Daily Excelsior... Editorial

EDITORIAL

Growing India-Russia strategic partnership

By V Mohan Narayan

India's multifaceted and timetested relations with Russia have traditionally been based on continuity, trust and mutual understanding. The importance attached to them cuts across party lines and has not been subject to........more

Bright future for bioinformatics

By Amit Vermani

Sectarian terrorism is inherent in Pak society

By Samuel Baid

EDITORIAL

Sharp U-turn

Less than a week ago Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had
reiterated the country’s unfinished agenda of 1947 at an election
meeting in Panipat in Haryana. He had said that the task before the country was to get liberated the part of Jammu and Kashmir under the illegal occupation of Pakistan. Lest he himself and the people at large should forget he had made an extra effort to recall that one-third of J&K’s territory had been captured by Pakistan. His pronouncements were perfectly in tune with a unanimous resolution passed by Parliament when his party was in the opposition that the only objective before the country was to take back its territory occupied by Pakistan. Mr Vajpayee’s latest assertions would have led anyone to believe that he himself and his Bharatiya Janata Party were back in their original pugnacious form. Seen in this immediate context, one would be astonished by his Government’s sharp U-turn on Wednesday. About a dozen steps were announced by the Central Government on this day to normalise relations with Pakistan. Foreign Minister Yashwant Sinha, who was fielded for the purpose, declared that train and aviation links with the neighbouring country would be restored almost simultaneously. Two more routes would be opened with the neighbouring country — one, the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad (capital of the occupied territory) road link and the other, a road or rail link between Rajasthan and the Sindh province in Pakistan. This would be apart from, among other things, the resumption of sport ties. However, the most significant announcement in the context of J&K was that Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani had been deputed to talk to the Hurriyat Conference. Since no inconvenient questions were asked both the Foreign Minister and Union Home Secretary N. Gopalaswamy, who recalled the Hurriyat Conference’s offer two months ago that it was willing to talk to the Prime Minister or his Deputy, had got away rather easily. It is intriguing that Mr Advani should have been asked to take up this job while all along the Prime Minister’s office itself had been handling J&K affairs. One has just to recall the unilateral cease-fire by the security forces during the holy month of Ramzan three years ago and its repeated extensions. All this was handled by the Prime Minister personally. One significant development with which the Union Home Ministry, headed by Mr Advani, was involved was Central Government-Hizbul Mujahideen talks which were botched completely with nobody exactly knowing why such a bold initiative had been nipped in the bud. Hizbul commander Majid Dar who had triggered the path-breaking development was subsequently shot dead at his residence.

From all available indications, the Deputy Prime Minister would be talking to the Moulvi Abbas Ansari faction of the Hurriyat Conference. It is both strange and ironical. No Government at the Centre had in the past felt the need to talk to the Hurriyat Conference which was, indeed, a formidable force as long as it was a cohesive organisation although of different ideological groups. Hurriyat’s mulish insistence that Pakistan should be involved in the process meaning thereby that the talks should be tripartite had proved a major hindrance in paving the way for a dialogue. The Central Government, irrespective of party in power, has been rightly opposed to any such suggestion. Of late, the Hurriyat Conference has been considerably weakened because of undergoing multiple splits down the line. Apart from its two main factions, one headed by Moulvi Abbas Ansari and the other by Syed Ali Shah Geelani, two of its important erstwhile constituents, the Jamaat-e-Islami (J&K) and the Jammu-Kashmir Liberation Front, have been adopting neutral stances ever since the split in their umbrella organisation. The presence of both of them, holding diametrically opposite ideological convictions, in the Hurriyat Conference had lent credibility to the secessionist conglomeration which is seriously dented at this juncture. It is not clear why both JKLF Chief Yasin Malik and Mr Geelani were arrested hours before the Central Government had gone ahead with its announcements. Mr Geelani and the Jamaat leadership have not severed their relations despite some initial difference in their views about splitting the Hurriyat Conference. With this background in view, one does not see any gains in sight by involving Mr Advani in talks with just one faction of the Hurriyat Conference. Some one has really grossly misread the present scenario. It is to be noted that one important constituent of the Abbas Ansari faction, namely the People’s Conference, was a participant in the last year’s Assembly elections, albeit by proxy, while the other significant partner, Awami Action Committee of Mirwaiz Moulvi Umar Farooq, is always inclined to talk to the ‘topmost leadership’. Moulvi Abbas Ansari himself and Prof Abdul Gani Bhat, leaders of the remaining two constituents of the former’s faction, are not exactly mass-based leaders. It may interest many to know that while the Moulvi belongs to the Shia sect, the majority of which does not share the views of any faction of the Hurriyat on the issue of J&K, Prof Bhat has the late Mohammad Ali Jinnah as his ideal and is fond of saying as Jinnah had never gone to jail, he would also not go behind the bars.

Whatever that may be, it is incomprehensible that the Central Government should have left its own interlocutor on J&K, Mr N.N. Vohra, one of the country’s ablest bureaucrats, virtually high and dry. It has been said that there is no change in Mr Vohra’s role. Any such statement would not carry conviction considering that once the Deputy Prime Minister is asked to flex his muscles in the ring, few would take notice of anybody else. At best, Mr Vohra may assist the Deputy Prime Minister. One can, however, only sympathise with those who think that Mr Vohra would be called upon to deal with the complexities of the issues involved while Hurriyat leaders should be content with a formal photo opportunity with Mr Advani. Only two leaders have gained in the entire process. One is Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed. He had of late stepped up his demand for the appointment of a special emissary by the Prime Minister to talk to the Kashmiri leaders who were willing to enter into a dialogue only with the topmost political functionary in the country. In any case, it was his commitment also that he would facilitate a dialogue at the highest level. The other leader to benefit is Moulvi Abbas Ansari who must congratulate himself for being back in the reckoning. He had been virtually marginalised to a considerable extent following the recent convulsions in his organisation. All of a sudden he finds himself enjoying his finest political moment irrespective of how long it lasts. It is for the first time that the country’s Deputy Prime Minister would be directly exposed to the factional politics in the secessionist camp in the State. While dealing with each other in 1974 Indira Gandhi and Sheikh Abdullah, the tallest of the Kashmiri leaders, had taken care not to directly enter into the picture. They had stayed firmly beyond the scene even as their historic accord was formulated and finally signed by their top lieutenants. In such a situation, one only sincerely hopes that the Deputy Prime Minister’s presence on the scene would lead to the emergence of a silver lining in the dark clouds hovering over the State. If, at the same time, there are smoother links between India and Pakistan this should augur well for peace in the sub-continent.

Growing India-Russia strategic partnership

By V Mohan Narayan

Building on a special bond of friendship, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Russian President Vladimir Putin have shared views on a number of important international issues, resulting in the growing strategic partnership between India and Russia.

Carrying forward their decision to hold annual Summits, Vajpayee will travel to Russia in November. Significantly, this will be the third meeting with President Putin in four months. The two leaders had met in May when Vajpayee visited the Russian city of St. Petersburg and again in New York in September on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session.

Defence cooperation between two countries is expected to come under special focus during the visit. Both sides have indicated that negotiations for the acquisition by India or Russian aircraft carrier 'Admiral Gorshkov' may be completed and requisite documents readied for signing during Vajpayee's visit.

The acquisition of the aircraft carrier has been delayed for quite sometime following differences on price as well as various other aspects of the multi-crore Rupee deal. Russian diplomats here acknowledge that is a complex deal.

Adding a new dimension to their defence ties, India signed a one billion dollar deal with Israel and Russia for acquiring Phalcon airborne early-warning and control system (AWACS). The trilateral agreement is aimed at giving a major boost to efforts to build an effective surveillance system to detect aerial threats, including missiles. Under this, Israeli radars would be mounted on converted high-powered Russian IL-76 transport aircraft.

A slew of documents are being worked out by the two sides as Moscow gets ready to unroll the red carpet for the Indian leader who is held in high esteem by the Russian leadership.

Moscow, which is attaching great importance to the Prime Minister's visit, views India as an influential and reliable ally in approaching global challenges. In the run-up to the Prime Ministerial visit, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Trubnikov travelled to New Delhi for talks with Foreign Secretary Kanwal Sibal and to attend the first meeting of the India-Russia Joint Working Group on Global Challenges.

The two sides have held intensive consultations for strengthening bilateral and multilateral cooperation to tackle new challenges and setting up of an effective mechanism to counter the threat of terrorism.

On its part, Russia continues to highly value India's commitment to the principles of non-alignment, collective security and pluralistic multipolar world order. The two countries jointly champion mulilateralism in resolving international problems through diplomatic means with the participation of the United Nations.

Threats posed by terrorism and the need for collective action of the international community by setting up effective mechanisms to combat the scourage have been constantly highlighted by the two countries individually and jointly.

In the interest of furthering the international legal base of the campaign against terrorism, the two countries have jointly prompted at the UN the draft Comprehensive Convention Against International Terrorism mooted by India and Russia's draft Convention for the Suppression of the Acts of Nuclear Terrorism.

India is appreciative of Russia unequivocally and strongly condemning all acts of cross-border terrorism against it. Russia was among the first countries to deplore the Kaluchak attack in May last year, describing it as another arrogant act of provocation on the part of the extremist forces with the aim of destabilising the situation in the region.

The terror attack on Moscow theatre in October last year evoked condemnation by Vajpayee who wrote to President Putin expressing full solidarity of the Indian Government and people in fighting the menace.

Vajpayee's peace initiative with Pakistan has been positively assessed by Moscow which has welcomed the steps taken by the Indian Government to gradually normalise relations with Islamabad. In unambiguous terms, Russia has stated that it recognised the legitimacy of India demanding that Pakistan put an end to cross-border terrorism and dismantle terrorist training camps from its territory.

Developments in Iraq are expected to figure prominently during the talks Vajpayee will have with Putin. Both sides support an integral and substantive role of the UN in economic and civic reconstruction of Iraq. They favour a concrete action plan to handover power and sovereignty in that country to the internationally-recognised government consistent with the interests of the Iraqi people.

With two informal meetings having taken place between the foreign ministers of India, Russia and China, the Vajpayee visit may in all likelihood see the two sides working in the direction of solidifying teh multi-dimensional trilateral dialogue.

Moscow believes that the successful two rounds in New York on the margins of the UN General Aseembly sessions within a year demonstrated that compatibility of the strategic priorities of the three countries provided a sound basis for their effective diversified partnership on a wide range of issues.

Of special interest has been an agreement on International North-South Corridor between India, Iran and Russia which was inked in September 2000.

It facilitates easier movement of goods along the corridor connecting India through the sea route to Iran and then via the Caspian Sea to the Russian Federation and beyond. This initiative reduces transit time and cost of transportation of goods to the Russian Federation and European countries.

Russia has also been supportive of India's candidature for permanent membership of the UN Security Council in case of any expansion.

With the leadership in both countries charting out a new momentum in bilateral ties, the Indo-Russian strategic alliance is all set to break fresh grounds in mutually beneficial cooperation and also leave its imprint on the international arena in a big way.

PTI Feature

Bright future for bioinformatics

By Amit Vermani

With records of grouping of biological entities mainly plants and animals (according to their uses) available for 2nd and 3rd century BC; the science of biology is not a new one. It progressed with the progress of mankind. As more and more data accumulated, it has to be branched and systematised. Last century, however, witnessed a tremendous development in this field especially for the minor details of life clubbed under the head 'Molecular Biology'. The successful completion of the Human Genome Project with the building up of a draft of 3.2 billion base pairs is a landmark and has been rightly regarded as the greatest achievement of the century, although it is just the title of a book which still awaits writing. Human Genome Project is a simple example of the present day's advancement and to depict how the use of fast and sophisticated laboratories has rendered a immense pace to the generation of the data. It has now become impossible for the scientists to handle it. For tapping such a bulky data for the purpose for which it has been generated i.e, welfare of the human beings, computers have come to the rescue of the scientists and a new field has been given birth to which has been christined as 'Bioinformatics'.

Bioinformatics as the word indicates is made up of two words i.e. Bio and Informatics. It combines the science of biology with that of computes and simply aims at solving the problems and difficulties arising out of the acquisition, processing , storage, distribution, analysis and interpretation of the vast data related to life. It is the science of developing databases and algorithms to facilitate and expedite biological research. According to National Institute of Health Biomedical Information Science and Technology Initiative Consortium (NIH-BISTIC), the scientific definition of the term is ''The research, development or application of the computational tools and approaches for expanding the use of biological, medical, behavioural or health data, including those to acquire, store, organise, achieve, analyse or visualise such data''.

Although this field has emerged only recently, it has found wide application and is turning out to be indispensable for the biologists. Though the first algorithm and its computer application became available only in 1970's, the initial packages like PC/GENE, STADEN, PROPHET etc. revolutionised the world of biology. Taxonomy, as the first challenge faced by Bioinformatics, was provided with simple solutions. University of Arizona's ''Tree of Life'' and National Center for Biotechnology Information's (NCBI) ''Taxonomy Databse'' are two examples of online taxonomy projects.

The field which has been benefitted the most from bioinformatics is the molecular biology. DNA sequencing, translating the gene sequence into the protein, determining the secondary structures of proteins data management etc are some of the areas of molecular biology which bioinformatics have helped the most. Databases like Prosite and Seqanleree provide protein sequences and their analysis. Programs like Fasta, Blast etc enable a biotechnologist to find numerous sequences matches in seconds. Others like GeneBank, Nucleic Acid Database, Protein Data Bank, SCOP (Structural Classification of Proteins), Genome Database Resource etc are doing wonders and facilitating the biotechnology research.

The provision of internet has further increased the arena of bioinformatics. The speed with which information can travel from one part of the globe to another is amazing. Anybody anywhere in the world can have information regarding anything provided he has a computer that can go on line. Thus internet has helped in spreading and dispersing the information to the place where it is required. Researchers can use it in easy way and utilise it for further studies. Several laboratories whether private or public are interconnected to share the data. It is estimated that 8.2 million sequences of raw DNA, 300,000 protein sequences, 40 complete genomes, 11 million citations of literature are available. Systems like 'Entrez' provide access to biomedical literature (PubMed), nucleotide sequence database, genome assemblies, online books, gene expression, microarray datasets etc and thus links all these into one for the convenience of the researchers.

Bioinformatics holds a highly promising future. One can easily imagine the fields in which it can serve the humanity. The day is not too far when it will help in delimiting the genes for various disease like cancer, Schizophrenia, Parkinson's disease etc building up of transgenics, determining the three dimensional structures of proteins, and working out the pathways of various metabolic reactions taking place in the organisms, sorting out the evolutionary pathway life followed.

Field of Bioinformatics is in great demand today and it is here not to fade away but to stay on and prosper.

Sectarian terrorism is inherent in Pak society

By Samuel Baid

The assassination of anti Shia Sunni leader Maulana Azam Tariq in Islamabad last week is the latest example of how irretrievably sectarian intolerance is woven in Pakistan's social system. The Government seems to treat an act of sectarian terrorism as a minor road accident. Such incidents keep on happening and the culprits are rarely traced and punished because the Government does not want to earn the wrath of powerful Islamic groups under whose orders sectarian killings are carried out.

There is no other Muslim country where the society is so badly riven by sectarian differences, as is the case in Pakistan. Many experts opine that the creation of this country in the name of religion is mainly responsible for this malaise. But this opinion does not hold much water when we look at Israel, which, too, was created in the name of religion. Pakistan has its Muslim sects whereas Jews have their dozen tribes. But see the difference between the two.

The reason for this difference is that unlike Jews, Pakistanis have not been able to forge themselves into one nation - although Pakistan was created in the name of the two nation theory. Pakistan's nation-building problem started from day one when Muslim parties, which fought for India's freedom and one Indian nationalism, migrated to Pakistan. In India, they fought against the British rule and shared the Indian National Congress Party's platform to express their nationalist sentiments. Deobandis, Ahrar and Brelvis all stood for Indian nationalism. The Jamaat-e-Islami was established in 1941 by Maulana Madoodi to oppose the Pakistan movement. But in Pakistan they found themselves in a vacuum They therefore decided to become champions of Pakistan's Islamic ideology and acquire a dominating role for themselves in this country. They first tested their strength by targeting the Ahmediyya sect. This sect was started by Mirza Ghulam Ahmed in Ludhiana. Its headquarters later shifted to Qadian in Gurdaspur. Muslims believe that Mohammad Sahib was the last prophet of Allah. But Mirza Ghulam Ahmed claimed to be the promised Messiah and said the doors of revelation did not close after Prophet Mohammad. Millions of Muslims have accepted this teaching all over the world. In Pakistan, because of higher rate of literacy among them, they occupied high positions in civil and armed services. As such, they were an obstruction in the ambitions of fundamentalist parties especially the Jamaat-e-Islami. Anti-Ahmediyya riots were started in Punjab in 1953 and a frenzied demand was made for their ouster from Islam. It was clear, once out of Islam they would be automatically divested of their positions in armed forces and bureaucracy and that happened in 1974 when fundamentalist parties forced then Prime Minister Z.A. Bhutto to amend the constitution to declare them as a non-Muslim minority in Pakistan. Justice Mohammad Munir's report on the 1953 anti-Ahmediyya riots gives a very clear picture of sectarian intolerance that had already set in six-year old Pakistan. Madrassas run by different sects taught their pupils hatred for other sects. For example, the Brelvi Madrassa taught that Deobandis deserved to be killed and vice-versa.

Beginning late 1970s, some internal and external happenings were turning sectarian terrorism into a profitable industry. The very first happening was Gen. Zia-ul-Haq's coup in July 1977. As a strategy to keep himself in ill-gotten power he exploited people's religious sentiments. He tried to woo the Sunni majority by showing his dislike for Shias and contempt for Ahmediyyas. Less than two years later came what the Shias called Islamic revolution in Iran. That emboldened Pakistani Shias to reject Zia's Islamisation programme. Shias's Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Fiqah Jaferia was formed about this time to protect their personal law against Zia's Islamisation. While this conflict was building up, the war between Iraq and Iran started in September 1980. Pakistani Shia young men, who participated in this war on behalf of Iran, organised them when they returned to Pakistan. On the other hand, Sunni countries including Saudi Arabia, who were alarmed by Ayatullah Khomeini's reported declaration that he would export his Islamic revolution, were already sending funds and literature to Sunni fanatics in Pakistan to fight Shias.

During the 1980 when the United States and European countries encouraged and exploited religious obscurantism in Pakistan to fight the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan, terrorism including sectarian terrorism began ascending to its peak.

Terrorists were treated like Islamic heroes. They were loaded with money, weapons and officials and foreign patronage. Zia took advantage of this situation to settle scores with Shias the rabidly anti-Shias body called Anjuman-e-Sipah-e-Sahaba (the organization of warriors of the Prophet's companions) was known to have been launched with his blessings in 1985. The organisation demands Shias be made a non-Muslim minority and removed from key positions in the Army and civil services. This organization has been responsible for the target killings of hundreds of Shias since 1985. Zia also connived at the massacre of hundreds of Shias in Northern Areas of occupied Kashmir, the year he died in a plane crash in 1988.

The Sipah-e-Sahaba movement had its origin in a small agricultural town of Jhang in South-West Punjab in Pakistan. It is notable that very large Muslim refugees from East Punjab (in India) settled down here. It is usually said that Muslims from East Punjab easily got themselves assimilated with the local Punjabi population unlike refugees who settled down in urban areas of Sindh. They are still called Muhajirs (refugees).

But Punjabi Muslims from East Punjab did not really fully assimilate in Southern Punjab. For example here the ethnic population, which calls itself Seraiki, keep some distance from them. These migrants therefore sought a fundamentalist identity. They have a major contribution to Islamic militancy and sectarian conflicts. Jhang has a very large population of settlers from East Punjab. This is the town where Spah-e-Sahaba was started by Maulana Haq Nawaz Jhangvi, who was earlier carrying on a bloody campaign against Brelvis. His organization and Shias' TNFJ turned Jhang into a hell. But Shias being less in number suffered more. Politically, too, Shias suffered in Jhang. After Zia died, Sipah-e-Sahaba supported Ms Benazir's Government in Punjab. In 1994, Shais formed Sipah-e-Mohammad to counter Sunni's attack. That led to killing of Shias and Sunnis in target shooting all over Pakistan. Maulana Jhangvi was killed. And so was his successor Maulana Ziaur Rehman Farooqi in 1997. Maulana Azam Tariq who succeeded him was killed in October 6 this year.

Strangely, Sipah-e-Sahaba had been banned by Gen. Musharraf in August 2000 but its leader Azam Tariq was allowed to take part in October 10, 2000 elections from jail. He won and his party supported pro-Musharraf Government of Zafarullah Jamali. For hoodwinking the law, he named Sipah-e-Sahaba as Millat-e-Islamia.