Daily Excelsior... Editorial

EDITORIAL

By R K Bhatnagar

Perhaps Subhash Chandra Bose is the only leader worldwide who had a date of birth (Jan 23, 1897) but no date of death. Even after three Commissions of Enquiry people do not believe that he is no more. Netaji, as he is endearingly addressed, Subhash was an embodiment of rare courage and bravery coupled with a sense of mission .. ..more

Pakistan's sham
war on terror

By Fazal Mehmood

Left- hunting for
electoral adjustments

By Indranil Banerjea

The CPM will continue to be the chief policy obstructionist at the Centre. The draft political resolution for the 19th party Congress acknowledged that anti-BJPism will continue to be the glue that will hold the CPM close to the Congress, but the Centre would have to pay a heavy price. This would mean a heightened attempt on the part of the CPM to get the government tailor ..more

EDITORIAL

Forests on fire

Forest fires are generally described as mysterious occurrences. Their origin is seldom known. It can be natural as well as man-made. It is not surprising, therefore, that official sources don't rule out the possibility of mischief. In fact, according to them, 50 per cent of these fires are caused intentionally. This is done with two nefarious objectives in mind. One is to plunder the green gold. The other is to encroach upon the land. The first reason sounds very convincing. Off and on we come across shocking reports of timber mafias playing havoc with our woods. They can cut trees and then destroy by fire all evidence. Evidently the watch towers and control rooms set up to check them have proved inadequate. It is logical to presume that smugglers can't act without collusion of unscrupulous official machinery. A report in this newspaper recently is quite revealing. It quotes official sources as saying that there have been 999 forest fires in the State during the last three years. These have resulted in the loss of 44 square kilometres of forest area. In terms of money it can only mean crores of rupees. If one has a close look one will find that the number of these happenings has been fluctuating from year to year. There have been an alarming 438 of them so far in the current financial year. As many as 285 of them have taken place in the Jammu region and 153 on the other side of the Pir Panjal. Together they have destroyed 17.4 square kilometres of green patch. There were 227 fires during the last financial year taking a toll of 11.7 square kilometres of forests. Their number in 2005-06 was 334 involving forests spread over 14.6 square kilometres. All these statistics include sizable areas which are under the Wild Life Protection Department. This reality adds to the seriousness of the scenario as one has to take into account the fate of protected species. Most of these cases have been "closed". The Government admits that investigations have not yielded any noteworthy breakthrough.

The conclusion, therefore, that our forests are unsafe will not be misplaced. Besides these fires, we know of several other destructive events. Sawmills have been seized operating in forests in the Valley. How could such blatant violation of the law take place? Frequently there have been clashes between armed plunderers and the forest staff. On quite a few occasions the supposedly protected forest depots have been reduced to ashes in suspicious circumstances in different parts of the State. So far as reserved sanctuaries are concerned it is an open secret that there is hardly any force for ensuring their safety. Long spell of militancy has worsened the situation. Bald patches in the midst of our mountains tell their own heart-rending tale. A responsible minister has recently conceded that the Planning Commission had pulled up the State Government for shrinking forest cover.

There is a snowballing adverse effect of this phenomenon. Our soil is threatened as also our natural water resources apart from, of course, the atmosphere as a whole. To reverse this trend we have to make a beginning from the beginning. We have not only to rescue our forests but also enrich them through fresh plantations. Anybody coming in the way must be firmly dealt with and thoroughly exposed to public view. There can't be any sympathy for those who dare to deprive us of our lungs and thereby of our total well being.

Take notice

One just can't dismiss lightly the fact of a Pakistani terrorist having acquired a genuine voter's identity card in Handwara in the north of the Valley. It was only after he was killed in an encounter that the document was recovered from his body. There was evidence enough that he had obtained the certificate in his own name and not faked it. Our report from Srinagar has pointed out that the concerned tehsil officer's signature as well as official stamp is partly on his photograph and partly on the card. There can't be a more telling proof of a foul play having been flawlessly camouflaged. Obviously it could not have been done without some connivance at the official level which is a matter of grave concern. This raises other relevant queries too. Where was he in the intervening period between gaining a widely accepted identity and his death in an encounter? Last year also a Pakistani militant of Lashkar-e-Toiba was found to have procured a similar card of the Election Commission of India in Handwara. A clerk in the local poll office was then identified as having facilitated the fraudulent exercise. His brother held a senior position in the militants' hierarchy across the Line of Control (LoC). The police recommended the clerk's detention under the Public Safety Act (PSA). But its suggestion continues to gather dust. Why? This Pakistani militant was also gunned down in an encounter. Before that, however, he is stated to have roamed around freely visiting even government offices while apparently gathering information for his purpose. The presence of black sheep in our administrative apparatus has always caused us sleepless nights. Often in the past we have come across instances like police men abandoning their places of duty along with weapons. Right now the atmosphere in the State particularly in the Kashmir region is charged with suspicion on quite a few counts. It is generally believed that as and when we return to the sane milieu we will have many revealing accounts baffling us. Who killed whom how and why is not known in dozens of gory occurrences. If one goes by hearsay the needle of suspicion may simply go berserk.

It can't be denied that a section of the officialdom had developed cold feet in the initial phase of militancy. It was face-to-face with armed threat for the first time. In fact, a large number of politicians as well had then chosen to publicly severe links with their parties when dictated by the gun. To their credit, however, an overwhelming majority of government employees have overcome their despair and are contributing towards the creation of an orderly environment. It is no less because of them that one can say that all of us have walked a long distance during the last nearly two decades. It is a pity that a few bad fish should be out to spoil their good work. They should be thrown out of the pond. There can't be any room for those who join the administration to act as conduits of anti-national forces and bestow legitimacy on them.

Netaji - A leader of vision

By R K Bhatnagar

Jawaharlal Nehru was so impressed by Subhash's work in the INA that he wrote a postscript to 'The Discovery of India', on 29 Dec 1945 saying: "The story of INA, formed in Burma and Malaya during the war years, spread suddenly throughout the country and evoked an astonishing enthusiasm - they became the symbol of unity amongst the various religious groups in India for Hindu, Muslim, Sikh and Christian were all represented in that army. They had solved the communal problems amongst themselves and so why should we not do so?"

For the past 62-years since the 1945 Taihoku plane crash, the nation has been grappling with the Netaji mystery. How did Subhash die? Where and when did he die? Did he live for some period in exile?

Netaji's daughter Anita Plaff believes her father in all probability perished in the air accident. Anita Plaff, 66, who was in India said "I don't think he survived. Unless some fantastically new evidence comes up, if I look at the data available to me, he did not survive".

She also said, "I have been present at the interviews of some of the survivors of the plane crash, including some Japanese officers and their story sounded quite consistent, credible and reasonable".

Elaborating further Anita said "there are stories circulating that my father is still alive. I do not think so. Yes, he continues to remain alive in the memories of scores of people, but it is impossible to believe that he is living at the age of 111".

Anita has a point, if it is true that he is alive now or was alive for some years after the plane crash, Netaji would have definitely established contact with his homeland and not kept quiet for 62 odd years. The Shah Nawaz Committee (1956) and the Khosla Commission (1972), which probed Netaji's disappearance, had concluded that he died in the plane crash.

Subhash was the most enigmatic leader of our freedom struggle. Beginning his political career with the Congress in the 1920 he was elected its president in 1938. The following year in 1939, Bose contested against and won though Mahatma Gandhi threw his weight behind Dr. Sitaramayya, his lone rival, saying "Pattabhi's defeat is my defeat" Gandhi 's opposition of Bose - fostered doubtless by the latter's strong Leftist leanings forced him to resign from the Congress, and he launched the Forward Bloc.

In 1939, the Second World War broke out. Subhash was arrested in Calcutta in July 1940. In December he went on a hunger strike in the prison as a protest against his continued detention and threatened to fast unto death if he was not released. The Government released him but kept a strict vigil at his house to watch his movements. The whole country was thrilled one morning in January 1941 to hear that Subhash had escaped. He got out of the house in the guise of a Muslim divine at dead of night. He got into a car and 40 miles away from Calcutta boarded a train. The tight Pyjama and a long beard made him look like a Maulvi. He reached Peshawar on Jan 17, 1941 and spent two days there. On Jan 19, he drove out of Peshawar, dressed as a Pathan.

The onward journey to Kabul was done partly on foot and partly in lorry in the guise of a deaf and dumb man. In Kabul he underwent the most excruciating physical and mental agonies before he reached Moscow. From Moscow he flew to Berlin in March 1941, with the assumed name of an Italian. It was nearly a year later that he revealed his presence in Berlin by speaking to his countrymen on German radio with glowing tributes to Gandhiji. In fact it was Subhash that called for the first time Mahatma Gandhi as the Father of Nation.

Subash landed in Singapore on July 2, 1943 and from then on knew no rest. Two days later he took over the leadership of the Indian Independence League and the INA from Rash Behari Bose. Netaji's most extraordinary move was to form a provisional government of Azad Hind on Oct 21, 1943 and to declare war on Britain and America. The Azad Hind Government received recognition from nine sovereign countries soon.

In a broadcast from Rangoon addressed to Mahatma Gandhi seeking his blessings, Netaji said, "Once our enemies are expelled from India and peace and order were established, the mission of the Provisional Government would be over. The only reward that we desire for our efforts, for our suffering and for our sacrifice, is the freedom of our motherland. There are many of us who would like to retire from the political field once India is free".

Such was his vision and thought.

Subhash inculcated in the INA not only courage and bravery but inspired supreme self confidence and fearlessness in the face of odds. The INA soldiers marched mainly on foot. They traversed the whole distance of 1100 miles separating Singapore from the Imphal front on foot. There were occasions when Subhash himself walked for miles. There were no fixed scales of pay. Everybody got enough to cover his needs. A Lieutenant got Rs.85, a captain Rs.125, a Major Rs.180, a Lt. Col Rs.300 and a Col. Rs.400. Yet there was a time when no body got more than Rs.250 for months.

Subhash collected donations from Indians through out Asia. Once during a mammoth meeting in Rangoon a flower garland which had earlier been offered to him fetched rupees two lakhs when auctioned. In Penang a small flower vase was presented to Netaji. He announced his intention to auction it for Rs.25000. His eyes were filled with tears when the first bid was for Rs.51000. He collected Rs.25 crores from Indians in Burma now Myanmar. A Muslim business man gave away all his worldly possession worth over a crore of rupees. He even established a national Bank of Azad Hind in Rangoon. Once when the Burma Government had no money to make payments to its soldiers the Bank made a gift of Rs. 5 lakhs.

In brief Subhash was an embodiment of bravery and courage. He struck a new path, although he had earlier been following the Gandhian line. In statesmanship administrative ability and catholicity of views he was like Akbar. Morally, spiritually and intellectually he was like Swami Vivekananda.

(Syndicate Features)

Pakistan's sham war on terror

By Fazal Mehmood

The volatile religious politics in Pakistan is posing a serious threat to the very existence of the Islamic Republic. We have daily news items of extremists' attacks on security forces deployed to bring some semblance of law and order. The monsters of Taliban and Al Qaida were created by political leadership of Pakistan without realizing that "once you ride a tiger you cannot dismount". The creation of Taliban was intended to have strategic depth in Afghanistan as a satellite state. The situation in Pakistan continues to cause concern not only to Afghanistan and India but also to the major players in the war on terror.

However, the present rulers of Pakistan have been ignoring protestations being made by the concerned countries and, consequently, Islamist forces continue their activities which, apart from Pakistan, also directly impinge on the security of Afghanistan and India. In the wake of the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, it is doubly important to examine the reasons behind Pakistan's covert encouragement of Islamist forces for geostrategic reasons, which is now being realized by even Pakistan's mentor the United States and its Western allies.

Several recent developments indicate that six years since 9/11 the Washington-led alliance is tired of camouflaging its repeated failures to make a significant headway in normalising and developing Afghanistan and is in its desperation seeking a short-cut to sneak out of its commitment to the fledging republic.

Such a tendency on the part of the alliance would work fine for Pakistan's interests, as happened when the United States unceremoniously abandoned Afghanistan after the end of the Soviet occupation in the post-1989 period, and effectively allowed Islamabad to set up the fundamentalist Taliban to act as its surrogate in Kabul. For six years since 26 September, 1996 when the Taliban captured Kabul, this Pakistan-led arrangement was firmly in place until the Twin Towers came down in New York City and the war on terror was born.

Roughly for about two years since December 2001 when the Taliban regime was thrown out and the international community gathered around Afghanistan to repair its wounds and restore it to democratic and developmental health, the Taliban and Al Qaida lay disjointed in safe havens in the North-West Frontier Province. All through this period, Pakistan's carefully manufactured model of strategic depth in Afghanistan lay in tatters, and diplomats and analysts felt that Islamabad had at last given up on the concept.

But Islamabad apparently bade its time and was quick to sense its opportunity in playing its designated role of an ally in the war on terror. An enraged Bush administration is now broadcasting to the world that it has been continuously hoodwinked by Pakistan as far as the anti-Taliban campaign is concerned.

Despite the years and billions of dollars spent in the war on terror, the Taliban has not only grown from strength to strength but has also succeeded in enlarging its presence inside Afghanistan and to some extent in neutralising peace and security and political and economic development in the country. Thus, while Pakistan has ensured that the Taliban become a stronger threat to the democratic Afghan government, it has also succeeded in diverting anti-terror US funds and weapons to gear up for a potential military conflict with India.

It is significant that Islamabad has not cared to change its course during the last two years or so when Washington first admitted that President Pervez Musharraf had been consistently hoodwinking it by not sincerely going after the Taliban in particular; there were of course spectacular eliminations and arrests of a few senior Al Qaida and Taliban operatives within Pakistan, but Islamabad was patently more sincere about weakening indigenous Islamists (who were political opponents to the Musharraf regime) rather than Afghan Taliban and non-Afghan Al Qaida.

balloon.

To put things in perspective, there has also been much "pro-NREGA" propaganda, mainly from the Government. For instance, according to a recent note from the Press Information Bureau (released on December 28, 2007), the NREGA is nothing short of a "tremendous success." This assertion, not backed by any serious evidence, is typical of the ostrich-like attitude of the Central Government to the hurdles that are holding up the implementation of the NREGA. Government propaganda, however, is relatively innocuous since the public knows that official claims have to be taken with a pinch of salt. Corporate propaganda is more subtle, and thus more insidious. INAV

Even in these cases, Islamabad often acted only after repeated prodding by Washington which first detected the presence of these elements in Pakistani territory and passed on the intelligence to Pakistan. An increasingly unhappy US administration seems to be especially piqued over the recent realisation that Islamabad has also short-changed it in reimbursements of claimed inflated campaign expenditure. The administration has since come up with a new disbursement plan earmarking funds for specific jobs, even identifying military equipment and training regimes which should now get the apportioned dollars.

The importance of US funds for Pakistan is evident in the fact that these account for roughly one quarter of its $4 billion military budget. However, the Musharraf regime need not feel despondent just because Washington has only lately got wise to its doctoring of accounts and shifting of military hardware from the war on terror to future sub-continental conflict. The British Government has just been caught holding secret parleys with Taliban leaders, and by no means surprisingly, it is now also known that London and Washington are together in this backdoor game of smuggling in the Taliban for a larger role in Afghanistan. INAV

Left- hunting for electoral adjustments

By Indranil Banerjea

The CPM, which holds the BJP as its enemy number one, considers the Congress as an ally in the immediate run. However, it said the situation could change if the non-Congress parties manage to float a credible alternative to the two poles in the national politics. This alternative, the CPM said, should have an agenda compatible with that of the Left. "It should be consistently anti-communal. We cannot have any party which has any softness towards the BJP. It should share our views on development and foreign policy. It should not be a mere electoral alliance." The CPM also acknowledged that the BSP's victory highlighted the challenges posed by Ms. Mayawati's mobilisational techniques.

The mobilisation based on caste identities posed a major threat to other political formations. The BSP, by utilising its Dalit base, has sought to build wider caste alliances for electoral purposes. More and more rightist parties are banking on caste identities, and trying to build caste combinations. Such caste mobilisation poses serious problems for Indian democracy.

Surprisingly the CPM blamed the Congress party, the BJP and the BSP that these parties don't have leaders of quality who could inspire people to fight for their legitimate rights. These political formations are serving sectarian interests to rule the country in Adolf Hitler style.

There is the tortuous relationship between the leader and the led. This happens largely because big ideas like the larger truth, morph with time, which leaders are often unable to fully fathom. In the current context, the leadership of the Congress, BJP, Left and emerging regional parties would do well to pay attention to lessons from history. Some of the greatest and most celebrated leaders in history have had to grapple with the constantly evolving nature of the very idea and vision that brought them and their followers together in the first place.

Alexander had seized his people's imagination as one who wanted to create a global empire by conquering Asia. After years of expansionist campaign when Alexander crossed over to the Asian sub-continent, nearly half his army had virtually rebelled against his big vision of combining Europe and Asia into a single zone. Alexander was forced to retreat. Another greater leader, Julius Ceasar, fell out with his followers as he, and later Mark Antony were seen as having given too many concessions to Egypt and Cleopatra. Both had to face the fury of their followers.

The post nation-state phase of history is also replete with examples of how the original idea or vision that bound people to their leaders began to change and eventually caused serious differences between the people and the leadership. This dissonance develops in society when there is inadequate appreciation of the well known Hegelian dictum of history as ideas in motion. So the central idea that drives a polity or society constantly changes. But leaders are often unable to keep track. As witnessed both in the erstwhile Soviet Union and China through the decades after World War II, the Communist leadership did not show adequate understanding of what the people might have desired over a period of time. Typically, the leadership got stuck with a single and stagnant vision of collectivisation as a panacea for society. This may have had some relevance in its time, but progressively fell into a straitjacket of top down ideological governance framework that eventually caused a serious lack of compatibility between the people and the leadership.

Of course, more democratic polities create an institutionalised opportunity for the leadership to understand what sort of modifications are required in the big vision that the people might have endorsed in the initial phase of national development. However, despite such bottom up signalling mechanisms that democracies afford, leaderships often fail to grasp the subtler, more nuanced messages coming from below. This is particularly true of Indian polity in the way it has evolved in the recent decades. The fragmentation of politics and the emergence of competing groups staking their claim on the state's resources have caused immense anxiety. Particularly contested has been the notion of secularism in recent decades. Consequently, some of the big ideas embraced in the post-Independence period and broadly endorsed by much of the political class are now being increasingly debated and questioned, whether it is fresh reservations for non-upper caste groups, preemptive claim by other disadvantaged sections over the state's resources or the nature of socialism and secularism practised from Indira Gandhi's time to the present.

The sheer confusion among the political class has been most evident in the past two decades, particularly on the question of what sort of development model should India adopt, which would appeal to the disempowered at large. The Congress party appears to be mindlessly repackaging old slogans which find little resonance with the people. There is yet no clear consensus over the nature of the state-market mix in powering broader economic development. Most politicians, whether ruling at the Centre or states, are implementing market-based reforms but find it difficult to openly talk about it before the people. All talk of reform ends once elections are announced.

The BJP too is trying hard to pull out of its hat some new vision for India, which might be acceptable across different castes and communities. Successive election results at the Centre have clearly made BJP aware of the limitations of its core ideology. After Modi's stunning victory in Gujarat, the BJP appears to be showing signs of wanting to repackage national security concerns with development and good governance at the central level. How sincere this attempt will be, without slipping back to minority bashing, remains to be seen. INAV