EDITORIAL
Ralmil bolo
It gives us immense joy
that 52 devotees from Pakistan have undertaken darshan
of Mata Vaishno Devi. This is for the first time
that such a large group of pilgrims came from the
neighbouring country to pay obesaince at the Trikuta
hills. The legend has it that only those are able to
conclude this trip who get invitations from the Mata.
Indeed, their wish has been finally granted by the
Goddess. For their part they are extremely happy to have
realised a dream. Not surprisingly, therefore, they have
described their journey "a miracle" that has
become possible because of the blessings of Vaishno Devi.
All of them belong to the minority Hindu community
inhabiting Pakistan's Sindh province which is adjoining
the Thar desert in Rajasthan in our country. They have
made a detour via the Wagah border on a 15-day visa they
will avail themselves of to visit the holy cities of
Amritsar and Haridwar as well. It means that in the
prosperous Punjab town they will get a chance to bow
their heads in reverence at the Golden Temple and
Durgiana Mandir in addition to having a glimpse of the
historic Jallianwala Bagh which represents the stirring
common past of India and Pakistan. In Haridwar they will
have a dip in the Ganga which is the living Mother
Goddess. No other river in the world is held in such
reverence as is the Ganga born from the divine feet of
Vishnu, preserved in the kamandal of Brahma,
sustained in His locks by Shiva and brought to earth by
Bhagirath. She is the wife of King Shantnu and the mother
of the one and only Bhisham Pitamah. Jawaharlal Nehru has
noted: "The Ganges (as the Ganga is often spelt in
English), above all is the river of India, which has held
India's heart captive and drawn uncounted millions to her
banks since the dawn of history. The story of the Ganges,
from her source to the sea, from old times to new, is the
story of India's civilisation and culture, of the rise
and fall of empires, of great and proud cities, of
adventures of man…"
One sincerely hopes that
the Pakistani guests will remember their pilgrimage for a
long time. No effort should be spared to ensure that
their stay is comfortable. Their visit has coincided with
the completion of three years of "karvan-e-aman",
the bus service between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad across
the Line of Control (LoC). It is a blissful coincidence.
This is evidence enough that the feel-good factor has
gained further momentum in the sub-continent. We
certainly look forward to a day when the people all over
the sub-continent will be able to move around freely
without any hindrance. For this to materialise it is
incumbent upon us to weed out terrorists and their
patrons from among us.
For the moment, however,
let us celebrate the arrival of guests from Pakistan and
join them in hailing Vaishno Devi: "O Prem Se
Bolo Jai Mata Di, O Sare Bolo Jai Mata Di, O Ralmil Bolo
Jai Mata Di, O Meetha Bolo Jai Mata Di" (let's
state it with love, let all of us say it with one voice,
let all of us speak it together, let us hail in the
sweetest voice Glory to You O Divine Mother).
Dreams never die
All of us wish and pray
that Sachin Tendulkar realises his dream of winning the
World Cup for India in 2011. In a recent interview he has
said: "Winning the World Cup is certainly still an
unfulfilled dream and I would love to play in it."
He is being realistic: "But 2011 is still some way
to go, and I don't want to look that far and commit
myself to anything." On current reckoning, however,
one can say with a lot of hope that Sachin will still be
in the playing arena three years from now. He has
repeatedly proved that he continues to be better than
cricketers much younger than him. His stamina is
unfailing and his technique admittedly the best in the
world. It is true that his form has nosedived on
occasions. Once he has been booed in Mumbai, of all
places, for a poor performance. Injuries too have taken a
toll of him: in fact, he has been rested for the second
and third Tests against South Africa in the ongoing
series on the home turf because of groin injury.
Nevertheless he has suffered less on all these counts
compared to the majority of other players. All cricketers
have their share of fine and adverse moments. Sachin is a
great exception in the sense that he has been mostly
good. He himself puts it rather humbly: "I am
enjoying my cricket at the moment and don't want to think
too much into the future. I have been playing almost
non-stop for 20 years and want to focus only on the
present. I prefer to take series by series." His
achievements are momentous. He has scored the most
centuries in Tests and one-day cricket and is just 171
runs away from becoming Test cricket's highest
run-getter, a feat that he should attain sooner rather
than later. If he plays in 2011 which millions of his
fans will like him to do he will be achieving another
milestone --- a record sixth appearance in the World Cup
which is to be jointly hosted then by South Asian
neighbours India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
Sachin has so far fulfilled his ambition "to play
well and score as many runs as possible. That has been my
motivation." Of course, with his latest utterance he
has reminded us of British scholar C.S. Lewis's
celebrated observation: "You are never too old to
set another goal or to dream a new dream."
Dreams are parts of
everyone's life. It is the only the brave and virtuous
who don't give up their pursuit. The last lines of a song
sung by Tiffany (incidentally her career was down at that
stage) are: "I've still got my dreams. And they
will never die. Never, never, never." It is the
beauty of human mind that it can dream anything that it
wants to dream. What is required is the courage and
strength to translate it into a reality. Sachin has
displayed plenty of both the qualities. He apparently
believes: "Excellence can be obtained if you: care
more than others think is wise; risk more than others
think is safe; dream more than others think is practical;
expect more than others think is possible." Good
luck to him in his latest hunt.
Expanding
terror infrastructure
By Jayant Muralidharan
The
Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), a
banned organisation, almost managed a place at a
Delhi high table when an international agency
organised a meeting between its leaders and UN
special rapporteur on freedom of religion, Asma
Jehangir. The international agency retreated when
the government got a whiff of the proposed
meeting and told the meeting's hosts that SIMI
was a banned outfit and any meeting would invite
charges under Unlawful Activities Prevention Act.
SIMI
has of late has been making attempts to protect
its assets by purveying a spurious theory about a
hard-liners' and moderates' split in its ranks.
The so- called moderates recently convened a
meeting in Kerala to devise a strategy for
selling the theory. A section, which bough into
the claim, advertised that moderates were unhappy
with subversive activities of the hard-liners.
Recent
reports in the media had talked about former SIMI
president Shahid Badr Falahi convening a meeting
of its activists in Kerala's Aluva. This meeting
sought revocation of the ban on the outfit.
Intelligence officers familiar with the
functioning of the outfit said the attempts to
project a section as 'political Islamists' is
part of an attempt to regroup.
The
onslaught of slain jungle emperor Veerappan, the
picturesque State of Karnataka is beset with a
more fatal problem-- that of a well-oiled terror
hub operating as much from the heart of its
jungles as it is from the centre of its hi-tech
city. Coming from well-placed and educated
professionals, terror in Karnataka has become a
point of worry in top echelons.
This
could well be the first time that a terrorist
camp used by Islamist fundamentalists has been
detected in southern India, where a spate of
terror attacks in the last few years, such as the
Hyderabad's Mecca mosque and the Indian Institute
of Science in Bangalore, have been witnessed.
These attacks expose a serious chink in the
country's intelligence armour. This chilling
evidence came to light during the interrogation
of three Islamist radicals arrested
recently--Riyazuddin Nasir alias Mohammed Ghouse,
Asadullah Abu Bakar and Mohammed Asit.
The
nature's bounty is being abused by human
intervention, not just the existence of the camp
and the fact that the likes of prime suspect
Ghouse allegedly worked for a terror organisation
in Pakistan through intermediaries is of vital
importance.
According
to officials, students are the main targets for
SIMI activists who brainwash them to take to
Islamic cause. Active members of SIMI closely
observe Muslim students, especially of
engineering and medical streams and evaluate them
on various parameters including their religious
faith, temperament and other attributes.
Meanwhile,
in what could unravel the actual penetration of
terror in southern states, especially Karnataka,
in major crackdown on the banned SIMI the Madhya
Pradesh police raided several places in Indore a
fortnight back and arrested 13 top leaders of the
organisation, including its Karnataka head. Other
heads in the net are from Kerala, Uttar Pradesh,
Haryana, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh.
Among
those in the police net are SIMI's Madhya Pradesh
chief Safdar Nagori, his brother Kamruddin
Nagori, Aamir Pervez, Hafiz Hussain and Shivli.
Their names figure in number of bomb blasts in
other states. While Hussain is the SIMI chief of
Karnataka, Shivli is the mainstay of SIMI
operations in Kerala. Shivli too is wanted for
several blasts. The MP police have sent out teams
to the states concerned to find out more about
the activities of these two.
Back
in Bagalore, the arrest of Yahya Kammakutty, a B.
Tech graduate and a former employee of Tata
Infotech and GE Wipro Healthcare, by the
Karnataka police last month had revealed SIMI's
rising clout among educated Muslim youths in
Karnataka and Kerala. Among the half-a-dozen
persons arrested in Karnataka for suspected SIMI
links, at least four were found to be medical
students and some IT professionals.
SIMI's
major funding source is suspected to be charities
in Saudi Arabia. Interrogation of Yaha had
revealed that he had made several trips to the
Middle-East. These visits were probably made in
connection with raising funds. The banned outfit
operates through several front organisations
registered as NGOs and has several publications,
printed regularly, professing its ideology.
The
intelligence and investigating agencies had
indicated that the Muslim IT Professionals
Association, a Bangalore based voluntary
organisation, is propagating fundamentalist
values and fostering terror links among IT
professionals in the guise of social service.
However, there have been strong reactions from
Muslim techies.
Analysts
talk of two theories in this context. While some
feel that Karnataka may not be the target for
terrorist attacks, but a safe zone for scheming
attacks in different parts of Southern India,
including Hyderabad and Tamil Nadu, others feel
that the state is as vulnerable as any other in
the region. The vulnerability is largely
attributed to the fast stride that the state has
made in terms of economic and commercial
activities in fields like IT and biotechnology.
INAV
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Indo-Pak
relations
By Amulya Ganguli
Pakistan
is passing through a curious stage in its short
history. Although the dictatorship has suffered a
blow, the dictator is still there. Pervez
Musharraf may not be as powerful as before,
mainly because he is no longer in direct command
of the army. But there is no certainty about how
he may react if the new government makes a
serious attempt to clip his wings. The army, too,
may not like one of its former chiefs being
humiliated in any way, for that will be a direct
assault on its prestige.
India,
therefore, has to tread cautiously, as it has
always had to do, in dealing with the new regime.
Although there have been hopeful signs, as when
Asif Ali Zardari sought to put Kashmir on the
back burner. But his subsequent reference to the
"martyrs" who had laid down their lives
for Kashmir's "independence" showed
that no Pakistani leader, military or civilian,
can go beyond a point on this issue.
Kashmir
is not the only impediment for an immediate
improvement in ties. Even more troublesome is the
continuing assistance which the ISI provides to
the terrorists. For India, a great test of
goodwill of the new government will be the steps
it takes to dismantle the terrorist
infrastructure, which includes the subterranean
links between the militants and the rogue
elements in the Pakistan establishment. Whether
Zardari and Nawaz Sharif have the necessary will
and the gumption to uproot these poisonous weeds
are still unclear.
Central
to any initiative which the leaders of the
Pakistan People's Party and the Muslim League
(Nawaz) may take curb the jehadis in the
country's polity is the question of the
durability of their alliance. There can be little
doubt that it is a makeshift arrangement
necessitated by Benazir Bhutto's sudden death.
Prior to that, the PPP under her was an ally of
Musharraf with American support. Only the public
anguish over her death, and the belief that
Musharraf was at least indirectly responsible,
compelled her party to align with Nawaz Sharif in
spite of the latter's pronounced antipathy
towards Musharraf and, as a spin-off, towards the
US.
That
Washington still has a soft corner for the
President is no secret. Hence, the reports that
it is trying to ensure that its man in Islamabad
is not forced to swallow the bitter pill of all
the deposed judges, especially the former chief
justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhary, being
reinstated. It is not impossible that both
Musharraf and the US are biding their time,
waiting for any sign of rift between the PPP and
the Muslim League (N).
Notwithstanding
America's professed preference for democracy, it
is apparently uneasy about politicians in this
region, mainly because of their intrinsic
anti-Americanism, which, in turn, is a reflection
of the sentiment among large sections of the
ordinary people. Musharraf is also stoking this
feeling by claiming that the US military may
attack the tribal regions if he is removed as the
head of state, and whisk away A.Q.Khan for
interrogation.
India,
on the other hand, cannot hope to emulate the
Americans by waiting. It has to take forward the
momentum of improved ties from the Musharraf days
to the present period lest it be accused of
harbouring feelings of schadenfreude. Since India
subscribes to the thesis that democracies do not
go to war, this is the best time to try and mend
relations since there is little likelihood of a
military coup in the near future. It may be
worthwhile to recall in this context that the
wars of 1965 and 1971 took place when Pakistan
was under the military dictatorships of Ayub Khan
and Yahya Khan while the Kargil conflict was
instigated by the then army chief Musharraf
behind Nawaz Sharif's back.
India's
hope, therefore, lies in the belief that, given
time, democracy will sort out most problems even
if the customary display of contentious views in
public gives the impression of a
"functioning anarchy", as India was
once described by John Kenneth Galbraith. Among
the positive signals emanating from Pakistan is
the selection of a woman, Fehmida Mirza, as the
Speaker of the National Assembly, dispelling the
impression that the country was sliding into some
kind of a less virulent Afghanistan where women's
position in society was concerned. Considering
that not long ago, militant women and young girls
- "chicks with sticks", as they were
called in Pakistan - had occupied a mosque in the
heart of Islamabad, the latest developments
denote a marked change of the social climate.
Zardari
and Nawaz Sharif, too, have been speaking in
measured tones, at least to the Indian media,
suggesting that they have understood the futility
of an endless confrontation with India -
something which even Musharraf had realized, even
if under American pressure. It will be also fair
to point out that Nawaz Sharif had responded
warmly to Atal Behari Vajpayee's remarkable
initiative in undertaking the bus journey to
Lahore in 1999. If Nawaz Sharif carries on from
where he left off on being deposed by Musharraf,
then the chances of a new beginning in mutual
relations are bright.
Manmohan
Singh's proposed visit, therefore, will arouse
more than the usual interest. In addition to his
talks with the new Pakistan Prime Minister, Syed
Yousaf Raza Gillani, his interaction with
Zardari, who has said that he wants to be the
power behind the throne like Sonia Gandhi, and
with Nawaz Sharif will show whether the two
countries can successfully continue the process
of putting the past behind them. (IPA Service)
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Food
security with price control
By Sisir
Basu
In search of a third
alternative, Left parties and the United
National progressive Alliance (UNPA) will
have a joint nationwide protest against
price rise from 16 to 23 April, just
after Parliament reconvenes for the
second part of the Budget Session.
Provoked by rising inflation, the Left
parties had announced their independent
programmes to highlight the common man's
plight. They will now join the Samajwadi
Party Telugu Desam Party-led UNPA for a
"joint struggle" on the issue,
and to show their solidarity on
pro-people issues. A major event during
the protest week will be a symposium in
New Delhi on April 19, where economic
experts will join the Left and UNPA
leaders in presenting the economic
perspective on the price-rise issue.
It is felt that people are
aware of the nexus between a section of
dishonest businessmen and politicians who
are finally responsible for rising
prices. It's surprising that when
millions are dying due to spiralling
prices, the government is reluctant to
clamp down and, instead, claims that the
international economic situation is
responsible for this. Ordinary people are
resigned to their fate and this has led
to the poor becoming poorer and the rich
richer. No one in India seems capable of
unravelling this price rise mystery. It's
unfair that a section of people cast
aspersions on the media that it twiddles
it thumb at the price rise. Those who
think the media is doing nothing except
making a virtue out of necessity should
understand that in our decaying society,
what the media is doing for the welfare
of people beggars description. The
volte-face by both the government and
industrialists has become the order of
the day.
There was a time when the
government and industrialists would give
importance to media reports against
mismanagement and profit making. Because
of this, the government would rectify the
policies laid down and extend a helping
hand to the common people. But those
precedents no longer hold good. It's true
that common people have resigned to price
escalation. But what can they do? Profits
made at their cost take a heavy toll and
any number of venal politicians know how
to tackle protesters. There is a lack of
good leaders who can tackle rigged
markets and serve responsibly.
Food security calls for
long-term planning in order to correct
the mismatch between demand and supply.
Foodgrains don't fetch attractive prices
and farmers are migrating to cash crops.
The trend is not unique to India; in
countries like the US farmers are
shifting from corn to biofuels. As rice
and wheat prices off the farm don't
reflect the increase in input costs,
there is need to incentivise cereal
production. One way to make foodgrain
cultivation profitable is to increase
productivity.
Experts claim that a 50 per
cent increase in yields is possible if we
judiciously use technology that is
currently available. Our average yields
per hectare in rice and wheat are half
that of China. Moreover, the pressure on
land is only going to increase as India
rapidly urbanises, as such, the focus
ought to be on increasing productivity
and plugging leakages in procurement and
distribution. Better extension services
and procurement and distribution networks
are necessary if food prices are to be
kept under check. All such policies have
to benefit both producers and consumers.
Else, onion-tears will be shed.
The present predicament is
compounded by the sins of omission and
commission of many past governments, all
of whom neglected agriculture. But the
Indian public is known to be merciless
when it comes to punishing governments
that are unable to deliver on the price
front. Hardly the scenario any government
would like to countenance in the run-up
to the polls!
The problem is there isn't
very much the government can do to cool
prices. With global prices of food and
oil showing little signs of easing-the
latest issue of The Economist magazine
shows food and oil prices up 54 per cent
and 66 per cent respectively over the
year -- pressure on the wholesale price
index from both primary articles and
energy prices is likely to continue. Add
to that the recent increase in metal
prices that has spilled over into higher
prices for manufactured product and the
outlook on the price front is distinctly
gloomy. If inflationary expectations
intensify, as they are likely to, over
the coming months (post the Sixth Pay
Commission (SPC) Report and increased
government spending on social schemes),
the government could be well set for a
hell of a closing.
It is no consolation that
slowing growth and rising inflation seems
to be global phenomena. Of the 43
countries for which The Economist lists
data on consumer prices, every single one
had higher prices than a year ago. But
that is unlikely to cut any ice with the
man on the street. So where does that
leave the government? The answer; not
very far! Policy makers have tried a
number of fiscal steps--cutting tariffs--
as well as administrative steps like
banning exports of selective food items.
And though the full impact on prices is
yet to be felt, it is unlikely to be
significant.
Arm twisting producers into
cutting/ capping prices will only cause
trade to go underground and will have
long-term deleterious effects as well.
Monetary tightening will not be of much
help either, as monetary policy acts with
a lag. Worse, it has broad-brush impact
that is not advisable when growth is
already slowing. Rupee appreciation is an
option that might help but, again, only
at the margin.
But politics is about
playing to the gallery. No government,
least of all one with elections hangings
over its head, can afford to be seen like
Nero, fiddling while Rome burnt. Hence
the desperation!
In the circumstances the
best bet would be to reduce tariffs
further (wherever possible), cut back on
wasteful spending, refrain form fuelling
inflationary expectations (read, stagger
the pay outs from the SPC report and
credit arrears to provident fund
accounts), crack down on smuggling of
rice through the Indo-Bangladesh border
and improve delivery for those priced out
of the market, if necessary by
restricting the public distribution
system (PDS) to those below the poverty
line.
That's in the short-term.
Long-term, there is no alternative but to
make amends for years of neglect of
agriculture; in other words, increase
public investment, restore the extension
system that played a vital role in the
Green Revolution of the 1960s, revitalise
the Seed Corporation and most important
of all, introduce market-based reform.
Unfortunately, the reform
process of the 1990s has completely
bypassed agriculture even as it has
liberated industry from the shackles of
the licence-permit raj. Under the guise
of supporting agriculture, we subsidise
inputs (read, provide free/under- priced
power, water and fertilisers). So we have
cropping patterns that bear no relation
to soil-agro-climatic conditions- for
instance, water-intensive sugar cane is
grown in the semiarid areas of the
Deccan, and as quid pro quo for this
support we impose all kinds of
restrictions on output- on sale/pricing
and export.
The result is a maze of
controls and distortions suppressing both
market signals and the animal spirits of
farmers. All these controls need to be
scrapped. Yes, small farmers and landless
labourers might get hurt in the process.
However the answer to that is not to tie
farmers up in knots but to adopt a
differentiated approach for large and
small farmers. Remove all controls on
large farmers and allow them access to
market-based mechanisms like futures
markets. For the rest, including small
farmers, landless labourers and others
who may be priced out of the market, have
a well functioning PDS through grains
procured from the market. INAV
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