EDITORIAL
All for
an autocracy!
The characteristic
that makes the terrorism an anathema to the
society is the totality of prerogative that it
assumes. The terrorist refutes all reason and
rationality and takes upon him all the three
functions of arraigning, judging and executing.
After more than two thousand years of
experimenting with different forms of polity and
social organization the world has come to the
conclusion that it is not prudent even to
concentrate the three functions of the State in
the hands of a single agency even though the
agency be formed with proper consent and
agreement. Terrorism rubbishes this sane
conclusion of the civilization and presumes to be
the sole authority and arbiter of the society.
There is no room for dissention, no respect for
the other opinion, nor any hint that it is ready
to consider the facts. It refuses any body a say
and appropriates all rights, all truths, and all
initiatives. The terrorism in Kashmir shows all
these characteristics and an inclination for a
bigoted autocracy.
This has been the
practice of terrorists there for the last more
than a decade. When it began it passed decisions
on life and death of people and had its henchmen
to carry them out. After all these years, when
the truth of terrorism has been seen by all in
its barbaric nakedness, it continues to claims
that totality of action and prerogative and is
enforcing it with the ruthless way available to
them. Whether it is the stray men or women who
summon the courage to differ or refuse to obey
their 'orders' in the upper hills of Jammu, the
political workers in the valley or their own
brothers-in-terrorism who have seen through the
game and refused to follow their dictats issued
in the name of 'struggle for freedom' one sees
one clear intolerance of others' right to speak,
a blank refusal to think, and a deadly resolution
to carry out their pronouncements. Some time back
the 'Mujahids' for Kashmir plainly told their
'accepted' leaders to toe their line or get out.
Now there are blanket orders not to allow people
to participate in the elections. And to
straightaway kill all the activists of the
political parties who do not obey the orders.
That is the naked fang of terrorism bared in its
full barbarity.
Would these men
have the right to decide the fate and future of a
people? Should the other men and women banking on
their support and good-will have a right to speak
of democratic means and ways? Would the State,
administration and people not be legitimizing
these outright autocracies by suggesting
'accommodation' of these forces and positions who
stand for a total rejection of the other parties,
opinions and persons? They are playing havoc with
some political parties whom they perceive as the
their most potent opponents. It would be
conspiracy, though unpremeditated, if other
parties overlook the terrorist impositions.
Whatever the world has seen of terrorism is
enough to prove that terrorists are enemies of
the civilization in its totality, even though
they appear to be ranged against the creed or
that dispensation at the moment. That, indeed, is
what makes terrorism unacceptable. It becomes a
duty of the civil society that it does not
'approve' of the terrorists' way by acquiescing
to this plank or point. Terrorism taints whatever
it touches. Being visited by terrorism does not
strengthen a 'cause' or point' but weakens it.
That truth has not only to be accepted but must
inform actions of each people and persons, all
parties and each of the stands and issues.
KP Vote
The election
commission has done well to take cognizance of
the faults in the existing scheme of postal
voting for the displaced Kashmiris and decided to
extend the facility of voting by Electronic
Voting Machines to them. As the Supreme Court has
remarked in its landmark. May-decision, franchise
does not mean a simple arrangement to vote and
must take many things, that directly or
indirectly impinge upon a people making a choice
at elections, into consideration. But even before
the recent judgment, it has been accepted that it
is the duty of the authority conducting the
elections to see that the voter gets to cast
his/her vote in a most convenient manner. The
whole conduct of elections is geared towards this
particular end. The voter must have a choice or
the opportunity to seek a choice, must not be
influenced unduly, and must see the sovereign
power vested in him/her exercised to his/her
satisfaction. These are privileges granted to
each and every citizen by the constitution of
this country. Everything that impinges in
exercise of this constitution right is an
impediment that must be removed.
The displaced
people suffer from many impediments in exercising
their franchise. Their straits and circumstances,
the very fact of displacement that removes many
things associated with the constituences
including the candidates as well as the issues
from their concerns, and replaces them with new
cares and worries are all things that take the
elections as they are conducted away from their
focus. But this is not a voluntary situation but
a situation that has been forced upon them. The
greatest of the inconveniences has been the
complex system of postal ballots. It not only
practically discourage the voter from exercising
the vote and lends itself to misuse and
misrepresentation but also negate the value of
the vote cast after so many hurdles because the
vote 'reaches' too late. The commission seems to
have taken note of these disabilities and has
taken steps to remove them. Voting is a basic
right of the citizen, wherever he/she may be, how
so placed he/she may be. It has also to be made
relevant to the electorate, especially when the
electorate concerned is the total population of a
whole ethnic group. It is hoped that the
authorities would take other relevant steps in
the direction in good time to fulfill their
constitutional duty towards the people to
facilitate their voting.
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Sports
Talk
Indian Cricketer of the
Century
Kapil Da Jawab Nahin
By Rajesh Dhar
Who will
be the Indian Cricketer of the Century?
Does the fact that Sunil Gavaskar opened
the innings against some of the worlds
all-time great fast bowlers make him a
greater batsman than Sachin Tendulkar?
Does Kapil Dev's match winning ability
give him an edge over others? How does
one approximate the contribution of MAK
Pataudi, who made India alive to the
prospect of victory? What about Vinoo
Mankad who, at different times, was
India's best batsman and best bowler? All
these were the questions arising before
the final verdict of Wisden's Wisdom of
35 member strong-jury on who will wear
the Indian cap of the cricketer of the
century. And finally the Icon of the
cricketing world, Kapil Dev Nikhanj, was
declared the Indian Cricketer of the
century by Wisden, the highest cricketing
Bible, on 24.07.2002 in London, to make
an end to these speculations.
It is easy
to condense Kapil Dev's career to a few
paragraphs simply because he was so
consistently brilliant. But to understand
his real contribution to the game you
need to consider the effect his presence
had an Indian cricket. From his debut in
1978 to 1994, he played a significant
role in almost every notable victory for
India. He was only 19 years of age when
India toured Pakistan in 1978, and his
rustic, robust approach to the game won
him instant fans. When he hit Sadiq
Mohammad on the head and forced him to
wear a helment, it had a cathartic effect
on Indian cricket, which has been weaned
on spin and slow bowling from more than
two decades. The four great spinners
(B.S. Bedi, Chandrashekhar, Eurupalli
Prasana and Vinoo Mankad) who had brought
Indian cricket so much joy and glory were
on decline. Here was the prophet (Sultan
of Swing and variation) with a new
message. This was the new era for India
cricket when the peace bowling came into
existence.
The
Haryana hurricane, India's Herculean
allrounder, was simply a cricketer to a
perfection. His 175 not out against
Zimbabwe in 1983 world cup was a truly
outstanding knock; one which turned the
world cup on its head and charted out a
new path of Indian Cricket. Yet for sheer
ease and expression of genius, one would
wish to travel forward seven years and
settle down to watch Kapil Dev bat at
Lords in 1990. India were struggling to
avoid the follow-on. Nine wickets had
fallen, 24 more runs were needed to make
England bat again. Kapil's partner at the
other end was No. 11, Narendra Hirwani,
who could hardly defend a ball or two.
The rival captain tossed the ball to
Eddie Hammings to tempt Kapil with his
flighted off-spin and floaters. Kapil
checked his guard again, looked around
the well spread field, settled into his
stance and patted the first two balls
downs the wicket, inducing a sort of lull
in the England team. But inattentive
fielders and also the spectators were
soon brought to attention as the four
deliveries were lifted hard and high out
of the stadium, helping India to save the
follow-on. He was a cricketer of
exciting, extra-ordinary talent who
entertained the spectators with his lusty
hitting and gutsy chipping, ready wit and
ambitious grit, revised many records and
redefined the way cricket would be played
in India.
In tests
alone he scored over 5000 runs, claimed
434 wickets (which could have been closer
to 500 with better catching support) and
the only match he missed when he was
controversially dropped in 1988. In one
-dayers he scored close to 4000 runs and
claimed 253 wickets. Besides his batting
and bowling abilities, Kapil was also an
outstanding fielder, who was having great
anticipation, sharp reflexes and always a
pair of safe hands in business which
would miss nothing. The catch in 1983
world cup final to dismiss Sir Vivian
Richards was one of the examples of his
fielding skill.
What is
more interesting is that apart from being
nominated the Indian cricketer of the
century. The legendary allrounder was the
contender of almost all the awards given
by the wisden jury. For his 9 wickets
haul against West Indies in 1987, he was
contender of the award of the best
bowling performance of the century. For
slaughtering a murderous onslaught on the
Zimbabwean bowlers and scoring an unbaten
175 in the 1983 world cup qualifier, he
was also contender for the award of best
batting performance of the century. And
for his politeness and sportsmanship, he
was one of the contenders for spirit of
the game award.
Anyway, he
was easily the sporting champion of
independent India, a living legend, the
legitimate sports celebrity, an inspiring
idol, a national hero and above all the
greatest cricketer of all time. His
incredible talent, immense self-belief
and the ability to think positively has
made him unmatched cricketer.
In simple
words one can say the Kapil Dev was a
once-in-a-lifetime cricketer, the best
India has ever produced; perhaps the best
world has ever produced.
This
prestigious award of Indian Cricketer of
the century to this all-time-cricketing
great is simply a slap on the face of
this detractors who in the year 2000 were
the hell-bent to tarnish the image and
credibility of this gritty cricketer by
involving him in the betting and match
fixing scandal. They had to pay for their
false allegations and this award was the
best way for Kapil to take revenge of his
enemies.
Indian
cricket lovers, all and sundry, ought to
salute this National Hero as he has made
every Indian proud by his life time
achievements. Congrats 'Paaji'!
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The
Anglo-US-Chinese agenda for Kashmir
By Avinash
Shirodkar
British
Foreign Secretary Jack Straw’s
studied ambiguity on Pakistan’s
continuing support to terrorism betrays
his country’s myopic view of the
security situation in South Asia. It was
disquieting to observe a seasoned
diplomat like Mr. Straw play around with
words on a serious issue that continues
to deeply trouble and incense India.
Perhaps Mr. Straw forgot that only a few
weeks ago he had accused Pakistan of
supporting terrorism. Addressing the
House of Commons, he had noted how both
the Pakistani Army and the Inter-Services
Intelligence (ISI) were hand-in-glove
with terrorist organisations like the
Jaish-e-Mohammad and the Lashkar-e-Toiba.
At the time, his remark appeared
uncharacteristically forthright, coming
from a British Foreign Secretary. Little
wonder it took just a few weeks, and
perhaps a nudge from Washington, for Mr.
Straw to affect a sudden attack of
amnesia.
Today,
Kashmir has become a convenient stage for
geostrategic posturing by the West and
China. It will therefor be futile and
counter productive to carry the baggage
of the past and refuse to acknowledge the
changing dynamics of the Kashmir issue.
Before I
try to delve into current motives and
manipulations of Pakistan on this front,
I would like to make certain
clarifications that are essential to
understand the issue in a correct
perspective, shorn of propaganda. There
are two faces of the problem. One is
internal. The people of Kashmir are
incensed at the complete lack of
governance that the absentee Farooq
Abdullah Government has come to
symbolise. In the past five years, there
has been no mentionable development in
any economic sphere. There is a need to
draw a distinction here. Kashmir is not a
Muslim problem. It is a problem created
by decades of apathy on the part of those
who were responsible for the welfare of
the people. If one were to look at the
issue at hand from a different angle, it
would make comprehension easier.
Imagine a
situation where Dr. Farooq Abdullah had
successfully revived the educational
infrastructure, consciously made all
attempts to reopen the tourism sector
providing employment to thousands,
established quick redress centres,
initiated work on irrigation canals and
power generation schemes instead of
spending his time teeing at the Sringar
golf course or flying to his London home
to arm twist the NDA government into
accepting his preposterous demands for
self, self and none else. People would
not have looked at the All-Party Hurriyat
Conference (APHC) for succour. They would
have turned in the militants themselves.
No one would have dared look at Pakistan
President Pervez Musharraf or the
Americans as their saviours. To that
extent, Kashmir is an internal problem of
governance and hopefully the forthcoming
visit of Prime Minister Atal Bihari
Vajpayee would correct some of the
imbalances of the recent past in this
regard.
The second
aspect of the issue is what should worry
us the most. This is what President
Musharraf calls the internationalisation
of Kashmir. What he means by this
terminology is that the international
community should decide the accession of
Kashmir. His objective is to turn Kashmir
into a commodity with a disputed
ownership, force a referendum, the kind
of farce that he enacted for electing
himself as the president of Pakistan for
five years, and claim preprocessors would
succeed in this game is a foregone
conclusion. Pakistan is merely a pawn
that can be a perpetual threat to our
peace and stability and this is where
other big players come in.
The
biggest player is, of course, the United
States of America whose new-found
interest in Kashmir is not propelled by
any sympathy and concern for another
democracy. Kashmir is merely a toehold, a
strategic stirrup to gallop across the
Oriental world as the most powerful
nation on earth. Their seemingly neutral
stance on Kashmir – that it is a
bilateral issue – is a ploy to be
seen as supportive of Islam’s cause
in Kashmir.
What the
Americans would never say is that Kashmir
is an internal problem that India is well
equipped to sort out. The problem with
such a stance is the Americans would then
find themselves out of job on Kashmir and
without leverage on Pakistan, a rogue
nation they love to court. It would have
been difficult for the Americans to keep
a leash on Pakistan if it had been
democratic. By siding with Pakistan on
the issue of Kashmir, the Americans are
playing a double-edged game – one of
keeping the powerful Middle East allies
happy and another of finding a line to
neutralise China. The Americans have no
interest in the welfare of Kashmir. Peace
will spoil their plans. What they want is
violence and strife in the Valley that
allows them to keep a toe in the door
while keeping their huge military
industrial complex busy churning out
weapons for the warring neighbours. In
the present standoff, they have sold
remote sensors and Flycatcher radars to
India while supplying Pakistan with
military transport planes, helicopters
and a host of military equipment. No
other weapon could unsettle the American
economy as peace.
Here, it
would be pertinent to look at the sudden
increase in the frequency of high-profile
visits from Britain. On the face of it,
Mr. Jack Straw and company seem to arrive
at short notices as ambassadors of peace,
deeply concerned about the continuing
confrontation between two nuclear-capable
neighbours. No one is disputing that it
could be one of the reasons. There is
also another, equally critical reason for
the British leaders landing at the Indira
Gandhi International Airport even in the
middle of the worst summer. They want to
stitch up a long-pending contract to sell
66 Advanced Jet Trainers worth more than
Rs. 4,000 crore as early as possible.
What could be a more opportune time than
the present time of conflict and
instability?
Now let us
look at another key player who is the
most diplomatic and unusually quiet:
China. The Chinese stake in Kashmir is
not so apparent as the Western interest.
They too have no interest in the people
of Kashmir. Kashmir is merely a strategic
bridge to the world of oil and gas that
lies west of the Himalayas. They are not
yet interested in a direct involvement in
Kashmir. They are content, for the
present, to play the Kashmir game with
the help of their ally, Pakistan. One of
the cleverest diplomatic moves Beijing
executed was to open its armoury to
Islamabad when the Americans decided to
adopt a high moral ground on supplying
hitech military hardware. The Chinese not
only promptly supplied Pakistan with
technology and hardware but also
willingly set up joint partnerships in
developing and producing military
equipment.
The
Chinese have been quite liberal with
missile hardware and technology besides
helping Pakistan with its nuclear weapons
programme. The alliance has grown so much
in size and strength in the past decade
that Pakistan considers China its closest
ally. The Chinese have reciprocated the
sentiments. During the present crisis,
for instance, they have been shipping
conventional arms to Pakistan. They are
on their side, be it Kashmir or anything
else. A finger in Kashmir could mean a
finger on India’s most vulnerable
nerve. China considers India to be, at
best, a regional power and a hold on
Kashmir could ensure that the latter
remains so. forever. INAV
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Pak,
Afghan prisoners are a problem
By B L Kak
Prisoners
from Pakistan and Af-ghanistan have, once
again, become the subject matter of
intense discussions among intelligence
and security agencies. Each one of them
is, perhaps, enjoying Indian food in
their places of confinement in Jammu and
Kashmir and in some other jails in
different parts of the country-and that
too after having indulged in the most
heinous crime of playing with Indian
blood. And each one of them has been
found by Government sleuths to continue
to nurse anti-India feeling.
What has
prompted the Government to call for
intensification of surveillance by
security personnel in the jails, housing
dreaded foreign militants, is the
apparent plan of several captured ultras
to pose problems for the men and agencies
assigned with the task of dealing with
them. No wonder, the Union Home
Ministry’s main emphasis is on the
security arrangements inside jails in
Srinagar and Jammu as well as in the
Tihar jail in Delhi, besides some jails
in Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand
and Tamil Nadu.
The
authorities cannot be faulted for the
latest directive, calling for thorough
screening and frisking of all inmates,
visitors and staff in the high-security
central jails of Srinagar and Jammu.
These two jails accommodate a number of
Pakistani and Afghan terrorists. In fact,
the jail authorities in Srinagar and
Jammu have, once again, been cautioned
against attempts by several hard-core
terrorists to continue to indulge in
undesirable activity such as formation of
small groups and highlighting, without
any restrictions, the relevance of jihadi
culture and agenda.
Equally
significant is yet another directive,
which has clearly emphasized the need for
an effective mechanism against the
clandestine flow of Indian currency notes
of different denominations inside the
jails in Jammu and Kashmir. This
directive assumes importance in the
context of the unpublished recovery of
two bundles of Indian currency notes from
the possession of three foreign militants
in the Srinagar jail not long ago. How
did these currency notes travel to these
militants?
Money and
muscle power are two things that can
create wonders of sorts. All categories
of Government employees, including police
and security personnel, have reckoned the
fact that their role and performance
cannot be judged independent of the
expectations they have in respect of cash
incentives from the Government. Such
incentives can also be made available by
non-Governmental elements and agencies.
The
imprisoned ultras from Kashmir have
necessitated the Government to direct the
Tihar jail authorities to step up vigil
on each of them. The Minister of State
for Home Affairs, Mr Vidyasagar Rao, has
confirmed that a large number of
prisoners in Tihar jail are visited by
their relatives and friends every day.
This gives them an opportunity to bring
prohibited items concealed in eatables
and in their body orifices. Even as the
jail administration had recently informed
the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) that
several steps had been taken to curb such
activities, the Government could not
avoid ordering thorough investigations
following the sensational revelation of
the passage of prohibited items into some
wards in Tihar complex.
These
prohibited items inter alia included
drugs, liquor, bullets and cellphones.
Mandarins in Delhi’s North Block had
reasons to get alarmed as first reports
about the smuggling of bullets into Tihar
jail reached them. Many knew about the
clandestine flow of drugs and liquor into
the hands of a set of prisoners in the
jail. But the smuggling of bullets and
cellphones into the jail was,
undoubtedly, mind-boggling.
A jar of
cold cream, which belonged to a prisoner,
yielded 5 bullets. The jail authorities
seemed keen on keeping the episode under
wraps. But they could not succeed. And as
the chinks in jail security became too
evident to be missed, the Government was
left with no alternative but to press
into action men of the special cell of
Delhi Police to carry out investigations.
Were the bullets planted on the inmate,
in whose belongings the jail staff
recovered them? This question was thrown
up, after the inmate was not found guilty
in the course of grilling by Tihar
security personnel.
Another
question, which has engaged the attention
of the Delhi Police, is: Are imprisoned
Kashmiri militants involved in the
incident? This question was raised after
it was reported that the inmate, in whose
belongings five bullets were recovered,
belonged to the high-security ward, where
most Kashmiri militants are lodged.
Under the
jail manual, the authorities assigned
with the responsibility of handling
various categories of prisoners have to
permit even high-security prisoners some
time to relax outside their cells every
day. This, naturally, leaves time for
criminals to mingle. Interaction of one
militant with another not only in the
Srinagar jail but also in the Tihar jail
has been noticed, in recent times, by
intelligence sleuths.
Another
sensational revelation, which has
triggered a bit of commotion in official
and political circles, relates to the
availability of cellphones. According to
one estimate, over 200 criminals enjoy
the freedom to use cellphones in jails
without proper authorisation. Does it
confirm the alleged nexus between the
criminals and jail officials? Some
details available with the Central Bureau
of Investigation (CBI) are equally
sensational: Dreaded criminal, Babloo
Srivastava, who is alleged to be linked
to the infamous underworld don, Dawood
Ibrahim, is still using more than 25
cellphones from inside the four walls to
"organise crime and extort money
after obliging the jail
authorities".
In recent
weeks, several businessmen from Delhi,
Lucknow, Allahabad, Bangalore, Mumbai and
Chennai have received telephone calls
from criminals directing them to part
with huge sums of money or face dire
consequences. Some of the numbers have
been forwarded to the CBI and other State
police officials for further
investigations.
In some
cells in the Tihar jail, efforts are
afoot to segregate hostile prisoners,
particularly the ones from Pakistan and
Afghanistan, from one another. Even then,
three to four prisoners have to be
accommodated in one cell on account of
space constraints. More than 11,000
prisoners are housed in the Tihar jail,
which is considered the largest jail in
Asia.
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Ending
child soldiering
By Radhakrishna Rao
After protracted
and intense international efforts and heated
debates and discussions spread over nearly one
decade, the UN sponsored treaty on the
involvement of children in wars and conflicts
came into force in February this year. For the
first time, a comprehensive treaty has been put
in place to end the involvement of children in
the armed conflicts.
This landmark
treaty stipulates that no person under the age of
eighteen shall be subjected to conscription and
imposes an obligation on states to raise the
minimum age for voluntary recruitment to at least
16 years.
According to Olara
A Otunni, UN Under Secretary General and Special
Representative for children and Armed Conflicts,
''Using Children as soldiers is one of the worst
forms of brutalisation and it is practised in
every corner of the globe''. ''It is in countries
where the conflicts are most protracted and the
most intractable the children are in the greatest
danger''.
The grim ground
reality is that thousands of children are
abducted from schools, orphanages and refugee
camps by the warring groups in different parts of
the world and forced to fight a war about which
they know very little.
They are exposed
to so much of brutalisation that with the passage
of time they become perpetrators. Cut off from
their normal growth, educational and human
relationships, they end up psychopaths.. feeding
the ruthless machine of turning children into
soliders.
While some are
coerced to join armed conflicts and guerilla
wars, some end up as combatants because economic
and social systems around them have collapsed. Of
course, there is a small minority of children who
are driven by ideology to fight the battle on
behalf of the self-appointed warlords.
Rehabilitation of
child soldiers entails intense education,
training and psycho-social treatment. As Ottunni
points out, ''with better monitoring and
reporting on the conduct of armed groups, we can
ensure that no child is left behind with fighting
forces.''
According to UN
estimates, over 300,000 boys and girls are now
serving in Government or rebel forces in over 30
armed conflicts in the world as soldiers,
runners, guards, sex slaves, cooks or spies.
While children in geneal are beaten or killed if
they attempt to escape, girls are specially
vulnerable because often they are sexually
exploited.
As it is, for
hundreds of years now, exploitation of children
has remained an inseparable part of the global
social dynamics. Unfortunately, the new millenium
has not made much difference to the trend of the
abuse of children as part of the armed conflicts
in a variety of ways.
From the
mountainous north eastern parts of India to the
sun baked Jaffna peninsula in Sri Lanka and from
war from Angola to crisis-prone Palestine, child
soldiers are being subjected to mental trauma and
physical torture of an unprecedented dimension.
According to a
recent study, ''The use of children as soldiers
in Asia-pacific region continues unabated.
Islamic religious schools or madrassas in many
parts of the world have become a fertile ground
for recruiting child soldiers''.
''Not long back,
in the pictureaque Kashmir valley, many
school-going children used to be recruited by
Pakistan supported separatist groups. The
hardships and sufferings they subsequently
undergo turn many into psychological wreck. Even
those, who managed to escape from the clutches of
the militant groups, continue to suffer from
mental trauma and psychic dislocations.
UN Secretary
General Kofi Annan says, ''the international
community must do much more to move from words to
deeds , from the framing of norms to era of
application.''
Recent newspaper
reports suggest the Liberation Tiger for Tamil
Eelam (LTTE) in Sri Lanka and People's war group
in India continues to recruit boys and girls aged
between 8 and 15 years. In the impoverished
Uganda, a Christian fundamentalist war group
called Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) has perfected
the art of kidnapping children and turning them
into combatants.
Studies carried
out by many international aid agencies reveal
that the Ugandan children who have been exposed
to cruelty and brutality as soldiers continue to
nurse emotional scars and psychological trauma
that are rather difficult to overcome.
PTI Feature
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