EDITORIAL
Fair and
free
The elections have
demonstrated for the umpteenth time that the game
here is free and fair. The party that holds the
reigns of power does not matter. The central
authority that gets the elections conducted does
not interfere. It is the people who express their
wish and that will gets respected from the losers
in a most honourable manner. That is democracy in
action and it has not unfolded here for the first
time, as many jubilant winners are prone to
posit. It was free when the Congress won an even
clearer mandate from Jammu region while the
valley then gave NC a full support. It was fairly
held when the same Mufti Syed got elected from
Ranbir Singh Pora in the aftermath of that
election some twenty years ago. It was fair
verdict when Farooq took over the reigns of the
Government six years ago. It is another fair
election after which he would lay down office for
the winner to take over, in an honourable
exchange of places in deference to the dictates
of the latest verdict. Long live the sovereignty
of the people.
The twin winners
of this mandate may not remember that their last
victories and defeats at the hustings came not in
the state but farther away. Because then they
would not have had enough of a chance to win it.
Today, the people have not only called them back
but also entrusted them with their future and
governance for the next six years. That is how
the sovereignty is expressed and bestowed. And
today the people are as much grateful to the
twosome for having given them an alternative, as
they themselves may be thankful to the people for
trusting them. For the game is fair here. More
than the contestants, it was the election agency
that was worried over the fairness of the
ascertainment of the popular will. The election
commission deserves all the kudos bestowed on
them for not only conducting the elections in a
free and fair manner but also showing it to be
transparent and clear. The long line of observers
who ran through each district, the sufficient and
efficient staff that made the new fangled voting
machines work and the alert machinery that saw
that the minutest irritant was removed at the
earliest, worked hard for the commendations they
are getting. Of course, they do it routinely but
here a challenge was thrown to them by uneasy
legacies, which the commission met with a
befitting grace.
And, there they
have proved to the wider world that this there is
no unholy agenda, no undue pressure here to force
the people against their will and wish or any
design that keep the true legatees of the popular
will away. Of course, there is nothing new in
that promise and practice but somehow the world
had been mislead about the things. The world had
been told that it is coercion and constraint,
force and firepower that decide the things. And,
the credulous world had actually come to believe
it. Or at the very least, the calculated one
tended to give it some ear. That disinformation
would of course, die its own death, as the new
assembly appoint a Government to take over the
administration of the State. Or , would it? Would
it be allowed to die its natural death? That is
the big question that has to be asked. And,
answered. For, the peace that the people have
willed again lies under a siege by...
Unfair
agendas
Even as the people
again and again, in full four stages over a
prolonged month-long voting, rejected the terror
and the tactics the marauders did not let go. The
first phase of poll itself should have sobered
them. Instead, they went for greater killings. At
the next rejection they became frantic and
finally as the counting was to take place, they
came in large numbers to make one last stand for
terror. It is not without significance that the
dozen-strong marauders killed in Kupwara as they
were planning to target the counting halls were
quick infiltrators like the trio who wrecked the
Hiranagar carnage on the poll-day there; they
were sent in on the express task of disrupting
the process. That agenda was thwarted only by the
alacrity of the security forces. That alacrity
cost the security agencies as many as one hundred
and fifty Jawans over the duration of the polls
alone. It included thirty personnel of the police
too, among them one Dy Superintendent of Police.
It is that hard sacrifice that made all the other
sacrifices worthwhile and brought the efforts of
other agencies, constitutional and routine, to
fruition. But for them, the marauders may well
have forced their will on the people yet once
again or at the very least fouled up the process
enough to make it suspect by default.
Indeed, it is the
juxtaposition of the fair and unfair ends of the
spectrum that stand out as the most significant
images of this election. On one side is ranged a
people who want to lead peaceable lives, in
happiness without unholy pulls and pressures
forced upon them. And, on the other is a group of
subversives who on the strength of their guns and
grenades claim a right to brow beat everybody
else into submission and beat those who still
would not fall into line to death. On one side is
a constitution and its agencies committed to
fairness and freedom and on the other the range
of totalitarians that seek to dictate everything
from constitution to freedom. On one side is the
security that seeks to safeguard even the leaders
of separatists from the foes amongst their
friends and on the other the friends who would
not spare even their friends if they don't defer
to them. That distinction had become clear even
during the last election that was held here under
the shadow of terrorism but somehow the
comparisons had not been as sharply perceived as
they came through in this election. Was that the
reason why some of those lessons were not
remembered, or even learned as thoroughly as they
have been impressed upon the minds now ?
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Men,
Matters, Memories
Lonely, isolated Vajpayee
By M L Kotru
Why does
Atal Bihari Vajpay-ee have to look so
lonely and forlorn? Is he gripped by the
feeling he has been let down by the men
whom he trusted? Or, is it that he is
take in by the newly invented references
to him as the ''grand old man of Indian
politics'' or ''Uncle Atal'', e la chacha
Nehru, seriously? More precisely, is it
the ''parivar'' that's making life
difficult for the Prime Minister? Of
course, the grand old man of BJP has
other problems as well. His own partymen,
serving in his own Cabinet, are acting as
independent islands, openly advocating
subversion of policies long settled by
the very cabinet of which they happen to
be members.
Occasionally
one does come across a flash or two of
the vintage Vajpayee but such occasions
are becoming rarer. For the most part he
looks isolated, surrounded only by known
cronies. No doubt the National Democratic
Alliance Government which he heads was at
the best of times a mere khichri, a
hodge-podge of disparate groups held
together by the Vajpayee personal. The
khichri lately appears to be losing in
consist except if it be that time has
allowed ingredients to develop different
traits. It's not as if Vajpayee was
unaware of the difficulties in holding
together a disparate NDA. In fact his
earlier stints as Prime Minister had
warned him of how to deal with percurial
politicians like J Jayalalitha, and more
recently with the likes of the tantrum
queen Mamta Banerjee. Men like the Andhra
Chief Minister, Chandrababu Naidu a close
ally, have not been loath either to keep
demanding that extra pound of flesh to
keep the NDA alive.
But more
galling, than all these put together, are
the well orchestrated attacks on the
Prime Minister personally by the Sangh
Parivar and its more rabid frontal
organisations like the Vishwa Hindu
Parishad, the Bajrang Dal, Dattopant
Thengdi's Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh and the
numerous 'vichar maches' that abound
within the parivar. The saffronites in
fact are making things more difficult
than they need be for Vajpayee. The
elevation of Lal Krishen Advani to Deputy
Prime Ministership was expected to make
things a little easier. The elevation
actually appears to have given an added
edge to divisions within the BJP Murli
Manohar Joshi, the HRD Minister, has seen
the elevation as a set back to his own
ambitions. Vajpayee has only added to the
confusion with the somersaults he made in
the wake of the Godhra carnage with
contradictory statements in Ahmedabad,
Delhi, Goa and last month in New York.
The quick changeover from a statesman to
a swayamsewak has been bewildering.
The
parivar has indeed kept Vajpayee's pot of
trouble boiling. The RSS leadership loses
no opportunity to underline its
non-political character but somehow uses
every pretext to show its political
colour. Vajpayee is a special hate
object; and I am not letting out a secret
that most RSS men would be happier with L
K Advani in whom is seen a dedicated
Hindutva man. The RSS and its frontal
organisations have continued to attack
the Vajpayee government, using
disapproval of its economic policies as
the stick with which to beat it even as
they press for more aggressive Hindu
fundamentalism. So far as the saffronites
are concerned they appear to have given
the go by to what was once called
''coalition dharma''. Vajpayee is openly
accused of having betrayed Hindutva and
forgotten the Ram temple
altogether.
From
public platforms and via the omnivorous
TV channels the likes of Parveen Togadia,
Ashok Singhal and even K S Sudershan have
been bad-mouthing Vajpayee. Not just
that. With Narendra Modi, as their new
mascot, they are doing their worst to
spread the communal virus in a manner
which will one day cost the country very
dearly. Their shenanigans have already
caused discordant notes to emanate from
within Vajpayee's Cabinet. Forget the
coalition partners of Vajpayee, it is sad
indeed to hear BJP men talking in terms
of being anti-Vajpayee or pro-Advani.
Advani has, of course, been denying the
existence of any such lobbies but how
come even some Cabinet Ministers are
heard berating Vajpayee in public places.
I am talking of the whispering campaigns
that are a commonplace in coffee sessions
at popular joints like the IIC coffee
lounge where a favourite pastime of
Ministers and former Ministers appears to
be running down Vajpayee. If that does
not worry you think of men like Ram Naik,
Murli Manohar Joshi and George Fernandes
who have openly challenged
well-established Government policy.
Fernandes may have begun to back away a
little but he as one of the three senior
Cabinet Ministers who have demanded a
change, if not outright rejection, of the
disinvestment/divestment policy of the
government; but then he can be anything
but devions.
The
ill-conceived controversy took such a
nasty turn that a reluctant Vajpayee had
to intervene to suspend the Cabinet's
pro-reform judgment for a three-month
period. If the disinvestment Minister
Arun Shourie is astonished by this
whimsicality on the part of this
colleagues you can hardly blame him.
Defence
Minister George Fernandez, who is also
the convenor of the NDA, at the height of
the controversy reminded one of the
rabble-rousing trade unionist he once
was. It did not seem to matter to the
senior NDA leader that he should be seen
openly conspiring with Naik and Joshi and
questioning the validity of what had been
accepted as government policy not very
long ago. It was not as if the Vajpayee
Government had pulled out the economic
reforms package out of a hat; the policy
had in fact been in place since the days
of the Narasimha Rao Government and,
thanks to it, the wheels of Indian
economy had begun to turn a shade faster.
Fernandez at this point was among the
first to associate with the swadeshi
bricade, not for the first round whe
Govindacharya mounted his assault on the
package, but subsequently when he
virtually joined the hardcore RSS
Swadeshi brigade opposed to economic
reforms and globalisation.
If the
matter was of such grave concern to
Fernandez, or for that matter to Naik and
Joshi, the honourable thing for them
would have been to resign from the
Cabinet. But that is a matter that
belongs to the realm of political
morality. Had that not been the case
Fernandes would not have pestered the
Prime Minister to retake him into the
Cabinet even before the Tehelka
Commission had pronounced on issues that
in the first place had persuaded him to
resign. Ram Naik should have resigned the
day the mess regarding the allotment of
petrol diesel and cooking gas agencies by
him as Petroleum Minister hit the
headlines. But why would he give up the
power and privilege of Ministerial office
when the other option was available; he
was not the first to have misused his
office. The most astonishing aspect of
this entire episode has been that the
parivar which prides itself on its sense
of discipline has been found singularly
wanting. Officially the word is that
there should be no public controversy
involving parivar members. BJP President
Venkaiah Naidu, like Vajpayee and Advani
a committed swayamsewak, has warned
partymen against indulging in public
criticism of Government policy. His edict
does not seem to cover men like Ram Naik.
Vajpayee for his part has twice, since
the controversy erupted strongly
supported disinvestment policy
emphasising government's commitment to
economic reforms. The public sector sale
process which is integral to the economic
package, did indeed notch up important
gains but then it hit a road block within
the Government and not from the expected
sources such the opposition, trade unions
or investors. Ram Naik's problem appears
to be that as head of the Petroleum
Ministry he does not want to lose control
of his crown jewels, the BPCL and the
HPCL. He would rather that the two stay
within his petroleum parivar through, say
the ONGC etc.
With
Vajpayee as of this moment having taken a
clear pro-economic reforms stance the
chips may be well in place. And,
Fernandez has shown he his willing to
listen. Other fence-sitters too may join
soon enough, before the three-month
moratorium set by Vajpayee expires. If
necessary and should Naik continue to
play the parivar's swadeshi tune, in
defiance of the known NDA policy,
Vajpayee should ask him to quit. But will
the swayamsewak in Vajpayee permit him to
do that.
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Men
and Matters
Old is sold, new should
be bold
By B L Kak
Jammu and
Kashmir State has to be in the news.
Undoubtedly, for an in-definite period.
The State, though a part of India
constitutionally, will, more often than
not—if the chain of events so far
were any guide—attract attention of
the international community, particularly
the two major players, the USA and the
UK. Interest of these two countries as
well as of China, Russia and France and
most Muslim nations in Kashmir registered
an increase after Muslim terrorists
literally shook the earth with the attack
on Washington and New York on September
11, 2001.
That the
US Government in particular and Americans
in general found the earth having been
shaken with the terrorist strikes in
their country is a different matter. The
US administration was not, till then,
ignorant of how Jammu and Kashmir was
bleeding—all because of terrorist
violence.
Politicised
face of Kashmir was, till the September
11 happenings, in the lexicon of the US
administration. It was only after the
terrorist attack on New York and
Washington that the US President, Mr
George W Bush, decided to take due
cognizance of what New Delhi has had to
say against Pakistan, the principal
source of terror in Jammu and Kashmir.
A new
phase started, prompting the US and
several other foreign Governments to
share the anxiety and concern of Indian
authorities. A variety of terrorist
adventures, or misadventures, in the
various areas in Jammu and Kashmir in
recent times did trigger hostile comments
from the international community against
the gun culture, against the killing of
innocents, against the sponsors and
supporters of terrorist outfits.
And as the
Government of India kept on building
pressure on the international community
against Pakistan—a country which is
a party to the Kashmir issue—certain
internal matters came to be
internationalised in the process. One of
these issues related to the constitution
of a new Legislative Assembly in the
troubled State of Jammu and Kashmir. No
sooner did the talk of holding elections
in J&K begin than the interest of
some nations, particularly Britan, United
States and its "stalwart ally",
Pakistan, became too evident to be
missed.
Prime
Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, a
moderate though, can acquire the
complexion of a hardliner in the event of
handling of certain aspects of the
situation in J&K. After his emphasis
on the "need" for ensuring
free, fair and credible elections in
Kashmir triggered some kind of
perturbation, some kind of fears in some
circles in Delhi, behind-the-scene
efforts were made by some elements in the
Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) to persuade
him to avoid raking up the J&K poll
issue time and again. Mr Vajpayee,
ignoring all suggestions in this regard,
stuck to the ground, invariably making a
pointed reference to his
Government’s policy to ensure free
and fair elections in the State.
No wonder,
the Assembly poll, held in four phases
between September 16 and October 8, got
internationalised in the already
internationalised territory of Jammu and
Kashmir. All doubts, in this regard,
dramatically evaporated following New
Delhi’s permission to a battery of
foreign observers and diplomats to visit
J&K and see for themselves the
conduct of the polls. The exercise was
most crucial in crucially important north
Indian State.
And the
verdict from the electorate was equally
most crucial. It signalled the end of an
era, and beginning of a new one. Old got
sold—that is, protracted one-party
rule or one family raj. The rout of the
National Conference, dominated by one
family (family of Abdullhas) since its
birth in 1938, became history in itself,
by itself. At the same time, the
fractured mandate turned a new leaf in
the histor of Jammu and Kashmir—that
is, coalition culture.
Kashmir’s
recent history is replete with instances
vis-a-vis roots taken by the secessionist
culture, the gun culture, the jihadi
culture. Coalition culture in relation to
Government formation will become a
reality, should the Congress (I) and the
People’s Democratic Party (PDP), the
youngest regional political group,
eventually decide to get together on the
same platform for providing the new
Government to the State people.
As efforts
have begun to ensure that the two parties
smoothly accomplish the target, care will
have to be taken to tackle the problem of
Government formation without ignoring the
embittered regions of the State, namely,
Jammu and Ladakh. True, Kashmir has
profusely bled all these years. True, the
Kashmiri Muslim population has occupied
an important place in the history of the
State. But it would not be proper if
attempts were made to project the Muslim
population as much more important than
the rest of the Muslims inhabiting Jammu
region and Ladakh.
Some
political pundits, or interested parties,
have sought to emphasize the relevance of
a Kashmiri Muslim as the new Chief
Minister. Some others, on the other hand,
have also triggered animated discussions
on aspirations of the people of Jammu, a
region which is ready, as amply shown by
the just-announced poll verdict, to make
available, without any difficulty, a
"suitable" and
"viable" Muslim leader. Not a
bad idea!
If the
Congress party and the PDP have chosen to
reiterate that their one-point programme
was to work for the ouster of the
National Conference Government and to
give the people a people-friendly regime,
it then becomes highly important for the
leaderships of the two camps to work in a
manner as to make difficult for their
common enemy—that is, the NC—to
stage a comeback.
Any minor
mistake—say, unnecessary emphasis on
the superiority of one leader over the
other or uncalled for stress on
someone’s greater experience and
exposure in the political arena—can
lead to unpleasant developments that, in
the ultimate analysis, will infuriate the
electorate that voted out the National
Conference from power.
Now that
the old political commodity has been
sold, the proposed Congress-PDP combine
will have to be bold—bold in many
respects. Bold leaders and politicians
will have to avoid attaching undue
importance to ego problems while tackling
crucial issues.
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National
Movement of Energy Conservation
By Dr Shubhanker
Banerjee
The
increasing need for commer-cial energy
has duly led to a sharp increase in the
demand for electricity and as well as
fossil fuel. But there is a considerable
potential for reducing energy consumption
if we adopt energy efficiency measures.
Infact, this energy efficiency will not
only reduce the need to create new
capacity requiring huge investment, but
will also result in substantial
environmental benefits.
However, a
legal frame work is also now available
with the enactment of the Energy
Conservation Act-2001 to promote energy
efficiency in all sectors of the Indian
society. It is truth that efficient use
of energy and its conservation will
succeed as a programme of opinion leaders
alongwith the champions of industry who
must take the lead in supporting this
conservation programme.
Reduction
in energy intensity would certainly make
our industrial products more competitive.
Thereafter, consumers would stand to gain
substantially through energy efficient
products.
Actually,
it is the call of the present era that we
should strive to achieve more benefit
through lesser inputs. We must be
dedicated to reaffirm our resolve to make
optimum utilisation of energy resources,
power in particular without effecting our
developmental objects.
It is also
truth that power is an indispensable
input for the national socio-economic
development and for enhancing the
standard of living of the general public.
Therefore, official commitment is
required to provide enough power to
service both the objectives of economic
development and as well as standard of
living for Indian society.
No doubt,
there is a huge scope of energy
conservation in India. According to the
latest studies on energy savings, there
is potential of about 25 percent energy
savings in our country. Actually, energy
conservation also provides the least cost
and eco-friendly option for capacity
creation.
Taking
into account the Plant Load Factor and
Transmission and Distribution losses,
energy efficiency assumes further
reporting as I unit of energy conserved
is equivalent to 3 units of energy
generated.
In this
context, energy conservation becomes very
relevant. Therefore, energy conservation
is aimed at achieving multiple objectives
of conserving environment and saving
public investment. In the other words,
energy saved means energy produced.
This
matter of fact has enacted a
comprehensive Energy Conservation Act
which provides the legal framework for
promoting efficient use of energy
resources and its conservation in the
country.
At
present, energy efficiency along with its
conservation will be the cornerstone of
the nation's sustainable development
which will also play a key role in
advancing national energy security. In
fact, it is not just limited to the
department of power but to every citizen
as a whole.
Therefore,
it is necessary to introduce energy
efficiency and conservation measures more
vigorously by creating awareness among
the general public. I will not only
reduce the need to create new capacity
requiring mobilization of huge resources
but will also result in substantial
environmental benefits.
It is hard
truth that while sincere efforts are
being made to improve availability of
adequate power, there is continuing and
widening gap between actual demand and
supply of power. Due to the increasing
preference for fossil fuel based
commercial energy, it has led to a sharp
increase in demand for electricity and
petroleum. It is necessary that effective
measures must be taken to promote the
efficient use of energy in various
sectors of the economy due to the fact
that the capital requirements needed to
adequately match the growing demand are
enormous.
The
industrials which have contributed
towards energy efficiency and its
conservation must nationally felicitated.
Their efforts will certainly encourage
others to take necessary steps to adopt
this policy in our daily life for
efficient use of energy resources. These
efforts in their field are laudatory and
worth emulation.
The
millions of energy consumers must become
aware of these facts. Their awareness is
necessary to adopt measures to save
energy and benefit themselves as well as
the nation on the whole. Let us now
honesty resolve to make efficient use of
energy resources and their conservation
into a National Movement.
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Yours
Randomly,
Autonomy an' all that'
..................
By Dr R. L. Bhat
The just concluded
election to the State Legislative Assembly has
thrown up many issues and inferences. As the
import and the implications of the results seep
in, the points would get clarified, conclusions
can be made out and the solutions for the wide
rupturs can be found. That is what all the
analysis is for, what all the politics and
politicking is supposed to be focused on. That is
what could be called the spirit -dharma or
deen-- of politics. Political activity
per se is not to feed the men and women who may
have got large bellies and larger appetites. It
is not to provide 'employment' to the four-score
and odd people who are returned to the
legislature. It is not to fatten the fellows and
followers of this party or that over the others.
It certainly is not to settle scores-personal,
political or local. It is to redress the wrong
but not to commit new wrongs in the process, not
to institute revenges. It certainly is not to
accentuate the divides but to build bridges. It
is to bring the people together, to correct the
imbalances and above all to learn the lessons
that the vox populi as the vox duo has
trown up to be imbibed and practiced.
Unfortunately
people rarely do that. That is the history of
people and also the reason why people are
condemned to repeat the wrongs of history. It
cannot be denied that National Conference was an
aberration of the politicking in this State. It
may have started as a wholesome ideal, or at
least gotten round to it in its mid. Thus the
return of late Sheikh to the helm of affairs, a
quarter century ago, was seen as the beginning of
an era of healthy democracy. It was an eschewing
of the fractious tendencies and a surge for
development and all round concern. His early
years, the first two at least, promised that. And
then the hope was belied. There began the era of
aberrations as the leader of the State presumed
to rule from the base in one region. National
Conference today may see the erosion of that base
as the beginning of its woes. But there are
deeper implications. This State is usually seen
as a composite that comprises different
aspirations, people with different perspectives
and different hopes and expectations. But then
that is how all the peoples, all states are
situated. The differences may be a little more
accentuated here, but the people can't be
qualitatively different. In fact, most of the
differences are the ones that have been drilled
into the people.
Sometimes these
differences have been due to agendas. At other
times they have been manufactured to pursue
personal calculations. Innocent but wrong
perceptions that have been disproved by the
history and time have, probably, had a greater
role. Thus most of the fractures have been
cracked into the psyches with a wrongful
overemphasis of identities. These identities
drummed up by, probably, the most sincere
ideologues have utimately the effect of dividing
man from man, woman from woman and child from
child as we are seeing happening all over the
world. Often the agendas come to lie under the
cover of egalitarian identities to defeat the
very ideas of equality and egalitarianism. Thus
we have the concept of Kashmiriyat, which can be
relevant only in the context of taking together
not only the whole spectrum of Kashmiris-Hindus,
Muslims and others, there-- but also joining it
up with the aspirations of other regions,
languages and peoples living in the State. It,
instead, is taken to justify if not to fuel the
crass agenda of separatists who are not even
tolerant of the people living within the valley
not to speak of incorporating the other regions
of the State.
And, so the same
forces came to exploit the wholesome idea of
democracy to thwart freedom of thought, speech
and act. It is remarkable how easily freedom is
reigned in to press in the agenda of intolerance
and exclusivism. All through this election we had
graphic illustration of totalitarianism seeking
to reject pluralism with their guns and
justifying it as a fight for freedom. Over the
last twelve years the terrorists have had the run
of the State on the same flawed excuse. That was
the aberration in National Conference. The
conference that had been fashioned to include all
the aspirations, all the peoples, and all the
regions in one whole became a proud leader of a
faction and region. It may call that era its
glorious period, but it is glory only so far as
the petty and personal political fortunes are
concerned. And, political fortune is not a
wholesome ideal. It, in fact, has had the
spin-off result of accentuating differences,
creating fracas and dividing the people of the
State. If trifurcation became a slogan in the
just passed elections it was the error built by
the ruling clique in to the system that spawned
it.
When, exclusivism
in on part is right it can hardly be called wrong
for another part. If intolerance and agendas can
be legitimately, almost ideally, used to win
'victories' in one part of a whole, the State of
Jammu and Kashmir in this case, the other parts
have to fend for themselves. That is the recipe
for division not unity. And that regime has been
rejected by the people in this election, all over
the State. In voting for their interests and not
agendas, in choosing best representatives not
best proponents, the people have reiterated their
humane unity and equality. They have shown their
oneness in being the people who have similar
problems, whose problems must have similar
solutions. Those solutions are in the equality of
all the peoples, equal treatment of all the
regions, similar aspirations for all the people.
It is equipose of attitudes towards the
challenges facing the State in all the places as
the people all over the State have shown that
they have similar attitude to all things from
development to terrorism. It is now for the
leaders to show that they understand it. That
they would learn from it. And, seek to realize
it.
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