EDITORIAL
What a shame
How long? After all how
long will the gory dance of death continue on roads in
Jammu hills? The last week has ended with a high number
of casualties in a bus accident in Doda district. At
least 40 passengers were feared to have drowned when a
bus carrying them skidded off the road and fell into the
Chinab river in the mountainous terrain. The bus had
started its journey from Atholi in Padar which is better
known for its sapphire mines. It was on its way to this
city. But hardly had it covered some distance that it met
its watery grave at Shashu in Kishtwar tehsil. Every
citizen will be outraged by an unending streak of such
tragedies in the State as a whole and higher reaches in
particular. This year had begun with a heart-rending
catastrophe in the third week of January. More than 50
persons had been killed then in a bus mishap near Darhal
in Rajouri. The echo of a disaster like this at elevated
altitudes is always deafening. Invariably there is a
heavy toll of human lives. There is little chance for
passengers to escape once their vehicle goes out of
control and dives into gorge below. A quick look back
will reveal that Doda is prone to witnessing grave
misfortunes off and on. It is an arduous undulating
region with the Chinab flowing in the middle. Quality of
its roads has improved in the recent years --- a positive
development born of the necessity to effectively
dismantle the terror apparatus. This has not, however,
prevented vehicles from rolling down the slopes now and
then. Any impression that absolute precautions are being
taken in the district in view of the coming Assembly
by-election in Bhadarwah is thus misplaced. Arguably
Bhadarwah though a part of the district is a long way
from Padar. The point is, however, not that.
What is important is
whether adequate tabs are being kept on every object in
Doda. There are two reasons why the vehicular movement
has to be especially watched. First, it has to be ensured
that it is not carrying militants. This has become all
the more essential because the Chief Minister is a key
candidate in the by-election. Secondly, after every
accident the Government has announced that swift and
strict measures are being taken to pre-empt a repeat. It
has been proved that these declarations are bereft of
conviction. On both the counts, therefore, the latest
occurrence can only be galling for the Chief Minister and
his administration.
Doda district on the one
hand and the twins of Poonch and Rajouri on the other
require an excellent traffic administration. In the
earlier phases of the coalition government there were a
number of road calamities in Poonch district. Focussed
arrangements that were made then had proved a deterrent
for all those disobeying relevant rules and procedures.
There is the need to make them a regular affair
everywhere. It has been proved time and again that
offenders don't learn easily because their immediate
priority is profit-making. Evidently it suits them to
keep old and dilapidated buses and untrained (hence,
underpaid) drivers. They are not averse to overcrowding
their vehicles for that brings in more money. These
elements playing havoc with human lives must be firmly
dealt with.
Politics as spectacle
What should one make out
of these pictures: former Deputy Prime Minister L.K.
Advani holding a bow and arrow in his hands and Bharatiya
Janata Party president Rajnath Singh wielding a sword?
Not very long ago estranged BJP leader Madan Lal Khurana
had gone around with a mace in his hand in the manner of
Hanuman. It is quite another thing that his attempt to do
to his parent organisation what the Hindu god of Wind had
done to Sri Lanka has rather misfired. Why can't politics
be an effective assertion of ideologies? Why do the
leaders indulge in song and dance to convey their
message? Why can't they simply talk it out? It is
apparently because they want to tell the people that they
are fit as fiddle and that they mean business so far as
their political aims are concerned. How can anyone evoke
the image of Ram, for instance, to construct a temple in
His glory if not by behaving like Him? American Professor
of International Relations Ronald Steel has perhaps been
closer to the truth: "Politics as battle has
given way to politics as spectacle." Politics,
political gatherings and election campaigns (including
filing of nominations) are conducted as if these are a
big show business. One should find it rather strange that
in this fast age of computers and airplanes the BJP
leaders have yet to revive Ramayana's "Pushpak
Viman" (flower-bedecked plane) and the missile
technology so marvellously depicted in the great epic as
well as Mahabharata. Perhaps they don't need to do so at
this juncture. Both Mr Advani and Mr Singh have hit the
road. Therefore, they have no choice but to rediscover raths
(chariots) to take them to their destinations. As all of
us know the modern raths are fed on petrol or
diesel. Who has the time to keep horses and feed them?
The BJP leaders fall back upon Hindu mythology for
reasons that need no elaboration. In fairness to them,
however, they are not the only members of the political
class to use style as a statement in politics. Top
Congress leaders on tour of this State have switched over
from Kashmiri to Dogri to Ladakhi attire almost on the
same day. Indira Gandhi readily comes to mind as the one
adept at this exercise. She herself and her campaign
managers must have calculated that it helps in easy
identification with the masses. Even today several
leaders follow this practice all over the country.
Some leaders did not wear
clothes to acquire a distinct look. They lent their names
to them instead. "Jawahar jacket" of Nehru
comes in this category. It is after Mahatma Gandhi's
assassination that the people are finding ways to
identify with him. The cap designed by him --- he had
borrowed the idea from the Kashmiri "topi"
--- is popular after his name. Not many wear it these
days. Politicians have virtually abandoned it like they
have left his "dhoti" and ideology.
However, it is not the same scenario everywhere. Gandhi
specs, for instance, have become extremely popular. It is
almost a craze among the educated Western youth who are
keen to know more about him. It is thus a silver lining
that the truth ultimately stands out as the biggest
fashion slogan
Pakistan and
Siachen imbroglio
By Brig.
(Retd.) S.N. Sachadeva
Even as India and
Pakistan work out a
demilitarisation agreement on
Siachen to facilitate a prime
ministerial visit to Pakistan
later this year, foreign office
and defence mandarins have drawn
their red lines: Authentication
of ground positions by Pakistan
and a viable 'Plan B' in case
things go wrong. Despite PMO's
willingness to go ahead with a
deal with Pakistan, there appears
to be little doubt that Pakistan
might attempt to occupy the posts
that the Indian Army will vacate
as a result of the deal. After
all, that is what Kargil was
really about.
At the heart of a
potential agreement is
"authentication" of
actual ground positions and a
mechanism for joint verification.
India had thus far held out for
demarcation of the Actual Ground
Position Line (AGPL). But it
might climb down to accepting a
grid reference showing the actual
troop positions of both
countries.
Earlier, officials
had even proposed that India
could take the defence attaches
of key counties to the Saltoro
heights to show them the troop
positions. This could serve as an
insurance against possible
adventurism by Pakistan. A
similar stance could follow on
the post-demilitarisation
verification mechanism - which
could be by satellite imagery,
sensors, or cameras.
The defence
ministry, however, seems to be
wary of the proposals, with the
Army maintaining that if Pakistan
decides to launch an attack on
Siachen afterwards, India would
find it virtually impossible to
retake its positions. Obviously
any kind of settlement would have
to satisfy he army's concerns
that it should not someday be
required to re-take the
commanding heights which men like
Bana Singh had wrested with
supreme courage, but that General
J.J. Singh indicated he was not
averse to an accord should prove
encouraging to those making
upfront and back channel efforts
toward that end.
The reason is though
India holds the commanding
heights on all except Gyong La,
Pakistan's access would be far
easier than India's. It was
something the Indian Army found
to its initial cost in Kargil in
1999.
The Siachen dispute
originated because the boundary
in Jammu and Kashmir after the
Karachi agreement of 1949 was not
fully demarcated. A ceasefire
line (CFL) on the map ended at a
grid point with coordinates
NJ9842 on the Saltoro ridge. This
was near the northern most point
where troops were deployed when
the fighting ended in 1948.
Although the CFL subsequently
changed into the Line of Control
(LoC) after the Shimla agreement
of 1972, its end points remained
the same.
The descriptive
explanation of the boundary
beyond NJ9842 - "thence
North to the Glaciers' - has
created some confusion. India
believes that this means that the
boundary would go north through
the nearest watershed, the
Saltoro ridge. Pakistan draws a
straight lien from NJ9842 going
north-east to the Karakoram pass.
The former interpretation gives
the control of the Glacier to
India, the latter, to Pakistan.
In 1978, the Indian
army became aware of maps showing
the LoC as a straight line
extended from NJ9842 to the
Karakoram pass appearing in
publications abroad. The same
year an Indian army
mountaineering expedition led by
Colonel N. Kumar brought back
evidence of foreign
mountaineering expeditions being
launched into the Siachen area
from PoK. Both sides were
convinced that the other was
trying to establish a military
presence in the area. It was then
that India realised that Pakistan
was behind the extension of
NJ9842 to the Karakoram pass,
claiming the Siachen Glacier.
India objected to
this "cartographic
aggression". The choice
before the Indian army was to
either turn a blind eye or
pre-empt Pakistan. In late 1983,
India learnt that Pakistan was
purchasing high altitude gear and
its troops were planning to
occupy the passes leading to the
Siachen Glacier. Two months
before the mountaineering season
was to begin in April 1984, India
airlifted two platoons of Kumaon
Regiment and placed them on the
two key passes of Bilafond La and
Sia La on the Saltoro ridge.
Although the
boundary dispute between India
and Pakistan in this region is
referred to as the Siachen
dispute, the Siachen Glacier is
in fact in India's control. There
is no battle raging on the
Glacier itself. Indian soldiers
sit on the Saltoro ridge to the
west of Siachen. Between the
Pakistani forces and the Glacier,
there are high mountain peaks
controlled by India. The Siachen
Glacier flows in the valley
formed by the Saltoro ridge to
its west and the Eastern
Karakorams. It is about 72 km
long from its highest point at
Indira Col to its snout.
Siachen evokes
strong passions in both India and
Pakistan. It was for the brand
rub-off of Siachen that former
defence minister George Fernandes
visited the Glacier so often.
General Musharraf's "Siachen
consciousness" is also very
high. In September 1987, as
brigade commander of the Special
Service Group, he was responsible
for leading an attack on an
Indian position at Bilafond La,
one of the two main passes on the
Saltoro ridge, to the Siachen
Glacier from Pak- occupied
Kashmir. His forces had to
retreat. Having also served as
Pakistan's Force Commander,
Northern Areas, he knows the
Siachen dispute intimately.
Militarily, the
Siachen Glacier can be divided
into three parts. The Northern
Glacier is the most formidable,
containing the highest peaks. The
Central part is where the Glacier
is broadest - up to 20 km wide
and this is where India has its
Kumar Post from where expeditions
are launched to the various
Saltoro peaks. The Southern
Glacier is just four to five km
wide. Helicopters maintain the
Northern and Central Glacier
while ponies and porters supply
the Southern Glacier.
The Indian Army has
taken 105 mm field guns to the
Glacier to support the peaks.
They are deployed at the lower
end of the Northern and Southern
Glacier. The Base Camp has 130 mm
and the Bofors 155 mm guns. The
difficulty in using field guns on
the Glacier arises from the
shifting ice - moving by about
two inches a day in winters and
10 to 20 feet a day in summer.
Registering a target and using
the calculations to shoot after
even a couple of days will not
guarantee a hit because of
shifting gun positions. At any
point of time three battalions
are deployed, three are in
training and three awaiting
orders. The soldiers manning the
observation posts on the Saltoro
and the camps have to be relieved
every 30 days to three months.
The estimates of the
costs of hostilities on Siachen
vary. No one has an accurate
assessment, but everyone has a
figure to quote and a point to
make. Without endorsing any
estimate, according to former
defence minister, George
Fernandes, who told parliament
that Siachen costs the exchequer
Rs. 3 core per day.
Both India and
Pakistan see geo-political
compulsions in fighting for
Siachen. In 1963, Pakistan ceded
4,500 sq km of Kashmir, the
Shaksgam Valley to the west of
the Karakorams, to China because
it wanted a border with China.
India did not recognise this
settlement. However, New Delhi
came to know of the Chinese
activities in the area only a
decade after China had built the
Aksai Chin highway passing
through it. The belated Indian
presence on the Saltoro ridge
abutting the Shaksgam Valley
seeks to question the
Sino-Pakistan 'border
settlement'.
Initially the
Siachen conflict was also
justified in terms of countering
a threat to Ladakh from Pakistani
forces coming down the Nubra
Valley via Siachen. This is now
considered logistically unviable.
There are many, however, who
argue that the Glacier has no
strategic significance and its
militarisation is the result of
competing and irrational
nationalism. That Siachen rankles
in the Pakistani mind is evident
from the fact that the Kargil
misadventure, some in Pakistan
claim, was aimed at undoing the
Indian takeover of Siachen. One
of its objectives was to snatch
Siachen from India by cutting off
the Srinagar-Leh route.
India and Pakistan
have held eight rounds of talks
on Siachen. They apparently came
close to resolving the dispute in
1989 and again in 1992. These
attempts were unsuccessful
because of two reasons. Pakistan
wants India to withdraw to
pre-Shimla positions by vacating
the Saltoro ridge but wants to
retain its own military positions
claiming that they are pre 1971
ones. Second, to keep up the myth
of engaging India on the Siachen
Glacier, it refuses to exchange
maps marking the present ground
positions. These would show that
Pakistan is nowhere near the
Siachen Glacier and that its
posts on the Saltoro are at much
lower heights (9,000 to 15,000
feet) than Indian ones.
In 1989 India made
six proposals to Pakistan:
cessation of cartographic
aggression by Pakistan (extending
the LoC from NJ9842 north-east to
the Karakoram pass); establishing
a demilitarised zone at Siachen;
exchange of maps to show present
positions; delimitation of the
border beyond N9842 towards the
China border based on ground
realities; formulation of ground
rules for future military
stand-off - a measure of last
resort; and redeployment of
Indian and Pakistani forces to
mutually agreed positions.
The army has the
dominant say in the Siachen
dispute. Its position is that
there should be no asymmetrical
redeployment of troops. To climb
up the Saltoro peaks the
Pakistani army does not have to
traverse a glacier. If there is a
pullback by the Indian Army to
say, Leh or Turtuk but the
Pakistanis stay in Skardu; they
can occupy the key positions on
the Saltoro ridge in 10 days
time. It would take India nearly
four months to do that. There is
little to indicate there is a
light at the end of the tunnel.
Many believe that the political
leaderships both in Pakistan and
in India are far too weak today
to sell a Siachen solution to
their people. INAV
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Freedom
to be corrupt
By
Dr Bharat Jhunjhunwala
Prime
Minister Man Mohan Singh
has suggested that
Government employees
should not be transferred
before two years to
enable them to show
results. He believes that
Government employees are
basically honest and are
prevented from securing
people's welfare by
corrupt politicians.
Our
traditional understanding
is different. The Manu
Smriti says,
"Employees appointed
by the king are mostly
takers of property of
others and cheats; from
them the King should
protect the people"
(7.123). Likewise
Kautilya says in
Arthasastra "Just as
it is impossible not to
taste the honey or poison
that finds itself at the
tip of the tongue, so it
is impossible for a
Government employee not
to eat up a part of
Government revenue. Just
as it is not possible to
find whether the fish
moving under water is
drinking water or not,
similarly it is not
possible to find out how
much money the Government
employees have
embezzled" (2.9).
Giving security of tenure
Government employees
would surely enable them
to deliver good
Governance but it will
also make it possible for
them to embezzle
Government revenue
fearlessly and to cheat
the people.
Frequent
transfers do hamper the
work of Government
employees. But what is
their 'work'? It is to
provide relief to the
people? Or is it to
tyrannize them? Our
tradition says that
Government employees
mostly tyrannize the
people. Hence political
interference in their
work leads to less
tyranny. MLAs and MPs
routinely haul up corrupt
Government employees and
get work of hapless
people done. The Prime
Minister wants to
withdraw this power of
the politician to provide
relief to the people.
Admittedly
it can be the other way
round. Politicians may be
corrupt while Government
employees honest.
Politicians like Om
Prakash Chauthala and
Lalu Prasad have been
accused of corruption.
But the question of
accountability remains.
Politicians have to face
the electorate after five
years. The people can
replace a corrupt
politician. Government
employees do not face
such accountability. The
Prime Minister wants them
to pursue their corrupt
ways with impunity by
ensuring they are not
transferred before two
years.
The
Prime Minister thinks
people's welfare will be
secured by the Government
machinery. Not so in our
tradition. The Manu
Smriti says the main work
of the king is to protect
the people, give in
charity, to make
investments and to study
the scriptures (1.89).
There is no endorsement
of welfare state. The
centre of polity rests on
the naked fakir pursuing
voluntary poverty; not
the Government. The
society is asked to make
its own arrangement of
health and education.
Less functions for the
Government means less
tyranny and less
corruption. This is
exactly opposite to the
policy being pursued by
the Prime Minister.
Kautilya,
however, endorses the
welfare state. The king,
he says, must appoint
superintendents to
regulate commerce, tolls,
weaving, liquor,
prostitutes, forests,
etc. He should care for
orphans, old, inform,
sick and helpless (2.1).
The Prime Minister is
likewise running numerous
schemes for welfare of
different sections of the
society.
But
Kautilya is aware of the
pitfalls of heavy state.
He, therefore, places
equal emphasis on
detection and control of
corruption. He suggests
that ascetics must be
given land and asked to
depute their disciples to
detect pilferage of
Government revenue
(1.11). Spies should be
appointed to watch
ministers, priests,
commanders, gate keepers,
judges, collectors,
commissioners,
constables, police
inspectors, revenue
officers, etc. The
personal lives of these
officers should also be
scrutinized by the spies
(1.12). Householders must
be appointed to make an
independent assessment of
the number of households,
level of production and
tax collected by the
Government officers
(2.35). Officers must be
trapped by spies offering
bribes as decoy customers
(4.6). Kautilya was aware
that giving
responsibility of various
works to the Government
would entail heavy
corruption hence he set
in motion a parallel
system to, at least,
partially control the
leakage. In fact, he
specifically suggests
that Government employees
shall be
"transferred from
one work to another so
that they cannot
misappropriate Government
money or vomit what they
have eaten up"
(2.9).
The
Mauryan Empire founded on
the basis of Kautilya's
suggestion did not
survive for long. It
broke into parts soon
after Asoka's death. On
the other hand, the
policies enumerated in
the Manu Smriti have
served the country
relatively well for more
than four millennia. This
policy is seconded both
by Rama's discourse to
Bharata in Chitrakuta;
and by Bhishma's advice
to Yudhistira in Shanti
Parva of Mahabharata.
Thus, we should rely on
Kautilya less.
Manu
Smriti is aware that
kings become tyrannous.
In Bhagwata Purana we
find the story of King
Vena. The people were fed
up with anarchy and they
installed Vena as their
king. But Vena became
tyrannous. Thereupon the
Brahmins killed him by
'shouting'. The Manu
Smriti basically sees the
state as a necessary evil
and seeks to minimize its
size as much as possible.
Perhaps that explains the
uninterrupted survival of
the Indian civilization
while others like
Egyptian, Sumeric, Greek
and Roman and our own
Mauryan Empire collapsed
one after the other like
dominos.
The
Prime Minister's policy
can assessed in this
backdrop. Both Manu
Smriti and Kautilya say
that Government officers
are generally corrupt.
The king should protect
the hapless people from
them. The daily
experience of our
countrymen verifies these
statements. The main work
of the police is to
collect its weekly hafta;
that of revenue officers
is to cheat the
Government; that of
Government teachers is to
ensure that large number
of students fail in exams
and that of development
departments is to collect
commission. But the Prime
Minister thinks these
employees will secure
people's welfare. That is
like asking the thief to
secure the bank!
Our
tradition suggests that
the state should focus on
protection of people. In
the present context one
would expand this role to
basic infrastructure like
roads and dams, coinage,
telecommunications, etc.
since these functions can
only be discharged by the
state. But the Prime
Minister wants to
overload the Government
employees with
responsibility of
providing various goods
like housing, education,
health, and iron
supplements to pregnant
women, eyeglasses for the
old, etc. In this way he
wants to open the
floodgates for
corruption.
Kautilya
is not of much help to
the Prime Minister. While
he gives many
responsibilities to the
Government employees, he
counterbalances this by
putting in place an alert
and active spy system to
control the ensuing
corruption. The Prime
Minister slips here. He
takes Kautilya's advice
of welfare state but not
of the spy system.
Particularly relevant is
Kautilya's advice to
transfer Government
employees from one work
to another. One may
expect, therefore, that
the Government employees
will have unfettered
freedom to bleed the
government coffers and
tyrannize the people.
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More
teeth to commission on minority edu institutions
By M Rama Rao
Critics are quick
to take the Government to task for the recent
amendment to the National Commission for Minority
Educational institutions Act. Vote bank politics
had prompted the amendment, first by an ordinance
and then a law in the budget session of
parliament to replace the ordinance, according to
them. Their case rests on two facts - one the Act
was not even one year old; second the amendment
was brought on the statute book through an
ordinance on the 23rd of January that is about 20
days before Parliament was to meet for its budget
session. The Minister of State for Human Resource
Development, Md Ali Ashraf Fatmi doesn't dispute
these facts. But he wants that the focus should
not be limited to technicalities. "Look at
the specific objectives, we want to achieve. We
want to overcome the shortcomings in the law we
had noticed", he told Parliament, disarming
the critics.
One shortcoming is
related to affiliation. The original Act had
limited the scope for affiliation of minority
educational institutions to the six central
universities. An institution say in Kerala
seeking affiliation with Nagaland University or
an institution in Uttaranchal turning to
Pondicherry University opens up some
mind-boggling logistic problems. Why such a
provision was allowed to come on the statute book
is a different matter altogether. It is difficult
to resist the temptation to remark it is not the
first time that the government's legal eagles had
displayed short sightedness.
Admittedly, an
ordinance shortly before a parliament session is
indefensible at any time but when the issue
relates to education, it deserves sympathetic
consideration. The academic year generally begins
in June-July. It means a new educational
institution should be in place by then. That
calls for lot of home work on the part of the
promoters. More so, when a ninety-day time limit
is set for the state governments to issue a no
objection certificate. This is not trying to
justify the ordinance but to point out that at
least in respect of Minority Educational
Institutions there is no need to corner the human
resource development ministry. That too when a
parliamentary standing committee had vetted the
law and the government had accepted its
recommendations. One of these recommendations was
to increase the time frame for giving a
no-objection certificate from the originally
stipulated sixty days to ninety days. If this
90-day bench mark means that for the new academic
year the count down has begun some time in
January itself
Now the question
of minority appeasement! National Commission for
Minority Educational institutions Amendment Bill
and also the original Act are not Muslim centric.
Besides Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and
Parsis are minorities under the Constitution.
Minister Fatmi says the new law applies to any
community considered a minority by the State
Governments. Like for instance, Hindus in Jammu
and Kashmir.
Education is the
key to economic prosperity of any community. By
this yardstick, it goes without saying that
Muslims deserve a special deal in India. We don't
need any official data, though there is no dearth
of statistics, to show that literacy level is
very low among Muslims. School drop-out rate is
high. National Sample Survey estimates that
percentage of regular salaried among Muslims is
also low; Out of 1000 households with regular
salary income, only 296 families are Muslims.
Almost double this number is Hindus. Even
Christians are well placed, going by the data.
Another
interesting nugget is that a large number of
Muslim families are engaged in low-income, back
breaking self employment. The discussion in
Parliament has brought into sharp focus another
reality vis-a-vis Muslim community. That is the
inability of many a Muslim boy and girl to avail
of the benefits of existing educational
institutions due to sheer poverty. In other
words, there is an urgent need to take education
to the doorstep of the intended beneficiaries.
It is in this
context the experience of the National Commission
for Minority Educational Institutions becomes
relevant. Let me quote from the Parliamentary
Standing Committee report. It says, majority of
the representations received by the Commission
related to problems faced by minority communities
in obtaining 'no objections certificates' (NOC)
for establishing a school or a college and also
in obtaining the status of a Minority
Institution.
The Bill now
passed by Parliament addresses this question. It
empowers the Commission to be pro-active in
protecting the educational rights of minorities
in starting new centres of learning and in
getting minority status without harassment. The
Commission also will be the appellate authority
in matters related to refusal to grant NOCs. It
will address even questions related to the
minority status of an institution. Yet, its
existence doesn't mean short circuiting the
existing procedures for the go ahead to technical
and medical colleges.
Frankly, a law is
not enough to bring in any socio-economic change.
Its effective implementation is equally
necessary. That depends as much on the Government
as on those entrusted with the responsibility of
implementing the laws of the land.
(Syndicate
Features)
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