Daily Excelsior... Editorial

EDITORIAL

By Deepayan

By Ashok Thakur

The ruling couple of Bihar, Chief Minister Rabri Devi and her mentor-husband Laloo Prasad Yadav, don’t like their state to be bracketed as a backward state. ......more

ISI recruiting Nepal
youth to spy on India

By P N Khera

Pakistan army’s Inter-Services Intelligence has forged a nexus with Maoist cadres in Nepal to recruit youth to spy in India.

The arrest of a Nepalese young man in Gujarat recently shows that the modus .......more

EDITORIAL

Mixed election grill

So many significant political developments have taken place in the country almost simultaneously. The murky Dilip Singh Judeo cash-on-camera scandal has given an unexpected fillip to the run-up to the coming Assembly polls in Delhi, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. It has coincided with the entry of the topmost political rivals, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Congress President Sonia Gandhi, into the electioneering. In a way, the Judeo episode has perhaps become the only common strand in the otherwise dramatically different campaigns of the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress, which are the two major contenders for power in these four states. This exposes the paucity and the insignificance of the other issues that our leaders have been seeking to highlight. Development or lack of it could have been a good and major poll plank. It appears to have been pushed into the background, at least for the time being. The two chief campaigners themselves are not able to ignore the Judeo incident. In fact, they are striving to somehow twist it to their advantage. In the case of the BJP, the party is making a virtue out of a necessity to put the Congress in the dock. The Prime Minister has cited the resignation of his former Minister of State for Forests and Environment as an example of how seriously the BJP treats the menace of corruption. Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani has claimed that the prompt response of Mr Judeo to the controversy is a proof of his good intentions. He has also referred to the ex-minister’s ‘clean public image’ and his bold efforts in preventing the conversion of Hindus. Both the BJP stalwarts have had a dig at the Congress for adopting ‘double standards’ on the issue of corruption in high places. Mr Vajpayee has, in a rare tit for tat ever since he has become the Prime Minister, demanded the resignation of Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Ajit Jogi who has a chargesheet against him in a case. Mr Judeo, incidentally, also belongs to Chhattisgarh, and by attacking Mr Jogi, the BJP leaders, clearly, mean to get even in the State which has suddenly assumed greater significance than it deserves. On the other hand, Mrs Sonia Gandhi is using her improved Hindi to good effect. She did not have to name Mr Judeo in his home State while addressing a meeting there. In a bid to drive home the message, she has described ‘the latest scandal’ in which ‘another minister’ is involved as a ‘crude shock’ to the nation. If any person thinks that the last word in this connection has already been heard, he is sadly mistaken. In the days to come, this is likely to generate more dust and heat. The BJP’s ‘vikas purush’ and ‘loh purush’ (the short-lived titles given to Mr Vajpayee and Mr Advani, respectively, by the party chief, Mr Venkaiah Naidu) and the Congress’s ‘that lady’ (an expression used for Mrs Gandhi by National Democratic Alliance convener George Fernandes) are scheduled to extensively tour the states going to the elections in the last-ditch effort before the polling on December 1. In their own way, they will ensure that the scam remains firmly itched on the public mind. It is not clear who had advised Mr Judeo to announce that he would shave off his moustache in the event of his losing in Chhattisgarh. This was before he was seen on tape accepting cash. Even a humourless Mr Jogi has got a chance to have a dig at his expense. ‘Moonsh ktane wale ne Chhattisgarh ki nak katva di’ (the man wanting to shave his moustache has, instead, made Chhattisgarh’s head to hang in shame), the Chief Minister of the tiny State has remarked at a public gathering.

It is strange that Chhattisgarh and its leaders continue to be in news for all the wrong reasons. The State has made dubious electoral history in a routine matter. In the first instance of its kind, the Election Commission has been compelled to invite the intervention of the Governor of Chhattisgarh to carry out one of its decisions. Governor K.M. Sheth was called upon to exercise his Constitutional powers and remove two ‘controversial’ district collectors. Amazingly, the Jogi Government had not only ignored the EC’s order but also chosen to look the other way even after the court had ordered it to do the needful. The EC had stripped the two officers of their powers as returning officers and withdrawn their authority to scrutinise the nomination powers. The Governor has now directed the Chief Secretary to take the corrective measure. What does the Congress Government in the State gain by adopting such childish approach? It is equally serious that the Congress has got a show-cause notice from the EC for the reported misuse of the State Government’s aircraft by Mrs Gandhi, Mr Jogi and Chhattisgarh Assembly Speaker Srinivas Tiwari for poll activities. The EC is prima facie convinced that the provisions of the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order are applicable in this instance. The Congress leaders are exposed to the charge of having used the State aircraft in violation of the model code of conduct. The party has got one week to clarify its position failing which it could face serious action like losing its national status. Under the EC’s directions, there is an absolute ban on the use of the State-owned aircraft — propelled or hired at the State cost for any reason, including security — and no exception can be made in any case except for the Prime Minister. Such a reasonable restriction has been imposed to ensure a level playing field for all the parties in fray.

One highly commendable development — perhaps the only one that is entirely different in content and appeal — that has taken place during the current elections is in the far-off North-Eastern state of Mizoram. The influential Church authorities in the tiny State had made a bid to persuade the candidates not to indulge in excessive expenditure. Its convincing argument was that ‘losers accumulated insurmountable debts’ and ‘those elected were lured to recover their expenses by corrupting public money’. This, in turn, had created a rift between the poor and the rich. The Church authorities had particularly asked the candidates not to organise public feasts during electioneering. Whether such well-meaning advice had any effect or not can’t be said with confidence for want of adequate information. But its merit has not been questioned by anybody, not even by those who have not been able to resist the temptation to win by hook or by crook, in the State that has already gone to the polls yesterday. Positive implications for following up such a suggestion at the national level can hardly be over-emphasised. What do we come across in the so-called mainland if not the poll extravaganzas and the complaints of gross misuse of government money? Of course, there has been some curb on such wasteful expenditure in the recent years. It has become possible only because of the extraordinary vigilance being exercised by the poll machinery. Thus, in brief, we have seen a three-headed campaign in these elections so far. In one example, we see the unseemly trading of charges instead of genuine concern for doing away with the corruption on the top. In the other, we notice a brazen attempt to circumvent the EC, of all organisations. Lest such unseemly steps should cause a sense of dismay, we are reassured by a ray of hope emerging from a remote corner of the country that all is not yet lost.

The Hurriyat roulette

By Deepayan

The latest round of peace initiative from the Indian side including Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani's offer to talk to the Kashmiri conglomerate the Hurriyat Conference- is as much part of the political habit developed by the Indian establishment over past one decade as also the out come of the pressure from the Washington. By presenting a bunch of proposal including an offer to open road from Srinagar to Muzaffarabad in the Occupied Kashmir, the Vajpayee Government wants to answer the obvious query: What after much trumpeted Kashmir polls ?

The talks with the moderate faction of the Hurriyat led by Maulana Abbas Ansari would hardly be of long-term consequence in the complex issue of the Kashmir agenda as the undivided Hurriyat itself has little public backing in the Kashmir valley. The Hurriyat's call for the boycott of the State elections last year was virtually ignored by the public. In fact, one of the constituents of the Hurriyat joined the poll fray with some proxies. And this by itself is a telling commentary on the hollowness of the claims of the conglomerate that it represents public opinion.

As for New Delhi's number of proposals to Pakistan with an added emphasis on the people-to-people contact, it can be said that Pakistan has matched them to 'neutralize' their international impact in favour of India. It is thus back to square one.

Even though enough media publicity was given to the Indian proposals and its response from the neighbourhood, the establishment on both sides has deliberately been shunning the opportunity of taking recourse to diplomatic channels to address the well identified long pending issues. Both the countries are not willing partners and having a ball dance, largely, to the demand, tune and the direction of Washington. It is slow, unreal and deliberate and would not last long.

Now coming to the unstructured proposal for the Advani-Hurriyat talks. The talks are expected to start at the end of this month after the completion of 'Ramzan'. A Committee comprising Centre's Interlocutor and former Home Minister N N Vohra, Cabinet Secretary Kamal Pande, Home Secretary N Gopalaswami, Intelligence Bureau Director K P Singh and former RAW Director A S Dulat would discuss and work out the road map to Advani-Ansari discussion.

It may be too naive to expect a quick break through, forget about a clear line of approach. However well meaning the negotiating team is, it has its limitations imposed by the coalition politics, which in turn are an out come of split verdicts.

The official team has been at the Kashmir desk for a long while, probably with the exception of Gopalaswami who is a late entrant to the North Block and thus to the talks. By and large their line of thinking, in fact, approach to men and matters, holds no surprises and is predictable.

The point is for all practical purposes, what we are about to confront is an old familiar situation. Will the results be different? We have to wait for a while before rushing to pass value judgement.

Already differences on yet the to be worked out agenda, have come out in the open. This is not a happy sign.

On its part the Hurriyat reeling under the impact of a split (engineered by Pakistan) made it clear that the Centre should set an agenda before a dialogue process starts. It has ruled out any talks on 'decentralization' of powers and autonomy, New Delhi favours.

''The Centre should set an agenda before the talks begin. We should know what the Government wants to talk about', Hurriyat chairman Moulvi Abbas Ansari said at Srinagar. He, however, reiterated that there would be no talks on decentralization of powers as proposed by Deputy Prime Minister.

''For decentralization of powers the Centre needs to talk to Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and former Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah and not to us'', the Hurriyat chairman said.

He also had an acid comment to make on the reports, which quoted home secretary as saying that the proposed peace dialogue between the Centre and the Hurriyat was likely to begin only after the holy month of Ramzan. Ansari said, ''We have not intimated anything to the Centre. It could only be from the Government side''.

What about Gopalaswami's statement that the Hurriyat had conveyed to the Government its willingness to talk only after the Id-ul-Fitr? This is what Ansari had to say: ''we have no knowledge about any such move'.Will you consider any such proposal? The Shia cleric is non-committed. ''Let us celebrate the Id first'', is all what he is willing to say at present.

Senior Hurriyat leader and former chairman Prof Abdul Ghani Bhat said an official reaction would be available only after the executive meets and collectively takes a decision. Prof Bhat said if any Hurriyat leader commented on the issue, it would be his personal views and not of the 23-party separatist conglomerate.

Stating that his faction of Hurriyat Conference is not against the solution of Kashmir issue through talks, the hardliner Syed Ali Shah Geelani has said the dialogue process would become meaningful only when Government of India accepts the ''disputed nature of Kashmir issue''.

Geelani said if any person or organisation wants to become a part of New Delhi's efforts to persuade Kashmiri people through dialogue, his Hurriyat would not create hurdles.

''But keeping in view the bitter experience of the past, we can say with authority that such futile exercises are not going to solve the Kashmir issue'', he declared arguing for the time that UN resolutions alone provide a strong base for a solution. He is unwilling to acknowledge that much water has flown down the Jhelum in the past five decades.

According to him, Government of India has always tried to sabotage the ''freedom struggle'' since 1947 by adopting different ways and means. But it miserably failed in its designs. By engaging Sheikh Abdullah into a dialogue, New Delhi remained under wrong impression that Kashmiris would never raise their voice against suppression.

Geelani, a known protege of Islamabad, would leave no stone unturned to see that talks between Advani and the moderate faction of Hurriyat led by Maulvi Ansari fail at the out set. It will be naive to expect that Pakistan will remain a mute spectator as the Advani & co go around denying it its' only talking point.

And as for New Delhi, it would be an exercise to create its own ripple in the turbulent waters of the Kashmir valley. It would be a surprise if that turns out to be more than a ripple. Even a 'ripple' would do in these times of accentuated cynicism. Is that asking too much ? We will know by early December.

One thing can be said at this stage. Having taken the initiative to break the Kashmir logjam, a legacy of a mindless folly of 1948, the Vajpayee Government should pursue with vigour its plans to blunt the Pakistan edge and ensure that the New Delhi writ runs. It should not allow the current spurt in violence in the Valley to derail the peace process, which the people have begun to look with hope.

Simultaneously, in our own interest, we should make an all-out effort to co-opt the international players with a stake in peace in this region. Don't ask me who those players are ? Anyhow here is the clue. My reference is not to the US, certainly !

(Syndicate Features)

Pulling out Bihar from the abyss

By Ashok Thakur

The ruling couple of Bihar, Chief Minister Rabri Devi and her mentor-husband Laloo Prasad Yadav, don’t like their state to be bracketed as a backward state. They always protest violently when such facts are highlighted by the media or at seminars. Politics dictates that they protest if you cavil at the management of their fiefdom. But the fact remains that Bihar is the worst managed among all the country’s States, which was highlighted the other day at a symposium organised by the India Today in New Delhi. Apply any standard, use any measurement – the conclusion is the same. Unfortunately, this "jewel" in the BIMARU crown is going further downhill.

But the politics of protest and ridicule ironically always pays for the first couple of Bihar. It is now a cliché to once again say that they tighten the grip over their constituencies in proportion to the ridicule heaped upon them. So possibly, they went back laughing all the way to their vote bank. In the future, they will very deftly convert the ridicule into seats. Come election time.

It is not for the first time that Bihar has been ranked at the bottom on the matrix of the development index. A few years ago, former Finance Secretary Montek Singh Ahluwalia conducted a pioneering study and analysis of the state of India’s States. His conclusion was that in the post-liberalisation era of the 1990s, Bihar had slipped further down the human development index. In contrast, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan –also BIMARU States – had valiantly tried to redeem themselves by getting out of the fold. Of course, Bihar’s close cousins UP and Orissa had also had the dubious distinction of being crowned the worst States, in some aspects marginally better and in other respects marginally worse than Bihar.

Mr. Ahluwalia had an interesting thesis. He debated whether the States on the fast track should be allowed to gallop while Bihar lags behind dragging its feet, or Herculean efforts had to be made to push the State forward even at the risk of slowing down the speed of other fast moving States. The conclusion was that, in the overall national interest, the Centre had to provide all the help necessary to push Bihar forward to ensure the already yawning gap between rich and poor States did not widen further. In the final analysis, this approach would be more beneficial than allowing the rich States to become richer and the poor ones to become poorer.

So, which strategy is the NDA-ruled Central Government following? What special efforts have been made to bring Bihar out of the BIMARU-fold? All right, Mr. Laloo Yadav wants to rule the State till kingdom comes. If he is not in the saddle, then his wife will be. But is that a credo unknown to the Indian people? Is it the case of the BJP-led NDA that official Government-led efforts for Bihar’s development will be made only when BJP or Samata Party leaders replace the Laloo-Rabri duo?

Well, that is a sound political strategy. But let it be made clear that it is not a strategy for development. It may rile them to hear this, but the fact remains that neither the BJP nor the Samata has any sound policy or planning for the development of the wretched in Bihar.

How can they have a different economic plan or strategy for development if they don’t have an alternative political strategy? Ask any of Bihar leading lights in the Government in New Delhi to map or spell out an alternative development strategy. You will come to a naught. Forget strategy or a roadmap. How often do you hear Bihar’s leading lights in New Delhi even talk about the State’s plight and pleading its case with the Prime Minister or in Parliament? You can hear them talking only at times they have to rile the State Government or Rabri Devi-Laloo combine.

Do you know, for instance, that Bihar has more Ministers in the Union Cabinet than any other state? Do you know that these Ministers are holding senior and important portfolios? At no time in history has Bihar had as many and as crucial Ministries as it does today.

If one includes Foreign Minister Yashwant Sinha – unfair though it may be since he now represents Jharkhand – the Ministries of Defence, Railways, Civil Aviation, Food, Information & Broadcasting, Shipping and North-East Affairs are held by Ministers from Bihar at the Cabinet level or with independent charge. The list reads like the who’s who of the Atal Behari Vajpayee Cabinet. The list of Ministers has high voltage power. Let me reel out the names: Messrs George Fernandes, Nitish Kumar, Sharad Yadav, Shatrughan Sinha, CP Thakur, Shahnwaz Hussain and Ravi Shankar Prasad.

Then you have others media-savvy people at the Ministers of State level: Messrs Digvijay Singh, Rajiv Pratap Rudy and Sanjay Paswan. Don’t be surprised if a couple of names have been omitted. It’s not possible to remember all since there are so many.

Let us be fair to these Ministers. They are all prominent and senior leaders who have reached where they have because they deserve it. They are all extremely competent and efficient. Most of them are leaders in their own right and can hold their own. Again, Bihar has never done better. Such massing of talent from the State at the Centre may be a record in itself.

Not in the days of Jawaharlal Nehru, not during Indira Gandhi’s time, not even in the Janata days when Bihar returned 54 out of 54 members to Parliament, has the State had a bigger representation at the national level than today. And let us remember it is a quality representation. The only time, perhaps, Bihar had quality representation at the ministerial level close to what the Vajpayee Government has now was when giants like Babu Jagjivan Ram, Dr. Ram Subhag Singh, Satya Narayan Sinha and Tarkeshwari Sinha represented Bihar in New Delhi.

There is another facet of the present distinguished lot of Ministers. They are well educated, suave, sophisticated and savvy. Some of them are convent-educated. They speak good English. It’s a trait one does not normally associate with politicians from Bihar. They go to Parliament and the press well prepared save perhaps Mr. Shatrughan Sinha or Bihari Babu as he is fondly called in Bollywood. But the question remains. How much do they contribute, collectively or individually, to lift Bihar out of the present morass?

It would not be out of place to quote Foreign Minister Yashwant Sinha here. He likes to emphasise how, as Leader of the Opposition in the Bihar Assembly, he followed a strategy that saved him from falling in the then Chief Minister Laloo Yadav’s trap. Mr. Sinha decided against meeting Mr. Yadav on the turf chosen by him in the Assembly.

Instead of matching lung power with lung power, instead of taking recourse to political gimmickry and cheap demagogy to counter Mr. Yadav, he decided to do quality home work on legislative business. He marshalled facts and figures from official records – for which there was little respect in the House – to put the Government on the mat. To his surprise, the Assembly listened to him when he spoke from prepared notes. After some time, even the Chief Minister got used to listening to the Leader of Opposition.

The distinguished members of the Union Cabinet who hail from Bihar should not follow in Mr. Laloo Yadav’s footsteps. They should evolve and dictate their terms and let Mr. Yadav follow them. They can perhaps contribute to pulling out Bihar from the abyss and put it among the country’s best-run and most developed States. INAV

ISI recruiting Nepal youth to spy on India

By P N Khera

Pakistan army’s Inter-Services Intelligence has forged a nexus with Maoist cadres in Nepal to recruit youth to spy in India.

The arrest of a Nepalese young man in Gujarat recently shows that the modus operandi is to invite them to join educational institutions in Pakistan and during the course of their studies they are encouraged to return home, enter India through the open border between the two countries and seek out specific defence related information.

Harinarain Shah, 26, son of Brij Shah resident of Mohammadpur Ward IV, village Rauthal, Nepal, who is a IIIrd year MBBS student in a Karachi medical college revealed during interrogation in Gujarat that there are many other young men whose families have Maoist sympathies who are joining the ISI network.

Harinarain Shah’s father-in-law is a Maoist activist.

He told Indian security forces that the ISI had asked him to travel to Gujarat to seek out specific information about existing defence establishments, deployment of troops and plans for new strategic assets in the Indian State which shares a border with Pakistan.

Taking advantage of the fact that a Nepalese would hardly arouse curiosity anywhere in India, the ISI is utilizing both the easy access provided by the open border between the two countries as well as the close fraternal relations between India and Nepal to sow seeds of discord.

The Nepalese polity too is being subverted by the ISI connection. Maoists are using ISI networks and facilities to lay out their own web in the same manner in which the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam has done with ISI help.

Against India, the ISI has set in place a network of agents in Nepal and Bangladesh to disperse counterfeit currency and distribute the RDX explosive by moving it through individual couriers in small packets, the size of which grows till it reaches several kilogrammes at the point at which it is to be utilized either for suicide bombings or making improvised explosive devices and landmines.

Against Nepal the same tactic is being applied by the Maoist cadres to attack the Royal Nepal Army and the police posts.

The Government of Nepal became aware of the ISI activities on its soil when it caught an ISI officer attached to the Pakistan Embassy in Kathmandu with a large stock of RDX. More recently, another employee in the embassy was taken into custody with several thousand rupees in Rs 500 denomination currency while trying to smuggle it into India. The hijacking of the Indian Airlines flight IC-814 from Kathmandu to Kandahar was the first major signal of the existence of a terrorist network of which the ISI is the lychpin. At the same time the exponential growth of madrassas on both sides of the Indo-Nepal border is causing concern to both countries.

The ISI has been assiduously encouraging Pakistani youngmen to marry Nepalese girls and settle down close to the border so that, over time, a pro-Pak population will be the dominant factor in the region.

This has serious implications for the unity and integrity of Nepal as well. Political developments apart, Nepalese society is heterogenous and tolerant but ethnic and communal divisions are being stoked by the ISI.

In this it has not hesitated to utilize the criminal network of such Indian gangsters as Dawood Ibrahim who owns diverse business establishments ranging from casinos to private airlines in Nepal.

Particularly ominous is the ISI attempt to penetrate the recruitment base of Gorkha soldiers for the Indian Army. India has for decades been selecting Gorkha youth for its own Gorkha Brigade which has been deployed against Pakistan in all the wars since blunt Pakistan’s aggression on every occasion.

The Royal Nepal Government has been at pains to cooperate with India to undercut Pakistan’s nefarious designs, more particularly since the hijacking but the ISI has been developing new networks utilizing the state of unrest within Nepal to create human intelligence networks that have linkages that go deep into Bangladesh as well where the political proclivities of the present of Islamist fundamentalism and it gives sanctuary and assistance to separatist and terrorist organizations with roots in India’s north-eastern States.

In fact, pre-1971 and the liberation of the former East Pakistan by the Mukti Bahini and the Indian Army and the creation of Bangladesh, the Inter-Services Intelligence was using the Chittagong Hill Tracks in the east wing to subvert north-east India by encouraging the Naga, Mizo and Tripura rebels with arms, military training and sanctuaries in its territories and onward passage to China which too was deeply involved in encouraging terrorism in India at the time.

It is no surprise that the current government in Banglaesh has resumed a policy of encouragement of insurgency against India from its soil. The description of Assamese terrorists hiding in its urban areas as "freedom fighters" is an indication of the mindset of the regime led by Begum Khalida Zia, widow of one of the military generals involved in the bloody coup in which Bangabandu Sheikh Mujibur Rehman was assassinated.

The ISI has promoted pan-Islamism with a deeply fundamentalist orientation not just in India but in other parts of the world and its role as the provider of sanctuary, training, finance and networking facilities to the terrorists who struck the World Trade Towers in New York and the Pentagon in Washington D.C. is being revealed in onion-peal layers by US intelligence agencies almost every week.

It used the demolition of the Babri Masjid to supply RDX to the Mumbai underworld for the series of bomb blast in the mid-nineties and now the arrest of the Nepalese national in Gujarat is an indicator that it is trying to manipulate the fragile communal situation there to stoke violence and undermine India’s territorial integrity. (ADNI)