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EDITORIAL After the military boom during Kargil warfare, Bofor guns have begun the political zoom with far reaching ramifications. The purchase of these guns which was initiated in 1985 and supply began in 1987 during the premiership of Late Rajiv Gandhi clearly reveals corruption at the highest rung which has taken a heavy toll of our ethos and morality. Ever since, the nation has dipped further as regards corruption which has naturally percolated to the lowest rung with reckless abandon....more Employees are visibly agitated over non-release of two instalments of dearness allowance due to them under the agreement with the Government that it would follow Fifth Pay Commission recommendations in toto...more |
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The lotus blooms on By Sanchet Barua Indian Army By Lt Col R K Langar Indian decides to be proactive in Afghanistan By Om Kachru Difficult
days but By O P Modi |
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EDITORIAL After the military boom during Kargil warfare, Bofor guns have begun the political zoom with far reaching ramifications. The purchase of these guns which was initiated in 1985 and supply began in 1987 during the premiership of Late Rajiv Gandhi clearly reveals corruption at the highest rung which has taken a heavy toll of our ethos and morality. Ever since, the nation has dipped further as regards corruption which has naturally percolated to the lowest rung with reckless abandon. Although it looks strange that 12 years after purchase the chargesheet is filed and recipients of pay-off of Rs. 64 crore commission duly identified, the fact remains that all out efforts were made to scuttle the case by none other the ruling clan. It may be apt to point out that it was this pay-off in which Rajiv Gandhi was accused of being the ultimate recipient of kick-backs cost him massive defeat at the husting in 1989 elections. It is this very kick-back that caused exit of VP Singh who succeeded Rajiv as Prime Minister. He had tendered his resignation from Congress Party when he was Defence Minister in Rajiv Government because he was not allowed to proceed as per law of the land. Again, it was this very case that made Arun Nehru quit Rajiv ministry. Former CBI Deputy Director Mr Madhvan confirms that too much political pressure was built at all levels to finish the enquiry. Rajiv herself appointed his pliant minister B Shankrananda to head the Joint Parliamentary Committee to probe kick-backs. It is interesting to remind the readers of his findings. The JPC outrightly rejected any pay-off by Bofors to anyone. It went on to absolve the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi as well since allegations of kickbacks itself were without any basis. It shows how biased was the JPC because subsequently Bofors admitted to pay-offs totalling 3% of the contract value of over 1400 crore deal. Another interesting feature of Bofors kick-back case pertains to the nasty role played by successive Governments to unearth the truth and punish the guilty. This was so during VP Singh's spell as the Prime Minister. This became as much true during Narasimha Rao's Government. It so transpires that Foreign Minister Madhav Singh Solanki in Narasimha Rao's cabinet during his visit to Swiss capital personally handed over a note asking Swiss Government to go slow on the ongoing enquiry in Switzerland regarding secret accounts. This too became public and Solanki had to resign or made the scapegoat by those who asked him to deliver the personal note. It is equally interesting that the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi personally telephoned to his counterpart Prime Minister Palme asking him to bury the enquiry as India was not interested due to the JPC enquiry already ordered. This then was the role of the successive Prime Ministers which all point towards their being privy to scuttling the case. This is as much true during United Front Government led by Deve Gowda or IK Gujaral. For them it was political compulsion of survival to bury the ongoing probe as UF Government depended on the outside support of 139 Congress MPs. If such is the moral and ethical standards of Prime Ministers, one shudders to think of those at the lower political rung. The bureaucratic involvement in remaining pliant to the political bosses indicates the abysmal depth to which the system had been made to sink. In the instant case, it was the then Defence Secretary who remained in ever obliging mood either by holding back crucial papers or otherwise becoming privy to the loot. In this context dissenting note put up the then Army chief of Staff Gen Sunderji is quite revealing. He wanted this Bofor order to be cancelled because a better French gun at lesser price was available. Pressure was put on him by Bhatnagar to change the comments but Gen Sunderji stood his ground like a true disciplined soldier. CBI itself has been the victim of wanton victimisation when it was subjected to all types of pressures by the ruling clan to drag the case and finish it enroute. There are hundreds of instances to prove this point and former CBI Deputy Director who played major role in unearthing the mystery of kick-back recipients confirms that but for these pressures the probe and charge sheet would have been filed long back. Congress spokesman still laughs at this chargesheet as irrelevant and out-of-date. But the chargesheet is duly supported by voluminous documents which also include those received from Swiss Banks. Those chargesheeted are not new names. In fact, these names have been mentioned repeatedly. Now these are included pointedly and specifically. Quattarochi, the Itlaina connection friend of Rajiv's family, Win Chadha who was the Bofors agent in India, AB Bofors Martin Ardbo and former Defence Secretary SK Bhatnagar besides former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi for his active connivance in the entire scandal which robbed the nation of Rs 64 crore. Of course chargesheet against Rajiv is symbolic in that he is no more. But the crux of the case lies in corruption at the highest rungs and how such important probe was sought to be scuttled at the behest of the highest. Accounts where this kick-off amount has gone are identified. If only Gen Sunderji's advice had been followed if only the then Prime Minister who was also the Defence Minister Rajiv Gandhi had acted cleanly and in national interests, it would have been the French gun instead of Bofors. Prime Minister Vajpayee thus steals the show by not sitting over the case like his predecessors. He also sets an example by stating that Lok Pal Bill is on top agenda which also includes enquiry against incumbent Prime Ministers as he likes to start war against corruption from the top. Employees are visibly agitated over non-release of two instalments of dearness allowance due to them under the agreement with the Government that it would follow Fifth Pay Commission recommendations in toto as regards payment of DA. The Government's refusal to honour its commitment and obligations to the State and its employees is confrontationist that would lead to many problems. Any Government that backtracks on its commitments loses credibility not only amongst employees but in public esteem as well. Dearness allowance is a right of the employees because it is not they who have pushed up the prices but the wrong policies of the Government. Further, it is not the duty of employees to create resources but purely the job of the Government to evolve ways and means to augment its resources. If one goes by the logic of J&K State Government, then no State would have paid dearness allowance to their employees. Despite much worse resource crunch faced by many States, they have honoured their commitments and paid DA promptly. This State in particular can ill afford opening another front when it is already finding it difficult to conquer other fronts. Peace, harmony and good Governance invariably must have the fullest cooperation of the employees. Nothing provocative should be said or done that would add to the problems of the people and the Government in the sensitive border State. One hopes that wiser counsels would prevail on those at the helm and payment of dearness allowance negotiated across the table with employees unions/Joint Action Committee. |
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The lotus blooms on the Brahmaputra By Sanchet Barua The 1999 Lok Sabha elections managed to pronounce an unambiguous verdict: It spelt the worst debacle for the Congress party in the last five decades and a more than comprehensive victory for the NDA. In the process, the 13th Lok Sabha elections proved that national politics, in the foreseeable future, will be determined by regional parties which emerged the ultimate winners in these elections. However, in the overall composition of the NDA, which charts the emergence of regional parties as a major force, the alliance's largest component and the country's single largest party enhanced its character as a "national" party in some unexpected pockets across the country. Much is being made of the BJP's loss in Uttar Pradesh, although prior to these elections the main criticism levelled against the party was that, in the eventual analysis, the BJP was merely a "Hindi belt" party. That the party marginally improved upon its individual strength in the 13th Lok Sabha despite losing 28 crucial seats in heartland UP, must be closely examined by those who predicted that the BJP can never hope to gain in numbers what it losses in UP because its support base is limited to the Hindi heartland. The numbers were indeed made up and in good measure from across the country. However, notionally, if not numerically, the North-Eastern State of Assam gave the BJP what its traditional stronghold mercilessly wrenched away from it. Contrary to the national trend which went hugely in favour of regional parties, Assam chose to sound the death knell for its regional voice, the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP). Instead, the Congress, an acknowledged national party, and the BJP, an admittedly growing one, drew the Assamese voters. However, despite the Congress cornering none of the 13 contested Lok Sabha seats in the State, the lotus bloomed in a special way in the Brahmaputra Valley. The BJP gained control of the two most prestigious seats in the State, Nagaon and Guwahati _ one an ULFA stronghold, the other the State capital comprising the urban, upper and middle class Assamese and Bengalis, business class Marwaris and labour class Biharis. Numerically, this paltry contribution to the BJP kitty cannot replenish the party's colossal loss in UP. However, with this spectacular, albeit marginal, inroad that the BJP has made into Assam, the party would do well to look beyond its UP-centric stakes. The BJP's vote percentage in the last three elections in Assam has grown from an unimpressive six per cent in 1996 to a whopping 34.53 per cent in these elections, only marginally less than the Congress's 38 per cent. It is this that the BJP needs to analyse _ that it can give greater strength to its performance at the Centre, in quality and in reach and coverage, if it consolidates some of these marginal though significant gains made in states like Assam. Admittedly, in a democracy where numbers determine political destinies, a measly 14 seats do not merit attention. Also agreed that more than the BJP needing an insurgency-ridden Assam on its list of responsibilities, it is Assam which needs the BJP today. The State BJP unit admits that the party's performance in Assam may not impress the central leadership in New Delhi even though the winds of change are quietly sweeping this beleaguered State. However, while Assam has traditionally alternated its mandate between the Congress, a national party, and the AGP, a regional party, for the first time the State has firmly acknowledged a non-regional, non-Congress party. The BJP securing two seats and coming second in seven others point to a growing disillusionment with the two alternatives the Assamese people have hitherto shuttlled between. Traditionally viewed with scepticism for its "fundamentalist" agenda, especially by Assam's substantial immigrant Muslim population, the BJP is gaining favour in the State as an alternative national party to the Congress because of its staying power at the Centre. Currently under a non-national party State Government, urban Assam is finally shedding its anti-Centrist politics. The appeal of the insurgency-backed agitational agenda of the ULFA is completely on the wane. With a history dotted with the sterile All Assam Students' Union (AASU) agitation which later branched off into the militant agenda of the ULFA and the political agenda of the AGP, the Assamese people had been conditioned to look upon the non-Assamese with disdain. At times, this regional chaunvinism expressed itself in dangerously anti-Indian sentiments with slogans like "Indian dogs go back" targeting the non-Assamese population. Peacefully cohabiting with this chauvinism was the Congress party's support base, the tea tribe and the immigrant Muslim population believed to have been transported from across the border and nurtured by the Congress. The enlightened, educated middle and upper class Assamese, the Bengalis, and the North Indians got sandwiched between these two agendas, their voice lost in the din of the Congress-AA-SU-ULFA-AGP-led politics. However, the situation has changed since the AGP first assumed office in the mid-80s and tears greeted the young Prafulla Kumar Mohanta's vision of a "golden Assam". A decade and a half down the line those "golden" aspirations lie bloodied; even the chauvnistic Assamese voice of hope has been defeated by the ULFA which threatens to sell its interests to the ISI's grand plans of turning Assam into a "Muslim state". That disappointed voice along with the enlightened one is now turning to the BJP. It unanimously wishes to join its future and its destiny with the national voice articulated by the BJP and its nationalist politics. Witness the manner in which the ULFA hotbed Nagaon dared to openly vote in favour of this widely acknowledged "nationalist" party. The same nationalist politics which is anathema in the drawing rooms of urban India is gradually winning over the most significant community of the North-East _ the Assamese _which has had its fill of the "desho premik" ULFAs now on sale for Pakistan's subversive interests in the State. Having wallowed in the Centre's "neglect" of its interests for the past two decades, Assam now needs representations in that Centre. For the educated Assamese who were led into frenzied anti-Centre agitations by regional voices, the battle with the Centre must cease. The clear and present danger posed by the ULFA-ISI connection is eating into the psyche of the Assamese people. Although Kargil fizzled out by the end of these elections in the rest of India, the average Assamese views the conflict as proof of a Government that could ward off ISI-sponsored enemy intrusion, one that could come to Assam's aid too when necessary. This faith has been written into the text of the BJP's performance in the Valley in these elections. What has added to the appeal of the BJP is the fact that Assam has always been a linguistically divided society, a division utilised to the full by the subversive ULFA. However, the "Assamese versus non-Assames" politics having lived out its term, need for security binds the people of Assam in a homogenous mould today. This security, Assam realises, can never flow from a regional outfit, political or agitational. A reason why even as the rest of the country has visibly prioritised regional parties, Assam has indicated its dependence on national parties. Since one of those parties happens to be leading the Government now, the peace that Assam is looking for must surely be addressed. They say elections are about numbers. However, just as the BJP cannot take its numerical losses in UP casually, so must it not ignore that symbolic gains that these elections have provided the party to recast its nationalist overview from heartland Hindutva to a pan-national concern. INAV |
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Indian decides to be proactive in Afghanistan By Om Kachru In the post-Kargil operations, India was concerned about Taliban's involvement in Jammu and Kashmir. Observers feel that there is a subtle shift in India's policy towards Afghanistan in the post-Kargil period. From strict neutrality between Taliban and anti-Taliban forces, India appears to be willing to supply non-lethal equipment to anti-Taliban Northern Alliance forces. In a personal letter to the ousted Afghan President, Mr Burhanuddin Rabbani, reportedly written last month, the Prime Minister, Mr A B Vajpayee, had offered medical aid for the people of Afghanistan who are victims of Taliban oppression. India's decision to become proactive in respect of the Taliban-controlled Afghanistan rests clearly on its experience of the Kargil conflict and subsequent upsurge in terrorist activities in Jammu and Kashmir. The External Affairs Minister, Mr Jaswant Singh, has gone on record on the "overspill of the manifestations of the Afghan disorder symptoms" in the Kargil conflict and has drawn attention in his recent speeches on the spreading of Islamic militant movements across Central Asia and the Caucasian and Caspian Sea regions. New Delhi has been emphasising on the ‘alien’ nature of the atrocities and human rights abuses being committed in the Taliban-ruled parts of Afghanistan "with inspiration from outside sources (Pakistan)". India's Permanent Representative, Mr Kamlesh Sharma, said in his recent statement at the UN Security Council, "the Taliban's recent campaign in the Shomali plains with direct external assistance and involvement of foreign defence personnel in operations as well as planning has displayed their complete disregard to the international community's efforts for a peaceful settlement of the Afghan situation". Mr Sharma said, "The territories in Afghanistan which the Taliban have occupied through military force have become a breeding ground of international terrorism. International terrorist groups find a safe have here and in the areas stradding Afghanistan's southern borders. There are numerous training camps for terrorists and from these camps and bases, extremists and terrorists go out into the region beyond to carry out acts which are the very anti-thesis of all civilised life." India has also stopped flights of the Afghan national airline, Ariana, from Amritsar to Kandahar, headquarters of Taliban. The Indian action seems to be coordinated with the actions of remaining seven members other than Pakistan in the Six plus Two meeting. It may be recalled that Indian ban on flights of Ariana preceded by freezing of Ariana assets to the tune US $ 0.5 (half) million in the US and suspension of flights from even Dubai. In other sanctions, the US is not allowing its companies to do business in Afghanistan. The US is now also pressing the United Nations Security Council to impose similar sanctions against the Taliban to force them to hand over Bin Laden to a third country for a trial. Besides the US, India has been interacting closely with Russia, Iran and Central Asian neighbours of Kabul on the Afghan situation. A senior United Nations official has told the Security Council that, while the Taliban assert that they have only destroyed houses used by opposition guerrilla fighters, the extent of the destruction of homes and crops and livestock does not support their claims. The Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Mr Kieran Prendergast, claimed that UN had proof that the Taliban, in the course of their attack in the Shomali plains, "have meted out unacceptable treatment to the civilian population". The opposition Northern Alliance spokesman, Dr Abdullah, had also told newsmen in London that the Taliban had forced a civilian exodus from the newly captured Shomali plains north of Kabul. "Those who stay are exposed to all types of atrocities like murder and imprisonment", he said. Residents of the strategic Shomali Valley, are mostly ethnic Tajiks like Masood, while the Taliban draw their forces mainly from the majority Pushtoon community. "This is mostly directed at Tajiks of the region. Some 300,000 people have left fearing Taliban's savagery and had sought refuge further north in the Panjshir Valley, Masood's stronghold in the Parwan province," according to Dr Abdullah. An estimated 10,000 women, children and elderly men from the Shomali had coverged on the Taliban-held Kabul for shelter in August. Most of the refugees arriving in Kabul were from Charikar town and had walked the 60 km route to Kabul. Over 400,000 people were already living in Kabul on international assistance. Dr Abdullah has accused the Taliban of unspecified "brutal acts" in their advance. The London-based human rights group, Amnesty International, has also said that thousands of civilians are at risk in the Taliban drive to crush Masood. The UN Secretary General, Mr Kofi Annan, has also expressed deep distress over the reports of widespread violations of human rights and international humanitarian law against inhabitants of the Shomali plain and people displaced form Kabul. Mr Annan also expressed deep concern over reports that students, some as young as 14, were involved in the conflict and he called on the warring parties to respect the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Relief workers were also not able to provide humanitarian assistance to the victims of the conflict because of lack of safe and free movement. The UN resumed its presence in Kandahar beginning March 22 this year with the deployment of a field security officer and up to eight international staff. The murder of two local staff in Jalalabad and a military observer in Kabul had prompted the UN to remove all personnel from Afghanistan in August 1998. The Taliban has also been accused of using the drug money to fight the war not only on its territory but also allowing its territory to carry out acts of terrorism. It has been accused of supressing human rights in general and especially those of women. The Taliban campaign has been vicious in its targeting of the civilian population, the brutal massacre of the innocent people, the torching of houses, the use of bombs, the destruction of standing crops and the deliberate displacement of women and children. These acts constitute base crimes and are of the same pattern as the massacre of thousands of innocent people in the wake of the Taliban capture of Mazar-e- Sharif in August, 1998 and the systematic cleansing in Bamyian in April-May of this year. Besides killing of UN workers, the Taliban has also been held responsible for a sordid and brutal action of murdering some Iranian diplomats in August last year, disregarding all international norms for treatment of diplomats. Masood is the lone rival in the battlefield in the way of Taliban's ambition to rule the whole of Afghanistan. Currently, the Islamic militia controls 90 per cent of the country and aims at capturing the rest to bolster its claim as Afghanistan's legitimate government. The Taliban rule in recognised only by the governments of Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, while the rest of the UN members still accept the ousted government of President Burhanuddin Rabbani as the ‘de facto’‘ rulers of Afghanistan. - CNF |
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Difficult days but a bright future By O P Modi The prophets of doom are al-ready at work; forecasting break up of the ruling National Democratic Alliance followed by yet another Lok Sabha poll sooner than latter. Their argument : NDA led by BJP is a conglomerate of twenty four parties, whose total strength in the Parliament is 296, and Telgu Desam (TDP), one of its constituents, having 29 MPs could single handedly pull down the government any time. Even two or three of the constituents of the NDA, if they so want, could get together and bring the government down. According to them fissures in the ruling alliance are already discernible. As examples they cite the refusal of TDP to participate in the government at the Centre and Om Parkash Chautala's scathing criticism of the recent hike in the diesel price and his demand to roll it back. While the earlier BJP led government at the Centre remained in a vice like grip of political uncertainty the six months preceding the Lok Sabha elections have cost the nation too dearly. It is estimated that the cost of the election to the exchequer has been over 1000 crore and the cost of Kargil war may have exceeded ten thousand crore. Add to it the loss of precious eighteen months time when no significant progress could be made on account of political uncertainty and the Kargil war. The first fall out of the political and security turmoil in the country is the 35 percent hike in the diesel price. The transport organisations have threatened a nationwide strike if the new government does not retract its decision on the diesel price. For the opposition it is the first whip in its hand to flog the NDA in the Lok Sabha. This is going to be not only the first test for the NDA government but in fact one of the toughest challenges to it. The earlier record of the BJP alliance shows that, when put to severe pressure, it used to roll back its decisions. However, this time if the NDA succumbs to the transporter's threat or fails to resolve the issue amicably, it will prove disastrous for its future handling of the country's economic problems. As, both the Prime Minister Atal Behari and Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha had indicated earlier that very tough measures will have to be taken to raise internal resources in order to meet the development needs of the country, it is obvious that the nation should be prepared to face much harder steps than the hike in the diesel price. Every one expects India to move forward fast in order to catch up, at least in the first instance, with the Asian Tigers. Peoples' expectations are much higher than that even. Prime Minister Vajpayee has rightly pointed out that the people will not wait much longer for the urgently needed economic and social reforms of the polity. The electoral verdict in favour of the NDA clearly indicates that. Despite the sanctions following Pokhran II, the nation's economic health has remained sound and presently it is quite conducive for a forward movement. But massive resources are required to contain the burgeoning fiscal deficit, build a strong and durable infrastructure and complete the pending projects which are presently faced with financial crunch. How can these measures be successfully taken up unless innovative schemes are implemented to mop up internal resources and encourage foreign direct investments. No doubt some unpalatable decisions will have to be taken by the new government at the Centre with which the public needs to co-operate wholeheartedly. It has become a routine with most of the states of the Union to look towards New Delhi for more and more funds. Many states are unable to pay even the salaries of their establishment. How unfortunate it is that even after fifty two years of independence the states have not become financially self supporting. While the successive Central Governments were running after the IMF and World Bank and other foreign funding institutions for financial assistance, the state totally neglected to create their own sound economic base. The foreign aid or loans are like crutches; once one gets used to them one becomes dependent upon them. These funds are easy money. They come easily and they go easily. They have bred massive corruption and as result, today, India is under as heavy a debt burden as Rs 88 Lakh Crore sans any equitable development. Even the debt servicing itself runs into 90 thousand crore per year. Yet all these years the loan basket was being overloaded, year after year, so much so that now it has become back breaking for the nation. If stringent measures are not taken immediately, by the new government at the Centre, then the day is not far off when India will meet the same fate as Mexico and many other debtor countries of IMF and the World Bank. Time has come when the state governments have to be told, in no uncertain terms, that they have to develop a self generating economy for their respective states. There is no part of this country which does not have one or the other potential for making its people self supporting and rich. Even desserts of Rajasthan hold tremendous under ground wealth in the form of minerals and ore deposits. Jammu & Kashmir state has massive hydroelectric potential (estimated at 15,000 Megawatt), besides forests (though in shambles presently) and huge underground deposits of minerals and ores. Almost every state of the country has huge sources of underground wealth waiting to be exploited. Unfortunately forest cover in most of the states has shrunk to a dangerously low level. It is a disgrace that every time when India's Finance Minister goes with a begging bowl in hand to aid agencies like IMF and the World Bank the state governments run with a ‘thutha’ in their hand to New Delhi begging for a share in the foreign loans to meet even their day to day expenses. This highly regrettable routine has to be stopped one day. Why not now ? Only when all the states of the Indian Union resolve to build their own self generating economic base can India look forward to a bright future. |
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