from the land,
many of them dependent on money sent home by
migrant populace which works in India and other
countries.
The insurgents
began their operations in the poorly connected
hilly western districts where there are few signs
of economic development, and their appeal later
spread thorough the other poverty-stricken
districts in the country. The situation is worse
since the Government writ does not run in as many
as 40 of the 75 districts of Nepal, where the
Maoists have been running a parallel
administration. But the rebels have the capacity
of striking at closer quarters, showing the kind
of support they have among the people, despite
their reputation for abduction, extortion and
looting.
It is for the
first time that the Royal Nepal Army has been
deployed against the insurgents, who are now
called "terrorists" by the official
media. The late King Birendra had not allowed the
army to be used to contain the insurgency despite
the number of killings that had taken place. But,
the arms and ammunition in the hands of the
rebels has taken the Nepalese authorities by
surprise. It was earlier believed that the rebels
were armed in the main with arms looted from
government armoury and police posts.
Prime Minister
Deuba spoke to Prime Minister Vajpayee to convey
to the Indian Government the reasons why the
Government in Kathmandu was forced to take such
strong measures. He reiterated Nepal's commitment
to democratic principles, saying that the
emergency was for a short duration, till the
situation came under control. The Nepalese
Government has since asked New Delhi for greater
support and assistance in tackling the Maoist
rebels.
The Nepalese
Government has put on a brave face despite the
seriousness of the rebellion, sending out
assurances that the SAARC summit will be held on
schedule in early January. The new trade treaty
would be in place by December 5, they say. But
the rebels have demonstrated their strike power
by bombing a soft-drink bottling plant in the
industrial district on the outskirts of Kathmandu
just a few days after the military offensive was
launched against them.
The easy movement
of the rebels between Nepal and India through the
long porous border is a matter of deep concern to
the authorities in Kathmandu, as the Nepalese
offensive against the insurgents could see them
moving into Indian territory for temporary
refuge.
On the Indian side
there is cause for concern as the links between
armed rebels across country borders is a real
one, especially when they espouse a similar
cause. There have been Intelligence reports of
steady contacts between the Nepalese Maoist
groups with the two main ultra-left-wing
organsiations in India, the Maoist Communist
Centre (MCC) and the People's War Group (PWG).
Aside from the fraternal ties and assistance from
left organsiations, there is also the danger of
the Nepalese Maoists making attempts to stir up
trouble in West Bengal and Assam. Offers of all
kinds of assistance from India are likely to be
construed as New Delhi's meddling in Nepalese
affairs. Political parties have rarely missed an
opportunity to direct popular dissatisfaction
towards India; all ills of Nepalese society are
laid at the door of New Delhi, even in the most
bizarre forms. While this has worked in Kathmandu
and other urban areas, in the distant districts
the Maoist rebels have exploited the people's
misery to their own cause.
Even the present
home grown crisis is not free of the taint of
anti-India sentiments. Local newspapers have
questioned the presence of militant camps in
Indian territory as an indication that India is
supporting the rebels. India's own concerns over
ISI activities through Nepal, especially after
the hijacking of the Indian Airlines flight, had
been dismissed as yet another sign of India's
bullying tactics. New Delhi will have to handle
the crisis in Nepal with as much care as it did
in handling the massacre at Narayanathity Palace
in Kathmandu earlier this year. For
destabilisation of Nepal will have its overflow
effect in the region around it. INAV
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Afghanistan:
The war with a difference
By K.N. Pandita
During the days of
the Raj, the British had treated Afghanistan the
same way in which Pakistan treated it in the
aftermath of the Soviet withdrawal in 1991. Both
met with disaster. There must be some commonality
in the causes of their failure.
Two wars between
the Afghans and the British rulers of India in
the closing years of the 19th century ended
miserably in a disaster for the British. They had
no knowledge of the topography, the psyche of the
people against whom they were waging a war, of
the tactics of war which their adversaries
adopted.
Furthermore, the
tribal structure of the Afghan society was not
taken into consideration. They thought that
Afghans presented a monolith against which they
would array their forces and engage the Afghans
in conventional fashion. But this was not to be
the case.
Each tribal lord
formed independent and separate fort-like
position. The invaders had to reckon with each
warlord while they began their steady march on to
Kabul. The warlords harassed the invader,
engaging him in successive battles of attrition,
depleting them of their manpower and cutting
their supply lines and war resources.
The Afghans are
and have been war veterans. They have learnt the
guerrilla warfare by instinct. Their use of
mountain height strategy is superb and
unchallenged. Their resilience as well as
tenacity is commendable. Their stealth in the
battlefield is also remarkable. What is more, the
Afghan warriors can on for days together live
without a big meal. Crumbs can keep them alive
for several days.
The Soviet
misadventure in Afghanistan in 1979 was also a
classical example of ignorance of ground
realities. They had become the victims of
arrogance as well. For example, the Soviet rulers
did not envision the reaction of the west to its
own action in Afghanistan. They did not realize
that the Soviet military presence in Afghanistan
posed a serious and most resented challenge to
the integrity and ego of the warlike Afghans.
Though the Afghans
were neither fanatic nor xenophobic during a long
period of their independence and sovereignty, yet
the Americans exploited the most dangerous and
disastrous course of their anti-Communist policy
namely working up their religious sentiment. As a
result we see the present monster in the shape of
the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.
In their fight
against the atheist communists, the theist
Afghans used not only their monstrous fighting
instinct but also the desperation that religious
zeal can impart. The mujahideen fight against the
Soviets was a classical example of Afghan
retaliation using all their traditional tactics
of warfare, high-pitched religious zeal and the
modern weaponry.
It has to be
remembered that except in the case of India, the
Afghans have never tried to reach other foreign
countries for the conquest of either their
territory or their ideology. In that sense, the
Afghans have always been peace-loving people in a
hot spot of a region. The case of Afghan
incursions and spoils in India in the course of
past history is a different story. India then was
not a country but a collection of nations that,
at best, cared for individual and not collective
defence against a foreign intruder. Their
escapist philosophy whetted the appetite of
invaders. Again the case of Taliban interference
in Tajikistan, a more recent phenomenon, should
be seen in the light external forces using them
for their political agenda.
But the war
unleashed by the Americans on Afghanistan in
October 2001 is quite different from the contours
of all the wars brought to Afghanistan in the
past. In the first place, Afghanistan gave
shelter and logistic support to a foreign
organisation that has been drawing perverse plans
of destroying the infidels. The distribution of
the world community into the faithful and the
non-faithful according to their categorization
cannot hold water. Secondly, the Afghans shifted
their age old parameters of nationalism to the
commonality of faith forgetting that in doing so
they become part of the larger Islamic world in
which interests, perceptions, parameters and
compulsions differ enormously from country to
country and region to region. Thus today we find
that the Taliban Afghans are isolated in the
Islamic fraternity.
Thirdly, the most
important difference is that the Americans are
pursuing the policy of " set a thief catch a
thief" in Afghanistan. They have weaned away
the moderate elements, supported and bolstered
them and won for them international support and
sympathy. This emboldened the moderates to take
on the hard-liners who have been lionizing a
non-Afghan to the extent of making him a messiah
of the "oppressed Muslims of the
world." In this way, the Taliban Afghans
projected themselves as the initiators of what
may crudely be called the "war of
civilizations." Hence, when you play the
game, you must know the rules. The rules of
waging a war, open or clandestine, against the
super power have its undeniable implications.
Today, the Taliban, their leadership, Al Qaeda
and its leadership, all are faced with the
implications of a mindless adventure unacceptable
to nature, reason and situation.
Fourthly, in the
present war, the Americans managed to contain,
through whatever means the elements that might
have been a source of distraction for their
sustained action in Afghanistan. Pakistan and her
numerous radical organisations, Saudi Arabia, the
Gulf Emirates, Iran and Turkey all have been
roped in to either support or remain
non-committal in the Afghan crisis. And lastly,
the coalition forces have not brought in their
troops in too large a number. Even those few
hundred that are on Afghan soil are deployed far
away from the detecting eyes of common Afghans.
Eventually, the
result of this enormous misadventure on the part
of the Taliban Afghanistan will be far-reaching.
The Afghans have lost the distinction of not
tolerating a foreign force on their soil. The
tribal and warlords will gradually loose their
traditional status, power and influence once the
international forces come to play the card of
politics and economics in that country. The
Taliban helped expose their country to active and
effective interference of external forces. The
Afghanistan that is to emerge will be far
different from the traditional Afghanistan. May
be it is for the good of the Afghans who have
suffered as much from backwardness as from
radicalism.
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Shady
Educational tours
ACADEMIC PULSE
By Prof. S K Bhalla
Once again the
Indian version of the ''Season of mists and
mellow fruitfulness'' is approaching. Once again
our Colleges of Jammu are agog with preparations
for the so called Educational Tours and Picnics
(despite uncertain security scenario in case of
local picnics) which in the last few years have
generated clouds of heat and dust. No level
headed person will find fault with the spirit
behind these tours but it has been often seen and
repeatedly reported in the local media that these
tours have left a trail of suspicion and mistrust
owing to shady financial dealings in some cases
which nobody has tried to probe because when
there is so much of a financial mess in other
sectors, what is need to open one more hitherto
untouched area.
Not very long ago
in the columns of this esteemed Daily under the
caption ''No More Educational Tours'' some murky
details had been published the veracity of which
could not be contradicted as they were based on
documentary evidence. These details were also
brought to be notice of the top-ranking officers
of State Vigilance Organisation, but the
Department in the absence of vigilant sleuths has
not been able to do anything because in our
system the wheels of justice grind very slowly.
Again one Women Degree College on the other side
of river Tawi beyond Vikram Chowk sent its second
tour contingent for the last year after the
winter break as if it was all the more important
than serious academic work. The students after
arrival back here reported some flaws in tour
management with charges flying thick and thin in
different directions. Moreover, one particular
travelling agency was given the charge of
conducting the tour for reasons best known to the
concerned.
In this context
the initiative taken by Principal, Govt College
for Women, Jammu on this side of river is
laudable as the college has solicited information
from various tour conducting agencies regarding
their respective tour package for conducting a
comparative study to make this exercise quite
transparent. It is hoped that the exercise will
be all success. Other Colleges have yet to follow
suit or may not follow at all.
There is a very
important dimension of these tours viz, the large
sums of money collected from students which runs
into lakhs in certain cases. It is yet to be
probed by Higher Education Dept. whether a
complete account of this amount is rendered and
if rendered how far it is as per the approved
rates. Many times in the name of negotiations
with various parties for a comparatively cheap
and best service during the entire tour exercise
much hanky panky takes place which goes
unreported. To say everything is alright will be
ignoring the uncomfortable questions. If there is
auditing of Govt grant for conducting the tours
why not the money collected from students be also
audited by the Govt. Moroever there is no dearth
of expert Chartered Accountants in Jammu who know
the clever ways of reconciling the accounts as
and when required and putting their seal as a
mark of authentication for on ward transmission.
This is in response to suggestion of some that a
CA should take care of the collections from
students.
The spirit behind
all this is not to malign any individual or a set
of individuals but to press upon the concerned to
follow the right procedures and norms without any
fuss. To say that there is complete financial
discipline in our Educational Institutions would
not only be fool hardy but also an awkward
stance. There is a desperate need for
transparency even in education sector. The
majority of people have compromised with the
stench here, a pollution that cannot be
eliminated by using CNG. All one needs now is a
reasonably sharp sense of smell. The message is
quite clear.
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