Electronic Voting Machines: Tamperable?
Saeed Naqvi
Dated: 26.06.2010
On July 31, S. Yaqoob Quraishi will take over as the Chief Election Commissioner.
Slots in diplomacy and governorships are already being identified as the retiring chief election commissioner Navin Chawla’s parking lots. But at the Election Commission Chawla has set for himself a busy agenda almost until the end of his term.
For example, on July 27 elections will be held in the 12 assembly seats which had fallen vacant after the Telangana Rashtra Samithi members resigned from the House agitating for a separate Telangana.
This apparently simple election is not without its complications. For instance, elections in two constituencies cannot be held because of a Supreme Court stay. Reason? Two of the candidates claimed they had won the elections. According to a SC judgment if a petitioner challenges election results, a re-election is possible only after the High Court clears the issue.
True to form, TRS leader K. Chandrasekhar Rao claims the elections to these two seats are being held up because of pressure from the Congress.
Quraishi’s first challenge will be elections to the Bihar Assembly due in October-November. Who knows, Tamil Nadu too may call for early elections if K. Karunanidhi is persuaded that, in addition to other calculations, the International Tamil Jamboree has moved Tamil voters in his favour.
A simmering controversy Quraishi will have to contend with is a sustained, low level, campaign by interested parties on the reliability (or otherwise) of the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs).
Allegation of booth capturing and poll rigging, particularly in states like Bihar had brought into disrepute the old paper ballot.
These allegations made is essential for the Election Commission to explore new technologies. As always in modern Indian political history, Kerala first showed the way when EVMs were tried in 50 polling elections in a constituency in Kerala in 1982.
Subsequently Representation of People Act of 1951 was amended, permitting EVMs since 1989 but not before an Expert Committee, under Prof. P. V. Indiresan was constituted to evaluate these machines.
The General Elections of 2004 and 2009 were conducted entirely on EVMs. Following some critical observations, the Expert Committee suggested some improvements in the machines. These improvements were introduced in 2006.
The controversy has acquired some momentum because many European countries have turned their backs on EVMs i.e. they employed EVMs and then discontinued the practice in favour of good old paper ballots.
Recently, electronic voting has been banned in Ireland, Holland and Germany. Italy and France are not using them either. In the US, systems change from state to state.
In Germany the Supreme Court found EVMs violative of the election law which demands absolute transparency – The objection being that what happens inside a “chip” or a “machine” is not visible to the naked eye.
The lobby placing a question mark on EVMs is citing the European experience. Also, since Bharat Electronics (Ministry of Defence) and the Electronic Corporation of India Ltd. (Dept. of Atomic Energy) are the only manufacturers of EVMs, a case is being made out that official agencies can be persuaded to favour the government in power.
It is being argued that if the machines could leave “paper trail” to be handed to the voter, the system will become beyond reproach. After all, millions of credit card transactions around the world would not be possible without both, electronic registration of the transaction and a paper receipt for the customer.
The counter argument is that in a country where votes are bought and sold, a receipt for having cast a vote will be that much easier to encash.
That is fine, but remember paper also gets jammed obstructing rotation of the paper roll. One such obstruction will hold up the election in a given constituency. Many such hold ups can disrupt the election schedule.
The leadership to those opposing EVMs are politicians like Chandrababu Naidu and Subramanyam Swamy. Also, individuals like former Chief secretary of Delhi, Omesh Sehgal have approached the Election Commission with complaints against EVMs on the grounds that they were “tamperable”.
Psephologist G.V. Narasimha Rao, having gone woefully wrong in his recent electoral predictions, has joined the anti EVM bandwagon.
Another lobby opposing EVMs are undiluted commercial interests.
In 1980, one Mohammad Haneefa of Tamil Nadu approached the Election Commission with an Electronic Voting Machine he had invented. He filed a writ petition before the Madras High Court when the Election Commission seemed to favour Public sector companies. Even though the High Court dismissed the petition, he persisted with this communications with the EC challenging the efficacy of the Public sector manufactured EVMs.
Ultimately in 2007 the EC invited him to make a presentation before the Chief election Officer in Bangalore to establish flaws in the EVMs in use. According to the Election Commission sources “he failed to demonstrate any tamperability”.
After the 2009 elections, Subramaniyam Swami, G.V.L. Narsimha Rao, and one Hari Prasad of Net India (a would be electronic machine manufacturer) asked the Election Commission to let them open an EVM. They were given the permission. When they started taking measurements and noting details of EVM components, the Election Commission stopped them. Why? They may use the data for “reverse engineering”. Strange reason! Quraishi will have to handle the controversy.
# # # # # #
Monday, June 28, 2010
Monday, June 21, 2010
Osh: The Indian Links
Osh: The Indian Links
Saeed Naqvi
Dated: 19.06.2010
There is a medieval and a contemporary Indian link with Osh, the city in the eye of the storm in Southern Kyrgyzstan, bordering Uzbekistan. In fact when Almaty was the capital of Kazakhastan, Osh, in the Farghana Valley, was almost in the middle of an uneven circle linking Almaty, Bishkek, Tashkent, Dushambe capitals of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikstan – with the Xinxiang region of China in Kyrgyz contiguity.
US and NATO in Afghanistan; Russians, recent masters of the Central Asian region: place all these factors side by side to obtain the big picture of which the brutal Kyrgyz – Uzbek killings in Osh and nearby Jalalabad are only a part.
At this point revert to India’s medieval links with Osh. Residents of Mehrauli next to the Qutub Minar should be particularly interested.
The shrine of Khwaja Qutubuddin Bakhtiar Kaki, the renowned Sufi saint of the Chishti order, happens to be in Mehrauli. He was the disciple of Hazrat Moinuddin Chishti of Ajmer who, during his journey through Osh, embraced him as his spiritual heir. Qutubuddin Bakhtiar Kaki’s disciple was Hazrat Nizamuddin Aulia.
Since the saint set up his abode in Mehrauli during the reigns of Qutub-ud-din Aibak and Iltutmish, and both were his devotees, it can be speculated that the Qutub Minar was named after the saint rather than the slave king who happened to be his devotee. Iltutmish built the stepped well (baoli) for him; Sher Shah Suri, the gate.
Later Moghuls visited the shrine. The last Moghul Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar actually identified an area next to the Dargah as his final resting place.
But after the uprising of 1857, he was shipped to Yangon where he died in the garage of a junior British officer.
“Kitna hai badnaseeb zafar
dafn ke liye.
Do guz zameen bhi na
Mili kooy-e-yaar mein!”
(How unfortunate O’Zafar. He could not find two-yards of land for burial in the street of his beloved!) the “beloved” is the verse in the spiritual saint, Qutubuddin Bakhtiar Kaki of Osh.
Osh’s second historical link with India is the first Moghul Emperor, Zahir-ud-din Babur made notorious by a mosque he never built. Babur was born in Andijan, 20 kms away from Osh. Osh, being in Farghana, was part of Babur’s territory; he even lived at Osh for brief spells. For long periods Osh remained part of territories linked to Uzbekistan. This is not a terribly convenient piece of history for the young Kyrgyz nation!
Uzbeks, who have been at the receiving end of the current violence, are ethnically or linguistically, not very different from the Kyrgyz. The reason why the Kyrgyz can be easily incited to violence is because the Uzbeks, by their economic prosperity (for historical reasons) are the most visible objects of jealousy and envy.
Contemporary Indian link with Osh is what Jyoti Pandey, Indian Ambassador at Bishkek (Capital of Kyrgyzstan) is currently handling with great dexterity.
It defies belief, but over a 100 Indian students are studying medicine at the Health Institute in obscure Osh. When violence erupted, these trapped Indians were ferried by chartered flights from Osh (a few from Jalalabad too) to Bishkek.
These evacuees from Osh then laid siege to the Indian Embassy demanding further passage to India.
With the collapse of the Soviet Union, a sizeable Indian Diaspora dispersed and settled in its various parts, stretching from Central Asia to Central Europe.
Considerable networking between Indian communists (their families) and their counterparts in Comintern countries during the Soviet era did not dissolve overnight. Ex bureaucrats with experience of Communist countries and the progeny of Indian Communists found lucrative slots in a whole chain of economic ties between these countries and India, including in arms sales.
Indian students in large numbers studied in Patrice Lumunba University, other technical institutes and Medical colleges Moscow had opened in far-flung parts of the Soviet Union, including Kyrgyzstan. This explains why Indian students, tucked away in the obscurity of Osh, have suddenly surfaced as refugees from local violence.
According to figures with the MEA, there are 6000 Indians in Russia, including 1,000 businessmen, 2000 in Ukraine, 400 in Azerbaijan, 200 in Belarus and 200 in Georgia and so on.
This journalist interviewed the first President of independent Kyrgyzstan, Askar Akaev, a bit of a “soft”, reflective philosopher surrounded by Central Asian leaders, trained in the Soviet system, hard as nails. He fell victim to the Tulip revolution in 2005, bringing Kurmanbek Bakiev as a “pro American” President. He was ousted by pro Russian interim government in April. The rest is current news.
I have already indicated the strategic location of the country which, in the context of Afghan campaign, is priceless real estate for the US which maintains the controversial Manas base in the country. This provides the cash strapped nation with much needed money. Russians too have the Kant base north of Bishkek.
Neither the US nor Russia wish to get directly embroiled for their own specific reasons.
Sonia Gandhi will remember her visit to Bishkek in 1985 when it was known by its Soviet name – Frunze, named after the military officer who was one of the architects of the Red Army.
Gorbachev and Rajiv Gandhi had both come to power in their respective countries within a space of months. During his first visit to Moscow as Prime Minister, Ambassador Nurul Hasan added Frunze to the cities the Prime Minister should visit because of its strategic importance vis-à-vis China.
On display for the visitor’s entertainment was Kyrgyz horsemanship. A Kyrgyz girl would gallop away, chased by scores of men on their stallions. The fastest had the right to kiss the girl.
Oh! How Rajiv slapped his sides and applauded every kiss, on the gallop!
# # # # # # # #
Saeed Naqvi
Dated: 19.06.2010
There is a medieval and a contemporary Indian link with Osh, the city in the eye of the storm in Southern Kyrgyzstan, bordering Uzbekistan. In fact when Almaty was the capital of Kazakhastan, Osh, in the Farghana Valley, was almost in the middle of an uneven circle linking Almaty, Bishkek, Tashkent, Dushambe capitals of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikstan – with the Xinxiang region of China in Kyrgyz contiguity.
US and NATO in Afghanistan; Russians, recent masters of the Central Asian region: place all these factors side by side to obtain the big picture of which the brutal Kyrgyz – Uzbek killings in Osh and nearby Jalalabad are only a part.
At this point revert to India’s medieval links with Osh. Residents of Mehrauli next to the Qutub Minar should be particularly interested.
The shrine of Khwaja Qutubuddin Bakhtiar Kaki, the renowned Sufi saint of the Chishti order, happens to be in Mehrauli. He was the disciple of Hazrat Moinuddin Chishti of Ajmer who, during his journey through Osh, embraced him as his spiritual heir. Qutubuddin Bakhtiar Kaki’s disciple was Hazrat Nizamuddin Aulia.
Since the saint set up his abode in Mehrauli during the reigns of Qutub-ud-din Aibak and Iltutmish, and both were his devotees, it can be speculated that the Qutub Minar was named after the saint rather than the slave king who happened to be his devotee. Iltutmish built the stepped well (baoli) for him; Sher Shah Suri, the gate.
Later Moghuls visited the shrine. The last Moghul Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar actually identified an area next to the Dargah as his final resting place.
But after the uprising of 1857, he was shipped to Yangon where he died in the garage of a junior British officer.
“Kitna hai badnaseeb zafar
dafn ke liye.
Do guz zameen bhi na
Mili kooy-e-yaar mein!”
(How unfortunate O’Zafar. He could not find two-yards of land for burial in the street of his beloved!) the “beloved” is the verse in the spiritual saint, Qutubuddin Bakhtiar Kaki of Osh.
Osh’s second historical link with India is the first Moghul Emperor, Zahir-ud-din Babur made notorious by a mosque he never built. Babur was born in Andijan, 20 kms away from Osh. Osh, being in Farghana, was part of Babur’s territory; he even lived at Osh for brief spells. For long periods Osh remained part of territories linked to Uzbekistan. This is not a terribly convenient piece of history for the young Kyrgyz nation!
Uzbeks, who have been at the receiving end of the current violence, are ethnically or linguistically, not very different from the Kyrgyz. The reason why the Kyrgyz can be easily incited to violence is because the Uzbeks, by their economic prosperity (for historical reasons) are the most visible objects of jealousy and envy.
Contemporary Indian link with Osh is what Jyoti Pandey, Indian Ambassador at Bishkek (Capital of Kyrgyzstan) is currently handling with great dexterity.
It defies belief, but over a 100 Indian students are studying medicine at the Health Institute in obscure Osh. When violence erupted, these trapped Indians were ferried by chartered flights from Osh (a few from Jalalabad too) to Bishkek.
These evacuees from Osh then laid siege to the Indian Embassy demanding further passage to India.
With the collapse of the Soviet Union, a sizeable Indian Diaspora dispersed and settled in its various parts, stretching from Central Asia to Central Europe.
Considerable networking between Indian communists (their families) and their counterparts in Comintern countries during the Soviet era did not dissolve overnight. Ex bureaucrats with experience of Communist countries and the progeny of Indian Communists found lucrative slots in a whole chain of economic ties between these countries and India, including in arms sales.
Indian students in large numbers studied in Patrice Lumunba University, other technical institutes and Medical colleges Moscow had opened in far-flung parts of the Soviet Union, including Kyrgyzstan. This explains why Indian students, tucked away in the obscurity of Osh, have suddenly surfaced as refugees from local violence.
According to figures with the MEA, there are 6000 Indians in Russia, including 1,000 businessmen, 2000 in Ukraine, 400 in Azerbaijan, 200 in Belarus and 200 in Georgia and so on.
This journalist interviewed the first President of independent Kyrgyzstan, Askar Akaev, a bit of a “soft”, reflective philosopher surrounded by Central Asian leaders, trained in the Soviet system, hard as nails. He fell victim to the Tulip revolution in 2005, bringing Kurmanbek Bakiev as a “pro American” President. He was ousted by pro Russian interim government in April. The rest is current news.
I have already indicated the strategic location of the country which, in the context of Afghan campaign, is priceless real estate for the US which maintains the controversial Manas base in the country. This provides the cash strapped nation with much needed money. Russians too have the Kant base north of Bishkek.
Neither the US nor Russia wish to get directly embroiled for their own specific reasons.
Sonia Gandhi will remember her visit to Bishkek in 1985 when it was known by its Soviet name – Frunze, named after the military officer who was one of the architects of the Red Army.
Gorbachev and Rajiv Gandhi had both come to power in their respective countries within a space of months. During his first visit to Moscow as Prime Minister, Ambassador Nurul Hasan added Frunze to the cities the Prime Minister should visit because of its strategic importance vis-à-vis China.
On display for the visitor’s entertainment was Kyrgyz horsemanship. A Kyrgyz girl would gallop away, chased by scores of men on their stallions. The fastest had the right to kiss the girl.
Oh! How Rajiv slapped his sides and applauded every kiss, on the gallop!
# # # # # # # #
Monday, June 14, 2010
Discreet Charm of the Unconventional
Discreet Charm of the Unconventional
Saeed Naqvi
Dated: 12.06.2010
Meeting Anolie Ela Menon, the brilliant painter, reminded me of the numerous off-beat characters who were once part of my life.
But, Anjolie first: The conversation glides past Genet and Ionesco. Inevitably, Paris looms large. “Oh! How I kick myself for not drinking all that marvellous French wine those days”.
Next moment she is cradling a bleating baby goat just outside the Nizamuddin shrine with the expert ease of goatherds. In fact it is impossible to arrest Anjolie Ela Menon in one defining phrase.
In Delhi’s art circles one meets all sorts of people but there are some one would like to know more. Anjolie is distinctly in the latter category, always fluent, unaffected with those candid, sharp eyes.
But my image of her, for reasons unknown, was one of snooty cosmopolitanism until a TV interview took me to her studio located in the most cavernous by lanes which zig zag their way to the shrine of Hazrat Nizamuddin Aulia. “Ofcourse the spirit of Sufism influences me greatly.” Then after a pause “I don’t believe in religion in the conventional way”.
When she hears of famous Qawwals singing at the shrine, she does turn up for attendance clapping and swaying. How do you square this with her passion for jazz?
Just when you begin to lazily notice in her a touch of restrained bohemianism, she take you by surprise all over again.
After studying art in Paris, galavanting around the world with friends, escaping Francis Newton Souza’s advances, “I returned to marry my childhood love”, distinguished Naval officer, Raja Menon “the most well read man I know”.
The bleating goat Anjolie is playing with in the torrid sun by the side of Nizamuddin’s largest Madarsa is no artistic affectation. Walk into her studio and the nudes, the Russian priest, figures in oil are all interspersed with people carrying a goat or leading one. There is this inexplicable interest in the bleating herd.
Since Anjolie places Hussain at the lofty, iconic height as one of her early influences, one wonders if Hussain’s earliest studio in Jama Masjid’s Naaz hotel conditioned the choice of her studio. But this suggestion of imitativeness would be unfair. It would not do justice to this creative free spirit who straddles several worlds.
As I have said at the outset, she triggers old memories which ferret out other unconventional characters in such short supply these days. Anjolie is a success story; others are not. But they share one thing: they are off the beaten track. In my formative years, there were two westbound streams. One lot, creatures of civil lines and the cantonments (other than the princes) sought admission in Oxford or Cambridge. The more unconventional went not to England but to Hampstead to mingle with struggling writers, poets, playwrights, painters, politicians and professional dilettantes.
Long years ago, Yen for the off-beat led me to the high decibel invective which passed for intellectual banter in Hampstead’s populous pubs. Among the loudest was a short man with a goatie beard ranting for attention. This was my friend Sashti Brata. He was a writer of exceptional talent but short on themes.
His search for a place in the sun manifested itself in ways that constantly found him on the wrong side of the law. One of his irrepressible desires was to have a London street named after him. To realize this dream, he had carved in brass, about six inches tall, the following legend: BRATA’s CORNER. Every night this legend was nailed on the wall behind his house on Savernake Road.
The phrase “every night” in this narrative has poignant relevance. Because every morning, after having drunk a carafe of black coffee and smoked nearly a box of cigarettes, when Brata clothed himself to go behind the house to examine his immortality attached to the wall, he discovered that the Bobby on the beat had pulled out the brass letters, nail by nail. Sisyphus like, Sasthi would embark on the project again, touched not the slightest by intimations of mortality the next morning.
My hometown, Lucknow, was ofcourse, God’s own nursery for off beat people, stone broke but laughing. If you were prosperous you had to pretend to be otherwise to find entrē. Lucknow had taken its cue from classical Brahminism: intellectual life was anti wealth. But Lucknow was a city of Nawabs, you might ask. Yes, but the Nawabs themselves were more broke than most. As I have said elsewhere Lucknow’s decline began in 1856 when Wajid Ali Shah was transported to Matia Burj near Calcutta.
Among our dearest friends was one Safdar, a wit, amateur poet, racouteur who talked incessantly of the rising cost of living because his monthly budget of Rs.20 (twenty) had been exhausted ten days before the month’s end!
You had to book a table for a meal with Safdar weeks in advance. He was in such demand for his scintillating company. The most succinct observation on Safdar came from my friend Vinod Mehta, editor of Outlook. “The fellow doesn’t know where his next meal is coming from; all he knows is it will be a terrific one.”
# # # # # #
Saeed Naqvi
Dated: 12.06.2010
Meeting Anolie Ela Menon, the brilliant painter, reminded me of the numerous off-beat characters who were once part of my life.
But, Anjolie first: The conversation glides past Genet and Ionesco. Inevitably, Paris looms large. “Oh! How I kick myself for not drinking all that marvellous French wine those days”.
Next moment she is cradling a bleating baby goat just outside the Nizamuddin shrine with the expert ease of goatherds. In fact it is impossible to arrest Anjolie Ela Menon in one defining phrase.
In Delhi’s art circles one meets all sorts of people but there are some one would like to know more. Anjolie is distinctly in the latter category, always fluent, unaffected with those candid, sharp eyes.
But my image of her, for reasons unknown, was one of snooty cosmopolitanism until a TV interview took me to her studio located in the most cavernous by lanes which zig zag their way to the shrine of Hazrat Nizamuddin Aulia. “Ofcourse the spirit of Sufism influences me greatly.” Then after a pause “I don’t believe in religion in the conventional way”.
When she hears of famous Qawwals singing at the shrine, she does turn up for attendance clapping and swaying. How do you square this with her passion for jazz?
Just when you begin to lazily notice in her a touch of restrained bohemianism, she take you by surprise all over again.
After studying art in Paris, galavanting around the world with friends, escaping Francis Newton Souza’s advances, “I returned to marry my childhood love”, distinguished Naval officer, Raja Menon “the most well read man I know”.
The bleating goat Anjolie is playing with in the torrid sun by the side of Nizamuddin’s largest Madarsa is no artistic affectation. Walk into her studio and the nudes, the Russian priest, figures in oil are all interspersed with people carrying a goat or leading one. There is this inexplicable interest in the bleating herd.
Since Anjolie places Hussain at the lofty, iconic height as one of her early influences, one wonders if Hussain’s earliest studio in Jama Masjid’s Naaz hotel conditioned the choice of her studio. But this suggestion of imitativeness would be unfair. It would not do justice to this creative free spirit who straddles several worlds.
As I have said at the outset, she triggers old memories which ferret out other unconventional characters in such short supply these days. Anjolie is a success story; others are not. But they share one thing: they are off the beaten track. In my formative years, there were two westbound streams. One lot, creatures of civil lines and the cantonments (other than the princes) sought admission in Oxford or Cambridge. The more unconventional went not to England but to Hampstead to mingle with struggling writers, poets, playwrights, painters, politicians and professional dilettantes.
Long years ago, Yen for the off-beat led me to the high decibel invective which passed for intellectual banter in Hampstead’s populous pubs. Among the loudest was a short man with a goatie beard ranting for attention. This was my friend Sashti Brata. He was a writer of exceptional talent but short on themes.
His search for a place in the sun manifested itself in ways that constantly found him on the wrong side of the law. One of his irrepressible desires was to have a London street named after him. To realize this dream, he had carved in brass, about six inches tall, the following legend: BRATA’s CORNER. Every night this legend was nailed on the wall behind his house on Savernake Road.
The phrase “every night” in this narrative has poignant relevance. Because every morning, after having drunk a carafe of black coffee and smoked nearly a box of cigarettes, when Brata clothed himself to go behind the house to examine his immortality attached to the wall, he discovered that the Bobby on the beat had pulled out the brass letters, nail by nail. Sisyphus like, Sasthi would embark on the project again, touched not the slightest by intimations of mortality the next morning.
My hometown, Lucknow, was ofcourse, God’s own nursery for off beat people, stone broke but laughing. If you were prosperous you had to pretend to be otherwise to find entrē. Lucknow had taken its cue from classical Brahminism: intellectual life was anti wealth. But Lucknow was a city of Nawabs, you might ask. Yes, but the Nawabs themselves were more broke than most. As I have said elsewhere Lucknow’s decline began in 1856 when Wajid Ali Shah was transported to Matia Burj near Calcutta.
Among our dearest friends was one Safdar, a wit, amateur poet, racouteur who talked incessantly of the rising cost of living because his monthly budget of Rs.20 (twenty) had been exhausted ten days before the month’s end!
You had to book a table for a meal with Safdar weeks in advance. He was in such demand for his scintillating company. The most succinct observation on Safdar came from my friend Vinod Mehta, editor of Outlook. “The fellow doesn’t know where his next meal is coming from; all he knows is it will be a terrific one.”
# # # # # #
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Sink the ship to stop the leak
Sink the ship to stop the leak
Saeed Naqvi
Dated: 05.06.2010
The Israeli attack on the Aid ship killing atleast 10 has, at long last, moved even Indian human rights and political groups to brave the sizzling heat and march to the Israeli embassy. It was an impressive show.
The Indian Foreign office condemned the Israeli action. After so long has the MEA been moved to anger, that the statement came as a huge relief.
Such a statement was not altogether unexpected, after External Affairs Minister, S.M. Krishna attended the meeting in Teheran last week in which President Lula of Brazil, Prime Minister Erdogan of Turkey and President Ahmedinijad of Iran signed an agreement to transfer Iran’s low enriched uranium to Turkey.
In fact all of this is only the tip of the iceberg.
On Wednesday, May 12, Turkey agreed to let Russia “build and own” a $20 billion power plant in a deal which gives an enormous new opening to Russia’s expanding energy industry.
Sergei Kiriyenko, head of Russian nuclear giant Rosatom, signed the agreement to build four reactors on Turkey’s Southern Mediterranean coast. Interestingly, the Turkish agreement is smaller than the 16 reactors Russia intends to build in India. But circumstances in which the deal was signed has imparted to it all the drama of International cut throat.
Actually, in October President Obama had mooted the idea of Iran transferring nuclear material to third countries. But the great cultural divide between Iran and the US always leaves a huge gap which neither side is willing to leap over.
Since one of the countries where Iranian fuel might have been transferred was Russia, Rosatom was in the loop from the very outset.
This, and other deals, were on the anvil at a time when American activity was touching fever pitch to contrive a tough draft for sanctions (checking of ships, for instance) announcing which Hillary Clinton was determined to have Moscow and Beijing standing behind her, their fists clenched.
Ahmedinijad and the Brazilian President met on Sunday, May 16 in Teheran, exactly a month after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, President Lula, President Dimitry Medvedev, President Hu Jintao had all secretly discussed in Brasilia the issue of Iran nuclear fuel. The absence of Indian contribution to these deliberations must be attributed to bureaucratic modesty.
A day before the BRIC summit in Brasilia, President Lula spoke of his lack of faith in “sanctions” against Iran. He was keen to embark on a more constructive route. He discussed these issues in detail with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. (And not a question on the issue was asked at the Prime Minister’s press conference.)
Hillary’s sanctions orchestra was rising to a crescendo by Tuesday, May 18. But before the sanctions could be announced, Lula, Ahmedinijad and Erdogan punctured the project by signing an agreement Americans could not have may quarrels with. The broad outlines of the deal were, after all, part of an earlier note by President Obama. Hillary was left waving a draft which meant little.
The surprise was the choice of the destination where Iran’s nuclear fuel would be diverted – Turkey.
Iranian spiritual leader, Ali Khameini, twisted the knife further by saying: “America is angry over the proximity of independent countries like Iran and Brazil.”
It has all been a bit of an unusual drama. Here you have the Secretary of State of the World’s most powerful nation clearing her throat to announce punitive sanctions against Iran. Just then, without even a day’s time gap, Brazil, Turkey and Iran (backed by Moscow) announced a brand new deal for transfer of Iranian fuel as per an earlier suggestions made by President Obama.
It is impolite to mention such facts, but what galls nations like Israel (and a host of EU members) is the fact that the recipient of Iran’s low-grade fuel would be a “Muslim” country!
Consider this near hysterical response by the iconic columnist Indian media stars fawn over: “When I first saw the May 17 picture of Iran’s President, Mahmoud Ahmedinijad, joining his Brazilian counterpart, Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva and the Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, with raised arms – and their signing of a putative deal to defuse the crisis over Iran’s nuclear weapons programme – all I could think of was: “is there anything uglier than watching democrats sell out other democrats to a holocaust – denying, vote-stealing Iranian thug just to tweak the US and show that they too can play at the big power table? Now that’s about as ugly as it gets.” The columnist in question happens to be God’s gift to global journalism – Tom Friedman. I would have been sacked for intemperate writing from newspapers I was trained in.
So much for Ahmedinijad. Now he turns on Lula. “Lula has been great for Brazil but terrible for his democratic neighbours”. Lula’s other faults?
“He supported the thwarting of democracy across Latin America.” He regularly praises Venezuela’s strongman Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro, “the Cuban Dictator”.
This is the same Friedman who approved the invasion of Iraq as the greatest democratizing enterprise ever undertaken, recommended Ayatuallah Sistani for the Nobel Prize and carried messages from the state department for the Saudi King.
But such is the obsequiousness of Indian journalism that over the past two decades American and British columnists appear sometimes in four or more newspapers on the same day.
So, we have our leaders flit between Teheran, Brasilia and Washington but duck into a low profile on issues that might displease the West. Little wonder our editors publish western points of view in bold relief as our very own. It is the same tendency from top to bottom.
# # # # # # #
Saeed Naqvi
Dated: 05.06.2010
The Israeli attack on the Aid ship killing atleast 10 has, at long last, moved even Indian human rights and political groups to brave the sizzling heat and march to the Israeli embassy. It was an impressive show.
The Indian Foreign office condemned the Israeli action. After so long has the MEA been moved to anger, that the statement came as a huge relief.
Such a statement was not altogether unexpected, after External Affairs Minister, S.M. Krishna attended the meeting in Teheran last week in which President Lula of Brazil, Prime Minister Erdogan of Turkey and President Ahmedinijad of Iran signed an agreement to transfer Iran’s low enriched uranium to Turkey.
In fact all of this is only the tip of the iceberg.
On Wednesday, May 12, Turkey agreed to let Russia “build and own” a $20 billion power plant in a deal which gives an enormous new opening to Russia’s expanding energy industry.
Sergei Kiriyenko, head of Russian nuclear giant Rosatom, signed the agreement to build four reactors on Turkey’s Southern Mediterranean coast. Interestingly, the Turkish agreement is smaller than the 16 reactors Russia intends to build in India. But circumstances in which the deal was signed has imparted to it all the drama of International cut throat.
Actually, in October President Obama had mooted the idea of Iran transferring nuclear material to third countries. But the great cultural divide between Iran and the US always leaves a huge gap which neither side is willing to leap over.
Since one of the countries where Iranian fuel might have been transferred was Russia, Rosatom was in the loop from the very outset.
This, and other deals, were on the anvil at a time when American activity was touching fever pitch to contrive a tough draft for sanctions (checking of ships, for instance) announcing which Hillary Clinton was determined to have Moscow and Beijing standing behind her, their fists clenched.
Ahmedinijad and the Brazilian President met on Sunday, May 16 in Teheran, exactly a month after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, President Lula, President Dimitry Medvedev, President Hu Jintao had all secretly discussed in Brasilia the issue of Iran nuclear fuel. The absence of Indian contribution to these deliberations must be attributed to bureaucratic modesty.
A day before the BRIC summit in Brasilia, President Lula spoke of his lack of faith in “sanctions” against Iran. He was keen to embark on a more constructive route. He discussed these issues in detail with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. (And not a question on the issue was asked at the Prime Minister’s press conference.)
Hillary’s sanctions orchestra was rising to a crescendo by Tuesday, May 18. But before the sanctions could be announced, Lula, Ahmedinijad and Erdogan punctured the project by signing an agreement Americans could not have may quarrels with. The broad outlines of the deal were, after all, part of an earlier note by President Obama. Hillary was left waving a draft which meant little.
The surprise was the choice of the destination where Iran’s nuclear fuel would be diverted – Turkey.
Iranian spiritual leader, Ali Khameini, twisted the knife further by saying: “America is angry over the proximity of independent countries like Iran and Brazil.”
It has all been a bit of an unusual drama. Here you have the Secretary of State of the World’s most powerful nation clearing her throat to announce punitive sanctions against Iran. Just then, without even a day’s time gap, Brazil, Turkey and Iran (backed by Moscow) announced a brand new deal for transfer of Iranian fuel as per an earlier suggestions made by President Obama.
It is impolite to mention such facts, but what galls nations like Israel (and a host of EU members) is the fact that the recipient of Iran’s low-grade fuel would be a “Muslim” country!
Consider this near hysterical response by the iconic columnist Indian media stars fawn over: “When I first saw the May 17 picture of Iran’s President, Mahmoud Ahmedinijad, joining his Brazilian counterpart, Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva and the Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, with raised arms – and their signing of a putative deal to defuse the crisis over Iran’s nuclear weapons programme – all I could think of was: “is there anything uglier than watching democrats sell out other democrats to a holocaust – denying, vote-stealing Iranian thug just to tweak the US and show that they too can play at the big power table? Now that’s about as ugly as it gets.” The columnist in question happens to be God’s gift to global journalism – Tom Friedman. I would have been sacked for intemperate writing from newspapers I was trained in.
So much for Ahmedinijad. Now he turns on Lula. “Lula has been great for Brazil but terrible for his democratic neighbours”. Lula’s other faults?
“He supported the thwarting of democracy across Latin America.” He regularly praises Venezuela’s strongman Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro, “the Cuban Dictator”.
This is the same Friedman who approved the invasion of Iraq as the greatest democratizing enterprise ever undertaken, recommended Ayatuallah Sistani for the Nobel Prize and carried messages from the state department for the Saudi King.
But such is the obsequiousness of Indian journalism that over the past two decades American and British columnists appear sometimes in four or more newspapers on the same day.
So, we have our leaders flit between Teheran, Brasilia and Washington but duck into a low profile on issues that might displease the West. Little wonder our editors publish western points of view in bold relief as our very own. It is the same tendency from top to bottom.
# # # # # # #
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Upstaging Hillary
Upstaging Hillary
Saeed Naqvi
Dated: 29.05.2010
It must have been embarrassing for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that the day she was to announce a Security Council consensus for sanctions against Iran as punishment for its nuclear ambitions, the principal consensus partner, Russian President Dimitry Medvedev, had approved a deal for swapping Iranian low-enriched uranium for Turkish fuel rods for use in a medical reactor.
Even though Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told the US Secretary of State that Moscow was still committed to the understanding in principle on the Security Council draft, the agreement with Iran negotiated with the help of Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula, has opened up a new situation.
Indian Foreign Minister was present at the Teheran meet. Moreover, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh participated in the BRIC summit in Brazil where the idea created a buzz on the margins, there is no evidence of the Indian media being even interested in the issue. Not one question was asked at the Prime Minister’s press conference last week. More is the pity because India should have taken the lead on the idea to help repair the damage done during the vote against Iran at Vienna during the still lingering nuclear debate. Also, all Indian development initiatives in Afghanistan will remain incomplete without Iran being directly involved. The road projects in Afghanistan can’t be functional without the Iranian ports in the Gulf.
In the midst of colossal stupidities, one of the cleverest steps George W. Bush had taken while embarking on his massive retaliation on Afghanistan was to appoint Darri-Persian speaking Zalmay Khalilzad at ambassador to Kabul. Among his key jobs was to keep the Iranians on board.
Nothing in politics is ever altruistic. Khalilzad succeeded in keeping Iranians quiet was because the Iranians had even more interest that the Americans to see the demise of both, Al Qaeda and Taleban. For the Iranians, this Salafi, anti shia Islam would remain a thorn in their side unless the two were eliminated. They were ousted from Kabul. Hamid Karzai in his pragmatism has been continuously in touch with the Iranians. President Ahmedinijad visited Kabul in April, much to the chagrin of both, Pakistan as well as Washington.
Now that conversations are on with various levels of the Taleban as part of the so called American strategy to withdraw, one purpose the Salafi Taleban in Afghanistan will serve is to keep needling the Shia regime to the north.
What the authors of this ill-thought-through scheme forget is that the most populous state in the Gulf, Iran, may have many more cards up its sleeve to upset such scenarios in Afghanistan as are being dreamed up.
Part of the ever shifting US policies in the region was to transfer Zalmay Khalilzad to the Green Zone in Iraq for the good works he had done in Afghanistan by mobilizing Iranian help. Since Iraq has a large border with Iran, Khalilzad’s charm offensive with Iran would come in handy once more.
It nearly did. Khalilzad set up secret meetings with the highest rung of the Iranian leadership. At this point the all powerful neo cons around Bush proceeded to tie his hands behind his back.
He could speak to the Iranians, they said, but “only on the nuclear issue”. A broad based engagement, for which Khalilzad had diligently prepared papers, was to be turfed out of the window. To expect the Iranians to turn up for a dialogue so circumscribed betrays total misreading of Iranian self esteem. Khalilzad gave up the effort.
The quest for a preferred Iranian leader on whom to confer the legitimacy of dialogue is as old as the Iranian revolution in the 1979. Remember, Ayatullah Khomeini was brought in with great fanfare from his abode on the outskirts of Paris. With equal ceremony was the Shah of Iran seen off from Teheran airport.
Reference to the background would be useful to gauge what role the CIA had designed for Khomeini.
Remember, mid 70s will be remembered for the US ouster from Vietnam. Also, for the coming to power of Communists in Angola, Mozambique, Ethiopia, Nicaragua. Strengthening of Euro communism in Italy, France, Spain. The Allende massacre had just taken place in Chile.
The CIA diagnosis was: the existence of seemingly insignificant communist movements had been ignored by the West only to its peril.
Indeed, even the coming of the Communists to power in Afghanistan is generally not known. At the time it took the Americans by surprise. I know because I was the first journalist informed about the coming to power of the Khalq and Parcham in Kabul! (That’s another story)
Actually, there was no communist gameplan to takeover in Kabul. Since the incipient communist movements in Africa and Central America had recoiled on American interests, the CIA was determined to remove all Communists interest, nascent or active, from the vicinity of power, say, in Kabul.
Therefore, the Shah’s Savak was encouraged to eliminate the Left from around President Mohammad Daud.
As happens with many CIA plans, this one too was leaked by an accidental, unintentional murder of a Parcham trade union leader, Mir Akbar Khaibar. This came across as a warning to the left. Immediately, the Air Force and the artillery (all under communist control) peremptorily swung into action, murdered Daud and took over. They declared Khalk’s Noor Mohammad Taraki as Prime Minister, a press conference this reporter attended.
In Iran, the idea was to use the Mullahs to eliminate communist groups like Mujahideen-e-Khalq and Tudeh. But the CIA had not taken into account the stubborn durability of the clergy, grappling with which has become the toughest task the US is currently undertaking.
And uncertainties on Af-Pak make the Clergy that much more entrenched, nuclear issue or no nuclear issue. How on earth can the US deal with Iran except by talking while contiguous territories of Afghanistan and Pakistan are on boil?
# # # # # # # #
Saeed Naqvi
Dated: 29.05.2010
It must have been embarrassing for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that the day she was to announce a Security Council consensus for sanctions against Iran as punishment for its nuclear ambitions, the principal consensus partner, Russian President Dimitry Medvedev, had approved a deal for swapping Iranian low-enriched uranium for Turkish fuel rods for use in a medical reactor.
Even though Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told the US Secretary of State that Moscow was still committed to the understanding in principle on the Security Council draft, the agreement with Iran negotiated with the help of Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula, has opened up a new situation.
Indian Foreign Minister was present at the Teheran meet. Moreover, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh participated in the BRIC summit in Brazil where the idea created a buzz on the margins, there is no evidence of the Indian media being even interested in the issue. Not one question was asked at the Prime Minister’s press conference last week. More is the pity because India should have taken the lead on the idea to help repair the damage done during the vote against Iran at Vienna during the still lingering nuclear debate. Also, all Indian development initiatives in Afghanistan will remain incomplete without Iran being directly involved. The road projects in Afghanistan can’t be functional without the Iranian ports in the Gulf.
In the midst of colossal stupidities, one of the cleverest steps George W. Bush had taken while embarking on his massive retaliation on Afghanistan was to appoint Darri-Persian speaking Zalmay Khalilzad at ambassador to Kabul. Among his key jobs was to keep the Iranians on board.
Nothing in politics is ever altruistic. Khalilzad succeeded in keeping Iranians quiet was because the Iranians had even more interest that the Americans to see the demise of both, Al Qaeda and Taleban. For the Iranians, this Salafi, anti shia Islam would remain a thorn in their side unless the two were eliminated. They were ousted from Kabul. Hamid Karzai in his pragmatism has been continuously in touch with the Iranians. President Ahmedinijad visited Kabul in April, much to the chagrin of both, Pakistan as well as Washington.
Now that conversations are on with various levels of the Taleban as part of the so called American strategy to withdraw, one purpose the Salafi Taleban in Afghanistan will serve is to keep needling the Shia regime to the north.
What the authors of this ill-thought-through scheme forget is that the most populous state in the Gulf, Iran, may have many more cards up its sleeve to upset such scenarios in Afghanistan as are being dreamed up.
Part of the ever shifting US policies in the region was to transfer Zalmay Khalilzad to the Green Zone in Iraq for the good works he had done in Afghanistan by mobilizing Iranian help. Since Iraq has a large border with Iran, Khalilzad’s charm offensive with Iran would come in handy once more.
It nearly did. Khalilzad set up secret meetings with the highest rung of the Iranian leadership. At this point the all powerful neo cons around Bush proceeded to tie his hands behind his back.
He could speak to the Iranians, they said, but “only on the nuclear issue”. A broad based engagement, for which Khalilzad had diligently prepared papers, was to be turfed out of the window. To expect the Iranians to turn up for a dialogue so circumscribed betrays total misreading of Iranian self esteem. Khalilzad gave up the effort.
The quest for a preferred Iranian leader on whom to confer the legitimacy of dialogue is as old as the Iranian revolution in the 1979. Remember, Ayatullah Khomeini was brought in with great fanfare from his abode on the outskirts of Paris. With equal ceremony was the Shah of Iran seen off from Teheran airport.
Reference to the background would be useful to gauge what role the CIA had designed for Khomeini.
Remember, mid 70s will be remembered for the US ouster from Vietnam. Also, for the coming to power of Communists in Angola, Mozambique, Ethiopia, Nicaragua. Strengthening of Euro communism in Italy, France, Spain. The Allende massacre had just taken place in Chile.
The CIA diagnosis was: the existence of seemingly insignificant communist movements had been ignored by the West only to its peril.
Indeed, even the coming of the Communists to power in Afghanistan is generally not known. At the time it took the Americans by surprise. I know because I was the first journalist informed about the coming to power of the Khalq and Parcham in Kabul! (That’s another story)
Actually, there was no communist gameplan to takeover in Kabul. Since the incipient communist movements in Africa and Central America had recoiled on American interests, the CIA was determined to remove all Communists interest, nascent or active, from the vicinity of power, say, in Kabul.
Therefore, the Shah’s Savak was encouraged to eliminate the Left from around President Mohammad Daud.
As happens with many CIA plans, this one too was leaked by an accidental, unintentional murder of a Parcham trade union leader, Mir Akbar Khaibar. This came across as a warning to the left. Immediately, the Air Force and the artillery (all under communist control) peremptorily swung into action, murdered Daud and took over. They declared Khalk’s Noor Mohammad Taraki as Prime Minister, a press conference this reporter attended.
In Iran, the idea was to use the Mullahs to eliminate communist groups like Mujahideen-e-Khalq and Tudeh. But the CIA had not taken into account the stubborn durability of the clergy, grappling with which has become the toughest task the US is currently undertaking.
And uncertainties on Af-Pak make the Clergy that much more entrenched, nuclear issue or no nuclear issue. How on earth can the US deal with Iran except by talking while contiguous territories of Afghanistan and Pakistan are on boil?
# # # # # # # #
Monday, May 24, 2010
Dealing with Maoist: Is UPA divided?
Dealing with Maoist: Is UPA divided?
Saeed Naqvi
Dated: 23.05.2010
The sparring in the Congress on how to tackle left extremism in the tribal belt may come to an end with the Prime Minister’s press conference on Monday May 24. Or it may continue until June 18, at least, when 56 (fifty six) Rajya Sabha results will be in. Will the cabinet be reshuffled after that date? Will it be a limited reshuffle?
The series of attacks by Maoists in the tribal belt specifically in Dantewada in Chattishgarh, can be seen either as a failure of the UPA led central government or as incompetence of the BJP led state government – or both.
In his recent TV appearance, the Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram has given the impression of having to fight the “merciless” Maoists with his hands tied behind his back.
Naturally, someone as quick as BJP’s Arun Jaitley smacks his lips at the jam being offered. Poor fellow, says he, even as the BJP forms an admiring circle around the tallest Congress leader from Tamil Nadu in the present cabinet.
Digvijay Singh, who has been Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister when Chattigarh was part of his political parish, would, in his guts, like the party to hammer the BJP for its failure in the state. He is obviously disturbed at Chidambaram providing scoring opportunities to a party any Congress Chief Minister in Bhopal spends a lifetime fighting.
De ja vu! Remember Arjun Singh and Karunakaran proposing diametrically opposite attitude towards the BJP during the P.V. Narasimha Rao years? Their attitudes towards the BJP were determined by their experiences in their respective states.
In Madhya Pradesh, the Congress has to fight the BJP tooth and nail. Karunakaran required the RSS cadres and the various “Munanis” or cultural organizations to throw their weight behind the UPA to beat the Left Front.
Chidambaram’s political experience in Tamil Nadu leaves him BJP – neutral. Which is roughly the attitude of the corporate sector, large sections of the media and, ofcourse, global capitalism. In fact the dream scenario of the Maruti-plus middle class and interests mentioned above would be growing floor co-ordination between UPA and the BJP (or NDA and the Congress) after the democratic exercise on polling day. (Unfortunately, this dream was disrupted during the Cut Motion vote.)
Chidambaram’s stance is all the more audacious after Congress President Sonia Gandhi’s “Letter to Congress Persons”.
“Our country is (also) facing an enormous challenge from the Naxalites. We have recently lost 73 brave jawans of the CRPF in an attack in Chattisgarh. Our thoughts go out to the grieving families of these men who have lost their lives.” Then comes the policy statement:
“While we must address acts of terror decisively and forcefully, we have to address the root causes of Naxalism. The rise of Naxalism is a reflection of the need for our development initiatives to reach the grass roots, especially in our most backward tribal districts.”
This diagnosis of the Congress President has ready acceptance at various levels of the Congress.
In fact Congress Working Committee member, K. Kesava Rao, whose padyatra in the Maoist strongholds of Andhra Pradesh some years ago brought him face to face with various dimensions of the problem, is totally opposed to the Chindambaram line.
He expressed doubts on the veracity of Chidambaram’s claim that Chief Ministers of Bengal, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Chattisgarh and Orissa were “asking for air support to fight Maoists.”
Kesava Rao told me that the AP government had asked for two helicopters for relief work. “That is all.”
After the April 6 Maoist attack, Air Force Chief P.V. Naik said in Ahmedabad. “The military – Air Force, Army and Navy – are trained to inflict maximum lethality. They are not trained for limited damage. The weapons we have are meant for the enemy across the border.”
A spokesman for Raman Singh, BJP Chief Minister in Chattisgarh, said helicopter gunships would be extremely useful.
Defence Minister A.K. Antony, demurs and echoes his air chief’s views.
Maoists believe that by demanding Air support Chidambaram is opening the door to “somehow bring the army into the fight”, rather like the Pak army in Waziristan – step by step.
Since Maoists depend on local support for their operations, civilian deaths, as in the attack on the bus last Monday, undermines their strategy. Hence expressions of regret even by Maoist leader Kishenji with one proviso: “I request the people not to travel in any vehicle which is carrying police personel”. In an interview to a TV channel Kishen asked: “Why is Chidambaram killing poor people when Sonia Gandhi is advocating a development path”. Did the special police officers boarded the civilian bus to use them as human shields? The truth may be simple incompetence, a violation of Standard Operating Procedure which prohibits police personnel from travelling in civilian transport.
While divisions within the Congress on the issue are providing material for the BJP to gloat over, the CPM in West Bengal (which seeks air support) is finding itself embarrassed by its junior partner the CPI which describes Naxalism as a socio-economic problem and not just a law and order issue which seems to be the CPM’s emphasis.
Even as the pros and cons of the stance towards Maoists are debated within the ruling party, a grave situation is developing in neighbouring Nepal where on May 28, the Constitution lapses opening the way to a situation the consequences of which cannot be accurately predicted. That situation too is charged with Maoism, but one which is open to the democratic route. What is New Delhi’s attitude towards Nepal’s Maoists embarked on the democratic route? Maoists outside the pale must be watching this with interest.
# # # # # # # #
Saeed Naqvi
Dated: 23.05.2010
The sparring in the Congress on how to tackle left extremism in the tribal belt may come to an end with the Prime Minister’s press conference on Monday May 24. Or it may continue until June 18, at least, when 56 (fifty six) Rajya Sabha results will be in. Will the cabinet be reshuffled after that date? Will it be a limited reshuffle?
The series of attacks by Maoists in the tribal belt specifically in Dantewada in Chattishgarh, can be seen either as a failure of the UPA led central government or as incompetence of the BJP led state government – or both.
In his recent TV appearance, the Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram has given the impression of having to fight the “merciless” Maoists with his hands tied behind his back.
Naturally, someone as quick as BJP’s Arun Jaitley smacks his lips at the jam being offered. Poor fellow, says he, even as the BJP forms an admiring circle around the tallest Congress leader from Tamil Nadu in the present cabinet.
Digvijay Singh, who has been Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister when Chattigarh was part of his political parish, would, in his guts, like the party to hammer the BJP for its failure in the state. He is obviously disturbed at Chidambaram providing scoring opportunities to a party any Congress Chief Minister in Bhopal spends a lifetime fighting.
De ja vu! Remember Arjun Singh and Karunakaran proposing diametrically opposite attitude towards the BJP during the P.V. Narasimha Rao years? Their attitudes towards the BJP were determined by their experiences in their respective states.
In Madhya Pradesh, the Congress has to fight the BJP tooth and nail. Karunakaran required the RSS cadres and the various “Munanis” or cultural organizations to throw their weight behind the UPA to beat the Left Front.
Chidambaram’s political experience in Tamil Nadu leaves him BJP – neutral. Which is roughly the attitude of the corporate sector, large sections of the media and, ofcourse, global capitalism. In fact the dream scenario of the Maruti-plus middle class and interests mentioned above would be growing floor co-ordination between UPA and the BJP (or NDA and the Congress) after the democratic exercise on polling day. (Unfortunately, this dream was disrupted during the Cut Motion vote.)
Chidambaram’s stance is all the more audacious after Congress President Sonia Gandhi’s “Letter to Congress Persons”.
“Our country is (also) facing an enormous challenge from the Naxalites. We have recently lost 73 brave jawans of the CRPF in an attack in Chattisgarh. Our thoughts go out to the grieving families of these men who have lost their lives.” Then comes the policy statement:
“While we must address acts of terror decisively and forcefully, we have to address the root causes of Naxalism. The rise of Naxalism is a reflection of the need for our development initiatives to reach the grass roots, especially in our most backward tribal districts.”
This diagnosis of the Congress President has ready acceptance at various levels of the Congress.
In fact Congress Working Committee member, K. Kesava Rao, whose padyatra in the Maoist strongholds of Andhra Pradesh some years ago brought him face to face with various dimensions of the problem, is totally opposed to the Chindambaram line.
He expressed doubts on the veracity of Chidambaram’s claim that Chief Ministers of Bengal, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Chattisgarh and Orissa were “asking for air support to fight Maoists.”
Kesava Rao told me that the AP government had asked for two helicopters for relief work. “That is all.”
After the April 6 Maoist attack, Air Force Chief P.V. Naik said in Ahmedabad. “The military – Air Force, Army and Navy – are trained to inflict maximum lethality. They are not trained for limited damage. The weapons we have are meant for the enemy across the border.”
A spokesman for Raman Singh, BJP Chief Minister in Chattisgarh, said helicopter gunships would be extremely useful.
Defence Minister A.K. Antony, demurs and echoes his air chief’s views.
Maoists believe that by demanding Air support Chidambaram is opening the door to “somehow bring the army into the fight”, rather like the Pak army in Waziristan – step by step.
Since Maoists depend on local support for their operations, civilian deaths, as in the attack on the bus last Monday, undermines their strategy. Hence expressions of regret even by Maoist leader Kishenji with one proviso: “I request the people not to travel in any vehicle which is carrying police personel”. In an interview to a TV channel Kishen asked: “Why is Chidambaram killing poor people when Sonia Gandhi is advocating a development path”. Did the special police officers boarded the civilian bus to use them as human shields? The truth may be simple incompetence, a violation of Standard Operating Procedure which prohibits police personnel from travelling in civilian transport.
While divisions within the Congress on the issue are providing material for the BJP to gloat over, the CPM in West Bengal (which seeks air support) is finding itself embarrassed by its junior partner the CPI which describes Naxalism as a socio-economic problem and not just a law and order issue which seems to be the CPM’s emphasis.
Even as the pros and cons of the stance towards Maoists are debated within the ruling party, a grave situation is developing in neighbouring Nepal where on May 28, the Constitution lapses opening the way to a situation the consequences of which cannot be accurately predicted. That situation too is charged with Maoism, but one which is open to the democratic route. What is New Delhi’s attitude towards Nepal’s Maoists embarked on the democratic route? Maoists outside the pale must be watching this with interest.
# # # # # # # #
Saturday, May 15, 2010
The Kashmiri Chant : “They don’t trust us”
The Kashmiri Chant : “They don’t trust us”
Saeed Naqvi
Dated: 15.05.2010
”They do not trust us” Farooq Abdullah is a man of sunny temperament, not given to pointless lamentations. But when he said this to me a fortnight ago in the course of a conversation, he was, in an unguarded moment, giving vent to a sense of alienation which has settled as a national habit in the Kashmir valley.
This alienation is not a new reality one has suddenly noticed. But this is exactly the sort of reality that is crowded out of minds when it lingers long as unnoticed malignancy. I have heard little else this past week in Srinagar: alienation and anger (alternating with rage) against New Delhi.
I must revert to Farooq Abdullah’s lament because without it being placed in context, it can lead to multiple interpretations. The conversation was about the portfolio he had been given: Renewable Energy.
The way the electoral cookie had crumbled in Kashmir during the 2009 General Elections, it was more or less settled that Farooq Abdullah would be Chief Minister. He said as much on TV. But during the night, the decision was set aside and Omar Abdullah was sworn in. In Srinagar every journalist knows that Omar’s elevation became part of an elaborate plan to promote “youth” in the wake of Rahul Gandhi’s promising performance at the polls.
Fair enough, but surely Farooq, nationally known, personable, a good public speaker, could have been given a higher national profile. After all no national leader, who happens to be a Muslim, has the combination of charisma and pedigree which go down well in Indian public life. Ghulam Nabi Azad may be a cleverer politician and better administrator but Farooq is more charismatic.
It was in response to this observation that the former Kashmir Chief Minister and the current Chief Minister’s father, talked of the “trust deficit” between New Delhi and Kashmiris.
In fact this is an observation Vijay Dhar, the late D.P. Dhar’s son, who has helped build a remarkably successful school in Srinagar, also endorses. “Indians have not been able to give Kashmiri Muslims a sense of belonging, a partnership in the Indian enterprise.”
There are two distinct Indian responses to this kind of a statement. There is a sympathetic recognition of Kashmiri alienation since 1953 when their “national hero” Sheikh Abdullah was arrested in Srinagar and whisked away to New Delhi.
Response of others, tired of keeping the historical background in focus, is one of irritation. “Complaining has become a Kashmiri habit”.
Drive from the airport, past Hyderpura where separatist leader, Ali Shah Geelani lives, the streets are strikingly ample and well laid out. In fact, drive in from any direction, (Gulmarg, for instance) and the scale on which the houses are built is quite as impressive as in some of the fancier New Delhi colonies.
A general sense of economic well being is not just an optical illusion. “People have enough to eat and adequate housing”, says Mufti Mohammad Sayeed of the PDP. “What is bruised is Kashmiri self respect”.
There are confusing images strewn around the valley. Just outside Kashmir University, a new restaurant with an unlikely name of Hat Trick was opened last week. It is a wholesome, middle level restaurant and fast food outlet. Quite surprisingly, it is one of a chain of twenty one such facilities in Srinagar.
Then the manager turns up (he describes himself only as an adviser) in white shark skin suite with a matching white tie settled on a blue shirt. He is a short, dark man with a moustache.
It turns out that he is R.K. Mohanty from Orrissa, who came to work for the Oberoi Hotel in Srinagar decades ago and has since helped build up the Hat Trick, chain owned locally.
This is not the only surprise. A large segment of the kitchen staff are also non Kashmiri. Why? Because Kashmiris do not like such jobs. “Government jobs are at a premium”, says Prof. Syeda Afshana, at the University’s media Research Centre. “Government Jobs carry prestige, easy acceptance in the marriage market and a lazy life.”
So, a great deal of the “unemployment” in Kashmir must be read as lack of preferred employment in the public sector.
Meanwhile, in the department of Management Studies, a small number of students do succeed in finding placements outside the valley. The difficultly is the singular absence of big industrial houses on account of the “unsettled” conditions. Last year, the university’s “gold medalists” were invited for a meeting. A single fact stood out in bold relief”: none of “gold medalists” knew what they should do next. Suffocatingly, the collective vision seems to stop at Banihal!
There is no simple formula to end Kashmiri “alienation”. A way to address the issue could well be to place the “problems” of Kashmiris against the backdrop of the underprivileged across the board which results in eruptions like Chattisgarh, Jharkhand or the North East. This has to be a sophisticated, honest, credible method of communication to replace the unimaginative propaganda doled out currently.
Something remarkable happened this year. Four Kashmiri Muslims from the valley and two Hindus from Jammu entered the IAS. What is more, one of the candidates, Shah Faisal, from a village in Lolab Valley (made famous by Allama Iqbal), topped the list.
“Supposing the Prime Minister were to announce internship for him in the PMO, the gesture would be electrifying for Kashmir”, says Vijay Dhar.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah will have to find some way of balancing his family life in New Delhi and his official life in Srinagar. Otherwise a growing epithet of “part-time” Chief Minister, will attach itself to him.
New Delhi would do well to strengthen him by embarking on a credible devolution dialogue.
Above, all New Delhi must realize that an occupying army has never looked pretty to the local population. It is easy to overlook this reality in a debris of intelligence reports, three years relative peace notwithstanding. The current peace is deceptive. The undercurrent is one of anger with New Delhi. “They don’t trust us” is not just Farooq Abdullah’s lament. And just imagine: he is a member of the Union Cabinet.
# # # # # # # #
Saeed Naqvi
Dated: 15.05.2010
”They do not trust us” Farooq Abdullah is a man of sunny temperament, not given to pointless lamentations. But when he said this to me a fortnight ago in the course of a conversation, he was, in an unguarded moment, giving vent to a sense of alienation which has settled as a national habit in the Kashmir valley.
This alienation is not a new reality one has suddenly noticed. But this is exactly the sort of reality that is crowded out of minds when it lingers long as unnoticed malignancy. I have heard little else this past week in Srinagar: alienation and anger (alternating with rage) against New Delhi.
I must revert to Farooq Abdullah’s lament because without it being placed in context, it can lead to multiple interpretations. The conversation was about the portfolio he had been given: Renewable Energy.
The way the electoral cookie had crumbled in Kashmir during the 2009 General Elections, it was more or less settled that Farooq Abdullah would be Chief Minister. He said as much on TV. But during the night, the decision was set aside and Omar Abdullah was sworn in. In Srinagar every journalist knows that Omar’s elevation became part of an elaborate plan to promote “youth” in the wake of Rahul Gandhi’s promising performance at the polls.
Fair enough, but surely Farooq, nationally known, personable, a good public speaker, could have been given a higher national profile. After all no national leader, who happens to be a Muslim, has the combination of charisma and pedigree which go down well in Indian public life. Ghulam Nabi Azad may be a cleverer politician and better administrator but Farooq is more charismatic.
It was in response to this observation that the former Kashmir Chief Minister and the current Chief Minister’s father, talked of the “trust deficit” between New Delhi and Kashmiris.
In fact this is an observation Vijay Dhar, the late D.P. Dhar’s son, who has helped build a remarkably successful school in Srinagar, also endorses. “Indians have not been able to give Kashmiri Muslims a sense of belonging, a partnership in the Indian enterprise.”
There are two distinct Indian responses to this kind of a statement. There is a sympathetic recognition of Kashmiri alienation since 1953 when their “national hero” Sheikh Abdullah was arrested in Srinagar and whisked away to New Delhi.
Response of others, tired of keeping the historical background in focus, is one of irritation. “Complaining has become a Kashmiri habit”.
Drive from the airport, past Hyderpura where separatist leader, Ali Shah Geelani lives, the streets are strikingly ample and well laid out. In fact, drive in from any direction, (Gulmarg, for instance) and the scale on which the houses are built is quite as impressive as in some of the fancier New Delhi colonies.
A general sense of economic well being is not just an optical illusion. “People have enough to eat and adequate housing”, says Mufti Mohammad Sayeed of the PDP. “What is bruised is Kashmiri self respect”.
There are confusing images strewn around the valley. Just outside Kashmir University, a new restaurant with an unlikely name of Hat Trick was opened last week. It is a wholesome, middle level restaurant and fast food outlet. Quite surprisingly, it is one of a chain of twenty one such facilities in Srinagar.
Then the manager turns up (he describes himself only as an adviser) in white shark skin suite with a matching white tie settled on a blue shirt. He is a short, dark man with a moustache.
It turns out that he is R.K. Mohanty from Orrissa, who came to work for the Oberoi Hotel in Srinagar decades ago and has since helped build up the Hat Trick, chain owned locally.
This is not the only surprise. A large segment of the kitchen staff are also non Kashmiri. Why? Because Kashmiris do not like such jobs. “Government jobs are at a premium”, says Prof. Syeda Afshana, at the University’s media Research Centre. “Government Jobs carry prestige, easy acceptance in the marriage market and a lazy life.”
So, a great deal of the “unemployment” in Kashmir must be read as lack of preferred employment in the public sector.
Meanwhile, in the department of Management Studies, a small number of students do succeed in finding placements outside the valley. The difficultly is the singular absence of big industrial houses on account of the “unsettled” conditions. Last year, the university’s “gold medalists” were invited for a meeting. A single fact stood out in bold relief”: none of “gold medalists” knew what they should do next. Suffocatingly, the collective vision seems to stop at Banihal!
There is no simple formula to end Kashmiri “alienation”. A way to address the issue could well be to place the “problems” of Kashmiris against the backdrop of the underprivileged across the board which results in eruptions like Chattisgarh, Jharkhand or the North East. This has to be a sophisticated, honest, credible method of communication to replace the unimaginative propaganda doled out currently.
Something remarkable happened this year. Four Kashmiri Muslims from the valley and two Hindus from Jammu entered the IAS. What is more, one of the candidates, Shah Faisal, from a village in Lolab Valley (made famous by Allama Iqbal), topped the list.
“Supposing the Prime Minister were to announce internship for him in the PMO, the gesture would be electrifying for Kashmir”, says Vijay Dhar.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah will have to find some way of balancing his family life in New Delhi and his official life in Srinagar. Otherwise a growing epithet of “part-time” Chief Minister, will attach itself to him.
New Delhi would do well to strengthen him by embarking on a credible devolution dialogue.
Above, all New Delhi must realize that an occupying army has never looked pretty to the local population. It is easy to overlook this reality in a debris of intelligence reports, three years relative peace notwithstanding. The current peace is deceptive. The undercurrent is one of anger with New Delhi. “They don’t trust us” is not just Farooq Abdullah’s lament. And just imagine: he is a member of the Union Cabinet.
# # # # # # # #
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)