Even a dog (if anti-US) can be a martyr !

Even a dog (if anti-US) can be a martyr ! Who is a martyr in today’s Pakistan? The Pakistani soldier who has laid down his life fighting extremists of the Taliban or al-Qaeda variety or the extremists who want to impose their brand of Sharia rule in Pakistan and elsewhere? For the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) anybody sacrificing his life, like Hakeemullah Mehsud killed in a drone attack, in the fight against the Americans is a martyr. For JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur-Rehman even a dog killed by the Americans would be a martyr. By implication, over 40,000 Pakistani soldiers who have died fighting Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, apparently in coordination with the Americans, do not qualify for that honour. The Army has openly condemned the Jamatis for the insult to soldiers and asked for an apology while the Jamatis have told the Army to mind its business and stop making any political statements. ......................................................................................................................................................

Pak crisis after Taliban chief’s drone death

Pak PM’s dilemma after Taliban chief’s drone death Pakistan has been plunged into a fresh crisis since the killing of Tehrik-e-Taliabn Pakistan (TTP) chief Hakeemullah Mehsud in a drone strike by the Americans. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had been pinning his hopes on a dialogue with the TTP for a possible peace deal to contain violence across the country. That hope now lies in tatters. Undeterred, Sharif is still prepared for talks to avoid going for the military option against the Taliban whose new leader Mullah Fazlullah is a known ultra hardliner. Making an impassioned stand for a “lasting peace” through talks Sharif told a press gathering in Karachi:“There’s been enough bloodshed, and some say more than forty thousand civilians and soldiers have been killed in these years of trouble, and therefore the only way out is to speed up the efforts for a permanent peace in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the rest of the country..” A desperate plea indeed, perhaps a right move in order to win over at least the ‘soft’ Taliban. All this despite TTP spokesman Ihsanullah Ihsan spelling out that the chances of peace through talks were now “ zero”,or less than zero.” The situation is likely to turn even more volatile with the killing in Islamabad of Nasiruddin Haqqani ,the son of Jalaluddin Haqqani, founder of the Afghan Taliban network. The dialogue with Taliabn has been a mirage. At best, it can give both sides temporary respite before the next round. The American drone strike has closed that option for a long time, if not for ever. Pakistan has for long dithered over taking action against the Taliban. But the Americans have no intention of ending drone strikes. That was made clear to Sharif when he met President Barack Obama during and after the UN General Assembly session in New York.. Nor can Nawaz Sharif expect any mercy from Mullah Fazlullah, also known as Mullah Radio for his clandestine broadcasts for his sermons against polio vaccination programmes and girls' education. When his forces captured Pakistan’s Swat district in 2007, he ruled it with an iron hand for two years before being evicted by Pakistan Army in 2009. Fazlullah, who carries a bounty worth half a million dollars on his head, is known for carrying out bloody strikes like beheading of 17 Paksitani soldiers last year, besides burning schools and master-minding the failed attack on schoolgirl Malala Yusafzai – all in the name of Islamic Sharia as he understands or misunderstands it.. He is an old time follower of Tehrik Nifaz-i-Shariat-i-Muhammadi founded by his father-in-law. Fazlullah merged his TNSM with the newly formed Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) after General Pervez Musharraf”s army operation to clear the radical Lal Masjid (Red Mosque) in Islamabad, The Taliban may have lost some battles but their war continues. Only a couple of months ago in September when an All Party Conference under Sharif was trying for peace talks, Fazlullah’s fighters under the TTP command of Hakeemullah Mehsud waged battles with Pakistan Army, killing a Major-General and a Colonel besides several soldiers. After claiming the responsibility for that attack Fazlullah sent out a video message saying loud and clear: “We will remove any hurdle to enforcing Islamic Sharia. Our goal is very clear – we want the law of Allah in Allah's land.” Fazlullah’s aim always has been and still is about installing the Taliban’s version of Sharia across the country. His ambit is not confined to its own backyard in North or South Waziristan or all of Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata). . Unlike Hakeemullah Mehsud who practised double talk to confuse Pakistan with occasional peace feelers while simultaneously waging war, Fazlullah is a blunt militant: who doesn’t mince words. His target is the whole of Pakistan, neighbouring Afghanistan and beyond.. Even the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government of Imran Khan’s party has not been spared. In spite of Imran Khan pleading for opening a Taliban office in Pakistan, the KPK law minister was assassinated. That was perhaps a lesson for Imran Khan for riding theTaliban Tiger. But Imran Khan refuses to learn any lesson. Blind to the sectarian, extremist religious menace, he sticks to his vote-catching belief that America is the source of all of Pakistan’s troubles. Or as analysts like Editor Najam Sethi of The Friday Times have suggested , Imran Khan is fishing in deeper waters He is egging on all elements to take tough actions against the Americans, including stopping NATO supply tankers to Afghanistan, and derail the US-Pakistan relationship which currently accounts for nearly $10 billion in IMF, Coalition Support Fund and Kerry-Lugar aid to Pakistan. The real aim : to destabilize the country and push for a a regime change and bring down the Nawaz Sharif government. On top of all this, the Prime Minister has to watch out for ambitious men in the armed forces. He wouldn’t want another somebody who could do a Musharraf on him. The threat of an army coup , though unlikely in the present conditions, can never be too far. In Sharif’s case it’s a matter of once bitten, twice shy. Nor is that all. There is the question of a split within the army, ISI and other defence components. There are jihadis within all sections who are pro-Taliban, anti-India, anti-America, and above all anti-liberal Pakistan.. Poor Sharif, surrounded by more foes than friends of all hues, is caught in the quagmire from which there is no easy escape. ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………...................................................................................................................................................

Nobel poet Seamus Heaney bequeaths harvest of joy

Nobel poet Seamus Heaney passes,leaving joy for ever By Subhash Chopra With the passing of Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney not only Ireland lost its greatest poet since W. B. Yeats, English poetry lost one of its greatest practitioners since Yeats, T. S. Eliot and Ted Hughes. More lovingly known by his first name Seamus, he was truly universal voice yet rooted in his native Irish soil. For when in 1981 his work was included in a Penguin anthology of British poetry, he forthrightly made known his concern in verse: “My passport’s green,/ No glass of ours was ever raised/ To toast the Queen.” No offence to the British, he accepted in 1989 the honour of being made Oxford Professor of Poetry for five years and the T. S. Eliot Prize in 2006. Heaney who died last week (on 30 August 2013) was born in April 1939 within a few weeks of Yeats’s death. The long line of poets who influenced him included Wordsworth, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Thomas Hardy and Dante. His steady outpour of a dozen collections of poetry from the ‘Death of a Naturalist’ in 1966 to ‘North’ in 1975 and ‘District and Circle’ in 2006 along with other writings over half a century carried the stamp of simplicity, elegance and an earthy affability which made him one of the most widely read contemporary poets in the English speaking world. Laid to rest in rural Bellaghy near where he was born in Northern Ireland’s County Derry, which the British Loyalists call Londonderry, he remained true to his earthy upbringing. In one of his earliest poems Digging , he admires his father’s and grandfather’s work with the spade: “By God the old man could handle a spade,/ Just like his old man.” Though unable to follow his forbears literally, he followed them in his own way: “Between my finger and my thumb/ The squat pen rests,/ I’ll dig with it.” And a long and happy harvest he reaped whose fruits have been enjoyed by many and will continue to be enjoyed by generations to come. Another of his early poems Mid-Term Break recalls the death of his younger brother in a car accident when he himself was a schoolboy: “ He lay in the four-foot box as in his cot, No gaudy scars, the bumper knocked him clear. A four-foot box, a foot for every year.” Having lived his life in Ireland’s turbulent times called the Troubles, some of his compatriots wanted him to declare his colours for the Republican cause against British imperialism. He tackled the question and answer in his own way thus: “ When for fuck’s sake, are you going to write Something for us? If I do write something, Whatever it is, I’ll be writing for myself.” He was part of the protest but not part of the vitriol associated with the struggle. The murder of one of his cousins in a sectarian attack haunted him, yet at the same time he could not abandon belief in the power of art and poetry as the ultimate winner and reconciler. As The Irish Times, English language’s premier paper worldwide, put it in its tribute covering almost the entire front page: “ Like all great poets, Seamus Heaney was an alchemist. He turned our disgrace into grace, our petty hatreds into epic generosity, our dull clichés into questioning eloquence, the leaden metal of brutal inevitability into gold of pure possibility.” The paper, which devoted almost five and a half broadsheet pages to the poet on the morning after his death, also carried a full two-column editorial with the accolade heading: “A servant of the language.” Quite like the Nobel Prize citing which honoured him “for works of lyrical beauty and ethical depth, which exalt everyday miracles and the living past.” ..................................................................................................................................

India passes world's largest welfare food law

India’s $20bn leap of faith for food to poor By Subhash Chopra India’s truly landmark Food Security Bill to fight poverty and malnutrition which cleared its passage through parliament promises food security to 800 million people or two-thirds of its population at virtually throw away prices. The Upper House passed it by a voice vote on 2 September 2013, with the Lower House having cleared it the previous week. Billed as the world’s largest welfare programme, it promises 75% of the country’s rural population and 50% of urban population rice at Rs 3 (7US cents or 5p) a kg, wheat at Rs 2 a kg and coarse grains at Rs 1 a kg. It will guarantee 5 kg of rice, wheat and coarse cereals per month per person. And it’s not just a promise, it’s already being delivered in parts of the country. Over the coming weeks and months it will cover the entire nation. The measure had already become operative through an ordinance promulgated in July but the government had for long wanted to have it approved by parliament. The six-hour long debate on the final day in the Lok Sabha (Lower House) saw 18 divisions forced by MPs but the government’s patience and perseverance paid off. Pushed through against the given wisdom of the economists of World Bank, IMF and their allied tribes in India and elsewhere, it sets out a model of human development from grassroots upwards rather than trickle-down palliatives to save lives or improve living standards. But economists like Nobel Laureate Amaratiya Sen and Professor Jean Dreze have broadly backed it, even though it falls short of their expectations. In fact, Prof Dreze resigned from the National Advisory Council of Congress president Sonia Gandhi because the bill did not go far enough or was not comprehensive enough. Shortcomings notwithstanding, it’s a leap of faith against dire warnings of the cost of food subsidy which could top Rs 1 lakh crore ($20 billion) a year. And it’s a leap of faith for India’s current coalition United Progressive Alliance government led by the Congress party which in turn is headed by Sonia Gandhi. It’s also the fulfilment of the party’s promise which it made in 2009 when the UPA returned to power for its second consecutive term of five years. Speaking on the final day of debate in Parliament Mrs Gandhi said: "Some people ask - do we have the resources for such a legislation? I would like to say, the question is not about resources; we will have to manage resources for this. "The question is not if we can do this. We have to do this," she told MPs and urged them to pass the welfare measure which was part of the “empowerment revolution” for the people of the country and deserved unanimous support. Yet having fought for the bill so doggedly Mrs Gandhi could not vote in the final count because she was suddenly taken ill and had to be rushed to the hospital after feeling chest pain. Her son Rajiv too could not vote as he left parliament to accompany his mother to the hospital. Soon everybody was relieved to find that Mrs Gandhi had been discharged after a short medical check-up. The UPA had unveiled its bold welfare vision for the Aam Admi or the Common Man by launching Narega, the 100-day guaranteed rural job plan for all adults in villages across the country midway through its first five year term which began in 2004. The jobs scheme, which covered the entire country by the end of the first term, lifted the wages and spirits of rural workers in an unprecedented sweep and proved a major factor in swinging the 2009 election for the UPA . Unfazed by the barrage of corruption charges but buoyed by the people’s response to its welfare programmes, the UPA has definitively launched the second tranche of its welfare strategy in the shape of the just cleared Food Security Bill. This latest initiative has all the makings of an election swinger in 2014 and could win a hat trick for the UPA. It could indeed be a “game changer” politically for the parties and economically for the Aam Admi. Sushma Swaraj, the BJP leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha, may have tried to make fun of the Food Security Bill by calling it “Vote Security Bill” but her party still saw the wisdom of voting for it. Others called it a gimmick and lollipop but they all let it through. Any party voting against it could see itself branded as anti-people. As a result nearly 300 pin prick amendments were dismissed .Some of the amendments, though, were quite weighty and sought to make it obligatory for the government to give food even at times of natural calamities. The left parties wanted it to cover the entire population. Others wanted elimination of financial liability or burden on state governments in implementing the law. Yet others demanded imposition of higher fines on public authorities from the existing Rs5,000 to Rs25,000 in case of failure to provide food to the needy. Finally the bill was carried by a voice vote because no party wanted to be branded as obstructive and anti-poor. ......................................................................................................................

India’s leap of faith for food security

India’s leap of faith for food security India’s truly landmark Food Security Bill to fight poverty and malnutrition which cleared its passage through parliament this August ( 26 August 2013) promises food security to 800 million people or two-thirds of its population at virtually throw away prices. Billed as the world’s largest welfare programme, it promises 75% of the country’s rural population and 50% of urban population rice at Rs 3 (7US cents or 5p) a kg, wheat at Rs 2 a kg and coarse grains at Rs 1 a kg. And it’s not just a promise, it’s already being delivered in parts of the country. Over the coming weeks and months it will cover the entire nation. Pushed through against the given wisdom of the economists of World Bank, IMF and their allied tribes in India and elsewhere, it sets out a model of human development from grassroots upwards rather than trickle-down palliatives to save lives or improve living standards. But economists like Nobel Laureate Amaratiya Sen and Professor Jean Dreze have broadly backed it, even though it falls short of their expectations. In fact, Prof Dreze resigned from the National Advisory Council of Congress president Sonia Gandhi because the bill did not go far enough or was not comprehensive enough. Shortcomings notwithstanding, it’s a leap of faith against dire warnings of the cost of food subsidy which could top Rs 1 lakh crore ($20 billion) a year. And it’s a leap of faith for India’s current coalition United Progressive Alliance government led by the Congress party which in turn is headed by Sonia Gandhi. It’s also the fulfilment of the party’s promise which it made in 2009 when the UPA returned to power for its second consecutive term of five years. Speaking on the final day of debate in Parliament Mrs Gandhi said: "Some people ask - do we have the resources for such a legislation? I would like to say, the question is not about resources; we will have to manage resources for this." . "The question is not if we can do this. We have to do this," she told MPs and urged them to pass the welfare measure which was part of the “empowerment revolution” for the people of the country and deserved unanimous support. The UPA had unveiled its bold welfare vision for the Aam Admi or the Common Man by launching Narega, the 100-day guaranteed rural job plan for all adults in villages across the country midway through its first five year term which began in 2004. The jobs scheme, which covered the entire country by the end of the first term, lifted the wages and spirits of rural workers in an unprecedented sweep and proved a major factor in swinging the 2009 election for the UPA . Unfazed by the barrage of corruption charges but buoyed by the people’s response to its welfare programmes, the UPA has definitively launched the second tranche of its welfare strategy in the shape of the just cleared Food Security Bill. This latest initiative has all the makings of an election swinger in 2014 and could win a hat trick for the UPA. It could indeed be a “game changer” politically for the parties and economically for the Aam Admi. Sushma Swaraj, the BJP leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha, may have tried to make fun of the Food Security Bill by calling it “Vote Security Bill” but her party still saw the wisdom of voting for it. Any party voting against it could see itself branded as anti-people. As a result nearly 300 pin prick amendments were dismissed and the bill was carried by a voice vote.

Kashmir: A Northern Ireland type solution

Kashmir: A Northern Ireland type solution by Subhash Chopra (written in 2010) The stone pelters and ‘Azadi’ chanters of the Vale of Kashmir are in the news (summer 2010) for all the inspired reasons, thanks to the personalities and powers behind them. The tragic maelstrom into which the impressionable youth of Srinagar and adjoining areas on the Indian side of the Line of Control have been drawn has already taken a toll of over 50 lives since early June this year(2010). And every fatal casualty is turned into mourners procession accompanied by yet more fiery speeches in the name of God, religion, ‘Azadi’ or ‘freedom’ by the likes of Syed Ali Shah Geelani, the leader of the hardline Islamist faction of the separatist Hurriyat conglomeration which has always shied away from fighting elections. The pictures are dramatic and the television and print media of India is in the forefront for portraying the patently anti-Indian activity, giving a lie to the human rights pundits across the LoC and sympathisers abroad a barrage of anti-Indian allegations accusing India of perpetuating state terror, curfewed nights, mass murders and worse. Very few bother about revealing the easily visible factors behind the pictures. The stone pelters are portrayed as peaceful marchers, forgetting the brutal reality that stones too can maim and kill. The stone throwers don’t just stop there, they burn buses and police posts and whatever comes their way. Yet they must be met with the greatest care. However provocative and misguided, they are our brothers and sisters, and sons and daughters. Dialogue which seems to be failing should not be abandoned. Protesters should be cooled with huge showers of water cannon in the valley which has plenty of water, followed by tear gas rather than bullets. And bullets, if at all needed, should be of the rubber bullet type. Police and other security personnel should be rigorously trained to hit below the knee to disable them, avoiding fatal injury. Live bullets should be the very last resort, only against klashnikov militants and grenade throwers. For in the ultimate analysis every person’s death diminishes all of us. Tragically media quite often becomes part of the propaganda in the name of press freedom. Instead of balancing the story, the pictures are laced with incendiary commentaries and broadcast as the full story which at best is only half the story. The other half of the story, voiced by the anti-Azadi and anti-Jihadi population of Kashmir is quietly given the go-by. The anti-‘Azadi’ voices come from large parts of Kashmir, especially from the Hindu-majority Jammu and Buddhist majority Leh region of Ladakh and the Shia-Muslim majority of Kargil region of Ladakh. And within the paradise valley too there are muffled voices muzzled by foreign funded and gun-toting Islamist militants. And what does this vu vu zela of ‘Azadi’ mean? There is no single meaning or interpretation offered even by its proponents. The literal translation of Azadi may mean freedom but in the Kashmir context it means different things to different people. For Hurriyat’s Geelani faction it certainly means a hardline, Sunni Islamist Kashmir as part of Pakistan. For a much greater number of Kashmiri Muslims ( 43 per cent according to a recent poll) , Azadi has come to mean an independent Kashmir, independent both of India and Pakistan. The poll conducted on both sides of Kashmir by British think tank Chatham House found that only two percent of the Muslim majority state of Jammu and Kashmir on the Indian side would like to join Pakistan. In other words 98 per cent of the people of the state are against joining Pakistan. Even in the Pakistani-controlled Azad Kashmir region only 50 per cent voted in favour of Pakistan. It is reasonable to infer that in a more free climate, considerably less than 50 per cent would plump for Pakistan. Given the history of Pakistan’s performance as a state very few would cast their lot with it. The demand for Azadi or independence is not universal in the whole of Kashmir. Nor is it a practical proposition in view of the long history of the issue and the religious and political ramifications both in India and Pakistan. India cannot agree to a second partition of the country on the disastrous religious grounds. Nor can Pakistan let Kashmir go out of its “strategic depth”, to use an alternative word for control. Yet the people of Kashmir, all sections including the quarter million Pandits ethnically cleansed out of the valley by the Islamists and the Sikhs who are currently being threatened to quit the valley– not just the ‘Azadi’ chanters, must be part of any settlement. The elected representatives of the two sides of Kashmir could join the negotiations between India and Pakistan, making it a four-way search for a settlement. The ground reality in Kashmir is that there are not just two voices in Kashmir – one pro-Pakistani and jihadi, the other pro-India. There are many voices that make up Kashmiryat – a historically secular culture which itself is part of the sub-continent’s composite culture – that is being sought to be extinguished by religious militants. Given the diversity of participants and regional interests, no solution can be acceptable to all or any single group, just as the 1947 partition of India was not wholly acceptable to any side. It was unacceptable to Congress-led India to whom division was anathema; it was unacceptable to Muslim League led by Mr Jinnah to whom a country without corridor linking eastern and western parts meant a moth-eaten Pakistan; and it was unacceptable to Britain which wanted to leave a united country and united army. Yet all three sides had to swallow the bitter pill and reach a compromise for a divided India falling massively short of an ideal solution. Similarly for Kashmir all interested parties will have to be satisfied with some compromise. The search for a compromise solution has been attempted, with political leaders looking amenable to some formula. Back in 1980s, Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi and Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto had established a kind of rapport which held promise for the future. In fact many years after Mr Gandhi’s assassination and during Ms Bhutto’s exile, she told a media gathering in New Delhi that the India-Pakistan entente could be achieved while the Kashmir issue could be left for future resolution. The same kind of solution was voiced by her husband Asif Ali Zardari soon after taking over as President of Pakistan, but had to retract under pressure from the country’s Army. Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and former Indian Prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had also established a very promising rapport which was disrupted by the Kargil (Kashmir) war between the two countries. Fortunately the dialogue was resumed during the rule of General Musharraf despite his Kargil role. Gen Musharraf’s dealings with Vajpayee’s successor Prime minister Manmohan Singh signalled even greater promise of a compromise solution on Kashmir when Pakistan’s political developments overtook, resulting in his loss of power and office. According to Pakistan’s then foreign Minister, a Kashmir deal between India and Pakistan was only ‘a signature away.’ Whatever the strength of that optimistic assessment, Gen Musharraf’s ‘out of box’ search for solution had raised the hopes for a sort of compromise envisaging retention of line of control and de facto sovereign control across that line by each side but making borders irrelevant. The 1947-49 United Nations resolutions , he accepted, had become outdated, implying an end to the idea of a plebiscite for Kashmir joining either India or Pakistan. Gradual co-operation, consultation and eventual demilitarisation by the two sides of Kashmir was to be explored and trade and free movement of people allowed to flourish. A kind of Northern Ireland solution looked feasible on the horizon, though nobody used that terminology. The encouraging feature of this history of the Kashmir issue is that all major political power centres in Pakistan, including Pakistan Peoples Party, Muslim League (Nawaz Sharif) and even the military in Musharraf days have at one time or other moved toward a compromise solution on Kashmir. There is still hope for such a way out of the imbroglio, only if ‘Azadi’ and ‘human rights’ promoters and instigators behind the misguided stone pelters can be held back. ................................................................................................

Jihadi attacks sabotage Indo-Pak-Afghan talks

Jihadi attacks sabotage Indo-Pak-Afghan talks By Subhash Chopra The killing of five Indian soldiers in Kashmir by state or non-state jihadis and the Taliban attack targeting the Indian Consulate in Jalalabad, east of Kabul, within the first week of this month ( August 2013) are a triple Samjhota sabotage – aimed at destroying peace prospects among India , Pakistan and Afghanistan. The Pakistani authorities, as expected, have denied any hand in the deadly skirmish in the Poonch sector. The Taliban too have routinely denied any part in the Jalalabad attack that missed the Indian target but killed 12 Afghans, including eight children in a nearby school. The brazen attacks are clearly timed to torpedo current efforts of the leaders of the three countries trying to give a new push for peace in the region following the emergence of the new government of Pakistan led by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. Just days earlier Pakistan Prime Minister had sent special envoys to Afghanistan and India to renew the peace process. He had sent senior diplomat and civil servant Sartaj Aziiz to Kabul as a personal envoy to President Hamid Karzai to douse the fires of suspicion and mutual recrimination that have become the norm between the two countries over the past several years. It was and is a timely gesture to reduce the immense distrust that has developed between the two neighbours. In a parallel move towards India, the eastern neighbour, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif sent Mr Shahriyar Khan, a senior and seasoned diplomat and uncle of the late cricketer Tiger Pataudi, to New Delhi with special greetings for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and other leaders to kick start closer relations on which both leaders are already agreed. Nawaz Sharif’s public declarations for stronger ties with India before and after Pakistan’s recent elections have gravely discomfited pro-Taliban elements in several quarters in Pakistan. The attacks are clearly designed to cast a big shadow over the meetings of the Indian , Pakistani and Afghan leaders on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session next month in New York. Nawaz Sharif’s repeated declarations to improve trade relations with India, including possible purchase of electric power, have sorely disturbed fanatical elements, many of whom are in quite high places within the Pakistan establishment. His refusal to mention the thorny issue of Kashmir during his election campaign has not been forgotten by the militant elements. In fact, his search for peace with India goes long back to his earlier stint as Prime Minister when he invited former inidian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in what is fondly remembered in both countries as the halcyon days of bus diplomacy of 1998. That was before he was toppled from power and exiled. This time he has returned with a solid mandate but he still needs to be wary of saboteurs who regard India as eternal enemy and consider Afghanistan as a protectorate providing ‘strategic depth’ to Pakistan. Another key element of this sabotage was the easy movement of people between India and Pakistan following the new implementation of the facility of no prior visas for senior citizens above 60 years crossing the borders. All that hassle of travelling long distances and endlessly waiting at the mercy of babus and clerks could hopefully become a thing of the past. Coming back to the Jalalabad attackers who have fired this warning shot at the peace makers in the three countries, it is safe to presume that they are a Taliban faction, whether supported by rogue elements in Pakistan’s ISI or acting independently. Whether they are the Haqqani faction or some other group is immaterial. It is equally certain that the attackers find Jalalabad an easy target as it is a short drive from the Afghanistan – Pakistan border behind which they have safe sanctuary ,indeed militarised power houses. ..........................................................................................................

England's first non-white (Indian born) editor

Editor’s appointment – the Indo-Russian link

England’s first but not an English first

From  Subhash Chopra in London

The recent announcement of the appointment of Amol Rajan as the first non-white editor of any national daily newspaper in England has been quietly noted with varying degrees of acceptance, even satisfaction, by the media. One perceptive non-white writer  in the Guardian newspaper cautiously opened his column with the words: “Another milestone.”  Perhaps a sign of improving  race relations and perception of minorities in the country.

Coincidentally Calcutta-born Rajan’s appointment as the editor of ‘The Independent’ comes rather close to the announcement of a British government pilot plan to slap a  3,000 pound (Indian Rs 2.6 lakh) conditional bond on top of the quite high visa fees for visitors from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nigeria and  Ghana  – dubbed  ‘High Risk’ countries -- to tighten immigration control. The money, of course, would be returned to bond holders at the time of exit at the end of the visit or confiscated if they fail to return home.

This coincidence may appear to some as a fact of two-sided reality of Britain today. Improving chances of immigrants already settled in the UK  with simultaneous  pursuit of shutting the doors to non-white immigrants in the name of overcrowding ‘Little England’ and the larger European Union. The two sides of this reality are a contradiction in terms. If overcrowding and pressure on jobs and  welfare facilities are the criterion then it should equally apply to white immigrants from Eastern and Central Europe. European Union common immigration policy is a fig leaf for keeping Britain white as it is for keeping Europe white. In fact it is a contradiction within contradiction. On the one hand Britain is highly critical of European Union, even half threatening to quit EU, yet it is in full acceptance of EU’s anti-immigration policies. Keeping ‘Fort  England’ or ‘Fort Europe’ white by separate or joint strategy is a full-blooded and hotly debated issue on its own.

Be that as it may, it is a side issue, though quite relevant, in the elevation of Rajan to the editor’s post at The Independent. His selection for the top post has more to do with his Russian connection than with his English connection, even though he has lived in England  since the age of three and has a Cambridge degree in English Literature.

His induction as a journalist at The Independent was never a surprise as over the last forty years or so a steady trickle of non-white journalists, Indians, Pakistanis, Sri Lankans, West Indians and others, have made inroads into  provincial and national newsrooms and television outfits, recruited by British editors.  Rajan,   though first recruited as a reporter by the paper’s former (British) editor, Simon Kelner, was nominated to the editor’s post by Evgeny Lebedev, the Russian-born proprietor of  The Independent , The Evening Standard  and a clutch of other interests, including the London Live TV project.  Apart from being a journalist, Rajan is known to be a member of Lebedev’s inner circle and  his  media adviser. That lends a new colour to the whole issue. The announcement of Rajan’s editorial elevation, in fact, came via the Twitter word by  Lebedev, the billionaire son of a billionaire Russian business magnate.  

His selection as editor , therefore, was made by the Russian immigrant and not by any English or British chief editor or proprietor. Clearly a case of one immigrant spotting another immigrant  as both Rajan, just turned 30, and Lebedev, 33,  arrived in the country as children and sort of bonded with each other. No English hand involved.

Papa Alexander Lebedev, apart from helping young Evgeny to the ownership of The Independent and other assets, is known for his own prowess. A former KGB officer once posted in London, hence the British connection, he is also the owner of a newspaper in Russia and like his son is very keen on investigative journalism. Currently, though, he is more in the news for throwing a punch at a guest on a television chat show, which attracted the charge of ‘hooliganism.’ To be branded a hooligan is a serious charge in Russia where he could end up in jail for five years besides falling out  of favour with state authorities and the consequent impact on business assets worth billions of roubles or dollars.

Luckily for Papa Lebedev, the state prosecutor this week has asked the judge to reduce the charge of hooliganism motivated by ‘political hatred’  to a lesser charge of plain hooliganism and asking for a 21-month suspended sentence.

The case continues with the verdict still some weeks or months away.

Meanwhile, writing in the family owned London’s Evening Standard Lebedev Junior has expressed great relief at the developments in Moscow:

“So Dad  may not go to prison after all. This morning (28 June) the prosecutor in Moscow surprised us all by finally agreeing with what was rather obvious to everyone else concerned, that the punch my father threw on TV two years ago was not ‘politically motivated’ and withdrew the charge that might have jailed him. The latest development is a huge relief for all chez Lebedev but we have almost stopped being surprised by surprises as this process has gone on, descending yet further into farce.

“ In Stalin’s show trials in the 1930s, at they made an effort to make the proceedings appear fair and honest (of course, subsequently it transpired that they weren’t). But now with complete lack of press reportage, the lack of diligence on the part of prosecution, the procession of eyewitnesses who weren’t actually there, for those supporters of my father who’ve been looking in from the outside, Russian justice must be a curious spectacle to take in. In any case, whatever the sentence Dad now faces, he and I are extremely grateful for all the support we have received, from London and all round the world.” 

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Pak poll: Imran rides Taliban tiger

Pakistan votes for Nawaz Sharif, Imran rides Taliban tiger

By Subhash Chopra

Delhi !2 May2013

The people of Pakistan defied  Talibani terror  on Saturday (11May, 2013)and voted with hands and heads to elect a truly democratic  government  which takes over from the only elected government  which completed its full term for the first time in the country’s 66-year history. And it was a clear mandate for former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif who has vowed to revive links of Atal Bihari Vajpayee days with India as he returns to power after  fourteen  years when he was overthrown, deposed and exiled by the then Army chief  General  Pervez  Musharraf.

This  historic poll promises Pakistan a new era (daur) , not of  Imran Khan’s anti-American , anari vision lacking  any  experience  but of  Nawaz  Sharif’s vision backed by tried and tested record of two earlier half completed terms as prime minister. Imran Khan’s own achievement , though,  is pretty impressive, having risen from a virtual zero to hero and  coming third  after PPP as an opposition leader,  with his party winning about 25 seats at the centre against Nawaz Sharif party’s nearly 125. Imran’s party had just one seat in the first election and none in the 2008 election which he boycotted.   Even more impressive is Imran’s party’s sweep in the frontier province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa  and where it is set to form government, having routed the party of Frontier Gandhi’s grandson Afsandyar Wali Khan.  But he faces his toughest test in the province  where he is coming  to power on the back of Taliban support. Riding the Taliban tiger won’t be easy even for him.

With election results nearing  completion,  Nawaz Sharif’s  PML-N (Pakistan Muslim League-N) is sure of running a government of his own party , requiring  only a nominal  outside support. The field is clear for him and so are the challenges facing him and his party at the national level. But there is not much cheer for him in all the other three provincial assemblies,  With only a  possible  coalition role in Balochistan.

But it won’t be a cake walk for the third time Premier. Internal and external challenges are quite  daunting and delivery of promises could be pretty daunting, to say the least. Pulling the country out of the economic and administrative mess riddled with unending power crisis and load shedding , creaking railways and massive corruption will fully test his own and his party’s skill and determination. Perhaps the biggest internal challenge he faces right from the start is how to hold the reins or put a lagam  on the powerful  army and its bed fellow and maid servant   called bureaucracy, especially the foreign ministry. Both the army and the maid servant have for long thrived on the Kashmir issue , holding the country to ransom for all of its 66 years till today.  Nor can Nawaz  Sharif  ignore or duck this core issue, even though the K word was not much heard  of in the election campaigns of the parties.

The Kashmir  issue is both an internal and external policy matter of utmost difficulty . And  that will require  an internal dialogue with moderate nationalist parties as well as the extremist jihadi  groups, a very tough nut to crack. 

Externally, the new prime minister  will have to thrash out  issues with neighbours India, Afghanistan and long time friend and aid donor America, the last one being currently dubbed as Enemy Number One by vast sections of Pakistani public.  Fortunately for both India and Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif has more than once expressed his determination to establish friendly relations with India by picking up the thread where he left in 1999 when he was engaged in a path breaking dialogue with former Indian prime minister Atal  Bihari Vajpayee, before the coup by General  Musharraf and his Kargil  adventure.

Sharif has vowed not only revive the dialogue but also to open a trade corridor through Pakistan ,  linking India and Afghanistan. A highly dynamic and bold move which could transform the entire  region and the economy of both Pakistan and Afghanistan.  The resulting  savings on defence on  Pakistan’ s Indian and Afghan borders could free up vast resources among all sides.

 Nobody in Pakistan has tried this friendship route so far, though  former Prime minister Benazir Bhutto,  President  Asif Ali Zardari and even General  Musharraf all  had floated the idea from time to time in some form or the other.  Perhaps Nawaz Sharif can succeed where others have failed because time was not  on their side. Their tenure or even life in the case of Benazir Bhutto was cut short by the tide of events.   

Given luck, the new prime minister can do it. It is not un-doable. The K issue can be  put on the slow burner,  not on the back burner. The Indo-Pak dialogue has failed  so far because of the previous Pakistani governments’  insistence on putting Kashmir issue  on the front burner. India –China example is the way forward. If New Delhi and Beijing can keep disagreements in check while working for a long and durable solution, so can Islamabad and New Delhi.  This  slow burner strategy has already yielded huge  dividends with two-way trade galloping towards $100 billion annual mark. 

 Pakistan and India have much more in common than India and China. As Nawaz Sharif untiringly reminds both sides: “ We  eat the same food, speak the same language suffer the same problems, react the same way  and pray  the same way to the same God , Allah or Ishwar.”  Why can’t the two come on the same thinking page?  he asks.   Amen  and welcome, say most Indians. Sooner the better.    

Unlike Imran’s  anti-American shrieks (cheekh pukar),  Nawaz  Sharif has a cool view of America and is openly prepared to do business with the USA. He knows full well that Pakistan is in dire need of US and IMF aid  to pull the country’s economy out of the deep hole into which it has fallen over the recent  past, especially during the PPP rule of the last five years. He is an industrialist and a  businessman and would gladly do business with America, which incidentally is a great friend of Saudi Arabia without whose blessing nothing  works in Pakista n. General  Musharraf made that mistake of not seeking that  Saudi blessing and is reduced to being a jail bird in the country he once ruled.

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Subhash Chopra is the author of ‘Partition, Jihad & Peace.’      

Time now to help secular Bangladesh

Time now to  help secular Bangladesh 

 8 March 2012

Bangladesh is at a crossroads once again. Barely four years ago when Prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League government came to power it faced its baptism of fire (agni priksha) with the mutiny among ranks  of its elite security force Bangladesh Rifles (BDR). The government survived, but had to pay a heavy price. Over 50 BDR officers,  including BDRchief..and his wife,  were murdered by the mutineers.

This time when the Hasina government enters the last ten (10) months of  its current term, the country is facing another agni priksha with an open revolt by  powerful elements led by the  Jamaat-i-Islami forces who never accepted Bangladesh’s independence  from Pakistan. In fact the Jamaatis  collaborated with the Pakistani forces in the  ‘genocide’ committed against the people of Bangladesh.Yet taking advantage of the democratic system the Jamaat lives on and continues to spread its fundamentalist message. Unable to accept the death verdict for two of its leaders and life imprisonment for a third for their war crimes in the country’s  liberation struggle they have launched yet another terror campaign of forced hartals and protests bringing the country to a virtual halt. But this time the Hasina government is well prepared and determined to put the Jamaatis in their place.

But the Jamaatis are not alone. They  are old allies of the opposition Bangladesh National Party of former Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia. Begum Zia is  seen in India  to have played  the Jamaat game  by delivering a tactical snub to India during the just finished visit of President Pranab Mukherjee. She cancelled a pre-arranged meeting with Mukherjee on account of the situation in the country arising out of the hartal. But India must not take it to heart and continue its efforts to engage with the Begum’s party,  and with other opposition groups like that of  General Ershad’s Jatiya Party.  It  is  important not to forget her condemnation of  reported attacks on Hindu properties and temples during the recent turmoil in Bangladesh. Her alliance with the  Jamaat should be seen as an electoral or political compulsion but not as an ideological  togertherness.

Quite  rightly President Mukherjee’s  message at the end of his three-day visit  was to tackle the current crisis in  Bangladesh through talks and protection for all citizens, not just of  government’s own supporters and minorities.  Dhaka’s Shabagh Square’s movement may be voicing people’s demand for death sentence to Jamaat leader Delwar Hossain Sayedee  instead of mere life  imprisonment for  his part in the 1971 Liberation war  but it must not be allowed to get of hand and turn into mob hysteria. The Hasina government in its years of  complete control must show some magnanimity to the rest of the opposition even if it is considering to ban the Jamaat-e-Islami party.

Meanwhile India must step up delivery of its promises of help to Bangladesh to shore  up the country’s secular democracy. The revival of Kokata –Dhaka train(Moitree Express) over  two years ago and delivery of some railway engines and equipment during President Mukherjee’s visit  have been positive developments. But they could be seen as too little and too late  by the people of Bangladesh. India needs to speed up and  implement the 1974  land  border  accord and push forward  Teesta river water sharing arrangement.

India’s  slow pace to implement the 1974 Land Boundary Agreement, protocols for which were signed last September during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Dhaka are still hanging in the air as they require  Constitution amendment in India. They need New Delhi’s  ratification as these involve exchange of land in 111 Indian enclaves in Bangladesh and 51 Bangladeshi enclaves on Indian soil.

Bangladesh has already ratified the pact. But some of the Indian political parties for sheer opposition are blocking the peace process Only last week BJP president Rajnath Singh  cast doubt on his party’s  support for the Constitution amendment. 

 The BJP chief said that under the government’s  ‘Enclaves,’ pact India could lose  13,000 acres of land while Bangladesh would lose only  3,000 acres, causing a net loss  10,000 acres of land to India.

Even if this  calculation is true , the net gain to India and the people entrapped in the enclaves far outweighs any physical territorial loss. The improvement in the quality of life for the people entrapped in the enclaves cannot be measured in rupees and square yards of land. The saving on the reduction of  Border Security Force could run into thousands of crores annually. The reduction of  people smuggling, drug smuggling, cattle smuggling and cross border corruption cannot be measured in rupees and land acres.

Even more India needs to rise above petty calculations and show magnanimity and generosity of  Indira Gandhi’s days , Instead of  indulging in any short term reactions India should also remember the remarkable restraint and magnanimity shown by former Prime Minister  Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s  government in the face of  highly provocative murder of 16 Indian soldiers and dragging  their bodies like animals dangling on bamboo sticks by Jamaat mentality Bangladesh Border Rifles men during  April 2001cashes near Padua post on Meghalaya-Bangladesh border..

 Hopefully, the multi-party delegation,  including BJP’s Chandan Mitra, Mukul Roy of  Trinamool Congress, Sitaram Yechury of CPI-M and others who accompanied President Mukherjee to Dhaka, will impress on their parties to clear the hurdles in the way of  long lasting peace , prosperity and friendship with Bangladesh.

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BJP won’t support Bill to ratify India-

Population: Pill the best way

Population: Pill the best way

Banking on unpaid ASHA  and prayer

New Delhi.May2012

It may be a truism to state that overpopulation is the mother of all problems, including corruption which so often hogs the limelight. Yet corruption is only a side effect of  the rising number of  claimants to the  national bread basket and some of the cookies in it.  The fierce competition for the available goodies at any stage sets of f  the  storm of corruption . The fruits of  India’s massive development  in various sectors are not enough to meet the needs of her growing population. Dis-equilibrium between the pace of  development and population growth  continues to be  the running source of all our maladies.    

  Since the middle of the 20^th century India along with most parts of the world has witnessed a population explosion. Our  first family planning programmes started over  60 years ago in 1952.  Globally,  2011 witnessed the  arrival of  the seventh billion baby  with India quite in the forefront . With our  current estimate of  1.2 billion population we are still expanding faster than our development rate can cope with.

 Despite a significant slowdown over the last 20 years in  almost  half  of  the country,  India is still nowhere near a reasonably early population stabilization target. At our leisurely pace we are still looking at 2060 as the stabilization target year --  more than 100 years  after  we set up our  family planning ministry. We have missed targets several times and we could miss again if we don’t act fast.

The 1983 National Health Policy target of  achieving the total fertility rate (TFR) of  2.1 children per woman , which is also considered the replacement level, by the year 2000 was missed by a long chalk. Again the  National Population Policy target set in 2000 of achieving  2.1 TFR  by 2010 has been missed. Sadly, the   2010  TFR stands  at  2.5,  as revealed by the latest  Sample Registration System figures from  the Registrar General of  India.

The long term objective of the 2000 National Population policy was to achieve a stable (zero net growth)  stable  population  by 2045.  At  the  current rate we are pushing the stabilisation target to 2060. That need not be so. We have the medical and monetary  wherewithal  and we can shorten our target rather than wait till 2045 or for  another half century till 2060.  Our family planning strategy needs to be more focused than ever before.

For the best part of   last  40  years we have been obsessed with sterilization  --  operating upon persons who have already produced three, four or more children , when the damage is done and objective of a small family already defeated.

The birth control pill,  which is the easiest and least complicated contraceptive to use  and  which has been available worldwide for more than 50 years, has been the most popular and effective contraceptive all across Europe and other parts of the developed world.  So successful indeed that desire for a smaller family and fewer children has made couples to forego cash and holiday incentives offered by certain governments.  In countries like Germany and Russia which are witnessing negative or zero population growth  there are few takers of  such incentives  offered by the state. Even in poorer countries like  Romania and  Hungary, young couples tend to go for smaller but prosperous  families,  ignoring  traditional Catholic religious   reservations.

  But  curiously  the pill  seems to have been virtually ignored by our  planners  for  almost the  first 25 years  of  its existence. Only around 1987 ,  the pill was in some strength brought into our  basket of  the attractively named  “cafeteria”  contraceptives,  leaving it to the  consumers to pick  and choose without  telling  them to opt for one or the other . Its current usage  -- nearly three crore pills or three  lakh 30-day cycles  per year -- translates to only a little over three to four  per cent acceptors out of all  other contraceptives users.

The cafeteria approach looks good in terms of  free choice but in reality it doesn’t  play out so fair and free. The cash incentives to motivators and acceptors of  other forms of contraceptives, especially sterilisation in various forms,  act as a powerful factor  in the cafeteria.  Sterilisations can be  easily counted and monies collected by motivators and acceptors.  But pills popped in at home  can’t  be  verified and cash handouts difficult to pick.   Consequently the pill seems to have fallen off the cafeteria shelves as only about  three  percent  women in the 15-45 age group are taking to the pill,  unaware of  the advantages of the pill.

Over 90 per cent  child bearing women in India are barely aware  of  the  pill’s  benefits like regularising of  periods, bleeding control,  lesser  ovarian  problems and, above all, spacing out pregnancies for better mother and child  health.

Australian researchers at Monash  and Melbourne universities say the  pill can even cut  the risk of developing breast, ovarian and womb cancer. They even  go on to recommend the pill for nuns too for reasons of  health rather than as a conrtraceptive  because it reduces overall mortality and mortality due to ovarian and uterine cancer.

   

 In India,  medical or paramedical advice on the easy-to-use pill for controlling  family size and  better family welfare  could be most well timed and effective  after the first or second child birth.  

But where are the medical/paramedical  helpers to be found on the ground level, especially in the villages? ASHAs,  Anganwadis  and ANMs besides qualified staff at block and district hospitals make quite a nice ladder or a pyramid. But is the entire edifice adequately staffed. At the very base stands the grandly designated ASHA or  the Accredited Social Health Activist each of  whom is expected to look after 100 women in her village community. One ASHA for each village is a great idea. But what is she accredited with? Sadly in our scheme of  things under NRHM (National Rural Health Mission)  she is an unpaid worker. She is a part- time volunteer who is expected to work only two or three  hours  a day. She is our key health worker in the village. The list of her duties is a long one.  Motivating women to use contraceptives, including the pill, to help India control its runaway population growth, is only one of her myriad jobs.  All for no pay!  

The second key worker in the village is the Aanganwadi, also a part-timer with duties such as preparing mid-day school meals for school children and taking pregnant women to nearest hospitals for safe deliveries and other medical help. She at least is lucky to have some pay , a grand sum of Rs 3,000 a month announced by Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee in his  2011 budget speech over a year ago.  But there was nothing for ASHA then or now in the 2012 budget.  

   

Our long obsession  with sterilisation operations  --  vasectomy, no scalpel vasectomy, tubectomy,  IUD --  in spite of the  numerical  surges running into lakhs over  the last few  years has failed to stem the explosive growth  in the Hindi heartland  of  the country.  And it must be underlined that the success of the southern states and some northern states cannot be attributed to sterilisation programmes. Rather it is due to factors like  higher female education rate, mid-day school meals, and availability of  home  entertainment  in the evening, thanks to the distribution of  free television sets by some the ruling parties.

  Sterilisations are the biggest gimmick. Collection of cash handouts  by NGOs, individual motivators and  volunteers who undergo  such operations is the main attraction of  most participants in this elaborate game. Even the medical staff  who       

perform these operations are in this somewhat  lucrative loop. All this money would be  worth  investing  if  it could move us to nearer to the population control target.   An  overwhelming  majority of  such operations are performed on women who have already given birth to three , four or more children and have reached the menopause stage. Men, notoriously, account for a mere five percent of  total number of sterilisation operations, according to the available  surveys published in the quarterly journal of the National Institute of  Health and family Welfare .

Reports of  botched up sterilization operations at ad hoc camps run by some NGOs in Bihar (The Hindu , 23 January) , Madhya Pradesh (The Times of  India 18 and 26 February) are not  infrequent. Incentive -driven  motivators and target chasing administrators in Madhya  Pradesh  went on a sterilization spree in February this year to lure  poor  tribals even though they are  designated as “protected”  because their numbers are dwindling fast. From  aanganwadi workers to patwaris and  tehsildars and other officials everyone was out to lure tribals to sterilization  tables for a cash incentive of  Rs 1100, according to the president of the Vanwasi  Kalyan  Parishad who alleged that the Gonds and Korku  tribals in Betul district were the victims of  this drive. Stung by the protests, state chief minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan  had to step in ,  warning  unscrupulous operatives to not defeat the real objective of  celebrating 2012 as the year of family planning  in the state.

Such incidents may be aberrations and the vast majority of operations – at the annual rate of  40 to 50 lakhs over the last three years and still rising – are safe and successful, according to health ministry officials. Yet the central fact remains that the vast majority of such operations are redundant as they are conducted on people who have already reached their non-reproductive age.

 Time to re-focus family planning  strategy.  And  time to relocate  existing and new Plan finances  to pay ASHA a meaningful wage commensurate with the services we expect of her.

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India’s paradox: Hungama amid hope and growth

Hungama--(mid-2012)

India’s paradox: Hungama amid hope and growth

By Subhash Chopra

India has a long way to go in meeting the basic needs of her people and nobody could be more candid in acknowledging  it than Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who, despite his  empathy for IMF solutions to problems, called the prevalence of hunger and malnutrition, especially  among the country’s children, a “national shame.”  This double deficit in  human welfare has rightly acquired the acronym of ‘Hungama, ’ a gigantic issue by any yardstick.

The Prime Minister had no hesitation in admitting that malnutrition among 42 per cent of the nation’s children is “unacceptably high,” but he also reminded that the scourge had declined from a high of 53 per cent over the last seven years.  All that  “Impressive growth in our GDP, ” was not enough, he said while quoting malnutrition figures  from a private foundation’s survey. The media and opposition parties had a field day bashing the government as if they had no part in this shameful phenomenon.  

Home grown criticism, though always healthy, can sometimes lose sight of the

picture in the wider context. Nobel  laureate Joseph Stiglitz, for instance, thinks that  by recognising the Right to Food Security as a basic human right, legislation for which is currently on the anvil,  India is “ leading the way for the rest of the world and is on the verge of a historic implementation of the world’s largest social programme against hunger.” He was referring not just to the right to food but to a slew of similar programmes like the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (Nregs) , later named after Mahatma Gandhi.

Putting it in  a comparative context while speaking at the Indian Statistical Institute  in Kolkata, he pointed out that while one in seven Americans today are on food stamps, an equal number still faces food insecurity.  “While India debates whether there should be basic human rights like the right to food, such debates are still not part of the discourse in America.”  Attacking the global GDP  “fetish, ” he said the success or failure of any programmes should be judged not on the GDP growth but on the welfare of the people.

Fellow American and billionaire George Soros, also on a tour of India, said he was ”positive over the long term about India and less optimistic about the US where we are in a political and financial crisis.” The crash of 2008, he said , was the result of a “supper-bubble” that began in 1980 when Ronald Reagan became the US president and Margaret Thatcher was the British prime minister.   The misconception was the belief that “markets correct their own excesses.”  The bubble effect was more in evidence in the US  and  the UK than in the developing economies like India. “When developed countries are facing one of the worst crises, developed countries, India in particular, show an aspiring  phenomenon  of  (handling ) market and democracy.”  

Like Stiglitz , Soros blames the flawed economic theory of market equilibrium as part of the problem in creating booms and busts.”The assumption that markets left on their own will allocate resources efficiently leading to market equilibrium does not work in the real world, as people act on imperfect knowledge and human thinking is indeterminate.” Speaking in Bangalore at the Azam Premji University lecture series, Soros underlined that in a globalising world,  capital will flow to regions where regulations are less stringent, thus increasing the chances of  bubbles  and all the consequent perils of instability.

Asked about his reaction to the prevalence of mass deprivation and corruption in India, British Labour party leader and former foreign secretary David Miliband said anyone visiting India sees a vibrant economy and also a vibrant political system. “That is one of the great things about this country that it has a vibrant political system. It’s a  standing testimony to the value that’s placed on different opinions expressed often with great force and passion. Every democracy is trying t figure out how to make its democracy work better.” There are dysfunctions in all democracies. We have to address them. “In the Indian  system , you have got your own debate how best to do that; you don’t want people coming from Britain to tell you how to do it !”

Another  vote of confidence in India has just come from the World Health Organisation on the  country’s  landmark achievement of eradication of polio in the year just gone by when not a single case of wild polio was recorded. The new milestone  was  reached against the backdrop of as many as 741 cases recorded only two years earlier.

 Lauding India’s efforts,  WHO director general Margaret Chan said, “India’s success is arguably its greatest public health achievement  and has provided a global opportunity to push for the end of  polio (in other countries).”  India’s health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad  claimed,  justly,  “This giant leap towards polio containment in a short span of two years is an endorsement of India’s tireless and persistent efforts.”  Amen! Yet many miles to go.  

Next target : Elimination of Hungama -- hunger and malnutrition, even as India quite realistically hopes for six to seven per cent (6 to 7%) GDP growth while downturn stalks the developed economies of the world.

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