Chinese fang

China's refusal to issue visa to Udhampur-based Northern Command General Officer Commanding-in-Chief (GOC-in-C) Lt Gen B.S. Jaswal shows that it has not given up its zest for playing games with this country. Beijing's argument is that the "difficulty" in granting entry to the Army officer has arisen because he comes from the "sensitive location of Jammu and Kashmir" and that the "people from this part of the world came with a different kind of visa." It is a blatant mischief and outright disrespect to the sovereignty of India. China has made no effort to hide its intent in the language it has used. Once again the Dragon has sought to underline that it no longer treats J&K as part of this country. For a long time now it has been insisting upon stapling visas on the passports of the State subjects abandoning the widely accepted tradition of stamping them. China has been following this practice for more than two years. It has now added a new dimension to it by including the military officials posted in the State as well in this category. Very rightly New Delhi has rejected its approach. In any event it has not accepted it earlier and conveyed a loud no this time as well. In a totally justified retaliatory move it has done very well to put all defence exchanges with China on hold. This is a befitting reply to the treatment meted out to Lt Gen Jaswal and the citizens of this State who are the citizens of India. To begin with it has turned down permission for three Chinese officers --- a senior Colonel and two Captains --- to visit India. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has correctly remarked that India is engaging its neighbours without looking at reciprocity. At the same time he has made it emphatically clear that there is a limit to which his Government can brook repeated disobedience to agreed conventions.

In denying visas as in the latest instance China is fishing in the troubled waters of the Jhelum. Evidently it feels that by indulging in such tantrums it can strike a bargain over a part of Leh district and Arunachal Pradesh to which it has been unreasonably staking its claim. It also wants to convey its hatred over India's continued support to Dalai Lama in the venerable monk's search for an honourable solution of Tibet. In the process it is allying with Pakistan on the assumption that an enemy's enemy is a friend. Nothing can explain this more than what it is doing on both sides of the Line of Control (LoC). It is not fighting shy of kicking up one storm after the other on this side of the LoC including lending support to secessionists by ensuring invitations to them through outfits operating behind its iron curtain.

On the other hand it is undertaking projects and development works in the occupied territory where it has also swallowed a part of the State under an unjustifiable agreement with Pakistan. Its role in Gilgit-Baltistan is a public knowledge. It has invaded the scenic region with its expertise and goods with the consent of Islamabad. Our options thus are limited. We have to match China move by move at the political chessboard. In the process the developing economic relations between the two countries may become a casualty. We can't be held responsible if it really happens.

Care for health

It is hardly surprising that infrastructure and manpower in the 100-bed district hospital of Doda are inadequate to tackle the current diarrhoea crisis. The Army has come to the help of local people at the request of the district administration. About 1000 patients have been discharged after improvement in their condition. The situation in the remote district has been described as "epidemic like." There are no two opinions that our district hospitals are ill equipped. The one in Leh has been a beneficiary of some private donations. But unfortunately it has faced near-destruction in the recent cloud burst. That we ought to upgrade our district hospitals is the need of the hour. An ideal situation is the one in which these can be concurrently converted into teaching centres. Instead, these don't have specialists. There is also lack of services to cure infectious ailments as and when these assume alarming proportions as is evident from the current developments in Doda district. Indeed, it is very easy to blame the administration for the dismal scenario. After all, it is its responsibility to set the house in order. How can it be condemned, however, when it does not hide anything? Time and again it has left no doubt that there is scarcity of financial resources. The Central assistance is required to augment the existing facilities. There are vacancies of doctors and para-medical personnel which are held up for bottleneck or the other. And, whenever the moves are set afoot to rationalise the transfers of available staff these become victims mainly of political pressure. As a result there is a long list of favourites staying put in urban locations. A report in this newspaper points out that 22 posts of doctors and 40 of paramedics are lying vacant in Doda hospital alone. Health Minister Shamlal Sharma lets us know that the problem is actually much bigger. His Ministry has appointed 466 doctors with the majority of them meant to be posted in rural areas but some have obtained stay from courts as a result of which the entire process is in jeopardy. Why should doctors resist postings in far-flung regions? Why should the Government succumb to any extraneous influence?

Who is not aware that there are sterling examples of quite a few government doctors doing well in tougher circumstances in other states and abroad after quitting their service in the State? They have chosen to prove their skills rather than remain victims of discrimination and unprofessional atmosphere. Our State has low density of population, difficult terrain hindering accessibility, poor road connectivity, limited presence of private sector/non-government organisations and, ironically, a private sector which is largely owned/operated by in-service doctors/specialists. We can overcome the obstacles if a policy decision is taken to treat health as uppermost priority for the welfare of society as a whole. No doubt there is need for a super-speciality "All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS)-like" institution in our city. Why do we have to go to New Delhi and Chandigarh in the event of a serious trouble? At the same time we should spare a thought for those deprived of basic amenities in our far-flung mountainous regions. Good health involves us all.

China and Kashmir, again

IN AND AROUND J&K
By D. Suba Chandran

The visa row over Lt Gen B S Jaswal, Chief of the Indian Northern Command to visit China has once again raised the need to debate Beijing's game plan in and around J&K. The Indian government has subsequently announced the cancelling of a scheduled defence exchange between the two countries.
Is this a part of a regular tit-for-tat responses, that is being increasingly witnessed in the recent see-saw relationship between India and China? What propels the Chinese strategy? Is the larger India-China relationship, having an impact on Beijing's approach to the sub regions - J&K/Tibet, Sikkim, and Arunachal Pradesh? Or vice versa?
A section would consider the Chinese response as a tactical tit-for-tat, to prove a point or two, hence should not be seen as a reflection of how China sees Sino-Indian relations. Dalai Lama's recent visit to Ladakh, and the Indian official response to it, undoubtedly is a source of irritation to China. Though New Delhi consider and has been repeatedly emphasizing Dalai Lama is a religious head and his visit to places in Delhi should be seen as that of an individual, Beijing never was convinced with such arguments. Hence, a section of China watchers in India would argue, that this visa row should be seen in a different context.
Or, is this a part of a larger Chinese game plan in J&K (including PoK and Northern Areas), that is slowly unfolding in the recent years? While India and Pakistan consider the conflict over J&K is bilateral, there is a substantial part of J&K under the Chinese position. Aksai Chin and Shaksgam Valley are under China's control; both regions are becoming increasingly unrestive, hence important for China.
Aksai Chin has minimal population, mostly nomads but this region is strategically important for China, as it has built a National Highway, linking Tibet, with another of its troublesome border land - Xinjiang. Predominantly Muslim, the Xinjiang province of China has a mixed population that includes the Uighurs, Uzbeks, Kyrgyz, and Kazakhs. The Uighurs have been unhappy with the Chinese government for the last few decades; the Uighur uprising in 2008-09, has only increased Beijing's sensitivity towards this frontier region, which shares borders with J&K and Tibet. This makes its National Highway (G219), which links Xinjiang and Tibet extremely important, which cuts across the Aksai China and meander not far from Pangong Tso and Mount Kailash, before reaching Lhasa. Technically, this road can be taken to travel upto Kathmandu in Nepal, as the Nepal-China Friendship Highway is linked to G219.
Given the political instability in Tibet and Xinjiang, China is extra cautious in keeping these areas secured. Whether China is likely to pursue a political or semi military one, with a confrontationist approach is likely to be seen. China's strategy towards the Northern Areas should also be seen from this perspective.
During Zardari's recent visit to China in July 2010, Beijing has pledged to invest immensely in the Northern Areas, mainly in Gilgit and Baltistan. In particular, China has agreed to invest hugely in two areas - infrastructure and hydro resources. Rebuilding of Karakoram Highway, linking Kashgar (in Xinjaing) with Gwadar (the port town in Pakistan, which was once considered as an alternative to Karachi) is a primary strategy of China in this region. Recent announcement by Islamabad that it would go ahead with the building of Bhasha dam in the Northern Areas is primarily due to the huge funding support promised by China.
Selig Harrison, a leading South Asian expert in the US, few days back, wrote an interesting article in the New York Times, providing yet another perspective. Referring to Pakistani journalists and human rights workers, Harrison highlights two vital developments in Gilgit-Baltistan - "a simmering rebellion against Pakistani rule and the influx of an estimated 7,000 to 11,000 soldiers of the People's Liberation Army." According to him, "China wants a grip on the region to assure unfettered road and rail access to the Gulf through Pakistan." According to him, there is a mystery surrounding the construction of 22 secret tunnels where even Pakistanis are barred, and concludes, that these tunnels could be used for "a projected gas pipeline from Iran to China" or "for missile storage sites."
Is China being extra careful and sensitive to what is happening inside Tibet and Xinjiang? Or is it being on an offensive to secure road, rail and gas pipelines? The existing patterns suggest that China is pursuing both strategies. The game changer, obviously will be how India and China sees themselves as rising powers and how New Delhi projects its ambitions. Any open military confrontation at this time, will be disastrous for India; China is considerably ahead in both sectors - economy and military modernization.
India should proceed ahead, at a faster pace, with improving its economy and military modernization. Until that confident situation, India should strongly, but politically, respond to these minor border and diplomatic incidents and ensure it does not affect the over all India-China relations. India will have to both compete and cooperate with China at regional and international levels. China pursued a similar strategy in the last two decades, rather remarkably.
Obviously, as rising powers competing for the same global space, India-China relationship will be anything but cordial. There will be tensions and China will continuously test the Indian resolve, whether New Delhi could be pressurized further. However, it is unlikely, that China would be willing to pursue an open military confrontation at this juncture.
Deputy Director, Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies (IPCS), New Delhi

Planning Commission
needs fresh air

By Dr Bharat Jhunjhunwala

Surface Transport Minister Kamal Nath has questioned the need of the Planning Commission by calling them "armchair advisors." The Planning Commission was in overall command of the economy after Independence. Nehru had envisioned state control of the economy. He was much impressed by the Russian experience. The western countries had developed much by embracing the free market economy in the last 150 years. But Russia had attained almost the same level in a short span of 30 years under a public sector-led model. The Planning Commission in our country was to replicate the Russian success. Thus Union Ministers and Chief Ministers regularly trooped into the Commission's offices to seek approval of their proposed plans and schemes.
Times have changed. The Russian model has collapsed. The market reigns supreme across the globe. It is, therefore, suggested that there is no need for the Planning Commission anymore. Ministers should be left free to run their ministries without unnecessary meddling by the Commission.
Indeed, the old role of the Planning Commission is no longer relevant. But there still is a critical role for it. This can be understood by an example. Previously, the telecommunications system of the country was wholly in the hands of the Post and Telegraphs Department which made assessment of the country's needs, established telephone exchanges and fixed the tariffs. Nowadays these functions are being performed by private players. But role of the government has not been extinguished. In fact, the private players are delivering because the government is guiding them properly. The Telecom Regulatory Authority (TRAI) fixes interconnectivity charges and structure of tariffs, makes rules for sharing of towers, etc. The rapid expansion of mobile telephony in the country owes itself to the direction given by TRAI. The role of government has not come to an end. Only its form has changed. Previously the government was in the business of establishing telephone exchanges. Now it is in the business of making rules for the establishment of telephone exchanges by private players.
Former Chief Economist of the International Monetary Fund Raghuram Rajan has come to the same conclusion. He has undertaken study of the civil aviation sector in the United States. Previously only one airline company 'Pan Am' dominated the skies. Then the regulators stepped in. They made rules for the sharing of ground infrastructure and other such items. Result was that small airline companies got a chance to enter the scene. A fierce rate war ensued. In due time, the old and inefficient megalith Pan Am had to close shop while new lean companies flourished in the more competitive world. These examples indicate that the market delivers only when regulated in the right direction.
Ministries also need to be given direction in keeping with the overall situation of the economy. Take, for example, the Surface Transport Ministry. Left alone, the Ministry may like to make 4-lane highways to every district headquarter. This may even be profitable for the construction companies but not necessarily for the country. Large tracts of agricultural land will be acquired for making the highways. This will hit at out food security. Use of land for non-agricultural purposes has become a major issue in the U.S. nowadays. Second, 4-lane highways will be made mainly for private cars. A 2-lane highway is sufficient for public transport. The culture of private cars will increase the chasm between rich and poor in the countryside. That will fuel Naxalite movements. Third, our economic power will be devoted to making cars. Other critical sectors like health, research and housing will be adversely affected. Fourth, Ministry of Finance may impose a high tax on private cars. This will reduce the use of private cars and there may not remain many toll payers. Fifth, the Railway Ministry may make high speed bullet trains. That will again make the highways less useful. Sixth, it is reported that Americans are developing certain diseases due to long hours spent sitting in cars. Health of the nation may be at stake. The Planning Commission should look into these various interrelations and make a perspective plan for transport sector. The Surface Transport ministry is not equipped to make such a plan.
The karta of the family sometimes has to stop tuition classes of the son to enable the daughter to learn sewing. At other times, he may postpone purchase of frock for the daughter and buy a cricket bat for the son. Such decisions involve taking an overall view of the family. The daughter or the son, left to themselves, cannot take such an overall view. Similarly the Planning Commission must take an overall view and guide the ministries. The Prime Minister is the Chair of the Planning Commission. Thus, guidance by the Commission should be seen as directive from the Prime Minister. Deputy Chair of the Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia has acknowledged the need for the Planning Commission to move to "indicative planning." This resolve is in the right direction and must be welcomed.
That said there is need for bringing fresh air into the Commission. The country is burning today. Air-conditioned shopping malls are being made in the cities while poor weavers and blacksmiths in the villages are losing their livelihood. Productive activities of farmers and industrialists are facing labour shortages while labour power is being wasted in fictitious works under the Employment Guarantee Scheme. The government education and health system has virtually collapsed. Psychosomatic diseases like cardiac arrest and asthma are increasing. Car congestion in cities has increased such that it is taking thrice the time to reach destination. Instead of using the present weakness of the global economy to create a multipolar world, we are propping up American superpower. Our companies that are entering other developing countries are acquiring an exploitative role akin to the East India Company. Wealth of the developing countries is being transferred to the developing countries under the lopsided Patents regime. The Planning Commission is blissfully silent on these burning problems. It is singularly obsessed with achieving 10 percent growth rate.
This unfortunate situation has developed because the Commission is manned mostly by retired bureaucrats who are responsible for creating these problems in the first place. The guilty is the sitting judge in appeal. As a result the Commission churns out same old formulas destined to fail.
The Planning Commission is very much required even after dismantling of the Nehruvian public sector-led development model. Role of the Commission is to make perspective plan and coordinate policies of various ministries. But filling up the Commission with bureaucrats kills the very purpose of brainstorming with new perspectives and coming up with creative solutions. Need of the hour is not to disband the Commission but to infuse it with fresh air.

Let new Kashmir rise from rubble

By K.N. Pandita

On-going upsurge in the valley patently reflects mutual rivalry among political stakeholders come down to its lowest level. Paid agents armed with stones and infused with extremist religious prompting come on streets to disrupt normal flow of civil life. Their sponsors consider it an effective tool to show down their political opponents who have vested interest in projecting them as fighters for "aazadi". Apologists artfully brand them a generation grown under the shadow of the gun.
What is the rivalry about? For nearly five decades or more, right or wrong, traditional political party kept the monopoly of political power its cherished preserve. Its long stint created an impression with its stalwarts that the party was invulnerable essentially because Kashmir remained the fief of one dynasty.
Monopolistic attitude, dynastic rule and unaccounted corruption of the traditional party were strong reasons to throw up a group that contested its hegemony over state affairs. On that count, a nascent political group was able to raise its constituency once palpable public response was forthcoming, essentially in the valley and to some lesser measure in other parts of the state.
Obviously, the beginning of the practice of legitimate and formal democratic opposition in public and in state affairs, hitherto unknown and unpracticed by the stakeholders, could not be that smooth. Once out of power after tasting power, it lost the vision of building the state through democratic institutions.
In order to push the agenda of party aggrandizement, broader national and regional interests were sacrificed, which reflected in a vigorous demand for the dismissal of the government and imposition of president's rule. Had the central government succumbed to this blackmail, its consequences would have been disastrous.
For certain, the uprising in the valley reflects neither the public mood against accession nor any challenge to the might of the state. It, in truth, is the expression of birth pangs of a much awaited but elusive democratic dispensation in which principled opposition is a necessity and has a role.
Therefore, the urgent step to be taken to convince ordinary Kashmiri that he or she is the master of his/her destiny is to streamline democratic institutions, and make them maximally functional in the state.
Foremost of these institutions are free and fair election delivery system, and nationalist orientation of political leadership as its ideological mainstay. If these two institutions are faulty, eroded or insinuating, then the damage will be forbidding.
Democratic institutions become vibrant only if supported by productive economic infrastructure. Economic development is rigidly conditioned by geography and climate besides the level of work culture among the people.
Providing thousands of jobs to the unemployed youth is not a pragmatic solution. It creates an impression that the state is succumbing to religious, ethnic or political compulsions. This is not desirable. The true impression should be that the government is reaching a needy segment of Indian nation.
Therefore an out of box or a unique eco-industrial development philosophy has to be evolved. As agrarian sector is under severe strain in the valley because of inability to shift over to modern scientific and mechanized techniques of farming, and shrinking of arable lands owing to rapid growth of both urban and rural population, the imperative of rapid but sensible industrialization of the valley cannot be deferred to the realms of uncertainty. In doing so, Kashmir political leadership has to come out of the cocoon of sub-regional prejudices, and seek the cooperation of Indian and international corporate sector. Mind you, fast dwindling forest wealth of the valley will have negatively enormous climatic and environmental impact on the economy of the valley.
The cry for autonomy is amusingly reckless. If any political party thinks it can endear itself to the estranged masses by sentimentalizing issues, it is foolhardiness, to say the least. If two constitutions plus special status do not underpin sub-regional sentiments, autonomy is least suited to be an option. After accession in 1947, Kashmir leadership gradually realized that integration with the union without diluting individuality was not only beneficial but also inevitable. They understood that the State could not remain anchored to three clauses of the accession instrument while other federating units buoyed the ocean of Indian secular democracy.
Resentment and anger of a section of people in the valley, no doubt small, has to subside. If instigators plan something new, their credibility will wane further. Therefore, a sensible and spirited government need not panic. It must plan for at least next fifty to hundred years fortifying democratic institutions, energizing the writ of the state, rigorously enforcing anti-corruption mechanism and drawing comprehensive but time bound economic and industrial plans of big dimensions and import.
It is also important that the state must root out the psychology of blackmailing and feigned insecurity that vitiate the atmosphere and distance people from realities on the ground... Inviolability of territorial integrity and political sovereignty are the fundamentals that preserve and perpetuate the Indian State. .
India has to reach each and every Kashmiri of the valley. Their woe is that the intermediaries play tricks with them. Sidelining the intermediaries is a task closely linked with political education of the masses. How will India reach the masses is the crux of the matter. If New Delhi overcomes its hunch for Kashmir valley just to keep a segment of large national minority in good humour, it will be encouraging blackmail. Conversely, if it meets equitable justice to all the three regions, much of the burden of Kashmir woes will be lifted off its shoulders.
Last and not the least is how New Delhi will treat the exiled religious minority in years to come? With its ouster from Kashmir, India's secular credentials are in question. We understand the compulsions and constraints of stakeholders in this sordid affair. Again a pragmatic, bold and visionary step is desired on the part of the Indian state. My submission to Indian policy planners and Kashmir leaders is to think big and do big. Let new Kashmir rise from rubble.