EDITORIAL
Spare
a thought
Women and children
continue to be two vulnerable sections of society. This
stark reality hardly bears any reiteration. Time and
again the Supreme Court, National Human Rights Commission
(NHRC) and the National Commission for Women (NCW) have
intervened to correct anomalies existing in the present
social dispensation. Key areas of concern are trafficking
of girls and women in the flesh trade and commercial
sexual exploitation of children in the unorganised
sector. A Parliamentary Standing Committee is already
examining the amended Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act
(ITPA) to provide for more stringent punishment for those
engaged in the murky .....more
Push
the pace
What is the percentage in
Jammu and Kashmir of the total industrial enterprises in
the country? A well-informed person will perhaps never
ask this question. For, he or she will know the actual
state of affairs and will like to avoid causing red
faces. Still it is always better to come to terms with
realities and find an answer to challenges that face us.
There are 42.12 million enterprises across the country
engaged in production and distribution of goods and
services other than for sole purpose of own consumption.
These exclude those involved in crop production and
plantation. The State's share is less than one per cent
--- in fact a paltry 0.77 per cent. This compares
favourably only with newly-formed . ......more
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Gunter
Grass's
autobiography
Men, Matters, Memories
By M L Kotru
This might
read like a confession which it may well be in part : my
secret admiration for the Jewish people. Their steadfast
longing for a homeland, their great industry, their
unquestioned supermacy in the world of finance. When I
speak of their mastery of the world of finance don't you
rush to conclusions. I am not talking of usury but of the
manner in which they control the ....more
Indian
polity at the
crossroads
By Aditya Nath Dar
The battle of
ballot boxes have been fought and won. The winners are
happy while the losers will have to wait for the next
opportunity for pocketful of winning bonanza. Promises
have been made to citizens for a better life. It is
immaterial if poll manifestos will really ameliorate the
lot of the poor who have been battling for a square . .......more
Cross
border terrorism :
India's proactive options
By Vinod Anand
There seem to
be no finite limits to Indian's threshold of tolerance
for terrorism emanating from Pakistan. The July 11 serial
blasts in Mumbai were the latest in a series of these
terrorist attacks. They were aimed to provoke communal
riots and cause maximum damage. . ... ....more
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EDITORIAL
Spare a thought
Women and children
continue to be two vulnerable sections of society. This
stark reality hardly bears any reiteration. Time and
again the Supreme Court, National Human Rights Commission
(NHRC) and the National Commission for Women (NCW) have
intervened to correct anomalies existing in the present
social dispensation. Key areas of concern are trafficking
of girls and women in the flesh trade and commercial
sexual exploitation of children in the unorganised
sector. A Parliamentary Standing Committee is already
examining the amended Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act
(ITPA) to provide for more stringent punishment for those
engaged in the murky business. A pilot project on
combating trafficking of women and children for sexual
exploitation is also being implemented. In addition the
Union Ministry of Women and Child Development has a
central advisory committee on tackling the menace of
child prostitution. One of the Ministry's reports has
found that factors like "illiteracy, poverty,
ill-treatment by family and desertion by spouse" are
some of socio-economic aspects for the malady afflicting
the social order. The Ministry had also sponsored a study
on "girls/women in prostitution in India" which
was conducted between 2002 and 2004. Its conclusion is
quite disturbing. It has estimated that there are 2.8
million prostitutes in the country of which 35.47 per
cent entered the trade before the age of 18 years. What
is worse is that it is a growing trend. The Institute of
Social Sciences had conducted an all-India study on
children during 2003-05. It came across "a number of
instances" in which they were being sexually
exploited. Figures about Jammu and Kashmir tell their own
shocking tale. On an average more than four women in the
State are subjected to indignity every day. According to
the National Crime Records Bureau of the Union Home
Ministry, 211 cases of rape, 830 of molestation and 371
of sexual harassment were registered in J&K during
2005. The corresponding figures for 2004 and 2003 were:
218, 990 and 264, and 211, 875 and 376, respectively.
Clearly, however, neither
the fear of the law nor that of society is able to hold
back culprits. It is primarily the responsibility of
state governments to deal with atrocities against women.
Board guidelines of the Central Government in this regard
are: "identification of crime-prone areas and
establishment of a machinery to monitor cases of
violation of laws in schools/colleges in order to ensure
safety and security of girls; registration of first
information reports in all cases of crimes and women;
prominently displaying at public places helpline numbers
of crime and women cells; establishment of women's cells
in police stations, and where necessary, women's police
stations; and comprehensive training of police personnel
dealing with crimes against women in the special
laws". There is the Protection of Women from
Domestic Violence Act as well to handle violence
occurring within the family or matrimonial relationship.
The Supreme Court's guidelines on the prevention and
redress of sexual harassment of women at workplaces is
too a bid deterrent.
Perhaps the most effective
remedy will be to strengthen societal attitude against
the evil. In these columns we have emphasised the need
for this in the backdrop of sex scandals rocking the
State. Indeed, it is ridiculous that the victim and not
the tormentor should be looked down upon in brutalities
against women. It is necessary for society to look within
and adopt corrective measures.
Push the pace
What is the percentage in
Jammu and Kashmir of the total industrial enterprises in
the country? A well-informed person will perhaps never
ask this question. For, he or she will know the actual
state of affairs and will like to avoid causing red
faces. Still it is always better to come to terms with
realities and find an answer to challenges that face us.
There are 42.12 million enterprises across the country
engaged in production and distribution of goods and
services other than for sole purpose of own consumption.
These exclude those involved in crop production and
plantation. The State's share is less than one per cent
--- in fact a paltry 0.77 per cent. This compares
favourably only with newly-formed Uttaranchal (0.78) and
the less industrialised Himachal Pradesh (0.65). Only the
North-Eastern states barring Assam which is surprisingly
sitting quite pretty with a 2.20 percent share and the
Union Territories like Pondicherry. Lakshadweep and Daman
and Diu are some way behind. Going by alphabetic order,
Andhra Pradesh (9.55), Gujarat (5.74), Karnataka (5.93),
Kerala (6.76), Madhya Pradesh (4.22), Maharashtra
(10.39), Orissa (4.25). Rajasthan (4.65), Tamil Nadu
(10.56), Uttar Pradesh (9.53) and West Bengal (10.17) are
in the top bracket. Even much-maligned Bihar seems to be
doing not all that bad. Its slice in the pie is 3.06 per
cent. The plus one but below four per cent category
consists of Chhattisgarh (1.56), Haryana (1.97),
Jharkhand (1.17), Punjab (2.55) and Delhi (1.79). On this
reckoning, AP, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal
will appear to be the leaders. It is true but from all
accounts it seems that Gujarat and Karnataka too are
making rapid strides. These figures are based on the
provisional results of the authoritative Fifth Economic
Census 2005 and thus tell a significant tale.
There can be simply one
lesson for us. We must push the pace of private
entrepreneurship. In the recent times fairly decent
industrial estates have come up at Samba and Kathua in
this region in addition to those already existing in
Jammu district. This has given a fillip to industrial
activity but not to the extent the planners must have
visualised. Unfortunately, the Valley lags behind. A
silver lining in its case is that tourism, traditional
crafts and horticulture have held their ground. Its
weather is considered suitable for information
technology-related business. There have also been one or
two sterling examples of young persons exploiting such
atmosphere to the hilt. Somehow, politics and bureaucracy
continue to dominate us unlike in some other states where
these have taken a back seat so far as the industrial
movement is concerned. In fact, ruling elites in a few
states like Gujarat and Rajasthan are vying with each
other to woo and encourage the people with emphasis on
"do-it-yourself" approach. Their counterparts
in the State perhaps require coming down from their high
pedestals to meet innovative persons at their doorsteps.
Small beginnings are important. These can do wonders in
the long run. Our dispensation of loans and subsidies may
have been devised with the best of intentions. But it has
failed to deliver the desired results. This is no more a
secret. We must not lose time to mend our ways.
Gunter
Grass's autobiography
Men, Matters, Memories
By M L
Kotru
This might read like
a confession which it may well be
in part : my secret admiration
for the Jewish people. Their
steadfast longing for a homeland,
their great industry, their
unquestioned supermacy in the
world of finance. When I speak of
their mastery of the world of
finance don't you rush to
conclusions. I am not talking of
usury but of the manner in which
they control the commanding
heights of the French, British
and European financial worlds.
They continue to maintain their
hold on some of these heights
and, mind you, they are very much
incharge of the US financial
world. Alongwith their financial
clout in the US they are very
much the bosses of the American
media and even showbiz. All of it
is worthy of admiration and even
more admirable is their tinet of
survival, Aushchwitz
notwithstanding.
But one thing that
has troubled me lately is the
Jews' insistence that the rest of
the humankind owes them a
perpetual apology for the trials
and tribulations they may have
undergone over the centuries.
Why, for instance, should one not
be free to express one's sympathy
for the Lebanese when Israeli
aircraft and heavy armour pound
Lebanese townships, sending
thousands fleeing for cover. Why
because an Israeli soldier was
kidnapped in Gaza or two other
soldiers were taken away by the
Lebanese Hizbullah guerillas.
I don't like the
idea of cowardly acts like
kidnappings et al. Hizbullah
guerillas may be a reprehensible
lot but should their since be
allowed to visit hundreds and
thousands of civilians, men,
women and children. And how do
you explain Israelis saying that
they have only retaliated by
taking Patestinians MPs as
prisoners. Hamas, like Hizbullah,
may be no angels but the Hamas
was given an affirmative nod by
the Palestinian people in a
recent election.
I am not questioning
Israel's right to live in peace
in an environment that is largely
inimical to its presence in the
Middle East. Nor would any sane
person support the Iranian
President's open assertion that
Israel has no right to exist. It
has as much as any other country
in the region. But it has to be
an Israel at peace with itself
and with its neighbours, Israel
does not have a carte blanche to
usurp lands which belonged to its
neighbours before the 1967
conflict in the region. Nor
should its neighbours grudge its
ability to thrive in the midst of
a sharply hostile neighbourhood.
All this is a
prelude, to something that has
irked me the whole of this past
week. It concerns the German
Nobel Laureate for Literature,
Gunter Grass, a poet, novelist,
playwright, sculptor and
print-maker who with his
extraordinary first novel ‘
The Tin Drum’ in 1962 became
the literary spokesman for the
German generation that grew up in
the Nazi era and survived the
war. Gunter Grass, a man adored
and applauded by at least two
generations of people, appears to
have earned the wrath of the
Western world, of Jews in
particular.
How come ? Because,
Grass has in his just published
autobiography told us how as a
17-year-old he was conscripted
into the German Army and Nazi
Waffen SS Force, The Force has
been accused of having
participated in the massacre of
Jews by the Nazis. His critics,
many of them in Germany itself,
have accused him of having lived
with his secret for the first 60
of his 78 years. No one is
answering the question what a
17-year-old conscript could have
done when assigned to an
apparently deadly force. Grass
says he was not involved in any
killings.
‘‘I was
conscripted into the Waffen SS
when I was 17 but I never fired a
shot during the months I served
with the notorious elite force
just before the end of the second
World War,'' he has said. The
Director of the firm version of
Grass's classic The Tin Drum,
Volker Scholoendorff, one of the
few Germans to rally to the
author's cause has in an open
letter to a German daily said
that the
‘‘confession’’
saw Grass apply the same scrutiny
to himself that he does to his
flictional characters.
‘‘I hope that you
(Grass) feel greatly liberated by
no longer having to be a living
monument’’.
The Tin Drum,
incidentally, deals with
Germany's Nazi past and
established Grass both as a
literary giant and an icon of the
German Left. (Grass has had a
long-standing love affair with
Calcutta city which he has
visited on several occasions).
Salman Rushdie,
himself the victim of many
calumnies, has rushed to Gunter
Grass's help saying ‘‘I
feel that the outrage is a little
bit manufactured’’.
Rushdie admitted that he was
greatly shocked and disappointed
by Grass's admission
‘‘but there is no
suggestion as far as I can see
that he was ever involved in any
kind of war crimes. His Waffen SS
membership was a mistake that was
forgivable because of his youth..
His stature comes from the fact
that he is a giant in the world
of literature,’’
Rushdie told a BBC interviewer.
Given the Germans'
collective guilt complex on
account of the holocaust they
appear to have been disappointed
the more for his not having
mentioned in the past about his
association, however brief, with
SS Service. But then you have
Chalottee Knobloce, President of
the Central Council of Jews,
calling the Nobel laureate a
liar. His long years of silence
reduce his earlier positions to a
farce, she said overlooking the
author's explanation that
‘‘My silence through
all these years is one of the
reasons why I wrote this book...
It had to come out
finally.’’
Part of the problem
for Grass owes its origin to his
close association in Berlin with
the then Mayor and later German
Chancellor, Willy Brandt’s
Social Democratic Party. The
Christian Democratic Party of
which Grass was a frequent
critic, has joined the Jews in
demanding that Grass return his
Nobel prize.
In the coming days
you can be sure there will be
more noise, more demands for
Gunter Grass's head. Why ?
Because he as a 17-years-old
conscript had been assigned to
the SS service which spells hate,
in capital letters, in the Jewish
lexicon. My view of the
17-year-old Grass approximates to
a Kashmiri youngman of the same
age, picked up by one of the
terror outfits, heavily
indoctrinated and pushed into a
jihad. Only in the case of Grass
we know he had absolutely no hand
in any killings. In Hitler's
Germany there was very little
choice left to any able-bodied
youngman and 17 by Hitlerian
standards was just the right age
to begin. How do you explain it
to the President of Central
Council of Jews who will
predictably be joined by hundreds
of other Jews and Jewish
organisations in the coming days.
Happily for someone like me
Gunter Grass's autobiography has
gone into a second reprint even
before the first hit the stands.
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Indian
polity at the crossroads
By
Aditya Nath Dar
The
battle of ballot boxes
have been fought and won.
The winners are happy
while the losers will
have to wait for the next
opportunity for pocketful
of winning bonanza.
Promises have been made
to citizens for a better
life. It is immaterial if
poll manifestos will
really ameliorate the lot
of the poor who have been
battling for a square
meal a day. What,
however, is certain that
winners will have a few
more pockets stitched to
their trousers payjamas
or kurtas for cornering
the victory benefits? Our
parliamentarians can
enhance their salary,
allowances and other
benefits as they wish, it
is fine because they
represent the starving
millions. If they don't
do they adopt other
methods to make easy
money. But the pertinent
question is: Will the
increase reduce the rate
of corruption in our
polity?
Politicians
say this is what happens
in all democracies: What
Mrs. Indira Gandhi once
said, "Corruption is
not a unique phenomenon
with India alone".
Be that as it may, what
however is certain in our
case is that in the
process of unethical
political gains, every
pillar of our democratic
system is in deep crisis,
and state functionaries
are making compromises on
basic social goal of the
state.
A
system collapses when the
state functionaries do
not uphold the basic
values or when they fail
to apply appropriate
correctives to
restructure the state.
The USSR and Yugoslavia
have been obliterated
from the world map
because the leaders of
these countries failed to
rectify serious
distortions in their
systems. Similarly in
India many fundamental
steps have to be taken to
face the emerging
multidimensional
challenges if the country
wants to move forward on
the basis of democratic,
federal and secular
system.
The
task in India is to
deepen the foundations of
democracy but the
emerging distortions in
the basic process of
elections have definitely
weakened the moral
foundations of Parliament
and the State
legislatures. Second,
accountability of the
elected representatives
has been always weak
because of a big social
distance between the
elected and the
electorate. The elected
representatives approach
the electorate on the
basis of limited number
of socially important
persons who are leaders
of constituencies on the
basis of caste, community
and property ownership.
The democratic process
has created a linkage
based on social and
economic network of
limited social elite and
the mass of voters have
no direct relationship
with their elected
representatives.
An
electoral process which
is based on caste and
community networks
through the mediation of
social elites makes the
state formally democratic
but the essence of
democracy is conspicuous
by its absence. This
reality is reflected in
the policies and
programmes of the state.
The rural development
programmes which are
directed towards the
genuine poor receive a
very low priority and the
programmes for the rural
rich assume great
importance.
Poor
or low or biased
performance of the state
has definitely weakened
the democratic legitimacy
of the state. Gunnar
Myrdal, in his seminal
contribution The Asian
Drama had characterised
India as a 'soft' state
because of its incapacity
to restructure social
relations in the face of
opposition of the
powerful social groups.
Our analysis is that
India is a vulnerable
state because a large
section of society feels
that it has been
marginalised by policies
of neglect by the state.
Further,
a democratic state gains
strength if it can
enforce its legality in a
fair and impartial
manner. The state has a
right to exercise
coercion in the
enforcement of its
legality but coercion is
considered legitimate
only if the legality of
the state commands the
respect of the citizens.
Such a situation does not
exist in India. The state
functionaries bend and
break normal laws and
rules to accommodate the
interests and pressures
of the powerful groups.
How can citizens support
a state which violates
its own laws?
The
strength of a state
depends on the willing
acceptance of the laws by
the citizens. This is not
happening in India
because a large section
of Indians view the state
functionaries as
violators of laws. This
distortion has made the
state incapable to deal
with serious situations
of terrorism in Kashmir
and North-East. If the
state functionaries
cannot be trusted as
honest custodians of
normal laws, it becomes
impossible to accept that
the laws like the
Terrorists and Disruptive
Activities (Prevention)
Act (TADA) will be
properly implemented by
the state functionaries.
We are in a serious
crisis because of
distortions of
federalism. The
centralised federal
system has generated
sentiments of alienation
among many social and
cultural groups. The
theory and practice of
the federal state in
India is based on the
need for proper balance
in reconciliation of an
all-India development and
special needs of every
region. The success story
of this reconciliation
model is the language
policy of India where the
Hindi chauvinist failed
to impose one language
over the whole country.
The diverse cultural and
language groups have
maintained their relative
autonomy within an
all-India system.
The
need for a federal state
system arises where local
situations cannot be
tackled by a distant
Central Government.
Further, the people of
various regions have
become conscious of their
economic resources. The
Assam movement made oil
of Assam a weapon of
their struggle, the
Jharkhand movement
"blocked" the
flow of basic resources
from this region and the
Sikh farmer has always
claimed the power of
foodgrains. In this new
situation, the federal
state can be restructured
by reconciling the
interests of national
market and local economic
development.
The
democratic and federal
structure is under strain
because secularism is
under attack by
competitive communalism
of all major communities.
A multi-religious country
cannot have a democratic
and federal state without
real secularism. During
the last four decades, we
have practised an
extremely flawed kind of
secularism. First, it has
promoted communalism by
selectively protecting
and preserving the
religious demands of all
major religious
communities. It went to
the extent of
compromising with
religion while dealing
with the legal aspects of
temples, mosques,
churches and gurdwaras.
We showed sensitivity to
the religious feelings of
all major communities
without making it clear
that the state has
nothing to do with the
religion of any citizen.
The
idea of secular
citizenship was never
actively promoted. This
flawed practice of
secularism was further
concretised by
opportunistic secularism
practised by major
political parties. The
crisis is quite deep and
the state is proving
quite vulnerable to the
challenges of
communalism. We could not
reform the Muslim
Personal Law because of
fear of antagonising the
Muslim community.
India
is at the crossroads
because two negative
movements cannot be
contained without
strengthening the
democratic, federal and
secular content of the
state. Terrorism and
competitive communalism
are the negative
movements and they have
to be fully exposed and
confronted. Terrorism and
communalism do not accept
democracy and the Indian
state can confront these
two if it regains its own
legitimacy. It cannot
fight terrorism and
communalism effectively
without reforming its
democratic foundations
and without appropriate
restructuring of
federalism. INAV
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Cross border
terrorism : India's proactive options
By Vinod
Anand
There seem to be no finite
limits to Indian's threshold of tolerance
for terrorism emanating from Pakistan.
The July 11 serial blasts in Mumbai were
the latest in a series of these terrorist
attacks. They were aimed to provoke
communal riots and cause maximum damage.
At one level the Mumbai blasts appears to
be a continuation terrorist attack on
pre-Diwali crowds in Delhi markets and
bomb blasts in Varanasi and Nagpur. All
these terrorist attacks have been linked
directly or indirectly to Pakistan
sponsored terrorist groups.
This is in spite of the
January 2004 promise of Musharraf that
Pakistani territory will not be allowed
for use of training or perpetrating such
acts of terrorism. This promise seems to
be a sequel to many such promises made
earlier in April 2003 and during
Operation Prakaram in January 2002 and
June 2002. Traditionally in response
India seems to exercise only soft
options. In the same vein, India this
time has merely condemned the incident.
However, to show its annoyance has only
deferred the Foreign Secretary level
talks.
According to well known
Pakistani analyst Irfan Hussain, the ISI
and sundry intelligence organisations
have been harbouring violent militias to
further their agenda in Kashmir. For
years now, they have been fighting a
proxy war in the disputed Valley, using
freedom fighters to force concessions
from India. Although these tactics have
not gone according to plan, our spooks
and sundry hawks feel they have been
instrumental in tying down hundreds of
thousands of Indian troops.’’
Pakistan's continuous
harping on providing it with evidence,
though not cutting much ice with India,
is meant to manage the US and
international perceptions and their
threshold for tolerance emanating from
Pakistan. This enabled Musharraf to
pursue his destabilizing and aggressive
policies against India. Even though it is
well recognized that Musharraf is playing
a double game even with the US in its
operations agaisnt Taliban yet officially
the US praises Musharraf and provides
military aid to Pakistan. In this
backdrop it is surprising /American
interlocutors getting in to long
explanation to explain Pak's importance
in war on terrorism. Conferring the
status of major non-NATO ally of the US
is also part of similar recognition for
unqualified support to Pakistan.
Musharraf is in a hurry to
show some results to his people. For long
disproportionate resources have been
invested in Pakistan on military machine
without any visible results, especially
either in the shape of a favourable
solution of Kashmir issue or in the shape
of improving the life of common man. In
addition, elections in Pakistan are
around the corner. Therefore, he is using
all means to remain both as President and
the Army Chief. Having sidelined the
mainstream parties, he needs the support
of fundamentalists and extremist groups.
Thus he is forced to overlook and even
pander to so called jihad being waged
fromm Pakistani territory. In the process
terrorism and violence became is
cornerstone of Pakistan military strategy
to wrest concessions from India.
India had come closer (in
October 2005) to giving some concessions
to Pakistan over Siachen issue. But
mercifully held back. Such concessions
would have sent wrong signals that
pressure tactics of Pakistan's ability to
scale up its State sponsored terrorism
pays. India is still paying for its
pusillanimity in Kandahar hijacking of
Indian Airlines Flight IC-814 which
resulted in the release of Maulana Masood
Azhar who went on to form
Jaish-e-Mohammed. This banned terrorist
group has been instrumental in killing
more innocent civilians than the number
of passengers in the hijacked flight.
In this background, the
immediate question that arises is--does
India have no credible options to deter
Pakistan from its policy of cross-border
terrorism? There is a growing realization
in India's politico-military circles that
Pakistan's proclivity to operate at the
extreme ends of conflict spectrum has
enabled it to escape well deserved
punishment for its proxy war and
destabilizing activities. Pakistan has to
be dealt with decisively sooner or later.
Sooner the better, because it would save
many more innocent lives.
Pakistan's military
establishment has come to believe that
its nuclear deterrent offers it a shield
behind which it can continue with
impunity its proxy war and escape
retaliatory response from superior
conventional forces of India.
Unfortunately, such Pakistani perceptions
have been reinforced during at least
three Indo-Pak confrontations when
according to Pakistan's thought process
India backed down from offensive military
action because of existence of Pakistan's
nuclear deterrent. First occasion was in
1987 (Operation Brass Tacks), second was
during Kargil War when neither
international border nor Line of Control
was crossed in spite of pressing military
imperatives and the third occasion was
during Operation Parakram of 2002.
In the light of above have
we come to accept that there are no
credible means to deter Pakistan from its
support to terrorism? Are we being
willy-nilly being forced to accede to
Pak's game plan of obtaining concessions
on Kashmir which it has not been able to
obtain through four wars? Is there a
compulsive need to show progress on the
peace process to international community?
Musharraf has no incentive to stop
cross-border terrorism as it is the most
cost effective means to needle India.
Unless we disabuse Pakistan
of its perception that its nuclear
deterrence paralyses the Indian
conventional forces and raise costs for
Musharraf, terrorism is likely to
continue. It is a myth that Pak nuclear
capability prevents India from proceeding
against Pakistan. Pakistan's nuclear
bluff needs to be called; because, the
same nuclear paradigm operates against
Pakistan also. It can not be denied that
there is a strategic space in which India
can exploit its conventional superiority.
There is no need to remain defensive
about lower nuclear threshold of Pakistan
which has never been defined and has
always remained ambiguous. After all,
nuclear deterrence dialectics is a mind
game and all players involved are
expected to be rational because of the
unacceptable destruction likely to be
caused. Yet players like Pakistan, as the
experience has shown, would pretend to
exhibit irrationality to gain maximum
value for their small size nuclear
deterrent, for instance, by issuing
numerous nuclear threats at the drop of a
hat. In any conflagration, both
conventional and nuclear, Pakistan stands
to lose much more than India.And that is
the absolute truth. CNF
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