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NEWS ANALYSIS From B L Kak NEW DELHI, Nov 18: The Northern Alliance of Afghanistan is in the news. Pakistani military Government is also in the news. And the ....more EU leaders will highlight NEW DELHI, Nov 18: Leaders of the European Union (EU) will highlight at the second EU-India summit, beginning here on November 23, the key role India has to play in the Afghan crisis. ...more Govt
defends new NEW DELHI, Nov 18: The Government has defended the replacement of the Juvenile Justice Act....more Lack of adherence to strict LONDON, Nov 18: Lack of adherence to strict procedure and evidence in Britain was cause of India’s...more |
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Terrorist arsenal: Loose nukes, dirty bombs, suitcase bombs? NEW DELHI, Nov 18: Recovery of papers on what looked like the Taliban’s nuclear programme from its abandoned offices and Mullah Omar’s warning of a "bigger attack on America ......more New lease
of life NEW DELHI, Nov 18: With the completion of two Combined Effluent Treatment Plants (CETPs), Delhiites, particularly environmentalists, can hope for a new lease of life to the highly polluted Yamuna. The one CETP at Wazirpur Industrial Area in Northwest.....more NEW DELHI, Nov 18: Even as the country is celebrating the bi-centenary of the coronation of .............more Afghan refugees trickle in NEW DELHI, Nov 18: Afghan refugees "are trickling into India following us bombings....more |
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NEWS
ANALYSIS From B L Kak NEW DELHI, Nov 18: The Northern Alliance of Afghanistan is in the news. Pakistani military Government is also in the news. And the United States and India are already in the news along with other players, namely, Russia, China and Iran. Each one of them is involved, overtly or covertly, in the game of charting future Afghan set-up. Pakistan and China may differ on the measures against Muslim fundamentalists, but Islamabad and Beijing seem united on one thing-that is, to make the United Nations play what they have termed as a ‘leading role’ in the resolution of the Afghan crisis. Pakistan and China have hesitated to extend their full support to the Northern Alliance, obviously because of pro-Northern Alliance stance adopted by Russia and India. No wonder, after the telephonic meeting between Pakistan President and military ruler, Gen. Parvez Musharraf, and Chinese President, Mr Jiang Zemin, on Friday evening, it was revealed in Islamabad that Beijing shared Pakistan Government’s concern over the manner in which the Northern Alliance was allowed to take over Kabul. What actually transpired between Gen. Musharraf and Mr Zemin was not divulged. Significantly, however, the official news agencies in Islamabad and Beijing said that the two leaders agreed that the international community should push forward all walks of life in Afghanistan for the early establishment of an interim authority which can represent all ethnic groups in Afghanistan. Implied in the suggestion of Pakistan and China for a ‘leading role’ for the United Nations is a call particularly to the USA to restrain the Northern Alliance from taking any steps that could further complicate the situation in the efforts towards forming a ‘broad-based and multi-ethnic’ set-up in Kabul. By the time the telephonic consultations between Gen. Musharraf and Mr Jiang Zemin were over, Moscow issued a warning to ‘certain countries’ to ensure that they did not push their narrow interests in Afghanistan. Foreign Minister of Russia, Mr Igor Ivanov, had Pakistan in mind when speaking of ‘certain countries’ trying to gain unilateral advantages in Afghanistan. "We believe this is a dangerous attempt which can aggravate contradictions inside Afghanistan", Russian Foreign Minister said. He, in fact, warned that differences among foreign players in Afghanistan could provoke a new civil war in Afghanistan. Significantly, Mr Igor Ivanov’s statement came after the Russian President, Mr Vladimir Putin, had pressed his US counterpart, Mr George W Bush, to take a "harder line" on Pakistan during their summit at Crawford in Texas last week. At a time when the demand has been voiced in support of anti-Taliban rebellion in Afghanistan’s southern region, the Northern Alliance, according to some defence specialists, cannot spearhead the campaign further into southern Afghanistan. That Washington has understood Northern Alliance’s inability to do so has been explained by reports that the United States is hedging its bets on a Pashtun-led rebellion in the southern provinces to scatter the Taliban out of any political reckoning in the future of Afghanistan. Washington, these reports have stated, is depending on the forces of Mr Hamid Karzai, former Deputy Foreign Minister of Afghanistan, to trigger an anti-Taliban rebellion among the Popalzai Pashtuns who reside in the Kandahar sector. At a time when Islamabad finds itself in an unenviable position following the Northern Alliance’s march into Kabul, Gen. Musharraf is stated to have brought pressure to bear upon America to force the Northern Alliance to exercise restraint till a credible leadership in Afghanistan emerges. Gen. Musharraf was, of course, credited with the ‘grand success’ of his recent foreign tour. But it has faded into the background with the march of the Northern Alliance into Kabul following the sudden and unexpected retreat of the Taliban. Happily for Gen. Musharraf’s adversaries, Pakistani religious outfits, some political groups and media have described the developments as a "failure" of Islamabad since the September 11 attacks in New York and Washington. These developments, at the same time, suggest that Pakistan’s role in the US war plans has begun to transform in unpredictable ways. The change of American attitude towards Northern Alliance has forced Islamabad to come to terms with Washington’s obvious emphasis on floating coalitions. Washington’s decision not to oppose the entry of Northern Alliance troops into Kabul reflected the US assessment that the war was moving into a different phase, which did not require extra deference to Pakistani sensitivities. Washington is not expected to oppose Northern Alliance’s march into Kabul, primarily because of the fact that the development has delivered a psychological blow to the Taliban and their supporters within and outside Afghanistan. Of course, Pakistan is required by the USA in the given situation. But the US will not, it can be said without any fear of contradiction, let Islamabad either define the American long-term agenda or its tactical moves on the battlefield. The United States has now found space in Afghanistan itself through the victory of Northern Alliance. And as Washington has far more options, America’s dependence on Pakistan seems to have begun to reduce. Will Washington give undue importance to Pakistan’s goals in Kabul? "No", is the answer from a set of analysts. |
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EU leaders will highlight India’s role in Afghan crisis NEW DELHI, Nov 18: Leaders of the European Union (EU) will highlight at the second EU-India summit, beginning here on November 23, the key role India has to play in the Afghan crisis. Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt, representing the presidency of the European Union (EU), and European Commission President Romanao Prodi will visit India with a high-powered delegation of ministers, comissioners and officials at the New Delhi summit. The Indian delegation will be led by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee. EU Commissioner for Trade Pascal Lamy, who will also be a part of the delegation, will interact with Indian leaders to promote trade, investment and economic cooperation. The EU leaders will also stress cooperation in critical and future-oriented areas, including consultations between experts on terrorism. They will suggest ways to strengthen civil society contacts, particularly the think-tank network. They will outline cooperation in developing partnerships in the information technology-orietented societies of the EU and India. There will also be efforts to develop a common vision on science and technology cooperation. The event, following the success of the first-ever summit held in Lisbon, Portugal, on June 28 last year, is an important step forward in the bilateral relations of the 15-member EU with India and is being seen as a signal of the growing importance the EU attaches to its relations with India. The EU has regular summits with all important partners, including the United States, Japan, Canada, China, Russia and now India. Reflecting a strong commercial underpinning of the relationship, the political summit of the EU leaders with the Indian leadership will be preceded by a two-day EU-India business summit, commencing from November 22. To be attended by Indian and European businessmen, it will focus on discussions in certain select areas such as information technology, manufacturing and engineering, pharma, bio=technology and food processing and finance and banking. The business summit is a joint effort of FICCI, CII and Council of EU Chambers. The business summit will make a series of recommendations which will be presented at the concluding session to Indian and EU leaders attending the meeting. Mr Vajpayee, Mr Prody and Mr Verhofstadt will attend the session. New areas will be identified for cooperation by the businesss leaders. Earlier, a joint study by the CII and European Commission had identified telecom, it, engineering and food processing as areas of intensified cooperation. Focussed attention has been given to developing cooperation in these fields. Mr Lamy will meet Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha, Minister for Information Technology Pramod Mahajan, Disinvestment Minister Arun Shourie and Commerce Minister Murasoli Maran. EU sources say the summits serve the useful purpose of binding both sides towards an agenda of action which helps to consolidate bilateral relations. The summit will take stock of the progress made in the agenda of action adopted at the first summit and make recommendations for the next summit. Significant progress has already been made towards implementing the agenda of action including the launch of the EU-India round table and the think tank network, the joint initiative on enhancement of trade and investment, the setting up of the working group on environment and the discussions on agreement on science and technology. Progress has also been achieved on co-ordinating efforts to promote and protect all human rights and fundamental freedoms referred to in the joint declaration. After substantial work, an agreement on co-operation in science and technology will be signed on November 23. The Sarva Siksha Abhayan, a programme in elementary education, has been launched with EU’s contribution of 200 million euro. An EU-India working group on terrorism has also been set up. There has been co-operation in identifying and furthering common interests in international organisations. Good amount of groundwork has been done on the economic front since the Lisbon Summit, including EU-India initiative on enhancement of trade and services. There have been enhanced industry and business links, removal of obstacles with a view to stimulating EU investment in India and promotion of joint initiatives in the field of environment. (UNI) |
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Govt defends new juvenile legislation NEW DELHI, Nov 18: The Government has defended the replacement of the Juvenile Justice Act 1986 with the Juvenile Justice (care and protection of children) Act 2000 saying the new act does away with the deficiencies/short-comings of the previous one. In an affidavit before Delhi High Court by Under Secretary in the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment Khaleeq Ahmad, the Government denied charges that the new act was against the interest of children and would jeopardise the very foundation of the juvenile justice system of the country. It became necessary to re-enact the existing law relating to juveniles bearing in mind the standards prescribed in the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989 (CRC), the UN’s standard minimum rules for the adminstration of Juvenile Justice 1985 (Beijing rules), the UN Rules for the Protection of Juveniles Deprived of their Liberty 1990 and all other relevent international instruments, it said. Apart from the necessity of re-enacting the juvenile justice law to bring it in conformity with the CRC. The main deficiency in the Juvenile Justice Act 1986 was that it did not provide for differential approach to children in conflict with the law and those in need of care/protection/treatment by catering to their development needs, the affidavit said. It was also felt necessary by the Government that justice system must be easily accessible to juvenile/child or anyone on their behalf including the police, voluntary organisations, social workers or parents and guardians throughout the country, it added. "An urgent need was felt for creating adequate infrastucture for the implementation of Juvenile Justice Act with a larger involvement of informal system specially the family, the voluntary organisation and the community." The affidavit, however, denied that beneficial provisions of the old act had been done away with. In fact, due importance and place had been given to such sections under the new act, it added. It further denied that the power of enquiry had been given only to the police in the new act and said that in case of a juvenile having been charged with an offence this power was vested in the Juvenile Justice Board while in the case of children in need of care and protection, the power of enquiry was vested in a child welfare committee or a juvenile police unit or a designated police officer or a social worker or a child welfare officer. "For the first time provisions has been made for juvenile police unit which will be specially trained to deal with the juveniles." The affidavit submitted that to ensure the rehabilitation and social reintegration of a child, alternative methods of adoption, foster care, sponsorship and sending the child to an after care organisation have been provided in the new act. "The new act provides for appropriate rehabilitation of children in need of care and protection, including orphaned, abandoned, missing, abused children. The act accepts that every child has the right to a family as it is the best place for growth and development." Adoption had been provided as one of the methods for rehabilitation of children without families who have no identity of their own irrespective of caste, creed or religion and after adoption would get the identity of adoptive parents. The affidavit said. It had been ensured in the act that while the juvenile/child gets protection of a family/after care organisation he did not fall into the hands of any criminal/anti-social element, it added. The affidavit claimed that the ministry involved legal experts and activists in the field of child welfare, including from various prominent voluntary organisations, in formulating the bill. On September 24, the High Court had asked the Government to respond to a petition raising objection over the amended Juvenile Justice (care and protection of children) Act 2000, reappealing the 1986 act in the light of a recent circular to all the states saying that the new act had to be followed till the time they enacted a similar legislation. A division bench, comprising the then Chief Justice Arijit Pasayat and Justice D K Jain were hearing a public interest petition, filed by former Chairman of the Juvenile Welfare Board B S Gahlaut, which said according to the earlier act when a juvenile delinquent was caught an enquiry was conducted to trace his/her parents as the first effort was to restore the child to the parents after keeping him/her in an observation home. But under the new act, there was no need for an enquiry and the juvenile welfare committee could ‘hand over’ the child to a children’s home run by an NGO. This would encourage children to run off from their homes and also help some NGOs to exploit the children, the petition said. (UNI) |
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NEW DELHI, Nov 18: Even as the country is celebrating the bi-centenary of the coronation of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, some historians have raised questions over the celebrations saying that Ranjit Singh was never crowned Maharaja and that he didn’t assume any throne. As Ranjit Singh assumed the title of Maharaja following anointment of ‘Tilak’ by his mentor and there was no formal ceremony and crowning, historians are divided over the issue saying there is no historical evidence or any contemporary record of any coronation. "Three major contemporary works on Ranjit Singh, namely Munshi Sohanlal’s Rroznamcha’,`Diwan Amarnath’s `Zafarnama-e-Ranjit Singh’ and Ganesh Das Wadhera’s `Char Bagh-De-Punjab’ are silent on ceremony," says K K Khullar, a retired Director from HRD Ministry who wrote a book on Ranjit Singh in 1980. According to Khullar, who was also a teacher of history at the Government College, Gurdaspur, Punjab, "it would be incorrect to say that Ranjit Singh was coronated on the Baisakhi Durbar of 1801 for the simple reason that there was no formal crowning of the Maharaja nor did he take any coronation oath. There was no proclamation or declaration of Ranjit Singh’s accession to any throne." In similar vein eminent historian late Dr Fauja Singh in his book ‘State and society under Ranjit Singh’ wrote, "the institution of monarchy under Ranjit Singh appeared unannounced, unheralded. There was no proclamation, no coronation; Not even any statement suggestive of such a claim on the part of Ranjit Singh." "It was more in the nature of the supreme leadership of the Khalsa than in the nature of monarchy," wrote Fauja Singh in his book published in 1982. However, noted author Khushwant Singh, who has written a book on Sikh history and a separate one on the ‘Lion of Punjab’ as Ranjit Singh is fondly known, refuses to go by that argument. According to Khushwant Singh, the anointment of ‘Tilak’ is in keeping with the Hindu rituals of coronation and so there should be no dispute over the fact, even though there was no special function and Ranjit Singh did not accede to any throne. "Even his rule was called Sarkar-e-Khalsa or the Government of Khalsa (Sikh faith) of which he was supposed to be the leader," says Khushwant singh observing ould not be disputed. Giving details of the Baisakhi Durbar of 1801, Khullar says tonly a Tilak was anointed on the forehead of 20-year old Ranjit Singh by Baba Sahib Singh Bedi, Ranjit Singh’s mentor and a direct descendant of Guru Nanak (the first Sikh Guru) as a symbol of regency. (PTI) |
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Afghan refugees trickle in NEW DELHI, Nov 18: Afghan refugees "are trickling into India following us bombings of their country even as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has asked the Government to consider a national law on refugees. There has been a trickle of Afghan refugees of Indian origin here following the US bombing over Afghanistan, Wei Meng Lim Kabaa, Deputy Chief of Mission of UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) here, told PTI. While only 35 individuals, mainly Sikh and Hindus, have applied to UNHCR for the status of refugee, according to Khalsa Diwan Welfare Society (KDWS), a network support group for refugees, nearly 100 Afghan refugees have come here with about 500 more waiting to do so in various parts of Pakistan. Agreeing that there were many more refugees coming to India as compared to those who have applied for the refugee status at present, Kabaa said the mission has sent a proposal to the Government regarding a national law on refugees. India was not a signatory to the UN convention on refugees, she said, but "we have sent a proposal to home, External Affiars and Law Ministries to consider a national law on refugees in a bid to provide for equal facilities to refugees from all the countries". A national law can facilitate the refugees to avail same kind of facilities irrespective of the country to which they belonged to, Kabaa said. At present, refugees from Sri Lanka and Tibet were being looked after by the Government whereas the refugees from Afghanistan, Myanmar and other countries were being given the refugee status the UNHCR. The law could ensure that all the refugees were treated at par, she said. Asked why UNHCR was not keeping track of refugees from Sri Lanka and Tibet, Kabaa said the organisation does not have a formal status so far and was working as a mission of UN development programme and, therefore, had a limited mandate. At present 12,828 persons, including 11,624 Afghans and 857 Mynamarese, were under UNHCR’s mandate, she said. According to KDWS president Manohar Singh, though at present only 70-80 Afghan refugees have come to India, the society had two more lists, one from Jalalabad and other from Kabul and neighbouring areas, where people were waiting to get their visas to India. The two lists put together accounts for nearly 500 more Afghan refugees, Singh, who expressed his concern over the "unfriendly" atmosphere for these refugees in Pakistan, said. It was not safe for these refugees, who were Sikhs and Hindus of Indian origin, to stay there as they were not being treated well due to animosity towards Indians, Singh alleged. (PTI) |
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