EDITORIAL
Meet
the challenge
There can be no
disputing the fact that terrorism is the greatest
challenge facing the country today. And the
country is being challenged not only in the State
of Jammu and Kashmir but all over. There is
little to differentiate the recent incident of
the terrorists barging into the most famous
temple in Jammu from the Akshardham episode. Of
course, this State is under too hard a focus of
the terrorists. For each terrorist event
occurring in our part of the country or other
there is one incident in this State. Accordingly,
the loss of life here is many times that in the
other parts. But that is only a logistic
difference. That is what would happen with a
quake with its epicenter in Pakistan: the
adjacent parts would be hit harder and so are
Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir. So are the eastern
parts experiencing the marauding effects of the
Pak strategy. There, Sonia Gandhi was right in
saying that the repeated terrorist attacks
‘make us aware of the tremendous challenge
we have been facing’. Very right, but now
little reflected in practice!
It would not be
incorrect to say that though the realizations are
drummed in, repeatedly with one dastardly
incident following the other, they remain only
transient visions. For a day the parties get
chastised, appear suitably gloomy and concerned
and then it is back to business. And, that
‘business’ is not meeting the
challenges the country is facing. Thus, even
while the Parliament was debating the POTA, it
was attacked. The vigilance and sacrifices of the
security forces saved the house and its august
members for which they expressed their
gratefulness. But that did not bring in an iota
of realization of the need for an appropriate law
to deal with the menace of terrorism. Two days
after the Bali blasts Indonesia promulgated
stringent antiterrorist laws, but not India. It
took the Indian Parliament, two months and a
joint sitting to get the required law passed.
Even, after that the main opposition party
controlling half of the states in the union
declared that it would not enforce the law.
Apparently, the challenge of terrorism was not
seen. When the challenge is yet to be seen and
realised, how would one expect the nation to get
ready to meet it? Hence, the terrorists always
find the nation, dithering if not unprepared.
What is even more
pathetic, they find the nation ready to cover up
for them, ready to blame their opponents and even
the people of the country for the acts the
terrorists commit with express directions from
across the border. Thus for more than a month the
Government of this State tried to pretend that
there was no terrorism. The one in Bengal saw
terrorism, spoke about its founts and then had to
un-see everything. The one in Assam simply went
mum. Maharashtra quietly dropped all mention of
its own POTA-like bill. And of course, nobody saw
anything wrong in Godhara. Instead, they took to
encashing the post-Godhara events without a
thought of how it reflected upon the country, how
it hampered the fight against terrorist, how it
only helped the challengers of Indian
nationalism. For all acts that do not recognize
the truth of terrorism, do not enable the nation
to meet the high challenge the patent hostility
across the border has thrown it. Yet that
challenge has to be met. That enemy has to be
fought out. And for that the personal and party
interests have to be laid aside. The challenge
would be met only if it is seen clearly and
fought out earnestly. Concrete acts, not mere
words, would do it.
Another
blunder!
The Communists in
the country seem to have sworn not to learn from
history, events or their experiences. A near
century of activity and utter failure to mobilize
the people should have made them aware that there
was something amiss in their dispensations, but
it didn't. Instead, they kept waiting for
‘revolutions’ to foist them to power.
Till, their foister itself was foisted out of the
rule and realm. But somehow they did not even see
that. The communists in India are yet to
acknowledge the truth of glasnost and
perestroika, even as two full Governments have
ruled Russia since. Of course, they could not
have seen the slow switchover to capitalism,
Mao's country has been undergoing for the last
two decades; it is so subtle that many comrades
even there do not see it. So the official organ
of CPI celebrated the ‘October
Revolution’ last month with a bliss that can
only be birthed by willful ignorance. Now its
counterpart the CPM has shown that it has an
equally strong will not to learn from its own
‘historical blunder’ of not allowing
Joytida to become the Prime Minister of the
country, and has ruled that the CMP in this State
would not be part of the coalition Government.
Equally curious is
the report that while the members in the polit
bureau saw that they had blundered in the Jyoti
Basu case, they insisted on upholding the
principle that had been accepted as wrong.
Strange as that reasoning appears, it deprives
this State of having its first communist
minister. And, knowing whether he could be
different. Now that thing may not be very
material to the well-being of this State, for
what can a lone minister do when the full-scale
Government in the two states that they rule do
not show much change save an uncanny ability to
cling to power. But the people need to know. They
need to know that the high promises that are made
to them at the hustings are actually
implementable; that the persons, who castigate
everyone else for not being able to do things
well, can or cannot do them as well or better. In
a democracy that is an important test. It is even
more important here, to act the promises out.
Thus have the high flautin claims of BJP been
seen for their worth. So, those of the other
parties. Communists too, needed to be tested.
And, who knows Tarigami may just turn out to be
different!
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Political
answer to terrorist threat in Jammu
By
Balraj Puri
The
terrorist strike at two temples -
Raghunath Mandir and Shivalya- in the
heart of Jammu is, in a way, part of the
series of such strikes which are directed
against or intend to provoke Hindu
community in Jammu region. But being the
first such incident since the formation
of a coalition Government, its immediate
target seemed to be the new experiment.
The new
Government, as it is composed, should be
in ideal position to face the latest
terrorist threat. For essentially it is a
coalition of representatives of the three
regions; led by the PDP, the Congress and
the independents based mainly in Kashmir,
Jammu and Ladakh respectively.
Mufti
Sayeed's People's Democratic Party sought
to articulate the uge for dignity of the
people of Kashmir when it highlighted the
indignities they suffered during
arbitrary arrests, search operations and
interrogations and excesses of Special
Operation Group and due to misuse of
draconian laws. It also became instrument
for empowerment of the people as it was
the first occasion in the history of the
State when they could change the
Government through the vote.
Likewise,
the major factor in the victory of the
Congress in Jammu region was is
projection of Ghulam Nabi Azad, in the
election campaign, as the first
perspective Chief Minister from Jammu
region. Nothing could satisfy region's
urge for dignity, identity and
empowerment better. It made other groups
which used to mobilise regional
sentiments against the sense of
deprivation, discrimination and
dispowerment, which people of the region
nursed, irrelevant.
Ladakh,
too, asserted its identity by rejecting
the National Conference, which its people
perceived as Kashmir based party, in
three out of four constituencies in the
region. In the last election in 1996, the
NC had won three out of four
constituencies.
This
character of the present Government is
its main strength as well weakness.
Thus we
find that most statements of the
coalition ministers on almost every
subject invariably refer to the three
regions and repeatedly convey an
assurance that they would be treated
equitably and without any discrimination.
Some ministers even promise that past
wrongs to any region would be undone and
that they have joined the Government to
safeguard the interest of their region;
forgetting the principle of joint
responsibility of the cabinet under which
they are ministers of the whole state and
not of a region.
The
dangers in this type of arrangement are
patent. If the regional passions and
expectations thus aroused are not
satisfied, the backlash may revive the
parochial and chauvinist forces that were
vanquished- which we had celebrated- with
greater vigour. The election provided an
opportunity to sublimate the regional
urges into a healthy coalition. But
unless institutional and permanent
measures are evolved to reconcile these
urges, the great opportunity that the
unique electorate experiment in the state
offered may simply be lost.
The
election demonstrated importance of
Jammu's identity. Never before a leader
of the region was within the reach of the
post of Chief Minister. Whatever
considerations weighed with the Congress
president who offered the post to the PDP
chief Mufti Sayed instead of the State
Congress chief G N Azad, despite support
of larger number of MLAs, a clear lesson
of this election is that consolidation of
secular regional identity of Jammu under
a Muslim leader accounted for its
increased clout. The electorate rejected
the BJP, RSS sponsored Jammu State Morcha
and other forces of trifurcation. The BJP
could retain only one seat against its
lead in 31 out of 37 assembly segments in
the last Lok Sabha poll in 1999.
However,
post of Chief Minister or Deputy Chief
Minister is not a permanent answer to
Jammu's urge for identity and
empowerment. For every time a Jammu based
party cannot be a majority party in the
State Assembly. Moreover, post of Deputy
Chief Minister may have some value for a
coalition partner. But if a single party
gets a majority from one region and a few
seats from the other, its nominee as
Deputy Chief Minister will serve the
interest of the party rather than of the
region.
Thus if a
Kashmiri Chief Minister tries to provide
a needed healing touch to the people of
the Valley, by disciplining the security
forces or giving relief to their victims,
the terrorist strikes on Hindus and their
religious places would cause much sharper
communal backlash. Likewise, a Jammu
Chief Minister, under presssure of local
opinion and considerations of a national
party, to whom he had invariable to
belong, may not be able to do full
justice to the regional aspirations of
the Kashmir valley. In any case the
present pattern of regional
representation in the Government may not
be a permanent feature.
The only
rational and long term answer to this
dilemma is to reduce the burden of
responsibility on the Chief Minister. In
a federal set up, without which unity,
democracy and good governance will evade
the State, part of the responsibility in
facing the situation that Jammu faced on
November 24 could be shared by an elected
regional authority. It would be in a much
closer touch with the people and get ther
support to combat threat like terrorism
as also to check possible backlash.
Those who
are trying to divert justifiable popular
anger against terrorist attacks into
anti-Kashmiri or still worse anti-Muslim
sentiments are, unintionally, playing
into the hands of the enemy. But if a
statutory regional authority shares the
responsibility of meeting such a
situation, there would not be any scope
for regional or communal exploitation.
For they would not be able to shift the
blame to any outsider. Moreover it is not
so much the failure or success in dealing
with such problems that determines the
mood of the people as the prevalent
feeling of their helplessness does.
Admittedly
the challenge of terror is too big to be
tackled by a regional authority alone. It
requires a closer understanding and
coordination and regional, state and
central levels. In fact genuine
empowerments of districts, blocks and
panchayats are equally important.
Admittedly,
again, role of armed strength is very
crucial in meeting the threat of terror.
But it is a multifacet threat and has
also to be met at political and
ideological levels, of which democracy,
federalism and decentralisation are
obvious parts. It is at these levels that
the people matter while the rest of the
job is to be done by the security forces.
The system should provide closer link
between the two levels.
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Empty
shouts, uncanny noise!
By R L
Bhat
The
dastardly strike on the Raghunath Temple
the State Assembly has seen its first
walkout by the new Opposition. Though, of
course, those walk outs are going to be a
much common in the coming days, what with
the Accountability, Bill already in the
House, threatening to focus on the
commissions of the last Government in
office. It therefore must have been
vastly comforting to the new men in
Opposition to have a 'justifiable' cause
viz. that of the terrorist attack on one
of the important places of worship in the
town to practise their walkouts. Now, it
cannot be denied that terrorism is
something that the Government of the day
is duty-bound to prevent or at least to
make all efforts to that end. Every life
is precious. Every innocent life is more
precious, much more precious, than that
of the mercenaries who have taken to
subjecting the people to death and
bringing destruction to this State. They
are criminals, who have no alibi, no
cause, and deserve neither respect nor
consideration. For the world does not
recognize the right of anybody to kill
another, much less a whole people for
wish, whim or will.
And, when
it is foreign mercenaries, paid or
brainwashed into, doing it, it becomes
doubly heinous. The Government of the day
has to answer for it. It has to prove
that it did all in its power to prevent
it and that it would intensify the
measures to deal with it. The members
have a right to discuss those things. All
Governments that shy away from it are
shying away from their constitutional
duties. But, could one ask what had been
the response of the present Opposition,
that walked out of the Assembly for being
denied a discussion over the terrorist
strike, to similar demands when they were
in power? For, it is only days that they
have laid down office and none of those
days were free from the massacres,
killings and terrorist attacks. Indeed,
two important turns the terrorism took
namely attacking the religious shrines
and killing children in a big way
occurred during their six-year rule. No
discussions were held. The attempts of
the Opposition to force adjournments were
disallowed with vehemence. It was deemed
enough that the Government made
statements in the House, while the
massacres and attacks continued.
At one
stage there was a clear 'declaration' by
the then Home Minister, who incidentally
moved the motion the other day, that the
gun could not be banished out of the
State. It may not be correct to hold that
his party in power was responsible for
spreading the terrorism beyond the Valley
of Kashmir, but it remains a fact that
over that period the terrorists began
their operations in a big way in the
parts outside the Valley and came to
infest as far off places as Bani and
Billawar. That Government also saw some
of the most nefarious massacres. Those
massacres of the innocent people began in
the Valley and then spread all over the
State. The first of these massacres
occurred in Sangrampora where the Pandits
still in the Valley were lined up and
killed by the terrorists. When the
Kashmiri Pandits staged a demonstration
in Jammu to protest those killings and
wanted to handover a memorandum to the
Chief Minister they were lathi-charged at
the secretariat gates. That demonstration
also brought out that infamous of
declaration from the then Chief Minister
that Jammu and Kashmir was a Muslim
majority State and would remain one, as
if an innocuous demonstration against the
killing of innocent civilians jeopardized
the demographic character of this State!
Of course,
that does not mean that the killings and
terrorist strikes are not to be protested
against. Or, that the Opposition does not
have a right to call the Government to
question. Indeed, every killing is a new
challenge to the writ of this State and a
concern of the people. That concern has
to be highlighted and efforts made to
meet the terror threatening the people.
The Opposition has a duty to raise those
points and the party in power has to
answer for it. More than that question
-answer the leaders of this State have to
demonstrate a willingness to fight
terrorism and banish it out of the State.
It would not be done by calling the past
lapses or present leniences to mind, save
as reminders to be vigilant and active,
possibly as lessons to learn from. For,
terrorism is in nobody's interest. It
serves no interest, answers no problems.
Nor does it help any causes, how so good,
how so justifiable, how so humanitarian.
Thus, the present Government's policy of
mistaking terrorism, as merely the sum of
inconveniences is not the way to deal
with the menace. It does not help to bury
your head in sands like the proverbial
ostriches, while marauders committed to
kill are at large, killing people,
attacking holy shrines and challenging
the writ and authority of the State.
At the
same time it does not help to politick
where the lives of innocent civilians are
at stake. The twelve people who were
killed in Raghunath temple did not
deserve to die. The other twelve security
personal who died in two earlier attacks
should not have died. Nor, did the thirty
thousand people of this State, deserve to
die. None of those deaths deserves to be
turned into fuel for political fireworks.
If anything the political leaders of this
State are to introspect their actions and
scrutinize their behaviours; they must go
deep into their causes and planks and
come up with corrections and solutions to
put this State back on the road to peace
and progress. For, if their actions and
utterances have not actually fed this
conflagration, they have provided alibis
and justification upon which the hostile
powers have built their terror machines
and unleashed them upon this State and
people. Half of the problem would be
solved if the politics come clean on
their actions, utterances and
motivations. Another quarters would be
their getting together with a sincere
resolve to fight it out. The rest would
be done by the security and the police.
Would the politicians do their bit?
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Organic
farming in J&K
By R D
Gupta & A. K. Sharma
In view of
ill effects created by the "Green
Revolution" like environmental
degradation, Soil; air and water
pollution, food unsafety and energy
shortage, there is an increasing
awareness of "Organic Farming".
Organic
farming is also called natural or
biological farming. Indeed, the havoc
unleashed by costly and environmentally
hazardous inputs like fertilizers and
pesticides have led to world wide
resurgence of interest in natural farming
that seeks to derive yield without
disturbing the eco-system.
Organic
farming refers to farming in the spirit
of organic relationship. It is a
production system which shuns excessive
use of fertilizers, pesticides, growth
regulators and live stock additions. This
farming system relies on the use of
organic manures, botanical pesticides,
biocides and cultural methods. Organic
farming, however, does not mean reverting
to stone age agriculture.
Experiments
from around the world prove merits of
organic farming. A scientific study by
the American National Academy infers that
application of fertilizers and pesticides
does not necessarily lead to better
farming than the natural one. Credit for
putting natural farming on global scale
goes to Japanese Plant Pathologist,
Masannobu Fukuoka, who secured FAO award
for the signal service, rendered to the
cause of natural farming. He advocated
that Soil's nourishing qualities stem
from organic matter that returns to Soil
periodically. Fukuoka took 25 years to
develop rice variety known as
"Fukuoka rice", is the best
genetically modified by natural breeding
using organics. This variety has given
promising yield in the coldest places all
over the world and can yield three times
more than present varieties in Southern
India.
Organic
farming has also popularised in India,
especially southern States of the country
like Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
Spectacular results obtained by a
progressive farmer Mr V R K Murthy, from
Dharampur district Tamil Nadu is one for
the examples in this regard. He termed
inter-cropping as an insurance against
crop failure as if one crop fails, one
has another to reply upon.
Agriculture
of Jammu and Kashmir also requires new
dimensions to raise the socio-economic
status of the peasants. Than can be
achieved by adopting natural farming and
diversifying agriculture. Jammu and
Kashmir State being mostly hilly terrain,
its majority of the area suffers from
soil erosion and run off losses. Besides
soil erosion and run off losses, more
than 70 percent of States arable land is
under rainfed conditions, where the
cultivation of crops alone is very risky.
So, keeping these facts in view, there is
lot of scope and perspectives for
diversified agriculture in the State.
Crop diversification methods, which
consist of mixed farming, mixed cropping,
multiple cropping and crop rotation, not
only help in supplementing the income of
the farmers but also assist in checking
soil erosion, improvement in soil
fertility and increasing the crop yield.
For instance a change of crop rotation in
Krishi Vigyan Kendra farm Jammu, from
rice-wheat to rice-berseem during
1997-1998, has not only proved profitable
but also improved soil fertility,
controlled obnoxious Phalaris minor weed
and increased the yield of rice and wheat
during 1998-99. In another change of crop
rotation from rice and wheat to green
manure rice, wheat, reduction of nitrogen
content by one third of the recommended
close in rice and wheat was observed,
besides enhancing soil fertility and
yield of rice and wheat. Mixed cropping
is the common practice of the farmers of
dryland agriculture, particularly Kandi
belt of Jammu. They either grow maize and
black gram in the same field during
Kharif or black gram sesame. Sometime
black gram is grown on the bunds of maize
fields. Whichever practice is followed
its aim is to add the Soil fertility
owing to the atmospheric nitrogen
fixation by black gram being leguminous
crop. The study conducted under KVK for 2
years in 8 different locations (4 each
year) showed more yield in black gram and
sesame inter crops (4:2 rows) than mixed
cropping.
Intercropping
is also being followed in irrigated areas
of Bhalwal and Marh blocks of Jammu
district. Sugarcane + bitter ground,
sugarcane + tomato mustard + raddish and
mustard + peas are the main intercrops
being followed by high tech farmer Mr
Gandharv Singh of village Batera. He
usually earns an amount of Rs. 2000 -
3000 and 15000 - 18000 from bitter ground
and sugarcane intercrops in an area of 2
kanals. The high tech farmer also grows
colocacia and arum using organic manures
only which are more tasty and sweet. In
fact, the quality of the agricultural
produce especially of fruits, vegetables
and flowers improves while nutrients are
applied organically. Now regulations on
such produce have been enacted by
European Union, which the farmers have to
observe by labelling their produce
"Organic Products". In Denmark
such regulations came into force during
December, 1987 and now there are a number
of organic farms and factories where
organic products are produced.
Jammu and
Kashmir can also create an international
market especially for fruits like apple,
walnut and almond which are monopolies of
Kashmir. But we can compete in the world
market only if we produce organic
products with good quality, free from
contamination of pesticides chemicals and
fertilizer residues. Similarly, we can
bring name and fame for vegetables,
flowers, saffron and black cumin. It is
worth mentioning that floating gardens of
Kashmir, are already producing tomato,
cucumber, pumpkin, melon and water melon
without the use of fertilizers and
pesticides, which are most tasty and
sweet.
Suggestions:
To bring
the name of J&K Agriculture for the
world market, it is suggested:-
i) To
start a dynamic agricultural production
system to help generating suitable
technology, effective communication,
delivery system and supportive Govt
policy.
ii) To
identify the specialised areas to produce
cash crops like potato, tomato, peas.
iii) To
produce organic products, cooperative
approach is essential as organic farming
on individual basis is difficult due to
very small holdings.
iv) Always
use well decomposed organic manures.
Avoid non-degradable organic wastes,
otherwise they may cause contamination of
heavy metals and nitrates.
v)
Organise training programmes on
"Organic Farming" to educate
the farmers.
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