Daily Excelsior... Editorial

EDITORIAL

Police radio-telephony system faces threat

By B L Kak

Delhi's power corridors have acknowledged that jamming and interception of police radio-telephony communications has become a serious problem throughout the country, especially Jammu and Kashmir. This makes it possible to know what the police and security forces plan to do.......more

New dimension to
Indo-UK ties

By Subhashis Mittra

Giving a new dimension to the growing relations between India and the
United Kingdom, four British Ministers were in New Delhi during
early this month to fine tune various areas of cooperation, including development issues mainly aimed at the uplift of the poor through the British Department for International Development (DFID)........more

Uniform roughens up Pakistan, again!

By Dr R L Bhat

EDITORIAL

Power duel

In the seventies when a defeated political party accused its ruling counterpart of using an invisible ink during polling a cartoonist drew a caricature showing a fluid flowing from the election symbol of the loser. Below that he just wrote: ‘tears not ink’. One has little choice but to gracefully accept the verdict of the people in a democracy. Of course, those were the days when the Election Commission would not show its teeth and the parties in power at the Centre and in states could fiddle with the system by way of appointing pliable officials on sensitive duties and allowing money bags and muscle power to play havoc. In our State there was another feature as well: those challenging the foisted regime in the Valley in particular were accused of having a bias towards Pakistan in the sixties! Since then the scenario has appreciably changed all over. The poll machinery has been tightened and in the post-1990 circumstances even in this cursed State it seems virtually impossible for anyone to manipulate the polling or coerce the people into voting for him or her. Therefore, one will not be able to really appreciate the continuing verbal duel between the vanquished National Conference and the triumphant People’s Democratic Party over the manner in which the recent four Assembly by-elections have been conducted. Admittedly, the NC is badly hurt at this juncture: following the poll reverses it has suffered the loss of yet another senior leader at the hands of the militants. The State’s premier political outfit deserves genuine sympathy and admiration for its courage and capacity to have stood up in the face of the wicked targetted attack of the militants and their wire-pullers. Having noted that one will not, however, find oneself in agreement with its demand for judicial inquiry into the alleged malpractices of the PDP-led government in the by-polls. It is extremely sad that it has threatened to boycott all elections in future in case a retired judge of the Supreme Court is not deputed to look into its charges that mainly concern the alleged abuse of official resources. On its part, the PDP has been quick to rebut the allegations: it has asserted that it is ‘open to’ any probe.

Our contention is that like all the elections since the nineties the latest round has too been exposed to the full media glare. There has been enhanced international interest as well during the last 15 years. If there is no or low turn-out in a few constituencies those just waiting for an opportunity to ridicule the democratic exercise have done so. Some commentators have completely ignored the threat of the gun lurking behind the ordinary citizens whereas some have not found it a compelling reason for poor participation which has been attributed to alienation. Of course, massive voter involvement in several constituencies has not gone unnoticed either. In brief, everything has been done in an open and transparent manner. An overwhelming majority of envoys and observers have witnessed and hailed the 2002 assembly polls. With this background in view the NC will not enhance its credibility if finds fault with extraneous reasons for its defeats. There is no convincing media report to suggest that there have been poll violations in Batmaloo the loss of which must have shocked the NC more than even the victory of Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed in Pahalgam. Who can compel the politically highly-conscious electorate of Batmaloo to take a stance against his or her wishes?

The NC, however, has a powerful argument when it seeks a proper threat appraisal of its cadre and leaders. In or out of power it remains the prime object of the militants’ hatred. The PDP as the leader of the ruling dispensation can’t disown its responsibility of ensuring the safety and security of mainstream politicians of all hues. Merely dishing out statistics about the deployment of police persons as it has done in a rejoinder to the NC will not serve any helpful purpose. These actions are to be determined in terms of their actual success on the ground. On this count the Government has to get its act together. The latest attack on Mr Omar Abdullah further underlines this necessity. In view of the fact that a large number of PDP workers have also been the victims of the terror one will not agree that the Government is being deliberately unmindful of the danger to the politicians. What it needs to do is to conclusively demolish the impression that not enough is being done in this behalf.

More the merrier

A report in this newspaper that a new campus each of Jammu and Kashmir universities and 14 new colleges will be opened in the State should bring cheer to everybody. This should virtually take higher education to the doorstep of the ordinary people. There was a time when the students would come all the way from Leh and Kargil to study in this city or Srinagar because they had no college in their respective districts. Presently also many of them in all regions have to travel long distances. Hostel accommodation being inadequate many of them settle for rented houses must to the anxiety of their parents about their safety and well-being because of the overall somewhat uncomfortable security environment. A neighbourhood college should take care of these worries. As it is the modern educationists firmly believe that the students should not be wasting too much time on travel. That is why in advanced cities the limits of territory a school should take care in the matter of admissions are well defined. There is another reason as well that we need more institutions of high learning. We need to give a fillip to women’s education. In our case the female literacy rate that is measured by the yardstick of just elementary knowledge is less than 50 per cent — way behind the national average. If they have the colleges nearby their families may be encouraged to shed their present inhibition and send them for higher studies instead of pulling them out of schools after a few classes. For the same reason the opening of new campuses of two universities should augur well in the long run. Besides supplementing the efforts of their own establishments they should stand two other universities — Mata Vaishno Devi which has already started functioning and Shahdara Sharief that has found a competent and responsive Vice-Chancellor — in a good stead. When all of them are complete and in full swing one can only envisage how impressive the State’s education scenario will be.

The Government and the educationists should be wary of their next steps. There is a need to alter the thrust of present education so that it responds to the challenges of unemployment and globalisation. It must be kept in mind while taking new initiatives. At the same time it has to be ensured that the colleges adhere to the highest professional standards and don’t become recruitment centres for favourites and the undeserving. One is constrained to say so because our State somehow does not have the reputation of cheering the right talent at the right time.

Police radio-telephony system faces threat

By B L Kak

It has been noticed, particularly in the restive State of Jammu and Kashmir, that certain instructions given to police Stations throughout radio-telephony communication had reached the groups against whom actions was sought to be taken. No wonder, this has made the entire exercise somewhat ineffective, if not futile.

It is in this context that experts have, once again, warned that law and order arrangements at critical times can be disrupted if a solution to the problem is not found. And this is what is worrying the police organisations the most. The Ministries of Home Affairs and Defence have acknowledged the fact that jamming is done by "undesirable persons". Again, insurgents as well as naxalities are said to be mainly responsible for it.

It is essential to improve the telecom network considerably, particularly in States which have their border with Pakistan and which are suffering from the terrorist activities. Another important problem, which has engaged the attention of the authorities as well as the political class, relates to the existence of the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885. Will it be amended to suit the requirements of the people in general and politicians like former Defence Minister, George Fernandes, in particular across the country?

Since the Act provides enormous powers to men in authority to take possession of licensed telegraphs and to order interception of messages, major changes may not be allowed in it, particularly in Section 5 (2) of the Act. Whenever there were allegations about tapping telephones, particularly of various political leaders, the powers-that-be sought to get rid of them by referring to the relevant Section 5(2) of the Act. Ironically, few attempted to take the authorities to task for having permitted the misuse of the Act more often than not.

They may not claim to have made remarkable advance in the technology, which could afford them the use of such devices as satellite - borne cameras and electronic impulse sensors or infra-red receivers. But the fact that the Government's two spy arms, Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) and Intelligence Bureau (IB), have already gained much experience in the field of human intelligence gathering cannot be refuted.

In fact, while technical expertise is relied upon for a variety of lesser collection programmes geared normally to operations, the technical services wings of RAW and IB have an unusual collection of men skilled in lie-detector, phone-tapping, bugging and an assortment of other trade-craft skills such as lockpicking, safe-cracking and what is known as 'flaps and seals' for men skilled in opening mail. The present system allows for the continued heavy use of the secrecy excuse.

This policy of secrecy for secrecy's sake, which has formulated at the instance of the late Prime Minister, Mrs Indira Gandhi, invites abuse and prevents the nation from knowing what kind of intelligence apparatus we have. Hence, all the more reason for some senior politicians to cry over tapping of their phones. The functions of the RAW and the IB are essentially executive in character and immune from deep probing by others.

As their factual record is shrouded in official secrecy, it will be difficult to ascertain names of those political leaders, who were spied upon in the past or are being watched by the technical services units of the two arms of the Government.

Section 5(2) of the Act says: "On the occurrence of any public emergency, or in the interests of the public safety, the Central Government or a State Government or any other officer specially authorised in this behalf by the Central Government or a State Government may, if satisfied that it is necessary or expedient so to do in the interests of the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security of the State, friendly relations with foreign states or public order or for preventing incitement to the commissions of an offence, for reasons to be recorded in writing, by order, direct that any message or class of messages to or from any person or class of persons, or relating to any particular subject, brought for transmission by or transmitted or received by any telegraph, shall not be transmitted, or shall be intercepted or detained, or shall be disclosed to the Government......?

It is not fully known whether the RAW and the IB — and for that matter the Military Intelligence (MI) as well — are capable of collecting infinite amounts of data. Their ability to process and manage the data with reasonable efficiency, however, is severely limited, obviously because of the impact of the bureaucratic thinking on the processing stage of intelligence. At the same time, they continue to be under orders to get all tidbits of intelligence to Delhi's power corridors in the shortest possible time so that the top level of Government can be aware of possible surprise developments and not get caught short in a fast-breaking situation. Not long ago, according to one estimate, nearly 15,000 "important persons" were listed for "technical watch". There is a separate list of persons under watch in Jammu and Kashmir. Delhi alone accounted for over 5,000. Why not? At any given times, at least 2,000 telephones can be topped by the "authorised men" in the Union Capital alone. The gadgets, used by them, are said to be so sophisticated that the victims are hardly aware that they are under surveillance.

Everyone in Delhi seems to be spying on everyone else. It would, of course, be a big news if the authorities were to make public the list of all those who are watched by others. The list also includes most of the foreign missions. At least, four foreign missions, based in Delhi, have reportedly enlisted some "charming" females in an apparent bid to facilitate their task of spying. Hence, all the more reason for fresh instructions from the Union Government urging intelligence agencies to be more watchful than before.

The efforts of the watchful sleuths would be a cyclic process involving four elements — collections, processing, reporting and control. Uncontradicted reports say that several persons and officials in "sensitive" Government departments have been placed under surveillance. All heads of departments have been instructed to ensure that they and their subordinate staff avoid establishing contact, overt or covert, with non-official agencies and individuals of doubtful character and integrity.

Deployment of Government sleuths has been reported from the Ministry of Defence (MoD), Finance Ministry's Economic Intelligence Bureau (EIB), Economic Affairs and Expenditure and Establishment division, in addition to the Enforcement Directorate, Central Statistics and Intelligence Directorate of Excise and Customs, Directorate of Central Excise (anti-evasion) and Planning Commission.

The Planning Commission is the repository of all project reports, including those on defence. Government's obvious purpose behind all this is to ensure that none in the 'sensitive' Ministries and departments leaked out any information to adversaries.

New dimension to Indo-UK ties

By Subhashis Mittra

The visits by Gareth Thomas, Minister for International Development, Margaret Beckett, Minister for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, and David Miliband, Minister for School Standards, besides, Geoffrey Hoon, Defence Minister, almost simultaneously, came close on the heels of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's parleys with his British counterpart Tony Blair at 10, Downing Street, during which the two sides exchanged views on wide ranging issues.

During Singh's recent visit to London, his British counterpart Tony Blair had strongly backed India's candidature for a permanent seat in an expanded Security Council of the United Nations. Noting that India was a country of 1.2 billion people, Blair said "India not to be represented on the Security Council is something that is not in tune with the modern times."

Condemning terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir, the two sides signed a Joint Declaration pledging to work together to ensure that the global norms against terrorism are upheld by all countries.

On the economic front, the two countries decided to set up a Ministerially -led Joint Economic and Trade Committee to further develop a strategic economic relationship and business-led vehicles to enhance bilateral trade and investment in specific sectors, including services and knowledge-based industries.

They also agreed to establish an Indo-British Economic and Financial Dialogue on bilateral and global issues, on financial systems, and to enhance economic and financial cooperation, besides having dialogue on international trade and investment matters.

Against this backdrop, the role of the United Kingdom's DFID assumes significance as the DFID India is responsible for the British Government's development co-operation programme with India. Its goal is to assist India to halve the proportion of people living in poverty by 2015. It works closely with the Union Government, State Governments, civil society, the private sector and other external assistance agencies to help India achieve its key development targets and its commitment to the Millennium Development Goals.

Thomas, on his second trip to India this year, reaffirmed the "substantial development partnership" that exists between the two countries, and to exchange views on how British might best support India to achieve its ambitious development targets in key areas, including education and health.

Besides announcing UK's support to the "Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan" (Universal Literacy Campaign), he formally launched the UK global strategy on HIV and AIDS.

Noting that India has the world's second highest number of HIV infections and accounts for 70 percent of the estimated infections in Asia, Thomas announced the UK Government's plans to step up its support for India's efforts in curtailing the spread of the disease.

The DFID had recently entered into an agreement with the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) for a commitment of 95 million pounds (Rs. 760 crore), including funding to UNAIDS, for the next two and a half years. DFID provides financial help through NACO for targetted interventions in some focus states and has plans to expand the programme elsewhere in the country.

During his stay in India, Tomas travelled to Madhya Pradesh, a DFID focus state, to reaffirm the UK development partnership with the State Government. DFID's spend was five million pounds in the State last year and it is set to increase significantly to boost activities in health, rural livelihood and power sectors.

Thomas, along with British High Commission country director Debe Menzes, met Chief Minister Babulal Gaur, who sought British assistance for strengthening several sectors, including power, education, AIDS control, justice and police administration.

Observing that climate change affects everyone, UK's Minister for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Margaret Beckett said that India and the UK can make a "real difference" to the world's environmental degradation. To carry forward the current level of cooperation between the two countries in this field, she met senior Indian leaders and attended seminars on renewable energy and climate change in New Delhi and Mumbai to tap into Indian expertise.

At the "UK-India Climate Change Business Seminar" in New Delhi, the two sides emphasised on the need to strive together to meet the daunting challenge posed by climatic change and broader issue of sustainable energy security, which were high on the international agenda.

India is a key country in the global effort to come to terms with the causes and effects of climate change because of its growing demand for energy and its increasingly important role as a major international power. The Initiative on Climate Change Impacts in India is a major research project to assess the impacts of climate change. The research programme includes knowledge sharing through technology transfer and capacity building.

Coinciding with their visit, British Minister for School Standards David Miliband was in India touring New Delhi, Hyderabad and Kolkata to compare the Indian education system with that in the UK and see how primary and secondary school's operate across India. "I am concerned that politicians of my generation need to understand how the world looks from the perspective of countries like India, "he remarked.

Miliband was all praise for the Andhra Pradesh Government for its mid-day meal scheme for students during his visit to a central kitchen on the outskirts of Hyderabad and favoured its replication across India.

"For a country like India, it is a special challenge to see how much programme can help in improving awareness about literacy. Nutrition is certainly an incentive to come to school," he said after tasting the food prepared at the kitchen at Uppal, which is believed to the biggest in the world.

Miliband said Britain has earmarked over 200 million Pound aid to India for implementation of the 'Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (Universal Literacy Campaign)' over a period of four years. "Our aim is to promote partnership between India and British schools for betterment of educational prospects," he said.

British Defence Minister Geoffrey Hoon's visit sought to focus on developing a "closer rapport" with India on defence cooperation and combating terrorism saying that the reinforcement of joint strategic partnership was in pursuit of a more peaceful and secure world.

Heading a high-level delegation, Hoon held wide-ranging discussions with his Indian counterpart Pranab Mukherjee on a range of bilateral, regional and international issues of mutual issues. He also wanted New Delhi to have its due place in the restructure United Nations.

The United Kingdom is India's second-largest trading partner after the United States. Trade in goods and services between the two countries registered an increase of 67 per cent since the Indo-British partnership was formed in 1993.

Taking into consideration this track record, experts feel that the India-UK bilateral trade target of ten billion pounds by 2007 is "attainable". The target has been set jointly by the Confederation of British Industry and the Confederation of Indian Industry.

The industry segments that would fuel the projected growth in Indo-British bilateral trade are information technology, telecommunications, healthcare, mining equipment, biotechnology, food processing, agri-business and leisure and tourism.

Britain accounted for five per cent of India's total foreign trade in goods in 2001-02. It has the third -largest share of 9.8 per cent of new investments approved since 1991 and the fourth-largest share of 5.2 per net of new investments implemented since 1991.

It is hoped that over the next few years, the share of the services sector would increase from its existing levels. The Indian Government's decision to purchase Hawk Advanced Jet Trainers (AJTs) from British Aerospace is described as a "turning point" in bilateal cooperation in the defence sector. PTI Feature

Uniform roughens up Pakistan, again!

By Dr R L Bhat

On Thursday the Pakistan National Assembly which pretends to be the parliament of that country rushed through a significant bill in all of five minutes. It began, according the report in the Dawn, "Only a few minutes after the president of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (PML), Choudhry Shujaat Hussain, had arrived in the house." It began even as the speaker had called "Mrs Tehmina Daultana of the Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz (PML-N) to speak on the bill in continuation of the general debate, or the first reading of the bill, that had begun on Wednesday." The PNA member, continues Dawn, had risen to speak on the bill when the Parliamentary Affairs Minister "asked the speaker to put the bill to vote as enough had already been said on it." The speaker complied and completed the exercise in five minutes. When the opposition raised a ruckus over the rushing of the bill, the speaker told them that they could 'speak to the minister'. And thus the Pak president gained constitutional authority to keep the COAS - uniform (to ensure that the president's mantle remains on his person!).

Of course, since the day the new Prime Minister took office, there had been enough indications that the Parliament would approve the retention of uniform upon the person of the Pak president beyond the December 31 deadline. When the bill came, it was more or less settled, whatever the jurists and legalists may say. One of them, who also happens to be a member of national assembly, stated after the passage of the bill that retaining the two posts would violate the constitution. It has been violating it for the last six years. And, shall continue to do so as long as the general can remain president there. That is a tailored democracy in action. And Pakistan needs a well tailored democracy as per the tinker, tailor and soldier that she has inherited. Significantly, the paper which reported the passage of the Bill did not comment on it in its three editorials on Friday, which were occupied with the all important issues of infant mortality and the Ramadan price rise. It is not clear whether the absence of the Prime Minister from the house at the time of passage of the bill was as significant, though the center stage being taken by the ruling PML-chief, and the stopgap Prime Minister, Choudhry Shujahat Hussein may not be without implication for the future Pak Prime-ministerships.

It is an interesting spectacle which must not escape the attention of the Pak watchers. The Choudhary called the opposition criticism to this sly operation 'antidemocratic and shameful'! He also warned them that it was 'such awful behavior' in Bangladesh that had blocked democracy in Bangladesh, as if Bangladesh were the role model for South Asia as well as its notice board to tell how the Parliamentary business was not to be conducted. Now that is how tailored democracies are asked to behave and conduct their business. The parliament is free to choose the way and means of its own degradation. The press is free to omit things it knows to be daunting in consequences. May be something later, when the fait accompli has become settled it would find time to editorialize the issue. That press, nowadays, is freely calling - castigating? - the ex-general-president 'a dictator'. It would someday be free to call its present president by the true name. Meanwhile, the freedom that has been given to it is to be used to draw the nation's attention to the very shameful state of children's health in the country, which being 'slightly better than that in Afghanistan' is not quite satisfactory!

So what does all that means to India? The Indian Prime Minister is satisfied over his chit-chat with this general - president and sure that he has hit off with the soldier-tailor. Does it carry any symbolism that the general's Prime Minister like that of Sonia's is an economist? That leaves space for political shots being called from elsewhere? For a working democracy like India it is a cause of concern that the prime-ministerial office is not quite the seat of power. For this Prime Minister, unlike a general's PM, is not a factotum of President, though in theory it would be difficult to tell it apart from the position Pak Prime Minister enjoys vis-a-vis his head. In the present Indian set up, it may not be entirely unthinkable to imagine passage of an important bill without the Prime Minister being in the house and at the head of treasury benches. Though Indian Parliament cannot think of Bills to permit uniformed general to play president it is the force of practice and traditions and not the bare legal lines that stem this delusion. They have to be safeguarded at all costs. Once they get eroded they are difficult to reinstate; once they get trundled they may not be restored. And, that would be the death of parliament none can countenance. That gives substance to the opposition worry that the office of the Prime Ministership is being undermined by extra-constitutional privileges.

It is notable that there is little public hue and cry in Pakistan over the latest extension to the army general to keep playing president. Acceptance of Musharraf as the lasting president of Pakistan is almost assured. It would be an interesting sidelight to compare and contrast it with the position of Hamid Karzai, after the results of the election that was concluded there last week are announced. The question, which would not be answered in that study, has remained unanswered all through last fifty years of Pakistan's existence, viz. why do certain people allow so much tinkering with the law, Parliament and constitution while others are aggressively committed to these institutions. A related question is the legitimacy of such illegitimacies to enter into momentous accords with other nations especially. More so when their legitimacy and traditions of democracy granting it are as robust and strong as, say, in India. Every day there is the talk of an Indo-Pak resolution being in the offing. The latest pronouncements by the democratic candidate John Kerry as well as the South Asian in-charge in Bush administration, Richard Armitage are important in this connection. Something is brewing up and yet the cooks are as unsure about their status in their kitchens as they never were.