News on India

.

Deepening Divide
If you visit a typical village in India and ask people there what and how they have benefited from economic reforms or liberalization and globalization, you might get the shock of your life when they would tell you that they have not heard of anything like reforms, that they are where they used be some 20 years ago, and that no one cares for them. This is the reality in Bharat, the real India where the majority of the country’s population resides, where politicians visit the aam aadmi to influence them for votes with their hugely successful rhetoric, where poverty is the only fact of life. Look at neighbouring China. Its authoritarianism notwithstanding, China’s is a remarkable success in taking all segments of its populace in the growth bandwagon. True, there is a lot of rural resentment too, but Beijing has been striving relentlessly to address the rural constituency by making them benefit from its market economics. It is made easier by the fact that agriculture is a great Chinese project. Most importantly, China has an uncompromising sense of national unity and integrity, and its policies are seconded by that refined, indissoluble sense. Hence the Chinese marvel in anything it does — as the recently concluded Olympics have amply proved. And this, despite the fact that China is not a democracy, which India is. However, India’s democracy has been its own nemesis for various reasons — of course due mainly to the fact that it is the country’s politicians themselves who have failed its democracy. The country is yet to have a sense of national unity or a kind of rallying point that would surface perennially, not just when there is a grave national crisis.

Rural India is a very discouraging sight in that context. The basic problem is the real agenda of most of our politicians, power-hungry as they, development politicians as they are not and would not be. Their agenda lies in keeping the rural populace illiterate, backward and downtrodden so that they could be won over by gimmickry — that is, so that they could be taken for a ride all the time. The other aspect is that it is very easy to pocket funds meant for the development of rural areas; after all, illiterate or semi-literate, poor and powerless people will not question the manner in which funds meant for their development are being utilized — they could not even be aware of the funds being meant for their development. It is so very easy to commit fraud on a people who are unsuspecting and given to believing in what the politician promises. Then there are middlemen and thugs — all politically well connected and favourites in the corridors of power because they are the ones who finance candidates in elections — who naturally happen to be the greatest beneficiary of rural ‘development’ initiatives. It is no wonder then that the divide between India and Bharat should widen further, despite the tall talks of reforms and the wonders thereof. In fact, India’s characteristic politician does not want to empower the villages because he is afraid of decentralization and the people’s power that will flow out of it, destroying the politician’s criminal monopoly. The politician wants to thrive on the backwardness of people. The greatest tragedy is that the general political tendency — which is criminal because it is obviously criminal to cheat people who are poor and powerless — is not being undone. Thus deepens further the rural-urban divide.


Beijing’s Real Voice
An article by a noted Chinese strategic expert that appeared in People’s Daily, the mouthpiece of the ruling Communist Party of China, has categorically stated the real Chinese official position on the Indo-US nuclear deal. The article has criticized the ‘‘multiple standards’’ followed by the US on the issue of nuclear non-proliferation when it agreed to sign the deal with India. It says: ‘‘Irrespective of the fate of the US-India nuclear agreement, the United States’ multiple standards on non-proliferation issues have met with a sceptical world... Whether it is motivated by geopolitical consideration or commercial interests, the US-India nuclear agreement has constituted a major blow to the international non-proliferation regime. The Daily holds the view — giving a true picture of what Beijing thinks of the deal — that the nuclear agreement will allow New Delhi to continue with nuclear tests ‘‘as there is no constraining link between supply of nuclear materials and India conducting a nuclear test’’. So what is clear is that Beijing, despite its earlier pretensions, actually does not want the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) to give a clean waiver to India. Beijing may not be in the forefront of the NSG’s anti-India lobby, but the fact remains that its desire is to see that the deal meets the NSG roadblock and India is deprived of international nuclear commerce. There is hardly anything surprising about this though, given China’s fear of a rising India.


Between the lines
Kashmir on Edge
Kuldip Nayar
Who are to blame for the situation in Jammu and Kashmir is not yet possible to determine. Still the jury is out. There is no doubting the inept handling by the government of India and its advisers. Religious ferment is the consequence of what has happened in the two regions, not the cause. The cause is the lack of political will and the inadequacy of successive governments at the Centre to take decisions when it should have.

Influenced by the hawkish bureaucracy and ill-informed intelligence agencies, New Delhi has failed to appreciate the depth of people’s alienation in the valley on the one hand and the widening gulf between Kashmir and Jammu on the other. The Muslim-majority Kashmir and the Hindu-majority Jammu had been going apart for some years. Yet the government did very little to reverse the trend by balancing the share of both in governance or the economic development. The valley’s estrangement with the rest of the country has been visibly increasing since 1990. Statements like “the sky is the limit” were never concretized, either during the talks with the Kashmiri leaders or by transferring all the subjects except Defence, Foreign Affairs and Communications to the State unilaterally.

Some well-meaning persons are suggesting that India should quit Kashmir. They do not realize that Yasin Maliks and Umar Farooqs will be pushed out in no time and the valley will be taken over by the Taliban or terrorists. The unfortunate part is that the Kashmiryat, akin to Sufism, has got burnt. Kashmir has become avowedly Islamic and Jammu avowedly Hindu. Very little grey area is available. New Delhi knows only one way: the use of force.

Whatever can be retrieved from the ashes of decimated Kashmiriyat is valuable. This will be important for tomorrow’s democratic, pluralistic India which needs to prove its secular credentials. Democracy is a constant dialogue. But it is yet to be appreciated by the 61-year-old nation which is still in the making. It lacks patience and perseverance. India’s ethos of pluralism has been hit the most. What effect the stand taken by the valley, more Islamic than Indian, would have on the polity is difficult to say. But secular forces in the country have been weakened.

T here is still no effort to talk to the Kashmiri
leaders though interlocutors of the government
say that they had done most of the job. What have they done so far is what people want to know. New Delhi would be well advised to issue a white paper on Kashmir, containing talks with the Kashmiri leaders and the Pakistan government. I still believe that the talks with the Hurriyat leaders may reveal that they are not for secession but for their separate identity which was guaranteed when the State joined the Union of India. But the religious elements and the intelligence agencies have exploited the situation to such an extent that people cannot see the wood for the trees. The problem is political and needs deft handling.

The pressure of events may force the Pakistan government to take a stand, not only because of the smouldering situation in the valley but also because of the voice that the “Azad Kashmir,” Pakistan’s preserve, may eventually lend support to the concept of azadi. The tragedy at this time is that the governments in both the countries are in no position to discuss azadi. The Gillani government at Islamabad is yet to attain stability. The withdrawal of the Nawaz Sharif’s Muslim League has reduced it to a minority. The Manmohan Singh government has no verdict from the Indian electorate to change the country’s borders. The latter is left with only six to eight months from its five-year tenure. Even if it were to hold talks with the Hurriyat, it would not be able to reach anything concrete because it cannot prejudge what formations would come to power after the Lok Sabha elections.

The temperature in Kashmir has already reached the boiling point. Even if the Hurriyat leaders were to think of waiting till after the polls, they would find it hard to convince the people to defer the agitation. The threat that the terrorists would take over from the Hurriyat leaders is a superficial reading of the situation. Were the movement to take that direction, the security forces would use all the force to crush insurgency. The world is watching at this time how the democratic India deals with a peaceful defiance. A violent uprising, with an Islamic edge, may have no takers.

My fear is that the demand of secession may
give a handle to the BJP which has been
looking for an emotive issue after the Babri Masjid-Ram Janambhoomi dispute or the Sethu Bridge in the sea down South. The nation is not prepared to have another partition and that too on the basis of religion. It is difficult to imagine the fallout in the country. The Northeast too is watching the developments in Kashmir. Manipur is in ferment and the communities like the Nagas are demanding the right of self-determination.

Fundamentalists in Pakistan may be happy over the developments in the valley. The ISI may want to fish in the troubled waters. But they should realize that the azadi holds as much good for Kashmir under Pakistan as for Kashmir on the Indian side. Islamabad has opposed the independent status of Kashmir in the past. There is no indication that it has changed the policy.
However, there is no time to waste. New Delhi should hold talks with the Kashmir leaders to assure them of independent status, minus Foreign Affairs, Defence and Communications. Kashmir can have a UN seat as Ukraine in the Soviet Union had.

In the meanwhile, New Delhi must attend to the fears of the Muslim community in India. It feels insecure and helpless. In recent days I have travelled to some parts of the country and talked to many people, including the well-placed Muslims. I have found them complaining against the authorities, particularly the police. The community knows that the happenings in Jammu and Kashmir have polluted the atmosphere. But it believes that the arrests of the young among them are not because of Kashmir. Their concern is that on the pretext of curbing activities of the Students’ Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), scores of Muslims are picked up. Even if they are released after a few days, the tag of terrorism sticks with them.

What is most disturbing is that the Muslim community finds the pluralistic ethos in India is weakening and the sense of tolerance lessening. This means that even after 61 years of independence, the nation has failed to establish a secular polity. It is, indeed, disturbing.



UPA itself is a Problem
Dina Nath Mishra
Congress president Sonia Gandhi heads the UPA. The Congress-led government is practically playing a fraud on the nation. Sonia Gandhi herself selects all the sub-power centres or her coterie. By and large, the Union ministry is packed with pigmies. Even the experienced ministers do not have the guts to discuss the pros and cons of critical matters falling under their domain with 10 Janpath. The Home Minister of a country of 1.2 billion people is supposed to be a very powerful and important person. Last week, in an interview with a prestigious national magazine, the Home Minister was asked: “Let me come to Afzal Guru now. The Supreme Court has upheld his death penalty, but his mercy petition is pending with you.” To which he replied: “It is not pending with me. It is pending with the Delhi Government. I am not the boss of the elected Government of Delhi. We are waiting for their reply.”

Is he truthful? No. Most people remember that when the date of execution of Afzal Guru approached, the Chief Minister of Jammu & Kashmir, Gulam Nabi Azad, gave an open statement that “if Afzal Guru is executed, the valley will be on fire”. From Sonia Gandhi to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the Home Minister, every body buckled under the threat. Needless to say that the petition from Afzal Guru was arranged by interested quarters.

Who is this Afzal Guru? He was the chief architect of the terrorist attack on the highest temple of Indian democracy — Parliament House. The high voltage terrorist attack was challenged by Delhi Police whose personnel sacrificed their lives to save the lives of a large number of MPs, including the Prime Minister and the Home Minister who were inside the Parliament House. The provocation was so great that the government directed the armed forces to prepare for a war with Pakistan. Troops moved towards the border and took positions. For months they were waiting for orders from Delhi. A couple of top strategists of India, however, succeeded in avoiding the war.

The person who brought an Indo-Pak war so near has been practically let off from the gallows. A great deal of deliberations in the Congress decided to put the matter in the cold storage — from day one. The Congress high command felt that executing Afzal would nullify dozens of government decisions for appeasing Muslims and this one step would make the Muslims come out against the Congress. In this background, Shivraj Patil’s above quoted reply is nothing but a fraud perpetrated on national security.

Likewise, the horrendous mismanagement of Indian economy has resulted in the downward slide of the economy and rating of India. On the price rise front, the aam aadmi’s life has become miserable. Inflation rate has tripled from 4% to 12%, which is highest in 16 years. The government says price rise is an international phenomenon. They pick up examples from some small backward countries to prove their statement. Sometimes they attribute it to unprecedented international hike in oil prices. These are all excuses.

Election-oriented planned populist moves and increase in prices of government-controlled commodities three times in a year, from milk to steel, diesel and petrol, have nourished inflation from one height to another. Take the example of wheat imports and smell of corruption therein. The Agriculture Ministry is advertising claims of higher wheat production but the government is planning for further imports. Yes, false assurances and uncoordinated governance have resulted in an economic mess.

International rating agencies that once created the hope of emergence of Indian economy as a whole, have started downgrading India’s economic indices. Well, under Sonia Gandhi, who is the real power centre, India’s sovereignty is being eroded bit by bit. The country is indeed passing through a turbulent phase.

Where were You?
Maxwell Pereira
“Ohh... sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble... Were you there when they crucified me on the Cross!” These haunting words with the accompanying melody of this hymn were the theme throughout this Sunday’s service at the village church I usually attend within Gurgaon’s new developments. Though far from the carnage in Orissa, the poignant, electrifying and gripping service this Sunday was a penitential prayer service, to pray for Orissa — its victims and its perpetrators.

On Christmas Eve 2007, while Christians in Orissa were preparing to celebrate the birth of Jesus, gangs of fanatical elements in Kandhamal district, in a series of pre-planned and well organised assaults, attacked churches and Christian institutions, damaging them, desecrating statues and Bibles, and even burning houses in Christian bastis (settlements).

The atrocities continued for a month, and left 107 churches destroyed in arson, at least six people dead and thousands homeless. Though instances of violence were spread across the state, the bulk of it was concentrated in Kandhamal district. The district has a population of 600,000 people, of whom almost 200,000 are Christians. Practically all tribal, very poor and exploited.
By February although the brutality seemingly subsided, the persecution never stopped. Fanatical elements kept up pressure on Christians to renounce their faith and convert to Hinduism. Christians were taunted at work, boycotted socially, women were harassed, children caught and shaved bald.

In the forefront of the movement to force Christians to abandon Christianity was Lakshmananda Saraswati, a vice-president of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP). Though a sadhu, he was known to be deeply involved in politics. On the night of August 23, a band of 20 to 30 masked men, armed with sophisticated weapons, including AK-47 rifles, attacked Saraswati’s ashram and shot him and four of his associates dead. The operation was typical of the Maoists — with the People’s Liberation Guerilla Army, a Maoist outfit, even claiming credit for the killings, as Saraswati, they said, had been mixing politics and religion for too long.

Despite differences the Christians had with him, the church and the All India Christian Council immediately condemned the killing of Saraswati and appealed to the police to arrest the killers, since the church is always against violence.

But the fundamentalists found in this an opportunity to make Christians the scapegoats, knowing full well that Christians were incapable of the killings using such sophisticated weapons. They publicly rejected the fact that Maoists had killed Saraswati and instead began a violent persecution of Christians in revenge and retaliation.

For the last week and more there has been a dance of death and destruction in Orissa. At least 14 Christians were killed in different instances, an orphanage was destroyed and a woman helper, possibly a nun, burnt to death. Many priests were beaten, one burnt.

In a State with a history of repeated communal violence and persecution of Christians, the police are doing little to protect the lives and properties of Christians, saying the rural roads have been blocked by trees. Christians are being denied their fundamental right to life, livelihood and property.

While sit-ins and demonstrations are important, the strongest and most trustworthy weapon of a Christian is prayer. And so the prayers at all Christian worship places like the one I witnessed in Gurgaon this Sunday, are not only for the victims of Orissa carnage but also for their perpetrators. “Father, forgive them — for they know not what they are doing!”
(The writer is a former joint commissioner of Delhi Police)
(IANS)

source: sentinel assam 03.09.08