Daily Excelsior... Editorial

EDITORIAL

By N.B. Menon

The three-day visit of the Indian Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee to Russia, and his interaction with President, Vladimir Putin, and the declaration issued by two leaders covered........more

Durand line getting murkier

By Cecil Victor

Rethinking reservations

Bharat Jhunjhunwala

A section of the Dalits wants reservations to be extended to the private sector, judiciary and defense services. The Dalits have obtained many jobs in the Government and Public Sector. After the economic reforms, however, the government is becoming smaller and these opportunities have........more

EDITORIAL

Realism or coincidence?

Is it realism? Or just a coincidence. How does one explain the absence of all front-ranking leaders of both the factions of the Hurriyat Conference and the heads of other secessionist bodies from the Iftar party hosted by the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi? One has heard of only one leader, Syed Ali Shah Geelani, having made an attempt to reach the national capital for this purpose. However, he also had to cool his heels in Srinagar as his flight was cancelled because of adverse weather. It has been a different story in the case of Moulvi Abbas Ansari, chairman of the original Hurriyat Conference. On his behalf, it was repeatedly announced in advance that he would boycott Pakistan’s evening show at Chanakayapuri. It was also made known that his colleagues in the organisation, which has been reduced to a smudged carbon copy of its past, would follow suit. Therefore, there was no surprise at all if all of them had stayed away. Nobody would care to ask the Moulvi a simple question: Has he ever attended Pakistan High Commission’s Iftar party? The good, old Moulvi does not like to travel outside his home city during Ramzan because it interferes with his religious rituals. Without fail, he observes dawn-to-dusk fast every day. Should not in that case he have tried to put the picture in the correct perspective? Instead, he has let the word go around that he has boycotted the party. Clearly, it has come in handy for him to acquiesce in the boycott theory. Looked from his angle, the Pakistan High Commission, had the temerity to invite him in his personal capacity and not as chairman of the Hurriyat Conference. Between the chiefs of the ‘real’ Hurriyat, which Mr Geelani claims he is, and its ‘original’ version, the neighbouring country’s diplomats had shown distinct preference for the former. They had also added salt to the Moulvi’s wounds; his associates in the Hurriyat faction were, too, given invitations in their own names and not as the heads of their respective political outfits. In their place, their opponents who have joined Mr Geelani’s camp had been ‘recognised’ as heads of one or the other the political body and invited, like their chairman, in their ‘official’ capacities.

Evidently, the Pakistan High Commission has been up to mischief. It has not hidden its intention to pat on the back of those who are out to pose problems for New Delhi. For that matter, even the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) has recognised the Geelani group as the Hurriyat Conference. As if to remove any doubts about his country’s plans, Pakistan’s Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed has gone on to mention quite a few Kashmiri leaders by their names describing them as the representatives of the people. Gradually, Pakistan and the OIC, which has exposed itself to the charge of interfering in India’s internal affairs, may have some explaining to do on the diplomatic front. Already Pakistan’s Information Minister, who was in New Delhi in connection with a South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC) meeting, has put his big foot in his loud mouth too often on this soil that he is running for cover. Surely such matters will be effectively dealt with at their level. External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha has made a mild start by saying that the Pakistan Minister has ‘shown his class’. What should interest us for the moment, however, is that nearly all Kashmir leaders of the secessionist hue have suddenly developed aversion for Pakistan, barring, of course, Mr Geelani and his close associates.

This should cause surprise given their past record. For years, they have been describing Pakistan as their ally. They have never felt shy of publicising their presence in its High Commission’s Iftar parties. If their mood has undergone a change these days, it is only because of the totally altered post-9/11 global opinion. They know that Pakistan has become a liability. It is increasingly isolated on the world map. All big nations —— the United States, Great Britain and Russia included — have frowned upon Pakistan for its support to cross-border terrorism. In such a situation, secessionist leaders of the Moulvi brand apparently find no use holding on to Pakistan’s apron strings. Unlike the Geelani camp, they have correctly read the local pulse. The people in the Valley, in particular, and the State as a whole want peace and they are already looking askance at the illicit wealth accumulated by so-called leaders in their name. It is for these reasons that the secessionist leaders seem to have stayed away from the domed structure in the Capital’s diplomatic enclave. This is simply practical politics. To reach any other conclusion at this juncture would be hasty. Does this not indicate a lasting and positive change in their approach? One will have to wait before passing any such judgment.

Too much to hope

By admitting that the treatment being given to the border migrants in the State is ‘unfair and inhuman’, Union Home Joint Secretary H.S. Brahma has called a spade a spade. He has made the observation after an on-the-spot study of the situation in Akhnoor and adjoining areas. Few have realised the miseries of lakhs of villagers living along the Line of Control and International Border who are uprooted time and again. Over the generations they have come to grief because of one man-made disaster after the other. Hardly had they recovered from the 1947 holocaust that they had to face two wars inflicted by Pakistan, first in 1965 and then six years later. The worst and the perpetual victims in these circumstances, their plight has only been further worsened by frequent shelling from across the border. As a consequence, therefore, there is their frequent dislocation. In the absence of any other job opportunities, they have to keep returning to their agriculture lands to eke out a living. It is extremely sad that they have become a floating population, much like the homeless wonders in their own homes. One can’t be oblivious to the negative social and economic fall-out from such unpredictable life.

With this background in view, it is absolutely necessary to understand the serious problems of the border migrants in correct perspective and resolve them once and for all. Although their condition is no better than the displaced members of the unfortunate Kashmiri Pandit community, they have not been treated in the same sympathetic and generous manner. It is perhaps because the factors leading to the adversity of the two sections of the population have been vastly different. One can, however, draw heart from the knowledge that both the Central and State governments are not unaware of the fact that there has been discrimination in assistance being extended in the two cases. Having said that, it must be noted that this is not the first time that a Central Government official has cared to visit the affected areas and people. Officials have come in the past as well. However, little has been done in practical terms to alleviate the sufferings of the border people. One hopes that now that the concerned official himself is moved by the pitiable status of the migrants, the Central Government does not needlessly delay its approval to the Rs 76-crore rehabilitation project meant for them. The repair of damaged houses, modernisation of agriculture equipment and the construction of alternative accommodation should be taken up on a priority basis. This is the least that can be done to instill confidence in them.

Cementing Indo-Russian relations

By N.B. Menon

The three-day visit of the Indian Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee to Russia, and his interaction with President, Vladimir Putin, and the declaration issued by two leaders covered a wide-range of subjects, which affect both the countries.

In terms of regional peace and stability, both countries have equal stakes in their immediate neighbourhood—Afghanistan, Iraq and Central Asia. But the US steamrolling the United Nations and seeking to establish its supremacy is a cause for concern for both the countries. But the neither can do anything about it. On the other hand, the Russian Federation acquiesced to the US demand for presence of the American troops in some of the CIS countries much against its geo-strategic and economic interests. On Iraq, it voted for a UN resolution mandating the presence of a UN force, to which no neutral country is willing to contribute troops for maintenance of peace except the countries, which are US allies. Thus, it has become a one-sided game for President Bush to rule Iraq.

Though Indo-Russian interests coincide in the region as India is equally interested to have peace and instability in the region, but it is as helpless, possibly as Moscow is. However, Indian expectations were that Russia would exert its influence and not succumb to the US pressure; the capitulation of President Putin surprised New Delhi.

Both countries as victims of Islamic terrorism have extended moral support to each other on J&K and Chechnya; but each one is fighting its own battle. India was expecting that a sort of anti-terrorism force would be formed pulling out crack divisions from the two countries, but nothing of that kind happened. India had mooted this proposal long back, but in the absence of a positive response from Moscow the issue was dropped for good.

Vajpayee-Putin’s pious wish of a proactive UN role to eliminate threats of terrorism will remain only a wishful thinking. Both the countries have held elections in their strife-torn regions, but the peace and stability is a far cry in both the countries. Precisely, the strife-torn regions are still facing terrorist menace, and terrorist groups have not acknowledged the legitimacy of the electoral verdicts.

There cannot be a multipolar world order without some sort of equilibrium in force multiplication, which is the missing link today. Russia is the second biggest military power in the world, but it doesn’t want to confront the dominance of the USA in any global spheres. But of late it has dawned on Moscow that being a "junior partner" of the USA has not helped it even to gain economic benefits as it expected. If there is foreign investment in Russian economy, the investors are reaping benefits. The investment is in luxury segment of the economy. Very little has come to develop infrastructure except a small quantity in the oil sector.

India has conveyed its happiness to Moscow that it is gearing up to build-up its all-round defence against the US hegemony, which is in response to the Bush doctrine of using military force against sovereign nations without UN mandate.

Mr. Vajpayee and Putin agreed in their one-to-one meeting that attempts to dilute the role of the UN Security Council and the growing practice of using armed forces on the basis of national decisions are as a dangerous trend that could create a serious threat to the security of nation states in the world.

Mr. Putin briefed the Indian Prime Minister over NATO’s continuing "anti-Russian" thrust and plans to redeploy military bases from Western Europe to the newly admitted members in Eastern Europe, as well as to the former Soviet Baltic republics of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, which are to join NATO. The NATO retains its "offensive military doctrine"; this will prompt a "thorough reformation of military planning", and a "change of Russian nuclear strategy".

In view of the changing geo-strategic equations in Europe and Asia, Russia is ready to use military force to defend its interests in the former Soviet states, and may apply the Monroe doctrine in the case of the CIS, which is an extremely important security and economic zone for Russia. It sends a clear warning to the US to accept Russia’s dominant role in the former Soviet states. The US intrusion into Russia’s traditional turf worries Moscow more and more. What began as temporary American military presence in Central Asia endorsed by Mr. Putin to facilitate the anti-terror war in Afghanistan, far from winding up, is expanding today. In addition to airbases in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, the US is helping Kazakhstan set up a naval base on the Caspian Sea close to the Russian border and is seeking to lease three military bases in Tajikistan. Washington is stepping up military-technical assistance to former Soviet states in Central Asia, conducts regular war games with Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan under NATO’s Partnership for Peace programme, and has launched officer-training programmes for Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.

During the review of global security issue the Russian side argued that the control of energy resources is the main driving motive for Americans to move into the Russian neighbourhood. India and Russia expressed desire to help Azerbaijan boost its naval power in the row with Iran over the sharing of Caspian oil fields. India already has close economic ties with Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, and would like the region to remain economically independent.

Indian leadership time and again much against the Boris Yeltsin era doctrine had stressed these points that the end of the Cold War did not signal an end to great-power rivalry.

Notwithstanding differences on economic issues, many frontier areas of cooperation in defence, science technology and space sciences have been identified. The Indian side is appreciative of the technical support promised in India’s space programme. Besides, an agreement is likely to be given a final shape for acquiring Tupolev-22 nuclear capable long-range bombers, which India desperately needs. Similarly, Indian need for the nuclear powered submarines has been discussed time and again, but the issue has not been settled or resolved, as Russia is a member of nuclear supply group. Equally problematic is the case with Admiral Gorshkov and it’s retrofitting, which needs a complement of a squadron of Mig-29 (Naval version). But, this deal has been settled and a Russian delegation will be visiting India this month to sign the deal. There are other dozens of arms deals in the pipeline to be given the final shape.

In nuclear energy sector, initial discussions have taken place between the two countries. But, no final agreement on the line of Kodanukkal has been reached. It is subject to negotiation in view of the nuclear supply group objections, as the residue can be utilised for making nuclear bombs.

India has welcome the idea of Russia and China joining India, South Africa and Brazil to the new grouping, which has the potential to emerge as a great economic force. There is also immense possibility of technological exchange beneficial for the countries in the coalition. Indian Foreign Minister, Yashwant Sinha, will be taking up the matter with the other two countries at their next meeting in March 2004.

The two countries have expressed desire to enhance the balance of trade. The Indian Prime Minister and President Vladimir Putin agreed in principle to devise mechanisms to give a new direction to the trade ties between the two countries. Mr. Vajpayee accompanied by a load of business delegation asked entrepreneurs to setup joint ventures in each other’s country. He also promised to remove legal hurdles like the removal of bank guarantee and granting visa facilities to Russian businessmen.

Hopefully, if both sides adopt practical and friendly approach, the relations between the two countries will touch new heights, as the new business and project deals would be in hard currency. INAV

Durand line getting murkier

By Cecil Victor

Afghan claims to all Pakhtoon tribal areas and its repudiation of the British imposed Durand Line has brought into contention a huge tract of Pakistan extending from the Gwadar port on the Arabian Sea in Baluchistan to the North West Frontier Province and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) in the high Himalayas has created a piquant situation between Kabul and Islamabad.

Afghan websites has shown a long list of important cities including the strategic Quetta and Peshawar (from where the US CIA launched U-2 spy flights into the former Soviet Union) as being outside the territory of Pakistan.

On the Pakistani side, the suggestion that the Pakhtoons could well be one of the lost tribes of Israel is a flirtation with Semiticism that has long been anathema in an increasingly Islamic fundamentalist polity. The suggestion that a DNA test could set the record straight whether the Pakhtoons are the lost 13th tribe of Israel may yet turn out to be a "self determination" deathwish for Pakistan.

The attack on the Pakistan embassy in Kabul some months ago by irate Afghans who saw in Islamabad’s insistence on the legitimacy of the Durand Line even after its 100-year tenure expired some years ago as an attempt to perpetuate the division of the Pakhtoon tribe and an undermining of the concept of "Greater Pakhtoonistan" encompassing huge swaths of territory in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Having just lost its"strategic depth" inside Afghanistan by the ouster of the ISI-created Taliban, Pakistan cannot but be wary that the repudiation of the Durand Line could become the unraveling of a nationhood that at the best of times was tenuous, the unrest in Baluchistan over the sharing of the natural wealth of the region is a case in point.

The Pakhtoon imbroglio too has deep roots and one such illustrious personality as the "Frontier Gandhi" Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan was an ardent advocate of the "Pakhtunwa" cause and which he pursued since before the creation of Pakistan itself.

The origins of the Pakhtoons have been traced variously to the Jews and the Aryans and the suggestion for a DNA test is intended to pinpoint this issue. The Jewish connection finds its roots in the 13th tribe which got lost in the Diaspora and is believed to have found its way, again variously, into Afghanistan, Kashmir (there is at least one book that claims that Jesus Christ died and was buried there) and the north-eastern region of India.

In fact, for some years Israel has been importing members of the Meghalaya community in the belief that they belong to the "lost tribe". If that be the end result of deep study by Jewish scholars where does it leave the Pakhtoons and their semitic connection? Or of their Arab links?

In any event, if any Pakistani should advocate that the Pakhtoons are a separate and distinct entity and not part of Afghanistan he would be playing with the same fire of "self-determination" that General Musharraf and the Inter-Services Intelligence is trying to foist on the people of Jammu and Kashmir with the intent and purpose of legitimizing the two-nation theory based on religion.

Pakistanis may believe that the Islamic bond is strong enough to ensure that the Kashmiris would opt for a merger with Pakistan but developments in Baluchistan (where the Sui gasfields have come under constant bombardment) in an assertion of tribal suzereignty is a warning sign that the military dictatorship needs to be extremely careful about.

Pakistan’s attempt to perpetuate the Durand Line beyond its 100-year tenure has already become blurred by the joint operations between the US-led coalition forces and Pakistani troops. Hot pursuit of Taliban and Al Qaeda remnants tends to bring the tribes in conflict with both Kabul and Islamabad and accentuates their separate entity.

It is being argued that these joint operations have helped consolidate Pakistan’s suzereignty over tribal areas which were hitherto "no go" areas for the administration in Islamabad. But that too can disappear as rapidly as did the Taliban in Afghaistan.

As a Pakistani writer has put it the British created the Durand Line to mark the limits of Afghan kingdom so that they would use Afghanistan as a buffer against the Czarist Russia. However, the Durand Line does not include the tribal area sandwiched between Afghanistan and Pakistan for the British respected the sentiments of the tribal people about their individual liberty….

"And if King Abdur Rehman opposed the creation of the Durand Line it was becaue he felt that the main objective of the British being to divide and weaken the Pakhtoons living in British India. He could never imagine, in his wildest dreams, that a state called Pakistan would be created; and after the British quit India Pakistan inherited the Durand Line and all its complications," he wrote.

Pakistan’s dependence on the prediction of former British Chief Commissioner in the region Olof Caroe that Peshawar in Pakistan would, by its access to the developed status in Pakistan, dominate Kabul was perhaps the basis for the creation of the Taliban in Pakistani madrasas and its induction into Afghanistan. But that is already proved to be an exaggeration and the obverse of Olof Caroe’s assertion may yet happen if Islamabad mishandles the Pakhtoon question.(ADNI)

Rethinking reservations

Bharat Jhunjhunwala

The reservations have had a positive role in helping the Dalits move into the mainstream. It has helped the Dalits move into various fields like business, politics and teaching. But this system is leading to loss of the whole society. Important positions are being held by less competent Dalits leading to loss for the whole society. We are today caught in a double bind. Our tradition suffocates the Dalits. On the other hand reservations lead to a loss of the whole society.

This problem is not unique to our country. Blacks have been similarly maltreated in the United States. They too have adopted a policy of affirmative action to help the weaker sections to move up the social ladder. They have faced the same conflict between economic efficiency and preferential treatment. But they have designed affirmative action in a way that it makes very little damage to the whole society. We can learn from them in redesigning our reservation policy.

The US Supreme Court had already struck down all quotas as a part of affirmative action saying that it was against the good of the society. But special treatment of the underprivileged was accepted. Now US Supreme Court has given a judgment holding that the special treatment too should not be provided mechanically.

The University Of Michigan Law College was providing admission to Blacks, Hispanics, Red Indians and other minorities to maintain diversity in the classroom. This system of giving preference was upheld by the Court. The University was also giving 20 marks to every Black applicant for admission to its undergraduate courses. This system was struck down in a parallel judgment. The Lordships held that a blanket and faceless system which gave preference to every applicant from a particular group was discriminatory. It directed the University to scrutinize each application from the Blacks and other underprivileged groups and give such preference that may be justified in every case. But this should not be done in the form of a mathematical formula which did not take into account the entire picture of the candidate.

Three principles emerge from these judgments. One, it is just to give preference to any group which has suffered historical injustice. Two, this preference should not be given in a way that pulls down the whole society in rectifying a past wrong. That would be jumping from frying pan into the fire. The society would be making a new mistake in the process of rectifying one made in the past. Three, preference should not be given to every individual from the underprivileged but only to deserving candidates.

Our policy of reservations is ridden with similar difficulties. While it helps rectify the mistakes done by us in the past, it creates a new problem by pulling down the whole society. In this era of globalization every bit matters. Poor governance due to less capable Dalits in positions of power may weaken our economic and military strength. That would lead to a weak country. The Dalits would be pulled down along with the upper castes. That would be self-defeating. The policy of providing the benefit of reservations to every Dalit has led to the generation of a fifth column among the Dalits in the form of creamy layer. Therefore, we need to redesign our policy of reservations such that it makes only nominal impact on economic efficiency of the economy.

More interesting is the role of the only Woman and Black judges on the Bench. This judgment was given by a nine member full bench of the US Supreme Court as all its judgments are given. The only woman judge on the bench O’Connor has been giving judgment against quotas for Blacks in jobs but she supported giving preference to Blacks in admissions to educational institutions. She said that the underprivileged should be helped through education and thereafter they should compete with the rest for jobs. That would not lead to any loss for the whole society. The only Black judge on the bench Thomas opposed giving preference to Blacks even in admissions to the educational institutions. He said that the Blacks were becoming weaker because of their dependence on affirmative action. They should only be given equal opportunity so that they rise on the strength for heir own efforts. Thus we have a strange spectacle of eight white judges supporting affirmative action while the only Black judge opposing it. The sense of these views is that preference to the Blacks should be given in a way that it does not pull down the whole society in the process of rectifying a historical error. The present cannot be sacrificed for the past. Second, the special treatment should be restricted to education. Third, the final solution is the underprivileged people’s own effort. Our Dalits, on the contrary, want expansion of reservations in jobs. There is a need for us to reconsider this policy. We should make greater efforts in the field of education for the Dalits. But Dalit candidates should know that they will not get jobs if they do not study well.