Daily Excelsior... Editorial

EDITORIAL

By Kedar Nath Pandey

Human memory is proverbially short. Does any one remember what Prime Minister Manmohan Singh once said on the floor of the Upper House that Caesar's wife must be above suspicion. The utterance was befitting for a former academic who was universally extolled. . ...more

United States of Jammu & Kashmir and Self rule

By O P Modi

Readers may recall that around third week of November 2004 an article titled "United States of Jammu & Kashmir; A resolution" written by me was published in these columns. The idea of a unified federal J&K was mooted for the first time in this paper. The present piece is second part of that resolution for permanent settlement of the Kashmir issue. . .. ........more

Terror reaches South

By Tukoji R Pandit

EDITORIAL

Any surprise?

Is anybody surprised by the disclosure about a People's Democratic Party (PDP) corporator plotting the assassination of his leader Mufti Mohammad Sayeed? In the suspicion-charged milieu in the State there can only be one answer: no. Admittedly, however, it is one of the gory manifestations of an unfortunate phenomenon that has gripped our society. Mutual trust is at a heavy discount. The political class in particular is more in the grip of this malady. In fact, it has always been. One can trace a number of instances of backstabbing beginning with the arrest of Sheikh Abdullah in 1953. The Sheikh's subsequent bitterness to the extent of not even condoling the death of Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad, Sadiq-Qasim tussle, marginalisation of Mirza Afzal Baig and the Farooq Abdullah-G.M. Shah spat have all been part of this trend. If most of these occurrences have involved politicians belonging to the Valley it is because they have dominated the State's politics. They have been more ambitious too evidently because of proximity to power in the State. Politics of the Jammu region that way has been more stable. By and large loyalties have held in tact on this side of the Pir Panjal. A major happening involving a leader belonging to the Jammu region was also triggered by politicians belonging to the Valley. The Sheikh had expelled his close associate Om Prakash Saraf from the National Conference in the late 1940s. He was beguiled into doing so by the Bakshi-D.P. Dhar (he had personally carried the expulsion letter signed by the Sheikh) combine. It is a matter of record that the Sheikh after having become the "Prime Minister" had lost touch with the reality. He had never realised all that his "trusted" aides were doing behind his back. They put him under arrest which was questioned by those who had suffered at his hands. A chastised Sheikh made amends after his return as the Chief Minister and nominated Mr Saraf to the Legislative Council. All said and done politics in the State till the eighties was dictated by certain rules Although it fitted mainly within the contours defined by Machiavelli (with the difference that the "end" was never achieved even though the means adopted by the State were not always "justified") it had a fairly decent sprinkling of Gandhi as well.

The induction of gun at a big scale has dramatically transformed the scenario. There is grave fear that it may be used to straighten out political rivalries. That always is a frightening possibility in a civil society when it goes adrift as it has done in our case. The revelation now about the PDP corporator as well as the husband of a Congress corporator having Lashkar-e-Toiba links should wake up all and one. It is a matter of relief that the Mufti has come to no harm despite devious planning against him. One can't just ignore that the separatist ideologues have already paid a heavy price for having patronised firepower at one stage. Some of them are defending themselves against each other.

It is absolutely necessary to rid the State of the gun culture. There is unsettling impact of this evil which is too glaring. Machiavelli was wrong on many counts. He certainly had erred when he said that "an armed population is a stable population".

Eighty plus club

Some time back we had referred in these columns to quite a few veterans above the age of 80 years who are still active in public life and continue to enrich our environment especially in this region. Many younger people have telephoned us to convey their appreciation. According to a research scholar it has filled in an important gap in his study. At the same time a few discerning readers have pointed out that some deserving names have been left out. One of them is that of top educationist Prof M.R. Puri. The 1921-born Professor had risen from a college lecturer to become Vice-Chancellor of the Jammu University in the mid-eighties. While he is known for his excellence in mathematics, he also puts in appearances at social and academic functions. Way back in 1940 he had won the Maharaja's gold medal for standing first in his favourite subject in BA in the entire State. Two years later he had claimed the second position in MA Mathematics in the Punjab University which then had an extensive jurisdiction including over Jammu and Kashmir. A United States-based relative of eminent retired law officer P.L.Gupta has e-mailed to us regretting the absence of his name from the elite club. Mr Gupta is a former Law Secretary and was associated with the State's Constituent Assembly in his younger days. He will be 85 in the coming April. There are readers who have referred to the non-inclusion in the list of Girdhari Lal Dogra, Krishna Mehta and Raja Jaswant Singh in particular. Obviously they had not carefully read the heading "eighty plus and going strong" which was self-explanatory. Unfortunately Dogra, Krishna Mehta and Raja are no more. The late Dogra was a down-to-earth politician. Despite a long stint in power he always had his both feet firmly on the ground. One could often find him walking in the streets of this city --- whether in or out of power. Krishna Mehta, as the reader himself has written, was close to Nehru. According to him this fact had "helped" her brother Om Mehta (who also sadly has passed away) "to become a confidant of Indira Gandhi". It is debatable, however, whether this alone was the reason for Om Mehta to have occupied the formidable post of Union Minister of State for Home during the Emergency. Raja Jaswant Singh had lent a distinction to the State by becoming a judge of the Supreme Court. Despite personal tragedies in Mirpur in 1947 he had maintained a secular outlook till the end and was widely admired for that. There are many other distinguished persons who have passed into history after making a useful contribution for the development of one facet or the other of the State.

The demise recently of Rana Rajinder Singh, who was a combination of technical expertise and literary genius, too has caused a big void. He was a picture of humility and sagacity and had translated Ghalib into English before his death. Alfred Tennyson's "the old order changeth, yielding place to the new" may represent an eternal truth but society is left poorer with the exit of noble souls. It is necessary that coming generations know what their predecessors had done for them. We hope to act as a credible bridge.

Bofors investigation fiasco

By Kedar Nath Pandey

The same prime minister feigns ignorance about the Bofors investigation fiasco; and how the UPA Government gave a clean chit to the Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi accused of having received kickback in Bofors deal. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) spent crores of rupees on investigation in the hope that Quattrocchi would be expatriated to India and put on trial in order to unravel the kickback mystery.

Nobody knows at whose behest the Government sent one of its officials to the UK along with the additional solicitor general (ASG) to de-freeze Quattrocchi's accounts in British banks. The BJP and CPM have alleged that the ASG undertook the UK visit at the behest of the most powerful in the UPA-the 10-Janpath.

The attack coincided with an inelegant attempt on the part of Union Law Minister H R Bhardwaj, to portray the Italian middleman as innocent. In his anxiety to defend the government decision, the minister claimed that the CBI has no evidence to prove Quattrocchi's involvement in the Bofors kickbacks case. Facts speak otherwise as a CBI case against him exists, and the next hearing is slated for March 31.

The CBI, which had got the Interpol to issue a red corner notice against the fugitive, maintained that it will fight the case against the middleman and "all attempts would be made for his extradition from Italy". In fact, the CBI had sent out three legal requests (LRs) in the case - to Bahamas, Switzerland and Italy. As it is yet to get a final response from these places, the agency cannot say that investigations have concluded and there is no evidence against Quattrocchi.

The Delhi High Court had quashed the case against the Hindujas for their alleged involvement in the case. Quattrocchi is till chargesheeted in the Bofors case and he has not cooperated and appeared in the court so far for the framing of the charges. Further, the CBI has stated that the efforts to bring Quattrocchi to court would continue and the Interpol red alert notice has not been revoked. In such a situation, it is questionable why such legal opinion about the bank accounts has been conveyed to the British authorities. The government has to explain why and how this has happened.

The UPA Government's intervention came after Quattrocchi exhausted all legal options in UK. The middleman had approached the UK courts in 2004 for de-freezing his accounts but his plea was rejected. Why did the political executive of the Government of India make such a request? Why is the government over-anxious that this money be paid to Quattrocchi? Was the money meant for him or meant to be passed on to some one else?

The Law Minister Hansraj Bharadwaj has to do a lot of explaining how he deputed the ASG to make the request to the Crown Solicitor to order the de-freezing of Quattrocchi accounts. Is it within the knowledge of the CBI that the political executive is making a request to de-freeze the accounts? Is it with the approval and authority of the prime minister that a law officer and the ministry of law, were acting towards de-freezing these accounts. The answer to the first question will expose the legal infirmity of the action. The answer to the second will put the prime minister in the dock and raise questions of ethics and morality.

The usual cover-up will be that the Government did not have sufficient evidence against Quattrocchi in the Bofors payoffs case. But it was the CBI document detailing the bank accounts in the UK that led the Supreme Court to uphold the arrest warrant against him nearly six years ago.

It was in 1998 that Quattrocchi, who was then holed up in Malaysia, approached the Delhi High Court seeking quashing of an arrest warrant issued to him in the Bofors case.

The CBI had then opposed the same and submitted to the court a set of documents that showed how financial transactions took place in quick succession, spread over several nations, including the Bahamas, in the wake of the Bofors deal and how the money was deposited in Quattrocchi's accounts in the UK.

Based on these documents, the High Court in August 1998 dismissed Quattrocchi's appeal and ruled the warrant as justified. A subsequent appeal to the Supreme Court also failed to bring succour to Quattrocchi as the SC found "evidence" of Quattrocchi's involvement in the Bofors case enough to justify his arrest.

According to constitutional expert P.P. Rao it is for the CBI to liaise with the British Crown Service. "I don't understand how the Government of India comes into the picture at all," he said adding that this sent a wrong signal on intentions of the government. It is for the CBI to approach the court hearing the case against Quattrocchi to seek closure of the case.

It is upto the court to decide whether the sanction for prosecution of Quattrocchi should be withdrawn after the investigating agency submits a final report saying that there is not sufficient evidence against the accused. It seems that the government has on its files what others are not privy to. The whole episode has put a question mark on CBI's autonomy.

United States of Jammu & Kashmir and Self rule

By O P Modi

The 8th October earthquake has exposed Pakistan’s complete apathy and incapacity to come to the rescue of the people of PoK in times of grim crisis. It is unfortunate that New Delhi too did not press Pakistan hard enough to allow quick relief to the people of Muzzaffarabad and rest of PoK. After all the people of Pak held J&K are as good citizens of India as those of any other part of the state. Indian Parliament reaffirmed this truth through its unanimous resolution of 1994. The right solution for the people of all the regions of erstwhile state of J&K, including PoK, Gilgit and Balitistan, would, therefore, be to establish a federal set up for them. It is high time that India makes an offer to the people of Pak occupied parts to join the proposed federal polity of reunited Jammu & Kashmir while guaranteeing them time bound massive financial and technical assistance for all-round development of their territory.

The state will need to be reorganized on linguistic basis, as United States of Jammu & Kashmir, under Article 370 of the Indian Constitution. Jammu, Kashmir, Ladakh, PoK, Gilgit and Balitistan will constitute its six federating units. These units will have their own Legislatures duly elected by the people. A Senate for the state would be elected by the state legislatures that will govern common subjects affecting the people of the state. Article 370 provides ample scope for Pak held areas to get reunited subjecting only their defence, communication and foreign affairs to New Delhi. Similarly the legislatures of reoraganised states of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh may opt to retain all or any of the Central laws.

It is worthwhile to note that the propounded resolution is slowly taking roots and is being debated at various levels. While the debate moves on the proposal needs to be put in its factual and practical perspective. It is but natural that when a sound solution for a vexed issue comes in sight the political parties try to cast it in their own ideological mould. The catalyst for joining the bandwagon by Valley centered parties in this case is General Musharraf’s proposal of Self-rule for some regions of the state and their demilitarization.

Musharraf’s present proposal is as ambiguous and mischievous as his earlier proposal of dividing the state on communal lines. He had said then that while Pakistan holds two India has five regions of the state under its control. He did not elaborate as to which were those five regions. But going by the two nations theory because of which Pakistan came into existence, one can be sure that the five regions that are in the mind of Parvez Musharraf are the Kashmir Valley and Rajouri-Poonch (Muslim majority areas) and Jammu, Udhampur and Kathua (Hindu majority districts). Even at that time he said that "Identify the regions, demilitarize them for ever and change their status". He talked of granting independence to some region or regions at that time and now he has come out with the Self-rule formula. The new dispensation is nothing but old wine in new bottles.

Chief Minister Gulam Nabi Azad has made some valuable remarks in respect of Self-rule and demilitarization. He has said that Musharraf’s proposal is a "hotchpotch and lacks application of mind". The true independence lies in economic self sufficiency. He said, "The self rule means rule by the people of the people and for the people and this is what we are enjoying here." Regarding demilitarization Azad says more than Jammu & Kashmir Pakistan itself needed demilitarization

The three Valley centered political parties, National Conference, PDP and the Hurriyat Conference seem to have swallowed the bait of Self-rule thrown by General Musharraf. Hoping that NC’s demand for autonomy could some how get Musharraf’s nod the party patriarch Farooq Abdullah went as far as to say "It is no longer a question as to what we do between Kashmir and Delhi. Pakistan too has to be taken into confidence". NC president Omar Abdullah declared that he would take the autonomy report to Pakistan and discuss it with Musharraf. PDP leader Mehbooba Mufti is the strongest supporter of Self-rule concept and has been campaigning for it ever since she spoke of it in a seminar in New Delhi. About Hurriyat Conference the less said the better would it be.

It is an established fact that the Hurriyat Conference gets its inspiration from Pakistan. Its Chief Mir Waiz Umar Farooq met Musharraf in Islamabad a few days back to "discuss" the General’s proposal as well as the Hurriyat’s concept of "United States of Kashmir". Upbeat after meeting the president of Pakistan Mir Waiz has said he will be discussing the details of the proposal of Self-rule and demilitarization with Indian Prime Minister. The Hurriyat Chief need not take the trouble of going to New Delhi with Musharraf’s agenda as India has categorically rejected it by saying that no foreign country can dictate India over demilitarization of any part of the country. New Delhi has also made it clear that the Jammu & Kashmir has an elected government and that the state already enjoys autonomy under the Indian Constitution.

It is indeed amazing that the Kashmiri leaders have so easily forgotten the real face of Pakistan and that of its president General Musharraf. The people of the state have suffered inestimable loss of human life and property, not to speak of the severe loss of economic development for all these 57 years of wars and strife perpetrated by Pakistan from time to time. The hurt, particularly during the past 16 years of Pak inspired terrorism, is difficult to describe. Yet simply to push their own dangerous agendas of autonomy and self-rule they are looking for support from Musharraf; the one who refused to own and take back the dead bodies of Pakistani soldiers killed in the Kargil war and the one who betrayed his own army officers and soldiers fighting alongside the Talibans in Afghanistan. To expect any good for the Kashmiris from General Musharraf is nothing but self-deception of the worst kind.

If they have forgotten Pakistani duplicity of the recent past they must read in details about the military action by Pak army a few days back that was taken to quell the revolt of people of Baluchistan that has been simmering since long. Indiscriminate use of helicopter gunship and jet fighters in which large number of innocent civilians were killed has been reported by the media. The Kashmiri leaders should not forget what Pakistan has done to the people of Gilgit, Hunza and Balitistan which constitute the "Northern Areas" that have been gobbled up by Pakistan.

Territorial integrity, powerful defence, economic independence, unhindered communication infrastructure, and beneficial relationship with foreign countries are the bedrock for a fast healthy growth of a people. Only India can provide these prerequisites to the people of Pak held parts of the state. Last 57 years have proved that Pakistan has miserably failed to fulfill any one of these conditions. Talking of Self-rule without economic independence is meaningless. The state of Jammu & Kashmir is a miniature India so far as its religious, ethnic, cultural and linguistic diversity goes. The permanent resolution of the Kashmir issue lies not in dividing the state on the basis of religion. Even converting LoC into international border would precisely mean that. The lasting solution lies in reorganising the state on linguistic basis into a federal set up.

Terror reaches South

By Tukoji R Pandit

The dastardly attack on the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore on December 28, 2005 which took the life of a mathematician from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, has drawn attention to the fact that after north and western India, south India too is now becoming a hub of terrorists' activities. The east, or more specifically the north-east, has long been a restive place. Thus, there is no part of India which does not face prospects of surprise bomb and suicide attacks on civilians and other soft targets in furtherance of a philosophy of cold-blooded murder, allegedly in the name of religion, and most certainly backed by Pakistan.

The terrorists' intrusion into south India has a clear design as the bulk of India's information technology wealth lies there, as does much of the country's scientific and defence-related research and development work. Less friendly countries in the region look at a city like Bangalore, a symbol of an India on the move, with deep envy and include it among the main Indian targets for carrying out sabotage and killing activities.

It is also likely that the master planners of terrorism lost no time in exploiting the fact that the security agencies in the country have been rather complacent about introducing strict vigilance around scientific and top educational institutions in the south because southern India's physical and 'cultural' distance from the epicentre of terrorism that lies beyond our western borders.

The Bangalore attack, it can be hoped, would compel the authorities to think of ways to neutralise whatever advantages the terrorists have gained in the southern part of the country. More so after it has been established by the Hyderabad police that Andhra Pradesh is the new nursery for terror.

A King pin for the December 28 Bangalore attack, Razi-ur-Rehman alias Abdur Rehman, was picked up from Nalgonda, a small sleepy town about 100km from Hyderabad. He is believed to head the violent operations wing of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba. Naturally, the enforcement agencies are shaken up by the reach and the intensity of commitment of fundamentalist organisations backed by Pakistan Army's Inter-Services Intelligence.

ISI, which began its focus on Kashmir, has been able to spread its network and create sleeper cells across India, largely due to the tardy manner in which India pursues the activities of fundamentalists. Hyderabad and some other areas have harboured fundamentalists for a very long time, from pre-Independence days.

But after 1947 their capability to be a serious nuisance must have eclipsed-till the 1980s when Pakistan adopted a two-pronged strategy to 'bleed' India by first infesting Kashmir and Punjab with terrorists they had carefully trained and then by spreading them out into the rest of the country.

Indian agencies were not unaware of the fact that fundamentalists in Hyderabad and some other areas in south India had started to become more active right in the 1980s. Perhaps it was assumed that they could be contained before they posed any serious security challenge. But things changed unexpectedly in early 1990s. First the Hyderabad communal riots of 1990 followed by the demolition of the Babri mosque in 1992 and then the Gujarat carnage in 2002 saw the fundamentalist elements becoming more active in the south with a lot of youth falling prey to their hate preaching.

The brainwashing of the youth was mostly carried out outside India, in the Middle East where they flocked in search of better life. After picking them up, the 'raw recruits' to jihad were almost invariably sent to Pakistan for training. In recent years, training camps have also sprouted in Bangladesh.

It may be naïve to imagine that no groundwork for preparing the jehadis is ever done in India. There are enough intelligence reports which speak of youths being 'motivated' within India by men trained at ISI-run camps in Pakistan or Bangladesh. Often the 'recruiting agents' are Pakistani nationals who have entered India clandestinely or are lodged in jails.

Of late many of these jehadi 'recruiting agents' of are found to be Indian nationals. They operate under the cover of some front organisation or operate from a very unlikely place: jail. It is disturbing to see reports that many 'criminals' in Indian jails become converts to jihad and terrorism under the influence of some prison inmates.

In fact, many of them come out of the jails as committed operatives, ready to go out on 'missions' on order from the masters in Pakistan. This practice has been going on for quite some time and is not confined to jails in south India.

By way of illustration take the case of a group of youths, Asghar Ali, Shamsuddin, Fasiuddin, Abdul Aziz and Mohammed Rafiq who were arrested on 'criminal' charges and were lodged in Mushirabad district jail became 'full-fledged' operatives of a militant group after daily interaction with hardcore terrorists.

It has also been found that many 'criminals' when they come out of jails after serving their sentence just 'disappear'. Obviously, the security and intelligence agencies have to coordinate to ensure better vigil over the activities of potential terrorists and fundamentalists.

The growth of fundamentalist activists in Andhra Pradesh probably came because the state police have been preoccupied with tackling the challenge from the Naxalites. For that matter, police forces in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka too have had to deal with other serious problems, not the least of which was the long reign of terror during the living years of the 'sandalwood king' Veerappan.

That cannot be offered as an excuse because the Naxal phenomenon in Andhra appears to have grown over the years and the law and order situation in the other two southern states cannot be described as perfect.

The Karnataka government, however, seems to have been jolted by the December 28 attack and has decided to raise an exclusive operational unit to be called 'Operation Tiger Force' to fight terrorism.

It would comprise commandos trained by the National Security Guards. That may be a welcome move, but only just one of the many steps needed to be taken to put down the menace of fundamentalism in that state. Other states too need to follow the example.

(Syndicate Features)