Daily Excelsior... Editorial

EDITORIAL

Asylum and terror

Churning of mind

India : Democracy eroded

By Rakesh Bahl

Khan and US perfidy

By Atul Cowshish

Pak weaponisation programme

By Samuel Baid

Three days before Pakistan celebrated its 58th Independence Day on August 14, 2005, it successfully test-fired the Babur Cruise Missile obviously in an attempt to reassure the countrymen that with the military at the helm of affairs their country was in safe hands. Gen. Pervez Musharraf described it as another achievement of his military-civilian Government. His Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said Pakistan would continue the process of improving its nuclear and missile capabilities to deal with India's new defence acquisitions.........more

EDITORIAL

Asylum and terror

There is a small but important piece of information coming from London, the latest battlefield of terrorists. According to official records of the country 182 of 717 men and women arrested as terror suspects since 2001 had claimed asylum in the United Kingdom. This means that one out of almost every four persons who went to the UK in search of shelter alleging persecution in his own land had nursed other designs. Their purpose was obviously to exploit the liberal and democratic environment of their new pastures for their own wicked ends. What is little known is that the asylum system in the UK goes beyond merely entitling legal stay to a self-professed refugee. While their pleas are examined they are given benefits as free housing, pocket expenses and access to free education and medical care up to 15000 pounds a year. They also get free legal aid worth "tens of thousands of pounds", to quote a report, in order to argue that if forced to return home they would come to grief. Very rightly there is rethinking in the UK in view of the dramatically altered circumstances about having laws that are misused by potential terrorists. The country's Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, has already given a clear indication to this effect after 7/7. The United States has been wise in this behalf after 9/11, 2001 but although it has made known its concerns it appears to have done little in practical terms to curtail the evil practice. The world's sole superpower is confronted with another dimension of the problem created by outsiders usurping jobs leaving the original inhabitants unemployed. There is a forceful demand for amending the visa regime to check such inflow. In this context it is relevant that in Australia, which is yet another fairly accommodating country, the full bench of the Federal Court has recently rejected an appeal by 16 children born in the country to asylum-seeker parents that they should be given citizenship.

It is to be welcomed that in none of these countries the people believe that every person claiming refuge is a terrorist. It may be a typical example of a few bad fishes spoiling the entire pond but it leaves little choice for their governments. In fact, the USA and the UK have been so confident of their capacity to absorb shocks of each kind that they have rarely turned down claims of "credible fear of persecution". People in power can't ignore that the foundations of their countries have been badly shaken because of their tolerant attitude towards newcomers. They will be failing their countries if they don't carry out a timely revision to screen out the well-meaning from the menaces. If necessary, they will have to ignore those including a sizable chunk of human rights activists who don't agree with them for, it is primarily their responsibility to ensure the safety and security of their citizens.

The USA and the UK have paid a heavy price to learn that they don't gain anything by allowing their soil to be misused for launching propaganda and mobilising funds against other countries. This should augur well not only for them but also the nations which have suffered on this count. How they go about their task will be closely watched.

Churning of mind

Darul Uloom's latest fatwa asking women to wear veils if they wish to join politics has accelerated the process of churning of minds of the members of the Muslim community across the country. There is nothing like it if a group of people debates its own problems with a view to resolving them according to accepted principles of human dignity. A section of the Muslim intelligentsia including a member of the Muslim Personal Law Board has advised the clerics not to interfere in political matters. According to them wearing a "naqab" should not be linked with fighting polls. Their arguments are not without basis that Islamic preaches equality between men and women and that the women are in the forefront in political arena even in many self-professed Islamic countries. They have pointed out: "Such fatwas unnecessarily expose the community to criticism by communal forces thereby harming the interest of Muslims". This observation is only partly correct. For, it is unfair to dub all critics of an ill-conceived decree like this as communal because it amounts to offending the sensibilities of the majority of them who are motivated by a larger concern. However, such appears to be the force of the religion that the fatwa has evoked instant positive response from many women in the panchayat elections in the country's most populous state of Uttar Pradesh where Darul Uloom is located. In several villages in the immediate vicinity of the revered Islamic seminary the women candidates have lost no time in putting on veils saying that they "have full faith in the shariat". It is quite possible, according to some observers, that they either on their own or at the behest of their political managers may have decided to follow the religious diktat as a tactic with an eye on votes of the orthodox sections of the people. Their post-poll behaviour will, therefore, be a better indicator of their actual thinking. On a wider level one can notice that the Muslim women have by and large ignored the fatwa.

Ms Mehbooba Mufti, the reelected President of the People's Democratic Party (PDP), deserves to be congratulated for having adopted a rational posture. Her opinion that the religious pronouncement is "not biding" and "is a recipe for taking society to the ignoble depths of poverty, backwardness and illiteracy" no doubt echoes the sentiments of educated young Muslim women. She is not merely a contestant but the head of a recognised political organisation. If a Benazir Bhutto and a Khaleda Zia can do well in Islamic nations how Muslim women can be debarred by any institution in secular countries like ours from pursuing a vocation of their choice. Is it not strange that the same religion should be interpreted in a manner as if it has two yardsticks: it imposes no restrictions on women in the countries swearing by it but seeks to do so in other territories? Not for nothing Darul Uloom has finally hinted that it may well withdraw this fatwa. Not very long ago it had struggled to find a way out of the maze of its own making in the Imrana case. The only silver lining is that its edicts are making the Muslim women highly conscious of what is good and what is bad for them.

India : Democracy eroded

By Rakesh Bahl

The constitution of In-dia is known to be the best document written and enacted in the world of democracy, but practically the facts on ground seem to be diametrically opposite to the principals of government formation and governance. Reason being, the framers of the constitution of India were the great freedom fighters and the thinkers who sacrificed every asset and happiness of theirs, for the sake of the fellow countrymen and hence thought and brought out the best possible document, but the today's implementers of the constitution are not at all concerned with the national interests; At least their deeds don't reflect their sincerity even if they may be having national interests on their minds. If we look at the system we find that the process of democracy is eroded on many aspects as the addresses of the successive presidents of India to the parliamentarians and the agencies concerned with governance always mention about the need to clean the system of the so many ills like corruption, criminalization of politics etc etc and so on.

Let us analyse the processes step by step in details as under :-

The country is divided into electoral constituencies of different sizes as parliamentary, legislative assembly, municipal and the smallest being the panchayat constituencies in the descending order of sizes to give due representation, to each and every part of the country and each countrymen participating in the formation of Government. What a beautiful concept! But what actually happens is that any one having hold on 'might and money' can manipulate the election processes and win the elections and get into the power corridors-be it the village level/city level elections or the larger assembly/parliamentary elections. Now violence and criminalization leading to riggings in elections have become so common features that they are apparently the usually anticipated processes not even leading to minor ripples in our minds. As a result, non sane person or to be more precise any educated or well aware gentle person has got faith in the electoral process and hardly participates in it. Result is that not even half of the eligible voters caste their votes and people with very little or no popularity among the masses win and become the decision makers on behalf of all voters. Although we say that our representatives are supposed to act as per our wishes but the process of democracy ends at the time of casting the ballot only, because after the candidates are elected they become part of party and power politics resulting into at many places (of course not everywhere) their falling prey to horse trading, defections and what not with changing loyalties and explainations not palatable to the public.

Today, in the country of Subhash Chander Bose, Bhagat Singh, Azad and Gandhi Ji and many others who gave their lives to the cause of one-India, where secularism forms the backbone of the constitution, elections are fought in the name of divisive factors like religions, caste and languages. Today, we are a witness to the fact that governments have fallen and country plunged into unexpected huge expenditures of midterm polls so frequently in the name of one excuse or the other. Today almost whole of the country is burning in the fire of communalism, regionalism and caste politics that no state is exempt and safe. Can any one explain why Punjab, Assam, Kashmir Gujrat Maharashtra etc have been burning in the fires of communal riots and frequent events of terrorism ? They are all basically the creations of our shortsighted leaders who are having a nice time with the innocence of the misguided masses because they don't know or don't want to remember that nothing, nothing and nothing can be more precious than the human lives which are lost every day due to the political dramas being played in the name of mandir-masjid-gurudwara-church and also the terrorism and election related violence which have come to stay. Above all, after any such fiasco like riots or terrorist activity, an enquiry commission is constituted which gives cleanchit to the accused in most of the cases and that too after many years by which time the public has forgotten the incident.

In the parliament or assembly we hardly find them attending to the business of house leave apart the active and thoughtful participation in the functioning of the house and the great plans or reforms are just kept pending for years together. The opposition members in the house are always bent upon opposing every move of the treasury benches just for the sake of opposing it even if the issue under question may be very well justified in the national interest; as a result the frequent walk outs and boycotts of the sessions totally paralyze the functioning of the houses and the healthy debates on the vital issues are now the things of the past. During all this drama the helpless common man just pays for the extravaganza of the rulers while the matters of national importance are either neglected or jeopardized.

Money making through the development works carried out, only on papers or carried out shabbily- as perceived by the public is possibly the only aim of the representatives of ours and the cases of corruptions and scams involving the bunglings and assets worth crores of rupees keep on making headlines here and there so frequently that they have come to be an order of the day synonymous with the system patronized by them.

It is an irony that a person who visits each and every door before the elections with folded hands, begging humbly for their vote in his/her favour with promises of heavens to their lives; very shortly after the elections turns totally inaccessible to the public to such an extent that even moving on the road becomes a difficult task for people whenever their representatives move in with a convoy of vehicles and security guards who block the roads and cause traffic jams frequently as they are no more ready to act simply and wait for their turn like the people whom they represent, because then they are VIP's and claim the privileges of rulers.

Then the question which comes to any sane person's mind is :-

Do we really need them ?

Is this what we call ''our government?''

Do we call it freedom from monarchy when there was only one ruler where as now we are again slaves to so many rulers ?

Were not we better off during the monarchs times ?

So, what is the way out of this turmoil ?

Answer is not simple as we need to change our mindsets. We must be judicious at the time of elections as to who can be a true representative of our causes. We must see the justifiable merits of the candidates irrespective of the caste, creed or religion he belongs to ; as a lot of damages have already occurred due to elections on the basis of these minor factors. Participation in the electoral process by all the voters is a must as only then the purpose of elections can be realized. And participation in elections by the educated people with professional and administrative know how of the governance is a dire need of the hour. Every month so many people retire from service as responsible officers like Doctors, Engineers, Professors, bureaucrats and officers from the armed and paramilitary forces. After retirement no one is vulnerable to the political masters and hence candidature of few of such officers of proven integrity should be encouraged. And, jumping into politics by the young blood from the educated and honest class is going to be a main stay of the much needed electoral reforms and good governance. Only, after such steps are taken by the people for the sake of the country can we stand tall in the world as a true democracy in addition to being the largest one in the world.

I am definitely dreaming very big in all this drama of democracy but that reminds me the words of our Hon'ble President Dr APJ Kalam that ''Dreaming small is a crime''.

(The author is Squardon leader)

Khan and US perfidy

By Atul Cowshish

We have it now on the authority of Ruud Lubbers, a long-serving former Prime Minister of Holland, that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had put pressure on the Dutch Government to allow the Pakistani scientist, A. Q Khan, lately renowned for successfully operating an international nuclear black market, to go scot free way back in 1975 after his employers at a Dutch uranium enrichment facility caught him red-handed copying the secret designs. The Americans came to his rescue again after a few years by when he had been prosecuted following a TV disclosure about his activities and a Dutch court had sentenced him to a four year imprisonment in absentia. The Pakistani who had married a Dutch woman was able to fly in and out of Holland without the fear of being arrested. It can be presumed that his kleptomania continued during his subsequent peregrinations in Holland (and other parts of Europe) and helped him become the 'father' of the Pakistani bomb.

The ostensible reason for sparing Khan given by the US sleuths to Lubbers was that the US wanted to shadow Khan to learn more about his activities and Pakistan's 'secret' nuclear programme. The Americans did learn a lot about Pakistan's 'secret' plan but never thought it fit to restrain Islamabad in the hope that the maximum harm that the deadly arsenal being manufactured by Islamabad with stolen designs and equipment could inflict would be confined to India and the good boys in Islamabad would never allow any harm to reach the US shores from their sacred soil.

Participants in the pro-US frenzy may note that the Americans are still soft on Islamabad even when it undermines their own non-proliferation and security concerns.Pakistan has closed the Khan chapter after first forcing an 'apology' from him and then putting him under 'house arrest', which in his case probably means nothing more than a restriction on his travelling out of the country where he could squeak against the Pakistani military regime. Khan had promised to remain mum about the military role in promoting his clandestine nuclear trade if he was not probed after seeking 'pardon'.

There is a real danger that the 'weapons of mass destruction' could fall into the hands of terrorists because of people like Khan. Yet, there is no serious attempt by the US to get access to Khan to know first hand the extent of his global nuclear black market.

Soon after Khan's 'apology' was telecast across the nation on the state-run PTV, the Pakistani dictator, Pervez Musharraf, had summoned the editors of newspapers and told them in no uncertain terms that they should no more discuss the Khan affair. He told them that Pakistan would have had to face disastrous consequences if Khan had not taken the entire blame on himself. And the editors readily obliged as they thought that Khan had already suffered enough punishment, rather humiliation, by being forced to seek the presidential pardon for his nuclear indiscretions-which the Pakistanis see as a great achievement.

The iron curtain around Khan means that the world will be kept in the dark about the extent of help that he gave to Iran in building its nuclear programme that according to the West is clearly designed to develop the atom bomb. Nor will more light be shed on the nukes-for-missile deal that was stuck between Pakistan and North Korea. It is absurd to think that the Pakistani Government had nothing to do with this barter between Islamabad and Pyongyang or Islamabad and Tehran.

The story of Khan's help to Libya has been erased in the Western capitals which have also stopped talking about the speculation about a fourth country that has been widely speculated as being the recipient of Khan's clandestine merchandise. The world had reacted with astonishment when Libya confessed to have embarked upon a secret nuclear bomb programme with help from Pakistan.

But that news had not come as a total surprise to a small group of people in the British and American intelligence who had known for many years that 'someone' was surreptitiously selling nuclear weapons technology.

That 'someone' was none other than Khan who was recently described by the former CIA director, George Tenet, as 'at least as dangerous as Osama bin Laden.' In one of its cover stories, the Time magazine had called him the Merchant of Menace and a person who had 'single-handedly' made the world a more dangerous place than was previously imaginable.

In late 1990s much before the 'bolt' from Libya, the CIA had infiltrated Khan's network; one officer was actually placed inside the network. The CIA had learnt about Khan's clients, front companies, finances and even manufacturing plants. By 2000, British intelligence circles were said to be 'alarmed' when they got to know about Khan's extensive nuclear bazaar. At one time an idea was floated that the CIA should undertake a covert operation to sabotage Khan's production facilities in Pakistan. That plan was never executed for fear of 'consequences'.

The only action that the Western nations, reportedly upset over the non-proliferation activities of Pakistan, took was to make a number of arrests and seizures in places like Malaysia, South Africa and Turkey. Neither the government of Pakistan nor Khan in person was pulled up, much less asked to wind up their secret nuclear bazaar. Pakistan, in fact, is the recipient of one of the largest US bounties with the cash flow from Washington equalling Islamabad's annual defence expenditure of $3 billion.

Pakistani authorities have known all along about Khan's activities, what with his frequent foreign jaunts, meeting leaders of countries seeking nuclear knowledge and his increasingly lavish style of living. There was no secret about it because he was doing the bidding of the government.

From the day he flew out of Holland with stolen designs he has been a VVIP for the Pakistani government. He had returned to Pakistan on specific request from Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto who was desperate to see Pakistan acquire a nuclear bomb to match India's. Bhutto's successors continued with the same line vis-à-vis Khan.

Soon after Musharraf staged his coup to outs the elected civilian government he brought the Bhopal-born Khan, a fellow Mujahir from India, as part of his inner circle and made him his special scientific and technology adviser, the position that he gave up only after his 'public disgrace' in early 2004.

Khan as a military captive in Islamabad suits the Pakistani policy of limited cooperation with the US in the so-called war on terror. Osama, US military officials believe is hiding in Pakistan with the full knowledge of the establishment. If Pakistan hands over the most prized catches to the US what else will it bargain with subsequently?

The intelligence community in the US, as also US officials talking privately, know this but Pakistan continues to receive kid glove treatment from their administration. Khan, whose recent heart scare turned out to be false, can certainly hope to live in peace as long as the US follows in respect of Pakistan a policy of plenty of carrots with an occasional mild stick. (Syndicate Features) Syndicate Features

Pak weaponisation programme

By Samuel Baid

In the past about five decades Army rulers of Pakistan have always considered military might and arms parity with India as a sure guarantee for national consideration. The falsehood of this doctrine was proved in 1971 when Pakistan broke up despite all the military might it had acquired through its membership of United States-led defence pacts. That military strength alone does not guarantee national cohesion was once again dramatised in the case of the Soviet Union which reached the status of a Super Power on the basis of its massive collection and production of weapons of mass destruction but collapsed like a house of cards in the 1980s.

No country can become a real power just on the basis of the destructive weapons it has produced or acquired. Field Marshal Ayub Khan amassed arms through Pakistan's membership of US-led defence pacts Gen. Zia-ul-Haq clandestinely produced the nuclear bomb and Gen. Musharraf has been on a missile testing spree. All three military dictators painted India as Pakistan's eternal foe (Asli Dushman) to justify weaponisation and denial of the right to their countrymen to choose their own Governments, human rights, health, education and economic welfare. The three Generals organised farcical elections only to create a civilian facade to sustain military rule. Pakistan's stand on Kashmir is meant to ensure perennial hostility towards and fear of India so that the people of the country are made to sacrifice everything for their Army and its plans. Presuming India as the eternal enemy, its military experts talks of Pakistan's security perception which takes into account its lack of strategic depth, India's conventional arms superiority and its (India's) missile programme. These security assessments ignore India's size and internal security problems and undermine its own threat perception of China, Pakistan wants to see itself India's equal in the matter of defence. India's arms superiority becomes a security threat for Pakistan. And that very well suits China. Chinese and Pakistanis earlier ended all their meetings with the chorus that their friendship was deep, deep as the ocean and high, high the sky. Besides its nuclear help, China has helped Pakistan develop the Haft and Shaheen series of missiles. Indian experts say that China also helped Pakistan develop Babur Cruise Missile. North Korea helped Pakistan in the Ghauri series. Pakistani Generals' vision of India was described by Field Marshal Ayub Khan just before his death in 1974 to a Jamaat-e-Islami Weekly. The gist of this interview was that the glory of Islam could not be restored in the Sub-continent unless India broke up. He called India a crocodile in the Indian Ocean, which must be cut into pieces.

Indians often wishfully point out that India and Pakistan took care to spare civilian population and to only target each other's military establishments during 1965 and 1971 wars. It was partially true. But perhaps not because Pakistani bombers were motivated by humanitarian considerations but because they were either downed or chased away before they carried out their missions. President Ayub Khan had no compunctions in ordering the bombing of a Church in Ambala in 1965 just because its steeple came in the way of Pakistani planes which were trying to hit the nearby military hospital.

If, God forbid, there is a future war between the two countries, the question of humanitarian considerations as seen in 1965 and 1971, will be absolutely irrelevant. Both countries have developed deadly missiles and nuclear weapons. The fury of these weapons will destroy everything much beyond their targets. India's nuclear doctrine commits it to a policy of no first use. But Pakistan rejects this policy. Its former Army chief and present Ambassador to USA Jehangir Karamat writes in the special issue of South Asian Survey on missiles: "In Pakistan's perception, India's no first use declaration is not compatible with the nuclear force deployment envisaged in its Draft Nuclear Doctrine and the readiness standards that it outlines."

Many Pakistani experts have expressed the view that with all its nuclear and missile might their country can cause much damage to India, but India with its conventional arms can wipe out Pakistan from the map of the world. Pakistani taxpayers must seriously think about the crazy weaponisation programme of their Army.