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EDITORIAL The thirteenth Lok Sabha has begun its maiden session on a happy note. Prime Minister AB Vajpayee soon after reaching Lok Sabha walks upto Sonia Gandhi and greets her as the Leader of the Opposition. This indicates that the democrat in him is very emphatic and strong. Leader of Opposition enjoys cabinet rank with all the perks associated with it. Opposition being the .....more US State Department Assistant Secretary of State Mr Karl Inderfurth has mentioned that massive change in Indo-American relations is on the anvil. Henceforth it is going to be an open-heart treat for either country because of many common denominators, the foremost being identity of views between....more |
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Burden
of an ‘Italian’ Dealing
with a What's
wrong with US
- India - Russia nexus against terrorism tenuous |
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EDITORIAL The thirteenth Lok Sabha has begun its maiden session on a happy note. Prime Minister AB Vajpayee soon after reaching Lok Sabha walks upto Sonia Gandhi and greets her as the Leader of the Opposition. This indicates that the democrat in him is very emphatic and strong. Leader of Opposition enjoys cabinet rank with all the perks associated with it. Opposition being the first input to any successful democracy, it is nice of Prime Minister to show such goodwill gesture. The current session shall be mostly ritual. The oath taking ceremony of the newly elected members would consume a couple of days. There is election of Speaker and if deemed fit also that of the Deputy Speaker. Unlike last Lok Sabha this time there is definite unanimity on elections of both Speaker and Deputy Speaker. Old incumbents are going to continue. Balyogi of Telugu Desam which does not participate in Government but otherwise supports it from outside unconditionally is the unanimous choice. The Congress has already given its nod for his election. Same happens to be true of Deputy Speakership which conventionally goes to the opposition. The choice is on the old incumbent Mr Syed of the Congress party. There is thus no controversy and election is going to be unanimous. The next item on agenda is the President's address to Joint Session of both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha wherein he will spell out the policies of Vajpayee Government. It will be followed by Motion of Thanks to the President's address. It is significant from the point of policies that Vajpayee Government is going to follow. There is no doubt that it would be in total harmony with the National Agenda of Governance which already has the approval of all the alliance partners. The eight day session may not see introduction of any pending bill or new one. It is to be noted that Prime Minister Vajpayee who has been elected Prime Minister for the third time likes to have his approach based on national consensus on matters crucial to the progress and prosperity of the nation. He shall have to not only develop suitable mechanism for arriving at inner alliance consensus but also having widest possible consultations with the opposition before any bill is introduced. It is recalled that Government had to face massive flak during last Lok Sabha tenure when there was opposition to many vital bills from the alliance partners as also opposition parties. So much so that no bill could be passed because of razor thin majority of the Government. The position is quite changed in that Government enjoys comfortable majority in 13th Lok Sabha. Yet there is the imperative necessity of involving opposition fully in all progressive measures that are good for the nation. Prime Minister has talked of according top priority to Lok Pal bill. He wants to start from top as regards tackling corruption and then let it percolate to the lowest rung. This bill has been in hanging one session after another. The opposition should also realise its importance and ensure its smooth passage in Parliament. Then there are the indications for introducing Insurance Regulatory Bill which is meant to open up Indian market to foreign insurance companies. Its modalities are already worked out and this time round Congress as the leading opposition party should do nothing that comes in the way of passing this vital legislation. It may be mentioned that current Forex Reserves of China ending September are put at 151 billion dollars while India has only one-fifth of it. Such large reserves are largely attributed to consistent and large FDI flow to China which is averaging 40 billion dollars annually while India gets just around 5 billions. This trend is going to be reversed as soon as proper message goes abroad with the passage of IRA Bill and other measures for reforming economy. There is the Women Reservation Bill gathering dust for so many sessions. Congress as the Opposition Party must extend whole-hearted cooperation in seeing it through unlike last time when it back-tracked and the bill fell through. Vajpayee has already expressed that comprehensive bill on electoral reforms will be introduced. Before that it must interact within the alliance as also with opposition parties to arrive at the widest possible consensus. There are two crucial areas where entire nation must move in tandem. These are economy and national security. If nation survives and progresses, the political parties also thrive with democracy getting strengthened in the process. Let Vajpayee Government not repeat mistakes of last session when it hurriedly introduced several bills without prior consultation with opposition parties. The largest opposition party i.e. Congress with 112 MPs must play active role and not oppose for the sake of opposition. If something good is being enacted or followed, Congress must give its nod for such programmes and legislation. If Congress acts as a responsible opposition it is bound to yield good dividends for the party at any future trial at the husting. Such mind-set shall be well received by the people who do not wish to be exposed to repetitive elections. For India to move into next millennium at the same speed as advanced nations are moving it is essential that both Government and opposition parties perform their role positively. That is surest guarantee to put on the nation on the fast track development in all spheres. US State Department Assistant Secretary of State Mr Karl Inderfurth has mentioned that massive change in Indo-American relations is on the anvil. Henceforth it is going to be an open-heart treat for either country because of many common denominators, the foremost being identity of views between the largest Indian democracy and the oldest American democracy. While opening his heart he wants to leave the past acrimony and differences behind. With the end of cold war after the collapse of communism worldwide, US definitely wants to treat democratic India with perfect understanding of India's concerns, both local as also global. Another common denominator happens to be peace in South Asia as also in the entire world. India shall have to play the role of stabiliser in Asian continent. Inderfurth for the first time puts American relations with India on a pedastal higher than her relations with China. He openly says that China is an authoritarian country and to that extent India is a natural friend and much nearer to the American people and their thinking. He candidly mentions that doing business with democratic dispensation is always productive. It may be mentioned that China right now enjoys most Favoured Nation Treatment by America. Inderfurth takes pain to elaborate that America continues to engage with China but engagement with India is definitely one-up. He has in mind perhaps the emergence of triple axis of Russia, China and India. He wants to upgrade Indo-American relations taking within its ambit much more than what it has been till recently. By inference it implies that America does not like India getting anywhere near the triple -axis still in the formative stage. This open-heart policy thus implies that Washington has begun to appreciate Indian security concerns and threat perceptions that necessitated Pokhran-II nuclear tests. Vajpayee Government is ready to reciprocate to put the Indo-US relations on firm footing. |
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Burden of
an ‘Italian’ Sonia The body language says it all. Mrs. Sonia Gandhi, heiress to the mantle of the Nehru-Gandhi political dynasty, is as fallible as the rest of us. Television cameras and press photographers have often caught her bending slightly at the waist and gesturing ingratiatingly when greeting potential allies. Gone are the haughty demeanour and the distance she maintained from the political hoi polloi. Recently, whenever Mrs. Sonia Gandhi is on display she comes through as a supplicant, somewhat at a loss for words. Politics is like show business. You are only as good as your last con. Mrs. Gandhi's political ineptitude remained hidden so long as she etherised herself from every day politics. Unlike her mother-in-law who demonstrated that she was as good as any in politics. Mrs. Sonia Gandhi is tripping up far too often. During her deity days, she refused to give even a single press conference. Yet today she seeks out journalists, and does not do a particularly good job either. Even her two-sentence statement which said that she had informed the President that she has 233 parliamentarians on her side, had to be delivered from a written script. During her recent election campaign her script writers were at pains to simplify her speeches at poll rallies. According to boxing wisdom, hit the head and the body will die. This is exactly what has happened to Mrs. Sonia Gandhi. When she had to strategise her party's moves, her ideas have not been the best. She has often been forced into a corner in recent months, and right now she is in a tight clinch. She does not quite know which way to move, nor does she have the necessary footwork. Her bruised reputation needs a cut specialist, but all she has are party sycophants. Her image was nurtured on her publicised preference for privacy. Oxymoronic though this may sound, it had its political uses. Mrs. Sonia Gandhi could live out the high priestess/goddess role to perfection without ever muddying her hands. All political errors and miscalculations could be attributed to other functionaries. The ordinary voter could still nurse the hope that one day she would set things right, including the mess within the Congress. She could thus be projected as the fount of wisdom, political sagacity, and abundant goodwill. But elections have shattered her image as a winner for the Congress party. This suits the regional and warring sataraps of her party. As they could not agree among themselves as to who would lead the party, she was a perfect compromise. So long as the leadership did not go to a rival, ambitious party bosses felt less humiliated at Mrs. Sonia Gandhi's elevation. This is exactly how Indira Gandhi came to power over three decades ago. But quite unlike the current crop of Congress leaders, she had to contend against hardened party bosses. She not only humbled her opponents within the party but also successfully cultivated a personality cult around herself. Over time these recessive genes spawned the Indira legend with a huge and bankable reputation. First her sons used it to political advantage, and now it is up to the daughter-in-law to make the most of it. But Sonia has to go miles to learn the political art. Sonia Gandhi never had any reason before to test her political and intellectual skills earlier. As long as Indira and Rajiv were alive she was content to be a member of Delhi's super-elite. She was happy of her husband's family. She was the ideal 'bahu'. Tall, slim, fair, and 'homely'. As an European married to India's most prestigious political family, she had a cachet that could hardly be equalled. India is deeply status conscious and burdened by a colonial mindset. As one synergies the other, by all reckoning, she was having a grand time. And yet it was to her that the beleaguered Congress party turned. By providing a rallying point, she saved the party from a rout in 1998. When she entered politics she made the transition from 'poor' rich widow to preternatural deity with considerable ease. This did not demand great acumen as the two statuses were harmonious. Her style of addressing political rallies was always the same. She would descend from helicopters dressed carefully to resemble her mother-in-law, wave furiously to thronged masses, and speak of her husband's family contributions into a microphone on a distant podium. Never once was it about policy, seat adjustments, coalitions or foreign relations. Just by doing this much, the Congress party organisationally survived. Eventually reality has caught up with her. It is now that her lack of training is really hurting. As she was led to believe she had special skills inherited by marriage she only trusted her own judgment. This is what allowed the AIADMK matriarch, Ms. Jayalalitha, to use Mrs. Sonia Gandhi for her own designs. This is also where body language is the most revealing. Ms. Jayalalitha sails in like a highly appointed ship to harbour, and Mrs. Sonia Gandhi is photographed ushering her in to her destination. Mrs. Sonia Gandhi bought into her plot to topple the erstwhile government by the BJP only to find herself woefully short of numbers. With this began her serious bid for allies. What surprised her, however, was that leaders of other parties were not behaving like the sycophants within her organisation. Nor, as she has found, is the mantra of secularism a family monopoly. Even Mr. Mulayam Singh Yadav is laying claim to it and accusing the Congress of cynical secularism. Unused to dealing with equals, she rushed down several steps and left her pedestal behind. Consequently, it is largely oblige and very little noblesse, in her public dealings these days. This is what has made her look so ordinary _ like the rest of us. The Congress, however, has no other option but Mrs. Sonia Gandhi, and the people of India have only a few electoral choices. Thus in spite of her errors, she will have her good days and bad. But it would certainly have been into happy hours by now if only Mrs. Sonia Gandhi knew a little more about the country of her adoption and had some of her mother-in-law's grit. After this exposure, Mrs. Sonia Gandhi's charisma will never be the same. She has been tried, and not too severely at that, and found wanting. Unfortunately there is no word like 'mortalisation' in the English language. This is why it is difficult to describe a situation when a deity falls from grace and becomes all too human. INAV |
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What's wrong with
coalitions ? It has become fashionable for some years now to scoff at coalition governments and dismiss them as kichdi. Pranab Mukherjee of the Congress has gone so far as to say that coalition politics could lead to the balkanisation of India. On the contrary it is the reverse. One-party rule for 42-years in India has led to a balkanisation-like situation in the country with secessionist movements in the north-east and the Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir terrorist activities even in the southern part of India. This is because the will of Delhi has always prevailed over the hopes and aspirations of the states of India. While not acclaiming regionalism per se, one should realise that regional politics is relevant in a country as diverse and lopsidedly developed as India is. However, the regional satraps who have culled their power from regional politics have not used their powers to really develop their states. Their track record is poor. The people of India have repeatedly shown in the elections that they are not for one-party rule. They are not for any party being so strong that they cannot throw them out at the next opportunity if they do not deliver the goods. So, even in this election they gave a fractured verdict, as though the media knows best what a non-fractured verdict should look like! But it is a very clear verdict in the sense that no one party should rule us and the sooner parties like the Congress learn this the better it is for their survival. The anti-diluvian politicians in the Congress should be cast away so that new thinking can propel the party onwards. Though the Congress is over 110-years-old, the young BJP has shown more maturity on this score and has realised that if it is to get ahead it will have to take other parties along with it. No one party can ever represent the hopes and aspirations of the people of India. No one party has the quality of the 'supreme', qualities of omniscience, omnipresence, all knowing and perfect. To that extent the BJP has also put aside its own immediate agenda and is prepared to jettison them, if necessary. And so if there were a dozen parties last time and there are over 20 parties this time, one should see how best to synthesise the conflicting demands and that is what democracy is all about. India is a land of over 100 crore people. India is a nation which has 32 crore gods and deities, 6,000 jaties, 1,000 languages and dialects so why should it not have several different political formations. If one takes a train journey in the south one can eat pootoo for breakfast in Kerala, dosa, idli in Tamil Nadu, something else in Andhra and if you go to Varanasi you can have milk and jelabee for breakfast and in Bhavnagar in Gujarat you can add ghatia to hot milk and jelabee. In Maharashtra you can have pohe or missal. The number of farsans is legion. It's the genius of the people. The infinite, beguiling variety of India cannot be straitjacketed into two political formations or five. Why should India ape the Westminster model or the American system? They are different people with different wants and needs. Even they are struggling to have a third party. It is easy to dismiss the large conglomeration of parties as a kichdi. It makes good headlines. But what's wrong with kichdi. Ordinary Indians like us will tell you it is a delicious meal, rich in proteins and starch. And what has one party rule for over 42-years done for the country? Independent India started out with 350 million people and now we have 350 million out of 1,000 million starving, and 500 million illiterates denied the basic amenities that any human being on earth needs. This is not to denigrate the other achievements which have been tremendous but all these achievements get a heroic hue when they help improve and uplift the quality of life of the downtrodden and not restrict the fruits to a few haves. Regionalism grew out of the hegemony of 42-years of continuous rule by one party, and the fact that one state kept the prime ministership within its monopoly. The regional parties took birth to 'save the pride' the asmita of the people in their states, particularly in the south, the Punjab and the hill states of the north-east where there was little economic development. In the case of Punjab, the enterprising Sikhs and Punjabis felt that their full skills were not being allowed to develop. However, the regional leaders have let down the people and though they came up on the slogan of pride of the state and its people, the movements degenerated into exercises of self-aggrandisement of the local satraps who have amassed enormous wealth, pelf and power. The people of these states are as poor as they ever were and that is why in Andhra one has the naxalite movement which is about the strongest outside Naxalbari. Farmers are committing suicide because they are unable to live on their produce and though Chandrababu is the hero of 1999 he will have to do more than laptop politics to help them tide over the real problems. He is there very much because of the Andhra pride syndrome and not because of what he has achieved at the ground level. According to an RBI report, agricultural production in Andhra has gone down by 10 per cent. Interestingly, barely a year ago Digvijay Singh was the hero of 1998 and today people have put him in the doghouse. Of course, since Madhya Pradesh only had Parliamentary elections, it could be that the people sent a signal that for the state they would have Congress but at the Centre they would vote the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance. Chandrababu could go the same way if on the ground he does not deliver the goods. It was shocking, for instance, to hear Laloo Yadav say that power and development have nothing to do with each other, as he amassed astronomical personal wealth in his two terms as chief minister of Bihar. The same goes for Mayawati and Mulayam Singh. Their states remain among the poorest though they are rich in mineral wealth and natural resources. The regional leaders as we know them are not accountable to anyone and, therefore, it is only at election time that the people can impose their will on them. And people like Laloo Yadav have been shown that they are a liability to their respective states. In Maharashtra, too, where the Shiv Sena started out so well from the days of the sons of the soil programmes the party has degenerated to such an extent that the people decided not to give them a majority, despite some of their achievements in the last four and a half years. The DMK and AIDMK regional parties have a very poor track record and the same goes for the Akalis in Punjab and the JD in Karnataka. Regional parties will have to carry out a major introspection if the NDA is to succeed and deliver the goods. They have to learn to be accountable as regional parties. The time for regional leaders to perform is getting shorter as the people are beginning to realise that appealing to irrational sentiments like pride and anti-New Delhi sentiments, challenging the Moghuls in Delhi, cannot last long. These will have to be clothed with refinements like social and economic development particularly of the underdeveloped areas of the state. Power for regional parties means getting bread and butter for the masses. If the regional satraps could only understand and respect this, the bottom line of regionalism, then the National Democratic Alliance experiment in Delhi can start a new chapter in India's economic and social development. INAV |
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US - India - Russia nexus
against terrorism tenuous New Delhi - With Russia full immersed in mortal combat against fundamentalist terrorism launched from breakaway Republic of Chechenya; the US engaged in a frenetic search for Osama bin Laden; and India trying to curb international terrorism spawned in Pakistan one would have thought that there would be total convergence among the three to tackle a common problem by common means. It does not seem likely. Even the emerging bilateral cooperation between India and the US in the area of counter-terrorism may become fixated only on the Osama bin Laden factor to the advantage of the US without fully satisfying India's concerns over the cross-border terrorism emanating from Pakistan. Pakistan is the fountainhead of cross-border terrorism which stretches from the World Trade Centre in the US, through the former Yugoslavia, the Caucasus, the Central Asian Republics, the Xianjiang province of China, Kashmir and the north-east region of India, up to the Mindanao province of the Philippines where the Pakistan killer of two US CIA agents had taken refuge. Pakistan has been exporting the Taliban revolution beyond Afghanistan into the Central Asia Republics of the former Soviet Union and the depth of penetration is as far as Chechenya which is the launchpad used by Islamist fundamentalist for their attack into the Dagastan sector of the Russian Federation. It is because of this that there is a growing connectivity between the nations bordering Afghanistan, Russia, China and India in their concern over the export of fundamentalist terrorism from Pakistan. This is in contrast to the US concerns which are confined only to securing the arrest of Osama bin Laden for the bombing of the embassies in east Africa. In 1997, Secretary of State Madeline Albright submitted a list of 30 international terrorist organisations to the US Congress to bring them under the purview of the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, 1996, which makes it an offence for any citizen or resident of the US to provide funds or other assistance to any such organisation. The Harkat-ul-Ansar, alias Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, which is extremely active in Kashmir with the help of the Pakistan ISI is on that list. There are about a dozen other such organisations that are actively exporting terrorism from bases in Pakistan but they are not on the US hitlist. All these terrorist organisations are working on the basis of Islamist loyalties thereby giving Islam an undeservedly bad name. The politics of international terrorism begins to take on its true meaning when the issue of funding is revealed. In the early years of the counter-revolution in Afghanistan it was US arms, Saudi Arabian money and Pakistani "frontline" military facilities that combined to evict the Soviet Union. Osama bin Laden was one of the mujahids who fought in and financed the Afghan war. But his philosophy was equally anti-Soviet as well as anti House of Saud back home. He had vowed to fight US influence in Saudi Arabia itself and that is primarily the real reason (apart from the bombing of the east Africa embassies) that Washington is gunning for bin Laden. His removal from the scene will also remove the threat to US influence in Saudi Arabia. That is the entire ambiance of the emerging US-India entente cordial over "International terrorism". It is an extremely ironic situation because much of the funds that Saudi Arabia distributes via Pakistan to the so-called "Islamic fundamentalists" comes from money earned from enhanced oil prices through reduction of production which importing countries like India have to pay for. Because it is unlikely that the US will take any action to choke off Saudi funding for the training camps for Islamist fundamentalists run by Pakistan that the ambiance of the proposed cooperation between New Delhi and Washington will remain extremely limited. In relation to Russian military action against Chechenya for providing sanctuary and military support to the terrorists who invaded Dagastan and tried to set up a fundamentalist Islamic State there, the US has already issued a caveat and has sought to limit Russian action. While there is no gainsaying the unnecessary hardship such action has inflicted on the Chechen people, the use of Chechen territory for terrorism inside the Russian Federation (hundreds were killed in bomb blasts in Moscow very recently) is a violation of the UN Charter. It is only by concerted action by the victims of Pakistan-sponsored terrorism in the region - India, Russia, China the Central Asian Republics that there can be more meaningful action in the countering international terrorism. ADNI |
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