EDITORIAL
An open secret
Kashmir Singh is not the
first person to have worked as a secret agent for a
country. But he is certainly one of the few to have met a
better fate. He has narrowly survived hanging in
Pakistan. Not many undercover spies are so fortunate. His
admission at a meet-the-press programme in Chandigarh
that he had indeed worked for Indian intelligence
agencies in the neighbouring country is stating the
obvious. Pakistan had no doubt about his actual status
and, one must say, has been sympathetic in the end
towards a person who had spent more than three decades in
its jails. However, it is his complaint about the neglect
of his family by his employer network that gives us some
food for thought. His grievance says all: "I gave up
my religion for the sake of my country but neither I nor
my family got anything in return." He had cut short
his hair and become a Muslim reciting "namaz"
and observing "rozas" to pass off as a
Pakistani under the assumed name of Ibraham. All his
family had got was Rs 5000 after he was sentenced to
death in 1978. His wife toiled hard in agricultural
fields to look after their three children. Viewed in this
context the Punjab Government's moves to rehabilitate him
are to be welcomed even though these have not come too
soon. It is possible that Kashmir Singh may find it
difficult to legally establish the identity he is
claiming now. Espionage modules normally don't have any
official veneer. Working in alien lands they don't have
diplomatic immunity and cover. Actually the moment their
disguise is ripped off they become too hot potatoes for
their bosses to hold and are more often dropped. Their
varied facets have been seen during intense rivalry at
one time between the KGB (Russian abbreviation of
erstwhile Soviet Union's intelligence agency Committee
for State Security) and its United States' equivalent
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). They have been
deported, imprisoned and executed. They have been shot by
their own men on becoming a liability. Of course, they
have been condemned to die in prisons of other countries.
Israelis and Palestinians have gunned for each other at
every available opportunity. In our country, security
forces have busted many Pakistani spy units involving
people with access to top offices and military
establishments. This has happened in our State as well.
In any event we in this part of the country are not
unfamiliar to the dirty tricks of clandestine and double
dealers.
Undoubtedly it requires
high degree of motivation for a person to step into the
role of a spy in unfamiliar terrain. Only the people with
rare nerve can perform the job. It is obvious that there
is monetary inducement. A lot of other promises may also
be made which may or may not be kept. It is not easy to
live in anonymity they opt for. What keeps them going is
the sentiment that they are serving their country. It is
reasonable to assume that some inhabitants of this region
have been drafted for the purpose in Pakistan. The
neighbouring country must have also done likewise in the
State and the country. There is striking similarity of
language, customs and terrains between the two countries.
An outsider with a working knowledge of Punjabi can walk
through a greater part of Pakistan without being
detected. On the other hand, our diversity is sought to
be exploited by our enemies with the help of corrupt and
devious elements. If one thinks it seriously one will
agree that it is a mutually destructive arrangement.
Nevertheless it is considered essential whenever the
countries live in a state of perpetual hostility. It is
has been in vogue from ancient times. Currently the
spying is backed by ultra-modern equipment. Space
satellites, reconnaissance planes, snooper ships,
electronic interceptors and targeted missiles are its
essential components. Who can forget that the US had
nearly hit Osama bin Laden in his hideout in Afghanistan?
There are few secrets in today's globe. Yet, secret
agents are considered necessary. It is one of those
inexplicable ironies.
Several novels and movies
--- English as well as Hindi --- have depicted this
phenomenon. "The Spy who came in from the
cold" --- the description applied to Kashmir
Singh --- comes in from the title of a 1963 espionage
novel by John le Carre which was adopted into a film in
1965 by Richard Burton. It is believed that "The
Secret Agent: A Simple Tale" by Joseph Conard is
one of the first modern novels to deal with spies,
anarchists and terrorists. Our Bollywood too has made
sizable contribution in this regard. One can readily
recall "Aankhen" (made in 1968) and "The
Hero: Love Story of a Spy" (2003). Our films,
however, are not the best portrayal of spies as they tend
to lose their thrust because of misplaced emphasis on
music and romance. The world of secret agents is far more
cruel and ruthless. A case in point is Kashmir Singh's
life including his subsequent denial aimed at avoiding
embarrassment to his saviours in Pakistan. No country can
take a lenient view of any threat to its unity and
integrity. It is perfectly understandable. Given the
fact, however, that New Delhi and Islamabad are firm
about mending their fences it should be possible for them
to consider the case of spies or those merely held on
suspicion of being underground agents with care. They can
consider a one-time amnesty for all of them. This will be
an unprecedented healing touch for innocent individuals
and their families with salutary results for this State
as well.
Not a sport
George Bernard Shaw is
indeed not turning in his grave. The people of Thana
Mandi in Rajouri district have apparently read him well.
They have rescued a leopard and handed it over to wild
life officials to lodge it in a sanctuary in this city.
It is true that the inhabitants of the area were angry
because the predator was killing their sheep and goats.
They, however, stopped short of settling for a bloody
revenge. Shaw had written: "When a man wants to
murder a tiger, it's called sport; when the tiger wants
to murder him it's ferocity." He can't be faulted in
a world where hunting has been passion for many. However,
there are quite a few people who care for wild life. The
question, nevertheless, is: What should the people do
whenever their own existence is threatened by wild
animals? They can't be expected to keep silent when they
have to choose between life and death. Self-defence is
quite justified and can't be called a sport.
Right
to know
By Satya Prakash
The
chief of Right to Information Commission wants
more power to make the Act more effective. There
are many lacunae. For instance, a man asks to see
various bank records to ascertain evidence that
his wife, who works at the bank, is having an
affair with another employee. A woman wants to
see the service records of her child's school:
The boy is doing poorly; therefore the teachers
must be at fault. A student of B. Com wishes to
see his answer scripts because he is not
satisfied with his marks. What these people have
in common is that they have taken recourse to the
Right to Information Act, 2005.
Whether
the act was designed for cases such as those
cited above is a question to be examined. The act
sanctions the right of individuals to seek
information from public authorities about
decisions that affect their lives, either
directly or indirectly. It implies that public
authorities have a duty to provide information,
and that it is transparent in its operations.
Therefore this right is a safeguard against
corruption and the abuse of official power.
While
the right to information was recognized by the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1947) and
the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
(1966), only 72 countries have so far put in
place any enabling legislation. In this respect,
the Indian Act is considered exemplary though it
too had a long gestation period. In 1975, the
Supreme Court, in Uttar Pradesh vs Raj Narain,
ruled that "the people of this country have
a right to know every public act", and this
was reaffirmed in 1982 in S.P. Gupta & others
vs President of India & others. Civil society
activism for the cause of right to information
began in 1996, and led to the passage of a
Freedom of Information Act in 2002. But this Act
was never notified, and meanwhile, various states
passed their own laws providing for a diverse
quality of access to information. Some of these
initiatives came from the state governments
themselves; others from civil society groups such
as the National Campaign for the People's Right
to Information. The Congress mentioned the right
to information in its campaign manifesto and the
Common Minimum Programme in 2004, and a revised
and better version of the 2002 Act, now titled
the Right to Information Act, became law in 2005.
The
provisions of the Act give rise to several
communication issues. The public needs to be made
aware of its right to seek information from the
government, and the administration on its part
has to be reassured that the Act is
pro-government enhancing accountability and
bringing people closer to governmental processes.
Successful implementation of the Act can only
redound to the prestige of the government of the
day. State information commissioners and their
Central counterparts have so far tended to
interpret the Act with latitude, and have ordered
answer-scripts and file-notings to be made
available. The corollary of this is that the
government needs to simplify its procedures and
make its records more accessible and user
friendly.
Above
all, standards have to be fixed for the
maintenance of records and minutes of records and
minutes of recommendations and decisions recorded
on files. In time, e-governance has to take root
where the common man is informed about his
powers, and the bureaucratic mindset has to shed
its climate of secrecy and impunity, and the
protection of the status quo.
Significantly,
the most successful implementation of the Act is
in the states where civil society groups are the
strongest and most active. But even in the states
in which the government machine is well-oiled,
where the state information commissions are
working well and where civil society is
assertive, difficulties have inevitably emerged.
There is no closure of a case until compliance is
confirmed, even when huge volumes of information
are asked for. The Act makes no distinction on
the amount of information demanded, and a backlog
of cases has developed, which may eventually
equal the huge pendency of cases in the judicial
courts. The Act makes no distinction between the
motives of the petitioner, which is indicative of
criminal intent, and there could accordingly be a
vested and malign interest in seeking
information.
In
the developed world (Sweden pioneered the right
to information in 1766), the laws are used to
throw light on systems of governance,
discretionary powers, public money spent or not
spent on public works and the environment. But in
India, most of the cases are personal cases,
dealing with seniority, promotions, rules, land
issues, election-related decisions, municipal
administration and the status of police cases.
There is already much evidence of personal
vendetta, and frivolous and vexatious enquiries,
all of which take time to respond. The
government, whose apathy and poor output are
rightly open to criticism, is further districted
by these requests for information and the time
taken to copy and compile the sometimes tens of
thousands of sheets required for the answer,
quite apart from the costs involved.
The
right to information has the potential to
transform the financial situation in India.
Public property is leased by the state in prime
urban centres all over India, and when the leases
expire, the tenants continue in illegal and often
free occupation, including the plutocrats in the
most sought-after areas of cities like Mumbai.
Removing this abuse can transform the finances of
several states. The Indian Railways and the
military also own huge acreages of unproductive
property all over India.
The
right to information can also check the abuse of
the prison system. It is a unique and deplorable
feature of this country that rich and influential
persons invariably develop a sharp pain in the
chest when they go to prison and have to be
admitted instead to the comforts of a hospital. A
public-spirited citizen should ask to examine
their medical records. For decades, promotions in
the government have been based on reputation and
perception rather than record and performance.
The confidential reports of nearly all the
government officers are years out of date, and
are hastily and retrospectively written up for
presentation to promotion panels. This practice
might hopefully be brought to an end through
public scrutiny.
Not
unnaturally, every person or group wants others,
but not himself, to be transparent. The Supreme
Court, which ought to be the most transparent of
our institutions, wants to be exempted. The
president declines to confirm the number of his
cars with red beacons. Where does all the money
go that is contributed by the public to the Prime
Minister's Relief Fund? The fund wants to be
considered a private trust that is exempt from
scrutiny. The chief information commissioner
should have no truck with these kinds of specious
argument.
In
the West, the use of the powers under right to
information, usually by investigative journalists
like Seymour Hersh or Bob Woodward, results in
media revelations about governmental activities.
There the normal channels work well enough for
the citizen to obtain services from the
government and there are several avenues of
redress if they do not. In India, the press
carries accounts of cases such as those mentioned
in the first paragraph. But away from media
disclosure, the Act has already proved its worth,
according to village-level NGOs, in expediting
the issue of ration cards, driving licences,
voters' cards and electricity connections. If
each person is to be convinced that he exercises
sovereignty in his own right, the Act, with all
its current imperfections, will be another step
in making this possible. INAV
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Threatening
food shortage
By Ashish Biswas
With
food prices soaring the world over, governments
have announced direct measures in some countries
to restore stability in a rapidly deteriorating
situation.
While
India's Minister for Agriculture Mr. Sharad Pawar
has urgently appealed to all states to step up
the production of "cereals, oilseeds and
pulses," China recently announced price
control measures for poultry and dairy items.
Estimates
of the United Nations Food and Agriculture
Organisation (FAO) mention an average 37% price
rise in 2007 for 60 internationally traded food
items. This is a sharp rise from 16% price
increase the year before. Opinion among experts
is unanimous that the situation will only get
worse in the years ahead. UN agencies concerned
with relief and other work recently indicated
that they may have to curtail food supplies to
areas affected by shortages, reducing the number
of people reached, unless prices stabilise. This
may prove disastrous, as the demand-supply
mismatch has steadily worsened in recent years,
meaning that people will now get less relief
precisely when they need more !
Especially
in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and
Afghanistan, millions of urban and rural poor are
already feeling the pinch. Social unrest and
disquiet has been reported also from Yemen,
Indonesia and Mexico. Food riots have broken out
in Pakistan over the shortage of wheat, as well
as in Mexico. Egypt has banned rice exports, and
India has stopped exports to Bangladesh, forcing
its neighbour to go in for immediate purchases of
300,000 tonnes of rice at over $510 per tonne.
Soyabeans are in short supply in Indonesia, while
factories in Malaysia producing diesel from
vegetable oil remain idle.
Even
in the US, people below the poverty line, their
numbers up from 206 to around 17%, cannot afford
fresh fruit and vegetables on a regular basis. In
the UK, there has occurred no food riots, but the
price of wheat doubled from previous levels in
2007. Riots or unrest have been reported from
Guinea, Mauritania, Morocco, Senegal Uzbekistan,
and Yemen. The situation in West Africa causes
concern, as production dwindles, against a
backdrop of reduced supplies and income.
A
Kolkata-based economist says,"Recent reports
of food scarcity from Amlashole in Bengal and the
North Bengal/Assam tea plantations are
significant. There is no shortage of vegetables
as yet, because of high local production, but the
prices have become too high for some people
already." Mostly famines in Bengal in the
past had occurred because of high prices of rice
and other commodities.
It is
not just a question of West Bengal alone. All
over the world, UN sources say, the condition of
the rural and urban poor and small/marginal
farmers and the landless people will worsen in
the medium term !
Already
in some countries, some people who used to have
three meals a day have resorted to having only
one major meal, mostly the staple food on the
regions they live in, as they get "priced
out of the market ".
The
reasons? There are several, including global
warming forcing changes in the crop patterns,
rising fuel prices, changing eating habits and
inflation, in the wake of oil price hikes. The
recent increase in the price oil in international
markets to $100 a barrel itself meant that the
cost of carrying food from one place to another
rose Cooking oil has become very expensive. So
has cooking itself. In Mumbai, every drop of
cooking oil is rationed in some areas. For longer
distances, the fuel cost increase has been
disastrous especially against a general backdrop
of stagnant wages and salaries. With more than
half of the world's 6.6 billion people eating
rice and many switching from wheat to rice,
demands have become skewed.
Areas
once known as major production centres, such as
parts of Australia have been seared by prolonged
droughts, cutting down wheat production by half
in recent years. In addition, the demand for more
meat has risen steadily all over the world as
living standards rose for major segments of the
population. While India and Egypt have cut down
on rice exports, China has introduced price
control and restrictions on the movement of
cereals, cooking oil, meat, milk and eggs from
region to region, to stave off developing
shortages.
Mr.
Pawar has warned that global projections suggest
the situation will worsen during the next decade
without effective crisis management. At a recent
major meeting organised by the Indian Chamber of
Commerce, he said that unless all states produced
more foodgrains, the country may have to resort
to imports in the years ahead. Economy analysts
do not hold out hops for short-term improvements
in the situation. The price of oil, for instance,
may go up to $200 during the next decade if
present trends continue, they say.
As
for food items and grains, the world may be in
for an increase of 10% at best, 50% at worst,
over the next decade, in their assessment.
Given
India's context, champions of economic reforms
may have to take a backseat and to protect the
poor, the urgent revival of the public
distribution system may become unavoidable. (IPA)
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Pakistan
towards a new dawn
By Izaz Butt
Pakistanis
are in introspective mood. They don't know what
will happen after the formation of PPP-ML-N
government. Changes in the past have not done any
good to the beleaguered country. On the contrary
the Army's hold on administration and civilian
life became more draconian. Even basic civil
liberties were crushed in the name of preserving
the unity and integrity of Pakistan. If Pakistan
has to prosper as an independent country, the new
political dispensation has to adopt assimilative
policy, and abandon sectarian politics in the
name of Islam. No special favour to the majority
Sunni, minority Shia or Ahmedias and Pashtuns. If
such benchmarks are established it would be good
for the country.
On
December 25 Pakistani politicians and
intellectuals decided to celebrate a historical
day in the history of Pakistan. It was the
birthday of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the
founder of Pakistan. Journalists, writers, poets,
lawyers, students and other members of the civil
society were celebrating his birthday on a
footpath in front of the Islamabad Press Club as
a protest against the Musharraf regime.
Many
leaders of the Christian community were also
celebrating Christmas day on the same footpath,
showing their solidarity with media and the
lawyers. It was the first time that the birthday
of Jinnah was celebrated on a footpath of the
capital of Pakistan. Many speakers said that
Pakistan was facing a 1971 like situation.
An
ex-civil servant, Roedad Khan, said that he
served in Dhaka in 1971 as the secretary
information and he saw how the Pakistan army was
killing Bengali Pakistanis who were just
demanding rule of law in the country. The
violence of army created more violence, and that
was how Pakistan disintegrated.
Roedad
Khan said that the Pakistan army was once again
killing Pakistanis from Islamabad to Baluchistan,
and that this violence would create more
violence. After his speech, I was invited to
address the crowd. I presented a resolution that
today we must say sorry to our Bangladeshi
brothers and sisters for the genocide of '71, on
behalf of common Pakistanis, and we must demand
that the government of Pakistan should also
tender an "official apology."
Unexpectedly, the whole crowd supported my
resolution.
Within
minutes, some students wrote a banner with black
markers saying "dear Bangladeshis, sorry for
the '71 genocide." The banner was
immediately placed on the small stage of the
gathering. This banner created shock waves in the
ranks of the police deployed around our
gathering, but they remained silent.
Later
in the evening, when we were leaving the place,
an old man stopped us. He was a Pashtun. He asked
me: "Bacha, you apologised to the
Bangladeshis after 36-years, but who will
apologise for the genocide in Lal Masjid?"
It
was actually the genocide in Lal Masjid which
helped most Pakistanis to understand what
actually may have happened to their Bangladeshi
brothers in 1971. The Lal Masjid crisis started
in January 2007 when the Capital Development
Authority demolished seven mosques in the city in
the name of beautification. The Khateeb of Lal
Masjid opposed the demolition of the mosques, and
female students of an adjacent madrasa occupied a
nearby building as protest.
They
demanded the rebuilding of the demolished
mosques. This crisis continued for six months
and, in the end, Musharraf decided to impress
America by killing young students in the name of
war against terror. He declared this Masjid as
the den of Al Qaida in Pakistan. Lal Masjid was
first attacked with rockets, and then commandos
of the Pakistan army stormed the Masjid compound.
Hundreds of students were killed inside the
mosque, but their bodies were set on fire to
remove evidence of the genocide.
Burnt
bodies were buried in mass graves outside the
city. Hundreds of students and teachers are still
missing. The Supreme Court of Pakistan took
notice of the genocide and started an inquiry,
and that was why Musharraf removed. Chief Justice
Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry on 3 November, 2007.
Justice
Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry was becoming a threat
for the intelligence agencies that were also
responsible for the genocide of Baluch rebels in
2006 and genocide in Pashtun tribal areas in
2005. Many analysts are of the view that the
recent wave of suicide bombings in Pakistan is
actually a reaction to the genocide in Pashtun
tribal areas.
The
CIA and the Pakistan army first used these
Pashtun tribes against Russians, and now the same
powers are killing them in the name of war
against terror. CIA always supported army
generals in Pakistan because they were ready to
kill their own countrymen for pleasing the
Americans. Pakistan army generals even killed the
first elected Prime Minister of the country,
Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. These generals became dirty
politicians and destroyed their own country.
Thanks
God. Now the Pakistan army is learning some
lessons. The New Army Chief General Ashfaq Pervez
Kyani has issued orders that the army should stay
away from politics. He is even not interested in
helping the pro-Musharraf Pakistan Muslim League.
He was not interested in postponing the elections
on 18 February. He is sure that only a true
democracy can save the country.
Banning
the politicians is not a solution, so he is ready
to treat all the politicians equally.
The
new government must try to resolve the problems
in Pashtun tribal areas through dialogue, not
through guns and bombs. Pakistan will not become
another Iraq if the army stays away from
politics. CIA again wants that the Pakistan army
should kill more Pashtuns, using the
assassination of Benazir Bhutto as an excuse, but
her party has a different stance. The PPP is not
ready to buy the CIA claim that those Pashtun
sympathisers of Al Qaida killed Benazir. INAV
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