EDITORIAL
A
new beginning?
The best thing
about the new Government is that it is new. That
single factor gives hope that new beginning could
be made and the desired corrections put in place.
The slim ministry that was sworn at the weekend
in Srinagar is a fine thing. Commentators have,
wondered why this State of a mere crore
population and four-score legislators needs
three-dozen ministers. It is not only the
substantial saving on the ministers and
ministries but also the spirit that matters; a
small and compact ministry would send the right
signals for curbing expenditures all through. It
could also reduce the role of unholy liaisons and
influence-peddlers who multiply in direct
proportion to the strength of the ministries.
Today people need governance not contacts that in
the final reckoning are little more that
corruption-channels. Accordingly, people from all
over the State have commanded the compact
ministry and its proportionate representation,
the good men there. But all know that it is just
a symbolic thing, sworn in to take charge.
That it is to get
bigger, fatter till it would be a little Appu
frolicking on the State expense. Indeed, if the
National Conference, which had no need to balance
interests, never thought of slim and strong
ministries, the coalition is ill placed to
restrict the number of their ministerial
lordships who in due course of time can be
expected to put an extra, if not overbearing,
pressure on this fragile State, its governance
and its funds. It is notable that the only
efficient and praiseworthy period in the 27-year
NC rule as the 2-year stint when Sheikh Abdullah
had a miniscule ministry. Thereafter the
ministries began to get bigger and administration
became lax till it finally disappeared in the
jumbo ministry that has just been voted out.
Possibly, the people who have fought the election
on the slogan of efficiency would remember whence
all the inefficiency, corruption, sycophancy and
ill-rule come. But is more probable that they
would seek the loaves and fishes of the office
and take their pounds of flesh. Would they still
prevent further denudation of the state body and
exchequer? It would be a miracle if they can
achieve both ends.
Yet, it can be
well nigh expected that the others may refuse to
join in the jamboree and would sit back to see
that their agendas are implemented, that the high
promise of an honest rule is implemented and that
all the regions of the State get a balanced
treatment. The new Chief Minister appeared to
hold out that promise as a Diwali gift for this
region. As he admitted, ever since 1947, the
people of this region have not got a just and
equal treatment. That is a candid statement for
the head of the State to make. But then, people
expect this Government to speak true, decide
truly and remain true in implementing their
promises and decisions. As it is many people,
many, sections of the State population have been
widely discriminated against over the past.
Unnecessarily, too for, it is not the people who
want others to be discriminated against, or to
prosper at the cost of others. They want to live
in harmony and peace, in equality and brotherhood
for they know that they cannot prosper without
one another, or at the cost of one another. That,
a lopsided development is helpful only to the
exploiters of the sentiments, to the people who
want to build their own careers at the cost of
the people.
Yet that is what
they have been told to root for, to vote for, to
support and struggle for. The people of this
State, have been divided, and polarized over
grievances and shares. Without imputing blames,
one must add that the inequalities inflicted upon
this State remain seething wounds on the body of
this State, which have been threatening to tear
it asunder. The new Government has been talking
of healing touches. The greatest healing would be
to remove the inequality and imbalances imposed
upon the people and regions. It would be a
yeoman’s service to this State if the
Government can make a beginning in the direction
and bring all people on an even keel. It would
need a fair and unbiased assessment of the
realities, populations and allocations in the
State, the works their quality and distribution,
the needs as well as the deprivations various
people have been made to suffer. All that calls
for a just distribution of the cake as well as
the commitments. A mechanism would have to be
evolved whereby no people are ignored, no section
is slighted, no part overburdened, no group made
into favourites.
Here, a mere
representation in the ministries to different
sections and regions does not help, unless they
can influence the policies in favour to that
region or section. As the Chief Minister said it
is the decision making that matters. That
decision- making has been a monopoly-holding. It
would have to be spread out, to incorporate the
different peoples and regions, their needs and
perceptions. That would not be done by inducting
loyal pallbearers into cabinet from the aggrieved
groups or sections but by addressing the
grievances in a balanced and unbiased manner. So
far one has heard all the right noises. The point
is converting them into policy perspectives. That
would begin to show as the new Government sits
down to business. The elections have seen
different sentiments and feeling aired rather
openly. Probably, that was all needed because the
slants have grown quite obvious as well as
injurious. So have the misuses and exploitations.
Even the parties that are partners today rode on
that sentiment to an extent. All that would have
to be put behind if this State is to be put on
the tract, if the brotherhood and oneness is to
be fostered, if the bonds of unity are to be
strengthened not sundered. A clean breast, a
balanced vision and a sincere urge to remove all
irritants and not to cash on them can go a long
way in healing the raw wounds.
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Indian
in Search of aleader
By P.R.
Gupte
The
contemporary politics is beset with a
desire to be equal to the leaders of the
bygone era in the mould of Sardar
Vallabhbhai Patel, lovingly called the
Iron Man of India. Among the top runners
are the Deputy Prime Minister, Lalkrishna
Advani, and the acting Chief Minister of
Gujarat, Mr. Narendra Modi. Admirers of
Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee also,
at times, compare him with Jawaharlal
Nehru. Sycophancy has become the hallmark
of Indian politics. The weakness of the
Indian intelligentsia as well as of the
laity is their piteous yearning for a
leader. They want him so that they might
be assured o a life of ease, security,
and mediocre well-being as a gift from
him and therefore without any effort of
their own. The cry for a leader was heard
as soon as British rule disappeared from
India. Whenever I have spoken about
unsatisfactory political, social, or
economic conditions in India during the
last 30-syears or so I have got the
stereotyped reply : "We have no
leaders," or its alternative,
"We need a dictator." Nehru was
not accepted as one.
Since his
death the yearning has taken a more
deluded form, which makes the
intelligentsia see a leader in anyone who
has a little more energy, assertiveness,
obstinacy, or even perversity than they
possess. These men forget that India did
have men who could be regarded as leaders
by any standards adopted for them, for
instance – to mention only three
– Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharalal Nehru,
and Subhas Chandra Bose. Even they have
made no difference to the course of
Indian history or the conditions of the
Indian people after independence. The
criterion of leadership is becoming
progressively lower. While Indira Gandhi
was a despot her son, Rajiv instead of a
leader turned out to be a prince
charming. Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee is
trying to be an odd combination of
everything put together. In the process,
he is neither a leader nor a layman. That
is probably his personal as well as
national tragedy. Disappointment after
disappointment does not weaken
Indians’ desire for a leader and the
hope of his emergence as if by a miracle.
This is
not, of course, the apocalyptic faith
many people had in the past in the
appearance of an Avatar, or Messiah, or
Imam Mahdi. That faith was based on a
religious eschatology and inspired by
trust in an omnipotent and loving God.
Although put in the super-natural order,
the expectation sprang from the idealism
and moral strength of the community which
held to it. As a result, it made the
community which nursed the expectation
capable of effort, endurance, and, above
all, self-criticism. The current yearning
for a leader has not instilled one of
these qualities in the Indian
intelligentsia. Their wailing for him is
like the cry of a child for its mother
when it is hungry or frightened. But a
child always has a mother. Nations do not
get leaders unless they deserve them. If
God sends a leader to India today he will
have to be capable of working miracles
like giving sight to the blind, making
the lame walk, and raising from the dead.
The truth
is that educated Indians of today have no
understanding of the phenomenon of
leadership, because, on the one hand,
they have ceased to be the raw material
out of which leaders may emerge, and, on
the other, become incapable of providing
the following needed by all leaders. I
have always thought of leadership among
men in terms of a chemical phenomenon,
that of crystallisation. Crystals can
form only in a highly saturated solution
in water of the material of which they
are made. In the same way, the qualities
which are present in a concentrated form
in the leaders, have to be present in a
diluted form in the whole population.
Without this co-relation there can be no
leaders.
The
historical junctures in which leaders
appear, and appear at a very young age,
are political or social revolutions in a
country. Thus every such revolution has
seen men of exceptional ability who are
also young, ranged in a hierarchy. The
leader of this crops of leaders might be
very gifted, but he is to a greater or
lesser degree only the primus inter pares
the first among equals. I shall
illustrate the correlation of revolution,
leadership, and youth by giving some
examples, beginning with Napoleonic
France.
When in
1800 Napoleon as first Consul, became the
dictator of France, he was 30. He had
with him 22 soldiers who became his
active Marshals. None of them were above
50; only four were between 40 and 50, the
one was 26. Only two of them were of
noble birth, the others came from the
middle-class, and even the working class.
All of them rose by virtue of their
talent, and never by patronage. They did
not have to be groomed for their
position.
At the
time of the Meiji Revolution in Japan,
the Emperor (Mutshuhito) was only 16; the
leaders of the revolution were young:
Okubo was 38, Itagaki 31, Okuma 30, and
Ito, the most active and energetic of
them, only 27.
In China,
Sun Yat-sen emerged as a leader before he
was 30; Chiang Kai-shek became the
dictator of his country when 41; and Mao
emerged as a leader when he was 27.Coming
now to the Russian Revolution of 1917,
one finds that Lenin was then 47, Kalinin
42, Stalin 38, Trotsky 38, Kamenev 34,
Zinoview 34, and Bukharin 29.
Last of
all, in Turkey Mustafa Kemal restored the
position of his country after the defeat
in the first World War when he was 41.
But he had already established his
reputation as a military leader at the
age of 34 when he commanded in the
Gallipoli Peninsula and contributed to
the Turkish victory overt the British in
1915. Ismet who became the leader in
Turkey after Kemal, was only 38 when he
won the decisive battle of Afiyon
Karahisar in 1922.
It might
also be added that all the Indians who
attained to the position of leaders in
the nationalist movement had emerged as
such between the ages of twenty five and
thirty, talent being precocious in India.
But no upsurge of young men was seen in
1947, when it should have occurred. So,
Nehru, himself nearly 58, had to form his
Government with men who were even older
than he. The only man who was below 50
was Sardar Baldev Singh, and everybody
knows why he was included. About the men
with whom he had to run the Government of
independent India from 1947 Nehru had
already written in 1939, when many of
them were at the head of the Congress
governments formed in the provinces under
the Act of 1935: "They are worn out
in mind and body and their troubles from
all directions tend to increase. I would
hate to have their job.:" I myself
have the original of this letter. In
addition, many of his senior colleagues
suffered from incurable cardiac trouble.
In the 50-years (and more) which have
followed not one man of exceptional
political ability has appeared in India.
This is a
human situation of ominous significance.
It would be foolish to dogmatise about
the absence of talent in contemporary
India. Genetic, social, and cultural
factors in combination may be responsible
for it. In any case, nothing can be done
about it by conscious effort. Genius
bloweth where it listeth. But men of
ordinary stature can do something: they
can work hard to make up by joint,
average effort a part at least of what
can be accomplished by leaders of genius.
But even this response to the challenge
before India is not coming from the
generation below 50, not to speak of 30.
INAV
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Healing
touch with caution
By Omkar
Dattatray
God
himself is the great healer. But as they
say that Lord helps those who exert
themselves. So Mufti Mohammad the Chief
Minister of the trouble torn State cannot
be faulted for advocacy of his theory of
healing touch to the people J&K
State. However, Indian Government has
been consistantly trying to heal the hurt
sentiments of Kashmiris. Yes the hearts
and minds of people have to be won but
not at the cost of national security.
During the last 55 years of self rule and
freedom Delhi has failed to win the
hearts of Kashmiris and now it is to be
seen, how will the new Chief Minister
heal the wounds of Kashmiris. It is also
to be seen as to how will he try to
fulfill the aspirations of Kashmiris.
Otherwise, there is nothing new in his
theory and perception of healing touch
theme. But then the healing touch should
be with utmost care and caution.
Terrorism in J&K is more foreign
sponsored and less of indigenous
character. It is the foreign mercenaries
in a great numbers who are indulging in
mayhem in the name of so-called Jehad.
This foreign dimension of militancy
should be taken into view in practising
healing touch prescription. Or else we
will be losing gaining battle against
terrorism. The job of managing the
coalition is cumbersome and formidable
given the varied perceptions even among
coalition partners though they have
agreed on a common minium agenda of
governance. So the common minimum
programme should be implemented with due
care and caution. The coalition
Government and its alliance partners must
come upto the hopes and expectations of
the people and try to relieve them from
misery and deprivations.
The people
of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh have
suffered gravely during all these years
of terrorism. Children, young, old infirm
and innocent people have keen killed.
Even women and babies have not been
spared. Industry, trade, economy and
infrastructure has been damaged. People
are ground between the bullets of
terrorists and security personnel and it
is the people of all the three regions of
the State who have borne the brunt of the
excesses of militants. However, the
greatest damage has been caused to the
Sofi culture, ethos; Kashmiriyat and the
inter religious harmony through ethnic
cleansing of Kashmiris Pandits and other
Hindu minorities from Kashmir. While as
Kashmiris stand alienated the Jammuites
and Ladakhis stand brazenly discriminated
against by the successive State and
Central establishments. Therefore, the
genuine aspirations of Kashmiris,
Jammuites and Ladakhis have to be
fulfilled for the long term peace and
prosperity of the State. The alienation
and the distrust among Kashmiris should
be removed and the feeling of
discrimination, neglect and the step
motherly attitude towards Jammu and
Ladakh regions should also be addressed
to and efforts made to eliminate such
bias against Jammu and Ladakh. The
coalition Government and its alliance
partners individually have a great
responsibility to see that no such hasty
decision is taken which will give a moral
boost to militancy in J&K. At the
same time there is no denying that the
new dispensation should try to wipe out
tears from every eye. So, the need is to
provide a responsive, responsible,
transparent corruption free and
accessible Government to the suffering
masses. Not that the State Government
does not have the necessary autonomy and
powers to redress the problem of the
people. Nor is finance any constraint in
the State Development. Huge amounts of
money have been pumped to the State right
from the days of the so-called popular
rule. The money had not been properly
spent on the development activities and
the betterment of the people. So every
penny needs to be spent on the welfare
and development of masses. Money should
not be pocketed by the elite few. The
people of Jammu & Kashmir are their
own masters and they can shape and
reshape things for themselves. The only
thing is that they should be made to feel
so.
No laxity
and softness should be shown with those
who have committed serious crimes like
killings, rapes and loot of public
property during the years of terrorism.
However, those who are not involved in
any serious crime may be let off after
proper screening. But the pressure on the
terrorists and foreign mercenaries should
continue with redoubled effort. The new
rulers should see the writing on the wall
that when Surjeet Singh Barnala the then
Chief Minister of Punjab freed militants
and terrorists after the assumption of
office, the terrorism there reached an
all times high record and it brought the
State back for the brink of disaster even
after elections.
Thus
necessary guard and precaution has to be
taken by the coalition Government at
every step. Urgent task brings the State
back to peace and normalcy but it cannot
be done in a short span. However, the
efforts in this direction should be
earnestly persued. People of the State
are fed up with the terrorism and dance
of death and they like to live in peace.
So development and dignity of the masses
should be ensured. Economy of the State
has come to a grinding halt due to Pak
sponsored terrorism during last twelve
years. Therefore, transparent and honest
employment policy is the need of the
hour. Here also no populist and
impractical policies need to be persued.
But pragmatic employment generation
schemes both at Governmental level and
industrial level should be launched to
eradicate poverty in the strife torn
State. Public distribution system needs
to be strengthened and basic services
like water, health, transport,
electricity and schooling of children
needs a top priority attention. Neglect
of Jammu and Ladakh regions needs to be
removed by attaching top most priority to
these hitherto neglected areas by
initiating developmental schemes at par
with Kashmir. Similarly the alienation of
Kashmiris needs to be addressed to by
ensuring their full participation in
governance through Panchayat Raj system.
Quick redressal and delivery mechanism
needs an urgent attention. All said and
done the minimum programme of governance
of the coalition partners should not have
regional and sectarian overtones and it
should in no way be at variance with
national security. Non-application or
repeal of POTA, disbanding or merger of
special operation group with State
police, and such other schemes have the
stink of an appeasement policy which may
be counter productive in the long run.
There is need to probe any genuine human
rights violation, if any, at the hands of
security forces who have been performing
their duty of protecting life and
property of the people. At the same time
the rulers cannot shut their eyes towards
the human rights violations of very
severe nature at the hands of terrorists.
Have the innocent people of State and
those ousted from their homes and hearths
no human rights at all. Probe into human
right violations should not be partial or
lop-sided. People need safety of their
life limb property and want to live a
dignified life. The hopes that Mufti Mohd
Sayeed's statement of giving a healing
touch to the people of the State will
restore the confidence of the masses in
the new dispensation. Yes, the problem in
Kashmir must be addressed through the
prism of Insaniyat. Thus human approach
with a psychological treatment is needed
to heal the wounds of the people of
Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh but the New
Government will have to tread the path
with care and caution.
In case,
the Mufti Mohd Sayeed's coalition
Government succeeds in containing the
militancy and removal of partiality and
discrimination in this State, it will win
the elections even after the expiry of 6
years period of the present elected
Government, without any doubt.
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Ceasefire
within the parivar
By P N G
Subramanian
The store-
house of Chinese historical evidence is
vast and evidentially strong and has made
Chinese task easy in referring constantly
to and learning from historical lessons-
in the nature of benchmarks.
The Heavy
Industries sector grew mainly based on
indegenous technology, but borrowed from,
and patterned on, the erstwhile Soviet
Union and further developed to suit local
conditions. China became a country with a
totalitarian economy ruled by a Communist
autocracy, to call it simplistically.
Since its
abandoning of Class War and the Adoption
in December 1978 of Socialism with
Chinese characteristics, that is labelled
as Economic Capitalism and Political
Socialism, China's has been one of
export-led development.
Chinese
progress towards accession to the WTO was
guided as much by historical sense as by
realistic pragmatism.
Compact
and efficient management has been
possible in Chinese Society. As
unsurprisingly, an overwhelming majority
of the Chinese welcome this strictness in
governance for the sake of the greater
glory of China.
China has
abundant natural resources for industrial
and all round development. In terms of
growth and also in terms of exports,
China has many benefits in terms of
availability of basic raw materials,
cheap energy and cheap and efficient
transportation (road and sea),
increasingly higher productivity.
Since the
1990s, the educational system has been
continually restructured, with an accent
on technical and vocational education.
Formal education is supplemented by
training in specialized industrial
training institutes to produce qualified
craftsmen, and technicians. The Chinese
success in industrial growth is related
to the combination of technological,
organizational, institutional and human
capabilities.
Economic
growth has been seen by the Chinese to
have speeded up in the recent years from
1992 with enhanced comprehensive
strength. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of
the year 2000 was up by 8.0 percent over
the previous year at comparable prices.
Investment in fixed assets too went up. The
important point here is the investments
in fixed assets have come out mostly from
domestic savings. Overseas
Chinese who have any way provided a
substantial proportion (some figures
suggest 80%) of the total investments of
US$ 300 million pledged and nearly US$
250 billion accrued.
The key
economic issues that the Chinese
leadership faces today is the question of
liberalization of the economy without
undue destruction of the State sector-
the State-owned enterprises, the SOEs.
China with
total foreign trade of almost US$ 500
billion is world's 10th or the 9th
largest trading nation. The integration
of such a large entity, with gigantic
natural resources, into the world's
economy demanded by the foremost
multilateral trading body, the WTO, has
impacted on all other countries- big and
small. This presents India with both
opportunities and challenges. India has
been slow to wake up to it.
Anti
- Competitive Practices : China
continues to struggle with many economic
inefficiencies.
There are
investment disincentives created by local
protectionism, predatory pricing,
preservation of industry-wide monopolies,
and monopolistic practices designed to
protect the state-owned sector, existing
laws are ineffective to prevent this,
despite adherence to WTO stipulations.
China
restricts imports through a variety of
means, including high tariffs and taxes,
non-tariff measures, trading rights
restrictions, and other barriers.
Prohibitively high tariffs, in
combination with taxes and other import
restrictions, block many imports.
A large
number of factors enable successful
mainland Chinese interactions with the US
and the West indeed at many different
levels possible, despite the fact the
Chinese grasp of English remains
inadequate, qualitatively and
quantitavely. Chinese cost of labour is
still cheap; Labour laws are geared to
export-led development. Cost of money is
cheaper too. Electricity is cheaper.
Water is almost free; Land costs are
negligible.
The
spectacular Chinese economic development
despite having world's largest
population, poses for us and many other
countries a challenge of immeasurable
magnitude.
The major
focus of Indian policy initiative should
be on enhancing the role of education,
suitable to a system of production being
driven by skills, knowledge, technology
and networking.
India and
China are in many ways competitors in the
marketing of industrial output but there
are areas they will be complementary and
will have synergism in cooperation. So
there is a big scope for exploiting each
other's market taking advantage of each
other's merits and handicaps. Combined
together the market is vast and it needs
careful planning and identification of
trade off areas between the two
countries.
Initially
it could be purely import/export of
industrial output, rather than direct
investment. Then identify the owners of
the most important technologies and
invest accordingly to share the market.
This could be possible in many areas.Some
areas require immediate attention for
development with a view to embarking upon
opening up opportunities for Indian
industry immediately. These are :
Agriculture, Minerals, Building Material,
Chemicals, Pharmaceuticals, Computer
software, Hotel Industry, Professional
services and audio-visual.
(The
Author is former consul General of India
in Shanghai)
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