The Kashmir Telegraph - Views l Opinion I Analysis - A Kashmir Bachao Andolan Publication

Pakistan is the aggressor and aggressors have no rights

noreply@blogger.com (Romeet Watt) — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 16:31:00 +0000

By Beersmans Paul

a. Jammu and Kashmir, within its 1947 borders, is a very difficult and sensitive state. It consists of three historically, politically, geographically, culturally, linguistic and economic distinct regions: Jammu Province including PoK, Kashmir and Ladakh including Gilgit-Baltistan. The State houses people whose aspirations are more or less conflicting and mutually exclusive where even a small issue can culminate in major controversies and create inter-regional tensions of extreme nature.

b. The conflict in J&K State is basically ideological. On the one hand, there are leaders in Kashmir whose demands range from independence, to autonomy, to self-rule, to merge with India, to merge with Pakistan, to India-Pakistan joint control over the State. On the other hand, an overwhelming majority of the people of Jammu Province and Ladakh stands for the State’s full integration with India and application of the Indian Constitution to the State in full. They also consistently complain that they have never been treated fairly by the Kashmir centric State Government and New Delhi.

c. According to the separatist leaders in Kashmir, J&K must remain united within its 1947 borders. If they are serious, it is high time they sit together with the democratically elected politicians and representatives of the other regions of J&K as they also have their aspirations and expectations. Also they are state-subjects. Only through an open and sincere discussion in depth among them they can come closer to each other. If they want to remain united, a compromise must be found based on mutual respect and trust. This is made even more difficult because there are hidden agendas and vested interests.

d. Violence and militancy related incidents went down. Nevertheless, as the infrastructure, logistics and human resources of the militants are still there it is too early to reduce security forces. They have been withdrawn from public places: their visibility reduced, they returned to their barracks but kept the area, ready to intervene if the militants should decide to come into action again. The ideology of terrorism remains and as long as this is the case insecurity will remain unabated. Terrorism has become a global problem, a global threat. It is foolish to think that there will be peace in the region if the Government of India gives in to the pressure of the terrorist. At the contrary, the Islamic fundamentalists will see this as a major victory and they will be emboldened to further their Islamic ideology. India has to remain vigilant. Also the demand of Chief Minister Omar Abdullah to revoke the AFSPA must be seen in this perspective.

e. The peace process and the composite dialogue with Pakistan have been stalled since the Mumbai terrorist attack on 26 November 2008, involving Pakistani nationals. Notwithstanding the fact that the cooperation of Pakistan to fight terrorism and to punish the culprits is not up to the mark, India agreed to resume the stalled dialogue process at Secretary level.

f. People are in favour of a dialogue between the separatist leaders and the State Government and the Centre.

g. People seem to have no faith, no trust in the mission of the three interlocutors appointed in October 2010. In their eyes, they only are sent by the Government of India to gain time. They transmitted their report and recommendations to the Government of India in October 2011. This report has not been made public as yet. People are of the opinion that the Centre should first implement recommendations of previous initiatives like the mission of interlocutor N.N. Vohra, the Round Table Conferences, the five Working Groups.

h. According to the coalition partners the performance of the NC-Congress coalition government (since 5 January 2009) is good. A lot has to be done, but they are on the job and hardworking. The opposition however doesn't agree with this view: in their eyes there is no government at all, promises have not been fulfilled, there is no cooperation among the coalition partners, there is no cohesion within the coalition parties because of internal rifts, people are not happy.

i. Everyone, coalition partners and opposition as well, agrees that Chief Minister Omar Abdullah is energetic, his integrity is without doubt, he is not corrupt, he is honest, he is straightforward, he has good relations with the Centre, he has full support from that corner.

j. The Government faces a lot of challenges: high unemployment, rampant corruption, lack of transparency and accountability, weak law and order situation, bringing back peace and normalcy, bringing about decentralisation and devolution of power, meet the basic needs of the people, etc.

k. Corruption seems to be an incurable disease adding to the misery and sufferings of the common Kashmiri having a destabilising effect on the normal functioning of the civil society. Kashmiris who have responsible jobs in the police, in the judicial system, in the administration, etc. are supposed to look after the well functioning of the society. By indulging into corruption, they are betraying their own compatriots. It is high time that at all levels in J&K State a serious effort is made to tackle corruption. It is too easy to point to the Centre as being the origin of all evils. One should have the courage and the honesty to recognise the shortcomings in the own system and take the necessary steps to redress the situation. Laws and legal initiatives should be worth more than the ink and the paper they are written on.

l. In Jammu Province, the Hindu-Muslim intercommunity relations remain cordial. Muslims of Jammu Province feel that the Kashmiri Muslim leadership has never treated them as part and parcel of their society. They are of the opinion that the Kashmiri Muslim leadership has not done anything substantial to regenerate their socio-economic and political life.

m. Control over and use of the water resources is becoming an important issue in the framework of the Kashmir-issue. Rivers like the Indus, the Jhelum and the Chenab flowing from India towards Pakistan are very important for both countries. Both countries need them dearly for power generation, for irrigation and for water supply for their fast growing population. The 1960 ‘Water Treaty’ regulates the use of these waters between India and Pakistan. Shrinking glaciers and less rain during the monsoon add to the problem.

n. As far as a solution for the Kashmir-issue is concerned it becomes more and more clear that maintaining the status quo is the only realistic approach for the years to come. There can be granted more autonomy or self-rule, there can be installed a federal setup, there can be porous/soft borders between the divided parts of J&K, there can be a kind of joint management, etc. as it is clear that neither India nor Pakistan are willing to make territorial concessions.

Since there is not a clear cut solution, this solution must be found through democratic, peaceful means at the negotiation table: let all parties sit together and a solution will emerge automatically is the opinion of many Kashmiris. It is often emphasised, especially by the separatist leaders, that there are three parties concerned: India, Pakistan and the Kashmiris. Finding and accepting a representative for India and Pakistan is not a problem. A huge and complex problem however is to find out who the representatives of the Kashmiris are and what their expectations and aspirations are:

In Jammu Province an overwhelming majority favours full integration in the Indian Union;
Ladakh strives for Union Territory status within the Indian Union;
In Kashmir we find different aspirations: the democratic, mainstream parties are in favour of remaining with India, the separatist leaders are divided: some want total independence, some want accession to Pakistan;
In PoK (a part of J&K within the 1947 borders under Pakistani administration), people are not free according to the survey of Freedom House, a neutral think tank. As they are not free, it is difficult to know exactly what they want. However, it can be assumed that some people will be in favour of accession to Pakistan and others in favour of total independence. We can assume that also some people are in favour of accession to India;
Gilgit-Baltistan, under direct rule of Pakistan, is deprived of fundamental juridical, political, democratic rights. Also here it is difficult to know exactly what they want, and
Aksai Chin, under Chinese administration, is virtually not permanently inhabited. Here it is only a territorial problem between China and India.

o. The most important for the Kashmiris is that violence stops. Only in a non-violent atmosphere negotiations can be result-oriented. To stop violence is in the hands of the militants (or terrorists, or freedom fighters, or jihadis, or fundamentalists, or extremists, or whatever name they could be given) and those who are supporting them. Terrorism should be replaced by tourism.

Waseem Altaf, a Human Rights activist from Pakistan, puts it like this: ‘Pakistan (read security establishment) has to change its jingoistic stance against India as nothing could be achieved through the use of force except humiliation. And unlike Jamat-ud-Dawa, Jaish-e-Mohammad and other such organisations who think that through the application of violence they can liberate Kashmir and destroy India, let us give peace a chance and continue with a constructive dialogue over all outstanding issues with India while at the same time initiating a crackdown against all militant/terrorist organisations that are as grave a threat to us as they are to India.

So let us forget that we can achieve any positive results through the application of violence. History has proven otherwise. It is only through condemnation of all kinds of militant ideologies, acceptance of the idea of mutual coexistence, initiation of dialogue and peaceful negotiations which yield positive results in the modern world. History also bears witness to the fact that in the modern age peaceful settlement of issues always bears fruit while violence breeds more violence and leads to nothing but death and destruction’.

p. The Kashmiri Pandits are the original Kashmiri speaking inhabitants of the Valley. They were hounded out of the Valley by militancy in 1990: some 500.000 of them fled to safer places. This exodus changed drastically the demographic composition of the population in Kashmir. After twenty one years, the return of the Kashmiri Pandits is more and more blurred notwithstanding the special package offered by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Nevertheless, they have their emotional attachment with their birth ground, their roots. They only can return when peace is there and when the rule of law, not the rule of majority is re-installed.

q. The cry for the right of self-determination by some separatist leaders is supported by Pakistan. However, this country only accepts one option: accession to Pakistan. Indeed, according to the Azad J&K Interim Constitution Act 1947, Par 7. (2): ‘No person or political party in Azad J&K shall be permitted to propagate against, or take part in activities prejudicial or detrimental to, the ideology of the State’s accession to Pakistan’. If Pakistan would be sincere all options should be left open, such as accession to India, accession to Pakistan, Azadi (= freedom), total independence, partition, etc.

r. Pakistan has no stand in J&K: ‘Pakistan is the aggressor and aggressors have no rights’. Pakistan invaded J&K in October 1947 and as a result is at the origin of the de facto partitioning of the State. As early as 13 August 1948 the UN Commission for India and Pakistan requested Pakistan to withdraw its troops from the State as a pre-condition for organising the plebiscite. The same Commission in its resolution of 5 January 1949 repeated this request. Until date, Pakistan has not withdrawn its armed forces and consequently the plebiscite has not been held.

This conclusion is confirmed by the ‘Report on Kashmir: present situation and future prospects’ of Rapporteur Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne, Vice Chairperson of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the European Union, and almost unanimously adopted by the Committee on Foreign Affairs (March 2007) and by the European Parliament. The report favours negotiations with the following wording: ‘In conclusion, the report recognises the ancient and unique heritage of the Kashmiri people, and the rapporteur has nothing but praise for their tenacity. After so many decades of conflict and tragedy in this particularly beautiful and historic part of the sub-continent, it is heartening to see the two great powers, India and Pakistan, coming together with the people of Kashmir and that peaceful solutions are both on the horizon and being implemented, a familiar process which the European Parliament fully supports’.

Adapted from a report on the study tour of President of the “Belgian Association for Solidarity with Jammu and Kashmir” to the Indian state of J&K between 28 January-15 February 2012

US sends ISI agent G.N. Fai to Jail

noreply@blogger.com (Romeet Watt) — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 21:17:00 +0000

Kashmir Telegraph News Service

WASHINGTON – Syed Ghulam Nabi Fai, 62, a U.S. citizen and resident of Fairfax, Va., was sentenced today to 24 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for conspiracy and tax violations in connection with a decades-long scheme to conceal the transfer of at least $3.5 million from the government of Pakistan to fund his lobbying efforts in America related to Kashmir.

The sentencing was announced by Neil MacBride, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia; Lisa Monaco, Assistant Attorney General for National Security; John DiCicco, Acting Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Tax Division; James McJunkin, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI Washington Field Office; and Eric Hylton, Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Criminal Investigation’s Washington, D.C., Field Office, after sentencing by U.S. District Court Judge Liam O’Grady in the Eastern District of Virginia.

On Dec. 7, 2011, Fai pleaded guilty to a two-count criminal information. Count one of the information charged Fai with conspiracy to: 1) falsify, conceal and cover up material facts he had a duty to disclose in matters within the jurisdiction of executive branch agencies of the U.S. government; and to 2) defraud the Treasury Department by impeding the lawful functions of the IRS in the collection of revenue. Count two of the information charged Fai with endeavoring to impede the administration of tax laws.

According to court documents filed with his plea agreement, Fai served as the director of the Kashmiri American Council (KAC), a non-governmental organization in Washington, D.C., that held itself out to be run by Kashmiris, financed by Americans, and dedicated to raising the level of knowledge in the United States about the struggle of the Kashmiri people for self-determination. But according to court documents, the KAC was secretly funded by officials employed by the government of Pakistan, including the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate (ISI).

“Mr. Fai spent 20 years operating the Kashmiri American Council as a front for Pakistani intelligence,” said U.S. Attorney MacBride. “He lied to the Justice Department, the IRS, and many political leaders throughout the United States as he pushed the ISI’s propaganda on Kashmir.”

“Syed Fai is today being held accountable for his role in a decades-long scheme to conceal the fact that the government of Pakistan was secretly funding his efforts to influence U.S. policy on Kashmir,” said Assistant Attorney General Monaco.

“Today’s sentence sends a strong message that using the tax-exempt status of charitable entities to promote or conceal federal crimes carries heavy consequences,” said Acting Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General DiCiccio.

“Mr. Fai had a duty to inform the U.S. Government of the finances which he received from Pakistan to fund lobbying efforts,” said FBI Assistant Director in Charge McJunkin. “Concealed foreign affiliations can be a significant threat to our democracy, and those who engage in hiding these associations will be brought to justice.”

“Today’s sentencing further shows that IRS-Criminal Investigation is working vigorously to stop the misuse and abuse of charities in promoting or concealing federal crimes,” said IRS Special Agent in Charge Hylton. “The message is clear that those who engage in this type of activity will face stiff criminal penalties.”

The Scheme

Fai admitted in court that, from 1990 until about July 18, 2011, he conspired with others to obtain money from officials employed by the government of Pakistan, including the ISI, for the operation of the KAC in the United States, and that he did so outside the knowledge of the U.S. government and without attracting the attention of law enforcement and regulatory authorities.

To prevent the Justice Department, FBI, Department of Treasury and the IRS from learning the source of the money he received from officials employed by the government of Pakistan and the ISI, Fai made a series of false statements and representations, according to court documents. For example, Fai told FBI agents in March 2007 that he had never met anyone who identified himself as being affiliated with the ISI and, in May 2009, he falsely denied to the IRS on a tax return for the KAC that the KAC had received any money from foreign sources in 2008.

In addition, according to court documents, Fai sent a letter in April 2010 to the Justice Department falsely asserting that the KAC was not funded by the government of Pakistan. Later that year, Fai falsely denied to the IRS that the KAC had received any money from foreign sources in 2009. In July 2011, Fai falsely denied to FBI agents that he or the KAC received money from the ISI or government of Pakistan.

In fact, Fai repeatedly submitted annual KAC strategy reports and budgetary requirements to Pakistani government officials for approval. For instance, in 2009, Fai sent the ISI a document entitled “Plan of Action of KAC / Kashmir Centre, Washington, D.C., for the Fiscal Year 2010,” which itemized KAC’s 2010 budget request of $658,000 and listed Fai’s plans to secure U.S. congressional support for U.S. action in support of Kashmiri self-determination.

Fai also admitted that, from 1990 until about July 18, 2011, he corruptly endeavored to obstruct and impede the due administration of the internal revenue laws by arranging for the transfer of at least $3.5 million to the KAC from employees of the government of Pakistan and the ISI.

According to court documents, Fai accepted the transfer of such money to the KAC from the ISI and the government of Pakistan through his co-defendant Zaheer Ahmad and middlemen (straw donors), who received reimbursement from Ahmad for their purported “donations” to the KAC. Fai provided letters from the KAC to the straw donors documenting that their purported “donations” to the KAC were tax deductible and encouraged these donors to deduct the transfers as “charitable” deductions on their personal tax returns. Fai concealed from the IRS that the straw donors’ purported KAC “donations” were reimbursed by Ahmad, using funds received from officials employed by the ISI and the government of Pakistan.

The Iran Quagmire!

noreply@blogger.com (Romeet Watt) — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 07:07:00 +0000

By Ambika Vishwanath

In 2009, when Iran held its last round of national elections, it resulted in wide protests, detentions and the house arrest of two presidential candidates. Mahmoud Ahmedinejad is widely believed to have stolen the presidency. At the time of writing this article, Iran would have gone through another round of elections, giving the country a chance to elect a new parliament. The outcome of the elections will take some time to be known, but given the dearth of reformists on the ballot, it will only be a battle between the conservatives. A battle between supporters of President Ahmedinejad, and those who feel he has lost favour with the Ayatollah. It is also these elections that should determine the course of action of the international community with regards to the nuclear debate. The decision to go nuclear is more political than military and a new parliament will influence that decision, which ultimately rests with the Ayatollah.

President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

It is no secret that Iran has continued to enrich uranium, while practicing denial and deception and playing for time. Today it seems that the last resort of a military assault on Iran is imminent. Israel has been making all the noises, indicating that a strike as early as April is possible. The top leadership in the United States has attempted to curtail these noises, but beyond a point Washington cannot prevent a unilateral decision from Tel Aviv. And any attack from Israel will be followed by the Iranians retaliating, as they must, launching counter attacks from their own country as well as via their supporters in Hamas and Hezbollah. A call to arms against the west and the Jewish community will go up around the world and there is no way of judging how many terror cells will awaken. Even if America stays on the sidelines, its silence will be perceived as complicity and Iran, directly or through proxies, will go after American bases, oil installations and allies in the Gulf. The future could be catastrophic at best.

In the immediate short term it is very important to think about the morning and days after. It is extremely unlikely that Israel will succeed in destroying all of Iran’s nuclear facilities, for the simple reason that many are still unknown and some of the more important facilities like Fordow are invulnerable to an attack. A direct attack will only serve to motivate the government to rally more support and legitimacy to the programme, reinforcing the ideology that a nuclear weapon is needed as a form of deterrence. Such an attack will only set the country back by a decade at the most. Iran is an extremely sophisticated country with well educated elite that has strong national tendencies, and even those sitting on the fence or the ones who quietly denounce the president will rally behind him.

On the other hand, Iran, armed with a bomb, would pose a deep threat. Even if one were convinced that they only want the ability to build a bomb for protection, it will spur Saudi Arabia, Egypt and perhaps even Turkey to move in that direction. Many fear that this race could make the region even less stable.

A potential way to prevent Iran from having nuclear weapons is for the international community to craft a deal that the Iranians cannot refuse. A deal where Iran would agree to stop after achieving a nuclear-weapons capability; while the world’s leading powers would agree to reintegrate Iran into the international community by dropping sanctions, unfreezing assets and admitting Iran into the World Trade Organization. Utopian perhaps, and most certainly extremely difficult. But faced with the other two alternatives of an armed Iran or a full scale attack, this is the only viable option left to the international community.

The Russians, an old, sometimes warm ally of Iran, with the most to lose or gain are warily watching the game unfold. For them both options of a nuclear Iran or another US war so close to home are worrisome. Russian diplomats also believe that more stringent sanctions won’t necessarily affect the nuclear programme, as previous sanctions have not stemmed the flow of money to the research and scientific community. But these sanctions do hurt the public and serve to sow discontent against the regime. With a 70 percent decline of the economy in the last few weeks, and 22.5 percent inflation, the country has turned into an all cash economy with bags of currency being shipped over from Dubai, creating a greater bugle in corruption. The President has also been called by the Supreme Council and the parliament to explain the state of affairs. With Syria in a crisis, Iran has an uncertain ally in Assad, which should be taken advantage of.

Diplomacy, it would seem, should be given more weight and another sustained chance. Any diplomatic negotiation will have to present a solution that presents Iran with credible choices and confidence building measures; it will also have to go beyond involving the members of 5+1. And therein lies one of the most difficult problems. The simple fact that there are clear internal differences between the 5+1, as well as with the Arab countries and others such as Turkey and China, will make any future negotiations and agreement extremely difficult. While it is clear that the existence of an offer does not guarantee success, conversely the failure of a clear credible solution will definitely guarantee failure.

The Iranian view of diplomacy is largely to divide, delay and divert, while creating fait accompli for a bargaining chance. And the vocabulary in the nuclear negotiations is all about resistance and steadfastness, very much the vocabulary of the war, which was about holding out and resisting outside pressure. The international community must not allow the country to delay and divert and must use the opportunity presented by the Iranian Foreign Minister’s request to the EU for a meeting. But before there is any meeting with Iran, the parties involved must come to some form of agreement to prevent Iran from using the discord amongst them to its advantage. The period following the parliamentary elections in Iran will be crucial to both the regime in the country and America and the EU. If this window of opportunity is lost, the western world should start preparing their defences while Israel prepares the offensive.

Ambika has a MA in Political Science with a concentration in Conflict Studies from the American University Cairo in Egypt. She is a research analyst with Strategic Foresight Group

Stop Demonizing Narendra Bhai Modi

noreply@blogger.com (Romeet Watt) — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 11:39:00 +0000

By B. Raman

The allegations made against Narendra Modi, Chief Minister of Gujarat, in connection with some incidents of violence against Muslims during the communal disturbances of 2002 were quite serious. They amounted to charges of conscious inaction amounting to criminal complicity.

These allegations warranted thorough investigation by a body of professional investigators and follow-up action in the form of criminal prosecution if the allegations proved to be correct during the investigation.

Such a body was constituted by the judiciary through the setting-up of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by R. K. Raghavan, former Director of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Raghavan is a highly distinguished officer of the Indian Police Service (IPS) known for his professionalism, integrity, independence and objectivity.

He had been associated with many complex criminal investigations when he headed the CBI and continues to be associated with matters relating to the Police even after his retirement.

After a thorough and professional investigation lasting about two years, the SIT headed by him has reportedly concluded that its investigation did not unearth any evidence that could warrant the prosecution of Modi under any charge.

In other words, the allegations of criminal complicity against Modi stand disproved. The serious allegations against Modi were not pushed under the carpet. He was not exempted from facing the due process of the law in the nature of a criminal investigation. He was treated like any other citizen despite the high office held by him and subjected to a criminal investigation by a team of distinguished professionals.

When the SIT has cleared him of the charges levelled against him by some sections of the public---particularly from the Muslim community--- and by some human rights activists, fairness of criminal justice demands that the demonization campaign against him should be discontinued and the sword hanging over his head should be removed. He has been cleared honourably and not conditionally.

Instead of doing so, his political and non-Governmental detractors seem determined not to accept the conclusions of the SIT and to keep up the campaign of denigration and demonization against him by recycling the allegations which have already been enquired into and found unproven by the SIT.

It is no longer a case of the law taking its own course, but one of malicious witch-hunt against a political leader by his political opponents and by sections of the media and lawyers and others who are not well disposed towards him. Even after having failed to prove the charges before the SIT, they are determined to keep their vicious campaign alive for political reasons and not for reasons of natural justice.

Their ill-motivated attempts have to be deplored by all right-thinking persons, who should demand that the campaign of demonization should stop immediately. Modi has so far not allowed this campaign to negatively affect his administration of the State of Gujarat for the last 10 years. The State has made considerable progress under his leadership. This is acknowledged by independent-minded observers and even by persons who are not comfortable with him as an individual.

His future should be decided by the people not on the basis of the re-cycled unproven allegations of his demonisers, but on the basis of what he has already achieved as an administrator, his ideas and vision for the future and his capability for achieving them.

Those who still have reservations regarding his style of leadership and do not agree with those who praise his governance should confront him politically and establish before the people that his achievements and capabilities are over-rated if that is what they feel.

But his detractors and demonisers find themselves on a weak ground in respect of a political campaign against him based on objective factors. They are, therefore, trying to keep alive the demonization in the hope of thereby damaging and destroying his future political career. This has to be strongly deplored and I have no hesitation in doing so.

I have never been an uncritical admirer of Modi. Nor am I in the ranks of his perpetual demonisers. I have always sought to judge him as objectively as I can. It is my view that the demonization campaign against him must stop now.

Islamabad's Mock Control Over Balochistan

noreply@blogger.com (Romeet Watt) — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 08:35:00 +0000

By Sana Baloch

Unfortunately, Islamabad’s dirty policies are not just confined to exploiting Baloch wealth but the establishment is also in constant efforts to marginalize and upset the very liberal and social fabric of Baloch society.

Balochistan’s contribution to the country is Himalayan. However, Balochistan’s immeasurable natural wealth and strategic significance turned into a curse rather than a blessing for the Baloch people.

The gravity of Baloch tribulations is deep-rooted, extending behind the minds of the political parties and educated youths to the masses that are experiencing discrimination, oppression and injustices in their everyday life.

Each region, town and village has its own story of neglect, underdevelopment and exploitation. Start from the Baloch coast that hosts Pakistan’s three modern but devoid of the Baloch naval facilities including Jinnah Naval base at Ormara. Chaghai and Kharan, strategically significant regions, where the nuclear test was conducted and copper and gold are being mined, to Lasbela, an industrial town (for Karachiites) and where Pakistan Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO) facilities are located, to Dera Bugti known for its high quality gas production since 1953, to Quetta and Bolan where coal is being mined — and you will be confronted with a miserable social and economic state of affairs.

However, all these areas have sophisticated military, paramilitary and naval facilities but none of them have modern education, health, electricity, gas or opportunities of livelihood.

Fuelling the national economy for years and helping save billions of dollars worth of foreign exchange in terms of energy import, Balochistan’s 97 percent population lives without gas facility, 78 percent without electricity, and 62 percent without safe drinking water. Balochistan has just 3.4 percent of gas consumers, as compared to 64 percent of Punjab alone, which produces only 4.75 percent of natural gas.

Balochistan being the major coal producing province is deprived of its benefits. During the 1960s, when Lahore was in West Pakistan, 98 percent coalmines of the province were allotted to people having no affiliation with the province. Today the local labourers in these ‘black-gold’ regions live without water, electricity, education and a health system. However, Sheikhs and Parachas are immensely benefitting from the wealth generated by the Baloch coal.

The MoU signed by Islamabad with a Chinese company regarding Saindak Copper-Gold Project is a classic confirmation of the abuse of Baloch wealth and discrimination. Islamabad and the Chinese company are taking 50 and 48 percent respectively and leaving only two percent profit for Balochistan. Besides this mega exploitation, the Saindak project is a no-man’s land for local Baloch youth and guarded by non-Baloch Frontier Corps (FC). Chaghai, the gold producing region, is the poorest of the poor.

Countless MoUs of such exploitative nature are inked with foreign and local companies to insistently exploit Baloch resources. These include the Duddar Lead-Zinc Project and the Reko Diq copper-gold project. Oil and gas exploration licenses are given without taking account of Baloch needs and demands.

Islamabad’s desire to entirely control and effusively exploit Balochistan’s strategic land, energy resources, and economic benefits without Baloch will, desire and legitimate participation are the raison d’être behind mounting tension and mistrust between the Baloch and Islamabad

Unfortunately, Islamabad’s dirty policies are not just confined to exploiting Baloch wealth but the establishment is also in constant efforts to marginalise and upset the very liberal and social fabric of Baloch society by supporting religious parties and co-opting gluttonous tribal and drug barons, which is part of the policy to retain its unquestioning control on Balochistan’s affairs.

Lacking political vision and a democratic culture, Islamabad’s super-establishment is governing Balochistan through a system known as ‘control’. Control, a suppressive system, is a set of mechanisms used in multi-ethnic states by the dominant ethnic groups to contain and keep its control on dissident ethnic minorities, plunder their wealth, destroying their culture and creating mass fear through disappearances, kill and dump policies and strapping presence of military and paramilitary forces.

Control is based on a rogue approach that one ethnic group takes over the state, imposes its culture on society, allocates to itself the lion’s share of resources and takes various measures, including violent means (military operations) to prevent the non-dominant group from organising politically.

Control works through three interrelated mechanisms: a) Divide and rule: internally creating rifts and division among the non-dominant groups; b) economic dependence: making them permanently dependent for their livelihood on the dominant group and central government; c) Co-option: involving sections of the non-dominant elite like greedy tribal chiefs, feudal, drug tycoons, corrupt intellectuals and politicians through partial dispensation of benefits and favours.

The military’s fresh, unwarranted and indiscriminate crackdown against moderate Baloch nationalists, intellectuals, students, poets, anti-establishment tribal elders, businessman and civilians is a reflection of the ‘zero tolerance’ policy against the ethnic Baloch people.

All glitzy mega-projects and control developments launched in Balochistan, including those for gas development, coalmining, Gwadar Port, Mirani Dam, coastal highway, cantonments, and the extraction of copper and gold deposits do not envisage any participation or direct benefit to the people and the province.

An unemployed Baloch feels more depressed and exploited when an unskilled soldier on their soil is brought and employed from another province to fill the position that is legally, naturally and constitutionally the right of a local Baloch youth.

The province is of strategic importance and shares long borders with Iran and Afghanistan and a 1,700-kilometre-long coastline. But border and coastal security is 100 percent controlled by non-Baloch paramilitary forces. Around 70,000 jobs in the FC, Coast Guard, police, maritime security and the Anti-Narcotics Force are occupied by non-locals, which leave thousands of qualified Baloch youths unemployed.

Baloch bitterness by all means is genuine and the continued plunder of Balochistan’s natural resources and its economic and political marginalisation and militarisation are the major causes of mounting tension between the Baloch and Islamabad. Political instability is on the rise.

Islamabad’s reliance on brute force may help the central government to create short-term cosmetic calm but unrest and frustration will further lead to growing mistrust between the Baloch and Islamabad.

Though physically superior, Islamabad has mock control over Balochistan, but emotionally and morally Islamabad seems terribly defeated in Balochistan. The gruesome policy of kill and dump of Baloch political activists has resulted in a permanent fracture in Baloch-Islamabad relations.

No doubt, Balochistan’s attractive and rich landscape, strategic coastline, sizeable territory and its location is very central to the establishment’s strategic vision; however, in the rapidly changing geo-political scenario, overlooking the genuine concerns of the Baloch and the feelings of the people of the province will result in irreparable loss to the establishment.

The writer is a Baloch leader and former Senator who resigned from the Senate of Pakistan in protest against Islamabad’s oppressive policies towards the Baloch people. He can be reached at balochbnp@gmail.com

Pakistan's duplicity in Balochistan

noreply@blogger.com (Romeet Watt) — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 18:08:00 +0000

By Tushar Ranjan Mohanty

At least 16 persons, including women and children, were killed and another 35 were injured in a suicide attack near the residence of tribal elder Shafiq Mengal, son of former acting Chief Minister and Federal Minister Naseer Mengal, on Arbab Karam Khan Road in Quetta, the Provincial capital of Balochistan, on December 30, 2011. The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) claimed responsibility for the attack.

Prior to that, on December 29, 2011, unidentified assailants shot dead a Police surgeon, Baqir Shah, who had played a key role in exposing the extra-judicial killing of five foreigners, including three women, in Quetta. Shah, who reportedly had not been provided any security despite being attacked in the past, had conducted the autopsy of five foreigners, including Russians and Tajiks, who were shot dead by Pakistani Security Forces (SFs) in Quetta on May 17, 2011. The autopsy report had contradicted the Quetta Police Chief Daud Junejo’s claim that the foreigners had not died due to shooting by law enforcement personnel, but because of a blast which they triggered with the help of explosives and suicide vests. Shah’s report revealed that they died from “multiple bullet wounds”. Significantly, while media reports had then claimed that the victims were unarmed and carried no explosives, footage on several TV news channels had shown SF personnel firing a volley of bullets at the foreigners as they lay on the ground near a security check post.

Earlier, three bullet-riddled bodies of Baloch Nationalist Party – Mengal (BNP-M) activists were found in the Zero Point area of Khuzdar District on December 12, 2011. The victims, identified as Bashir Ahmed, Sanaullah Mardoi and Allah Bakhsh Mardoi, had been abducted earlier, on an unspecified date.

Balochistan has for long earned notoriety as the land of extra judicial killings, disappearances, SF high handedness, and repression, as well as a playground for terrorists operating beyond the frontiers of the Country. The Province witnessed 711 fatalities, including 542 civilians, 122 SF personnel and 47 militants in 2011, as against 347 fatalities, comprising of 274 civilians, 59 SF personnel and 14 militants in 2010, according to partial data compiled by the Institute for Conflict Management (ICM, all data till December 31, 2011. These numbers are likely to be underestimates, as access to media and independent observers is severely restricted in Balochistan). Overall fatalities in 2011 thus increased by 104.89 per cent over the preceding year. Incidents of killing rose by 116 per cent, from 150 in 2010 to 321 in 2011. Further, the number of major incidents (each involving three or more fatalities) increased by 152.17 percent, with 58 such incidents recorded in 2011, as against 23 in 2010.

More worryingly, fatalities among civilians increased by almost 97.81 per cent, and at least 123 of 542 civilian killings appeared to be “extra judicial” in nature – that is, executed by state agencies. The victims of these extrajudicial executions were either political activists or people opposing the oppressive nature of governance in the Province.

Annual Fatalities in Balochistan, 2006-2011

Years	Civilians	SF Personnel	Militants	Total
2006	226	82	142	450
2007	124	27	94	245
2008	130	111	107	348
2009	152	88	37	277
2010	274	59	14	347
2011*	542	122	47	711

Source: SATP, *Data till December 31, 2011

Unsurprisingly, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), a non-governmental organisation, in a statement issued on December 9, 2011, observed,

Bodies of at least 225 ‘missing persons’ have been recovered from various parts of the Province since July 2010. The situation is particularly grave for non-Muslims and minority Muslim sects. As many as 80 members of the Shia community have been killed in the Province this year [2011] alone, for no reason other than their religious belief. HRCP also has serious concern at targeted killing of teachers, intellectuals and non-Baloch ‘settlers’ in Balochistan. The murder of two HRCP activists and three journalists in the Province in 2011 signifies the dangers that those highlighting human rights violations face on a daily basis. It is a matter of grave alarm that 107 new cases of enforced disappearance have been reported in Balochistan in 2011, and the ‘missing persons’ are increasingly turning up dead. It is scandalous that not a single person has been held accountable for these disappearances and killings.

Earlier, on September 18, 2011, the Commission had expressed ‘serious concern’ over the increasing number of decomposed bodies of missing persons being recovered from different parts of Balochistan, noting,

Around 188 decomposed dead bodies have so far been dumped in desolate places in different parts of Balochistan since June 4, 2010... Most of the victims were political opponents, students and cream of the society.

A report of the fact-finding mission of the HRCP which visited the Province between May 4 and 7, 2011 had observed,

Enforced disappearances continue to be a matter of great concern.
It has been noted that dead bodies recovered have had signs of extreme torture.

All authority seems to vest with the Security Forces. The civil administration, elected by the people and meant to represent them, appears to have ceded its powers.

Perturbed by the worsening situation, Pakistan’s Chief Justice, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, on March 2, 2011, remarked that the Government should take practical steps instead of issuing policy statements regarding abduction and targeted killings in Balochistan. Significantly, during the course of the proceedings, Balochistan’s Advocate General Salahuddin Mengal observed,

We are recovering dead bodies day in and day out as the FC [Frontier Constabulary] and Police are lifting people in broad daylight at will, but we are helpless. Who can check the FC? End the burning issue of missing persons first and then blame the Balochistan Government for not controlling law and order.

Regrettably, however, FC Inspector General Major General Ubaidullah Khattak on December 13, 2011, simply dismissed these allegations and claimed that 90 per cent of the missing Baloch persons were involved in criminal activities and had been killed by their own organisations.

Not surprisingly, Sardar Ataullah Mengal, senior leader of the BNP-M, on December 19, 2011, warned that Balochistan would not "remain with" Pakistan if extra-judicial killings of Baloch nationalists and excesses by SFs were not stopped immediately. "Balochistan will not remain with you", Mengal declared, adding that the violence and killings by SFs had taken "Balochistan to the point of no return" and steps had to be taken to engage the youth "who have been driven into the mountains by the Army". Similarly, Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N) parliamentarian, Lieutenant General (Retd.) Abdul Qadir Baloch, on February 25, 2011, had alleged that the security agencies were behind the abduction and killing of political workers and national activists in Balochistan.

Baloch insurgents and Pashtun Islamist and sectarian terrorists, meanwhile, retained capabilities to carry out acts of sabotage on a daily basis across the Province. Acts of violence were, crucially, not restricted to a few areas, but occurred in practically every one of the 26 Districts of the Province, including capital Quetta. According to FC data, a total of 1,328 violent incidents took place across the Province in 2011.

Terrorist violence in Balochistan has had a significant sectarian overlay. Balochistan witnessed 89 fatalities in 12 incidents of sectarian violence in 2011. 11 of these occurred in Quetta alone, with 63 persons killed. The remaining incident occurred in Mastung District. In the worst such attack in 2011, 26 Shia pilgrims were shot dead by Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) militants in Taftan, a town that shares border with Iran, in the Ganjidori area of Mastung District, on September 20, 2011.

Separately, Federal Minister of Interior Rehman Malik, on July 13, 2011, disclosed that, over preceding three years, 134 Punjabi-speaking people had been killed in Balochistan.

As in previous years, Islamist terrorists left no stone unturned to attack and disrupt the principal NATO supply lines to Afghanistan, which pass through Balochistan. Partial data compiled by SATP recorded 59 attacks in Balochistan in 2011, on oil tankers and trucks ferrying NATO supplies, marginally down from 66 in 2010. However, the loss of lives in these attacks rose from 12 in 2010 to at least 19 in 2011.

Rising extremism and violence, attacks on NATO convoys, and the arrest of high profile al Qaeda and Taliban terrorists has repeatedly demonstrated the presence of the Quetta Shura and al Qaeda networks in North Balochistan. Since 2009, at least 22 al Qaeda and six Afghan Taliban militants have been arrested in the region. The Pakistan establishment, however, continues to brazenly deny this reality. Balochistan Chief Minister Nawab Muhammad Aslam Raisani on August 4, 2011, dismissed media reports about the existence of Quetta Shura or the presence of Mullah Omar or al Qaeda leader Ayman Al Zawahiri in Balochistan. Similarly, Federal Minister of Interior Rehman Malik stated, on June 5, 2011, "The propaganda of the Taliban Quetta Shura is baseless, if anyone has concrete evidence about their claims, it must be shared with Government." And further, "Over 30 raids have been conducted on the presence of Taliban across Balochistan, but they were not found."

However, the arrest in Quetta of senior al Qaeda leader, Younis al-Mauritani, believed to have been responsible for planning attacks in the US, Europe and Australia, along with two other “senior al Qaeda operatives”, Abdul Ghaffar Al Shami aka Bachar Chama and Messara Al Shami aka Mujahid Amino in a joint raid by the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) and the FC, disclosed on September 5, 2011, proves the hypocrisy of the Pakistani claims.

The lackadaisical approach of the Pakistani establishment has evidently emboldened the extremists. While the number of SF personnel killed in 2010 stood at 59, it has increased considerably to 120 in 2011. At least 28 people were killed and over 60 injured in two suicide attacks targeting the residence of the Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of the FC, Brigadier Farrukh Shehzad, in Quetta on September 7, 2011. The attacks targeted and wounded the DIG, whose Force was involved in the arrest of Younis al-Mauritani and two other al Qaeda operatives in Quetta, in an operation announced on September 5, 2011.

The quantum jump in violence can be attributed to the rising desperation among the Baloch nationals. Despite Balochistan’s natural resource wealth (including the country’s largest deposits of coal and copper, as well as copious quantities of other minerals), Balochistan is Pakistan's poorest province, with 45 per cent of the population living below the poverty line. There is rising resentment in the Province over the fact that, despite the annual revenue of USD 1.4 billion that the Province’s gas output generates, the Federal Government remits only USD 116 million in royalties back to the Province.

Baloch nationalist Insurgent groups, on the other hand, continued to sabotage economic infrastructure, mostly gas pipelines. According to the SATP database, 2011 recorded at least 52 incidents of attack on gas infrastructure, as against just three in 2010. At least 170 such incidents have been recorded since January 1, 2005. Significantly, the insurgents involved in these attacks focus on targeting the economic interests of the Provincial and Federal Governments, rather than causing loss of life. Of the 711 fatalities recorded in the Province in 2011, Baloch insurgents are confirmed to have been involved in the killing of 69 civilians and 43 SF personnel. The material losses inflicted by the Baloch insurgents, however, are very substantial. The Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) Balochistan General Manager Mohammad Haroon had noted, on February 14, 2011, “Last year [2010], the SSGC suffered a loss of over PKR 100 million due to targeted attacks on gas pipelines. The company has suffered an equivalent loss this year [2011] too, as attacks have picked up.”

Meanwhile, the Aghaz-e-Haqooq-e-Balochistan (initiation of the rights of Balochistan) package which was approved by the Parliament on November 23, 2009, acknowledging the widespread deprivation and neglect that prevailed in Balochistan, failed to deliver. The package, included six constitutional, five political, 16 administrative and 34 economic proposals, and set a three-years implementation period. It has, however, so far succeeded in ‘delivering’ just 34 of the 61 proposals – though even for these the actual benefits accruing to the people are questionable. The Federal and Provincial Governments are, moreover, yet to initiate several mega-projects that are part of the reforms package.

Another ground for resentment is the Government’s policy of compensation to victims of violence. On June 28, 2011, the Supreme Court was informed that PKR 400,000 was being paid by the Balochistan Government as compensation to heirs of common citizens who fell victim to bomb blasts, target killings or sectarian violence, compared to PKR two million paid to the heirs of deceased SF personnel. The Court, expectedly, asked the Federal and Provincial Governments to consider removing the discrepancy by enhancing, to a reasonable level, the amount of compensation for common citizens arguing, “Is a common citizen a lesser species?”

Islamabad has sought to pacify the Baloch by offering peace talks with the nationalist rebels. Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, on June 5, 2011, stated that the Government was ready for ‘political dialogue’ with estranged Baloch leaders, in the larger national interest. Again, on October 11, 2011, he declared that the Government wanted reconciliation and remained prepared to hold talks with “dissident Baloch brethren” to find an amicable solution to the issues of Balochistan. The Baloch, however, appear to have lost faith in the establishment. Balochistan BNP-M chief Sardar Akhtar Mengal, on July 15, 2011, had noted that the Government was neither strong enough nor serious enough to resolve the Balochistan issue. He added, further, that announcements of packages, and the formation of jirgas and committees, were aimed at deceiving the Baloch people.

Islamabad’s policy of encouraging Islamist extremists, while using brute force against those demanding genuine rights and redressal of long standing grievances, can only lead to a continuing blood bath in the resource rich Province, creating more trouble for the increasingly crippled national economy. Peace can only remain elusive in Balochistan as long as Islamabad’s duplicity persists.

Author is Research Associate at Institute for Conflict Management, New Delhi

Has Congress shamed Parliamentary Democracy?

noreply@blogger.com (Romeet Watt) — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 15:21:00 +0000

By Sushma Swaraj & Arun Jaitley

The Congress Party led UPA has yesterday prevented the nation from getting a strong Lokpal.

The strategy of the Bharatiya Janata Party and several other opposition parties was clear. We would defeat a weak and spurious Lokpal law but we would insist on amendments which would improve and convert the weak law into a strong law. We would insist on the passage of a strong law particularly in the Rajya Sabha where numbers were on the side of the Opposition.

We had categorically mentioned that the consensus amendments amongst opposition parties on three basic issues, namely, protecting the legislative jurisdiction of the States by making a model law under Article 252, by liberating the appointment and removal process of the Lokpal from the clutches of the Central Government and by making the investigative process simpler and the investigative agency more autonomous, was non-negotiable. The intention was that these three changes be incorporated in the Government’s draft and we would have approved the amended law.

The Government delayed initiating a discussion on the 28th of December and deferred it to 29th December 2011. It wanted to give more time and flexibility to its managers who wanted to manipulate certain political parties.

They did not succeed. Their allies were drifting away. The Trinamool Congress had a serious problem with the State’s jurisdiction being usurped. The National Conference had its own objections. It became clear by the evening that the Government’s attempt to manipulate majority had failed. The numbers were loaded in favour of the amendments which would have created a strong Lokpal mechanism.

Any honourable Government would have either allowed a vote as per the mood of the House and the Nation or agreed to certain amendments. The UPA wanted a weak Lokpal. It could do neither.

It, therefore, decided to subvert the parliamentary institution. It requisitioned a friendly party to organize a disturbance but the friendly party had only three members. The disturbance was not effective enough. The Government filibustered with an endless debate which had become repetitive towards the end. It was working towards an unacceptable argument that at 12 PM midnight the house would automatically stop working.

The Government created a disturbance and got the House adjourned. At the stroke of the midnight hour when the world slept, India awoke to a great fraud being played on its parliamentary democracy.

It is now crystal clear that this Government does not want a strong Lokpal. It merely wants a spurious and a phony mechanism which can be manipulated by the Government. The battle for creation of a strong and effective Lokpal shall go on.

The subversion of the Rajya Sabha last night by the Government by denying it the opportunity to make an effective legislation is a significant moral scar on this government.

The Prime Minister must now live with one more moral stigma. He won the 2008 vote of confidence through bribery. He has now led a government with subverted parliament and prevented it from legislating effectively on the Lokpal.

The UPA appears to be disintegrating. One of its allies had openly declared its intention to vote against it on a key issue. Another ally, the National Conference, had expressed reservations about the Government’s resort to Article 253 for making this legislation. This is the beginning of the end of the UPA Government. Its allies will disintegrate and its voter base will shrink.

A big lesson for the UPA after yesterday’s midnight fiasco would be that it pays to walk straight. The UPA appears to have lost that habit of being politically correct. Management, manipulation and fixing seem to be its only key areas of preference. Such fixers are good when the going is good. When the going is not so good even they collapse. This is what has happened yesterday.

A Government which shies away from a vote and uses extra constitutional methods to avoid a vote, loses both political and moral authority. The UPA Government has no right to continue even for a moment.

We demand that the Prime Minister and his government must now resign and seek a fresh mandate on the issue whether it is their version of Lokpal.

Let India decide whether it wants this Government’s version of the weak Lokpal or our version of a strong and effective Lokpal.

Nuclear Power is India's Gateway to a Prosperous Future

noreply@blogger.com (Romeet Watt) — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 05:36:00 +0000

By Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam & Srijan Pal Singh

Every single atom in the universe carries an unimaginably powerful battery within its heart, called the nucleus. This form of energy, often called Type-1 fuel, is hundreds of thousands of times more powerful than the conventional Type-0 fuels, which are basically dead plants and animals existing in the form of coal, petroleum, natural gas and other forms of fossil fuel. Imagine a kilometre-long train, with about 50 freight bogies, fully laden with about 10,000 tonnes of coal. The same amount of energy can be generated by 500 kg of Type-1 fuel, naturally occurring Uranium, enough to barely fill the boot of a small car. When the technology is fully realised, one can do even better with naturally occurring Thorium, in which case the material required would be much less, about 62.5 kg, or even less according to some estimates.

Energy and economy

Today, India finds itself going through a phase of rapid ascent in economic empowerment. Our focus for this decade will be on the development of key infrastructure and the uplifting of the 600,000 villages where 750 million people live. All this will need massive energy. It is predicted that the total electricity demand will grow from the current 150,000 MW to at least over 950,000 MW by the year 2030.

International scenario on nuclear energy

So, will we allow an accident in Japan, in a 40-year-old reactor at Fukushima, arising out of extreme natural stresses, to derail our dreams to be an economically developed nation? When a few European countries, particularly Germany, decide to phase out nuclear power that should not become a blanket argument to take a view against our nuclear programme.

The decision of Germany suits its current scenario. It is a relatively power-sufficed nation— so it can afford to lose a few plants. More important, Germany has completely exhausted its nuclear resources.

The Indian population is misled when it is said that some Western nations have ended their nuclear programme, or that Japan is reconsidering nuclear power plant expansion. The study indicates that most of the prosperous nations are extracting about 30-40 per cent of power from nuclear power. In India, we are not generating even 5000 MW of nuclear power from the total of about 150 GW of electricity generation, most of it coming from coal. What is needed for our India, we Indians have to decide. Moreover, India is blessed with the rare, and very important, nuclear fuel of the future – Thorium. We cannot afford to lose the opportunity to emerge as the energy capital of the world. India has the potential to be the first nation to realise the dream of a fossil fuel-free nation, which will also relieve the nation of about $100 billion annually which we spend in importing petroleum and coal.

The greenest sources of power - solar and wind power are not stable and are dependent excessively on weather and sunshine. Nuclear power, on the other hand, provides a relatively clean, high-density source of reliable energy. Today, there are 29 countries operating 441 nuclear power plants, with a total capacity of about 375 GW(e). The industry now has more than 14,000 reactor-years of experience. Sixty more units, with a total target capacity of 58.6 GW, were under construction.

Much of the destructive power of nuclear accidents is compared against the benchmarks of the atomic bombing of Japan by the U.S. forces during the Second World War. You cannot compare a nuclear bomb with a nuclear power plant. Civilian nuclear applications in the form of a power plant are designed to deliver small amounts of energy in a sustainable manner over a far larger time frame.

Humankind’s ability to combat nuclear challenges

We need to put the Fukushima-Daiichi events in the historic frame of nuclear accidents and analyse them. While there was huge loss to property and disruption of normal life, there was no direct loss of life due to the accident. As a silver lining, the way the accident was handled — compared to the Chernobyl disaster of 1986 — showed how much progress we have achieved in nuclear emergency management. The Fukushima-Daiichi plant was almost five times as big in terms of power generation and contained about nine times the nuclear fuel. Yet, with better emergency management, the maximum radiation was less than 0.4 per cent of that released during the Chernobyl disaster.

On 6th November 2011, both of us visited the much talked about 2000 MW Kudankulum nuclear plant to understand the plant’s safety features and how it is addressing the concerns of the people which have inflated as an aftermath of the Fukushima Nuclear Event. We spent the whole day there meeting scientists and experts, meeting the local people and also studying the various facilities of the plant first hand. At the end we were absolutely satisfied to understand that this plant is equipped with the latest technologies when it comes to safety.

There are four important aspects of safety in a nuclear power plant which have been addressed in the plant.

1) Structural Integrity Safety: The structure of the plant has been made with the highest safety standards which doubled containment and hermetically sealed to be safe against earthquakes. To counter any risk from Tsunami and cyclones, the plant is elevated, to a minimum height of 6 meter (pump house) and the auxiliary diesel sets are at a height of 9.3 meter with a redundancy of four times in the diesel generators. In the case of Fukushima, one of the primary reasons for structural collapse was the explosion in the hydrogen which got out of control. To counter this, Kudankulumplant has installed 154 Hydrogen recombiners across the plant which can absorb any leaked hydrogen and prevent any structural damage.

2) Thermal Hydraulic Safety: The most advanced safety feature in the Kudankulum plant is the installation of the Passive Heat Removal System (PHRS) which is latest in technology to ensure rapid cooling of the reactor in the event of a reactor problem. The PHRS is a unique steamrecirculating system which can continue to cool the plant in the event of the failure of AC power and even when the worst possible scenario of coolant malfunction has occurred, without leaking any radiation in the atmosphere. There is also mechanism to rapidly cool the reactor in emergency situation using an elaborate system of showers which are installed in redundancy across the plant.

3) Neutronic Safety: In any nuclear plant the most important cause of failure can be the loss of ability to control the neutrons being generated which is done by a system called control rods. Besides the control rods, the Kundankulum Plant has uniquely implemented the latest technology in this domain – The Core Catcher. This is basically an underlying structure with Gadolium oxide which would “catch the neutrons” in the event of a highly unlikely meltdown. The core catcher is the ultimate defense which would, without any human intervention, or need of external power supply, cool down the fuel and reactor.

4) Waste Management: A popular myth is that nuclear waste is dumped into the oceans which kills marine life and contaminates water. This is completely false. Yes, many decades ago, some of the nations used to dump nuclear waste in deep oceans away from habitat but that practice is over now. With the closed loop cycle the waste generated per year from 1000 MW plant is less than 3% and that, after vitrification would not occupy a space of about 6 cubic meters.

Another argument is that the nuclear accidents and the radiation fallout would not only harm the exposed generation but also continue to impact generations to come. Post the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombing in 1945, the U.S. government established the Atomic Bombing Casualty Commission (ABCC) in 1946 which in 1974 was reconstituted as a joint venture between the U.S. and Japan as the Radiation Effects Research Foundation (RERF). The ABCC and the RERF have extensively studied the long-term impact of radiation and nuclear disaster across generations for over six decades. Contrary to popular belief, the findings clearly state that the effect of such exposure is limited only to the exposed generation.

In the wake of the recent natural disaster impacting the Daiichi plant in Fukushima, two concerns are prominent. The first is that of safety against the plant's disaster, and the second relates to the environmental impact and the nuclear waste which the plant generates.

Let us consider the second issue first.

Opportunity cost of nuclear energy

a) Abstinence from nuclear power is an incomplete response without the logical alternative. Some part of the future need, although only a small fraction, would come from solar and wind sources, with great unpredictability. A part would be offset by hydro-power too. But in all probability we will continue to increase our reliance on fossil-based fuel power generation methods.

Every year, human activities are adding about 30 billion tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere. The IPCC estimates that 26 per cent of this emission (about 7.6 billion tonnes) is a direct consequence of electricity generation requirements. The WHO estimates that about 1.3 million people lose their lives as a result of urban outdoor air pollution alone, and about 140,000 are causalities to adaptation challenges of climate change. Thus, the pollution caused by power generation activities, and the associated climate change are directly or indirectly responsible for about 481,000 deaths every year. Comparatively, in the case of the worst civilian nuclear disaster ever at Chernobyl, the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic radiation (UNSCEAR) predicted up to 4,000 cancer cases (often curable) due to the accident, besides 57 direct causalities.

Safety issues of nuclear power

b) Throughout the history of nuclear power generation there have been four major incidents of plant failure — the Kyshtym accident in fuel reprocessing in 1957, the relatively smaller Three Mile Island meltdown (United States), the much bigger Chernobyl accident (USSR, 1986) and the recent Japanese incident at Fukushima. The first accident was purely due to underdeveloped technology, and much of the blame for the next two disasters is attributed to human error. Even in the case of the Fukushima disaster of 2011, there were extraordinary natural forces in action — the rare occurrence of the tremendous stress load of an earthquake coupled with the unprecedented shear load of a tsunami. The occurrence of four failures in six decades cannot be made out as a case for completely disbanding the technology.

Let us take a few examples. In 1903, the Wright brothers translated into reality the remarkable dream of controlled human flight. In 1908, the first flight disaster occurred, which severely injured Orville Wright and killed his co-passenger. Today air accidents kill more than 1,500 people every year. Imagine whether we would be flying between distant cities, across oceans and continents, if the incident of 1908, or the ones later, were used as a reason to disband human flight?

The Indian space programme, which is now ranked among the best in the world, started with a failure in 1979 when our first rocket, instead of putting the satellite into a near-earth orbit, went into the Bay of Bengal. I was the Mission Director of the launch, and we were accused of putting a few crores of rupees into the sea. We did not wind up our dreams. The mission continued and the next year we were successful. The argument is that all failures and accidents propel us to think and develop better and safer technologies. Improvement, and not escapism, should be our step forward.

Nuclear fuel of the future: Thorium

Let us introduce a lesser-known member among radioactive materials — Thorium. Thorium is far more abundant, by about four times, than the traditional nuclear fuel, Uranium, and occurs in a far purer form, too. It is believed that the amount of energy contained in the Thorium reserves on earth is more than the combined total energy that is left in petroleum, coal, other fossil fuels and Uranium, all put together. And information revealed in an IAEA, International Atomic Energy Agency Report (2005) on Thorium fuels indicates that India might have the largest reserves of Thorium in the world, with over 650,000 tonnes. This is more than one-fourth of the total deposits of Thorium; in comparison, we have barely 1 per cent of the world's Uranium deposits. Thorium has many other advantages. It is estimated that Thorium may be able to generate (through Uranium-233 that could be produced from it) eight times the amount of energy per unit mass compared to (natural) Uranium. In the much debated issue of waste generation also, Thorium has a relative advantage. It produces waste that is relatively less toxic.

Being the largest owner of Thorium the opportunity is for India to vigorously pursue its existing nuclear programs with a special focus on research and development on the Thorium, which we are already undertaking. The power of the nucleus is mighty and the future of humanity lies in harnessing it in a safe and efficient manner. Affordable, clean and abundant energy provided by nuclear sources is our gateway to a future that is healthy, learned and connected — a future that will span deep into space and crosses the boundaries of current human imagination.

Conclusion: History is written by those who stood for their ideas

I was asking myself “What did I learn from great thinkers who have brought transformation?” From them I learnt no crowd mongers and no easy routes have ever brought progress and change to the nation. It is only the individual, the mighty mind and soul, which have transformed the world, brought the innovative transformation and he and she had the courage to stand alone for their idea and contribute which in course of time has been respected by the masses. I always cherish how Prof. Satish Dhawan can build a high performance space organization which has today sent so many satellites in the orbit or how minds like Dr. C. Subramaniam and Dr. M.S. Swaminathan brought the green revolution which today has enabled us to produce 235 million tonnes of food from 50 million tonnes in 1960s. They stood against the fear of failure, didn’t they? Our nuclear program is one of the indispensible keys to our future and our technological leadership, political leadership and every citizen of the nation must realize this.

Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam is the former President of India and Srijan Pal Singh is an expert in Sustainable Development

When the Indian Political Leadership Stood Tall!

noreply@blogger.com (Romeet Watt) — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 14:35:00 +0000

By A K Verma

Many hold the view that the year 1971 was the most glorious year of the republic. One saw a focused government in operation, with a well thought out planning, adjusting admirably to the unfolding of events during the year and crafting out a visionary goal with a sure instinct.

As the year dawned, creation of Bangla Desh was in no body’s sights, neither in India nor in Pakistan. Yet, going by the dynamics of history, there was certain inevitability about it. Creating a country in two parts, a thousand miles apart in 1947, with irreconcilable differences in language and culture, was a monstrosity which was bound to unravel on its own. India did play an important role in the process, a role which crystalised on the basis of day to day assessments and a co-ordination of efforts of different members of a policy advising politburo, the kind of which had not existed earlier nor has surfaced since.

In the earliest conceptualization of Pakistan, East Bengal or its interests had found no role. No letter in the name of ‘Pakistan’ had a reference to Bengal. The Muslim League, which grew into a significant Muslim mass movement during the period of the Raj, was born in Dacca in 1906 but took shape in the Eastern heart belt of India and was principally ruled by non Bengali personalities with rare exceptions. With partition in 1947, a vast majority of non-Bengali speaking Muslims migrated to West Pakistan and not to East Pakistan. The underlying reason was that such migrants did not identify East Bengal with the idea of Pakistan.

Jinnah’s purpose in including East Bengal in the concept of his Pakistan was to get an entity with a sizeable number of Muslims that could demographically offset India with its large Hindu population. Otherwise, constituting this geographical freak had no strategic, economic or cultural rationale. Pakistan had continually to pay a big price for this unnatural unity: while, on the one hand, the people of East Pakistan grew more and more dissatisfied, on the other hand, the effort to deal with East Pakistanis took a heavy toll of Pakistan’s energy, resources, time and development.

No acceptable bargain could be worked out over the long years from 1947 to 1971 which could overcome the concerns each wing of Pakistan had regarding the other. West Pakistan had begun to look at East Pakistan as a colony, and East Pakistanis hardly as equal citizens of Pakistan and culturally too Hindu influenced to merit being called real Muslims. The East Bengali reaction commenced with the language issue, moving on to demand for autonomy, then greater autonomy, and finally ended with secession and independence.

A watershed was reached with the December 1970 general elections in Pakistan for the national legislature. The East Pakistani Bengali party, Awami League, led by Mijibur Rehman, secured a clear majority with 160 seats in the house 400, whereas the party winning the largest number of seats in West Pakistan was Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’s Pakistan Peoples’ Party that won 81. The results entitled Mujibur Rehman to become the Prime Minister of Pakistan, a prospect considered totally repugnant by the West Pakistani elite, Armed Forces and political parties. Mujib was willing to accept a confederal status but Bhutto was unwilling.

The Pakistani authorities sought to solve the impasse through a military crackdown which commenced on the midnight of March 25, 1971. The Punjabi and Pathan troops engaged in an unimaginably savage butchery of the Bengali population, regarded as alien, low and unsavory. They targeted elite Bengali professionals, students, Awami League workers and politicians, police etc., killing them in thousands. Their savagery shocked the conscience of the world. Ten Lakh refugees streamed into West Bengal and were housed in camps.

The crackdown was the spark which transformed the rising Bengali radicalism into an open rebellion against the Pakistani State. Total independence from Pakistan now became the unified aim of all Bengalis of East Pakistan. Bengali soldiers and officers of the Pakistan army revolted. Bengali diplomats serving in Pakistani missions abroad defected. Pakistani brutality in East Pakistan touched new heights. Urdu speaking civilians became Razakars. Members of an extremist Sunni organisation, Al Badar. joined hands with Pakistani soldiery to kill and maim the defenseless Bengalis. The Bengali misery was compounded by the visitation of a cyclone during this period. Some observers have placed the loss of life due to the cyclone and Pakistani repression at nearly a million.

This was the backdrop of events when Awami League leaders who had escaped to Calcutta, now called Kolkata, appealed to the Indian Government to step in and neutralize the Pakistani campaign of atrocities against the Bengalis in East Pakistan. By then Mujibur Rehman had already been arrested and incarcerated in West Pakistan.

India had never faced a situation like this before and had no precedents to go by. The Army was consulted whether they could provide a response. Their answer was that they were unprepared. Many foreign governments that were contacted for possible assistance were sympathetic towards the travails of East Pakistanis but were unable to render concrete effective help.

India understood then that if succour had to be provided to East Pakistan, it would have to be an Indian effort. Thus began the planning to figure out the response to the growing crisis next door which had resulted in an influx of refugees into West Bengal.

One of the earliest and most significant step was to set up a brain trust comprising secretaries to the PM, R&AW, defense, external affairs and army Chief. This body functioned effectively both as a National Intelligence Coordinator and a National Security Advisor. In the former capacity it coordinated evolution of scenarios on the basis of action oriented analytic approaches and aggregates of data, identified gaps in intelligence, material and equipment, and took steps to remove those. In the latter role it provided strategic policy options to the Prime Minister and suggested a road map for diplomatic actions. In the wake of diplomatic initiatives followed the Treaty of Friendship and Security with the Soviet Union which provided a strategic cover to India. Much of the remaining burden which was huge and complex fell on Intelligence.

Meanwhile the Bengali leadership that had sought refuge in India declared complete independence from Pakistan for East Pakistan and formed a government in exile located near Kolkata. A radio station was also set up to broadcast messages to the masses in East Pakistan. Intelligence was responsible for the micro as well as the macro management of this enterprise. The govt. in exile through broadcasts and other means was successful in raising the tempo of resistance among Bengalis against Pakistan. It was evident to the Intelligence that the turn of events in East Pakistan was demoralizing the Pakistani authorities in Islamabad and a surprise sneaky attack on the Western borders of India, to distract attention from East Pakistan and to compel immediate intervention by UN to freeze the situation in favour of the earlier status-quo, could be in the offing. Their new tasks then became identifying signs of war preparations in West Pakistan.

A large number of tell tale signs were discovered which confirmed that a war was actually a work in process in Pakistan. It was found that the 9 Infantry Division of Pakistan army was being moved to East Pakistan by sea. A new division, 17 Division, was being raised to augment the military strength. A regiment of T54 Russian tanks had been moved towards Chhamb near Jammu. One infantry battalion along with a regiment of M48 tanks had been moved to Longowal for infiltration across Rajasthan border. A heavy concentration of armoured and infantry troops was taking place around Multan for deployment towards the Indian border. War stores were being collected in the forest areas near Lahore. Chaffee tanks had been transported to the East. The Pakistan submarine Ghazi had moved out of its base in Karachi towards the Bay of Bengal. Although the authenticity of some information was questioned by a few of the recipients in the Indian military establishment, it stood tested and confirmed subsequently on the battle ground.

Some time around midnight of November 30, 1971 Intelligence woke up the three military Chiefs and alerted them that the Pakistani Air Force was going to mount air raids on the forward Indian air bases within the next 72 hours. The air raids took place on December 3, 1971 but the waiting and alert Indian forces took a heavy toll of the raiders. With these attacks the 1971war had begun. Pakistani tanks and infantry also moved forward in the Longowal and Chhamb sectors. The Pakistani armoured regiment of Patton tanks was completely decimated by the well warned Indian troops in Longowal. The stores dumped in the forest areas near Lahore were totally bombed out and burnt.

Now that a war had actually commenced Indian troops moved into East Pakistan from all three sides of the land border. A debate arose whether their priority objective should be capture of Dacca or the countryside where the Govt. in exile of the newly proclaimed Bangla Desh could be located. As the Western powers by now were active in the UN for a ceasefire, all in the Indian side wanted the Govt. in exile to be perched as soon as possible at Dacca itself. The Indian troops, therefore, kept rushing towards Dacca. Their offensive ended on December 16, 1971 with the unconditional surrender of the Pakistani Commander and his garrisons. Dacca now had its own government of a free Bangla Desh.

If Kargil became later the scene of the most valorous acts of the Indian armed forces ever, Bangla Desh stood out as the most successful Indian military operation during which the military moved with utmost dedication, single mindedness and patriotism to achieve the set targets. The nation felt proud over their glorious performance.

No less was the contribution of diplomacy and intelligence. Diplomacy ably thwarted the designs of the meddling and unfriendly powers to put spokes in the wheels of the Indian enterprise. However, the top honours were truly deserved by the Indian Intelligence which provided invaluable and substantial inputs on the basis of which advance warnings were issued and military campaigning was planned. They also took care with great tact and vision the intricate management of the Bangladeshi leadership, defectors and their requirements till Dacca was freed of the Pakistanis.

Credit has also to be given to the political leadership of the day that remained unfazed by the threats of intervention in favour of Pakistan from certain global powers.

The real casualties of the war were the two nation theory which, though false, had led to the birth of Pakistan, accompanied by a horrendous carnage at partition. The destruction of the theory was equally attended by multiple loss of life, eventually ending in the emancipation of the new national identity of Bangla Desh. The second casualty was the demolition of the concept of Islamic nationalism as a premise for universal nation formation. This aspect has not received much attention but deserves to be investigated further by informed scholarship.

Author is the former chief of Indian external intelligence wing - Research & Analysis Wing (R&AW); by arrangement with South Asia Analysis Group, New Delhi.

Dismantle Hawala Networks to End Terrorism in Kashmir

noreply@blogger.com (Romeet Watt) — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 16:15:00 +0000

By Ajit Kumar Singh

While the higher echelons of power in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) were consumed by a political debate over the partial removal of Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) from some areas of the State, a more significant development has taken place which could have dramatic bearing on the residual militancy in the State. The terror funding mechanism in the State has been brought under the close scrutiny of enforcement and intelligence agencies.

In August 2011, the Union Minister of State for Home, Jitendra Singh, had stated in the Lok Sabha(Lower House of Parliament), “A multi-disciplinary group at the State and central level has been entrusted with the responsibility of enquiring into the sources of funding of Kashmiri terrorists.” Officials at the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) further indicated, “Special attention was being paid for terror funding of separatists and terror groups in Kashmir and the constitution of Combating of Funding of Terrorists (CFT) is a step in this direction.” Besides this, a Terror Funding and Fake Currency (TFFC) Cell in the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has also been constituted, to focus on investigating the flow of money into anti-national activities.

Meanwhile, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on November 1, 2011, booked four traders, engaged in business across the Line of Control (LoC), under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), in connection with a hawala (illegal money transfer) racket for the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT). The ED had sent one of its senior officers to the Valley to review hawala cases, and decided to take up this case which dates back to 2009. Notably, J&K Police had uncovered this hawala network in 2009, and had identified traders and businessmen in Punjab and Jammu who allegedly channeled funds to LeT militants in the Kashmir Valley for a fee.

This is the first such case taken up by the ED after cross-LoC trade was opened on October 21, 2008. Significantly, a high-level meeting, chaired by Union Home Secretary R.K. Singh in Srinagar in the evening of October 23, 2011, reviewed all cases related to the funding of terrorist and separatist groups in J&K, and agencies were asked to work in close coordination with the ED for attachment of properties under PMLA.

Terror groups have long taken advantage of the absence of legal banking facilities for trade across the LoC, which is based on a barter system. “As the cross LoC trade seems to have improved the relations between the traders on both sides of the dividing line, the same has been misused by many by acting as conduits of passing hawala money into the State, meant for militants and separatist groups,” the State Government said in the J&K Legislative Assembly on September 27, 2011. Media reports indicate that goods worth INR 2.94 billion have been exchanged on the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad route since the trade began.

According to data furnished by the State Government, 48 persons have been found involved in misusing the trade across the LoC and an amount of INR 7.3 million as well as un-cashed cheques worth INR 100,000, have been recovered from these persons in a total of 20 cases since January 1, 2009 (data till July 31, 2011). In the most prominent case, four persons associated with Hizb-ul-Mujahiddeen (HM), were arrested in Srinagar along with INR 2.1 million. A Special Cell unit of the Delhi Police had gone to Srinagar on January 22, 2011, following information that the money from Pakistan was being sent to J&K through a hawala channel via Delhi, for funding of terrorism and secessionists activities.

The numbers become more worrisome when data related to other sources of hawala money are clubbed together with such transactions in the cross-LoC trade. The State Government has disclosed that a total of 98 persons were arrested and an amount of INR 12.3 million was recovered over the January 2009 – July 2011 period, as part of efforts to check the pumping of hawala money into J&K. In addition to Indian currency, the agencies recovered 73,500 Saudi Arabian Riyal, Euro notes of 500 denomination valuing INR 150,000, 2,000 UK pounds and cheques worth INR 50,000. While 28 cases were registered and 66 persons were arrested, with a seizure of INR 7.7 million, in 2009, the number of cases registered in 2010 stood at 10, with 15 persons arrested and a recovery of INR 998,500. Nine cases have been registered in 2011 (till July), with 17 arrests and a seizure of INR 3.6 million.

The arrested persons belonged to both separatist groups and terrorist outfits. The separatist groups involved included the All Parties Hurriyat Conference-Geelani (APHC-G), led by Syed Ali Shah Geelani; Kashmir Mass Movement; the Sajad Gani Lone led People’s Conference; Shabir Ahmad Shah’s Democratic Freedom Party (DFP); the Yasin Malik led Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF); the Islamic Students Front; and Mahz-e-Azadi. The terrorist organizations involved included HM, Al-Badr, LeT, Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), Tehreek-ul-Mujahideen (TuM), Al-Umer, Jamiat-ul-Mujahideen (JuM), Al-Burq and Islamic Front.

The most prominent among Kashmir’s separatist leaders, Geelani, has been under scrutiny for a long time. The first First Information Report (FIR) against him, in relation to hawala transactions, was filed in 1997, alleging that he had violated the Foreign Contributions (Regulation) Act (FCRA) by receiving INR 194 million from Saudi Arabia; and a separate donation of INR 100 million from the Kashmir American Council (KAC). These payments, the FIR alleged, were collected from hawaladealers in New Delhi. Significantly, Syed Ghulam Nabi Fai, the Executive Director of KAC, has been charged by US authorities for operating as an agent of a foreign intelligence agency, specifically, Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI).

Geelani was brought under the scanner again following disclosures made by his close aide, Ghulam Mohammed Bhat, arrested on January 22, 2011, in connection with an alleged hawala racket, used to channel money to HM terrorists in the Kashmir Valley. INR 2.1 million was recovered from Bhatt in this connection. Bhatt told interrogators that he had received INR 4 million from his hawala contact in mid-September 2010. The money was to be delivered to another contact at Srinagar’s Jhelum Valley College “for onward delivery to S.A.S. Geelani”. Bhat also claimed that Geelani received sums of INR 2 million six times between October 2009 and January 9-10, 2011. Meanwhile, the NIA, on July 20, 2011, charge sheeted Bhatt, along with three others (arrested earlier), in connection with this hawalaracket. One of the charge sheeted persons, Mohd Sidiq Ganai, had allegedly collected over INR 45.7 million during a period of three years, since January 2008, through hawala channels from Pakistan, to promote terrorist activities in the Valley. The charge sheet stated that funds through hawalachannels were being sent to Jammu and Kashmir for funding terror and secessionist acts in the State and Pakistan-based Maqbool Pandit, a member of HM, and Aizaz Maqbool Bhat, at present living in Saudi Arabia, were the key accused behind these operations. Though the NIA has not named Geelani as an accused in their charge sheet, a "further probe" is on into his role.

Another separatist leader, Yasin Malik was arrested by Police on March 25, 2002, on charges relating to hawala transfers. He was booked under the Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance (POTO). The arrest took place following the March 24, 2002, arrest of Mushtaq Ahmed Dar, a JKLF activist, by Udhampur Police at Kud, along with a woman, Shazia Begum, who were carrying USD 100,000 for Yasin Malik. Dar disclosed that about USD 400,000 had been collected by Yasin Malik during his month-long stay in America in October-November 2001, where he had gone for treatment. The money was collected from businessmen of a particular community on the pretext of pursuing the ‘Kashmir cause’. The amount was brought to Nepal from Pakistan by a Kashmir based separatist, Altaf Qadiri, and handed over to Dar at a hotel in Kathmandu (Nepal). All the accused were later released on bail. The case is still going on.

Investigations over the years have also established that, apart from Geelani and Malik, other separatist leaders, including the slain APHC leader Abdul Gani Lone, his two sons, Bilal Gani Lone and Sajid Gani Lone, and Maulana Abbas Ansari, have also received hawala money.

Recent revelations have further exposed the real colour of the separatist leadership that claims itself as the “true representatives” of the Kashmiri people. A Delhi based hawala conduit, Hira Lal, arrested from a hotel in Srinagar along with Fake Indian Currency Notes on April 15, 2011, told his interrogators that separatists-turned-politicians have been siphoning off ISI funds meant for terrorist activities for their personal use. According to sources, Hira Lal was getting money from the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi and was handing over the money to brothers Bilal and Sajjad Lone. Quoting Hira Lal, an unnamed Police officer disclosed that the conduit had passed on INR 20 to 30 million to the Lone brothers since the killing of their father by the LeT in 2001.

Nasir Shafi Mir, a resident of Budgam District, who ostensibly used the carpet trade and later a money exchange business in Dubai for transferring hawala money to Hurriyat leaders and other separatists in Kashmir, is said to be the "financial brain" behind funding of separatist activities in Kashmir. His name cropped up when the Government was examining the role of KAC’s Gulam Nabi Fai. Fai was arrested by the FBI on July 19, 2011, on charges of illegally lobbying the US Government for Pakistan over Kashmir. Fai was released on bail on July 27, 2011.

Hawala, the informal transfer of money, has been in existence for almost three centuries in India and other Asian countries. In the recent past, Kashmir has emerged a prominent locus for such transactions, as extremist outfits in countries grouped under the Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC) send money to terrorist groups in the State. Intelligence agencies estimate that about 90-95 percent of extremist funding comes through this channel, with Pakistan and Saudi Arabia the primary sources of these illegal flows. Praveen Swami noted in a 1997 article, “Since the 1991 arrests of Ashfaq Lone and Shahabuddin Ghowri in New Delhi on charges of channelling hawalafunds to Kashmir terrorist groups blew the lid off the Jain brothers' hawala scandal, it has been known that illegal inflows have been central to sustaining terrorism in Kashmir.”

Unsurprisingly, intelligence reports indicate that hawala money was used to fuel the summer unrestof 2010, the effort by separatist formations to supplement rapidly declining terrorist capabilities in the State with violent mass mobilisation. After the arrests of three hawala conduits on January 23, 2011, and the seizure of INR 2.1 million from them, it was discovered that this money was being sent to J&K via Delhi by the ISI for ‘stone-pelters’ – violent street demonstrators – to sustain unrest in the Valley. During interrogation, the hawala operatives revealed that “the money is delivered to several leaders in Jammu & Kashmir to further give it to local politicians to stage violent protests and create law and order problems. As per their disclosure, approximately Rs 20 lakh [INR 2 million] is sent every month, over one crore [100 million] every year. This money is given to conduits here in Delhi by the Delhi-based dealer and then it goes to Jammu & Kashmir.” Officials said that, during unrest in Valley, between June and September each year since 2008, stone pelters were hired using money sent by ISI.

Measures taken by the Government has resulted in some decline in the number of hawala cases, which have come down to 10 in 2010 and nine in 2011, at the time of writing, as against 28 in 2009. Some of the prominent steps initiated by the Government include the installation of modern equipment to monitor the LoC trade and travel points; the issue of guidelines to enforcement and banking agencies to track and check suspicious bank accounts; and the establishment of nakas(barricades) at various places in the State for effective checking of the movement of contraband, including illegal funds. The ED has dispatched officials to the State to fast-track the probe into 18hawala related cases and to detect possible violations of PMLA – perhaps the first time the ED has deputed senior officials to the Valley for such investigations. The establishment of CFT and TFFC also suggests a renewed seriousness on the part of the Centre.

At a time when terrorism is at its lowest ebb in J&K, an effective blockade against illicit fund transfers to terrorist and separatist organizations could have a decisive impact on the possibility of constructing an enduring peace in the State. There are clear indications of a measure of determination to address this issue, and it is imperative that this should be sustained. In the past, investigations and prosecutions have been undermined or indefinitely deferred on extraneous political considerations, and it can only be hoped that this will not be the case again. The comprehensive dismantling of the hawala networks in J&K could inflict a death blow on terrorism and separatism in J&K.

Author is a Research Fellow, Institute for Conflict Management, New Delhi

BJP Prez, Nitin Gadkari, to Contest in 2014 from Pune

noreply@blogger.com (Romeet Watt) — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 16:45:00 +0000

Kashmir Telegraph News Service

Pune, 11 Nov, 2011: BJP National President, Nitin Gadkari, it has been learnt from very reliable sources, within the party, is keen to actively explore the possibility, of contesting 2014 elections, from the Pune Parliamentary Constituency.

Gadkari spent a full day in town yesterday, and had a series of back-to-back engagements. While his engagements were also seen by many, as part of the efforts, to sustain the momentum of party – from the recent assembly by-poll win to the civic polls, which are due in a few months; sources close to the BJP President, have told KashmirTelegraph.com that some homework, indeed, was also done to firm up candidature for Lok-Sabha seat from Pune.

File Photo - Courtesy, The Hindu

A senior, city based leader of BJP, on the condition of anonymity, told KashmirTelegraph.com that it makes excellent sense for the BJP President to contest the Lok-Sabha polls from Pune. The leader further went on to say that he would not be surprised, if this is formally announced, at an appropriate time, by the senior party leadership.

While this important development could not be formally confirmed, at this point in time, reliable sources have told KashmirTelegraph.com that Congress and NCP have major reasons to worry, over this important development, which has taken everyone by surprise.

Deputy Chief Minister, Ajit Pawar, who with Kalmadi out of the picture, it is reliably learnt, is keen to field an NCP candidate from Pune.

Notwithstanding the fact that Pune has been typically perceived as a Congress-NCP strong-hold, Suresh Kalmadi / CWG corruption scandal is expected to have a huge anti-incumbency factor, and with Gadkari’s strong candidature, political pundits believe, it is indeed a very good move by BJP – to be third time lucky.

In 1991, Anna Joshi won the prestigious Pune seat, the first time for BJP, while in 1999, Pradeep Rawat defeated Mohan Joshi of the Congress to bag the seat, with a massive majority of over 90,000 votes.

Subsequently, both in 2004 and 2009, Suresh Kalmadi, supported by NCP won the elections. While in 2004, with a 48.61 percentage vote share, Congress did very well, the drop in the percentage vote share of both the Congress (38.12) and BJP (34.62) in 2009 surprised a lot of political pundits. Ranjeet Shirole of the MNS surprised many by bagging 75,930 votes with a percentage vote share of 10.33.

Out of six assembly segements - Vadgaonsheri, Shivajinagar, Kothrud, Parvati, Pune Cantonment, and Kasba Peth – which make up the Pune Parliamentary constituency, BJP’s traditional strong hold is Kasba Peth; along with Parvati, which has Madhuri Misal of BJP, as a sitting MLA, while Kothrud seat is with Chandrakant Mokate of the Shiv Sena. Both Madhuri and Mokate had won these assembly segments, with good margins.

Though Vikas Matkari, Pune City BJP President, lost the Shivajinagar constituency, BJP has a good traditional support base in this constituency. The electoral alliance, which Shiv Sena has with Republican Party of India (RPI) is expected to help BJP in the other two assembly segments, Vadgaonsheri and Pune Cantonment, which has currently, Bapusaheb Pathore (NCP) and Ramesh Bagwe (Congress), as sittings MLA’s.

General Election, 2009
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Congress	Suresh Kalmadi	2,79,973	38.12
	BJP	Anil Shirole	2,54,272	34.62
	MNS	Ranjeet Shirole	75,930	10.33
	BSP	D. S. Kulkarni	62,981	8.57
Majority			25,701
Turnout			7,34,370
	Congress Hold		Swing

MNS is expected to continue to be a factor in the upcoming elections however, it is reliably learnt that Raj Thackeray is expected not to field a candidate, once BJP President, Nitin Gadkari’s, candidature from Pune is formally announced from the party leadership.

While Pune Shiv Sena leaders, Mahadev Babar, Chandrakant Mokate and Sham Deshpande did not attend the function at Kamala Nehru Hospital, yesterday, political observers don’t ascribe much importance to their absence.

General Election, 2004
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Congress	Suresh Kalmadi	3,73,704	48.61	+5.44
	BJP	Pradeep Rawat	3,00,507	40.67
	Indep	Arun Bhatia	60,213	7.83
Majority			79,197	4.31
Turnout			7,68,827	43.57	+4.13
	Congress Gain from BJP		Swing	+5.44

On the other hand, notwithstanding the fact that Shiv Sena has been for many years wanting to field a candidate from Pune; for 2014, they’re expected to strongly support the candidature of BJP National President, Nitin Gadkari for the 2014 general elections from Pune.

The clout of Nitin Gadkari was visible at the hospital function yesterday, when all major city BJP leaders – Ganesh Bidkar, Girish Bapat, Madhuri Misal, Vikas Matkari, Anil Shirole, Srinath Bhimale, Mukta Tilak, and Sandeep Khardekar – made sure, they all were present for the function.

General Election, 1999
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	BJP	Pradeep Rawat	3,04,955	41.62
	Congress	Mohan Joshi	2,13,670	29.16
	NCP	Vitthal Tupe	1,98,738	27.13
Majority			91,285
Turnout			7,32,654
	BJP Gain from Congress		Swing

The victory of Bhimrao Tapkir in the by-polls has helped BJP party leadership in the city to collaborate and work collectively for the upcoming civic poll elections.

Gadkari played a key role in building the Pune-Mumbai Expressway during his stint as Cabinet Minister for Public works Department, Government of Maharashtra between 1995 and 1999. His resoluteness in swiftly completing mega projects like the Mumbai-Pune Expressway continues to have a deep emotive connect with the people of Pune.

People of Maharashtra, in general, and Pune, in particular, remember Gadkari, for his high level of result orientation and performance, which marked his ministerial inning. A Swayamsevak of the RSS to the core, Gadkari, has a very strong support base in the city, to plunge into electoral politics from Pune City, remarked a senior political commentator.

Contesting 2014 elections from Pune, and not an obvious choice, like say Nagpur, would indeed, send the right message to the people and more importantly to his political opponents.

Why is Congress-led UPA silent on Black Money parked in Foreign Banks?

noreply@blogger.com (Romeet Watt) — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 07:14:00 +0000

By L K Advani

Apart from corruption, the issue of black money, particularly, huge amount stashed away in foreign banks including, in Swiss Banks, has deeply disturbed and distressed the people of the country. This anger, I have, myself noticed in the course of my Jan Chetna Yatra, where in I have covered 15 states and 1 Union Territory. In all the Yatra will go to 23 states and 5 Union Territories in a span of 38 days covering a road distance of 7600 KM.

Since a long time, I have been demanding that the Government must come out with a white paper as regards the step it has taken to bring back this money which, in majority of the cases is the product of crime and corruption.

There is complete silence from the Government!

Today, I would like to raise certain important questions which the Government must answer.

Powerful countries like USA, Germany, France and even smaller countries like Philippines, Peru and Nigeria have taken a variety of measures to bring back black money parked in foreign bank accounts, with great success.

Why is the UPA Government not prepared to follow the steps they (aforementioned countries) have taken?

USA, Germany, France and UK have invariably entered into agreements and treaties with Switzerland, which help them extract information. USA got information of four thousand account holders form the UBS Bank. Other Countries have also managed to get substantial information.

The nature of agreement, which India has entered into is so worded that the Government takes shelter under it to refuse to extract information. This is also prospective giving scope to the defaulters to withdraw their money.

Few months ago the Swiss Ambassador to India publically stated that if the Government of India shows the political will, the Swiss Government is willing to cooperate.

India today is an important country of the world and is also a part of the G-20. Presently Dr. Manmohan Singh is attending the G-20 summit in France. Why is India reluctant to assert itself in the light of its rising global stature to recover this dirty money?

What is holding back the UPA Government spite of such anger in this country against rank inaction?

When the whole world is proceeding towards openness and disclosure of information, what prevents the Government from disclosing the names of those who have parked this money in foreign banks?

The Government took six years to ratify the U.N. Convention against corruption and invariably the taxation agreements with various countries are being made prospective which will frustrate the very purpose of this exercise.

It is learnt that the names of three Member of Parliament also figure in respect of whom income tax authorities are investigating in connection with Swiss Bank accounts. This is a very serious issue.

This brings the issue of black money close to the political system and it cannot be dealt with only as a tax evasion issue. Full facts in this connection must be made public.

These are important questions and the rank indifference of the Government only shows once again that the UPA Government wants to hide because disclosure will cause embarrassment.

The Government lacks the political will!

Black money has a direct role to play in the pernicious influence of money power in elections which is becoming very deep rooted.

The motto of this Yatra is clean politics and good governance and proper electoral reforms must be initiated to curb the influence of money power. It is essential for democracy.

This Yatra is for regeneration of India!

Author is a veteran BJP Leader and currently Chairman, BJP Parliamentary Party

Why AFSPA should continue in Jammu and Kashmir?

noreply@blogger.com (Romeet Watt) — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 17:43:00 +0000

By Arun Jaitley

The Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, Omar Abdullah has recently suggested that the provisions of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 could be made inapplicable to some parts of the State of Jammu and Kashmir.

This has triggered a controversy since the security forces and the Ministry of Defense have consistently maintained that the enforcement of the provisions of the Act in the State of J and K is necessary. It is therefore necessary to examine the provisions of the law and the need for their enforcement and applicability to the State.

Jammu and Kashmir has been a disturbed area for more than two decades. It has been the victim of cross border terrorism. Certain domestic groups have also disputed the status of the State as an integral part of India. It is an effort of the entire country and the state administration that peace and normalcy in the State should be restored and that the people of the State should be protected from any form of violence or subversion.

Terrorism and separatist violence needs both a political and security response. The security response may adversely impact on the day to day civilian life. It is harsh but necessary. In case there is laxity in terms of security the inevitable consequences would be that deterrence of those indulging in violence and separatist activities would disappear.

Beside, the State Police, the ‘armed forces’ of the Union also assist the administration. The ‘armed forces’ is not merely the army and certain other military forces, but they also include other armed forces of the Union, namely, Border Security Force, CRPF, Assam Rifles and ITBP.

Once the whole State or a part of the State is declared as a ‘disturbed area’ the armed forces are called in aid of the civil powers in order to maintain peace and tranquility in the State.

Armed forces do not investigate crime. Their personnel are entitled to take necessary steps for maintenance of public order and use force after giving due warning to those who threaten law and order. They can enter premises and search them. They can destroy any dumps or fortified shelters from which armed attacks are made. They are entitled to arrest without warrant and even take the arrested person to the nearest police station without delay along with a report of such arrests.

Thus, with regard to declaration of an area as a disturbed area it is an assessment and opinion formed by the government that the civilian administration and local state police are not enough to maintain the law and order in the State. If the local police alone can maintain law and order in the State, the declaration of that area as a disturbed area would not be necessary.

The decision thus, to continue the State or a part of the State, as a disturbed area or otherwise has to be taken on security considerations and not political considerations. Even in districts where the army is withdrawn, the CRPF and other armed forces are still deployed. The local State police would be inadequate in most of these districts also.

The powers given to the armed forces of the Union are not substantially different from the powers which the local police has. The local police can also make arrests, searches for the purpose of maintaining law and order. They can also use reasonable force required to maintain peace and tranquility. They can also destroy any arm dumps or fortified positions or shelters from where armed attacks are made by violent groups.

The only protection provided to the armed forces of the union is that before any prosecution, suit or legal proceedings is initiated against any personnel of the armed forces for acting under this Act, prior sanction of the Central Government would be necessary.

When I visited the State last year, as a part of the all party delegation, I was informed by the officers of the para military forces that more than 2500 applications for prosecuting personnel's of armed forces were pending with the Central government.

The Act, therefore, gives protection to the personnel of armed forces that they cannot be prosecuted without the sanction of the Central Government. In case this protection is withdrawn it would empower various vested interests to prosecute officials of the armed forces and other para military forces indiscriminately.

Obviously, this would dis-incentivize personnel of these forces from taking adequate steps against the separatist groups. When the security forces are in favor of retention of this law, it would be highly imprudent to allow anyone to seriously argue that political considerations require that this law be withdrawn or its enforcement be restricted only to certain areas.

We seriously hope that a situation does emerge in future that the applicability of this law is either not necessary or is restricted only to some areas. That situation does not seem to have arrived as yet.

The withdrawal of this law would leave the administration of the unprotected districts only in the hands of the local police and thus incentivizing the separatist and violent groups to increase their activities in these areas.

It would, therefore, be politically more prudent for the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir not to initiate a debate at a stage when circumstances still warrant the continuation of the operation of the law.

Author is a senior leader of BJP and the Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha

Pakistan And Its Stated Apprehensions!

noreply@blogger.com (Romeet Watt) — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 06:44:00 +0000

By Bhaskar Roy

The in-camera briefing (Oct/18) given by Pakistan’s army Chief, General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani at the GHQ, to Standing Parliamentary Committees of both houses of the National Parliament, was anything but in-camera. It was a rare occasion, perhaps a first time, when members of the paramilitary forces were invited to GHQ for a national security briefing.

All the dressing up was done for an ominous occasion. Then everything was leaked to the media. The nation was under threat from the world’s only super power, and the Pakistani army led by General Kayani would protect it!

The Pak army and its intelligence arm, the ISI, which is accountable to none other than the army chief, desperately needed an image build up among the people. They had to arrive at a deal with the US to release CIA contractor Raymond Davis, who killed two Pakistanis in Lahore in January.

In May, US navy seals flew into the military town of Abbottabad, killed Al Qaeda Chief Osama bin Laden and took away his body, without being detected. It was a double insult for the army. One, it could not defend the sovereignty of Pakistan. And two, the incident revealed that the world’s most wanted terrorist was under the Pak army’s protection.

It made Pakistan a state supporter of international terrorism!

In quick succession was the Pakistan Taliban’s attack on the Karachi naval base inflicting significant damages. It came out the Pak Taliban had their people in the navy and the ISI knew about it. Journalist Salim Shahazad, who exposed the ISI’s terrorist connections, was abducted and murdered by the ISI. The ISI had come to know that Shahazad was about to reveal more secrets of the ISI’s nefarious dealings.

The reputation of the army and the ISI plummeted sharply, and sections of the press and strategic policy community began to tear apart the ISI’s activities and the army’s "strategic depth" policy in Afghanistan and use of terrorist organizations to promote its security and foreign policy objectives. Both these related organizations begun to lose trust and credibility among the people.

General Kayani’s strident statements to the select gathering that he had warned the US to think ten times before attacking Pakistan, that he had told the Americans that Pakistan did not require their military assistance, and that Pakistan was a nuclear armed country and not Iraq or Afghanistan was for the benefit of the domestic audience. Of course, he was aware the discerning educated section of the Pakistani people would take his challenging statements with a fist full of salt.

But there was the large majority who have been brainwashed over decades to believe blindly what the army says!

Kayani took the risk of making the “nuclear power” statement hoping that the US would understand the reason. He knows very well that if Pakistan made as much as a move to use its nuclear arsenal nothing of Pakistan’s nuclear assets would live for another day.

The general made two interesting statements for international consumption. One was that Pakistan did not want to control Afghanistan, and historically no country could. This was to try and diffuse concerns over the Pak army continuing to pursue the "strategic depth policy" in Afghanistan. The other was that the army will do whatever the civilian government decided. He tried to shift the responsibility of the army and ISI actions and activities on the civilian government. No one is going to buy Kayani’s thesis.

General Kayani had some more serious messages to the US. The main one was that the Pak army will not take action against the Haqqani network as it was too important an asset in Afghanistan. Like the US which is keeping all options with the militant forces in Afghanistan open including with the Haqqanis, Pakistan also has to do so. Afghanistan is too important a country for Pakistan where it cannot afford to have other countries especially India, take precedence.

There may also be some truth in Pakistan’s stated apprehension that making the Haqqanis enemy could increase internal terrorism in Pakistan.

Before leaving for Pakistan from Kabul on Oct/20 evening, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made it clear that the US will target all terrorists in their safe havens including Pakistan. She warned that Pakistan must decide whether it would help or hinder the anti-terror war. But again, she did not give Pakistan an option, adding that allowing terrorism to continue Pakistan will have to pay a "big price".

Following the Abbottabad Osama bin Laden operation, the US had said that if need be such operations could be repeated. In Islamabad (Oct/21) addressing a joint Press Conference with Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani, Hillary Clinton flatly said that for too long terrorists had been able to operate from Pakistan’s soil and "you cannot keep snakes in your backyard which bite your neighbours". She could not have been more forthright publicly. Clinton was reportedly more sharp in the closed door meetings with her Pakistani interlocutors.

The US has beefed up its forces in North Waziristan’s borders in Afghanistan. It has introduced a new drone which can be carried in a soldier’s backpack and used for very precise strikes on a target with minimum collateral damage. An US military operation on the ground in Pakistani territory is still not on the table, and unlikely to be. The US has much more interests in Pakistan, and certainly would not want to open a new war front when it was beginning to withdraw from Afghanistan.

Despite the tense relations with Pakistan, the US is not going to break up relations including consulting and working together on the Afghan peace process. But a stable Afghanistan is a distant mirage because of many other reasons.

The international community would be taking note of General Kayani’s nuclear threat. The language is more dangerous than North Korea’s periodic rhetorics. It is known that in the last several years China helped further upgrade Pakistan’s nuclear weapons and capability in total disregard to its international commitment.

According to Western analysts, Pakistan continued to expand its nuclear weapons inventory and may soon hold the third largest nuclear weapons in the world. It is not known if Hillary Clinton took up this issue in Pakistan. Notwithstanding that, Kayani’s words are of grave concern.

Bhaskar Roy, a retired senior government official, with decades of national and international experience, is an expert on International relations and Indian strategic interests - by arrangement with South Asia Analysis Group

Pakistani Collusion with Islamist Terrorist Formations

noreply@blogger.com (Romeet Watt) — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 17:08:00 +0000

By Ambreen Agha

On October 2, 2011, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said that his administration was ready to hold negotiations with all militant groups, including Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). Maulvi Faqir Muhammad, TTP’s ‘Deputy Commander’ and ‘Commander-in-Chief’ for its Bajaur Chapter in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), spoke to the media on phone on October 3, 2011, declaring, “TTP welcomes the Prime Minister’s offer.” Before the bells could peal out for an imminent ‘peace’, unsurprisingly, the TTP ‘commander’ set out two unattainable preconditions for talks: One, the Government should reconsider its relationship with the United States (US); and, two, enforce Islamic Shari’ah (law) in the country.

The offer of ‘peace talks’ comes at the time when Islamabad’s operations in the tribal region have had little impact on TTP’s jihadist operational capabilities, and this is reflected in the confidence that underpins Faqir Muhammad’s response to the Prime Minister. The organisational strength and systemic growth of TTP’s leadership has, both qualitatively and quantitatively, taken a quantum leap in over the past years.

According to the SATP data, Pakistan witnessed 6,769 fatalities [including 3,135 civilians, 1,211 Security Forces (SF) personnel and 2,423 terrorists] between 2003 and 2007. After the formation of TTP on December 14, 2007, however, the fatalities recorded a steep rise, totalling as many as 30,843 in this latter phase (SATP data till October 9, 2011). Crucially, the number of suicide attacks also increased dramatically. 75 suicide attacks had been recorded between 2002 and 2007, killing 1,183 persons; the number of suicide attacks witnessed since January 2008 stands at 219, with at least 3,600 persons killed.

Some of the largest attacks that Pakistan has witnessed since the formation of TTP, for which the outfit has either claimed responsibility or has been accused, include:

May 13, 2011: Two suicide bombers attacked Frontier Constabulary trainees in the Shabqadar tehsil(revenue unit) of Charsadda District in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, killing 73 personnel and 17 civilians, and injuring another 140.

May 28, 2010: At least 95 worshippers were killed and 92 injured as seven assailants, including three suicide bombers, attacked Ahmadi mosques in the Model Town and Garhi Shahu areas of Lahore in Punjab.

October 10, 2008: At least 85 persons were killed and another 200 wounded, when a suicide bomber in an explosives-laden vehicle attacked an anti-TTP jirga of the Ali Khel tribe in the Khadezai area of the Upper Orakzai Agency in FATA.

December 27, 2007: 31 people were killed and over 100 others wounded when a suicide attacker riding on a motorbike blew himself up after firing at former Premier Benazir Bhutto who was waving to her supporters from her vehicle's sun roof in Liaquat Bagh in Rawalpindi. Benazir was killed in the attack. After the May 13, 2011, attack the TTP spokesman Ehsaullah Ehsan declared, “Pakistan will be the prime target followed by United States (US). The US had been on a man-hunt for Osama and now Pakistani rulers are on our hit-list as we also killed Benazir Bhutto in a suicide attack."

Benazir Bhutto’s assassination was the first major attack by the TTP after its formation. The era of the suicide bomb has seen military installations and religious gatherings of rival denominations as its primary targets. Suicide bombings and the recruitment of young children in TTP suicide squads heralded a new phase of terrorism in Pakistan.

The TTP was established on a powerful base of Islamist extremist organisations that existed and pursued a jihadist agenda in Pakistan even prior to its creation in December 2007. The organisation only formalized and further radicalized the structure of what were, previously, loosely knit Pakistanijihadist forces affiliated with the Taliban since the 1980’s. The cadre of the Pakistani Taliban movement (as distinct from the Afghan Taliban) came from the rank and file of mainstream Islamist political parties, whose alliance held power in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa from 2002 to 2007. It was during General Pervez Musharraf’s Presidency that an alliance of religious parties won the Provincial elections of 2002 (as well as significant numbers in the Parliament) to rule North Western Pakistan. The two most powerful and orthodox religious political parties that comprised the alliance were Jama’at-e-Islami (JeI) and Jama’at Ulema-e-Islam (JuI). Both these mainstream political parties have played an active role in Pakistan’s jihadist politics.

The JuI, in particular, experienced a shift towards increasing radicalization during the invasion of Afghanistan by the Soviet Union in the 1980s. The JuI actively participated in the Afghanistan war of the 1980s, when madrassas established by this ‘Deobandi’ organisation provided holy warriors against the Soviets. Through the 1990s the JuI remained deeply involved with the Taliban in Afghanistan. Indeed, thousands of Afghan and Pakistani students from the madrasa run by JuI formed the nucleus of the Taliban militia. The mushrooming of thousands of Deobandi madrassasalong the border with Afghanistan, deeply mobilized other religiously motivated political parties in Pakistan, producing a new breed of radical Islamists who, over the years, spilled across into Pakistan. The rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan in 1996 also encouraged the formation of Pakistani militant groups such as Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HuM) and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ). Most of the top militant leaders in Pakistan’s tribal region, who later formed the TTP, were initially associated with the JuI or groups raised out of JuI madrassas. Terrorist commanders and leaders like Baitullah Mehsud, Mufti Wali-ur-Rehman, Maulana Nazir and Hafiz Gul Bahadur have all emerged from the ranks of the JuI. Under military rulers like Zia-ul-Haq and Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan moved further towards becoming an ideological Islamist state, enormously emboldening the clergy. Significantly, the JeI and other Islamists were co-opted by Zia’s Government, serving in his martial law cabinet. The edifice of a military-mullah combine was created, and the Islamists penetrated deep into state institutions.

It was the Lal Masjid [Red Mosque] imbroglio in Islamabad in 2007 that pushed the Islamists across the Rubicon, turning them against their erstwhile state sponsors. Asma Jehangir, the Chairperson of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), commenting on the high level independent inquiry into the Lal Masjid Operation, observed:

...the situation in the Lal Masjid did not crop up overnight. The significant build up of arms and the training to the students had continued for years with the help and connivance of the Pakistan authorities. The authorities didn’t learn about the presence of alleged militants within the Lal Masjid just hours before the operation. The whereabouts of these individuals should not have been unknown to the vast intelligence network based in Islamabad... Even now other seminaries exist, where militants are trained and arsenals of arms stocked. The existence and location of these seminaries are well known to authorities. Indeed, the violent events seen at the Lal Masjid are an outcome of the collusion between the military and the militants backed by the clergy that has continued for decades.

Shuja Nawaz also confirms, in Crossed Swords: Pakistan, its Army and the Wars Within, that the Lal Masjid radicals, prior to their declaration of a parallel judicial system to enforce Islamic laws in Islamabad, were trained and supported by the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI).

There is a clear, and now widely acknowledged, history of collusion between a range of Islamist terrorist formations and the Army and intelligence, as well as the political, establishment in Pakistan. This has generated a ‘blowback’, forcing the country’s SFs to struggle to contain ‘renegade’ groups that have escaped or rebelled against military-intelligence control. It is, indeed, the extremist-terrorist spaces created for state supported groups that have allowed anti-state groups to flourish as well. All these groups have been mobilized on a pan-Islamist ideology of jihad, which makes clear distinctions between cadres of different groups impossible.

TTP is currently led by Hakimullah Mehsud, who took over the reins of the movement after the death of his brother and the TTP founder, Baitullah Mehsud, in a US missile strike on August 5, 2009. The Mehsud brothers belonged to the Mehsud tribe of the South Waziristan Agency in FATA. Projecting the fanatical Talibanised version of Islam, Baitullah Mehsud had declared in an interview with theBritish Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in October 2007, “Only jihad can bring peace to the world.” The activities of the Talibanised extremists within Pakistan were no secret and found visible expression in pamphlets and audio-video recordings circulated across the country, slogans on walls and open public mobilization. Thus, Shahid Nadeem wrote in Daily Times on August 7, 2002,

Wall chalking after wall chalking advertised jihadi outfits and announced recruitment for jihadi fighters. Just a few kilometres from the Havelian Cantonment, there are slogans such as ‘jihad is the shortest route to Paradise’ and ‘contact us for commando jihadi training’. Walls between Havelian in Abbottabad to Haripur District in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province are full of jihadi slogans and adverts.

Headquartered in the South Waziristan Agency of FATA, TTP has spread its networks into all of Pakistan’s four provinces, establishing various ‘Chapters’ and groups led by local ‘commanders’ with common organisational goals. The TTP has also made its presence felt in neighbouring Afghanistan in recent times.

There is an overlap of membership between TTP and other sectarian terrorist outfits that operate across the country, each pursuing its own internal and external agendas. On November 23, 2008, the then TTP spokesman, Mullah Omer, had said, “The Taliban are present in Karachi and have links with the LeJ, Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) and other banned religious organisations.” Apart from these sectarian groups, there are others with which the TTP has established linkages, primarily including Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM), HuM and Harkat-ul-Jihad-e-Islami (HuJI). Media reports on January 5, 2011, indicated that five terrorist groups had joined the TTP and were working under its umbrella TTP. With common aims and enemies, LeJ, SSP, JeM, HuM and Harkat-ul-Ansar (HuA) had ‘merged’ with TTP. TTP spokesman Azam Tariq declared, “We have not forced anyone to join TTP, and the leaders and activists of the banned religious organisations have united themselves under the umbrella of the TTP on their own choice.”

The US Department of State had put the TTP on its list of Foreign Terrorist Organisations on September 1, 2010. On January 18, 2011, Britain moved to ban the TTP, making it illegal to belong to or raise funds for the organisation in Britain. Subsequently, on July 5, 2011, Canada designated the TTP as a terrorist organisation. Vic Toews, Canada’s Minister of Public Safety, noted that putting TTP on the terrorism blacklist was “an essential part of our efforts to combat terrorism and keep our communities safe.” On July 29, 2011, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) put the TTP on its international anti-terrorism sanctions list in a move highlighting the growing threat from the outfit.

The Pakistani military has launched a succession of offensives against the TTP, but the movement continues to thrive. From time to time, different ‘chapters’ of the organisation have entered into deals with Islamabad, to secure transient relief and consolidate their operations further. The TTP has now consolidated its presence and influence across the tribal areas, particularly in the Agencies of North and South Waziristan. Indeed, in September 2006, in an attempt to end the violence raging since 2004 between the ‘Pakistani Taliban’ and the Pakistan Armed Forces, in a negotiated settlement, the Pakistan Government recognised the ‘Islamic Emirate of Waziristan’, comprising of Waziristani chieftains with close ties to the Taliban, as the de facto SF for Waziristan. This peace Agreement finally broke in August 2007 after the Lal Masjid siege. A three day military operation, from October 8, 2007 to October 10, 2007, was launched in the Mir Ali Town of North Waziristan Agency in which at least 150 militants were killed. Clashes broke out after militants set off Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) and conducted ambushes on the SFs on October 7, 2007. Though there have been other military operations by the Pakistan Armed Forces against Taliban militants in FATA, Pakistan continues to live on a sword’s edge in the region.

On January 28, 2008, there were reports of clandestine talks between the Government and the TTP. Militant 'commander' Maulana Faqir Muhammad was identified as the ‘political face’ of the TTP for the purpose of holding talks with the Government. Subsequently, on February 24, 2008, after Provincial elections had installed a new Government, the TTP said that they were ready for talks, but only if the new Provincial regime rejected Musharraf’s “war on terror” in the country’s tribal belt. On May 13, 2008, the KP Government and the TTP agreed to the implementation of Shari’ah Nizam-e-Adl Regulations, 1999, in the Malakand Division within one month. The TTP’s demand for the implementation of Shari’ah has been settled, the KP unit President of the ruling Awami National Party, Afrasiab Khattak, informed the media, after a second round of talks with TTP representatives from Swat. However, the Pakistan Government, on June 9, 2008, scrapped the peace deal with the TTP after militants reneged on their promise to stop violence.

The present peace deal offered by the Prime Minister to the TTP and other terrorist groupings within Pakistan is bound to produce another fiasco. It comes at a time of escalating terrorist violence, widening instability across the AfPak region, growing Pakistani state adventurism, and the declining coherence of state institutions within the country. Islamabad has failed to learn any lessons from past failures, and has repeatedly sought accommodation with fanatical, religiously intolerant, misogynist and violent groupings, even as radical Islamist mobilisation remains at the core of all domestic politics and the Army’s model of crisis management. The Prime Minister’s blandishments will do little to contain the TTP and other extremist factions within the country, or to stall Pakistan’s hurtling descent into chaos.

Author is Research Assistant, Institute for Conflict Management, New Delhi.

"Pakistan has NO Legal Stand in J&K"

noreply@blogger.com (Romeet Watt) — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 12:56:00 +0000

By Paul Beersmans

a. The general feeling is that militancy and the presence of terrorist organisations went down and is under control. Nevertheless, a hard-core group is still there and if felt necessary ‘new blood’ can be inducted. There are many trained, brainwashed militants waiting on the other side of the LoC to cross to the Indian side. Initiative is in their hands. Only by drying up the source of terrorism in Pakistan, violence will stop in J&K State. Attacking and killing terrorists in J&K State is there but it is not sufficient as those who are killed can be replaced easily.

b. Islamic fundamentalist organisations, supported ‘from across the border’, operating in J&K State, have their own agenda. For them the Kashmir-issue is an occasion, a motive, a cover-up for spreading their ideas. They have nothing to do with a genuine nationalist movement. In their eyes, a secular, democratic approach is not a solution and even if one presumes that a solution could be worked out between India and Pakistan, taking into account the wishes of the Kashmiris, it is clear they will not stop their activities as the Kashmir-issue is not their final goal, it is just a phase.

c. If we like it or not (and of course we don’t like it), bandits and criminals are there in every society. In J&K State however, they are taking advantage of the troubled situation. They are abducting people for money, raping, murdering, extorting money, using mafia practices, etc. under the cover of ‘the movement’. For them this is a lucrative industry and under the present circumstances, it is easy to blame the security forces of all crimes that are committed.

d. In the eyes of the separatist leaders, Indian security forces are oppressing the Kashmiris. There is no democracy, there is no freedom, there are human rights violations, people are suffering, etc. Stability can only be there if the Kashmir-issue is solved. All of them agreed violence would not bring a solution: let there be peaceful negotiations between India and Pakistan. Negotiations can be suspended, can be put on a low level but eventually they have to be resumed. Let them find a solution taking into account the wishes of the Kashmiris: the right of self-determination must be granted.

e. There is no doubt that human rights violations are being committed by the security forces and by the militants. There is also no doubt that not all cases of human rights violations committed by the security forces are disclosed or prosecuted. It is also a fact that the security forces always are blamed if something happens. Separatist leaders are not critical on human rights violations committed by militants: a few months back two teenage sisters were abducted by militants and shot dead in cold blood ‘to teach them a lesson’. Nobody dared to criticise this heinous crime.

f. According to the separatist leaders, J&K must remain united within the 1947 borders. If they are serious, it is high time for representatives of all regions of J&K to sit together and have a discussion in depth. Developments have shown that there is a deep rift between Jammu Region and Kashmir. If they should remain united, a compromise must be found based on mutual respect and trust. In addition, Ladakh may not be forgotten: a dialogue in depth and compromise is needed, as Ladakhis more than ever stress the need for obtaining Union Territory status. In addition, Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan must be involved.

g. Priority must be given to restore normalcy. This can only be realised by stopping violence and misleading people. Kashmiris want to have a future and jobs for themselves and their children. After 21 years of militancy, it is high time to give the growing up generation a chance to have a normal youth and education. The Kashmiris are fed up with violence. A peaceful, lasting solution for Kashmir, accepted by India, Pakistan and the Kashmiris, is the only way out of this uncertain situation.

h. Corruption adds to the misery and sufferings of the common Kashmiri and has a destabilising effect on the normal functioning of the civil society. Kashmiris who have responsible jobs in the police, in the judicial system, in the administration, etc. are supposed to look after the well functioning of the society. By indulging into corruption, they are betraying their own compatriots. At all levels in J&K State a serious effort must be made to tackle corruption. It is too easy to point to the Centre as being the origin of all evils. One should have the courage and the honesty to recognise the shortcomings in the own system and take the necessary steps to redress the situation.

i. Because of the prevailing peaceful situation, all energy of the Government headed by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah can be spent on development and improvement of the general living conditions. Chief Minister Omar Abdullah is young, has a vision, hard working, honest, listening to the demands of the people and paying attention to their basic needs. The challenges are multiple: eradicate corruption and improve the functioning of the administration, the educational system, health care, etc. Terrorism must be tackled. The government must bring back secularism, mutual respect.

j. Panchayat elections were held successfully. Participation was very high (80%) clearly indicating that people want peace and good governance. Through panchayat rule, the grass root level has been empowered and democracy strengthened. Municipal elections will be held soon: anything indicates that they will be as successful as the panchayat elections.

k. The Amarnath yatra went on smoothly. Over 700.000 yatris (pilgrims) made the long journey to the Amarnath cave situated in Kashmir at an altitude of 3.888 m. Because of the peaceful situation, many of them stayed a few days longer in the Valley to have a houseboat experience. Kashmiris are very happy with this evolution and hope this will continue and lead to normalcy.

l. Construction and reconstruction continues:

in Kashmir, a 119 km long railway links Qasigund (in the east) with Baramulla (in the west). The train is a success story: always a full-booked train, much cheaper, much faster, less pollution and traffic;
new roads are constructed, existing roads are being repaired, improved and enlarged;
tourist infrastructures, official buildings, hospitals, medical dispensations, schools, etc. are being built;
historical monuments are being restored or under renovation;
shopping centres, hotels, residential areas, houses, posh villas, etc. are being built, renovated;
mobile phone became common good and is operative in the remotest areas, and
the car park is completely modernised: the latest and most expensive models can be seen.

m. It is often stressed that private industries should come to J&K, as they can create many jobs. This is only possible if prospects for a lasting peace are there. Private entrepreneurs only have faith in a peaceful solution. If there is no peace, there will be no investment: this goes hand in gloves. Prof. Nisar Ali, senior professor of economics at Kashmir University and a renowned economist of the State believes that the problem of unemployment can’t be solved only by attracting private industries: ‘The problem of unemployment is basically from the educated lot of the State, who want ‘white collar’ jobs (= government jobs) and do not consider other options. J&K is the only State that provides government employment to over 500.000 people, highest in the country, while as in other Indian states it is considerably less. The Government therefore has reached its saturation and can‘t, realistically, absorb the chunk of unemployed youth. The thing that people here want and consider government job as the final word is really aggravating the problem which needs to be tackled on all fronts beginning from changing the mindsets of the people’.

n. Kashmiri Pandits are the original Kashmiri speaking inhabitants of Kashmir. They were hounded out by militancy in 1990: some 500.000 of them fled to safer places. This exodus changed drastically the demographic composition of the population of Kashmir. After more than twenty years, efforts are made to make the return of Kashmiri Pandits possible. They have their emotional attachment with their birth ground, their roots. They can return when peace is there and when the rule of law, not the rule of majority is re-installed. It has to be seen if the efforts will be successful.

o. The Chinese factor becomes more and more visible. This is of concern for the Centre and the State Government. Chinese are present in large numbers in Gilgit-Baltistan, an area under Pakistani administration. According to Pakistan, they are civilians assisting in reconstruction caused by floods. According to the local population they are Chinese military personnel occupying their country. In Ladakh, so called Chinese nomads are slowly and steadily settling in areas that were until then considered to be Indian territory. This evolution will certainly have an impact on finding a solution for the Kashmir-issue.

p. Notwithstanding resumed negotiations between India and Pakistan, there is no fundamental change in the policy of Pakistan towards militancy and terrorism. Pakistan pretends to give only moral, diplomatic and political support to the Kashmir-issue. However, an open secret much more is on hand. Pakistan spends a lot of money to promote the Kashmir-issue as we have seen in the case of the Kashmir American Council: FBI estimates that this lobby group received not less than $ 4.000.000.000,- (indeed: four million US $) from Pakistan/ISI. The same goes for the militants who still have their training camps in Azad Kashmir and in Pakistan and who continue to receive all logistic and financial support that is needed: they are fighting a war to help Pakistan secure its lifeline: access to the water resources of Kashmir. Negotiations or peace talks between India and Pakistan don’t harm their cause, as they have not the slightest impact on Pakistan’s stand regarding the Kashmir-issue. Declarations regarding fighting terrorism and resolving the Kashmir-issue don’t have any value: they are just for the gallery, to appease the West, to reduce pressure on Pakistan.

q. Generally speaking, all agree that Kashmir is the ‘core component’ of any permanent solution, and its voice has a dominant influence on the final outcome although no one seriously believes that resolving the Kashmir-issue is only a matter of meeting Valley needs. The other regions of J&K and other constituencies of J&K factor equally in the final solution. Each region must engage with the other in a civil dialogue with mutual respect and with equal considerations. Failing that the status quo will continue. In order to find a permanent solution a dialogue is necessary on three levels, as we emphasise already since so many years:

bilateral level: between India and Pakistan;
national level: between the Government of India, the J&K State Government and the representatives of the civil society of the three regions;
internal level: between the different regions of J&K.

r. Pakistan supports the cry for the right of self-determination of separatist leaders in Kashmir. However, accession to Pakistan is the only accepted option. Indeed, according to the Azad J&K, Interim Constitution Act, 1974, Par 7. (2): “No person or political party in Azad J&K shall be permitted to propagate against, or take part in activities prejudicial or detrimental to, the ideology of the State’s accession to Pakistan”. Thus, Pakistan limits the right of self-determination for the Kashmiris to accession to Pakistan. Other options such as accession to India, azadi (= freedom), total independence, partition or any other solution are totally excluded.

s. According to international law, Pakistan has no legal stand in J&K. Pakistan invaded J&K in October 1947. In doing so, Pakistan is at the origin of the de facto partitioning of the State. As early as 13 August 1948 the UN Commission for India and Pakistan requested Pakistan to end this illegal occupation and to withdraw its troops from the State as a pre-condition for organising the plebiscite. The same Commission repeated this request in its resolution of 5 January 1949. Until this date, Pakistan didn’t withdraw its armed forces and still occupies illegally Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan. Consequently, the plebiscite has not been held.

Adapted from study tour report of Paul Beersmans -- President of the Belgian Association for Solidarity with Jammu & Kashmir -- to J&K from 26/June to 23/July.

Gujarat :: Propaganda Versus Reality

noreply@blogger.com (Romeet Watt) — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 18:31:00 +0000

By L.K. Advani

I conclude this account of my six years in the Home Ministry by turning to an event—rather, two inter-related events—that has figured most prominently in the sustained campaign, conducted both nationally and internationally, to malign my party, its ideology and the Vajpayee government’s six years in office. I am referring to the communal violence in Gujarat, both in its Godhra and post-Godhra phases, in February-March 2002. I have repeatedly stated that both events were ‘indefensible’ and ‘a blot on my government’. I was all the more distressed by them because they blemished the Vajpayee government’s widely appreciated record, until then, of having drastically brought down the number of incidents of communal violence in the country.

After the unfortunate happenings in Gujarat, the Congress and its pseudo-secular supporters took the lead in a sustained campaign against my party by propagating, essentially, three lies, which are still in circulation. The fi rst lie is that the post-Godhra violence was a pre-meditated statesponsored genocide of Muslims. The second is that the BJP-led government at the Centre did nothing while Gujarat was burning. Thirdly, that the carnage in Godhra, due to the gutting of two compartments of Sabarmati Express, was accidental—or, worse still, self-infl icted. I deem it to be my duty to nail all the three lies.

Speaking in a debate in the Lok Sabha on 30 April 2002, the Congress President described the Gujarat violence as ‘genocide’ and said, ‘…but ultimately truth will prevail’. The truth, as contained in offi cial information, and revealed by her own government, was as follows. The religion-wise break-up of those killed was: Muslims 790 and Hindus 254. In addition, 223 people were reported missing. I accept that the unofficial death toll might have been higher. But can a tragic episode of this kind, in which the number of Hindus killed was by no means insignifi cant, be termed ‘genocide’ of Muslims? During the debate itself, Prime Minister Vajpayee had cautioned her against such casual usage of a highly loaded term. But since Sonia Gandhi had used it, it gained wide currency and was employed by forces inimical to our country to malign not only our government but also Gujarat and India.

It is also worth emphasising that over 200 rioters were killed in dozens of incidents of police fi ring in Ahmedabad, Baroda and other places in Gujarat. Nearly 10,000 rounds of bullets were fi red by the police. In the initial days, the police made preventive arrests of nearly 18,000 Hindus, as against 3,800 Muslims. Does this speak of a state-managed pogrom of Muslims, with the state’s security apparatus remaining inactive?

DID THE CENTRE TURN A BLIND EYE?

Regarding the charge that the Centre turned a blind eye while violence was raging in Gujarat, I let the following facts speak for themselves. Within hours of the massacre in Godhra on 27 February, the Rapid Action Force (RAF) was deployed both in Godhra and Ahmedabad and a red alert was issued immediately. The very next day, the state government requested the Centre to send the Army. It also requested for armed police reinforcements from neighbouring states. The same night, Prime Minister Vajpayee dispatched Defence Minister George Fernandes to Ahmedabad, where the latter discussed with Chief Minister Narendra Modi details about the deployment of the Army. By the early morning hours of 1 March, plane-loads of Army personnel arrived, and, before noon, their deployment at sensitive points started. The Army staged fl ag marches in all the violence-hit areas of Ahmedabad, Rajkot and Baroda without any delay. When riots did not abate, the state government gave orders for shoot-at-sight throughout Gujarat.

Within three days of the violence erupting outside Godhra, I visited the state and this is what the media reported.

Advani Reviews Gujarat Situation; Asks Govt to be Tough Union Home Minister L.K. Advani on Sunday said, ‘We will not allow any kind of communal tension.’ He added that the mob attack at Godhra and subsequent violence has blotted his party’s four-year record of having provided a ‘communal tension-free’ government. He asserted that the government would give top-most priority to restore communal harmony…. The home minister held meetings with Chief Minister Narendra Modi and senior civil, police and military offi cials and visited the Civil Hospital and affected areas of Bapunagar, Naroda and Meghaninagar. He said that the government had three primary responsibilities regarding the Godhra mayhem and subsequent spread of violence in the state. ‘First, we have to arrest the guilty, second, to prevent recurrence of any kind of violence and third, to ensure peace and security to every citizen and community.’ Advani also visited the area where former Congress Member of Parliament Ehsan Jaffrey and 19 members of his family were charred to death. He expressed condolences to the members of the bereaved family.

In New Delhi, the previous evening, I had attended a meeting of prominent Opposition leaders, convened by the Prime Minister to discuss the situation in Gujarat. Concerned over the possibility of violence spreading to other parts of the country, both Atalji and I felt that the meeting should be used to demonstrate the nation’s resolve, rising above party lines, to maintain communal peace and harmony. Accordingly, after the Prime Minister’s assurance that the Centre would deal with the situation in Gujarat firmly, we requested Opposition leaders to join us in issuing an appeal to countrymen to preserve peace and promote brotherhood and unity at all costs. Among those who signed the appeal, besides Atalji and myself, were former Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral, Sonia Gandhi, BJP President Jana Krishnamurthy, CPI(M) General Secretary Harkishan Singh Surjeet and Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav. Contrary to our opponents’ propaganda, the whole of Gujarat was not engulfed by riots. The combined efforts of the Centre and the state government helped in combating violence to a limited part of the state. No less important is the fact that the Centre took effective steps to ensure that it did not spill over to other states.

On 4 April 2002, Prime Minister Vajpayee visited Gujarat. At the Shah Alam relief camp in Ahmedabad, where nearly 8,000 riot-affected Muslims had been given shelter, he said, ‘You are not alone at this time of crisis, we all are with you. The entire country is with you…. Apne hi desh mein refugee ho jana, yeh dil ko cheerane wali baat hai. (Becoming refugees in one’s own country is heart wrenching.) While what happened in Godhra was condemnable, what followed in other parts of the state must also be deplored.’ He lamented that India’s standing in the comity of nations had been badly affected by the violence in Gujarat. ‘With what face, I do not know, I will go abroad after what all has happened here. Yeh paagalpan band hona chahiye. (This madness must stop.)’

Later in April, in the parliamentary debate, I said, ‘I am a sad man as I participate in this debate. Our government’s clean and proud record of riot-free governance for the past four years has been sullied. When I look at what has happened in Gujarat in its totality, I cannot but say that both Godhra and post-Godhra violence is condemnable and shameful. All the post-Godhra incidents that have been mentioned by honourable members in the House—be it Naroda Patiya and Gulberg Society in Ahmedabad, Best Bakery in Baroda, Sardarpura in Mehsana, or others—are reprehensible. Godhra may explain what happened after that, but Godhra cannot justify either Naroda Patiya or Mehsana or any other killing. I will go so far as to say that in a law-governed society, even revenge of a wrongdoer can have no justifi cation. But revenge against an innocent person? How can it be justifi ed? Whether the victim is a Hindu or a Muslim, there can be no place for revenge in a civilised society. It can only be deemed as barbaric.’ I continued, ‘I admit that there must have been some lapses somewhere, in administration, in the functioning of the police, etc. But to charge that the post-Godhra incidents were managed by the government itself, that it was a deliberate carnage, state-engineered mayhem and state-engineered genocide…this, I am afraid, is like providing weapons to the enemies of India to assault our nation.’ Thereafter, congratulating Omar Abdullah, a minister in our government and leader of the National Conference (which was then a constituent of the NDA), for his excellent and impassioned speech that he had made earlier in the debate, I strongly endorsed an appeal that he had made: ‘We should not only be scoring points but we should give a direction to the country.’

Of the many interventions to save innocent lives that I made during that distressing period of communal bloodletting in Gujarat, I shall recall two here. One day I received a call from Najma Heptulla, Deputy Chairperson of the Rajya Sabha. ‘Akbar, my husband, wants to talk to you urgently about an SOS from some Muslim merchants in Ahmedabad,’ she said. Akbar told me that the traders of Bohra Bazaar had approached him to urgently contact someone in the government to save them from an imminent attack from armed men in a nearby Hindu basti. I immediately rang up Chief Minister Modi and asked him to take necessary steps to provide protection to the needy. Modi called me back the next day to say that no untoward incident took place and potential miscreants were arrested. After the return of normalcy, a delegation of traders from Bohra Bazaar, along with Akbar, met me in Delhi to express their appreciation and gratitude for the timely steps taken by the Central and state governments.

In another such incident, I received a call one day from Somnath Chatterjee, a veteran parliamentarian of the CPI (M), who later became the Speaker of the Lok Sabha. ‘Advaniji, I want to speak to you about an urgent matter,’ he said in a tone that immediately conveyed to me his concern and urgency. ‘My colleagues in the CPI(M) unit of Bhavnagar phoned me just now to say that a prominent madarasa in that town has been surrounded by a Hindu mob, which is planning to set it on fi re. There are a large number of young students and maulvis inside the madarasa. Please do something to stop this.’ I immediately spoke to both Modi in Ahmedabad and my own party leaders in Bhavnagar, instructing them to do everything necessary to prevent the attack and defuse the situation. I felt relieved to learn, later, that nothing untoward had happened. In one of my subsequent visits to Bhavnagar, the local CPI(M) activists and maulvis called on me and expressed their thanks. ‘We only did our duty,’ I told them. Some months later, Chatterjee himself called me one day and said, ‘Advaniji, I am calling from Ahmedabad. My party colleagues from Bhavnagar are here and they are telling me, “We want to thank you profusely. But for your timely intervention, many people in the madarasa would have been burnt to death.” I told them, “Why are you thanking me? You should thank Advaniji for this”.’

I am recalling all this not out of pride, but humility. Whatever I did was out of a sense of duty. I carry the pain that comes with the realisation that, in spite of our government’s commitment to the ideal of a riotfree India, hundreds of innocent lives were lost in the fi re of communal hatred. It does not matter whether they were Hindus or Muslims. They were all Indians.

Nevertheless, I would like fair-minded people to contrast all that I have narrated above with the anti-Sikh carnage in Delhi and other places in North India in the days following Indira Gandhi’s assassination in 1984. During the fi rst three days of mayhem, there was not a single policeman to be seen on Delhi roads. There was not even a single instance of lathi charge. Not only that, even the motorcade of President Zail Singh was stoned when he visited the hospital, where the slain Prime Minister’s body was kept. In spite of specifi c, urgent and personal requests made to the then Home Minister, P.V. Narasimha Rao, on the very fi rst day, the Army was deployed only on the evening of 3 November. On the occasion of his mother’s birth anniversary, Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi said: ‘Some riots took place in the country following the murder of Indiraji. We know the people were very angry and for a few days it seemed that India had been shaken. But, when a mighty tree falls, it is only natural that the earth around it does shake a little.’* It took Sonia Gandhi fourteen years to express regrets for the tragic happenings in 1984.

I would also like people with an impartial and unprejudiced approach to contrast the conduct of the Central and state governments in 2002 with that of the Congress governments in New Delhi and Gandhinagar in the numerous previous instances of communal violence in Gujarat. The state has a long history of communal riots. Communal frenzy in the past always took a far longer time to return to normalcy. The 1969 riots in Ahmedabad continued much longer than in 2002, and claimed many more lives. The city remained under curfew for nearly two months. Communal disturbances in many parts of the state in 1985 continued for more than fi ve months, with Godhra reeling under curfew for almost a year.

* Manoj Mitta and H.S. Phoolka, When a Tree Shook Delhi: The 1984 Carnage and its Aftermath, Lotus, 2007. The book mentions my role in the appointment of the Justice G.T. Nanavati Commission in May 2000 to inquire once again into the 1984 carnage. The Commission submitted its report in February 2005, but the Action Taken Report (ATR) prepared by the UPA government drew a howl of protest from all quarters, since it was rightly dubbed as a ‘No Action Taken Report’. The book again mentions my role, along with that of the leaders of other non-Congress parties, in forcing the government to review its ATR, ask at least one Central minister implicated in the riots to resign, and get Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh to tender an apology to the Sikh community.

NARENDRA MODI: A VICTIM OF VILIFICATION CAMPAIGN

I have often been criticised for stoutly rejecting the demand for Modi’s resignation. This demand was raised within days of the communal violence breaking out in Gujarat, and continued for months and years thereafter. Some of our own allies in the NDA wanted Modi to resign. There was also strong and sustained pressure from certain quarters on Prime Minister Vajpayee, urging him to ask Modi to step down. I resisted this move, including at some very critical junctures.

My reasoning was this, and I expressed it elaborately in the Rajya Sabha on 6 May 2002: ‘We should look for a real solution to the situation in the state, and removing Chief Minister Modi is not a solution. There has been a sustained campaign against him, which is not correct. It is also not correct or proper to allege, as Leader of the Opposition Dr. Manmohan Singh has done, that there is gross communalisation of Gujarat police. I plead with everyone not to make such sweeping charges against the police force. There are some shortcomings and I am aware of them, but let us not forget that, in Modi’s government, the police force saved a large number of Muslims during the riots.’

I also resisted proposals for Modi’s resignation made inside party forums. I am happy that my confidence in him has been fully vindicated by subsequent developments. His Chief Ministership, between 2002–07, was characterised by the fact that there was not a single communal riot in Gujarat, not a single incident of terrorism, and not a single hour of curfew imposed anywhere in the state in those five years. Gujarat made spectacular progress in many areas of social and economic progress during this period, attracting huge amounts of domestic and foreign investment, and emerging as one of the most developed states in the country. But what has given me special satisfaction is that Modi has brought down political and bureaucratic corruption in a way that even his critics have applauded. Needless to add, people of all castes and communities in Gujarat have benefitted from this commitment to security, development and clean administration.

A proof of all this was the renewed mandate, with a resounding majority, that the BJP won in the assembly elections in Gujarat held in December 2007. The Congress and its pseudo-secular supporters had sought to convert these elections into some kind of a national referendum on ‘communalism vs secularism’. Needless to say, they failed miserably in their plans. What is worse, they seem to be unwilling to do honest introspection and draw the just conclusions from their defeat. Modi’s re-election has highlighted several lessons which are relevant not only for Gujarat but for the whole country. He has disproved the conventional wisdom that focus on good governance does not make good politics. He has dispelled the notion that elections cannot be won on a development plank. The BJP in Gujarat has also invalidated the belief that elections can be won only by appealing to people’s caste and community sentiments. Furthermore, unlike in CPI(M)-ruled West Bengal, the BJP in Gujarat has demonstrated that a renewed mandate can be won without all recourse to electoral malpractices.

I consider the outcome of the Gujarat polls significant for another reason. It showed how a leader with integrity, courage and competence could count on people’s support to beat back a personalised campaign of vilification. I cannot think of any other leader in Indian politics in the past sixty years who was as viciously, consistently and persistently maligned, both nationally and internationally, as Modi had been since 2002. Sonia Gandhi even went to the extent of calling him ‘maut ka saudagar’ (merchant of death). I am happy that the people of Gujarat have given a fitting reply to the practitioners of this kind of toxic politics.

State assembly elections are quite frequent in our country, but rarely does the people’s verdict in a particular state become a ‘turning point’ in national politics. I have no doubt that my party’s spectacular victory in Gujarat would indeed become a turning point because it signals the BJP’s resurgence as the frontrunner in the next parliamentary elections.

Selected excerpt from Mr. L.K. Advani's memoirs - My Country My Life

War-On-Terror :: India continues to Fail, Comprehensively!

noreply@blogger.com (Romeet Watt) — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 04:16:00 +0000

By Dr. Ajai Sahni

On September 7, 2011, a reception area outside gate No. 5 of the Delhi High Court was targeted by a terrorist bombing, which killed 13 and injured some 89 persons. This incident comes, not as is widely being projected in the media and political discourse, as a reminder of India’s extraordinary vulnerabilities to terrorist violence (which remain unchanged), but rather of the persistence of remarkable incoherence in the discourse on terrorism, and in the design and execution of the country’s counter-terrorism (CT) responses.

The real political response to the challenge of terrorism in India has been posturing, diversion and deception. The approach has never been pragmatic, seeking, in good faith, to solve a problem which has been assessed within realistic parameters. Rather, the effort has been to politically exploit both the problem and its purported resolution, or to deflect criticism however this may be possible, in the event of visible failures.

The response to the Delhi High Court bombing on September 7, 2011, was no exception. Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram immediately sought to pin blame on the Delhi Police. However, the Home Minister has, since the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks, repeatedly gone on record to state that all of India’s cities remained vulnerable. What, then, was the basis of the conclusion that the High Court bombing was a consequence, not of this vulnerability, but of specific failures on the part of the Delhi Police? There is an added irony here: the Delhi Police is directly under the Home Ministry’s control, so any failure on its part would, eventually, place the responsibility at the Union Home Minister’s doorstep.

Spokespersons for the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) have also sought to argue that terrorism can only be prevented if ‘citizens’ involve themselves in the various purportedly related tasks; and that Delhi’s vulnerabilities were increased because of the disruptive protraction of Anna Hazare’s organized protests and fast against corruption and for the Lok Pak Bill (anti-corruption legislation) between August 16 and August 28, 2011. On the other hand, critics of the Government, indeed, of the entire political class, have earned applause on the argument that common citizens have been left unprotected because an unacceptable proportion of the state’s security resources is consumed by VIP security.

All this is arrant, dishonest or misconceived nonsense.

It is not the citizen’s job to fight terrorism – though state agencies may seek citizens’ cooperation; such cooperation would be eagerly extended if the credibility of and faith in the Police and Government existed in sufficient measure. In any event, it is the primary, indeed, primal, duty of the state to protect its citizens, all other functions only follow. The state cannot shift any fraction of the blame for its own failures onto citizens.

The argument that the Police can only provide security against terrorism, or to VIPs, or to public agitations, at any one time, is also sheer garbage. The security apparatus must protect the common man against terrorism even while it shields VIPs and guarantees the constitutional freedoms of democratic protest. There is no either-or here; the state is required to do all these simultaneously.

Opposition parties have been quick to sense the susceptibilities of the ruling alliance, and have drummed up a shrill campaign to highlight the ‘failure’ to send a ‘tough message’ by hanging terrorists, or by taking ‘strong steps’ against Pakistan. This is another stream of unmitigated nonsense. The US has done everything possible, with its far greater power, down to bombing and carrying out ground operations on Pakistani soil, with or without Islamabad’s consent, to destroy the terrorist infrastructure that is inflicting daily fatalities on US, International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and Afghan troops, across the border in Afghanistan, but has failed to end even what is now openly recognized as Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) support to various Taliban formations operating from Pakistan. India, with its spectrum of policy options never broadening beyond the option of talks or no talks, has no ‘messages’ to deliver to Pakistani state sponsors of terrorism. As for hanging a few convicted terrorists in India – while there is certainly a strong argument for this in view of the fact that the judicial process has been exhausted and its sentences need to be implemented if any sense of the rule of law is to be maintained – there is little reason to believe that this would make potential terrorists cower with unprecedented fear. The truth is that terrorism cannot be ended by ‘sending messages’ – however strong. It will end only with a dismantling and eventual destruction of all Pakistan backed Islamist terrorist and subversive networks on Indian soil.

Little has been done over the past years since commitments to this end were made at the highest level in the wake of the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai in 2008. Acknowledging the probable ‘external linkages’ of these attacks, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had promised, at that time, that his Government would “go after these individuals and organisations and make sure that every perpetrator, organiser and supporter of terror, whatever his affiliation or religion may be, pays a heavy price for these cowardly and horrific acts against our people.” Further, he assured the nation, “We will take the strongest possible measures to ensure that there is no repetition of such terrorist acts.”

Since then, however, what we have seen in terms of augmentation of purported CT capabilities has been no more than a focus on imitative, meta-institutional and big-budget projects – the National Investigation Agency (NIA), National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC), the National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID), metropolitan National Security Guards (NSG) hubs, among others – which tend to create the illusion of power in agencies centralized at North Block, or in State capitals. The progress on these initiatives has, itself, been plagued by bureaucratic delays and a lackadaisical political rhythm. On the other hand, the even more urgent task of building fundamental capabilities of response at the level of the thana, the police constable, or the field intelligence operative, has substantially been ignored, or has been pursued within a time perspective that has no relevance whatsoever to the imperatives of CT.

To take an example, the former Union Home Secretary, G.K. Pillai, who has been vocal in defence of the state’s policies and response, noted, in the wake of the High Court bombing, that current deficits in the Police across the country totalled 1.8 million personnel, and, rather astonishingly, that it would take nine years to recruit these numbers. For one thing, over the coming nine years, requirements would certainly rise very substantially, creating a significant and new cumulative deficit. More importantly, however, it is not clear in which Holy Book it is written that 1.8 million personnel cannot be recruited in less than nine years. There is, of course, the perpetual lament about a deficit of training facilities, and even – perhaps more importantly – of suitable candidates for officer cadres and for an improved human resource profile in the constabulary. There is no reason why these deficiencies cannot be addressed on a war footing, creating the necessary trainers and facilities, and, where necessary, extending, intensifying and improving training programmes and curricula to create appropriate profiles, even if recruitment standards need to be diluted. There is no reason to believe that resources for these cannot be provided in a country where INR 34 billion are being sought for the proposed NATGRID, which would provide nothing more than a clearing house to 21 existing databases, most of them – including banking, credit card, visa, immigration, etc., – with peripheral relevance to terrorist operations or significant violent crime, though also including information available on Police records. The last category, however, is also the subject of a proposed Crime and Criminal Tracking Network & Systems (CCTNS) project and the national intelligence database to be created under the Multi Agency Centre (MAC) within the Intelligence Bureau (IB). Evidently, the country has money to throw on multiple and overlapping projects, and there should certainly be no insurmountable obstacle to allocating budgets for accelerated recruitment and training to the Police so that existing and emerging deficits can be met on a war footing.

Numbers, moreover, are not everything. There is tremendous waste, mis-utilisation and mis-direction of human resources in the Police across the country, and remarkable gains can be secured even through improved allocation, retraining, reorientation and reequipping of existing forces. To take an example, Andhra Pradesh, in 2005, was among the States worst afflicted by Naxalite violence, with all 23 of its Districts in acute crisis. A focused campaign through 2006 and 2007 decimated the Maoists, reducing the insurgency to a marginal irritant in just eight border Districts, where Maoists continue to launch occasional attacks, principally against civilian targets (there has been no Security Force fatality in the State after May 29, 2008). Crucially, the Andhra Pradesh Police-population ratio in 2006 was just 98 per 100,000, and, in 2007 had fallen to 96 per 100,000, as against an all-India average of 126 and 125, in these years, respectively. An undermanned system cannot, of course, maintain exceptional levels of efficiency indefinitely, but the Andhra Police has demonstrated what can be achieved even with severely limited manpower.

Another example helps illustrate the sleepy pace of state responses. The use of ammonium nitrate as an explosive by terrorists was noticed as far back as 1997-98, when Delhi was subjected to a succession of bomb blasts. Since then, ammonium nitrate fuel oil (ANFO) devices have been used in numberless terrorist attacks – including the Delhi High Court bombing (though traces of military grade PETN were also detected in this last case). It was only after the Mumbai 26/11 attacks, that, in December 2008, the Home Ministry notified ammonium nitrate as a “special category explosive substance” under the Explosive Substances Act, 1908. On July 21, 2011, the Commerce Ministry issued a further notification that “ammonium nitrate or any combination containing more than 45% of ammonium nitrate by weight including emulsions, suspensions, melts or gels, shall be deemed to be an explosive.” Ammonium nitrate fertilizers and products with higher concentrations continue to be freely available across the country, and there is no report suggesting even that their manufacture has been brought under effective regulation.

As far as Pakistan-backed Islamist terrorism is concerned, India has secured a high measure of unearned relief over the past years, as a result of Pakistan’s rising internal crises, external pressures, and preoccupations with more urgent strategic ambitions in Afghanistan. Islamist terrorist related fatalities outside Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) have fallen from peaks of 262 and 367 in 2006 and 2008, respectively, to 20 in 2010 and 40 in 2011 (till September 11). Even in J&K, fatalities have declined dramatically, from a peak of 4,507 in 2001, to 375 in 2010.

This is an opportunity to secure an extraordinary consolidation in India’s CT capabilities at the grassroots level. Policing in India, today, is a “broken system” reflecting high degrees of “dysfunction, abuse and impunity”. The country’s security apparatus fails to reflect her pretensions as an emerging global power. Technical and technological inputs are, of course, critical to any modern systems of intelligence and enforcement, but these will never be the outcome of technologies alone. It is the Policeman and the field intelligence operative – his training, orientation, capabilities and, crucially, mindset – that makes the difference between a modern and an obsolete enforcement apparatus. It is, consequently, the profile of these personnel – their education, training, skills and orientation, of course, but also their welfare and status in society – which must undergo comprehensive transformation. The task of this transformation has been emphasized ad nauseum by successive Government agencies, Police Commissions and independent commentaries. However, no Government, at the Centre or in most States, appears to have the will, or even the desire – given the potency and persistence of the politician-bureaucrat-criminal nexus the N.N. Vohra Committee documented as far back as in 1993 – to create a modern, efficient and empowered security apparatus, answerable to the law.

In the cacophony of partisan recriminations that has followed the Delhi High Court bombing, not a single constructive policy perspective emerges. Confusion, directionless rage, opportunism and, above all, ignorance – these exhaust the spectrum of the political discourse.

For all the hysteria expended in the wake of the present attack, and those that have preceded it over the years, the reality is that, at our present state of capabilities, we can neither prevent every possible attack (if this is ever possible), nor resolve every case that occurs. Our exclusive focus on and obsession with the terrorist incidents themselves is, in fact, part of the problem. These incidents are, and will always be tragic, irrespective of their frequency or the number of fatalities. More important, in terms of our CT policy, strategy and capabilities of response, is what is done, or, more likely, not done, between incidents. It is in this respect that Governments in India continue to fail, comprehensively.

Author is Executive Director, Institute for Conflict Management, New Delhi

Was Osama Bin Laden "State Guest" in Pakistan?

noreply@blogger.com (Romeet Watt) — Sun, 22 May 2011 13:19:00 +0000

By Waja Hafeez Hasan Abadi

Finally Bin Laden was directly killed by Americans in Pakistani city of Abbatabad. But this killing of Bin laden has created a lot of questions centered on Pakistan; the real questions are yet to come. For example, why Pakistan kept saying that Bin Laden is hidden in tribal areas? That he is in Afghanistan? Once or twice, it was also said that he might be hiding in the mountains of Balochistan.

On what ground has Islamabad denied, with false statements, that he is not living in Pakistan? And, how come Pakistan leadership claimed that he was living in Afghanistan? How he lived just 800 meters away from Kakol Military Academy, which falls under the jurisdiction of military cantonment area, where it is utterly impossible to build home without complete information and consent of the military.

Isn't it that Mulla Omer and the other high up culprits are living in the neighborhood of other military camps and garrisons? All foot prints are leading towards Pakistan wherever terrorist acts took place, including Spain, British, Russia, Kenya, Tanzania, and Yemen. Now it remains to be seen how much these countries are going to compel Pakistan to account for what it done, because, after that lot of questions would have raised their heads. How to define Pakistan’s role as a partner against the world terrorism? These are some basic questions that would reverberate for years and here we want to treat them accordingly.

Let us begin with comprehensive question, from which emanates a lot of other questions: Was Pakistani state harboring Al Qaeda and Bin Laden or not? In our humble opinion, Pakistan has indeed been harboring Bin Laden as its state guest; there is no space for doubt given the fact that what happened in Abbatabad. The panic within state apparatus shows that it has been helping him until the end. This is that critical fact that compelled Pakistan’s high officials to resort to lying, so that the world would continue its manhunt for Osama to a place where there is no sign of him. At last, American understood that only the conduct of vice versa can work with Pakistan. Not only it got 100% success, but also it exposed Pakistan’s real ugly face to the world community.

Now let us deal with some questions related to this America Navy Seals operation so that we could reach to a right conclusion. According to Brenan, the advisor to President Obama on terrorism, they kept the operation secret until they were on the Pakistani border. And this has apparently been corroborated by all Pakistani high officials, including President, Premier, Army Chief, and foreign Secretary to show their anger.

After the failure of Tora Bora, Americans had abandoned the idea of trusting Pakistan. Though the Americans cannot express it openly because of the war in Afghanistan however, they, by their comprehensive acts, are expressing it quite affectedly. The secret of the success of Abbatabad operation lies in the fact that the Americans have now succeeded in creating a several time powerful agency in comparison to ISI in Pakistan, which in future could perform astonishing acts. It benefits the oppressed nations like Sindhis, Baloch and the Pashtuns.

A question in the mind of every sane human being, that why Pakistan took such a risk by harboring such a big terrorist like Osama and why its high official kept lying in extreme audacity that he was not in their country? Interaction with Pakistan becomes extremely difficult unless this pointed question is understood. It also creates colossal difficulties for allied forces in Afghanistan. Harboring Bin laden and including the Talban commanders and continuing the Afghan war has now become a business and a state policy for Pakistan.

The constraint, it never wants Afghanistan to become a prosperous country to an extent where the Pashtuns again, within its geography, express their desire of joining their historical country.

1a) Pakistan abhors the idea of Afghanistan becoming a stable country which could raise the question of Durand Line status.

1b) Pakistan never wants India to have greater influence in Afghanistan than Pakistan.

1c) Because of its involvement in this war, it is exempted of questions on the unethical and inhuman atrocities that it is inflicting upon Baloch nation; no matter how much it breaches every well established law of international community. The Punishment for the barbarism that it is committing in Balochistan is the same that was applied on Saddam, Malevich, and Kaddafi.

But, the tortured death bodies of Baloch people don’t matter to the conscience of America, United Nations and the European Union. Pakistan knows well deep in its heart that if the world was not engaged in Afghanistan against terrorism, it would surely not have adopted a criminal silence towards this gruesome genocide of Baloch people.

2) Business: Afghanistan has become the source of income for Pakistan since 1979. The free money, that it received from America and Saudis, in return of the services that it offered during Afghan war against Soviets Russia, has not only been used to run the country, but it had also made the rulers so habitual of free money that they could not sustained all its small and big industries. As a result, it has now turned into a parasitic atomic country.

Even today, the war against the Taliban in Afghanistan is the only reason that America and the European states are forced to give alms to Pakistan. And this war now turned into a full-fledged industry of gratis, where all its officials, from top to bottom, have their peculiar share in it. Beside this, putting on fire the NATO Tankers and Trucks have also become a lucrative business in a systemic way, which is, in time of need, used as Bargaining chips by Pakistani state. They even don’t have a moral feeling on this.

Gen Hameed Gul, Imran khan and some others Mullahs are the staunch supporters of this shameless business. They even conduct long march and hold set-in protests with the secret backing of the army with the full coverage of private and state owned media. Not only have they intensified their slogans to incite their fellow Muslims against America and Western nations, but also against Christianity and Judaism as well.

3) State Policy: Helplessness and business has, long ago, become a part of state policy, and Pakistani state is trying to seek the solution of all its predicaments within these parameters; which is a matter of concern for all. This is the state policy which has created the concept of “our Taliban and their Talban”, and Pakistan could equally apply this policy towards India and Afghanistan. It is Pakistan’s utmost desire to turn Afghanistan into a parasitic state where its rulers could never dare to uplift the standard of living of Afghan people in comparison with Pakistani people.

Nor it wants to see a positive role of Hindustan to be played in that unfortunate country. But this stipulation is acceptable neither to Afghan leadership nor its public is willing to remain under poverty, forever, at the whim of Pakistani state. Similarly, the afghan people and its leadership too want to benefit from the thriving economy of India. This is something which cannot be stomach by Pakistani rulers. Therefore, it has an army of Jihadist mullahs to stop it. It will use it for two purposes in Afghanistan.

Firstly, it wants to make sure that there is no end to the internal conflicts, and secondly, that India is nowhere going to have any root in Afghanistan. Despite of countless persuasions and several pleading of America, it still harbored the Taliban and Al Qaeda; it bears the witness that Pakistan would never entirely want to abdicate its policy, because after the departure of America and its allies’ forces from Afghanistan it is utterly impossible for Pakistan to organize them with its economy.

The most important question arises here after this incident is that the world has abandoned the idea of trusting Pakistan whether it is about its Nuclear weapons safety or the harboring the Al Qaeda and the Talban and at the end, the cooperation with the allied forces in Afghanistan. With such serious question of strategic importance and a record of mistrust, how it can keep up with the world? These are the questions upon which a long debate can be initiated.

However, it should be clear that we are talking about a Pakistan that cannot be trusted in future. But in reality, we can see that America has long ago abandoned the idea of trusting Pakistan. This was the main reason that it had to carry out the May 2 operation without Pakistan’s knowledge. And it did not hide its distrust, that had it informed Pakistani authority, the operation might have turned into a failure.

Either the Pakistan’s secret agencies knew about the hideout of the world No 1 terrorist, or it was incompetent. If we pay attention to two important points meticulously, despite being highly discreet, America has, by its actions, disclosed a lot of things; particularly leaving behind it a lot of eye witnesses, and showing no haste of taking them back to America, but asking about the names of the officials who were in contact with Ben Laden before establishing the crime. These two things are the substantial evidences that can establish the fact that America has collected enough evidences about Ben laden and its circle for the past nine months. Now it wants Pakistan to corroborate these evidences.

It also wants to see whether Pakistan has learned a lesson or continues its antics of being innocent. But so far Pakistan is still maintaining a stiffly state of denial. Being bogged into Afghan quagmire and afraid of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons falling into the wrong hands, America is going to do nothing, contrary to what it has done with other stubborn nations on matters of international importance.

But one mustn't muster a wrong notion that Pakistan can break its international isolation. Pakistan’s internal and external are so complex that the current American pressure has suffocated its oxygen - the 400% of corruption, the freedom movements of different nationalities, particularly the Baloch freedom movement, which is now in a decisive phase and might inspire the Sindhis and Pashtuns and their restlessness and chaos squarely benefit the Baloch national struggle for freedom. And it is what that can beat Pakistan black and blue. Gen Kayani, during a visit to Quetta, justifiably cited the example of Soviet Union collapse, hinting toward the chaos that Pakistan is facing today.

Development of this country has stopped long ago, and it has already started creating new difficulties for Pakistan. The lack of foreign investment and the shutdown of its own local industries would push Pakistan towards a dark alley. The external pressure apparently might not increase as it is, but the semi-death economy of Pakistan would be sufficient for it to capitulate and accept its defeat. Mistrust is the main reason which has increased the external pressure.

The Guardian and New York Times, some time back, have said that the high level officials of America regard Pakistan’s ISI as a terrorist organization and Pakistan started a great hue and cry about it. But on May 2 the Americans themselves captured Osama Ben Laden right in the backyard of its Kakol Military Academy with ten telephones, ten computers and several other evidences. Caught off guarded, Pakistan has now failed to make any headway.

It has now become Pakistan’s state policy to host these extremists. Therefore, after Osama Bin Laden, Pakistan would be languishing far behind India on Afghanistan issue. Therefore, it is something that Pakistan cannot stomach it. As a result, it would do its level best to reinvigorate the power of religious forces so that the absence of Bin Laden is not felt. They knew it long ago that Pakistan would remain important till the war in Afghanistan is ragging. The day the war came to an end, Pakistan would lose its importance. This is a view about Pakistani leadership which the Americans have long ago revealed on many occasions.

The matter of fact is that Pakistan has no control over the situations. The only thing that is still remaining under the control is the “Mullahs” with their Madrassas; on which the money of America and West are accurately being used against America and West on the right time. On the one hand America is fully allowed to continue its drone attacks, but on the other, these attacks are being propagated as attacks on the Muslim, and as a tool to instigate hatred against Christians and Jews.

After the termination of Bin laden, being disgraced they have now started a great hue and cry that their sovereignty has been violated. The aforementioned rationale could be used as stimulant for creating now Taliban. The religious extremism, which America and West nurtured against the socialism and Pakistan adopted it as a source of income, has now become so complicated that world has to adopt a new mechanism to unravel it all over again with affective schemes and formations.

War for Islam, “Jihad”, has now become a full-fledged industry where the excellent brains of this country are working. By the virtue of this, Americans are spending 1.5 million dollars against 1.00 dollar of the terrorists, which has not only affected American economy, but also it has become one of the main reasons of economic crisis of the world. This was the necessity that not only Pakistan hosted Bin Laden, but there also comes a day when we all know that the majority of the Taliban commanders too have been hosted in one of Pakistan’s many military cantonments.

One way or another, there must have been complicity of high level military and political leadership in the fanatic religious industry; and it never wants to handover such Taliban commanders or warriors which can prove their complicity. To be precise, the war in Afghanistan becomes more complicated, where Pakistan along with Afghan Taliban will take revenge on American and West.

They will also target India with full force. Meanwhile America along with world community would try their best to be cautious while establishing relationship with Pakistan. They even try their level best to not inter into any interaction with it until it is extremely necessary. And this intensifies the internal chaos and the external pressure, which eventually force Pakistan to abdicate its whim of patronizing the religious extremists and the weapons of mass destruction; hence the downsizing of Pakistan with minimum losses.

Author is Baloch writer, poet & intellectual - translated in English by Archen Baloch

Baramulla & Sopore in North Kashmir Continue to be a Terror Hub

noreply@blogger.com (Romeet Watt) — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 18:02:00 +0000

By Sanchita Bhattacharya

The northern District of Baramulla has been one of the worst militant infested Districts of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K). It is the largest of 10 Districts in the Valley, both in terms of population and area. Spread over 4,588 square kilometers, it is bordered by Kupwara in the west, Budgam and Poonch in the south, parts of the summer capital, Srinagar, and Kargil in the east, and the Neelam District in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) in the north. Baramulla, consequently, has immense ‘geo-strategic importance’ for the Pakistani handlers of terrorist groups like the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HM) and other foreign terrorist formations, as it serves as a principal route of infiltration into the Indian side. As a result, Baramulla has emerged as a nodal point of terrorism in J&K.

According to the Institute for Conflict Management database, a total of 627 persons, including 401 militants, 119 Security Force (SF) personnel and 108 civilians, have been killed in terrorist-related incidents in the District since 2001. While there was a continuous increase in fatalities till 2006 (barring 2003), the fatalities have registered a broadly declining trend since. There was, however, a spurt in 2010 to 72 killed, with SF fatalities at 22, and terrorists accounting for 45.

Significantly, 2010 also equaled the 2006 peak in the number of encounters, at 41, between SFs and terrorists. There were 26 encounters in 2007, 18 in 2005 and 17 in 2008.

In the most recent encounter, the SFs killed a foreign militant, ‘Chacha Talha’ of the LeT in Reban village in the Sopore area of the District on March 28, 2011. Talha was active in the Sopore-Rafiabad belt of the Baramulla District.

Some other major encounters since January 2010 include:

October 23, 2010: Three terrorists were killed as the Army foiled an infiltration bid near the Line of Control (LoC) in Uri sector.

August 29-30, 2010: The Army killed nine terrorists in a failed infiltration bid near the LoC in the Uri sector. Sources said the number of militants in the infiltrating group was about 15.

May 7, 2010: Seven LeT militants and two Army personnel were killed in a gunfight that lasted over 24 hours, ending in the evening in the Shiekhpora forest area of Rafiabad.

February 23, 2010: Five top militants and three SF personnel, including an Army officer, were killed and three soldiers were injured in a fierce 18-hour gun battle between the SFs and militants in the Sopore town.

Unsurprisingly, Baramulla has been notified as a ‘Disturbed Area’, along with Jammu, Kathua, Poonch, Udhampur, Rajouri and Doda Districts of the Jammu Division, and Srinagar, Budgam, Anantnag, Pulwama and Kupwara Districts of the Srinagar Division, under Section 3 of the Armed Forces (Jammu and Kashmir) Special Powers Act, 1990. The Act came into being in 1958 and was extended to Kashmir in 1990, and has remained in force since.

Sources indicate that a large number of armed militants are present in Baramulla. Shiv Murari Sahai, Inspector General of Police (Kashmir Zone), thus noted, in November 2010, "Around 150 militants were active in three north Kashmir Districts of Bandipora, Baramulla and Kupwara. They had used the recent unrest in the Valley to regroup and reorganise their ranks." Militant outfits such as LeT and HM have been very visible, with the maximum number terrorist fatalities drawn from these two groups. Since 2001, at least 93 LeT terrorists have been killed in the District, along with 17 HM and 11 Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) cadres. The terrorists killed include one ‘Deputy Chief of Operations’, two ‘Divisional Commanders’, one ‘District Commander’, five ‘Commanders’ of LeT; one ‘Deputy Chief’, four ‘Battalion Commanders’, two ‘District Commanders’ and three ‘Commanders’ of HM; one Divisional Commander’, two ‘District Commanders’ and one ‘Commander’ of JeM; one ‘Chief Commander’, two ‘District Commanders’ and two ‘Commanders’ of Al Badr.

On a positive note, there are very few fatalities among the civilians in terrorism related incidents in the District and the general trend on this index is declining. Nevertheless, Baramulla bore the brunt of the summer unrest of 2010. Out of 104 protesters killed, 33 (31.73 per cent) died in this District alone. Though the escalation started in Srinagar in the last week of June 2010, it progressively swelled, with a large number of demonstrations erupting in Sopore in Baramulla District. Media reports indicate that, between January 1 and July 7, 2010, the town of Baramulla accounted for 46 clashes (involving violent mobs), while nearby Sopore, which has been an historic stronghold of the Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI), witnessed 21 clashes.

This was far from coincidental, since Sopore has emerged as a significant hub of terrorism and subversion in the State. On March 2, 2010, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, had noted, "Militants are grouping in the Sopore area and Kulgam District. These areas are a challenge for us on the militancy front. We are taking extra measures to deal with the militants there." Subsequently, on June 30, 2010, Union Home Minister, P. Chidambaram observed, "Anti-national elements are clearly linked to LeT, which is active in the Sopore area."

Clearly, troop cuts, long pushed by an uncomprehending ‘peace lobby’, both domestic and international, and by aggressive Pakistani diplomacy, have had an adverse impact on the security scenario in the State in general and Baramulla in particular. Significantly, the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) was withdrawn from Baramulla in the aftermath of unrest following the killing of four civilians in June 2009. Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram, however, had insisted that the disengaging of the force from law and order duties in Baramulla was part of the latest strategy agreed to by the Centre and J&K Government to "redraw the lines of responsibility" of the various forces stationed in the State. "When I visited Jammu & Kashmir on June 11 and 12, we agreed that the lines of responsibility (for maintenance of security in J&K) must be redrawn...we have been in touch with J&K to allow us to withdraw some of the CRPF companies," Chidambaram had said on July 1, 2009. He added, further, that it was only on June 30, 2009, that the Chief Minister had got in touch with him to convey that the J&K Police was ready to take over from the CRPF in Baramulla.

A confidential report by the J&K Police, however, has blamed the resurgence of militancy in Sopore on troop ‘relocation’. Yet, Chief Minister Abdullah, on March 18, 2011, boasted that, with marked improvement in the internal security situation and gradual restoration of peace, 35,000 Army personnel and hundreds of Central Paramilitary Force (CPMF) personnel had been shifted out of J&K in the preceding 15 months alone: "We have reduced thousands of troops and also decreased the number of Central Paramilitary Forces from internal duty without creating any hype... the process (of troop reduction) will continue."

In view of escalating trends in both terrorist and street violence, such a position is clearly problematic. Conspicuously, the infrastructure, logistics and human resources of Pakistan-backed Islamist terrorism are entrenched and active (both covertly and overtly) in the State, with Sopore-Baramulla as their prominent hub. The events of 2010 have unambiguously demonstrated the dangers of complacence and of the hasty, politically motivated, undermining of the security grid. Such dangers can only deepen, particularly in the context of inputs that the latest strategy of Pakistan's external intelligence agency, the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), and LeT, is to combine renewed infiltration attempts by heavily-armed terrorists with escalating civil unrest, to ensure that Kashmir remains in a state of chaos, despite the loss of tempo on the terrorism front.

Author is Research Assistant, Institute for Conflict Management

Bye-elections - Election Commission dithers

noreply@blogger.com (Romeet Watt) — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 04:09:00 +0000

By Amba Charan Vashishth

The present terms of the five state assemblies of Assam, West Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Puduchery are expiring in May-June this year and the Election Commission (EC) of India was duty bound to hold elections before that. The preliminary preparations in that direction had already been set in by EC.

In the normal course, the EC had been clamping the model code of conduct, in which the governments could not do anything at public cost to influence the voter.

Yet, the EC was condescending to allow the UPA present the railway budget and the general budget, which were centric to the States going to the polls. The EC announced the poll schedule within twenty-four hours of the presentation of the General Budget in parliament!

For the past over a decade, it had been customary for the EC to time the holding of bye-elections to vacant seats in State assemblies and Lok Sabha with the schedule of elections to any State assembly.

Section 151A of the Representation of the Peoples’ Act 1951 stipulates that “a bye-election for filling any vacancy…shall be held within a period of six months from the date of the occurrence of the vacancy” in the Lok Sabha or the State assembly. This is a mandatory obligation of EC.

On March 1, 2011 the EC announced the poll schedule for general elections to the assemblies in the five States. Their term was expiring on May 16, 2011 in Tamilnadu, on May 23 in Kerala, on May 28 in Puducherry and Assam and on June 11 in West Bengal.

The election process in these States will conclude well before the expiry of their assembly’s term with the counting and announcement of results on May 13 and formal notification of the constitution of the newly elected assemblies.

EC flouts law

Later, on March 12, EC also announced the bye-elections schedule for the three casual vacancies in the Karnataka State assembly with polling to take place on April 9 and the counting on May 13 together with other States.

As per the EC Press Note the by-poll for these three assembly constituencies of 185- Chennapatna, 103- Jagalur (ST) and 147-Bangarapet (SC) has to be completed before April 13, April 18 and April 19, 2011 respectively. The EC has technically and perfunctorily performed its duty to hold the polling within six months, yet the fact remains that it has failed to discharge its legal and constitutional obligation to implement in letter and spirit the provisions of Article 151A which stipulates filling “ any vacancy…within a period of six months from the date of the occurrence of the vacancy”

The conduct of the EC implies that although polling will be over on April 9, yet the seats shall continue to be vacant even beyond six months expiring on April 13, 18 and 19, respectively. The election process would, in their case, be completed only on May 13 when the result is declared, almost one month more than the stipulated six month period. Thus, the seats shall not be filled “within a period of six months from the date of the occurrence of the vacancy”. In the process, the provisions of the Section 151A stand violated at the hands of the EC.

Prevaricates in Andhra

The matter does not end here. The story in Andhra Pradesh is no different. As per the past practice, the announcement for holding election to fill casual vacancies in the Andhra Pradesh State assembly caused by the resignation of Mrs. Vijaylakshmi, wife of late chief minister YSR from Pullivendula assembly seat and the parliamentary seat vacant by the resignation of Jagan Mohan Reddy from the Kadapa parliamentary constituency, both accepted on November 29, 2010, too should have been made to coincide with the general elections to five State assemblies and the bye-elections to three assembly constituencies in the neighbouring Karnataka State. The mystery why this has not so far been done remains unexplained.

It is true that six month period has not elapsed since the assembly and parliamentary constituency vacancies occurred in Andhra Pradesh but by the time the electoral process in the current assembly elections will be over, it would be more than five months since the seats fell vacant.

Was the delay in inadvertent or deliberate and who will derive electoral and political benefit from the delay is anybody’s guess. But the fact remains that to perform its obligation as per the provisions of the Constitution and the election law, the EC will have in between to announce, in a huff, the election schedule for Andhra bye-elections too.

The writer is a Delhi-based political analyst and commentator

Autocracy & Arrogance Re-surfacing in Congress

noreply@blogger.com (Romeet Watt) — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 07:05:00 +0000

By Amba Charan Vashishth

In the 1971 elections to Lok Sabha, the late Mrs. Indira Gandhi won a landslide victory. But that did not make her bend with the weight of people’s love and support. On the contrary, it made her more arrogant, aggressive and autocrat. She started thinking, as the then Congress President the late D. K. Baruah, dubiously remarked, “Indira is India and India is Indira”. That feeling got into her head.

She then started speaking of a ‘committed’ administration – committed executive, committed legislature and committed judiciary. To an extent she succeeded too in having it when she arbitrarily imposed emergency on the country in June 1975. All the organs were too pliant and too willing to serve her whims and fancies. It was after more than 35 years that the Supreme Court had to admit that “a majority decision of a five-member Constitution bench upholding the suspension of fundamental rights during the Emergency in the Additional District Magistrate Jabalpur vs Shivakant Shukla case (1976) was "erroneous".(The Times of India, January 3, 2011)

Of late, the old signals seem to be emerging once again from the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh. History may be repeating itself. He too seems to be indirectly hinting at what Mrs. Indira Gandhi then wanted: a committed legislature, a committed executive and a committed judiciary. The signals are all the more intriguing as these today emanate from the person of Dr. Manmohan Singh who has never been a man of the masses but product of a nomination. During the last about seven years he has failed to identify, nurture and seek mandate of the people from any of the 545 parliamentary constituencies in the country.

Even late P. V. Narasimha Rao who had been denied a Congress nomination to contest the Lok Sabha elections in 1991 did contest and win a seat from Andhra Pradesh after he became the Prime Minister.

For all intents and purposes the present Congress-led UPA government has a pliant executive. It has been able to put in place men of its own confidence be it the bureaucracy at the highest level at the Centre, the constitutional offices of the Election Commissioners, governors in States, CVC, CBI and who not.

Somehow or the other it has so far been able to carry its will in the two houses of parliament too, except perhaps with two exceptions in Lok Sabha on the Women Reservation Bill and the demand for JPC.

When the institutions of the constitution, like the Comptroller & Auditor General of India (CAG) and the judiciary have tried to discharge their duty as enshrined in the Constitution and their conduct is sour to the peculiar taste of the Congress, Dr. Manmohan Singh has not hesitated from pontificating them. From the day one when the controversy over the illegal conduct of his telecommunications minister A. Raja surfaced, both Dr. Singh and Congress supremo Mrs. Sonia Gandhi had declared in no uncertain terms that Raja had done nothing illegal and against the policy of the Government.

A few days after the CAG presented its report on 2G spectrum scam Dr. Manmohan Singh could not help hiding his feelings of dismay at the report when addressing a conference of CAG officers he advised them to make a distinction between “genuine error” and “wrongdoing”. Obviously, Dr. Singh was trying to put what Raja did in the category of “genuine error” and not a crime. Subsequent events have just mocked at his words.

The Congress and its government at the Centre are feeling uneasy at the turn of events in the Supreme Court of India be it the CWG scam, 2G spectrum scam or the appointment of CVC that came before it for judicial review.

He has now a word of advice for the judiciary too. Addressing the national conference on 'Law and Governance' to mark the Golden Jubilee of the Bar Association of India in New Delhi on May 8, 2010 Dr. Manmohan Singh said: "Even though their (of judiciary, legislature and executive) jurisdiction may be separated and demarcated, it is expected that all institutions would work in harmony and in tandem to maximise the public good," he said. "It is assumed that none of the organs of the state, whether it is the judiciary or the executive or the legislature, would exceed its powers as laid down in the Constitution," he added. (Zee News)

Congress is nervous on the CVC appointment under judicial review in the Supreme Court. In the backdrop of this feeling, inaugurating the 17th Commonwealth Law Conference at Hyderabadon February 6, Dr. Manmohan Singh said: "While the power of judicial review must be used to enforce accountability, it must never be used to erode the legitimate growth assigned to other branches of the government." He kept harping on the diffusion of sovereign power. "It is necessary to preserve the integrity and sanctity of the constitutional scheme premised on the diffusion of sovereign power," Dr. Singh said.

There is not gainsaying the fact that the three pillars of democracy should be strong in their own sphere and must not intrude into the domain of the other as defined by the Constitution. At the same time, one cannot ignore the fact that if one branch leaves a vacuum in its sphere of activity, it is but natural that the other must intervene to fill the space left vacant by the other.

Even Dr. Manmohan Singh cannot deny the fact that for political considerations and reasons extraneous to the national interest, governments have failed to act and it was on an appeal by the people that the courts had to step in. The steps like introduction of CNG, ban on late night playing of loudspeakers, shifting of industrial units from residential areas and the like have had to be ordered by courts. There are numerous instances where the executive and the legislature were on one side and the judiciary on the other. But it is the judiciary with which the people have stood by and not the executive.

It also cannot be ignored that judiciary has not volunteered to act but was forced to intervene when the executive and the legislature crossed the Lakshmanrekha of ethics and morality.

The nervousness of the government can be gauged by the fact that while on the one hand Dr. Manmohan Singh stands by “the power of judicial review …. to enforce accountability” and, on the other, his government even challenged the authority of judicial review. In the Supreme Court on January 18 it strongly defended the appointment of controversial bureaucrat PJ Thomas, facing a corruption case in a Kerala court, as Central Vigilance Commissioner, saying he was an "outstanding officer" with "impeccable integrity".

In an affidavit it said there was no need for "consensus" of the three-member high powered committee for his appointment and claimed that no statutory norms were violated. It added: "It is well settled that a question of suitability should be left to the wisdom of the appointing authority”.

Our Prime Minister is alive to the provisions of the Constitution earmarking separate compartments of functioning for the legislature, executive and judiciary but is oblivious, ironically, of that Article which makes the council of ministers “collectively” responsible for all its acts of omission and commission to the house of the people.

Kashmir Conundrum - Integration diluted by Article 370

noreply@blogger.com (Romeet Watt) — Sun, 13 Feb 2011 03:57:00 +0000

By Atul Sehgal

Article 370 became lame and partially invalid after 1957 when the basic framework on which its continuation depended was dismantled. Post 1957, the Republic of India through its President needed to invoke Article 368 and settle the fate of Article 370 after consultation with the Government of J&K State. This action is still pending on the part of Government of India and brooks no further delay.

It is a pity that China lays claim on Aksai Chin which forms 19 per cent of the J&K State and Pakistan has occupied 34 per cent of the J&K State thus leaving only 47 per cent of the territory in India’s control. China built-up roads, water barrages, railway tracks, bunkers and other infrastructure over the years in the above territory while India watched silently and helplessly. Pakistan runs an official state government in the portion under its control and India does not bat an eyelid.

JAMMU and Kashmir has been culturally, geographically and historically an integral part of India. It has been home to sages and seers who chose to settle in the picturesque and serene surroundings of the Valley to meditate upon the Supreme Divinity and realise Him. These ancient ‘rishis’ are the people who populated the geographical territory called Kashmir. Our ancient social order divided human community into four categories or ‘varnas’ on the basis of avocation. The Brahmins form the category who indoctrinated people with the right knowledge drawn from the primordial scriptures-the Vedas. The present breed of Kashmiri Pandits comes from the community of above ‘rishis’. They are the progeny of sages and savants who through hard penance had realised the supreme Divinity and gave the unique aura to the region.

With the inception of Islam, the followers of Prophet Mohammad undertook missions for proselytization of people spread and settled in all directions. They were following the injunctions of their ‘holy book’ but in the process, a huge population of the State was detached or alienated from their cultural moorings. Many thousands of persons settled in the Valley were converted to Islam by the means of cajoling, coaxing, alluring or forcing. The result of this action is there for us to see even today. The culturally alienated people of the Valley are confused about their true roots and suffer from a crisis of identity.

The Indian Constitution at the present time is secular in character but it has to be recognised that the Indian nation is a historical, cultural entity and historical acts which diluted or obfuscated this culture are anti national. Promulgation of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution is one such act.

In the light of the above statements, it can be logically concluded that the people who want merger of Kashmir with the ‘Islamic’ state of Pakistan or those who advocate autonomy for Kashmir are inimical to the Indian nation as also the Indian state which is constitutionally secular.

Before proceeding further with our analysis, let us recount and concretise the mistakes or blunders committed by our founding fathers and subsequent political leaders through the course of history of Kashmir which has led to the present sorry plight.

Although an expressed, categorical statement of accession, the Instrument of Accession signed by Maharaja Hari Singh of J&K with Government of India in 1947 was still incomplete. This was a clear, unequivocal Instrument of Accession but its articles were incomplete because in this instrument only three subjects of the State were surrendered to the Indian union. There was no provision of accession with an instrument containing incomplete Articles in Indian Independence Act, 1947. Hence, the Instrument of Accession of J&K was not in accordance with the spirit of Indian Independence Act, 1947.

When Pakistani tribesmen and troops invading the Valley were successfully checked by the Indian Army, the Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, instead of driving the intruders out of illegal occupation, took the matter to UN who declared a ceasefire on ‘as is where is basis’. How could the matter be taken to the UN when J&K had expressly consented to be a State of Indian union by signing the Instrument of Accession?

Lord Mountbatten, with consent of Nehru, decided that the Instrument of Accession would be ratified by the Constituent Assembly of J&K. This was also an irrational, unconstitutional decision. This decision resulted in promulgation of Article 370 of the Constitution of India. Thus were sown the seeds of disintegration of J&K from India.

The continuation of Article 370 as a provision of the Indian Constitution for more than 60 years, is another blunder.

The criminal acts of secessionists and the intruders in the Valley ought to have been severely punished but the mere presence of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution did not allow this to happen. Today, 85 per cent of the Central grant/allocation earmarked for J&K goes to Kashmir and only 15 per cent goes to Jammu region which is not commensurate with the population ratio of the two regions. In accordance with the 60:40 population ratio of the two regions, the allocation needs to be in the same proportion. Article 370 legally restrains Indian investment in the Valley, outsiders settlement in the Valley and even criminal investigation by CBI in the Valley.

Article 370 has ensured over the years that even in the Indian part of J&K, the atmosphere of secessionism fuelled and fanned by those across the border is maintained. The whole Indian state is paying for the exorbitant expenditure of deploying army in J&K and in fighting infiltrators and criminal-secessionists who indulge in violent acts of terrorism. It is a pity that China lays claim on Aksai Chin which forms 19 per cent of the J&K State and Pakistan has occupied 34 per cent of the J&K State thus leaving only 47 per cent of the territory in India’s control. China built-up roads, water barrages, railway tracks, bunkers and other infrastructure over the years in the above territory in its illegal control while India watched silently and helplessly. Pakistan runs an official state government in the portion under its control and India does not bat an eyelid.

India cannot leave it to the UN or the world community to decide the fate of J&K. The UN is dominated by the USA. Continuation of the Kashmir ‘dispute’ is in the larger interest of those world powers that thrive at the discord between India and Pakistan. Time has now come that India, a nuclear armed state, and a fast growing economic powerhouse asserts itself with reason and force that the entire J&K historically, culturally, politically and rightfully belongs to it and takes urgent steps to drive away illegal occupants of the State territory. Abrogation of Article 370 is the first and the foremost step in this direction.

Let us be very clear about the fact that abrogation of Article 370 is technically and constitutionally possible. This Article was incorporated into the Constitution as a temporary measure after Maharaja Hari Singh of J&K signed the Instrument of Accession by accepting India’s dominion in the areas of defense, external affairs and communications. For other areas, the Indian state could establish its dominion after consultation with the Constituent Assembly of J&K. This Article came into being in 1950 when the Muslim dominated areas of J&K had organised themselves into a political outfit---the National Conference headed by Sheikh Abdullah. The National Conference manipulated the process of democratic elections in J&K to come to power and thereafter Sheikh Abdullah for whom Pt. Nehru had a soft corner managed to extract as his prize Article 370 out of India after swearing upon his allegiance to the Indian Republic. This proved to be Nehru’s and India’s undoing. The Article sowed the seeds of secessionism in the Valley. It was a veritable blueprint of discord, sedition and separatism. The Constituent Assembly was disbanded in 1957 following the fulfillment of its purpose---the ratification of the Instrument of Accession. Thus after 1957, the Article 370 contained a defunct provision----that related to reference to Constituent Assembly for bringing other areas of state governance under India’s dominion.

Thus Article 370 became lame and partially invalid after 1957 when the basic framework on which its continuation depended was dismantled. Post 1957, the Republic of India through its President needed to invoke Article 368 and settle the fate of Article 370 after consultation with the Government of J&K State. This action is still pending on the part of Government of India and brooks no further delay.

Thus the Government of India should lose no time in scrapping Article 370 which will not even require a constitutional amendment. The Government needs to dissolve the present ineffective State government, install President’s rule by sending a Governor, as done in the past by sending Shri Jagmohan and, thereafter, go ahead in right earnest with the task of abrogating Article 370---a blot on the face of Independent India and a slur on the largest democracy of the world. Post scrapping of Article 370, people from the contiguous states of Himachal Pradesh and Punjab may be encouraged to settle in J&K. Let the State be opened up for investment by private sector for establishing industry, especially tourism industry. Let the government also invest liberally in infrastructure and industrial development of the State. J&K will then become truly integral with India---socially, culturally and politically.

If Kerala is God’s own country, Kashmir is the heaven on earth. It is the land where the Supreme Creator expresses Himself through the beautiful valleys, serene lakes and multiple flora and fauna. This State is the crown of mother India and needs to be preserved as her dearest possession. Let nothing, the least politics, come in the way of this.

By arrangement with Organiser, New Delhi

Was there a design to foist Thomas as CVC?

noreply@blogger.com (Romeet Watt) — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 15:53:00 +0000

Did somebody pulling the strings from behind asks Amba Charan Vashishth

After having appointed Mr. P. J. Thomas as the Chief Vigilance Commissioner, the Congress-led UPA is finding itself caught in a web, but of its own making. Its strenuous efforts to seek a safe passage BY making him ‘voluntarily’ resign to save itself of further embarrassment in the Supreme Court of India and the eyes of the public seem, so far, to have boomeranged. Mr. Thomas has refused to oblige the government.

That the Congress supremo Mrs. Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh continued to ignore, deliberately, what Mr. A. Raja was doing in the ministry of telecommunications is understandable. For them the continuance and stability of their government was more precious than the `1.76 lakh crore loot of the public exchequer. They could not afford to annoy DMK to which Mr. Raja belonged because UPA is subsisting on the life-saving support extended by this party.

But intriguing is the way the Congress and Prime Minister put their foot down insisting on the selection of Mr. Thomas to the constitutional office of CVC even in the face of fierce opposition by the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, Mrs. Sushma Swaraj, the third important member of the 3-member collegium besides the Prime Minister and Home Minister (HM).

Mrs. Swaraj had based her opposition to Thomas selection not on political considerations but on his past service record. Mr. Thomas was the Secretary Department of Telecommunications (DoT) under Mr. Raja when the infamous 2G spectrum allotment scam took place.

A chargesheet under section 120B of the Indian Penal Code accusing him of criminal conspiracy in the Kerala palmolein import scam in 1991 is pending in court. There seems another connection. Congress-led UDF government was ruling in Kerala when this scam happened.

The government, in all fairness, certainly needed an individual with an impeccable record of integrity, honesty and fairness who outshone all other individuals as an outstanding civil servant to be saddled with the onerous responsibility of ensuring probity and honesty in government and public life as the country’s anti-corruption watchdog. Should a person occupy such an important position on whom people could raise a finger on his conduct?

Overrules own rules

It seems the Congress had already made up its mind to put Mr. Thomas on the job much before the process of selection was formally set in motion. Therefore, the whole exercise seems to have been designed to achieve the desired objective.

The first step in this direction was the subversion of the 2000 guidelines issued by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) -- interestingly, in consultation with the then Chief Vigilance Commission which Mr. Thomas was to head following his selection -- through its Office Memorandum (OM) that the vigilance clearance to an officer of the All-India Service “shall not be withheld unless chargesheet has been filed in a court by investigating agency in a criminal case and the case is pending”.

Therefore, as per the DoPT guidelines Mr. Thomas’s was a fit case to withhold the vigilance clearance. Since the DoPT is under the charge of the Prime Minister, no such clearance could have been issued without his consent, particularly when it is in violation of the Department’s own guidelines. Had the PMO withheld the “vigilance clearance” his name could not have figured in the panel of names under consideration for the post of CVC.

Since a 3-member committee with PM, HM and Leader of Opposition (LoP) in Lok Sabha as members makes the selection of an individual for CVC, it clearly means that there must be a consensus in the matter. It cannot be done through a system of voting in which the government enjoys a clear 2:1 majority. If the opinion of the third member, the LoP doesn’t carry any value, then what is the fun of having he/she on the committee?

That the UPA government chose to treat with contempt the dissent of Mrs. Sushma Swaraj clearly indicates that the government had already taken a decision and what it wanted was only the nod of the Opposition leader for a person whom they had already selected. But this she did not for valid reasons substantiated with documentary evidence.

Mrs. Sushma Swaraj had suggested that the committee take into consideration the other names in the panel. But both PM and HM put their foot down and did not budge and wanted only Thomas on the post.

This unusual and dictatorial conduct of the PM and HM gives rise to the suspicion that there was somebody pushing Thomas case from behind and the PM-HM duo could have no courage to defy the whim, wish and diktat of that person.

The reports circulating in the media for a number of days that Mr. Thomas was going to put in his papers to save the UPA of embarrassment it is facing in the Supreme Court, did not come out true. Now there is a twist in the media reports according to which Mr. Thomas may haggle for the UPA government to deny permission to prosecute him under the Prevention of Corruption Act on the specious framed up plea that “the case against Thomas was in any way weak and formal denial of sanction was not out of place”. A case of the executive standing judgement on a crime and evading a judicial verdict!

The deal may be through. Mr. Thomas stands to gain in either case. He will escape the adverse SC verdict and save the UPA government from further embarrassment.

Writer is the National Convener of BJP Literature and Publication Cell

UPA 2: A Kingdom of Corruption

noreply@blogger.com (Romeet Watt) — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 08:43:00 +0000

By Nitin Gadkari

While we are certainly marching ahead but we just cannot afford to be complacent. The nation is facing one of the severest Crisis of Leadership and people of India are looking towards the BJP to provide leadership that will translate their aspirations into reality. The 20-month old rule of the UPA-2 has proved to be a disaster. Everyday, the nation is waking up to a new scam. From sports to civil supplies and telecommunication to civil aviation, UPA-2 has allowed every arena of governance to be exploited by scamsters. And while looters were emptying the government coffers, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was standing guard with his eyes closed and perhaps, hands tied.

It is ironical that when the Congress was celebrating 125 years of its existence, the UPA was observing year 2010 as Year of Scams and Corruption. Practically, every month unveiled a new scam. Scams after scams made organisation of Commonwealth Games a subject of public ridicule. Thanks to the splendid performance of our sportspersons, as a nation; we could save some grace. Soon came the Adarsh Society scam. A Chief Minister who was brought in after the terrorists’ attack on Mumbai in November 2009 had to vacate his seat for a scam that showed how even security considerations were disregarded by ruling party bigwigs and bureaucrats. And the 2G scam was literally the height of it. The huge loss to the exchequer due to this Mother of all Scams is almost equal to the budget outlay of some states.

Let us remember that the magnitude of these scams is such that even agencies and departments of the government could not push them under the carpet. Judiciary also had to take their cognizance. All these scams are so very serious that they cannot be dubbed as propaganda by the opposition. They are real and now nobody can shield the criminals involved. Even after the unearthing of so many scams, UPA leaders are unabashedly talking of “zero tolerance to corruption”.

We have every reason to believe that these scams are not just systemic failures much less any kind of just aberrations. These scams are some kind of a planned loot of national coffers. The way the UPA government went ahead with the appointment of the present Chief Vigilance Commissioner overruling the objections raised by Smt. Sushma Swaraj, Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, smacks of a particular design to provide systemic protection to all those who are corrupt. This is nothing but an attempt to subvert the system to suit personal designs. But recent revelations in the case of Bofors have served the purpose of reminding the UPA and one can never fool all the people all the time. Now that the Revenue Establishment has conclusively established that kickbacks were given and received, if this government is serious about probity and accountability, it should move the Supreme Court to have a Special Investigation Team (SIT) appointed forthwith. Sermons, declaration of multi-point programmes, and empty appeals to political functionaries who are your own appointees will make no impact. What is required is a series of credible measures starting with a firm commitment to punishing the guilty. The rule of law is unambiguous. With prima facie evidence in hand, the law enforcing agencies must file an FIR. They have to arrest and interrogate the suspect, collect evidence and file charge sheet within a stipulated time frame. No body knows as to why this has not happened.

What people are asking the UPA are only few simple questions: Why are you shying away from JPC? What are you afraid of? From Tul Mohan Rams and Nagarwalas to Warren Andersons and Ottavio Quatrochis why all those guilty have always escaped punishment? These are not just episodes of corruption. These are also examples of how successive Congress governments have stabbed in the back of the people who elected them to protect their interests.

If the Prime Minister is so very confident that he is not guilty, why should he be so stubborn in opposing the legitimate demand of JPC? This stubbornness is reminiscent of the pre-emergency days. BJP condemns this approach and forewarns the government that this confrontationist approach will cost the government extremely dearly. It is this stubbornness that is to blame for the logjam in the Parliament. Not opposition but the government is squarely responsible for this logjam. The entire opposition is united on this issue and the sooner the government accepts our demand, the better for all.

Terrorism: Poor Track Record of UPA

UPA’s track record on the front of fighting against terrorism is also extremely poor. On the Kashmir front, the interlocutors continue to be confused and unclear about their own task. There are no specific terms of reference laid down for them and hence their exercise has become rudderless. A similar rudderlessness prevails in tackling the Naxal issue. While we all in BJP and many of our Chief Ministers are consistently asking for a common strategy and concerted efforts to fight with the Naxalite menace, UPA is speaking in many voices on every terror related issue. Within the ruling party, there are elements who hobnob with the Naxals, pamper those who see India as an encroacher in Jammu and Kashmir and try to play with the sensibilities of majority community by blowing up the threat of peripheral groups to rake up the so called Hindu Terrorism. Should we not expect some basic level of maturity from the UPA leaders? Are they not doing disservice to the cause of our war on terror by undermining the threat from one group and demonizing the other? Can some of the UPA leaders be so callous and irresponsible so as to deal with terrorism in a crass partisan manner their facts based on inconclusive investigations, even while sharing assessments with the foreign diplomats? All our countrymen are extremely concerned that the irresponsible utterances of some of the UPA leaders are bound to weaken India’s case and give a fillip to those from across the border. Unfortunately, UPA misses no opportunity of sending a wrong signal. When the entire nation is expecting the government to expedite the hanging of Afzal Guru, who has been convicted in the case of Attack on the Parliament, the UPA has set Shaukat Guru, Afzal Guru’s associate, in this case; free almost one year before he completes his jail term, for what they certify as “Good Conduct.” This is a case of utter disregard for public opinion. Is this not a manifestation of the government’s soft and unserious approach towards terrorism?

At this juncture, we demand that the government publish the entire data pertaining to terrorist attacks since 2004 and give details of the investigations completed, cases filed and conviction made of the guilty. The nation also seeks information about the relief and rehabilitation measures taken by the government for those who are victims of terror in one way or the other.

Adapted from Presidential Address at BJP National Executive Meeting, Guwahati (Assam) on January 03, 2011