Daily Excelsior... Editorial

EDITORIAL

By Arun Nehru

By Pradeep Kapoor

After successful social engineering with Brahmins which paid dividends in Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls last year, Bahujan Samaj Party is now wooing Thakurs to enlarge its support base in view of Lok Sabha polls...more

Kargil wounds

By Colonel Anil Bhat

Yet another unsuccessful visit of next of kin of 54 Indian Armed Forces personnel captured in 1971 and the circulation of a letter written by Dr N K Kalia, father of Lieutenant Saurav Kalia killed in Kargil war, to former Prime Ministers A B Vajpayee and Nawaz Sharif, K R Narayanan, former Army Chief, General V P Malik and former Defence Minister George Fernandes as well as some recent events bring ..more

EDITORIAL

Double role

Have we ever cared to pause for a while and think over it? There is everything double about us. This goes beyond the well-known doubles: two flags and two constitutions. Not very long we had two "Prime Ministers" as well. Double is deeply entrenched on our minds. When Dr Farooq Abdullah and late Mirwaiz Moulvi Farooq joined hands we were quick to describe their union as the double-Farooq phenomenon. We flaunt our State subjects along with our passports as citizens of the country. This shows that we reserve dual benefits only for ourselves. We purchase property and secure even government jobs in all states beyond Lakhanpur. In chorus we are the sole claimants to them within the State. When the people of other states want to buy a piece of land in our vicinity or wish to take up an official assignment of their choice we shut doors on them. We lose no time in debunking them as rank outsiders. How many intellectuals can claim to possess such double-edged perception? Are our double dealings and double tongues not proverbial? In the same breath some of us can keep New Delhi and Islamabad on their toes. We can shake hands with both and derive advantages of all kinds. Yet, we condemn them when they pursue the well-intentioned objective of peace in the sub-continent. Who does not know that we revel in speaking in two voices? We say something in the Jammu region and sing a different tune across the mighty Pir Panjal. We thus also wear double faces and double masks. There is, of course, a section that shows off religious credentials but emphatically says it is secular. We are perhaps the only part of the globe where the Communists advise their partners in power to go to mosques for seeking a solution to their problems. Who says that Communism is impeccably hostile to all religions? Its practitioners can be selective. The only step they have to take is to pick up their gurus from our soil.

With this background in view why we should be surprised when there are other double-meaning suggestions. What is this fuss, for instance, over promoting dual currency? Are its advocates not aware that it is impractical? That explains why they have taken pains later to clarify that they have meant it in some other context. Their explanation is not relevant for our immediate purpose. Our point is that had they not mooted their original idea they would have sullied our well-earned reputation for duality. We must, therefore, be grateful for them. If our duplicity and dichotomy remains in tact it is because of such utterances. We use the services of Indian Administrative Service (IAS) and Indian Police Service (IPS) officers. Nonetheless, when it suits us we openly exhibit our preference for local officers by placing them in key positions.

Nobody can beat us in this game. We have been steadfastly playing it from 1947. We invited the Army to our rescue to face a belligerent Pakistan that tore apart the Standstill Agreement after accepting it. Some of us have now been desperately trying to show the uniformed force in a bad light. We hurl accusations at security forces while using them for our personal security. Three --- sorry, two --- cheers for us!

Spare a thought

It is not for nothing that this region is known as a legendary land of warriors. There is hardly any war theatre in the globe that does not have the imprints of our brave soldiers. A significant part of our folk lore is movingly devoted to them. We celebrate their victories as if they are our own. We lament their absence from homes and wish them safe return. They are always in our thoughts. How do they live after retirement? Are they well looked after by official agencies? We have certain authentic figures with us which we like to share with one and all. As on December 31, 2007, there are 64411 ex-servicemen in our State with an overwhelming majority of 63413 coming from the Army, 568 from the Air Force and 430 from the Navy. In addition, there are 17629 war widows. Of the ex-servicemen only 90 have got placements through the Rajya Sainik Board (RSB) in 2007. For the entire country this figure is 3824. As one understands there are 6191 former jawans in the country as a whole who have been provided employment in central and state governments as well as public sector undertakings through the Directorate General of Resettlement (DGR) and Kendriya Sainik Board (KSB). They are apart from 44405 who have been accommodated in private sector. They constitute simply a drop in the ocean considering that the total strength of ex-servicemen in the country is 2054230. The total number of war widows is 458134. There are quite a few nationwide welfare measures executed through the Army Central Welfare Fund, Army Welfare Corpus, the National Defence Fund (for 'Operation Vijay' veterans) and an ex-servicemen contributory health scheme (ECHS) which has 633596 former soldiers and 1459269 dependents availing themselves of the facility. There are 4000 scholarships under the Prime Minister's Merit Scholarship Scheme for wards/widows of ex-servicemen. There is, moreover, the Raksha Mantri Discretionary Fund (RMDF) from which financial assistance for marriages, house repair and medical care, among other things, is provided.

Under the RMDF, the beneficiaries in the State during 2007-08 (till January 21 this year) are: 51 (marriage grants totalling Rs 616000), 1 (medical grant; Rs 8000), 15 (house repair grant; Rs 255000), 1 (education grant; Rs 4800), 29 (penury grant; Rs 720000) and 1 (funeral grant; Rs 5000) in this State. If one takes an overview one may be left with an unpleasant taste in one's mouth. Neither the number of recipients is much nor is the amount given substantial. We need to do a lot more in this direction. How do we achieve this objective? The emphasis these days is that the citizens must pay for facilities they get. That is the reason why the government is gradually getting out of the business of doing business. Yet, it has to mobilise resources for welfare activities of all kinds and maintain a delicate balance among different needy sections. Looked from that angle it is not perhaps possible to find fault with its present management of kitty for ex-soldiers. It is at least better than ad hoc arrangement, for instance, for unorganised but crucial segment of small and marginal farmers. Should we not spare a thought for exploiting new economic trends to add to the financial reserves of ex-servicemen and their families?

The voter is always ahead

By Arun Nehru

We are now less than a year away from General election and this is the time when most political parties and individuals at all levels look for political longevity and the levels of insecurity are rather high and this is the time when most governments and leaders are very attentive to 'public issues' and express concern for things not done during the past year. The voter is always a step ahead and we may well find that in a majority of cases the anti incumbency factor will prevail unless special circumstances prevail. The cynical attitude will always be that we have a 'cash and carry 'system cutting across the political spectrum but integrity and performance do count and are the only two factors which can guarantee a second term for the future. Coalitions however are about numbers and many other factors can contribute and prevail at the time of government formation. Let us now look at the Assembly elections on hand in Karnataka, MP, Rajasthan, Chattisgarh, Delhi and the trend in these elections in these states will almost certainly repeat itself in the Lok Sabha elections in 2009. All the five elections are a fight between the Congress and the BJP [third parties do exist]. The JD[S] and independents can force a Coalition in Karnataka but in all the other states whilst the BSP will damage both the Congress [more] and the BJP it is virtually a straight fight between the two major political parties.

Karnataka elections are around the corner and of the 28 Lok Sabha seats in the State the BJP won 18 seats, the Congress 8 and the JD[S] 2 seats. The Assembly results gave a coalition structure with the BJP winning 80 seats plus along with allies and the Congress trailing behind with 65 seats and the JD[S] third at 58 seats. The last few years have seen Coalition politics at its worst as the JD[S] made a mockery of effective governance and I think they will shrink from the current 58 seats to 20-25 seats. The Congress will do better than 65 seats but it is a very tough fight and 90-95 seats looks a practical number as in many places both in North and South Karnataka it is a straight fight between the Congress and the BJP or the JD[S] and this will suit the Congress. The BJP talk of a sympathy factor but this does not exist but the decline in the JD[S] numbers may help them to sustain at current levels of 80-85 seats. The BJP campaign is better run and LK Advani, Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swraj and Arun Jaitly are running a politically effective campaign whilst for the Congress party the main campaigners Sonia and Rahul Gandhi are yet to start the campaign and the local effort is marred by internal 'fights' and there are just to many leaders [many imported from the JD[S] ] and there are few seats in Karnataka where a 'defector' from one party or another is not in the field. I see a Coalition structure in Karnataka and I hope I am wrong as one of the most progressive states in India deserve more than the Coalition mess of the past five years as the JD[S] in pursuit of power broke every rule of political propriety.

Madhya Pradesh saw the BJP sweeping the state with 25 seats and the Congress won 4 seats! The anti incumbency factor may well result in a similar result in favor of the Congress as the BJP have done very little and a similar situation may prevail in the state of Chattisgarh where the BJP won 10 out of 11 seats. Rajasthan again the BJP won 21 out of 25 seats but here the position is not as dismal as in the other states. The Congress should win all three Assembly elections on the anti incumbency factor and I think it will be a miracle if the BJP can win a single state in these three states. The Congress will need many a miracle to survive a complete wipe out in Delhi and of the 70 seats they will be lucky to win 20 seats. The BJP should win comfortably both in the Assembly and in the Parliament elections where the Congress hold 6 out of 7 seats. No reflection on CM Shiela Dixit who had won a second term and the anti incumbency factor is very strong after demolitions and sealing of properties and the Master plan has come far to late to salvage the image of the party. The Congress have other worries in Tamil Nadu where the DMK led combination wiped out the AIDMK [DMK won 16, Congress 10, PMK 5, MDMK 4, LEFT 4] and now the AIDMK may well sweep the state and it is uncertain as to who will ally with which party in the next election! The position in Andhra Pradesh is difficult and a similar situation exists in Assam and the North East whilst in UP and Bihar the Congress hold 12 out of 120 seats and will be very lucky to maintain this number in the next election. Things will change as we approach General elections but I see the combined Congress/BJP figure declining from 280 seats to 230-240 seats. The Left will also lose [largely to the Congress]. The share of the regional forces will increase and will result in Coalition patterns within the regional parties before a larger Coalition structure emerges for government formation. I see the Congress emerging as the single largest party [their current number may not increase], I see a sharp decline for the BJP/Left and I see the return of the AIDMK/TDP and a very strong performance from the BSP who may well win close to 50 seats.

Change is inevitable and we are changing rapidly as a nation and it will be of interest to see if the new demographic pattern [below 35 years] asserts itself or will the have and have not factor and the usual divisions on religion and caste dominate the thought process in the electorate. The Karnataka election will give us important inputs and assist us to look for future trends.

BSP woeing upper castes

By Pradeep Kapoor

It may be mentioned here that BSP supremo Mayawati had realized during last assembly elections that it would be difficult to come to power with the support of people from scheduled castes and scheduled tribes and part of OBCs only. She gave 85 tickets to people from upper castes to broaden her supporting base.

During last elections she gave maximum number of tickets to upper castes in Brahmin community which helped Mayawati to a great extent in assuming power on her own. She had given 39 tickets to Thakur community as well. Several BSP candidates belonging to this community won the elections. Now chief minister has decided to win over Thakurs to party fold for which she has formulated strategy.

As a part of her planning, Chief Minister Mayawati held the meeting of her party MPs, MLAs coordinators and other important office bearers and she set up a social brotherhood committee (bhaichara samiti) under her trusted lieutenant Babu Singh Kushwaha. She divided UP into two zones eastern and western to win over Thakurs for next Lok Sabha polls.

Much significance has been attached to promotion of minister of state for forests Fateh Bahadur Singh to cabinet rank recently. It would be worth mentioning that Chief Minister entrusted the charge of 11 Lok Sabha constituencies to two prominent Thakur leaders of the party -- Fateh Bahadur Singh and Vinod Singh. They have been asked to extensively tour these 11 Lok Sabha constituencies having sizeable Thakur population and work to win over this powerful community to BSP fold.

Significantly enough, the fathers of both the leaders were very powerful Congress leaders at one time. Fateh Bahadur Singh is son of late Veer Bahadur Singh who had been chief minister of UP and Union Communication Minister and commanded tremendous influence in eastern UP as he belonged to Gorakhpur. Similarly Vinod Singh is son of late KN Singh who had also been Union minister and was a powerful leader and was close to Nehru-Gandhi family as Amethi was part of Sultanpur.

There was a realisation in BSP that Thakurs who constitute eight to nine per cent of total votes in the state and majority of them had shifted to Samajwadi Party because of Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiyya who had been jailed by Mayawati when she was chief minister earlier.

Since Thakurs are known to be floating voters, attempts had been made by Congress, BJP and SP to win them over time to time. Now BSP is making sincere efforts and results will be known in near future.

The political experts believe that if BSP was able to win over Thakurs, then this powerful community would provide security to dalit voters of BSP in rural areas. (IPA)

Kargil wounds

By Colonel Anil Bhat

Earlier in India-Pakistan war, bodies of deceased soldiers were used to be cremated or buried. But someyears later a major policy decision was taken that bodies of personnel dying wherever, would be sent to their homes.

In some cases, next of kin have preferred to come to the location where the soldier had died and have his last rites performed there itself. But the shock experienced by them on seeing the bodies of their dear ones deliberately mutilated or disfigured or to see the mortal remains of those killed by and - mines or improvised explosive devices is no doubt deeper, with the anguish gnawing constantly forlong periods or even life-long.

Operation Vijay fought at Kargil in 1999, was one such period when the brutality practiced by Pakistan Army again came to public light, thanks to the media. For those who have followed the events of the India-Pakistan wars of 1947-48, 1965, 1971 and the long drawn out proxy war along with Pakistani exported terrorism since the late 1980s, the cases of cruel treatment of enemy soldiers by Pakistan Army came as no surprise. An excerpt of Dr Kalia's letter relevant: ‘‘I am proud father of Amar Shaheed (eternal martyr), Lieutenant Saurabh Kalia of 4 Jat Regiment of the Indian Army who laid down his life at the prime age of 22 for the Nation while doing duty of guarding the frontiers at Kargil.

Not only the parents, the Indian Army but the whole nation lost a dedicated, honest and brave son. He was the first officer to detect and inform about the Pakistani intrusion.

Pakistan captured him and his patrol party of 5 brave men alive on 15th May, 99 from our side of LOC. They indulged in dastardly acts of burning bodies with cigarettes, piercing ears with hot rods, removing eyes before pucturing them, breaking most of the bones and teeth, chopping off various limbs and private organs of these soldiers besides inflicting unimaginable physical and mental tortures.

They were shot dead ultimately (a detailed postmortem report is with the Indian Army). This continued for about 22 days. Pakistan dared to humiliate India this way flouting all international norms. To what a extreme humanity can be degraded, Pakistan provided an example.

However, the Indian soldiers did not break while undergoing all this unlimited barbarism. This speaks volumes of their patriotism, grit, determination, tenacity and valour and the whole nation should be proud of them. All over the country there is unprecedented anger and outrage at this tragedy. Sacrificing oneself for the nation is an honour every soldier would love to do but no parents, army or nation can accept what happened to these brave sons of India.

I am afraid every parent would think twice to send their wards in the armed forces if we all fall short of our duty of safeguarding the prisoners of war and let them meet the fate of Lt Saurabh Kalia. It may also send a demoralising signal to the Army personnel fighting for the Nation that our POWs in Pak cannot be taken care of. It is a matter of shame and disgust that most of Indian Human Rights Organisations by and large, showed apathy in this matter. Through this humble submission, may I appeal to all the civilised people irrespective of colour, caste, region, religion and political lineage to stir their conscience and rise to take this as a national issue ? International Human Rights Organisations must be approached to expose and pressurise Pakistan to identify, book and punish all those who perpetrated this heinous crime to our men in uniform.

If Pakistan is allowed to go unpunished in this case, everyone can imagine the consequences. This is the list of 5 other soldiers who preferred to die for the country rather than open their mouths in front of enemy.’’

This was followed by the names of Sepoys Arjun Ram, Bhanwar Lal Bagaria, Bhkaram, Moola Ram and Naresh Singh, all in the prime of their lives.

The Kargil war also brought out how an unprofessional and rogue army can be callous to its own troops. The bodies of many Northern Light Infantry (NLI) troops killed in action, were not even being acknowledged, leave alone collected, by Pakistan Army desperately trying to project the Kargil war as a jihadi enterprise.

An article by M Ilyas Khan in the July 2000 issue of the Herald (Pakistan) provides some chilling insights into the fate of the Shia troops of the NLI, who were inducted into Kargil heights towards the end of 1998.

Gafoor Khan,a resident of village Hamaidas, told Ilyas that on 08 June 1999 they got the body of his brother, Sepoy Shakoor Jan of 12 NLI. His wife, three daughters and others were shocked at the furtive way in which these bodies were brought by soldiers in civil clothes in the dead of night-almost as if they were bodies of criminals. The dead NLI soldiers were also brought in civil clothes.

There were no military funerals, no honours, no last post and no civic receptions. Soldiers came at night, dumped the bodies and went back before day break. The dead Shia soldiers had been disowned. One of the first dead bodies to come in this way was that of Lance Naik Muzaffar Khan Zahid of 5 NLI. Thereafter in June itself, over 105 bodies were brought in along the jeep track that leads upto Yasin, Punal and Ghizer valleys in the Central Norther Areas. Shias of the region remain traumatised by this callous betrayal.

The remaining prisoners were civilians either family members of the military personnel or Bihari collaborators (razakars). The Hameedur Rahman Committee Report instituted by Pakistan puts the breakup of Pakistani POWs as follows : It was one of the largest surrenders since World War II. India originally wished to try some 200 of them for war crimes for the brutality in East Pakistan, but eventually acceded to releasing them as a gesture of reconciliation.

This operation ended in December 1971 and resulted in deaths of three million Bengali people. Indian Government at this time expressed full support for the people of East Pakistan.’’

While Kashmir Singh may have been repatriated after decades, the India-Pakistan peace process at best merely drags on. But with General Ashfaq Kiyani, a Musharraf loyalist and former spymaster as its army chief, newly elected Benazir loyalist Premier Yousuf Raza Gilani promising that ‘‘sacrifices’’ of Kashmiris will not waste ’’ and jihadis ruling the roost in Pakistan while being active all over India courtesy ISI, one wonders of peace has any future here. (PTI)