FRONTLINEDECEMBER 18, 2009 INDIA’S NATIONAL MAGAZINE RS.20WWW.FRONTLINE.IN

Demolition by designAbsence of political will marks the Congress

government’s response to the Liberhan Commissionreport indicting the Sangh Parivar

HERITAGE BUDDHISM

Culture of compassion 62ART NICHOLAS ROERICH

A legend’s legacy 92CLIMATE CHANGE COPENHAGEN

Bleak prospects 21

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On the CoverKar Sevaks on the dome of the BabriMasjid in Ayodhya on December 6,1992;Kalyan Singh, L.K. Advani, K.S. Sudarshan, Atal Bihari Vajpayee,Ashok Singhal and Murli Manohar Joshi.

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CLIMATE CHANGERoad to Copenhagen 21Crisis & opportunity 25Carbon alert 28For green bonus 31Double burden 34Question of equity 37

WORLD AFFAIRSObama in China 43Bangladesh: Justice at last 47The Mujib killers 49Palestine: Breaking point for peace process 50Fiji: Pacific spat 53Colombia: Emerging economy 56A disturbing accord 59

HERITAGEBuddhism: Culture ofcompassion 62

JAMMU & KASHMIRAgenda for Kashmir 85Draft of a new Article 370 91

ARTLegend of Nicholas Roerich 92

FOCUS: DRDONerve centre 99Range of radars 102

FOCUS: PUNE – JNNURMCity of the future 108Interview: Rajlaxmi Bhonsale, Mayor 112One city, many faces 114Interview: Mahesh Zagade,Municipal Commissioner 118

AGRICULTUREBitter story of sugarcane 120

EVENTSDelhi meeting of Communist parties 124Interview: Oscar Cordoves of the Communist Party of Cuba 126

TERROR IN MUMBAIA year later 129

COLUMNC.P. Chandrasekhar: Recovery or bubble? 40Bhaskar Ghose: New class conflict? 97

Praful Bidwai: Bhopal – 25 years of shame 104Jayati Ghosh: Brand attraction 106R.K. Raghavan: Chinks in the system 133

BOOKS 77

LETTERS 123

COVER STORY Demolition by designThe Liberhan Commission, which probedthe Ayodhya demolition, slams the SanghParivar but, surprisingly, exonerates the P.V.Narasimha Rao government. 4

RELATED STORIES

Interview: Kalyan Singh 6Interview: Prakash Karat 8Commission’s record 12

Interview: Anupam Gupta 14Interview: D.N. Jha, historian 17

CLIMATE CHANGEIt has been a bumpy ride, withdeveloped countries failing tomake definite commitmentsand India hinting at a shift ofstance in Copenhagen. 21

HERITAGEBuddhism, with its vision ofeternal harmony of the world,shaped the culture of theOrient, particularly South-East Asia. 62

ARTThe legacy of NicholasRoerich and his quest forabiding spiritualknowledge are now allbut forgotten. 92

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4 F R O N T L I N E

AN element of cynicism was always there as thecentral characteristic of the Justice ManmohanSingh Liberhan Commission during the 17 longyears that it took to probe the December 6, 1992,demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya, percep-tible in many ways – when the commission obtained48 extensions from various Central governments,when allegations broke out of slow-pedalling of theinquiry against certain politicians, and when therewas a rather public spat between the commission’schief and its counsel.

Finally, the government tabled the report in Par-liament on November 24 under tremendous pres-sure, after a newspaper published portions of it a dayearlier. The government was left with no option butto forsake its six-month-long inertia since the sub-mission of the report on June 30. This final sequenceof events as well as the contents of the report have setin motion several debates and also controversies, inthe political, legal and social realms.

Even so, the central conclusion of the four-vol-ume report running into over 1,000 pages is by andlarge seen as a mere repetition of what has beencommon knowledge for long. It is that the RashtriyaSwayamsewak Sangh (RSS) and its affiliates such asthe Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), the Bajrang Daland the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which makeup the Sangh Parivar, were responsible for the demo-lition.

The commission has also held that the BJP go-vernment in Uttar Pradesh, led by Kalyan Singh, andsome of its officers colluded with the Sangh Parivarin a “duplicitous and under-handed manner” “notworthy of a democratically elected government”.

The report further states:“When push came to shove, the senior police

officers were at hand to ensure their men toed theline and that the demolition of the disputed structurewas allowed to go ahead with military precision asorchestrated by the leaders present at the spot andcarried out by their henchmen whom they refused toidentify even before me.

“By far the worst sin of omission of the Stategovernment was leaking into public domain the in-formation that the police personnel had been hob-bled and would not react or retaliate under any

Now the question is what itsrecommendations will ultimatelylead to, given the commission’scontroversial history and thegovernment’s half-hearted responses.

The Liberhan Commission, which

probed the Ayodhya demolition, slams

the Sangh Parivar, but, surprisingly,

exonerates the Narasimha Rao

government. B Y V E N K I T E S H R A M A K R I S H N A N

Cover Story

Demolition by

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circumstances. Emboldened by theself-confessed handicap of the law en-forcement agencies of the State, thekar sevaks enjoyed a free hand, awarethat they were at zero risk from them.Even the forces demanded by the Stategovernment and sent by the Centralgovernment for security purposeswere intentionally taken away fromthe scene and deployed at far awayplaces under the garb of meeting thethreat of terrorism.”

At the individual level, the com-mission has listed 68 persons, includ-

ing Sangh Parivar leaders and officialsof the then Uttar Pradesh government,as responsible “for leading the countryto the brink of communal discord”.The Sangh Parivar leaders listed in-clude BJP stalwarts such as formerPrime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee,former Deputy Prime Minister andAyodhya Rath Yatra leader Lal Krish-na Advani and former Union HumanResources Development MinisterMurli Manohar Joshi.

The commission terms these lead-ers “pseudo moderates” who were con-

trolled by the diktats of the RSS. It alsosays that RSS, Bajrang Dal and VHPleaders such as Ashok Singhal, K.S.Sudarshan and Vinay Katiyar formed a“complete cartel” supported by icons ofthe Hindutva movement such as Ad-vani, Joshi and Vajpayee.

The overall conclusion of the re-port, holding the Sangh Parivar re-sponsible for the demolition, has beenreceived with near-total approval bythe main political organisations. Butthe emphasis it gives to certain playerswithin the Sangh Parivar, such as Vaj-payee, and the clean chit given to theP.V. Narasimha Rao-led Congress go-vernment at the Centre have not re-ceived the same level of acceptance.Reservations have been expressed notonly in the political but also in judicialterms. While the BJP is naturally inthe forefront of opposing the inclusionof Vajpayee among those held guilty,the centrist and Left opposition partiesquestion the clean chit given to theNarasimha Rao government.

Anupam Gupta, former counsel ofthe commission, who left his positionin 2007 owing to differences with Jus-tice Liberhan, told Frontline that theinclusion of Vajpayee in the list of peo-ple with individual culpability was notlegally tenable. He pointed out that thecommission passed a detailed order onJuly 22, 2003, rejecting an applicationto summon Vajpayee on the groundsthat there was no evidence on recordagainst him.

“At that time, the controversialspeech made by Vajpayee on Decem-ber 5 at Lucknow, suggesting the dem-olition of the Babri Masjid, had notcome to the commission’s notice. Evenwhen the story about a CD containingthat speech was published, it was nottaken notice of by the commission. Theright thing to do would have been tosummon Vajpayee at that time. With-

DECEMBER 6, 1992 : Kar sevaks atop the Babri Masjid a few hours beforemany more joined them to demolish it.

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KALYAN SINGH, who as the BJPChief Minister of Uttar Pradesh pres-ided over the demolition of the BabriMasjid on December 6, 1992, feels noremorse for his act and remainssteadfast in his resolve to work for theconstruction of a grand Ram templein Ayodhya. He was expelled from theparty in 1999, but returned in 2004,only to resign in 2009 ahead of theLok Sabha elections. He is clearly rar-ing to return to the party and revivethe Ram temple issue because he be-lieves this can take the party onceagain to the pinnacle of power. Hesaid the Liberhan Commission reportcould work as sanjivani (a life-givingherb) for the gasping BJP. Excerptsfrom the interview:

The Liberhan report categoricallyindicts you for creating a situationthat could have resulted in nothingelse but the demolition. It says youlied to the highest authorities,befooled them with constitutionalniceties in order to tie their handsand supported the destruction of themosque with tacit, open and activematerial support. In short, youplanned and conspired for thedemolition of the mosque.

It is absolutely wrong to say thatthere was any planning or conspiracyto demolish the structure. What hap-pened that day was an unexpectedand unplanned outburst of the

crushed feelings ofcrores of Hindus forfour centuries. Therewas no planning, andthis is borne out by thefact that senior BJPand RSS leaders suchas Advaniji, [MurliManohar] Joshi, UmaBharati, H.V. Shesha-dri [VHP leader],Ashok Singhal [VHPleader] and otherswere present on thestage that day. Theycould have avoided their presence ifthere was a conspiracy. The fact thatthey were present should make eventhe most naive realise that there wasno conspiracy or planning.

But being the Chief Minister youwere entrusted with theresponsibility of protecting themosque. You gave an undertaking tothe Supreme Court and the NationalIntegration Council. Still you didnothing when the mosque was beingdemolished despite the presencethere of police personnel to guardthe mosque. How do you justify that?

Yes, true I had given an undertak-ing that I would protect the structure.I tried my best to protect it. Whenpeople started climbing atop thedomes I gave the police instructionsto stop that and use any and every

force, I repeat any andevery force, except firingto stop them. But therewas such frenzy, therewas such junoon [fren-zy], that it became im-possible to stop peopleonce they pushed ahead.The administration triedits best to prevent thedemolition but the struc-ture could not be saved.It was an old structureand once people climbedatop and started ham-

mering away, it gave in and crumbled.

But why not firing? After all it was amatter of protecting the country’ssecular fabric, reinforcing the rule oflaw and respecting the Constitution?Mulayam Singh Yadav as ChiefMinister ordered firing in October-November 1990 and this helped savethe mosque.

I had given specific instructions tothe police not to open fire. There werethousands of kar sevaks at that timeand firing would have resulted in amassacre. Thousands would havedied in the firing and stampede. I alsorealised that there was such junoonamong the kar sevaks that even if fir-ing had been ordered the structurecould not have been saved. It wouldhave fallen anyway. At that time I wasfaced with two choices, either try and

‘No regret, no shame’ Interview with Kalyan Singh, former U.P. Chief Minister. B Y P U R N I M A S . T R I P A T H I

KALYAN SINGH, UTTARPradesh Chief Ministerduring the demolition.

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out doing that, how can the commis-sion arrive at such an astonishing find-ing?” Gupta asked.

He maintained that the clean chitgiven to the Narasimha Rao adminis-tration could only mean that the com-mission had failed to considercarefully all the documents and re-ports of various security and intelli-gence agencies it had access to. “The

exoneration of the Narasimha Rao go-vernment points only towards a sell-out,” Gupta told Frontline (see inter-view).

The commission, on its part, hasanalysed the standards of culpabilityand categorised them as primary, sec-ondary and tertiary. Those who hadthe primary and greatest responsibilityfor the demolition are those that had

the means to prevent the assault. Manyin the top leadership of the RSS, theVHP, the Bajrang Dal and the ShivSena come in this group.

The second group consists of thosewho portrayed a benign public face ofthe Ayodhya campaign and gave falseassurances to the courts, the peopleand the nation. “Those who have beenput in the second category in these

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protect the structure, which wasdoubtful, or save the lives of thou-sands of kar sevaks. I opted for thelives of kar sevaks. The structure inany case was a blot on our culture. Itwas not built by Babar out of greatrespect for Islam or to offer namaaz,but to insult and humiliate lakhs ofHindus. It was a result of the vicari-ous pleasure he derived after buildinga mosque over the debris of a temple.I am happy that by taking the rightdecision I was able to save the lives ofthousands of kar sevaks that day.

But do you not regret that if you hadbeen more careful, if you hadprevented the gathering of so manypeople well before time, the mosquewould still have been there and thecountry’s secular fabric would nothave been irretrievably damaged?Do you not hold yourself responsiblefor one of the biggest shames in ourcountry?

I have no regret, no repentance,no sorrow, no grief and no shame.True, I gave in writing to the SupremeCourt and the NIC [National Inte-gration Council] that I would protectthe structure, and I tried my best. ButI am not guilty of demolishing it. Ithappened as an accident. Accidentshappen all the time despite the bestsecurity arrangements. Indira Gand-hi was killed despite one of the bestsecurity arrangements for her. RajivGandhi was killed. Was there a lack ofsecurity for him? I don’t think wha-tever happened that day was a shame.In fact, the structure was a shame forall of us. Good that it is gone now. Notthat I planned to demolish it, but I

don’t regret its demolition either.

But the fact that you did not deployCentral forces and rather preventedtheir movement once trouble brokeout makes you guilty of abetting inthe act.

If any action of mine contributedto the demolition, I am proud of hav-ing done my bit for the Ram temple.My life is committed to building agrand Ram temple at that spot. As fordeployment of Central forces, theCentre did not even inform me that itwas sending these forces. It stationedthe forces at the railway station be-cause that was Central governmentproperty. I was not even informed.

Do you think this report will onceagain revive the Ram Mandir issue,which had almost vanished from thepolitical discourse?

If the BJP plays its card smartly,the Liberhan report can act as a sanji-vani for it. But it will have to link thetemple issue with issues relating tothe deprived sections of society, poorfarmers, women and those who havebeen left behind in the rat race. Thenit can work wonders for the party.

You are saying it in a way as if youhave already chalked out your planfor reviving the BJP with the help ofthis issue. Is your return to the BJPon the anvil?

I would not know that but I amone who combines the success formu-la of both Mandal and kamandal,and I can still mobilise the masses onthe basis of these two issues. Peoplestill believe me when I speak on the

temple issue. I am firmly of the opi-nion that the BJP can revive itself bytaking recourse to this issue, and Iwould be more than willing to give ahelping hand. If my departure fromthe BJP had damaged its prospects inany way I am willing to compensatefor that. The BJP still has its groundin Uttar Pradesh, it only needs to wa-ter it a bit and add some fertilizer, andthe ground will be ready to be har-vested once again.

The report has totally absolved theCentral government of any role inthe demolition. Do you think that ispolitically motivated?

The report is totally politicallymotivated. The demolition was a re-sult of the acts of successive Centralgovernments. After all, who allowedthe unlocking of the structure in1986, who allowed shilanyas in 1989,who allowed the idols to be kept therein 1949? It was [in each instance] thethen Central government. The Cen-tral government was fully responsiblefor the demolition and a clean chit toit and the indictment of only BJP-RSS leaders show the report is biasedand prejudiced.

Do you think this report can changethe political course in the country asit has talked about the graveimplications of associating religionwith politics, of politically influencingthe police force, etc., and suggestedremedies?

This report is fit to be dumped inthe dustbin. Who is Liberhan to sug-gest what course politics should takein this country? It is not his brief.

conclusions are referred to as ‘pseudo-moderates’ in contrast to the radicalsforming part of the first group,” thereport says. “On the one hand, leaderslike A.B. Vajpayee, Murli ManoharJoshi and L.K. Advani, who are theundeniable public face and leaders ofthe BJP and thus of the Parivar, con-stantly protested their innocence anddenounced the events of December

1992. On the other hand, it stands es-tablished beyond doubt that the eventsof the day were neither spontaneous,nor unplanned, nor unforeseen over-flowing of the people’s emotions, or theresult of a foreign conspiracy as someoverly imaginative people have tried tosuggest.”

The report also holds that “all thesethree groups had managed to reduce

one of the greatest nations and one ofthe oldest civilisations to the state ofstark intolerance and barbarianism –all for petty political gains”.

The report states categorically thatthe pseudo-moderates cannot be heldinnocent of any wrongdoing andpoints out that “it cannot be assumedeven for a moment that L.K. Advani,A.B. Vajpayee or M.M. Joshi did not

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know the designs of the Sangh Pari-var”. “Even though these leaders weredeemed and used by the Parivar as thepublicly acceptable faces and the artic-ulated voices of the Parivar and thusused to reassure the cautious masses,they were party to the decisions whichhad been taken.”

The report also points out that theBJP leadership was “as much a tool inthe hands of the RSS as any other orga-nisation or entity, and these leadersstood to inherit the political successesengineered by the RSS”. It makes areference to the famous remark of for-mer BJP leader Govindacharya, who

termed Vajpayee as a mukhota (mask)and states that the remark can be“more appropriately applied to theBJP leadership at the timecollectively”.

Surprisingly, despite such strongand trenchant observations and con-clusions on those held culpable, no

THE Communist Party of India(Marxist) was one of the parties thatdemanded the immediate tabling ofthe Liberhan Commission report andthe Action Taken Report (ATR). Thecontents of the commission’s report,the party avers, are more significantthan its leakage to the media. Howev-er, the CPI(M) is not confident thatthe Congress-led United ProgressiveAlliance (UPA) government will takethe initiative to pursue the cases al-ready pending in courts or file freshcharge sheets on the basis of what hasemerged in the report. Prakash Karat,CPI(M) general secretary, spoke toFrontline on his party’s position andthe implications of not taking the re-port seriously. Excerpts:

The Liberhan Commission report andthe ATR of the government havefinally been tabled in Parliament andwill be taken up for discussion soon.What is the next step the UPA shouldtake in view of the seriousness of theissue? What are the implications if itdoes not take action or takes half-hearted measures?

Since the Liberhan Commission’sreport has been finally tabled in Par-liament after the commission took along time to submit it, the importantthing now is to see that immediateaction is taken; the persons named inthe report, belonging to the BharatiyaJanata Party (BJP), the RashtriyaSwayamsewak Sangh (RSS) and theVishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), as re-sponsible for conspiring and plan-

ning the demolition ofthe Babri Masjidshould be proceededagainst. Unfortunate-ly, the ATR preparedby the governmentshows no such inten-tion or urgency. Allthat it has said is thatthe existing casesmust be expedited. Inthe light of the volumi-nous report and thefacts stated, the Cen-tral governmentshould have an-nounced its intentionto proceed with freshcases against all thoseresponsible. If thecommission’s report does not propelthe government to take firm actioneven at this late hour, it will be too lateto do anything. We have seen how theJustice Srikrishna Commission re-port on the Mumbai communal vio-lence has not been acted upon by theCongress-NCP government in Mah-arashtra. This possibly is the last op-portunity for the UPA government toshow its commitment to punish thoseguilty of the darkest assault on sec-ularism.

The commission report described thedemolition as one of the worstabhorrent acts of religiousintolerance in the history of thenation and the Hindu religion. Do youconcur with this view? The report

observes that the Stategovernment had becomea willing ally and a co-conspirator in the jointcommon enterprise toannounce the revival ofa rabid breed ofHindutva.

It is not enough tocharacterise the demoli-tion as an assault on In-dia’s democratic andsecular edifice. It is itselfscandalous that the com-mission took such a longtime to submit its report.The way the grave attackon Indian secularismand democracy has beenhandled itself shows how

the Indian state has failed to stand upin defence of the basic values of therepublic. It is public knowledge thatthe Centre refused to intervene andgive directions even when it was clearthat a situation was building up inAyodhya, in the run-up to the Decem-ber 6 events, where the mobs wouldgo on the rampage. The Central go-vernment knew very well that the Ka-lyan Singh government would donothing but abet the so-called kar se-vaks. Leaders of secular oppositionparties, led by V.P. Singh, met thethen Prime Minister [P.V. Narasim-ha Rao] on December 3 to discuss thealarming situation developing inAyodhya. All that he stated was thatnegotiations had started with the RSSleadership and that they had assured

For firm action at the earliestInterview with Prakash Karat, general secretary of the CPI(M). B Y T . K . R A J A L A K S H M I

PRAKASH KARAT:“THE ATR reflects alack of political will.”

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specific legal measures have been sug-gested in the recommendationssection, either against organisations oragainst individuals deemed as guilty.Instead, the recommendations con-tain broad propositions for the enact-ment of new laws to prevent andcontrol riots and the setting up of spe-

cial courts to deal with cases comingunder the purview of the new Act. Therecommendations section calls for alaw providing for exemplary puni-shment for the misuse of religion foracquiring political power and the dis-qualification of political parties andcandidates who have religious agen-

das. The commission has made a totalof 65 recommendations under sevencategories, which seek to address gen-eral issues and issues pertaining to civ-il services, riot control, intelligenceagencies, media, Centre-State rela-tions and religious and cultural sites.

M E R E O B S E R V A T I O N SMany of these recommendations aremere observations. For instance, theone on the media advises the “chron-iclers of history” to be “alive to the trustthat [the] common man reposes” onmedia practitioners. The recommen-dation section also states that citizenshave lost confidence in the current sys-tem of governance, and hence there isthe need for an extensive revamp of therecruitment process for civil and policeservices.

It also says the police and bureau-cracy are facing a “crisis of confidence”,and urgent measures are required tobreak the “nexus” between politiciansand bureaucrats in order to create aresponsive police force and bureaucra-cy. To this, the government has re-sponded in its Action Taken Report(ATR) by pointing out that the UnionPublic Service Commission (UPSC) isexamining changes in the recruitmentprocedure for all-India services. Thepanel recommendation, the ATR says,will be communicated to the UPSC.

While a number of recommenda-tions are of this variety, the Union go-vernment’s ATR on therecommendations is even more vague.For as many as 18 recommendationsthe ATR responds with a terse “agreed”and for nine recommendations thecomment is “noted”. The most con-crete response is the one that statesthat the government is contemplatingthe introduction of a Communal Vio-lence (Prevention, Control and Reha-bilitation of Victims) Bill to preventand control riots.

The ATR rejects as “may not bepractical” the recommendation thatthe National Integration Council(NIC) be conferred statutory powersand its members be barred from hold-ing any constitutional office or office ofprofit or public office or from taking

him that only a pooja would be heldat the site.

Is what the ATR has suggestedadequate? Does it do justice to theenormity of the violence that tookplace in the aftermath of thedemolition?

The ATR reflects a lack of politi-cal will. The fact that the commissiontook 17 years to submit its report, thefact that no person who is responsiblefor this major crime has been tried orconvicted, and the whole record ofthe failure to act against those whoinstigated or indulged in communalviolence shows a lack of political willto act against the culprits who defiedthe Constitution and the secularprinciples therein. If they do nothingon the Liberhan report, it will only bea continuation of the weak-kneed ap-proach shown by the Congress go-vernment.

Even if there are any drawbacks inthe report, does it detract from thefact that it has named virtually theentire top leadership in the SanghParivar as being culpable for theevents leading to the demolition ofthe Babri Masjid?

One of the drawbacks of the re-port is the complete silence on therole of the Narasimha Rao govern-ment at the Centre. If the BJP-RSS-VHP combine did the actual job ofdestroying the mosque, the Rao go-vernment was culpable for allowingthis brazen act. It refused to act touphold the Constitution and the ruleof law. The commission’s efforts toabsolve the Central government ledby the Congress do not carry any con-viction. But, as far as the identifica-

tion of the persons and organisationsresponsible for the assault is con-cerned, there is enough in the reportto act upon.

The Central Bureau of Investigation,according to the Liberhan report,collected evidence in support of thefacts. Now the Congress seems tosuggest that the ATR would be basedonly on the recommendations andthat a supplementary charge sheetwill be filed only if new detailsemerge after further investigation.

On the basis of the LiberhanCommission report itself and earlierinvestigations, sufficient material isthere for prosecuting the various per-sons involved. The existing cases thatare there before the Rae Bareli andLucknow courts are on diluted charg-es against some of the BJP and RSSleaders. So, it is necessary for the go-vernment to take the initiative tolaunch more substantive cases.

The Liberhan report hasrecommended that a special law beenacted providing exemplarypunishment for misuse of religion,caste for political gains or illicitacquisition of political or otherpower. The ATR suggests that a Billto curb communal violence will beenacted. Is this measure enough?

As far as the Bill to curb commu-nal violence (Communal Violence,Prevention, Control and Rehabilita-tion of Victims, Bill) is concerned, ithas been pending for the past fiveyears. The UPA had promised tobring forth a Bill in the NationalCommon Minimum Programme in2004 itself. There is nothing new inwhat the ATR has to say on this.

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part in any political activity. On therecommendation for the establish-ment of a Criminal Justice Commis-sion to monitor the performance of alllaw enforcement agencies, the ATR re-sponds that the Law Commission willbe requested to study the proposal.

The ATR promises to refer to theElection Commission the recommen-dation that attempts to misuse reli-gious sentiments should result indisqualification of candidates. The go-vernment has said it will “further exa-mine” the recommendation that anygovernment formed on the basis of re-ligion or which has religious issues onits political agenda should be madeillegal. The commission has called forthe delinking of religion and politics atthe earliest, and the government says ithas noted the recommendation.

The ATR does not indicate any pu-nitive action against anyone held indi-vidually culpable but merely points tothe cases filed against BJP and SanghParivar leaders in various specialcourts in Lucknow and Rae Bareli.Cases have been filed against eight ac-cused in the Rae Bareli special court,while 47 other cases and a case against“lakhs of unknown kar sevaks” havebeen filed in the Lucknow specialcourt. The ATR states that steps will betaken to expedite the hearing of thesecases. How far this assurance will beimplemented is to be seen.

The reason provided by the com-mission to give a clean chit to the Nara-simha Rao government is bound togenerate considerable debate. Accord-ing to the report, the Narasimha Raogovernment was crippled by the failureof the intelligence agencies to providean analysis of the situation. “It stayedits hand deferring to the honourableSupreme Court, which had taken upthe matter and was dealing with it bygiving appropriate directions. The Su-preme Court was in turn misled by thepretentious undertakings given by theUttar Pradesh government and theleadership of the movement and theall-is-well reports by its rapporteur TejShankar. Without [the] proverbial legto stand on, there was little eithercould have done to forestall the deter-

mination of the perverted guardians ofdemocracy, who were in control in Ut-tar Pradesh.” This argument of thecommission is being questioned bysecular parties in the opposition.

Interestingly, the lapses of the thenCentral government have not meritedtertiary responsibility, but the com-mission has held some leaders and or-ganisations of the Muslim communityas having tertiary responsibility. It se-lectively refers to communal Muslimleaders as being obsessed with enhanc-ing political influence and self-gainand blames them for being mere bys-tanders during the entire period andputting forth a dismal performance.

“The Babri Masjid Action Commit-tee [BMAC] never set up or presentedany claim to the disputed structure inany negotiations and their stand was amerely simpliciter denial of the claimsof the Sangh Parivar,” the report says.It further says the Muslim leadershipprovided the rabid Hindu ideologuessufficient cause to instil fear into thecommon citizens of India and that theelite political Muslim leadership wasneither responsible nor caring for thewelfare of the community.

“ O V E R S H O T H I S B R I E F ” Referring to these observations, Za-frayab Jilani, leader of the BMAC anda member of the Muslim Personal LawBoard, told Frontline that Justice Li-berhan had obviously overshot hisbrief and the parameters of the com-mission. He added that Muslim orga-

nisations had never been summonedand if that had been done they couldhave got an opportunity to delineatewhat they were doing for the commu-nity. “The commission has made a wildcomment without even consideringthat our stand on the Babri Masjidissue has been consistent right fromthe 1950s,” Jilani told Frontline. Clear-ly, the report has evoked more criticalresponses than favourable ones evenfrom groups that should be happy withthe indictment of the Sangh Parivar.

At the political level, the presenta-tion of the report has opened up a kindof level playing field for various partiesinvolved with Ayodhya issues. TheCongress can highlight that it was un-der its regime that finally an indict-ment was made against the SanghParivar on the Babri Masjid demoli-tion. The BJP and other Sangh Parivarorganisations could close ranks on thisissue, leaving behind their recent his-tory of internal bickering and advocacyof contrasting political and ideologicalpositions.

For smaller parties such as the Sa-majwadi Party (S.P.) and the BahujanSamaj Party (BSP), which are majorplayers in Uttar Pradesh, the exoner-ation of the Narasimha Rao govern-ment could come in handy to initiatefresh mobilisation among seculargroups, particularly in the Muslimcommunity. The non-committal na-ture of the ATR could also be apoliticalinstrument in this context. Which ofthese possibilities ultimately becomesreal depends largely on concrete ma-noeuvres on the ground.

For civil society as a whole, the longand controversial history of the JusticeLiberhan Commission only underlinesthe futility of such exercises. Almost allsuch inquiry commissions have failedto come up with anything tangible, beit the Nanavati Commission thatprobed the anti-Sikh riots of 1984 orthe Srikrishna Commission thatlooked into the Mumbai riots of 1992-93. The ATRs on these commissionshave also nothing concrete to show,and the early trends of the LiberhanCommission ATR point to a similarending. �

JUSTICE M.S. Liberhan. His inquiryreport was tabled in Parliament onNovember 24 after portions of itwere published in the media.

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THE report of the Liberhan Ayodhya Commis-sion of Inquiry on the demolition of the Babri Masjidat Ayodhya on December 6, 1992, has invited crit-icism on two grounds. One, the commission took 17years to complete its proceedings. Second, it gave aseemingly unjustified clean chit to the then P.V.Narasimha Rao government at the Centre. The re-port addresses both the concerns, but the reasons ithas advanced are debatable.

The one-man commission, headed by JusticeM.S. Liberhan, has admitted that the completion ofthe report took a great deal of time, more thananyone had anticipated, and that it certainly exceed-ed the time that Justice Liberhan himself thought hewould have to spend on it. In the report, he hassought to absolve himself of any responsibility forthis delay and instead blames those within and out-side the commission for it.

The commission was set up on December 16,1992, in accordance with the Commissions of In-quiry Act, 1952, initially with the tenure of sixmonths. Its mandate was to ascertain the truth andthe facts and circumstances leading up to the demo-lition and to identify the persons responsible for theevent; the deficiencies in the security measures andother arrangements as prescribed or operated inpractice by the Government of Uttar Pradesh whichmight have contributed to the demolition; the se-quence of events leading to, and all the facts andcircumstances relating to, the assault on mediaper-sons at Ayodhya on December 6, 1992, and any othermatter relating to the subject of inquiry. It was a

roaming and fact-finding inquiry with no restrictivemandate. Therefore, the scope of the mandate was atodds with the limited tenure of the commission asoriginally conceived. It was thus inevitable that thegovernments in power kept on extending its termfrom two to six months each time its term was aboutto expire.

After 399 sittings and the examination of nearly100 witnesses, it finally submitted its report to theCentral government on June 30 this year. FormerUttar Pradesh Chief Minister Kalyan Singh was thelast witness to be examined, in 2005. The Centrespent Rs.8 crore on the commission, which includedthe salaries of the staff.

In the report, Justice Liberhan has contendedthat when he began working on this assignment, hewas still a Judge of the Punjab and Haryana HighCourt, and as the holder of a constitutional office hewas constrained by the dignity and demands of thatoffice. He has said that he had to deal with theintransigent bureaucratic mindset and style of func-tioning first and even obtaining basic facilities thatany commission would require took a huge amountof effort. He had to fall back reluctantly on theresources and staff of the Punjab and Haryana HighCourt in the beginning, the report says. Findingspace for an office for the commission, its staff andthe accommodation for them was in itself a Hercu-lean task, and after an inordinately long period, thecommission began its work with its office in Luck-now. (It later moved to New Delhi.) The UnionMinistry of Home Affairs provided to the commis-sion an investigating team consisting of officers who,at one point of time or the other, were part of theCentral Bureau of Investigation (CBI) team in casesregistered after the demolition, the report furthersays. The commission commenced its effective sit-tings from January 1993, but started regular hear-ings only from 1995.

S H O R T O F S T A F FThe commission’s work suffered a jolt when the staffdeputed to it by the Punjab and Haryana High Courtwas withdrawn midway. The commission never evenhad its full sanctioned strength of officers and ste-nographers. The short extensions of the commis-

Indefensible facts

The report has addressed both theconcerns, but the reasons it hasadvanced are debatable. Liberhanhas sought to absolve himself of anyresponsibility for the delay andinstead blames those within andoutside the commission for it.

The Liberhan Commission invites criticism for the delay in submitting its report

and for its clean chit to the Narasimha Rao government. B Y V . V E N K A T E S A N

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sion’s tenure disheartened the staff.The Central government extended theterm of the commission 48 times. Thelast extension was on March 31, 2009.

The fact that the government hadto extend the commission’s tenure somany times reveals a serious non-ap-plication of mind by the governmentand the Union Council of Ministerswhose approval is required for everyextension. Both the government andthe commission appear to have ig-nored the need to assess the nature andscope of the commission’s work andestimate the maximum time requiredto complete the task.

The frequent transfer of the com-mission’s secretary was another factor:

every new secretary took time to getacquainted with the commission’swork.

The commission first issued no-tices for eliciting information and in-vited affidavits from the generalpublic. Despite repeated advertise-ments, it got no relevant information,“not even any hearsay evidence or the-ories”, as the report puts it. Even theState and the Union governmentswere not forthcoming with the rele-vant records. The commission, there-fore, turned to public figures andrequested their appearance as witness-es. It served notices on political andnon-political parties who had partici-pated in the Ram Janmabhoomi/Ba-

bri Masjid movement as well as theCentral and Uttar Pradesh govern-ments. It issued subpoenas requiringthe presence and testimony of the wit-nesses and production of evidencethrough the media and public notices.The commission also visited the demo-lition site at Ayodhya.

Some individuals on whom thecommission had served notices ob-tained stay orders on them from theAllahabad and Delhi High Courts. TheDelhi High Court vacated the stay or-ders after a few years, but the Allaha-bad High Court’s stay on some noticesremained until the submission of thereport. As a result, the preliminarytask of collecting evidence suffered.

The Central government took anumber of years to examine a handfulof witnesses, whose role was limitedjust to the security aspects. The Cen-tral government, according to the re-port, made no attempt to examineanybody with respect to the conspiracyor a joint common enterprise resultingin demolition. Governments both atthe Centre and in the State changedduring the inquiry, necessitating afresh opportunity to be given to thenew governments to re-examine theirpositions. Periodical elections to theLok Sabha and the State Assembly putthe commission under constant pres-sure to ensure that none used its pro-ceedings for election campaign. Thecommission, therefore, had to awaitthe conclusion of an electoral processto go ahead with its proceedings.

It was not feasible to hold day-to-day proceedings of the commission as

FORMER PRIME MINISTER P.V. Narasimha Rao coming out of VigyanBhavan in New Delhi after deposing before the commission, in May 2002.

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Liberhan hasalleged that thecommission’sformer counsel,Anupam Gupta,reneged on hisduty.

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ANUPAM GUPTAwas counsel for the Li-berhan Commissionfor eight years be-tween 1999 and 2007,a period when most ofthe hearings were car-ried out. Gupta left thecommission becauseof differences withJustice Liberhan. Thisdoes find a mention inthe commission’s re-port as a factor that contributed to thedelay in preparing the report. Accord-ing to Gupta, the differences withJustice Liberhan revolved around thelatter’s eagerness to soft-pedal inves-tigations against L.K. Advani. The ar-guments used by Liberhan to painthim as the cause of the delay, Guptasays, are exactly those used by the BJPleader. Gupta presents his point ofview on the commission’s report andstates emphatically that the clean chitgiven to the P.V. Narasimha Rao go-vernment, which was in office at thetime of the demolition of the BabriMasjid, is nothing short of a sell-out.Excerpts from the interview:

As someone who had been theLiberhan Commission’s counsel forlong, how would you evaluate itsreport?

The report needs to be appraisedin both political and conceptualplanes. The political plane is the onewhich will occupy the national atten-tion for the next few days. This mayinvolve questions about immediate orshort-term political gains and losses.The conceptual plane refers to theprincipal theme of the report, whichwould have value for posterity. In thisplane, the most striking feature is thesearing attack on the RSS. The RSS isattacked not just as the umbrella or-

ganisation of the SanghParivar but as the alphaand omega of what hap-pens in the Sangh Parivar.

After seven years in thecommission and as some-body who had very close in-tellectual engagementwith the subject, I can saythat the attack on the RSShas considerable merit andan obvious secular valueand significance. Nonethe-

less, in the context of the Ayodhyadispute and the demolition of BabriMasjid, it is only a grand exercise inreductionism. It presents a grosslyoversimplified approach. It sees noth-ing but the hands and the brains ofthe RSS, to the extent that it obliter-ates the role of other organisationalplayers such as the VHP which aredirectly germane and vital to theAyodhya movement. This doesn’tpresent a correct historical picturebecause the VHP’s growth and role asan organisation is central to theAyodhya Ram Janmabhoomi move-ment.

Along with the reductionism is al-so the tendency for hyperbole. Andcollectively, they create many contra-dictions in the report. Take for ex-ample the critique of the Muslimorganisations in the sub-section re-ferring to this in the Conclusion. Thecomments virtually castigate themfor not going to war with the SanghParivar. If they were to follow thisadvice, the country’s socio-politicalatmosphere would have got vitiated,leading to catastrophes.

Are you saying that the Liberhanreport failed to delineate the finerpoints of the issue underconsideration?

I would go beyond the expression,

finer details. I would say that thewealth of information and details thatwas available with the commissionwas not properly marshalled and util-ised. [It was] even consciously andpurposely overlooked. For example,the commission has questioned lead-ers and officials on the use of paramil-itary force on the fateful day. It is inthe Annexure but never fully set outand unravelled in the main text of thereport. This is despite a wealth of doc-uments, correspondence and interro-gations at the commission’s disposal.In the final appraisal, the complicityof the State administration headed byKalyan Singh gets highlighted repeat-edly, but the role of the NarasimhaRao government is not properly ad-dressed. The chapter “President’sRule” deals with the role of Narasim-ha Rao and the Central government,but this is nothing short of a completesell-out. There is a complete and one-sided exoneration of Narasimha Raoand this destroys the credibility of theentire report. These 42 pages of thereport stand out as studies in contrastto the vast amount of pages dedicatedto the complicity of the State govern-ment.

But the commission’s argument isthat the Central government hadconstitutional limitations.

That is a line that came up beforethe commission during the hearingstoo. Narasimha Rao himself present-ed views echoing that. He used tocome for the interrogation armedwith law books and various judg-ments. And he argued better thanmany leading lawyers of the constitu-tional bench of the apex court. Butsomewhere along the line I got theimpression that it is too well re-hearsed and too constitutional an ar-gument to be credible. Therefore, I

‘Liberhan consciously overlooked the Interview with Anupam Gupta, lawyer. B Y V E N K I T E S H R A M A K R I S H N A N

ANUPAM GUPTA,WHO quit as counselfor the commission.

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confronted him with the reports ofthe Sarkaria Commission and the Ad-ministrative Reform Commissionwhich gave suo motu powers that theCentre can deploy in exceptional cir-cumstances. He pleaded that theConstitution did not permit him to doso. He cited the deletion of a provi-sion – Article 257(A) – which wouldhave empowered the Central govern-ment. The arguments in the reportthat seek to give a clean chit to Nara-simha Rao echo the very argumentsmade by the former Prime Minister.

You have used a very strong word,sell-out.

I have used that expression know-ing its implications full well and asresponsibly as it needs to be used. Iwould say that Justice Liberhan con-sciously and purposely overlookedthe wealth of information and intelli-gence available to the Central govern-ment regarding the actual evolvingsituation in Ayodhya in December1992. There are other clues in thereport that point towards mecha-nisms used to give a clean chit to theNarasimha Rao administration. Inthe introductory chapter, Justice Li-berhan says that it is not possible norit is necessary to give the gist of evi-dence in the report, and hence he isattaching the statement of thehundred witnesses as Annexure. Theremaining 16 volumes of the reportare depositions of 100 witnesses. SoLiberhan consciously chooses not toreproduce extracts or develop his ar-guments on the basis of that. He justrefers to some statements of some ofthe witnesses such as Vinay Katiya-rand Mahant Ramchandra Param-hans in a scattered and ad hocmanner. The essential methodologythroughout the report is to attempt togeneralise what they have said. Butwhen it comes to the chapter on Pres-ident’s Rule, this methodology is re-

versed. From cover to cover the actualwords of the deposition of NarasimhaRao is set out in great length and ininverted commas, without any at-tempt to disagree with him. Narasim-ha Rao’s rehearsed defence of studiedinaction is the report’s view on thesubject. There is no attempt to crit-icise the arguments.

What exactly do you mean when yousay there were other materials anddocuments that point to the failuresand mistakes of the Narasimha Raogovernment?

Narasimha Rao’s principal de-fence is based on references to theState government’s assurances. Healso focussed on the Governor’s letteron December 1, 1992. He had built upa structure of argument examiningeach and every strand of plea given inthe letter. I asked him two questionsbased on this: How much of this is theGovernor’s report and how much of itis a reflection of the State govern-ment’s view? His response was in-teresting. He said GovernorSatyanarayana Reddy was not an ap-pointee of the BJP, but was recom-mended during V.P. Singh’s time. Hesaid he was from Andhra Pradeshand he was a very secular man. Afterthat, in a written question, I askedhim how much of the Governor’s let-ter was a reflection of your own view.He responded thus: ‘As a person fac-ing a critical situation and yet what Isaw as real constraint, I kept an openmind with no preconceived elementin it. When I received the communi-cation of the Governor of U.P. on 1/12/1992, I saw it as an independentand objective assessment of the Gov-ernor with a categorical advice.’

If the Governor’s letter is to bebelieved, the U.P. government, thebureaucracy, the administration sim-ply cannot be indicted. The ‘constitu-tional limitations’ argument was

built upon this bottom line: “The SCof India accepted the State govern-ment’s assurances. The Governor issimilarly giving me [Rao] a similarassurance by way of his appraisal(which he refers to as ‘categorical ad-vice’). So there is nothing to show thatthe State government did not intendwhat it assured. If it turned out other-wise how can I be blamed?”

That argument has been acceptedlock, stock and barrel by Justice Li-berhan. The extremely discerning ap-proach he has adopted with the Stategovernment’s complicity is aban-doned for a contrary approach. Andtake a close look at the Governor’sreport. It is banal and hardly a differ-entiated analysis. Therefore to baseeverything on that is nothing short ofa travesty. And this Governor’s reportis dated December 1. Both before andespecially after this, the informationavailable with the Central govern-ment is, to say the least, not as un-critical as this. All this informationwas available with the commission.

You have said that the indictment ofVajpayee is not legally tenable.

That indictment revolts not onlymy legal understanding but sense ofethics too. The commission hadpassed a detailed order on July 22,2003, rejecting an application tosummon Vajpayee on the groundsthat there was no evidence on recordagainst him. At that time, the contro-versial speech made by Vajpayee onDecember 5 in Lucknow suggestingdemolition of the Babri Masjid hadnot come to the commission’s notice.Even when the story about a CD con-taining that speech was published, itwas not taken notice of by the com-mission. The right thing to do was tohave summoned Vajpayee even atthat time. Without doing that, howcan the commission arrive at such afinding?

wealth of information available’

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Justice Liberhan was a sitting Judge(and later a Chief Justice) discharginghis judicial functions as such, apartfrom the non-availability of lawyers forparties.

C O U N S E L B L A M E DJustice Liberhan has blamed the com-mission’s former counsel, AnupamGupta, for part of the delay in the con-clusion of its work. He has alleged thatGupta reneged on his duty to analyseand collate the evidence and the rec-ords and render advice to the commis-sion for its conclusions. Gupta hadfiled an application stating that he didnot wish to prejudge or prejudice theinquiry by assisting the commission.Justice Liberhan rejected this applica-tion vide a detailed order in his pres-ence. Justice Liberhan has also allegedthat Gupta reneged on his promise toprovide written submissions on the ba-sis of the material retained from thecommission. (See Gupta’s interviewfor his replies to these allegations.)

Justice Liberhan has found thatGupta was unable to retain an unbi-ased and impartial appearance as thecommission’s counsel. His politicalviews and opinions overshadowed hisprofessional role, Justice Liberhansays in the report. He has accusedGupta for breach of professional dutiesand betrayal of the trust reposed inhim as the commission’s counsel, withthe result of forestalling early submis-sion of the report.

Another intractable issue the com-mission faced was the tendency ofsome witnesses to deny what they hadstated in public. Former Chief Minis-ters Kalyan Singh and Mulayam SinghYadav had averred to the media thatthey were aware of the conspiracy todemolish the masjid. But before thecommission both denied having anyknowledge of such a conspiracy.

Section 8B of the Commissions ofInquiry Act makes it necessary for acommission to give a person a reason-able opportunity to be heard in theinquiry and to produce evidence in his/her defence if it considers it necessaryto inquire into his/her conduct or is ofthe opinion that the reputation of that

person is likely to be prejudicially af-fected by the inquiry. The report hasfound former Prime Minister Atal Bi-hari Vajpayee as individually culpablefor leading the country to the brink ofcommunal discord, in its concludingchapter (paragraph 171.1.7).

However, on July 28, 2003, thecommission had rejected the demandto summon Vajpayee, then PrimeMinister, for examination as a witness.The commission accepted the advice ofits then counsel, Anupam Gupta, thatit would serve no useful purpose tosummon the Prime Minister at thatstage of inquiry. In the absence of theissue of a notice to Vajpayee underSection 8B of the Act, the legitimacy ofthe commission placing him alongwith others individually culpable forthe demolition is disputable. JusticeLiberhan has defended this by claim-ing that the report does not indict Vaj-payee. But the report clearly causesprejudice to Vajpayee’s reputation, af-ter giving him no opportunity of beingheard, as Section 8B requires.

I N D E F E N C E O F N A R A S I M H A R A OThe commission is of the view thatPresident’s Rule ought to have beenimposed in the State prior to the dem-olition – as evidenced by the events ofDecember 1992 and later.

However, it adds that the constitu-tional restraints imposed on the Cen-tral government were cleverly utilisedby the State government of the time todeprive it of this option. A careful read-ing of the report’s chapter on ‘Presi-

dent’s Rule’ suggests that thecommission accepted the then PrimeMinister P.V. Narasimha Rao’s de-fence rather uncritically. In his deposi-tions before the commission,Narasimha Rao explained that Article356, enabling the imposition of Presi-dent’s Rule in a State by the Centre,could not be used for preventive pur-poses and that its object was to enablethe Union of India to take remedialaction consequent upon a breakdownof the constitutional machinery. Nara-simha Rao also claimed that the thenGovernor of Uttar Pradesh hadwarned the Centre against imposingPresident’s Rule as, in his view, such astep could lead to large-scale violenceresulting in the demolition of the dis-puted structure.

To a question by the commissionwhether the Sarkaria Commission (onCentre-State relations) concluded thatCentral forces could be deployed suomotu even against the consent of theState in exceptional situations, Nara-simha Rao answered that it was pos-sible, but added that in the absence ofany positive power given to the Centralgovernment in the Constitution, infer-ential powers were not generally re-sorted to. As a result of this flawedunderstanding, the Central govern-ment sent repeated communicationsto and had parleys with the State go-vernment led by Kalyan Singh, implor-ing him to use the paramilitary forcesstationed at Ayodhya to avoid the ca-tastrophe. Needless to add, the Centralgovernment was reduced to the posi-tion of a helpless bystander during thedemolition.

This is how the commission hasjustified the Narasimha Rao govern-ment’s inaction: “The onus for thecampaign of disinformation must restsolely with the State government whodeliberately and consciously under-stated the risk to the disputed struc-ture and general law and order. Thisobfuscation of the ground reality de-prived the Central government of thebasic prerequisites for imposing Presi-dent’s Rule.”

Historians, however, will disagreewith such an assessment. �

In July 2003,the commissionrejected thedemand tosummonVajpayee forexamination.

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DWIJENDRA NARAYAN JHA, an eminent his-torian, has campaigned extensively against the com-munalisation of history. His book Myth of the HolyCow,wherein he dispelled popular misconceptionsthat Muslims introduced beef-eating in India, cre-ated ripples in political circles. An ardent critic of theHindu nationalist ideology, Jha, along with threeother historians, sought to prove in a report, “Ram-janmabhoomi–Babri Masjid: A Historians’ Reportto the Nation”, that there was no evidence of theexistence of a Ram temple under the Babri mosqueand that the controversy was created by the SanghParivar for political gains. In an interview to Fron-tline, he talks about his findings in Ayodhya and therole of professional historians in countering hatepolitics for a better nation-building process.Excerpts:

With the Liberhan Commission’s report indictingseveral top and second-rung leaders of the SanghParivar, what will be the status of the original BabriMasjid-Ram Janmabhoomi dispute?

Well, in my view, this has no bearing on theoriginal dispute. I have seen the ATR [Action TakenReport] and I didn’t find anything there that has anyimplication for what will happen to the dispute. TheLiberhan report doesn’t talk about the original dis-pute. That matter is still pending in court. I thinkthere should be a day-to-day trial, and the judiciaryshould expedite the whole matter now that the re-port is out. Those who have been named should be

brought to court; but my own feeling is that theGovernment of India does not seem enthusiasticabout taking action against any of those who arenamed in the list of 68 people.

Justice M.S. Liberhan has also said that the Muslimorganisations failed to protect the interests of thepeople they claimed to represent. How valid is thisopinion?

That would be a very remote conclusion one candraw. You see fundamentalism of all sorts. Maybesome Muslim organisations have heightened theconsciousness of the community to protect the mon-ument, but that’s about all. But if you say that theseorganisations gave implicit instigation to convertpeople to fundamentalism, I don’t think so.

‘State should relyon historians’“I think the dispute is really anartefact created by the Hindutvacamp for fundamentalist purposes.If you look at the historical textsand evidence, Ram Janmabhoomidoes not find prominence.”

Interview with D.N.Jha, eminent historian. B Y A J O Y A S H I R W A D M A H A P R A S H A S T A

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D.N. JHA: “Historians who come in proximity topower change their secular lines, too.”

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Could you briefly tell us about thefindings of the independent reportprepared by M. Athar Ali, Suraj Bhan,R.S. Sharma and you?

The Babri Masjid was built by MirBaqi, a military officer in the kingdomof the Mughal ruler Babur, in 1528-29.The main contention of the Sangh Pa-rivar is that the mosque was built bydemolishing a Ram temple and that itwas the birthplace of Rama. But it wasonly in 1948-49 that you see a mirac-ulous appearance of idols under Go-bind Ballabh Pant’s chief ministership[of the United Provinces] and Nehru’sprime ministership. Between then andthe mid-1970s, one does not hear ofthis controversy at all. It was only afterthe VHP [Vishwa Hindu Parishad]came into being that it started talkingabout Kashi, Mathura and Ayodhya aspilgrimage centres. Gradually in 1986,you see the opening of the locks [of themasjid] and, subsequently, the shila-nyaas.

All these developments coincidedwith the emergence of the VHP as astrong force and other organisationssuch as the Bajrang Dal and the RSS[Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh] inthe Hindutva camp. They made politi-cal use of it.

I think the dispute is really an arte-fact created by the Hindutva camp forfundamentalist purposes that culmi-nated in the demolition of the mosquein 1992. Before 1992, slogans like“Mandir wohin banayenge”, and “thisis Ram’s janmabhoomi [birthplace]”rent the air in North India. But if youlook at the historical texts and evi-dence, Ram Janmabhoomi does notfind prominence.

For instance, a very important text,Skanda Purana, speaks of Ayodhyamahatma [greatness]. Only 100 vers-es are devoted to the ascent of Rama toheaven from a place called Swargad-war at the confluence of the riverGhaggar and the river Saryu. It existseven now. But only 10 verses are devot-ed to his birth. This shows that hisbirthplace was not important but whatwas important was the place fromwhere he went to heaven. Only Swar-gadwar was a tirtha (centre of pilgrim-

age). In the 11th century textTatvachintamani by Bhatta LakshmiDhar, the list of pilgrimages is detailedextensively. It is a very long list. Theauthor was a minister in the Gahrwalkingdom, which ruled even Ayodhya atthat time. He does not mention Ayod-hya as a centre for pilgrimage in “Tir-thavivechan Kanda” [a sectiondevoted to pilgrimage centres in thebook].

Now, take, for instance, Tulsidas,the author of Ramacharitamanas. Hewrites about Rama and Ayodhya butnever says that a Rama temple wasdemolished. I don’t understand whythese people made so much of hullaba-loo about the temple.

Other types of archaeological evi-dence also show that in the whole ofNorth India, there were no templesexclusively devoted to Rama until thelate 17th-early 18th century. In SouthIndia, you find them since the Cholaperiod (10th-12th century) but not inNorth India. Two or three temples ofRama belonging to the 12th centuryare found in Madhya Pradesh but notin Uttar Pradesh, not in Bihar, noteven in Orissa. Ram temples becamecommon in North India only in the17th century.

The famous temple devoted to Sitaat Janakpur in Nepal Tarai came uponly in the late 18th-early 19th century.I don’t think there is enough historicalevidence about the temple. In factAyodhya was important for other reli-gions, such as Jainism and Buddhism.The Chinese pilgrim Xuan Zhang[who toured the subcontinent duringthe Gupta period, around A.D. 630]recorded that there were around 100Buddhist monasteries and only 10abodes of devas [brahmanical gods].Vishnu Smriti also lists 85 pilgrimcentres very early in 3rd-4th centuryA.D. but it does not name Ayodhya.What I am trying to say, even for argu-ment’s sake, is that if there was a tem-ple so important at Ayodhya, it shouldhave existed in the literary and archae-ological evidence before 1528 when themosque was built.

At least, it should have existed inthe 11th-12th century.

Before the demolition of the masjid,Professor B.B. Lal of theArchaeological Survey of India hadclaimed to have found ‘evidence ofpillar bases’ of a mandir beneath theBabri Masjid. Indologist Koenraad Elstalso writes about the [existence of a]temple. Some have said that themosque was called Masjid-e-janmasthaan. What is, then, the basisof such claims?

B.B. Lal in his first report on Ayod-hya did not mention any temple. Hesays that the upper-most layers arerepresented by Kankar [stone] andother things. In 1985-86 he retiredfrom the ASI and began to change histune. He began to say that the pillars ofthe mosque might indicate a pre-exist-ing temple. But that was all tongue-in-cheek. Then, subsequently, in a paperhe presented [at a seminar] in Patnahe said that he had not found any evi-dence of a Rama temple at Ayodhyaand urged Mother Earth to forgive himfor this. Later on, at another seminarin Vijaywada, he said that the only wayto solve the problem was to excavatethe area, which meant demolishing themosque. He and his camp started say-ing that something should be done todemolish the mosque. There was al-ready the PWD’s [Public Works De-partment] levelling work and kar sevagoing on there.

Archaeology is a scientific activityand cannot be done like this. The pil-lars are, in fact, 1.70 metres in heightand the experts who went with us tovisit the site said that these pillarscould not be load-bearing pillars. Themosque had three big domes and theheight of the 16 pillars did not suggestthat they were part of a temple. Whatmay have happened is that they couldhave been brought from outside fordecorative purposes. What is impor-tant is that the area does not have thatkind of pillar stone. The art historianswhom we consulted said that these pil-lars could be from Bengal and musthave been brought by the Palas whoruled the area.

Even the word janmasthaan doesnot exist in any of the texts. SkandaPurana is an amorphous text and its

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composition stretches over centuries,from the 14th century to the 18th cen-tury. It is only in the last stage [aroundthe 18th century] that janmasthaan ismentioned in passing. So, the wholeidea becomes important only in the19th century. There were conflicts, ofcourse, but there is no evidence to sup-port them. It is important to see that inthe earlier period, we do not get anysculptures from Ayodhya. There aretwo or three catalogues in museums inUttar Pradesh. One in Lucknow, onein Allahabad and one in Faizabad,which is Ayodhya. None of the cata-logues mentions Rama.

The VHP movement around the Ramtemple started only in the 1970s afterthe Paramhans vs Wakf Board case.How did Ayodhya become a centre ofcontention? Does colonial knowledgeformation play a part in thecontroversy as some historians try tosuggest?

The British might have had so-mething to do with this. But in Ayod-hya, there were around 6,000 templesin the 19th and the early 20th century.It is likely that there were propertydisputes like the Wakf Board and theParamhans court case. Such court cas-es might be a legacy of the past. Even ifthe Britishers played a role, how does itmatter? It could have been their meth-od of governance, instigating the exist-ing conflicts. The point is that therewas no temple.

The VHP and leaders like PravinTogadia have given an estimate ofaround 30,000 temple sites wheremosques came up in India. Templepolitics such as the Ayodhya case hashad a calamitous impact on nationalcontemporary politics, leading tokillings and riots in the past twodecades. The American historianRichard M. Eaton’s “Essays on Islamand Indian History” is probably theonly book that studies the templedesecration issue and pegs thenumber of desecrated temples at 80between 1192 and 1760 as aconsequence of political compulsionand not because of religious

righteousness. As a historian, do yousee the need for more such studies tocounter the growing fascist influenceon history writing?

Yes, of course. This will ultimatelyhelp to unite different religious com-munities and help in nation building.How do people like Togadia come upwith such a figure? If historians takeup such studies it will reduce themuch-hyped hostilities. Togadia andothers speak of Muslim hostility to-wards Hindus. But what happened inKarnataka? Lingayats occupied Jaintemples. They put their tilak [a Hindusymbol] on Jain statues, appropriatedother religious places of worship. Infact, Jains were so much oppressed bythe Lingayats that they had to seekprotection from the Vijaynagara rul-ers. In Tamil Nadu, 8,000 Jains wereimpaled at a Madurai court, as men-tioned in a historical text. It is not onlyMuslims who did it. This has beendone by all religions. Similar thingshappened in Europe also. Churcheswere damaged by Muslims. Sects with-in Christianity fought against eachother. We always say that Hinduism isthe most tolerant. If there is anythinglike the Hindu, there is a streak ofintolerance in all historical texts.Vaishnavas and Saivites have foughtall the time.

As was understood in Ayodhya andnow at many other places in India, adisputed structure has manymeanings and emotions attached to it– religious, territorial, property, classand caste. In your view what is a

disputed structure and what are itspolitical implications?

The common people are not both-ered about these disputes. There is aclass understanding to it. When wewent to Ayodhya, we didn’t find anyMuslim or Hindu living there who wasinterested in the controversy. Kar se-vaks were mobilised from outside andused for political purposes. What I amsaying is that if there is a disputedstructure anywhere and the local peo-ple are not bothered, the state shouldsee to it that it does not flare up. Onlythose who belong to the elite and whoare likely to gain something out of theconflict are interested. How does thestate function? They are talking of Ra-ma now. In Delhi itself, there are thou-sands of Hanuman temples that havecome up on illegally occupied govern-ment land and the state is not playingany role in stopping it.

Our Constitution identifies reli-gion while defining secularism but itdoesn’t say that a state official canidentify himself as belonging to onereligion while doing his duty. Whenthe first President of India, RajendraPrasad, went to take a dip in the Gangaat Prayag [Allahabad], there was acontroversy. People objected to hisperforming the religious ritual withthe presidential paraphernalia. But to-day, no one objects to such thingswhen the Prime Minister goes to agurdwara. People are against givingany subsidy for Hajj pilgrimage. Butno one questions the huge amount ofstate money spent at the Vaishno Devitemple [Katara, Jammu and Kash-mir] or for the Amarnath Yatra andthe Kumbh Mela.

Ayodhya is a clear case of politics thatrelied heavily on the study ofhistorical ‘facts’. What is a historicalfact and how should the state look atit in the methods of governance? Eventhe state is following different seculartrajectories. Liberhan has quotedAmartya Sen while pushing the valuesof secularism, in a way keeping in linewith the ‘facts’ that have come out ofyour school of history. In 2003, thesame judicial machinery within a

“The commonpeople are notbothered aboutthese disputes.There is a classunderstandingto it.”

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nation state implicitly validated thefacts of the school of historyrepresented by the likes of B.B. Lalwhen the Allahabad High Court(Lucknow Bench) ordered a probe tofind out about the existence of thetemple. How, as a professionalhistorian who is in a position tocritique both the state and thecommunal forces, do you locateyourself in society and how dohistorians participate in thesecomplexities through history writing,given the complex nature of historicalinterpretations?

I think historians and social scien-tists have to come out very clearly andsay that there cannot be a state reli-gion, and a nation state cannot be builton the basis of religion. The stateshould rely on historians and not onwhat the courts say.

The Allahabad High Court order ofexcavation was not in good taste be-cause the court doesn’t have any aca-demic credentials. Even the ASI’sfindings are awful. It takes help fromTojo Vikas International, which has noarchaeological expertise. It uses theGPR [Ground Penetration Radar],which has nothing to do with archaeol-ogy.

Their conclusions are that thereare certain anomalies and disturbanc-es under the ground. What does thatmean? It is a site 2,000 years old andthere can be anomalies for anythinglike earthquakes or conflicts betweendifferent groups or hundreds of rea-sons.

Archaeological evidence becomesimportant in their context of physicalrelationship to the surroundings in acertain material culture.

In order to resolve the dispute overfact, the best thing is to have B.B. Laland other historians sit in front of thecourt and debate. The court could thendecide on what convinces it on the ba-sis of rationality. That is one of theways.

There was a system of vaad-vivaad(debate) and shaastrath [interpreta-tion of shastras] in ancient times. Thecourt should take into account the pa-tron-client relationship, like the one

B.B. Lal has with the BJP. The Liber-han Commission has recommendedsetting up a national commission tolook into the masjid-mandir dispute,but the Government of India refusedto have that, citing the existence of theASI. My point is: Where was the ASIwhen the mosque was demolished? Iparticipated in the series of deliber-ations that took place between the Ba-bri Masjid group and the VHP group,and I always found that the ASI’s standwas equivocal. We were given access toantiquities, but the ASI didn’t give usthe site notebook of Trench 4, whichwas the crucial evidence for judgingwhether there was anything under-ground.

The site notebook is the only rec-ord of day-to-day excavation detail asafter excavation the ground is filledwith earth. There should be an autono-mous national commission constitu-ted by historians and archaeologistsboth from India and outside.

The ASI should be taken awayfrom the Culture Ministry and made apart of the national commission, and,perhaps, statutory if it is required. TheASI should be made accountable to thecommission.

There seems to be a gap betweenhistory in classrooms and popularhistorical notions, as is clearlyreflected in the Ram Janmabhoomicase. Similarly, the state tries tocreate its own history as part ofnation building and the political

parties teach another kind of historyfor indoctrination. How do you assessthe role of a professional historian inengaging with popular history toreshape historical understandingamong the masses? Do you see anyspace in between from where historywriting is possible in order to create aharmonious society instead of adivisive one?

I think, in this regard, historiansare at fault to a certain extent. If pro-fessional historians write for the peo-ple that will ultimately have someimpact.

In Gujarat, what happened in2002 can be attributed to the kind ofhistory that was being taught in theState for the past 40 years. In NorthIndia, schools like Sishu Mandir andVidya Bharati are teaching non-histo-ry in the name of history.

Ninety per cent of professional his-torians are the most secular people inthe country, but the state has to play agreater role in unifying the educationsystem. Anything that is not borne outby rationality and evidence should bestopped altogether by the state.

The problem, however, is that edu-cation is both a Central and a Statesubject. The NCERT brings out modeltextbooks, but the States do not adoptthem. They make their own changes.Secularisation of education and pro-motion of scientific temper should be astate effort. Otherwise, whatever his-torians write, it won’t be of any help. Idon’t see any indication of this in theATR. The state makes its own compro-mises according to political pressure,as was seen in the Ram Setu case re-cently.

Historians who come in proximityto power change their secular lines,too. There should be an atmosphere ofdialogue in the academic community.Intellectuals should come out in theopen and say that there was no Ramtemple in Ayodhya, which most ofthem believe. They should make theirassumptions clear to the reader andthen be as objective as possible in writ-ing history. Only then the reader willjudge the writer and historical factsbetter. �

“The best thingis to have B.B. Lal andother historianssit in front ofthe court anddebate.”

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THE last leg of the climate change talks held inBarcelona, Spain, on November 2-6 in the run-up tothe all-important 15th Conference of the Parties(COP-15) to the United Nations Framework Con-vention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Copenh-agen in December did not result in any dramaticdevelopment that could break the impasse in thenegotiations, which has been in evidence since theJune meeting in Bonn where the 200-page Negotiat-ing Text, including the proposals of Japan and Aus-tralia and an Implementing Agreement of theUnited States, was drafted; it was later consolidatedand adopted (along with all the multitude of squarebrackets) in Bangkok.

Copenhagen is expected to provide answers tothree key issues: What legally binding carbon emis-sion reduction targets will developed (Annex-1)countries commit to? What actions will major devel-oping (non-Annex-1) countries take to limit theirs?How will the emission mitigation and adaptation toclimate change by developing countries be support-ed and managed with finance and technology?

The contours of the negotiations at COP-15 arealready apparent. Copenhagen, in all likelihood, willnot produce any agreement on the commitmentsand actions of developed and developing countriesrespectively in the post-2012 phase of the KyotoProtocol (KP) that is acceptable to all the parties.Nor is it likely to resolve issues of money and tech-nology. In fact, there is an imminent danger of avirtual termination of the Kyoto Protocol (whichcame into force in 2005), the dismantling of the BaliAction Plan (BAP) formulated at COP-13 in Decem-ber 2007 as the guiding road map towards Copenh-agen, and the undermining of the basic tenet of“common but differentiated responsibilities and re-spective capabilities (CBDR)” of the Convention (Ar-

ticle 3.1) on which the KP is founded and the BAPwas formulated. Already a “political declaration”,instead of a legally binding “agreed outcome”, isbeing talked about. For instance, the Danish PrimeMinister and the host of the Copenhagen Summit,Lars Lokke Rasmussen, said in Singapore: “Even ifwe may not hammer out the last dots of a legallybinding instrument, I do believe a political bindingagreement with specific commitment to mitigationand finance provides for a strong basis for immediateaction in the years to come.” A facade clearly, forwhen has a political declaration by heads of statesever become a binding instrument?

This was already becoming evident at the previ-ous round of talks in Bangkok (September 28-Octo-ber 9) when developed countries failed to putnumbers on the table towards effecting deep cuts intheir carbon emissions as required by science mar-shalled by the Intergovernmental Panel on ClimateChange (IPCC) in its Fourth Assessment Report(AR4) of 2007. According to AR4, 25-40 per centreduction in emissions by 2020, and 80-95 per centreduction by 2050, from 1990 levels by developedcountries is required if catastrophic and irreversibleconsequences of climate change, whose effects arealready being felt, are to be avoided.

However, according to an August 19 statement ofthe UNFCCC Secretariat, the “possible emission lim-itation and reduction objectives” as agreed by An-nex-1 parties amount only to a 16-23 per centreduction by 2020, well short of the AR4 prescrip-tions as well as the demand of 40 per cent reductionsmade by G-77/China. If the target of 17-20 per centcut of the U.S. (which is not a party to the KP) a laWaxman-Markey/Kerry-Boxer Bills is included, theaggregate reductions come down to a paltry 11-18 percent. And the apparently more ambitious cuts pro-

Road to Copenhagen

If there is no agreement at COP-15, there is adanger of the Kyoto Protocol being terminated andthe Bali Action Plan dismantled; the basic tenetson which these are founded may be undermined.

It has been a bumpy ride, with developed countries failing to make definite

commitments and India hinting at a shift of stance. B Y R . R A M A C H A N D R A N

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posed by the European Union, Japanand the United Kingdom come withcaveats of “comparable” reductions bynon-parties to the KP and major devel-oping countries (read India and Chi-na). Further a substantial fraction ofthe targets is proposed to be achievedthrough “offsets” in non-Annex-1countries – the U.K., for example, aimsto reduce 50 per cent of its target in thepower sector through offsets – andother carbon market mechanisms.

Indeed, compared to the overall5.2 per cent reduction from 1990 levelsrequired of Annex-1 countries – to beeffected by 2012 when the first phaseof this legally binding target comes toan end – there has been an 11.2 per centincrease in emissions since 1990.Moreover, there is an increasing trendin the emissions of Economies in Tran-sition, which until 2000 was maskingthe increasing emissions of Annex-1countries. This will no doubt pushemissions further up in the near fu-ture, unless Annex-1 countries, whichare entirely responsible for the immi-nent climate change owing to theircurrent and historical emissions ofCO2 into the atmosphere, accept im-mediate and drastic cuts, but suchcommitments are not on the anvil.

Globally, too, emissions are risingsteadily because emissions of devel-oping countries, which have the im-peratives of development and povertyalleviation, are increasing. And hereinlies the rationale in the climate con-vention for “differentiated responsibil-ities” and a quantified reduction targetonly for Annex-1 countries in the firstphase of the KP and the subsequentphases of the protocol. While the de-veloped countries are responsible fornearly three-fourths of the historicalstock of emissions, they, with less thana fifth of the world population, stillaccount for over half of the currentemissions. The U.S. alone, with just 4.5per cent of the population, is theworld’s largest emitter accounting forover 21 per cent of the current CO2

emissions.The chief barrier to an effective

agreement at COP-15 is this discon-nect between the U.S., with no legally

binding emissions reduction commit-ments, and the rest of the world. TheU.S. is, in fact, the chief provocateur ofthe current move to dismantle the pre-sent climate regime. With the concert-ed attempt by Annex-1 countries, ledby the U.S. and supported by its cheerleaders, to turn the tables on non-An-nex-1 countries and push for an alto-gether new instrument or treaty thaterodes the distinction between devel-oped and developing countries, the di-visions between the contendinggroups have only got deeper. In fact,there would seem to be a deliberatepropaganda move by developed coun-tries to talk of expiry of the KP in 2012as is evident in many media reports,Rasmussen’s interview with Reuterson November 2, for example.

Since the U.S. had refused to be-come party to the protocol, the BAPopened a new negotiating track underthe UNFCCC to bring the U.S. intonegotiations for the post-2012 phase.A new Ad hoc Working Group forLong-Term Cooperative Action(AWG-LCA) was set up at Bali to coveraspects of the UNFCCC of which theU.S. is a member. The other track, theKyoto track, with the Ad hoc WorkingGroup on Further Commitments forAnnex-1 parties under the Kyoto Pro-tocol (AWG-KP), which was set up inDecember 2005, would negotiate thenew targets for Annex-1 countries (mi-nus the U.S.) in the second commit-ment period beginning 2013, throughan amendment to the protocol as man-dated by its Article 3.9. These negotia-tions were to have been completed byApril 2009 and the draft report was tohave been finalised by June so that itcould be taken up for discussions inCopenhagen. But there has been hard-ly any progress in all these.

Yvo De Boer, Executive Secretaryof the UNFCCC, said that a successful“agreed outcome” needed to capture alevel of ambition commensurate withthe scale of the problem, which in-cluded ambitious emission reductiontargets by Annex-1 parties. Clearly,that is not in evidence at all but there isa push to make non-Annex-1 countriesagree to verifiable mitigation actions

and to shift the mitigation burden onto developing countries directly as wellas indirectly through “offsets” by An-nex-1 countries and other marketmechanisms, which are not only zero-sum instruments but have so farproved highly inefficient.

Likewise, AWG-LCA is also sup-posed to arrive at an “agreed outcome”to be adopted at Copenhagen. TheBAP mandated negotiations on thistrack to reach an agreement for now,up to and beyond 2012 on a “sharedvision” of what parties aim to achieve,including a long-term goal for emis-sion reductions, as well as on the BAP’s“four pillars”: mitigation, includingquantified commitments from An-nex-1 countries and Nationally Appro-priate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs) bydeveloping countries, adaptation,technology transfer and financingmechanism to support mitigation andadaptation in developing countries.These two outcomes, corresponding tothe twin tracks under the UNFCCCand the KP, are substantively and op-eratively distinct. While the legality ofthe first track would follow from theKP, that of the latter is uncertain.

Under the AWG-LCA, however,the U.S. has proposed a bottom-up ap-proach instead of the KP which callsfor economy-wide targets for all theparties that would be binding througha “pledge and review” approach. Underthis proposal, which was first mootedin Bonn in June, each nation would

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JAIRAM RAMESH, UNION Minister of State for Environment and Forestswith R.K. Pachauri, Director-General, The Energy and Resources Institute, at the release of the report "GREEN India 2047" in New Delhi on November20. The Minister has advocated abandoning of G-77 and aligning with G-20.

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TYpledge national mitigation actions, in-cluding “formulation and submissionof low-carbon strategies towards anemissions pathway to 2050’, which areopen to an internationally agreedmechanism of measurement, report-ing and verification (MRV). WhileMRV is generally acceptable to devel-oping countries only for NAMAs thatare supported by finance and technol-ogy from the developed countries, theU.S.’ all-encompassing proposal of“mitigation elements common to allparties” was perceived by developingcountries to be inconsistent with theConvention and beyond the BAP man-date, and that it blurred the distinctionbetween developed country mitigationcommitments and developing countrymitigation actions. The Bangkok talks,in fact, began with a clash on this issue.

However, the U.S. insisted that itwould not move forward without theproposal being discussed. In fact, itwas during this intervention in Bang-kok that the U.S. negotiator said thatthe Indian Minister of State for Envi-ronment and Forests (MoEF), JairamRamesh, had taken a broader interpre-tation (read acceding to the U.S. pro-posal) as against the Indiannegotiators (Frontline, November 20).Owing to this apparent shift in stance

of the Indian executive, much to thediscomfiture of the Indian negotiators,India would seem to have lost the trustof G-77/China. This was particularly inevidence in Barcelona.

The E.U. too supported this U.S.position towards evolving a single in-tegrated instrument that would be amerger of the “agreed outcomes” ofthese two tracks. It argued that thisnew instrument would pick the keyelements of the KP towards a new ar-chitecture to limit emissions in thepost-2012 phase. Indeed, the draftprotocols of Japan, Australia and theU.S. made in Bonn favoured a newbinding single instrument under theUNFCCC. This found the informalsupport of other developed countries,including the E.U., Canada, New Zea-land and Russia. This move, which wasborne out of the developed countries’demand of mitigation commitments ofmajor developing countries such asChina and India, essentially amountsto killing the KP because it is premisedon the differentiated architecture be-tween developed and developingcountries, which the single instrumentaims to do away with. This would es-sentially mean that developed coun-tries would seek a single “agreedoutcome” from the second track AWG-

LCA alone, which does not have a legalunderpinning of the KP track. That is,any commitments under it would notbe legally binding unless it is agreed toand given legal teeth as a new treaty orprotocol.

“The train,” said Su Wei, head ofthe Chinese delegation to Bangkok,“that started on a two-track railwayshould have already been acceleratedso as to arrive in Copenhagen in time.But to our great disappointment anddismay…on the one hand, new road-blocks are going to be placed on theConvention track…and the train is go-ing to be derailed. On the other, thetwo-track train is suddenly pushed on-to a single track and the train is goingto be topside down.”

A U S T R A L I A N P R O P O S A LThe Australian proposal is a “sched-ules approach” that would be applica-ble to all countries, not unlike the tariffreduction schedules of the WorldTrade Organisation (WTO), which hasbeen supported by many developedcountries. By requiring all countries tofollow the same schedules approach,this proposal clearly removes all dis-tinction between Annex-1 and non-Annex-1 countries. According to this,each party would submit a nationalschedule containing its mitigationstrategies and emissions pathway thatare dependent on national circum-stances, capacities and capabilities.These could be in the form of econo-my-wide targets, from sectoral effi-ciency norms to technology andindustrial process standards. This ap-proach is quite along the lines of theU.S.’ Implementing Agreement, and itis quite conceivable that some devel-oping countries could be pressured toaccept this and submit their domesticactions to a central “registry” and besubjected to international verification.

The proposal requires developingcountries “whose national circum-stances reflect greater responsibility orcapability” to take nationally appro-priate mitigation commitments and/or actions aimed at achieving substan-tial deviation from baselines”. Whiledeviation from baselines of Business

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As Usual (BAU) is certainly desirable,and essential, from the developingcountries’ perspective, subjectingthem to MRV amounts to commit-ment, which is against the BAP, partic-ularly if they are unsupported actionsin terms of finance and technology.This differentiation within the groupof developing countries is inconsistentwith the UNFCCC as is also the MRVstructure proposed by the U.S.

In Bangkok, the U.S. proposed anadditional structure for MRV of miti-gation actions that indicates one par-ticular manner in which thedistinction between developed and de-veloping countries was being sought tobe removed in these proposals. TheU.S. has invoked Articles 4.1 (a) and 12to extend this proposed MRV struc-ture to all parties. This obviously is incontravention of the UNFCCC be-cause it ignores Articles 4.2, 4.3, 4.4and 4.7, which requires that developedcountries take the lead in limitinggreenhouse gas (GHG) emissions aswell as in assisting non-Annex-1 coun-tries through finance and technology.

The proposed structure requiresall, except least developed countries(LDC), to provide “annual invento-ries”. Though it prescribes a differen-tiated reporting timetable, it requiresdeveloped countries and developingcountries with greater than [X] percent of world emissions – which is notthe same way the UNFCCC differen-tiates the two groups – to report everytwo or three years. It has thus created anew category. Significantly, it talks ofonly aggregate and not per capitaemissions.

But there is an essential differencebetween the U.S’ ImplementingMechanism proposal and the otherproposals. While all of them amount tothe demise of the KP, the latter couldinclude a legally binding mechanism(for the individual NAMAs) under theUNFCCC, but the U.S. proposal im-plies being legally bound only underdomestic law but admissible to inter-national MRV. It is clear that such aninstrument, based as it is on unilateral-ly declared non-prescriptive and non-treaty-linked mitigation measures of

developed countries, is unlikely to re-sult in emission reductions on the scalerequired by science. This is already evi-dent from the lowly individual pledgesand cuts envisaged under the U.S. law.

The very inclusion of these propos-als in the negotiating text meant a dis-cussion on “mitigation elementscommon to all parties” in Bangkok,which led to a non-paper by the Chair(No. 28) that collated the proposals ofthe U.S., Australia, Canada and Japan,all of which argued for a single in-strument that is a priori legally non-binding. This paper was further dis-cussed in Barcelona but without anyresolution because of the unequivocalopposition by G-77/China. This willtravel to Copenhagen as well. Whilenew texts on finance and technologydid result, Barcelona witnessed almostzero progress. Acrimonious debatesand wrangling over the same issuescontinued. The discussions on whatare “comparable” measures, what isthe duration of the second commit-ment period and the role of marketmechanisms and “offsets”, importantper se, took place but seemed pointlesswhen the basic issue of deep cuts bydeveloped countries in their GHGemissions remained unresolved.

S U B M I S S I V EWhere does India figure in all this?Jairam Ramesh’s controversial letterto the Prime Minister (Frontline, No-vember 20), where he openly advocat-ed abandoning G-77 and aligning withG-20, and his statement at the pre-COP ministerial conference in Co-penhagen on November 16-17 reflectthe Indian executive’s submissive ac-ceptance of developed countries’ aban-doning of the KP for the illusive statureof a superpower and an elusive Secur-ity Council seat.

While the pre-COP statement doesnot go as far as openly accepting theAustralian framework, it does offer do-mestic mitigation actions that are un-supported by finance and technologyto be available for international con-sultations and external scrutiny as wellas bi-annual reporting of domestic ac-tions as required by the U.S. frame-

work. This apparently is thegovernment’s bid to take a flexible ap-proach at the climate negotiations sothat it is seen as a deal maker and not adeal breaker.

Indeed, this also comes through inthe joint statement of Prime MinisterManmohan Singh and U.S. PresidentBarack Obama on November 25,which talks of transparency of miti-gation actions through “appropriateprocess”, a euphemism perhaps for theAustralian or the U.S. framework. Ittalks only of an “agreed outcome” andnot a legally binding outcome in Co-penhagen. In contrast, China hasyielded nothing and the Hu-Obamadeclaration is totally anchored in theConvention. A result of this dubiousIndian position has been near isola-tion from G-77/China in Barcelona.Indeed, India was kept out of theG-77/China in the preparation of thedocument “Options on Possible Formsof the Agreed Outcome”.

So what are the possible COP-15outcomes? 1. No agreement. 2. A deci-sion or a set of decisions, a rather weakoutcome. 3. A political ‘implementingagreement’, the kind that the U.S. hasfavoured, which allows each party todecide its own goals and how to reachthem according to domestic laws andnot internationally legally binding. 4.A single new legally binding agree-ment (Copenhagen Protocol) that re-places the KP and manages to bringthe U.S. on board. Or, 5. Two proto-cols: KP plus a new binding agreementthat includes the U.S. All indicationsare that it would be outcome “1” be-cause “3” is strongly opposed by devel-oping countries. and with the U.S.’reluctance to have any legally bindingcommitment, “4” and “5” are out.

“Seal the Deal” is the famous slo-gan of U.N. Secretary-General Ban ki-Moon. But it is clear that there is un-likely to be any deal in Copenhagenand any discussions towards a newbinding instrument may be pushed tothe next COP, Copenhagen bis, as ithas already been named, with a futurewith more severe warming, sea-levelrise, glacial melting, floods and otherdisastrous impacts. �

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THE multilateral negotiation at Copenhagenwill determine a shared vision for long-term cooper-ation and global goal. This should be seen as anopportunity to take the leadership in these negotia-tions by laying out a framework that focusses onactivities that cause emissions, rather than on na-tional emissions, in order to secure real reductions.

The strategic issue for us is to shape the natureand scope of actions that will be taken to ensureavailability of “carbon space” for sustained economicgrowth beyond 2050. It is no longer enough to statethat our per capita emissions will never exceed theaverage per capita emissions of developed countries.We have also to ensure emissions reduction – vacat-ing of ‘carbon space’ – by developed countries.

Developed countries continue to expand theirshare of the carbon space in violation of internation-al law. Their emissions have increased by over 10 percent in the period 1990-2007 despite their commit-ment under the Convention on Climate Change tostabilise emissions at 1990 levels. And worse, theyare now seeking the demise of the Kyoto Protocol inorder to avoid internationally mandated and legallybinding reduction commitments in the future.

However, these countries, as well as many peoplein India, consider the key issue for global sustainabil-ity to be the extent of responsibility that developingcountries accept now and in the future, ignoring thefact that under the Convention, alleviation of povertyhas been recognised as the overriding priority ofdeveloping countries. They say this because in the

ongoing negotiations, for the first time since 1992,actions of developing countries are on the agenda.

P O L I T I C A L A G R E E M E N TDeveloped countries are using this opportunity toobtain a “political agreement” by which available,rather than total, carbon space would be shared,thereby increasing current inequities. In otherwords, the global goal is sought to be expressed interms of carbon management, rather than in termsof sustainable development.

They argue that reducing global emissions re-quires multilateral cooperation to make it cost-effec-tive, based around establishing a price for carbon bydeveloping a global carbon market and by the re-moval of subsidies and reliance on market-basedinstruments to broaden participation. This wouldmean that state-led actions for meeting incrementalcosts and easing restrictions relating to intellectualproperty rights for technology transfer to developingcountries, provided under the Convention, would atbest have a limited role in the future. The burden ofmeeting the challenge of climate change would effec-tively shift to developing countries.

They also want to meet a major share of theirtargets through offsets in developing countries bytaking up cheaper options there. The implication isthat commitments later by developing countrieswould be more expensive and would also lead tocontinued occupation of the atmospheric space bydeveloped countries. Agreeing to this allocationprinciple would mean giving up our entitlement toequal per capita emissions rights.

We are also being told that while there would beno targets for us, there should be no problem insubmitting our National Action Plan on ClimateChange for international review. Comparisons withsimilar provisions in the World Trade Organisationand the International Monetary Fund miss the pointbecause there are no agreed international standardsunder the Climate Convention against which thereview would be conducted. It would lead to a sit-uation where carbon management, and not allevia-tion of poverty, would become our overridingnational priority – and, through the as yet undefined

Crisis & opportunity

It will be difficult for developingnations to seek sacrifices from theircitizens as long as those in developednations maintain wasteful lifestyles.Global leaders should agree thatpatterns of resource use will becommon for all countries by 2030.

The focus must be on consumption and not production patterns, and reducing per

capita emissions of developed countries must be the first step. B Y M U K U L S A N W A L

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reviews, in effect, we would be takingon internationally mandated emis-sions reduction targets through theback door even when developed coun-tries reject such a commitment.

This new situation requires a stra-tegic response that is very different tothe stand we have been taking over thepast 15 years in these negotiations, ofjust saying ‘no’. Agenda-setting mat-ters in a multilateral negotiation.

R E S E A R C H T R E N D SDespite scientific evidence that cli-mate change is really a problem of theecological burden of per capita con-sumption patterns, the issue continuesto be framed in terms of assessments ofdamage and the attendant emissionstargets and timetables that pit oldagainst new emitters. Research trendson how to meet global challenges nowfocus on societal dynamics as both theroot of environmental problems andthe potential solution to them. Envi-ronmental problems are no longer de-fined as discrete problems but areincreasingly being understood assymptoms of a particular developmentpath. With the major economies beingincreasingly driven by the services sec-tor and not just by industrialisation,global environmental change is beingdriven by consumption patterns,which is really the individual citizen.

The International Energy Agencypoints out that in industrialised coun-tries, on the consumer side of the econ-omy, technological and lifestylechanges combined with higher in-comes have significantly altered ener-gy use patterns since the Conventionon Climate Change was negotiated in1992, with over two-thirds of carbondioxide emissions now coming fromthe services, households and transportsectors, emphasising that activities ofcitizens must be the focus of globalclimate policy.

In industrialised countries, energyuse in manufacturing has remainedunchanged in the period 1990-2004.In this period in developed countries,energy consumption increased by 50per cent in the services sector, by 35per cent in households, and by 25 per

cent in transportation, and as a resultfinal energy use – and emissions ofcarbon dioxide – increased by 14 percent.

According to a study sponsored bythe government of the United King-dom, over 40 per cent of emissions ofcarbon dioxide arise directly from thedecisions of citizens – for example,from heating and using electricity inhomes and from driving vehicles. Thegovernment-funded Carbon Trust re-ports that leisure and recreation ac-count for most of the currentemissions for the average British citi-zen, of which half is from transporta-tion. Improvements in vehicle andengine technology have been offset by

consumer preferences for larger andheavier vehicles.

T O T A L E N E R G Y U S EIn developing countries, on the otherhand, transportation accounts for onlyone-fifth of the total energy use. Asenergy use per capita in developingcountries is just one-fifth of developedcountry levels, this situation is going tochange very rapidly. Developing coun-tries can be expected to follow a pathsimilar to the one followed by devel-oped countries – the global business asusual – as increasing incomes lead tourbanisation and personal mobility.

The global dialogue provides anopportunity to identify sectors and ac-

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AT THE RALLY of Great Britain, in October 2009. A study sponsored by thegovernment of the United Kingdom says that over 40 per cent of emissionsof carbon dioxide arise directly from heating, using electricity in homes anddriving vehicles.

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tivities where energy efficiency cansupport both the environment and ec-onomic growth worldwide. McKinseyresearch shows that the growth ofworldwide energy demand can be cutby half or more over the next 15 yearswithout reducing the benefits thatenergy’s end-users enjoy – and whilesupporting economic growth – by fo-cussing on demand-side management.Clearly, the policy priority for us will beenergy efficiency and not decarbonis-ing energy.

This analysis suggests that allcountries need to modify consumptionpatterns and follow a qualitatively dif-ferent economic growth path. Our Na-tional Action Plan on Climate Changealso stresses demand-side manage-ment. International comparison of theeffects of the measures adopted by allcountries should also be based on thedriving forces. As the citizen is thedriver of change, such indicators arebest based on per-capita criteria. Ger-many’s Chancellor Angela Merkel has

agreed with Prime Minister Manmo-han Singh on the adoption of a globalstandard of two tonnes of carbon diox-ide per capita as the basis for interna-tional cooperation on climate change,and comparability of efforts. Weshould push for global climate policyin the medium term to be based ondemand side management worldwide.

At the climate change negotiationsin Bali in December 2007, developingcountries agreed to take mitigation ac-tions in the context of sustainable de-velopment. This qualificationrecognises the distinction betweenproduction and consumption patternswith respect to emissions reduction.Reductions of emissions in the pro-duction sectors – industry, electricitygeneration and agriculture – are de-pendent on the availability of newtechnology to decarbonise energy.

Copenhagen should focus on con-sumption and not production pat-terns, with the per capita emissions ofdeveloped countries from the residen-tial and transport sectors – which areexpected to account for 50 per cent ofglobal emissions by 2050 – being re-duced to below the world average as afirst step, followed by emissions reduc-tions on a per capita basis in all coun-tries. It will be difficult for developingcountries to seek sacrifices from theircitizens as long as developed countriesmaintain their (wasteful) lifestyles.

A shared global vision of countriesat different levels of development – percapita GDP as well as emissions – musthave environmentally sustainablegrowth as the global goal.

At Copenhagen, global leadersshould agree that patterns of resourceuse will be common for all countries bythe year 2030, as new innovative tech-nologies to reduce emissions in theproduction sectors will take that longto be available commercially. It is onlyin such a framework that global emis-sions can be halved by 2050. �Mukul Sanwal has worked at thepolicy level in the Government ofIndia and in the United NationsClimate Change Secretariat. He iscurrently with South Centre, Geneva.These are his personal views.

2 8 F R O N T L I N E

SECURING substantial progress at the earliestin the global climate negotiations is essential, partic-ularly for developing nations as the consequences ofglobal warming will affect them the most. Devel-oping nations account for the bulk of the world’spopulation, including the vast majority of those whoare most vulnerable to the consequences of climate

change. While developed countries are primarily re-sponsibile for global warming, uncontrolled emis-sions from developing nations, especially from thelarger ones, will surely lead to climate disaster even ifthe developed nations undertake significant miti-gation of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

What makes the climate negotiations truly diffi-cult for developing nations is the fact that “carbonspace” in the atmosphere, a critical necessity fordevelopment, is now a scarce resource. “Low-car-bon” pathways of development that deliver growthand development while avoiding the high-emissionstrajectory that the world has known so far are anecessity rather than an option for developing coun-tries.

However, even such alternative developmentpathways, while keeping global warming below 20

Any form of assurance to theglobal community by developingcountries can only be contingent on suitable action by Annex-Icountries.

India must insist that developed countries cut their emissions and compensate

developing countries for the carbon space taken away from them. B Y T . J A Y A R A M A N

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Celsius, will crucially require a mini-mum amount of carbon space that willbecome available only if developed na-tions agree to sharp and rapid emis-sion reductions. For developingcountries, the negotiations are criticalfor keeping open their energy and de-velopmental options while holdingglobal temperatures within tolerablelimits.

It is important to revisit some basicfacts to appreciate the gravity of thesituation that confronts developingcountries, including India.

At the beginning of the industrialera, the concentration of carbon diox-ide in the atmosphere was roughly 280

ppm (parts per million). If the rise inglobal temperatures since that baseyear is to be limited to 20 C (the scien-tifically accepted target), with at least50 per cent probability, a concentra-tion of 450 ppm of GHGs is the maxi-mum that can be allowed. (Forconvenience, we shall take all of thisconcentration to be due to CO2. In-cluding all GHGs will change the num-bers somewhat but will notsignificantly alter our conclusions.)The rise in concentrations from 280ppm to 450 ppm represents the totalamount of emissions possible, withoutserious negative effects. Of this totalemission space available, a significantportion is already occupied by pastemissions that cannot be removed.The issue at Copenhagen is how theremaining carbon space is to be divid-ed equitably among all nations.

On a per capita basis, the principlethat India and all other developingcountries have always upheld, a fairshare of the carbon space for any coun-try corresponds to its share of theworld population. Of the carbon spacethat has been occupied until 2008, An-nex-I countries (consisting mostly ofthe advanced industrial nations) havetaken roughly 73 per cent even thoughthey account for only 19 per cent of theworld’s population. Of this, the UnitedStates takes up 29 per cent eventhough its population share amountsto 5 per cent. The remaining 81 percent of the world has emitted the resid-ual 27 per cent.

Even if the Annex-I countries wereto cut their emissions in accordancewith the recommendations of theFourth Assessment Report of the In-tergovernmental Panel on ClimateChange (IPCC), which means reduc-ing annual emissions by 40 per centbelow 1990 levels by 2020 and by 90per cent below 1990 levels by 2050,they would still retain more than 55per cent of the total carbon space by2050. The U.S., for its part, would stillretain close to 21 per cent of the totalcarbon space. This is the foundation ofthe argument that the advanced indus-trial nations owe the rest of the world acarbon debt for their occupation and

exploitation of more than their fairshare of the global commons. To date,no Annex-I country has offered to cutemissions according to the IPCC rec-ommendations. In particular, the cutsthe U.S. is currently considering – theKerry-Boxer proposals, now before theU.S. Senate – fall far short of the IPCCrecommendations.

The relative share of other sectionsof the world, outside Annex-I, is ofcourse subject to some specification ofdetail within the scope of the con-straint of a maximum concentration of450 ppm. All developing countriesneed to reduce the growth rate of theiremissions to keep concentrations be-low this target. Generally speaking,countries such as China or large devel-oping countries as a group (excludingIndia and China) would by 2050 getabout 20 per cent less than their fairshare.

Today, India has a carbon spaceshare of roughly 2.5 per cent, com-pared with a fair share of 17 per cent.By 2050, with a reduction of growthrates in emissions, India will still haveonly about 4 per cent. The rest of theGroup of 77 developing countries willfind themselves in a similar situation.Given the existing occupation of theglobal atmospheric commons, devel-oping countries appear to have littlescope to improve significantly on thisshare, while keeping global emissionsbelow the maximum.

There is a fit case to regard India, inthis context, as belonging to the rest ofthe G-77 rather than the large devel-oping economies. If we do so, India’sshare would improve only marginally,going up to 4.5 per cent. The low fig-ures for India, in contrast to China,Brazil or South Africa, are a conse-quence of the relatively low share ofindustry in India’s economy. In thisregard, India’s elite is clearly culpablefor hyping up the “service-sector-ledgrowth”, while ignoring, in the era ofglobal warming, the critical issue ofthe gradual closing of India’s energyand manufacturing window, especiallyin the years of economic reform.

Actually, the inequity in the shareof the global atmospheric commons is

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even worse than what these numberssuggest. In calculating these numberswe have assumed that the populationfigure for every nation stays fixed at2008 levels. This is a good assumptionfor the advanced countries. In fact,their population is likely to drop fur-ther over the years.

However, for developing countriesthe population will rise further beforestabilising (after all, populationgrowth and its eventual stabilisationare closely related to economicgrowth). If we take this into account,the carbon space share of developingcountries will fall further below theirfair share. Correspondingly, developedcountries will obtain an even greatershare of the global atmospheric com-mons.

F A C E U P T O R E A L I T YAll considerations of India’s climatestrategy must face up to this reality.Not only will India and the rest of theG-77 never get their fair share; thecosts of whatever developmental tra-jectory they take will also be signif-icantly higher. Low-carbon pathways,though much talked about, are, tech-no-economically speaking, unex-plored terrain.

Any talk, therefore, of India takingthe lead in mitigation actions is merepretension to superpower status. Thecentral issue for India remains that ofensuring deep and binding emissioncuts by developed nations with suit-able compensation for their occupa-tion of the global commons throughfinancial and intellectual propertyrights-free technology transfers. Anyform of assurance to the global com-munity by developing countries canonly be contingent on suitable actionby Annex-I countries.

Clearly, India needs to recognisethe reality that by 2030 or so its emis-sions growth rate will have to deviatesignificantly from its current growth.However, it also has no carbon space togift away. India, and in fact all otherdeveloping countries, cannot afford tobe “flexible” regarding the emission re-duction targets of developed countries.Such flexibility would amount to an

unaffordable giveaway. A section ofthe environmental movement in thecountry is attracted by the possibilitythat unilateral mitigation actions byIndia could herald a major shift to-wards an equitable, sustainable, de-carbonised future.

But carbon space that is giftedaway will be occupied by others, fore-closing our energy future. Even if In-dia, hypothetically speaking, adopts amaximally environment-friendly, sus-tainable path of development, it willstill be seriously affected by the GHGemissions of others. Every developingnation must democratically determinethe manner of utilisation of its share ofcarbon space, but there is no case forunilateral renunciation.

Regrettably, India’s climate policy-makers have yet to get a clear grip onthe long-term policy implications ofthe looming restrictions on its carbonspace and the numbers involved. Formany years, while correctly emphasis-ing the historical responsibility of de-veloped nations, climate policyremained limited, in essence, to deny-ing India’s ability to undertake anyemission reductions. In the absence ofthe recognition that the sheer physicalconstraint of keeping global warmingin check would impose restrictions onemissions, the policy increasingly ap-peared to be a form of climate change“scepticism”, if not outright denial.

In recent times, the Government ofIndia has swung around to the otherextreme of producing quantitative es-timates without extensive checks andbroad consultations to validate them.The techno-economic basis for PrimeMinister Manmohan Singh’s announ-cement in 2007 that India’s per capitaemissions would not cross that of de-veloped countries has never been clar-ified. Most recently, at the pre-COP-15meeting at Copenhagen on November16, Minister for Environment and For-ests Jairam Ramesh announced thatIndia was ready to commit that its percapita emissions would always remainbelow the per capita emissions of de-veloped countries. It is unclear whyIndia rushed to announce such an am-biguous modification (the term “be-

low” is clearly open to(mis)interpretation) of the originalproposal.

The carbon space perspective ismost useful in cutting through thehype surrounding carbon trading andcarbon offsets, which is most promi-nent in the business media. Carbonoffsets, whereby developing countriesundertake emission reductions thataccrue to the mitigation actions of de-veloped countries in return for carboncredits, amount to a double burden ondeveloping countries. They undertakemore than their fair share of mitiga-tion action. It also amounts to sellingtheir carbon space cheap; buying itback will be at a higher cost becauselater emissions reductions will bemore difficult.

That our political and businessleaders do not appreciate the gravity ofthe carbon space crunch that India fac-es is clear from their unseemly enthu-siasm for carbon offsets. DespiteIndia’s rhetoric at the global negotiat-ing table, criticising the insistence byAnnex-I countries that their mitiga-tion actions would significantly de-pend on offsets, government andcorporate India have been activelypromoting carbon offsets as a newroute to foreign direct investment.

It is in this context that sections ofthe media, the climate policy commu-nity, and civil society have reacted withalarm to indications that the Manmo-han Singh government is contemplat-ing major policy shifts, including notonly unilateral mitigation actions andflexibility regarding developed countryemission reduction targets, but alsopolicy changes on related questions offinancing adaptation and global tech-nology transfer.

Parliament and civil society mustensure that the parameters of India’snegotiating positions at Copenhagenare firmly fixed so as to ensure that thenation’s vital energy and developmen-tal options are kept open and not fore-closed by unwarranted giveaways. �Dr T. Jayaraman is chairperson ofthe Centre for Science, Technologyand Society, Tata Institute of SocialSciences, Mumbai.

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THE Intergovernmental Panel on ClimateChange (IPCC, 2007) has concluded that the forestsector is critical for addressing climate change andthat reducing emissions from tropical deforestationis the dominant, immediate and low-cost mitigation

option. According to estimates made by the panel,the forest sector contributes about six billion tonnes,or 20 per cent, of global carbon dioxide (CO2) emis-sions, more than that from the transport or industrysectors.

Recognising this, the United Nations Frame-work for Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)agreed to the Bali Action Plan aimed at ReducingEmissions from Deforestation and Degradation(REDD). During the pre-Bali negotiations, the focuswas largely on REDD activities, which would enablecountries with high forest cover and high defor-estation to benefit most. However, countries such asIndia and China with low or no deforestation ratesinsisted on the inclusion of conservation and sus-tainable management of forests leading to an en-hancement of forest carbon stocks.

The Bali Action Plan included “policy approach-es and positive incentives on issues relating to reduc-

For green bonus

Priority should be given to reducingdeforestation, which provides a large mitigation potential andimmediate CO2 emission reductionbenefit, unlike sustainablemanagement or afforestationactivities.

India must ensure that rigorous monitoring and reporting procedures are

incorporated in any Copenhagen deal on REDD-Plus issues. B Y N . H . R A V I N D R A N A T H

ACCORDING TO MINISTRY of Environment and Forests estimates, the forest carbon stocks areincreasing in India, but they do not provide the full picture.

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ing emissions from deforestation andforest degradation in developing coun-tries; and the role of conservation, sus-tainable management of forests andenhancement of forest carbon stocksin developing countries”.

Currently, these activities are re-ferred to as REDD-Plus. India’s in-terest is largely in the “Plus” activities,on the assumption, on the basis of esti-mates made by the Forest Survey ofIndia (FSI), that the area under forestsin India has not only stabilised, but isincreasing. Further, an estimation re-leased by the Ministry of Environmentand Forests states that the forest car-bon stocks are increasing in India.

The estimates provided by the FSIdo not provide the full picture sincethey assume that if an area of 5,000hectares is cleared or deforested andan area of 6,000 ha is planted and if itachieves a crown cover of more than 10per cent, the net forest area is reportedto have increased. Only area changeestimates are considered and not thecarbon stock changes.

The recent report of the Ministrydoes not account for the loss of carbonstocks owing to fire, grazing and fuel-wood and timber extraction, whichcontribute to forest degradation andloss of carbonm.

The key issues under negotiation atCopenhagen, requiring agreement, in-clude i) objectives, scope and princi-ples of REDD-Plus; ii) means ofimplementation, in particular financ-ing of REDD-Plus activities; iii) mea-surement, monitoring, reporting andverification of carbon stock changes orreduction of CO2 emissions in a trans-parent and reliable way; and iv) in-stitutional arrangements for planning,financing, implementation, monitor-ing, verification and reporting.

Further, there are some additionalissues of detail. What is the right scalefor REDD-Plus activities – national,sub-national or nested (cluster)? Howshould REDD be financed? Shouldprojects or countries or both be re-warded? How to support capacity-building and technical assistance ortransfer addressing institutional needsof developing countries? How to en-

sure that REDD payments are distrib-uted in an equitable manner andbenefit the poor? How to maximiseREDD co-benefits (such as biodiversi-ty conservation)? And how to ensurethat the rights of indigenous and localcommunities are not sacrificed? No se-rious agreement has emerged on mostof these issues since Bali 2007, despiteseven meetings of the REDD ContactGroup of the Convention in differentcities of the world and hundreds ofhours of negotiations.

These issues are indeed technicallycomplex and also political, eludingconsensus or agreement. Only some ofthe critical issues and their implica-tions are presented in the followingparagraphs.

Firstly, regarding the objective andscope of the potential REDD-Plusmechanism, should it be restricted tothe forest sector alone or expanded toinclude land use change and agricultu-ral sectors? In order to meet the imme-diate and urgent goals of theconvention of reducing CO2 emissions,the priority should go to the forest sec-tor, to be followed by other sectors.Further, which activities to be includ-ed, whether the focus should be onreducing deforestation or include for-est degradation (more difficult toquantify and estimate), conservation,sustainable management of forestsand enhancement of forest carbonstocks?

In the context of the urgency ofaddressing climate change, priorityshould be given to reducing deforesta-tion, which provides a large mitigationpotential and immediate CO2 emissionreduction benefit, unlike, say, sustain-able management or afforestation ac-

tivities, which may take severaldecades to give equivalent carbon ben-efit on a per hectare basis. Though In-dia has focussed on Plus activities,practically no research has been initi-ated and hardly any scientific publi-cation has emerged on them.

In contrast, hundreds of researchinstitutions are working on REDD is-sues and hundreds of papers detailingthe methods, guidelines and implica-tions on REDD are published. Finally,India must ensure that under no cir-cumstances should natural forestsconverted to artificial (often monocul-ture) plantations gain carbon revenuesand, further, that no biodiversity lossoccurs. Secondly, forest (and carbon)conserved today, for which paymentwill be received, could potentially bedeforested at a later date, leading toemissions of CO2, which is called “non-permanence or reversibility” of carbonbenefits.

Further, deforestation may havebeen halted in the project area, butdeforestation could be shifted to otherregions or even other countries, lead-ing to what is called “leakage” of car-bon benefits. Finally, the quantity ofreduction in deforestation or the CO2

emissions avoided should be com-pared against a “baseline” or “referencelevel” deforestation or emissions lev-els, which would have occurred in theabsence of the REDD-Plus project andcarbon payments.

Surely, some complex accountingprocedures or guidelines will be devel-oped to address issues such as “non-permanence of carbon benefits”, “leak-age of carbon benefits” and “baselineor reference level CO2 emissions orcarbon stock gains”. But these are mostlikely to be suspect and liable to bemisused or abused.

Thus India should ensure that gui-delines and methods of the higheststandards or scientific rigour are de-veloped and, more importantly, rigor-ous and transparent measurement,monitoring, verification and reportingprocedures are incorporated in anyCopenhagen deal on REDD-Plus is-sues. Many countries are likely to pushfor simplified and lax guidelines for

Many believethe likely dealon REDD-Plusissues will be asilver lining.

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measurement, monitoring and verifi-cation procedures, leading to no genu-ine net CO2 emission reductions orcarbon stock gains.

Thirdly, one of the key questions ishow the potential REDD-Plus mecha-nism should be financed. The optionsinclude public (government) financialsupport (which is additional to ODA –Official Development Assistance) ormarket mechanism or sale of carboncredits to rich countries with CO2

emissions reduction targets and com-mitments.

India should push for a combina-tion of government and market fund-ing arrangements for the REDD-Plusmechanism. Surely, India or othercountries will not be able to stop theutilisation of the carbon credits fromREDD-Plus mechanism in developing

countries, which are used to meet theemission reduction commitments ofrich countries.

However, India should ensure thatan upper limit is fixed on the extent ofutilisation of carbon credits in meetingits emission reduction commitments,in order to ensure domestic actions inthose countries to address climatechange. The limited public fundingfrom rich countries should be usedmore to support actions such as pro-moting renewable energy technolo-gies, which provide permanent,sustainable and reliable CO2 emissionreduction, to address climate change.

Finally, there is a need for appro-priate participatory institutions to en-sure a sustained flow of funds toREDD-Plus activities, and, more im-portantly, to ensure that the rights and

access of the poor or forest-dependentcommunities are protected and thecarbon revenues flow to the poor, giventhe poor governance structures inmany countries.

In the face of doom and gloom overthe outcome of the Copenhagen Cli-mate Convention, many believe thelikely deal on REDD-Plus issues willbe a silver lining, a poor consolationindeed. India, which is unlikely to be alarge beneficiary of the REDD-Plusagreement, must ensure only genuine,transparent and verifiable reduction inCO2 emission or that carbon stock en-hancements are financially rewardedin an equitable way. �N.H. Ravindranth is Professor,Centre for Sustainable Technologies,Indian Institute of Science,Bangalore.

A DEFORESTED AREA in the rainforest in the southern Para state in Brazil. According to the IntergovernmentalPanel on Climate Change, the forest sector contributes about six billion tonnes, or 20 per cent, of global CO2

emissions, more than the emissions from the transport or industry sectors.

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CLIMATE change negotiations have reached animpasse on two crucial questions. One is how theremaining carbon space will be “shared” amongcountries and the second is who will bear the costs ofthe high stock of greenhouse gases that has alreadyaccumulated in the atmosphere. If rich countries cutback on their current high-carbon path slowly, theburden of cutting global emissions will fall dispro-portionately on the global South. This is the strategythat the club of the rich seems to be adopting in therun-up to Copenhagen.

The unfairness of this climate change issue is thatwhile rich countries have caused the problem,thanks to their high stock of carbon dioxide (CO2), itsimpact will be felt primarily in the global South.Developing countries will have to pay in two ways forthe carbon space grabbed by rich countries: they willhave to adopt a far more expensive low-carbon tra-jectory for their development as well as pay for theimpact of higher temperatures through costly adap-tation measures. Low-lying countries have, ofcourse, the additional danger of losing large parts oftheir land owing to rising sea levels. That is why earlyand deep cuts by rich countries are so critical to thedeveloping world.

Unfortunately, India, after making a determinedstand about not diluting the basic formulations ofKyoto, seems to be changing its position. It is in-creasingly clear that there is a strong lobby in thecurrent government that would like to trade off thecountry’s trajectory of development to the need of astrategic “understanding”, if not alliance, with theUnited States. The note privately circulated byUnion Minister of Environment and Forests JairamRamesh seeks to delink India from the G-77, andargues for softening India’s stance vis-a-vis devel-

oped countries and the U.S. It also talks of “notheological objections” to the Australian proposal,which blurs the distinction between Annex 1 andNon-Annex 1 countries. As one negotiator stated inprivate, this note concedes all that the U.S. and otherdeveloped countries have been asking of India, with-out their conceding anything in return. Not surpris-ingly, reports from the Climate Change Negotiationsin Barcelona indicate that G-77 is now quite wary ofIndia and what its future position will be.

The private note circulated by Jairam Rameshhas now been followed with a formal position takenby him in the pre-Conference of the Parties (COP)meeting in Copenhagen. India is now talking aboutgiving international commitments on making “lowcarbon sustainable growth a central element of its12th Plan growth strategy” and also offering “com-mitments to reduce energy to GDP intensity” (in-tervention made by India’s Environment Minister atthe pre-COP meeting at Copenhagen on November16, 2009). Without any commitments from richcountries to transfer either knowledge or resourcesfor such a low-carbon path, India might end upforgoing the cheaper coal route of energy generationand then paying whopping monopoly prices for low-carbon technologies. A lock-in to a low-carbon pathwithout any consideration of costs and technologyappears to be foolhardy as a negotiating strategy,particularly as rich countries have conceded nothinguntil date.

The table on page 36 provides some figures onthe disparity between per capita consumption ofenergy and per capita emission between the rich andthe developing countries.

Though China is currently the highest emitter,coming ahead of the U.S. by a whisker, and India isthe fourth highest emitter, with respect to per capitaemissions they are well below the rich countries.India is not even in the same league as China or otheremerging economies – its per capita income andenergy use put it in the bottom 40 per cent of theworld. In per capita terms, India consumes energyless than 1/20th of that of the U.S. and its emissionsare 1/20th of that of the U.S. It is a poor country, notonly by its income levels but by any other indicator,including energy.

Double burdenChoosing a low-carbon path, as the government seems to be committing itself to

at the negotiations, will impose huge costs on India. B Y P R A B I R P U R K A Y A S T H A

If we lower the energy intensity ofthe GDP, are we saying that Indiawill not take to manufacturing in abig way but will continue largely asan agrarian and service economy?

Climate Change

AT A BULB factory in Kolkata. Giving up the manufacturing route for aservice-driven one is choosing a far less equitable path of development.

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being argued. A Centre for Science andEnvironment (CSE) study (“Hidingbehind everything, and everyone—inplain view”, http://www.cseindia.org/equitywatch.asp) has shown that evenIndia’s top 2 per cent have consump-tion levels that are equal or belowthose of the bottom 10 per cent of theU.S.

A Princeton study (“Sharing globalCO2 emissions among 1 billion highemitters”, Proceedings of the NationalAcademy of Sciences, July 7, 2009)also comes to more or less the sameconclusions – there are only one mil-lion Indians among the one billionhigh emitters who have to cap theiremissions. The fact remains that Indiais still a poor country and all the talk ofbecoming a new superpower does notsit well with the reality on the ground.

It is one thing to say that India willreduce its growth rate of energy andquite another to agree with Jairam Ra-mesh that India will lower not only theenergy intensity of its gross domesticproduct (GDP) but also its emissionper unit of energy consumed (follow alow-carbon path).

If we lower the energy intensity ofthe GDP, are we saying that India willnot take to manufacturing in a big waybut will continue largely as an agrarianand service economy?

When the Minister says India willfollow a low-carbon path, has anyoneactually computed the costs of follow-ing such a path? Do we have a coherentstrategy that integrates the path of de-velopment with the climate concerns?

G D P A N D E N E R G Y G R O W T HIt is true that GDP growth and energygrowth need not be tightly coupled. Itis possible to have GDP growth with-out simultaneously increasing energyconsumption. This is what rich coun-tries are now doing; once a countryreaches a certain level of development,it is possible to change from a manu-facturing to a service economy.

The question that India confrontsis whether it is possible to reduce theenergy intensity of the economy beforereaching a minimum level of devel-opment? This, no country has done

There is an argument advanced bya certain radical section – that whileIndia’s per capita consumption may below, India’s burgeoning middle class,with its consumption, is still a problemin global emission terms, and in thisscenario, the concern of rich countries

with India’s growing emissions is justi-fied, and India asking for a higher car-bon space is nothing but the Indianrich hiding behind the Indian poor.The problem with this argument isthat neither is India’s middle class asbig nor is its consumption as high as is

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yet. If we take the correlation betweenenergy and other human developmentindicators, there is a strong correlationup to a certain point, after this it is notso strong. This would indicate that aminimum of energy consumption percapita is required to achieve a certainlevel of development. One can argueon what this point is, but by any reck-oning it lies well above India’s currentlow level of energy consumption. If wehave to provide for development andeven a minimum level of energy con-sumption for the majority of the Indi-an people, India’s per capita energyconsumption will have to increasesignificantly.

One of the reasons why Chinacould become the manufacturing hubof the world is that it ramped up itsinstalled capacity in electricity andother infrastructure in the past twodecades. India, instead, slowed downits rate of electrification from the1990s, not only losing the manufactur-ing race but also giving up valuablecarbon space.

The difference between a service-driven path of development and man-ufacturing is that the service sectordoes not have backward linkages andthe consequent multiplier effect in theeconomy that manufacturing does.Therefore, it creates fewer jobs andcannot pull up the rest of the economy.The service boom can at best help asmall minority and create dollar billio-naires, as it has done in India. It willnot provide mass employment or re-duce mass poverty. Therefore, givingup a manufacturing route for a service-driven one, as is being contemplatednow, is also choosing a far less equi-table path of development.

The low-carbon path that the Min-ister has offered in Copenhagen caneither be a nuclear or a solar route or acombination of the two. Nuclear pow-er could become a major component inthe future – 40,000 MW by 2020 aswas propagated during the India-U.S.nuclear deal. The other route is the20,000 MW solar thermal plants by2022, according to the National SolarMission.

T H E N U C L E A R A N D S O L A R R O U T E SThe nuclear programme envisages theimmediate offer of 10,000 MW worthof nuclear contracts to U.S. suppliers.No attempts have been made to eval-uate the cost of U.S. nuclear plants.Going by the filings before the reg-ulatory commissions in the U.S.,Moody’s Investor Services agency nowestimates the cost of nuclear power tobe around $7,500 per KW or aboutRs.30 crore per MW. This is about sixtimes that of coal-fired plants. Whilethe Indian technology developed bythe Department of Atomic Energy(DAE) would be a lot cheaper, the factremains that a rapid increase of nucle-ar power can happen only with large-scale imports. As can be seen, thiswould then mean paying through thenose for such imports.

The solar thermal route is anotherpossible low-carbon route. Using a so-lar route, the capital cost would bearound Rs.20 to Rs.25 crore per MWor four to five times that of coal-firedplants. But that is not all. Since theplant load factor (PLF) is about 25 percent for solar plants as against 80 percent for coal-fired ones, India will haveto install about three to four times as

much – the capital cost for producingthe same amount of electricity fromsolar plants is about 12 to 15 times thatof using the coal route or a high-car-bon route! So, choosing a low-carbonpath, as the government seems to becommitting in the climate change ne-gotiations, will impose huge costs onIndia.

When developing countries talkabout financial and technology trans-fers for the carbon debt that rich coun-tries owe the rest, they are not talkingabout some notional costs but aboutthe additional burden they will have tobear because of a lack of carbon spacetoday. On the one hand we have toadopt high-cost technologies for re-ducing emissions, on the other we haveto pay monopoly prices to multina-tional companies to buy such technol-ogies. The demand that rich countriesshould make financial and technologytransfers to developing countries is nota plea for charity. It is small reparationfor the additional burden of adopting alow-carbon path by countries such asIndia.

The unity of developing countriesis the key to the success of the Copenh-agen negotiations. It is here that Indiacan make or mar the global climatecase. In the General Agreement onTariffs and Trade (GATT), it was In-dia’s about-turn in 1989 on introduc-ing intellectual property rights (IPR)in trade negotiations that led to thetrade-related aspects of intellectualproperty rights (TRIPS) and its devas-tating consequences on Third Worldhealth costs.

The talk of India’s Security Councilseat, of the country now being a part ofG-20, and of its self-interest governingthe climate change negotiations, allcreate suspicions of a similar about-turn in Copenhagen. Hopefully, theIndian government will realise that itwill stand totally isolated and be seenas a subordinate ally of the U.S. if itdoes a GATT-like volte-face.

Hopefully, an active public opinionand an alert Parliament will not letthat happen. �

Prabir Purkayastha is an energyanalyst with the Delhi Science Forum.

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Climate Change

IT is an unfortunate irony that India, with a thirdof the world’s poor and less than one-third the percapita carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions of the worldaverage, is seen as a stumbling block to an interna-tional treaty on climate change. Irony, because In-dia’s apparent obstinacy belies a less-known fact: itslow emissions result not only from low income levels,but also from energy policies and lifestyle patternsthat benefit climate change. That is why India’s CO2

emissions per unit of gross domes-tic product (GDP) is comparable tothat of the United States and theEuropean Union, despite its re-liance on coal. What is unfortunateis that the focus of internationalnegotiations seems to be shiftingtowards domestic actions in devel-oping countries, while developednations – particularly the U.S. – failto take on aggressive commitmentsto reduce emissions. Domestic leg-islation in the U.S. and the E.U., ifimplemented, would reduce theiremissions to 5 and 20 per cent be-low the 1990 levels by 2020, whilecuts of at least 25-40 per cent areneeded to avoid dangerous levels ofclimate change.

Indian negotiators are caughtbetween a rock and a hard place. Ifthey continue to push for equal percapita shares as a precondition forany further action, they risk givingdeveloped nations further causefor abandoning their own commit-

ments, resulting in no international agreement. ButIndia will be among the first to suffer the impact offuture climate change, given its vulnerability to themonsoons, dependence on the Himalayan snow cov-er, and the potential influx of climate migrants,among other challenges. With an increasingly limit-ed global carbon budget, even the unlikely event ofthe Organisation for Economic Cooperation and De-velopment (OECD) countries stopping their emis-sions entirely will not suffice to prevent dangerousclimate change as long as there is continued growthfrom developing countries. This means that India,too, must find a way to reduce its emissions soon,though how soon, by how much, and through whatmeans constitute the crux of the issue.

If India were to take on binding commitmentsover and above its existing, and any future voluntary,actions that limit its emissions growth, that mighthelp move an agreement along. But India, along with

other developing countries, faces adaunting challenge to alleviatepoverty. Nearly one in two Indiansis poor and has little or no access tosanitation, clean drinking water,adequate housing, health care, andmodern energy services. The low-est fifth of Indian society has seenlittle improvement in its quality oflife in decades, despite many go-vernment-led programmes. Withan emphasis on equitable growth,it is conceivable that India can wid-en access and meet the basic needsof the poor with only a minor costin carbon terms. Yet, without hav-ing conducted an adequate analy-sis of what is economically andpolitically feasible, the governmentwould risk putting too much on thetable. India could then face a tripleburden involving hard climate im-pacts, a mammoth task of pulling400 million people out of poverty,and having to pursue a low-carbongrowth path at its own cost.

Equity question

India needs to do a far better jobof shifting its priorities towardsequitable growth whilecommunicating its policieson climate change.

India is in a unique predicament; it has a stake in both preventing climate change

and avoiding costly mitigation. B Y N A R A S I M H A R A O , G I R I S H S A N T & S U D H I R C H E L L A R A J A N

THE INDRAPRASTHATHERMAL Power Station inNew Delhi. About one-fourth of the air pollution in Delhi iscaused by industries and coal-based thermal power plants,according to the Union Ministryof Environment.

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Obviously, there are no easy an-swers to this. India has obligations un-der the Bali Action Plan to develop andundertake a set of Nationally Appro-priate Mitigation Actions (NAMA)that are measurable, reportable andverifiable, in exchange for technicaland financial assistance. But in fulfill-ing these obligations, India must resistinternational pressures to blur the dis-tinction between actions and commit-ments taken in the developing anddeveloped nations, in line with theprinciples of “common but differen-tiated responsibilities” embodied inthe Framework Convention on Cli-mate Change. India then needs to do afar better job of shifting its prioritiestowards equitable growth while com-municating its record and policies,rather than just its moral stance, onclimate change.

I N D I A ’ S L O W - C A R B O N P A T HCompared with rich countries, Indiaseems to be on low-carbon growthpath. As pointed out in a recent report,“An Overview of Indian EnergyTrends”, released by Prayas EnergyGroup, India’s carbon and energy in-tensities (emissions and energy perunit of the GDP adjusted to purchas-ing power parity) are significantly be-low those of China and comparable tothose of the U.S. and the E.U. China’scarbon intensity is double that of the

other three. Three broad factors con-tribute to India’s low-carbon intensity:a trend of reducing the energy intensi-ty of economic activity; a steady andsizable increase in renewable electriccapacity; and a historically low-carbonlifestyle and urban development. Pol-icy has played a role in driving downenergy and carbon intensity, partic-ularly in the recent past, even if manyof these have been driven by motiv-ations unrelated to climateconsiderations.

The Indian economy’s reducingenergy intensity is driven by a numberof factors, including structural shifts inthe economy towards less energy-in-tensive activities and efficiency im-provements in energy-intensiveindustries. The service sector, which isless energy-intensive than manufac-turing and agriculture, grew from 44per cent in 1990 to 52 per cent in 2005in terms of a share of the GDP. Indus-try also has shown a steady decouplingof growth from energy use: it hasgrown at 5.9 per cent and 3 per cent ayear, respectively. In addition, indus-tries such as cement and steel haveseen major improvements in theirenergy intensity.

Part of the reason for this shift isthat Indian industrial energy and elec-tricity prices are relatively high. Main-ly as a result of cross-subsidies toagriculture, Indian industries pay for

electricity at rates that are 50 per centhigher than those in the U.S. and Chi-na (see Figure 1). Indian petrol pricesare also 60 per cent higher than thosein the U.S. in market exchange terms(and several times higher when ad-justed for cost of living). Even dieselprices are higher than those in the U.S.and China. For the U.S. to have equiv-alent energy prices to those in Indiatoday, it would have to charge a carbontax of over $100/tonne of CO2 for gaso-line and $30/tonne for industrial elec-tricity. But India’s large price subsidiesresult in major distortions and ineffi-ciencies in consumption. Targetingthese subsidies to the poor better couldenhance development and reduceemissions.

Most Indian consumers are con-cerned about energy conservation forlargely economic reasons. Data showthat about two-thirds of all lamps inIndia are fluorescent lamps. A series ofenergy efficiency programmes by theBureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), in-cluding standards and labelling for ap-pliances, building codes and industrialprocess efficiency targeting, are likelyto increase the penetration of energy-efficient appliances in industry and incommercial and residential applica-tions. They have culminated in a Na-tional Mission on Enhanced EnergyEfficiency (NMEEE), which includesinnovative programmes such as man-datory targets and tradable efficiencycredits, capacity building, and finan-cial and risk support to energy servicecompanies.

Renewable capacity (primarilywind) comprises about 10 per cent ofIndia’s installed electric capacity (and4.5 per cent of energy generated), com-pared with 4 per cent in the U.S. (3 percent of energy generated). While In-dia’s renewables policies can be crit-icised on many grounds, such as theirhigh prices, climate is not one of them.India’s comparatively high share of re-newables appears even more aggres-sive against the backdrop of itsemissions contribution and low in-come (see Figure 2). Further, India’swind resources are inferior to those inthe U.S., the E.U. and China, making

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its energy relatively more expensive.India’s investments in renewablesought to count for more than a similarunit of investment in these countries.

Wind power (~ 10 GW) has grownat a rate of 26 per cent annually since2000. Modern renewable and hydrocapacity addition comprised 50 percent of all capacity additions in the lastdecade. Seventeen States, which ac-count for roughly 92 per cent of thepower consumed in the country, havemandated targets for purchases of re-newables, which range up to over 10per cent by 2012.

Going forward, the National SolarMission plans to offer large public sub-sidies and envisages 20 GW of solarcapacity additions by 2020. This ishighly noteworthy because solar is oneof the most promising renewable ener-gy options today. India plans to spendas much as 0.1 per cent of its GDP topromote solar energy.

In transport, up to three quartersof passenger demand in India comesfrom rail, bus and non-motorisedforms of transport. Of those who ownvehicles, 80 per cent drive two-wheel-ers because high fuel prices reducegrowth of consumption. The freightintensity in India also compares fa-vourably with the U.S. and China,again owing to the comparably highshare of rail. This may change to some

extent with the high growth in thenumber of cars and trucks. Still, thereare only 12 light duty vehicles for every1,000 persons compared with 800vehicles in the U.S. today and about450 in Europe. India’s transport ener-gy demand today equals just the in-crease in transport demand in the U.S.between 1999 and 2005. Against thisbackdrop, severe concerns of safety,congestion, noise and pollution shouldtake priority over carbon emissions inIndia’s transport policies.

The typical Indian lifestyle even inmiddle-class settings encourages rela-tively low energy consumption. Ac-cording to one study, households inIndia have one-third the energy in-tensity of American households withthe same expenditure – adjusted forpurchasing power parity.

The growing density of urban spac-es forces people to live in smallerhomes, which take less energy to buildand to cool. Despite growing meat con-sumption, India’s aggregate meat con-sumption is less than a sixth of that ofthe U.S. and a 12th of that of China.This is important as the direct emis-sions from meat production contrib-ute 18 per cent of global greenhousegas emissions.

India has much to do to fulfil itsshare of even a fair climate deal. Thegovernment needs to articulate rapidly

a strategy for NAMA that takes ad-vantage of the low-hanging fruit andgives due consideration to local envi-ronment and equity issues (and notonly to economic growth). Use of em-ployment guarantee funds for socialforestry is a good example of potentialsynergies between multiple objectives.India should also prioritise the use ofits scarce resources to implement miti-gation actions. For example, ensuringthat all new household and commer-cial electric appliances meet econom-ically appropriate efficiency standardscan avoid building an ultra mega pow-er plant (4,000 MW) each year.

This will cost a fraction of what itwould cost to build this capacity fromsolar or wind instead. Moreover, itwould increase jobs instead of increas-ing conflicts over land and water forbuilding power plants. Most impor-tantly, the government needs to initi-ate a well-structured domesticconsultation process for developingNAMA, which also transparently in-forms the international audienceabout the country’s serious intentions.

India faces a unique predicamentwith climate change – no other countryhas as much at stake both in prevent-ing climate change and in avoidingcostly mitigation. Internationally, itneeds to showcase its low carbontrends alongside its development chal-lenges to correct distorted perceptionsabout its standing as the fourth largestemitter, but it should simultaneouslytake on constructive actions at homethat make use of its advantages and areconsistent with pro-poor priorities. Itimplies having to take the equity ques-tion seriously, both internationallyand domestically, to continue along itslow-carbon pathway without provid-ing cause to be indicted for hiding be-hind its poor. �Narasimha D. Rao is ResearchScholar in environment andresources at Stanford University, U.S.Girish Sant is Coordinator, PrayasEnergy Group, Pune.Sudhir Chella Rajan is Professor atthe Humanities and Social SciencesDepartment, Indian Institute ofTechnology Madras.

Figure 2

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FEARS of a new speculativeboom on which the globalrecovery rides are being ex-pressed in different circles.There are as many aspects

to these fears as there are to the so-called recovery, which include thehuge profits being recorded by somemajor banking firms, the surge in cap-ital flows to emerging markets, thespeculative rise in stock markets’ val-ues worldwide and the property boomin much of Asia. Potential victims ofthe reversal of this boom, however,now complain that the source of it all isa return in the United States to a policyof easy money – involving huge liquid-ity infusions and extremely low inter-est rates – to save the financial systemand the real economy from collapse,while resorting to a fiscal stimulus totrigger a recovery. A similar policy wasand is being adopted by many othercountries, even if not with the sameintensity in all cases, but the U.S.,which was home to the most toxic as-sets and damaged banks, led by a longmargin.

This policy did generate the signalsthat suggested that economies were onthe mend. But these are also signs,argue some, of a bubble similar to theone that generated the high profits andthe credit-financed housing and con-sumer-spending boom that precededthe 2008 downturn. The dangers asso-ciated with that bubble were ignoredbecause of the short-run growth bene-fits it delivered. This one could be ig-nored because of the impression of arecovery it generates.

However, even as some quartersexpress satisfaction about the recov-ery, however halting, other circles ex-press fears of a second downturn or

tween the fiscal stimulus, a loose mon-ey policy and the revival of bankprofitability are well known. Directly,a part of the “stimulus” involved usingtaxpayers’ money to invest in banks orinstitutions such as insurance giantAIG. The former kept banks solventeven when they were writing off badassets, while the latter helped non-bank institutions meet commitmentson failed assets, without which banksand other financial firms would havebeen driven to bankruptcy.

In addition, the government hadimplicitly picked up a chunk of the baddebts of financial firms seen as too bigto fail by offering guarantees that sus-tained their value on the books ofbanks. The initial return to profitabil-ity that this ensured seemed to haveimproved the market value of bankequity, making it appear that the go-vernment may in fact recoup or evenmake money on its investments inbank capital.

But as economist Dean Baker not-ed some time back: “This is a case ofmoney going into one pocket but out ofthe other one; that’s not the way thatmost investors make money.” No less aperson than George Soros told Finan-cial Times (October 24) that the prof-its made by some of Wall Street’sleading banks are “hidden gifts” fromthe state and taxpayer resentment onthis count is “justified”.

But state support for the banks didnot end here. The Fed chipped in withthe easy money policy mentionedabove, which helped drive short-terminterest rates to near zero. In the event,banks could ride the sharp yield curve,borrowing cheap and investing inmore long-term assets that offeredhigher returns. Some of these, like go-

double-dip recession. Thus, just beforeU.S. President Barack Obama arrivedin Beijing on his much-publicised visitto China, that country’s banking reg-ulator, Liu Mingkang, criticised theU.S. Federal Reserve for fuelling glob-al speculation by adopting a loosemoney policy to save financial firms.This view was soon also espoused byWolfgang Schauble, who criticised theFed’s role in fuelling the dollar carry-trade, which involved borrowing dol-lars at low interest rates to invest inhigher-yielding assets outside the U.S.Investors resorting to such trades notonly benefit from the spread betweenthe low interest rates on the borrowingand the higher yield on their invest-ment, but also from the depreciation ofthe dollar in the interim, which re-quires, say, fewer euros to buy dollarsneeded to repay the original loan.

The direct and indirect links be-

Recovery or bubble?The emerging story of a new speculative boom and a fresh bubble driven by

finance capital has led to growing fears of a second collapse.

EconomicPerspectivesC.P. CHANDRASEKHAR

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vernment bonds, were low-risk invest-ments offering returns of 3 per cent-plus, and the net interest margin thatthe government was handing out tothe banks was a sure way of makingthem record profits.

But, clearly, the banks, especiallyinvestment banks such as GoldmanSachs, were not going to stop here.Rather they chose to go further and usethis cheap money to speculate in stock,commodity and property markets,wherever they appeared profitable.Though this was more risky, the betswere likely to pay off for four reasons.First, even within the U.S. the stockmarket was at a low, with much-fallenprice-earnings ratios. Any improve-ment in corporate profits as a result ofthe fiscal stimulus would improvestock prices, so investing in the marketwas seen as safer than it was in a longtime. Second, this was true even ofcommodity markets such as oil andfood, and there were always commod-ities that had not been through thatcycle and were ripe for a boom, in-cluding gold, which would only rise ifthe dollar weakened because of the ex-cess dollar liquidity that was beingpumped into the global economy.Third, many emerging markets wereaffected less or hardly at all by therecession, making their stock, bondand property markets attractive desti-nations for investors with access tocheap money. Finally, the rush of cap-ital to these markets in itself fuels aboom that attracts more capital in-flows and fuels a speculative spiral.

T W O I N T E R P R E T A T I O N SThe consequence of these moves hasbeen stunning profits for some finan-cial firms, especially Goldman Sachs,and reasonable returns for others. Weare also witnessing a return of the con-troversy surrounding bonus paymentsand high compensation provided tomanagers of banks that were rescuedwith taxpayers’ money. Moreover, fi-nancial markets that had slumpedhave now revived, with emerging mar-kets witnessing a boom in some cases.Commodity prices are also buoyantonce again and property markets out-

THE PRICES OF luxury apartments in Hong Kong, which fell 6.2 per cent inthe third quarter of last year and were expected to fall by a further 40-45 percent by the end of this year, are now 30 per cent more expensive than attheir low point in the fourth quarter of 2008, the ’Financial Times’ reported inNovember. Here, upmarket residences at Hong Kong’s Deep Water Bay.

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side the U.S. are experiencing sharpprice increases. There are two ways tointerpret these trends. One is to treatthem as symptoms of the end of thecrisis and the beginnings of a recovery.The other is to see them as the signs ofa new bubble. Thus far the former viewhas dominated.

Needless to say, the cheap moneythat was pumped into the system hashelped shore up real demand, which,together with the fiscal stimulus, hasensured that the downturn has tou-ched bottom and some economies areshowing signs of a revival. In fact, inemerging markets and countries suchas China, the inflow of liquidity and thelocal fiscal stimulus helped neutralisepartly the adverse effects of an exportslowdown on growth.

S I G N S O F S P E C U L A T I O NBut now fears are being expressed andresponses are being sought on a num-ber of counts. One, of course, is evi-dence of a so-called “correction” indeveloped-country stock marketssince March this year: the S&P 500index has risen more than 60 per cent,while the FTSE Eurofirst 300 has rec-orded a similar rise. But this is smallcompared with what is happening inemerging markets. Brazil’s benchmarkBovespa index has gained 76 per centthis year; that is, in terms of the real,

the domestic currency. Those whoconverted dollars into reals and re-turned to dollars after booking profitsgained 139 per cent as the U.S. cur-rency has depreciated significantly.Such opportunities have resulted innet inflows of a record $60-billion-plus into emerging market equityfunds, which only serves to amplifythem by driving prices further up-wards.

The second sign of an actual orpotential speculative boom is the re-versal of price declines in commoditymarkets, which though not yet alarm-ing, revives memories of the fuel andfood price spiral of a couple of yearsback, which is seen by many as havingbeen partly driven by financial spec-ulation. Oil, for example, is alreadytrading at around $80 to the barrel inU.S. markets.

The third is evidence of a real es-tate bubble in emerging markets, espe-cially in Asia. Thus, for example,Financial Times (November 5) re-ports that Hong Kong apartmentscosting more than $1.3 million, whoseprices fell 6.2 per cent in the thirdquarter of last year and were expectedto fall by a further 40-45 per cent bythe end of this year, are now 30 percent more expensive than at their lowpoint in the fourth quarter of 2008.Prices for private homes in Singapore

reportedly rose 15.8 per cent in thethird quarter relative to the second,and in China 37 per cent year-on-year.

Finally, there is the global surge ingold prices as investors rush into themetal because of fears of a dollar de-cline. Gold is trading at around $1,170an ounce.

D O L L A R D E P R E C I A T I O NPut all this together and an emergingstory of a new speculative boom and afresh bubble driven by finance capitalcannot be dismissed. As a result, thereare growing fears of a second collapse.The liquidity created by the FederalReserve is increasing the overhang ofdollars in the world economy, makinginvestors more concerned about thelikely depreciation of the value of thedollar. If they choose to rearrange theirportfolios, which they seem to be do-ing, a further depreciation of the dollaris inevitable. If the U.S. responds tosuch depreciation by raising interestrates, there could be an exit of fundsfrom global asset and commodity mar-kets outside the U.S., triggering a col-lapse that can have collateral effectsthat are damaging.

Besides this fear of a sudden cap-ital exit, emerging market countriesare also worried about the effect that asurge of dollar inflows into their econ-omies is having on their currencies.The resulting appreciation is under-mining their competitiveness relativeto countries that are managing to keeptheir currencies pegged to the U.S. dol-lar. One consequence has been a reviv-al of interest in capital controls,especially after Brazil imposed a 2 percent tax on foreign investment in equi-ties and bonds to dampen excess cap-ital inflows. Some Asian economies,too, are contemplating similar mea-sures to guard their currencies andstall a speculative rush into financialand real estate markets.

The positive in all this is that les-sons from the crisis that were quicklyforgotten are being studied once more.Whether that will finally translate intopolicies that reduce the probability ofanother bubble that can go bust is,however, unclear. �

STOCK EXCHANGES IN emerging markets have seen dramatic increases in their indices. For instance, Brazil’s benchmark Bovespa index has gained76 per cent this year in terms of the real, the domestic currency. Here, traders negotiate during a session at the BM&F Bovespa stockexchange in Sao Paulo.

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WHAT happens when a world leader with asense of being a man of destiny goes to a foreign landthat has the potential to be a global leader?

The answer sums up United States PresidentBarack Obama’s experiences in China during his

state visit to that country in mid-November. Hisstudied comments, interspersed with some candidobservations, provide a partial answer. Obama andChina are still coming to terms with each other. Theevolving political chemistry between him and Chi-nese President Hu Jintao and also the latter’s col-leagues reflects, for now, a reality of hope andconfidence on both sides.

The unstated name of the political game betweenthe U.S. and China is competitive coexistence. It goesbeyond the other fashionable prescription in today’sglobal politics: cooperation and competition be-tween any two states or groups. Discernible in themontage of events during Obama’s visit to China wasthe reality of a qualitatively new engagement, with

Learning to coexistPresident Barak Obama’s recent visit to East Asia saw, above all, a new vibrancy

in the U.S.-China dialogue. B Y P . S . S U R Y A N A R A Y A N A IN SINGAPORE

world affairs

BARACK OBAMA WITH Chinese President Hu Jintao (left) and U.S. Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman at a statedinner reception in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on November 17.

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Obama is apparently keen not tolose old allies such as Japan, SouthKorea and Australia even as heseeks a viable modus vivendi in hiscountry’s ties with China.

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each side hoping to influence the otherdecisively.

For Obama, the journey to China atthis time, almost a political pilgrim-age, was the central part, in more thanjust the ordinary sense, of an East Asiatour. Addressing American soldiers atthe Osan Air Base in South Korea onNovember 20, he summed up his over-all tour.

Speaking as the “Commander-in-Chief of the finest military that theworld has ever known”, Obama said:“Today, I am finishing my first visit toAsia as [U.S.] President. In Tokyo [onNovember 13], we renewed and dee-pened the U.S.-Japan alliance. In Sin-gapore [on November 14 and 15], weworked with leaders from across theAsia Pacific [region] to strengthen the[current] global economic recovery.And, in China [from November 15 toNovember 19], we worked to advancethe partnership between our twocountries on global issues – becausecooperation between the UnitedStates and China will mean a safer,more prosperous world for all of us,including right here on the Koreanpeninsula. In Seoul, President Lee[Myung-bak of South Korea] and Ireaffirmed the enduring alliance be-tween our countries – an alliance root-ed in shared sacrifice, common values,mutual interest and mutual respect.”

To draw up a firm foreign policybalance sheet for a voyage of muchdiscovery and some diplomacy will bean exercise in romanticised politics.However, an American President,even a Nobel Peace laureate in his veryfirst year in office, is not without acalculus of realpolitik and realitychecks. This is so despite the increas-ing empirical evidence of a relative de-cline of American power on the globalstage – in the economic, political andmilitary domains. And a major powerthat is increasingly exposing this rela-tive decline of the U.S. is China.

P L U S E S A N D M I N U S E S Viewed in this perspective, what arethe main pluses and minuses of Oba-ma’s first East Asian tour? The biggestplus is a new vibrancy in the U.S.-

China dialogue and the parallel factthat he made no new enemies duringthis visit. Such recognition of a simplebut profound development does notnegate the impressions of a few in-dependent observers that some ofObama’s utterances in China mightnot have wafted across to its leaders asa sweet political tone.

The issue in focus here is one of hiscomments on the utility of the Internetin the present age of outer space andcyberspace. Paraphrased, the com-ment is simply an advocacy of freedomof thought and expression as not onlythe touchstone but also the catalyst ofgood governance in individual coun-tries. Any such advocacy did not rattlethe Chinese leaders during Obama’svisit to Shanghai and Beijing.

On the minus side of Obama’s tourdiary – which is inevitably composedby the commentators and not by thePresident himself – no political or dip-lomatic breakthroughs were an-nounced. Nor, on the positive side, wasthere any breakdown in Washington’sties with Tokyo. This in itself is signif-icant, considering that JapanesePrime Minister Yukio Hatoyama pre-fers a new paradigm of relations withthe U.S. Much political spin is beingplaced on this new paradigm followingHatoyama’s latest talks with Obama inTokyo. But the more immediatedoubts about the continuity of theU.S.-Japan alliance have been dissi-pated for now.

Obama is keen not to lose old alliessuch as Japan, South Korea and Aus-tralia even as he seeks a viable modusvivendi in ties with China. His talkswith the Chinese leaders, Hu and Pre-mier Wen Jiabao in particular, wereinevitably centred on the big globaland bilateral issues of the day. In fact, aconstant refrain among U.S. officialswas that Washington’s bilateral equa-tion with Beijing had now gone global.More importantly, the U.S. plannedfor, and tends to believe that it hassucceeded in opening, a new windowof opportunity for the future. This newwindow is that of America being ableto communicate directly with China’syounger generation. For the White

House, as an institution with its ownsense of the future, Obama’s latest dia-logue with some Chinese students inShanghai on November 16 is an in-vestment in the future of ties betweenthe two countries.

Obama is the first U.S. Presidentfrom a “household” which, in his ownwords, “looks like the United Nations”– a diverse racial and ethnic mix. Heemphasised this, sparking good-na-tured laughter during his dialoguewith “future Chinese leaders” at theMuseum of Science and Technology inShanghai. His multi-ethnic familybackground is complete with a Chi-nese stream from Canada. In a sense,therefore, his image as a truly glob-alised American President gave himunparalleled access to the minds andhearts of the young Chinese studentswho heard and questioned him. And,he did try to introduce them to “uni-versal” ideas and values that wouldtranscend the core beliefs of distinctivenations and civilisations. He was look-ing for a new meeting space with theyoung Chinese, even while remainingfully cognisant and respectful of Chi-na’s Confucian and Communist sys-tems.

U . S . G A M E P L A N Outwardly, Obama was eager to un-derstand the sights and sounds ofShanghai and Beijing, apart from ad-miring the idea of the Great Wall ofChina. Beyond the obvious, though,his objective was to reach out to “futureChinese leaders” in the hope of cata-lysing the creation of a potential newconstituency in China for the Amer-ican political discourse. Surely, justone dialogue in Shanghai, somewhatmodelled on a U.S. town-hall-stylemeeting, is insufficient for any suchgrand project of creating a new con-stituency inside China. However, thegame plan is too transparent to be mis-sed, regardless of the inherent limita-tions.

It is also not as if the Chinese lead-ers would have been unaware of anyU.S. game plan, regardless of the pack-aging of the real objective. In the event,it suited the authorities of both the

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U.S. and China to test the mood of theChinese students on some sensitive is-sues of international concern or in-terest. A sampling of Obama’s sessionwith the Chinese students will be il-lustrative of the U.S. game plan.

Some questions were directlyposed to Obama by the students hehandpicked, as it were, from amongthose in the hall who raised theirhands to get a chance to quiz him. Afew other questions were receivedthrough the Internet, which is said tobe monitored by the Chinese author-ities. Questions were also chosen fromthose received by the U.S. Embassy inBeijing through the Internet and, per-haps, even otherwise. This procedurewas decided upon to get a reasonably

credible mix of questions that the Chi-nese youth might want an AmericanPresident to answer.

China is home to 350 million In-ternet users, the largest national figureof this kind in the world. A question,received by the U.S. Embassy and readout as such, was whether Obama wasaware of the Internet firewall in Chinaand whether the Chinese should beable to use Twitter freely. Obama’s an-swer: “I am a big believer in technologyand I am a big believer in opennesswhen it comes to the flow of informa-tion. I think that the more freely in-formation flows, the stronger thesociety becomes, because then citizensof countries around the world can holdtheir own governments accountable.

They can begin to think for them-selves. That generates new ideas. Itencourages creativity. And so, I havealways been a strong supporter of openInternet use. I am a big supporter ofnon-censorship.”

Not done yet, Obama said: “I rec-ognise that different countries havedifferent traditions.… I should be hon-est. As President of the United States,there are times where I wish informa-tion did not flow so freely [in America]because then I would not have to listento people criticising me all the time. ...But the truth is that because in theUnited States information is free …that makes our democracy strongerand it makes me a better leader be-cause it forces me to hear opinions that

OBAMA INTERACTING WITH "future Chinese leaders" during a town-hall-style meeting at the Museum of Scienceand Technology in Shanghai on November 16.

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I do not want to hear. … The Internethas become an even more powerfultool for that kind of citizen participa-tion.”

On the “downside” of this equationbetween the state and the citizens in ademocracy, Obama said: “It alsomeans that terrorists are able to orga-nise on the Internet in ways that theymight not have been able to do before.… So, there is some price that you payfor openness.… But I think that thegood outweighs the bad so much that itis better to maintain that openness.”

By any standard of internationaldiplomacy, it was for Obama a dreamaccess to the “future Chinese leaders”.They were also given a brief account ofhow the difficult U.S.-China ties of theearly years of the Mao era turned dy-namic in recent times. Recounted weresuch phases of this transformation asping-pong diplomacy of table tennismatches between the two countriesand various other direct political steps.

The novelty of Obama’s dialoguewith the students, while being an ex-periment in alternative diplomacy ofwooing the next Chinese generation,did not overshadow the main agendaof his talks with the current leaders inBeijing. The official dialogue was ex-tensive, the agenda covering diverseareas such as climate change, the earlysigns of global economic recovery, nu-clear non-proliferation, and counter-terrorism.

In the absence of any specific new

agreements, which in any case werenot negotiated during Obama’s visit,Hu Jintao said: “China and the UnitedStates share extensive common inter-ests and broad prospect for cooper-ation on a series of major issuesimportant to mankind’s peace and sta-bility and development.”

On China’s core state-definingconcerns, Obama said: “We have reaf-firmed our strong commitment to aone-China policy. We did note thatwhile we recognise that Tibet is part ofthe People’s Republic of China [PRC],the United States supports the earlyresumption of dialogue between theChinese government and representa-tives of the Dalai Lama. We also ap-plaud the steps that the PRC andTaiwan have already taken to relaxtensions and build ties across the Tai-wan Strait.”

In effect, Obama conceded China’sstate sovereignty over such issues asTibet and Taiwan. However, he triedto seize the initiative on the issue ofpeople’s sovereignty by speaking di-rectly to the Chinese students aboutthe importance of holding govern-ments to account in individual coun-tries. In a context entirely differentfrom Obama’s latest visit to China,such a distinction between state sover-eignty and people’s sovereignty hasbeen brought into some focus by Mar-tin Jacques. His treatise – “When Chi-na Rules the World: The rise of theMiddle Kingdom and the end of the

Western World” – has already set off adebate. A China expert like John Iken-berry is of the view that “it remains tobe seen whether China can build a PaxSinica without an open, rule-basedworld order” under Beijing’s vision ofthe future.

I N D I A N I N T E R E S T Obama’s East Asia tour was essentiallyabout his country’s links with that re-gion and the wider forum of Asia-Pa-cific Economic Cooperation (APEC).However, official India felt compelledto react to a comment by him while inBeijing. As part of what was dubbed asa joint (U.S.-China) press statement,Obama said on November 17 that “weagreed to cooperate more on meetingthis [counter-terrorism] goal [withreference to Afghanistan and Pakis-tan], including bringing about morestable, peaceful relations in all ofSouth Asia”.

As this is written, Indian officialsare reported to be satisfied that Chinahas no intention of playing a role in theresolution of any India-Pakistan dis-pute. Interestingly, it was not for thefirst time that the U.S. and China ex-pressed interest in the stability ofSouth Asia as part of the discussionson global issues. Exactly 10 years ago,U.S. President Bill Clinton and Chi-nese leader Jiang Zemin had put SouthAsia on their agenda of discussions.

Another issue of interest to Indiafigured in Obama’s joint statementwith Hatoyama on a “world withoutnuclear weapons”. Issuing the state-ment in Tokyo on November 13, thetwo leaders agreed to “explore ways toenhance a new [global] framework forcivil nuclear cooperation … without in-creasing the risks of proliferation” ofatomic weapons. If pursued, such anobjective might saddle India with anew diplomatic challenge on mattersrelating to the Nuclear SuppliersGroup (NSG). A relevant issue iswhether a new global framework forcivil nuclear cooperation would annulor alter the existing terms on whichIndia has secured access to the inter-national civil nuclear energy marketunder NSG auspices. �

ATOMIC BOMB SURVIVORS from Hiroshima and Nagasaki at ademonstration advocating the abolition of nuclear weapons, near the U.S.Embassy in Tokyo on November 13. Japan and the U.S. arrived at a jointstatement on a “world without nuclear weapons” the same day.

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THE curtains have finally come down on themost politically sensitive case in Bangladesh – theassassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, thefounding father of the nation, by a group of dis-gruntled military officers. Truth and justice pre-vailed after an agonising delay in the legal processwhen a Supreme Court Bench, on November 19,upheld a High Court verdict confirming the deathsentences to 12 military officers in the “Bangaband-hu murder case”, as the case came to be known.

Mujibur Rahman was brutally murdered alongwith 26 others, including his wife,three sons (one of them was justnine years old), two daughters-in-law, brother, close relatives, politi-cal associates and security men in apre-dawn attack at his Dhanmon-di residence in Dhaka on August15, 1975. Two of his daughters,Sheikh Hasina and Sheikh Reha-na, survived the massacre as theywere abroad.

The trial went through an ar-duous path. The case first came upfor hearing in 1996, when SheikhHasina, after she became PrimeMinister for the first time, re-moved a legal barrier enacted bythe post-Mujib government toprotect the killers.

The killing had all the elementsaimed at reversing the expectedcourse of the new country, whichwon independence from Pakistanafter a bloody nine-month-long

war in 1971 with the promise of secular democracy ina country where Muslims formed an overwhelmingmajority. Mujibur Rahman, popularly called Banga-bandhu (Friend of Bengal), led a fierce, non-violentpolitical struggle to free East Pakistan from the sub-jugation of West Pakistan’s (now Pakistan) militaryrulers.

However, the fear and panic that followed themurder were such that even the police refused toregister a criminal case. The impunity enjoyed by theculprits lasted for over two decades, thanks to themilitary rulers who were the direct beneficiaries ofthe bloody carnage. It was once widely thought thatthe former army officers, who usurped state powerafter completing their killing mission, would neverface trial. In fact, they were rewarded with prizeddiplomatic positions by subsequent regimes.

The shame that accompanied the killings wasdeepened by the legal protection the killers enjoyedfollowing the proclamation in 1975 of the IndemnityOrdinance by the military government of Khandaker

Mostaque Ahmed, the key civilianconspirator in the assassinationplot who appointed himself Presi-dent of the country.

Nowhere in the world has therebeen such an instance of a deliber-ate closing of all avenues to justice.This was the shame the nation livedwith until the Awami League go-vernment led by Sheikh Hasina re-pealed the indemnity law in 1996and brought the assassins to trial.

The assassination of Mujib notonly reversed Bangladesh’s politi-cal course and halted its progress,but also reintroduced military ruleand militancy. Martial law, whichPakistan experienced for the firsttime in 1958, revisited Bangladesh,and a few months later, on Novem-ber 3, Tajuddin Ahmed, Syed Naz-rul Islam, Mansur Ali and A.H.M.Kamruzzaman, four leaders whowere in the forefront of the coun-

Justice triumphs

The impunity enjoyed by theculprits lasted for over two decades,thanks to the military rulers whowere the direct beneficiaries ofthe bloody carnage.

Bangladesh’s shame and agony ends as 12 killers of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman are

sentenced to death by the Supreme Court after 34 years. B Y H A R O O N H A B I B

ON THE DAY the verdict came,a portrait of Mujibur Rahman athis residence, which is now amuseum.

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try’s liberation war against Pakistanand were trusted lieutenants of Banga-bandhu, were gunned down insideDhaka Central Jail. These actions hadevidently only one objective – to makepost-independent Bangladeshleaderless.

After the bloody changeover of1975, Bangladesh witnessed repeatedmilitary and pseudo-democratic go-vernments; democracy and the rule oflaw were denied. General Ziaur Rah-man, the first military dictator and thefounder of the Bangladesh NationalistParty (BNP), fortified the indemnity tothe assassins by giving the previousexecutive order a legal shape and mak-ing it a part of the Constitution. Thesecond dictator, General H.M. Ershad,who founded the Jatiya Party, fol-lowed in his predecessor’s footsteps.Even when the country got a new dem-ocratic life with the fall of Ershad in1990 following a mass upsurge, thesituation remained unchanged. Thereligious fundamentalists were tact-fully rehabilitated.

It was not until the return to powerin 1996 of the Awami League, the partythat led Bangladesh’s liberation warunder Mujib, that the murder casecould be formally registered, byA.K.M. Mohitul Islam, an assistant ofMujib who was present when the kill-ings took place at Road No. 32 ofDhanmondi in Dhaka. Legal proceed-

ings started, and five of the 12 formerarmy officers were arrested. The restwent into hiding.

The killing of Mujibur Rahmanwas obviously a welcome developmentfor those who opposed Bangladesh’sindependence from Pakistan on thebasis of a secular nationhood, which ineffect rejected Mohammad Ali Jin-nah’s two-nation theory. The newcountry was a unique case as it defiedthe American administration, theArab world led by Saudi Arabia andalso communist China. The Islamistswere all out to “protect Islam” by safe-guarding Pakistan’s unity.

Surprisingly, all the outside adver-saries of the liberation war had failedmiserably to con-demn the worst gen-ocide, rape andarson perpetrated bythe Pakistani Armyand its local cohortsduring the war. Itwas India and theformer Soviet Unionwhich took a boldstand and supportedthe cause of Bangla-desh. India gaveshelter to over 10million refugees andassisted the freedomfighters in all con-ceivable ways.

The right-wing forces, whichemerged powerful in politics and busi-ness, covered up for the killers. But asthe final verdict was pronounced, andin a situation where pro-liberationpolitics is dominating the nationalscene, nobody has openly expresseddisapproval of the verdict. In fact,there was spontaneous jubilationacross the country as the appellatecourt pronounced the historicjudgment.

The murder case proceeded slowlyeven after the verdict of the trial courtin November 1998 and its subsequentapproval by the High Court. The proc-ess was not taken to its logical judicialconclusion, thanks to the delays, fre-quent instances of judges feeling em-barrassed to hear the appeals of theconvicted, and the indifference of theBNP-Jamaat alliance government inpursuing the case. During the fiveyears of the Four-Party Alliance go-vernment (2001-2006) led by KhaledaZia, widow of Ziaur Rahman, the ap-peal against the High Court verdictwas not disposed of. Khaleda’s LawMinister defended the delay by sayingthat there were not enough judges todeal with the matter.

The November 19 judgment is anew milestone for the nation. In thefirst place, it upholds the idea that thepeople of Bangladesh, despite all theirtrials and tribulations, are wedded tothe rule of law and will ensure thesupremacy of this principle in their

collective social andpolitical life. Second-ly, the verdict is aclear reflection thatcrime of any kind anddegree can best behandled by a trans-parent judicial sys-tem. It goes to SheikhHasina’s credit thatin 1996 she opted fortrial by open courtrather than a specialone. The accusedwere given ampletime to explore allavailable avenues topresent their cases.

SHEIKH HASINA. SHE faces aconstant threat to her life.

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SECURITY PERSONNEL OUTSIDE the Supreme Court in Dhaka onNovember 19.

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OF the 12 former military officersconvicted in the Bangabandhumurder case, five are already in cus-tody; one has died in exile; and therest are reportedly holed up in theUnited States, Libya, Canada, Pa-kistan and Kenya. The governmentwill make fresh diplomatic efforts tohave the six who are in hidingabroad extradited. As part of theefforts, Dhaka will soon write to go-vernments of all countries seekingtheir help in bringing the abscond-ing killers to justice.

Home Minister Sahara Kha-toon made a global appeal to helptrack down the fugitives. The ap-peal was made at the 78th annualgeneral meeting of Interpol in Sin-gapore in October. The Ministersaid her Ministry would issue anInternational Red Alert to capturethe fugitives.

Meanwhile, informed sourcestold Frontline that the process forthe execution of the death sentencesof the five death-row convicts(sacked Lieutenant Colonel SyedFaruque Rahman, retired Lieute-nant Colonel Sultan Shahriar Rash-

id Khan, retired Lieutenant ColonelMuhiuddin Ahmed, retired Lieute-nant Colonel A.K.M. MohiuddinAhmed and retired Major BazlulHuda), who had appealed against alower court verdict, had already be-gun as the jail authorities had re-ceived a copy of the AppellateDivision’s verdict.

Although the process of execu-tion of the verdict has begun, theconvicts have the scope to take twolegal steps. The five death-row con-victs may file applications with theAppellate Division seeking revisionof its verdict. Official sources saidthe death sentences of the five for-mer officers might be executed byDecember or early January.

Chief government prosecutorAnisul Haq said the death sentenc-es of six convicts in exile – Lieute-nant Colonel (dismissed)Khandaker Abdur Rashid, Lieute-nant Colonel (relieved) SharifulHaque Dalim, Lieutenant Colonel(retd.) Nur Chowdhury, LieutenantColonel (retd.) A.M. RashedChowdhury, Captain Abdul Mazedand Risalder Moslehuddin Khan –

were ready for execution as they didnot file any petition seeking a per-mission to appeal against the HighCourt verdict, which upheld theirsentences. According to the prose-cution, Rashid, one of the key plot-ters, has settled in Benghazi, Libya,where he runs a construction busi-ness. He often visits Pakistan andSingapore. Dalim lives in Pakistanand frequently travels to Libya andNairobi where he has businesses.

Nur Chowdhury and RashedChowdhury are in Canada and theU.S. But other sources said Nurlived in Libya and was seeking asy-lum in Canada. Rashed is trying forasylum in the U.S. Abdul Mazed ishiding in Benghazi, while Mosle-huddin might be in the Libyan city,or somewhere in Bangladesh. An-other convict, Lieutenant ColonelAziz Pasha, died in Zimbabwe onJune 2, 2001.

Among the five convicts now incustody, Mohiuddin was deportedto Bangladesh from Los Angeles onJune 17, 2007, after a U.S. courtrejected his appeal for residency.Huda was extradited from Bangkokon the day the trial court pro-nounced its verdict in 1998.

Haroon Habib

The Mujib killers

There is another significant aspect ofthe apex court’s verdict: it can now beexpected that the culture of changinggovernment through violent means orpower-grabbing by men in uniformwill come to an end.

Although the assassins and theiraccomplices justified their action onthe grounds that Mujibur Rahmanhad assumed absolute power under aone-party (Bangladesh Krishak Sra-mik Awami League) system of gover-nance and that he enforced andsuppressed his political opponents,pro-liberation Bangladesh continuedto view the assassination and the coupas a plot hatched to steer the newlyformed country away from its avowedpath of socialism, democracy, nation-alism and secularism. History did not

and their political cohorts, over-whelmingly support exemplary puni-shment to the killers of Mujib.

With the final verdict pronouncedin the case, there are no legal restraintsto its execution. The Awami League,which got a huge majority, is all set torevive the 1972 Constitution and holdtrials for all major political killings,including the killing in jail of four na-tional leaders. The government has al-ready initiated a process to unearth themystery behind the August 21, 2004,grenade attack on Sheikh Hasina.

Criticism apart, the 10-month-oldgovernment led by Sheikh Hasina isbold and promise-bound, but not freefrom risks. Personally, the daughter ofSheikh Mujibur Rahman faces a con-stant threat to her life. �

approve the cover-up. As days went by,the assassins of Bangabandhu turnedout to be the worst villains and ene-mies of Bangladesh, its sovereignty,people, culture and values.

Khaleda Zia, the main oppositionleader and two-time Prime Minister,has not issued a formal statement sofar. The Jamaat-e-Islami was cautiousin welcoming the verdict. The rulingAwami League said that the nationwas freed from the black scar it borefor 34 years. The people at large de-manded immediate execution of thecriminals.

Bangladesh has changed signifi-cantly in the past two decades. Thenew generations, which were taughtthe distorted history of the nation’sindependence by the military rulers

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THE United States-sponsored West Asia peaceprocess may be on the verge of being declared offi-cially dead. For the beleaguered Palestinian Author-ity (P.A.), the last straw was the endorsement ofIsrael’s expansionist policy in the occupied territo-ries by the visiting U.S. Secretary of State, HillaryClinton. She praised Israeli Prime Minister Benja-min Netanyahu’s commitment to peace, despite hisrefusal to “freeze” new settlement construction inJerusalem and the West Bank. At the beginning ofthe Barack Obama administration’s tenure, state-ments emanating from the White House as well asthe State Department had indicated a tough line onIsrael’s settlement-building activity.

After President Obama’s first meeting with Neta-nyahu in May, Hillary Clinton said that the newadministration wanted an immediate stop to all set-tlement activity. Obama had told the Israeli govern-ment to stop all construction activity in the occupiedterritories as he was serious about a peace agree-ment. The Obama administration now seems to havewilted under the pressure mounted by the Jewishlobby in Washington. Obama even formally crit-icised the United Nations Human Rights Council’sGoldstone Report, which accused Israel of warcrimes in Gaza. The U.S. House of Representativesvoted 344 to 36 in favour of rejecting the report. Thereport has been welcomed by the international com-munity barring a few countries.

Another wake-up call to the Palestinian leader-ship in Ramallah came from the White House Chiefof Staff, Rahm Israel Emanuel. At the annual confe-rence of the United Jewish Communities on Novem-ber 10, he said Israeli settlements should not be a“distraction” to the peace process.

Gideon Levy, the noted Israeli columnist, wroterecently: “Before no other country in the planet doesthe United States kneel and plead like this. In othertrouble spots, America takes a different tone. Itbombs Afghanistan, invades Iraq and threatenssanctions against Iran and North Korea. Did anyonein Washington consider begging Saddam Hussein towithdraw from occupied territory in Kuwait?”

Meanwhile, P.A. President Mahmoud Abbas, ina speech delivered on November 5, admitted that thepeace process had collapsed completely. On thatoccasion, Abbas announced dramatically that hewould not seek a second term. He has since statedthat he is firm on his decision to step down from theleadership of the Palestinian movement. The Pal-estine Liberation Organisation (PLO) has rejectedhis resignation offer and is urging him to seek anoth-er term as P.A. leader. His supporters and well-wishers cautioned that the entire edifice of the P.A.would collapse if Abbas stepped down and fearedthat the political vacuum created by his action would

Breaking point

Palestinian Authority PresidentMahmoud Abbas’ decision to stepdown could mean the death knellfor the Oslo Accord and the two-state solution it envisaged.

The West Asia peace process is on the verge of collapse with the U.S. wanting the

talks to resume without a freeze on Israel’s settlement activity. B Y J O H N C H E R I A N

World Affairs

A VIEW OF the West BankJewish settlement of MaaleAdumim from the outskirtsof Jerusalem.M

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be filled by Hamas. Israeli PresidentShimon Peres has asked Abbas not toquit. Peres was quoted as saying that itwas in Israel’s interests that Abbascontinued to lead the P.A. InfluentialEuropean nations have also swung in-to action to persuade the Palestinianleader to reconsider his decision.French Foreign Minister BernardKouchner said that Abbas’ decisionnot to contest again was a “threat topeace” in West Asia and would beharmful to the interests of the West.

Kouchner publicly questioned wheth-er Netanyahu was really interested inpeace. There is also a view in the Arabworld that Abbas’ “resignation drama”is only a tactical move.

Abbas in his speech said that thePalestinian people would have to seeknew ways to achieve statehood. Hesaid the failure of the peace talks andthe Obama administration’s embraceof Israeli expansionism were the mainreasons for his decision to quit. In hisspeech he also mentioned the failure to

mend fences with Hamas, which con-trols Gaza, as another factor. The fail-ure to forge an accord with Hamas hasforced the P.A. to postpone the generalelections, which Abbas had said wouldbe held on January 29. Hamas hasrefused to recognise Abbas as Presi-dent as his constitutional term expiredin January. “We’ve called for unity,”Abbas said. “Hamas has been trying touse some indefensible excuses to avoidsigning this reconciliation agreement,namely the Goldstone Report.”

Abbas accused Israel of exacerbat-ing the tense situation in Jerusalem bydesecrating “some holy sites near AlAqsa mosque”. The mosque is the sec-ond holiest site in the world for Mus-lims. Abbas also suggested the need formore serious international mediationinto Arab-Israel conflict instead of theAmericans being allowed to remainthe sole arbiters. He emphasised thatthe Palestinian side had remainedcommitted to the two-state solutionthroughout the long years of negotia-tions. “However, month after month,year after year, we have nothing butcomplacency and procrastination”from the Israeli side, Abbas said. Inanother speech, delivered on the fifthanniversary of Yasser Arafat’s death,

MAHMOUD ABBAS, PALESTINIANAuthority President.

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World Affairs

he told a cheering crowd that the P.A.would not go in for negotiations with-out a framework. “And we say the fra-mework is U.N. resolutions, meaning areturn to the 1967 borders,” he said.

Saeb Erekat, a key adviser of Abbasand the chief Palestinian negotiator,said in early November that it was timethe P.A. leadership told the Palestinianpeople that the deadline for a “two-state solution” to resolve the Palesti-nian issue had lapsed. Until recently,Abbas swore by the peace process andtold the Palestinian people that peacewith Israel was imminent. The P.A.stopped negotiations with Israel afterthe January assault on Gaza and re-fused to return to the peace talks untilIsrael announced a halt to all settle-ment activity. The Obama administra-tion wants an immediate resumptionof the peace talks without making thefreeze on settlement activity a precon-dition.

Since the Oslo peace accord wassigned, Israel has put up 500,000 set-tlers and doubled the settlements inthe occupied territories. Abbas was thekey Palestinian negotiator in Oslo. Hisdecision to step down could mean thedeath knell for the Oslo Accord and the

two-state solution it envisaged. Abbas’proposed resignation has been wel-comed by many Palestinians. They re-member that the P.A. under Abbas hadbent over backwards to please Wash-ington and Tel Aviv on crucial issuesconnected to the peace process. Abbasinitially supported the move of Wash-ington to postpone the debate and voteon the Goldstone Report.

Palestinian outrage at the decisionforced the P.A. to reverse its stance.The UNHRC and the U.N. GeneralAssembly have endorsed the Gold-stone Report and referred it to the Se-curity Council for discussion.International legal experts have con-cluded that the Israeli Defence Forces(IDF) violated the Nuremberg Princi-ples as well as the Geneva Conventionsduring “Operation Cast Lead” in Gaza.The Nuremberg Principles are a set ofguidelines established after the Sec-ond World War to try Nazi partymembers.

Under Abbas’ watch, Americanforces trained the Palestinian securityforces. The Palestinian “national forc-es” were taught to look at those resist-ing Israeli occupation as “terrorists”.The attempt by Fatah to oust militarily

the democratically elected Hamas go-vernment from Gaza in 2007 was saidto be instigated by Washington. At ameeting near Ramallah between topIsraeli and Fatah commanders in2008, the highest-ranking Fatah mil-itary commander in the West Bankwas quoted as saying that “we have onecommon enemy, and the name of theenemy is Hamas”.

S E A R C H F O R N E W L E A D E RThe search seems to have begun to finda new Fatah leader. The most popularone with the Fatah rank and file isMarwan Barghouti. Barghouti hasbeen cooling his heels in an Israeliprison for the past couple of years,serving a long sentence for his role inthe last Palestinian “intifada” (upris-ing). The popularity of Fatah amongPalestinians had declined after thedeath of Yasser Arafat.

Hamas, despite the efforts of Israelto stigmatise and eliminate it, contin-ues to be a force to reckon with inPalestine. Leading Israeli figures, in-cluding former military men, are nowtalking of engaging Hamas diplomat-ically. Phillipe Martini, a senior sen-ator belonging to the ruling party inFrance, issued a report in the secondweek of November that called for thelifting of the diplomatic “cordon san-itaire” around Hamas and ending itsisolation.

Meanwhile, as the Western worldcelebrated the 20th anniversary of thecollapse of the Berlin Wall in the firstweek of November, Palestinians in bignumbers were demonstrating againstthe wall that Israel has constructed inthe West Bank. Palestinian protestersmanaged to demolish a small sectionof the wall, which prevents Palesti-nians from visiting neighbours andmoving around freely. It has gobbledup significant chunks of Palestinianterritory since its construction startedin the beginning of the decade. TheWorld Court, in a 2004 judgment, or-dered the Israeli government to teardown the portion that runs throughPalestinian territory. Almost 85 per ofthe planned wall is inside Palestinianterritory. �

PALESTINIAN SECURITY FORCES parade on November 19 in the WestBank city of Jenin in support of Mahmoud Abbas.

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FIJI’s relations with its two large neighbours,Australia and New Zealand, hit a new low with adiplomatic spat that led to both sides expelling eachother’s envoys in early November. Fiji stands sus-pended from the councils of the Commonwealth andthe regional body Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) for notadhering to a time frame of holding general electionsand restoring democracy. But the diplomatic spat inthe placid waters of the Pacific, which is indicative ofthe increasing acrimony in the relations of the threecountries, has left little leeway for forward move-ment in the region.

Australia and New Zealand have been the mainforces behind the international isolation of Fiji afterthe island nation witnessed its third armed ouster ofan elected government in December 2006. Two ear-lier governments were overthrown by violent actionin 1987 and 2000, but democratic rule was restoredafter some time.

In 2006, Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama, themilitary commander, overthrew the government ofPrime Minister Laisenia Qarase, with whom he hada long, fraught relationship over the question ofamnesty to those involved in the coup and mutiny in2000. Bainimarama had tackled the 2000 coup byarresting the armed gang, releasing the hostages andinstalling an interim government headed by Qarase.

The latter was elected Prime Minister in the generalelections held later but fell out with Bainimarama,who charged him with corruption and misgover-nance.

Australia and New Zealand were the first coun-tries to cut off economic aid and to impose sanctionsagainst the military regime that took over after theQarase government was deposed. These sanctions,especially the travel restrictions imposed on mem-bers of the Fiji regime and those appointed by theinterim regime and their family members, have add-ed to the acrimony between them.

Last April, Bainimarama abrogated the country’sconstitution, sacked the judiciary and curbed thepress after the Court of Appeal overturned an earlierSupreme Court judgment holding the military coupand the appointment of an interim administrationheaded by Bainimarama illegal. The judiciary wassubsequently restored sans the expatriate membersof the Court of Appeal. The interim administrationclaimed that the judiciary had to be reappointed as ithad lost its authority once the constitution underwhich the judges were appointed had been abrogat-ed. Australia and New Zealand then extended theirtravel bans to cover members of Fiji’s judiciary.

The flashpoint in Fiji’s dispute with Australiaand New Zealand came when the two countries re-

Pacific spat

Of all the actions taken against Fiji,the travel ban imposed by Australiaand New Zealand has had themaximum impact on the country,since in normal times there is a greatdeal of movement between Fiji andits two larger neighbours.

The sanctions imposed by Australia and

New Zealand do not exactly help Fiji’s

return to democracy and normality.

B Y S H U B H A S I N G H

World Affairs/Fiji

JOSAIA VOREQE BAINIMARAMA, Fiji’s InterimPrime Minister, at the World Summit on FoodSecurity in Rome on November 17.

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fused travel visas to seven judges whowere recruited by the Fiji governmentfrom Sri Lanka to fill vacancies in thejudiciary. When the seven Sri Lankansapplied for visas to transit throughAustralia on the way to Fiji, they wereinformed of the travel bans on peopleassociated with the Fiji government.

Fiji’s Chief Justice Robert Gatestook umbrage at the Australian actionand told Interim Prime Minister Bai-nimarama that Australia and NewZealand’s interference in the judiciaryserved to undermine the country’s jud-iciary. He said it was the government’sduty to ensure that no foreign govern-ment interfered with Fiji’s judicial in-dependence and integrity.

The relations soured to the extentthat Bainimarama gave directions fordesignating the Australian High Com-missioner persona non grata and giv-ing him 24 hours to leave Fiji. TheAustralian High Commission in Suvaissued a statement stating that a deci-sion had been taken to issue visas tothe seven Sri Lankan judges to transitthrough Australia but they had with-drawn their applications and made ar-rangements to travel to Fiji via SouthKorea.

Although the Australian govern-ment denied that visas had been re-fused, Bainimarama told the mediathat one of the Sri Lankan judges hadtaped the conversation with the Aus-tralian official in Colombo where shewas told that travel sanctions wouldapply because she had accepted a posi-tion in the Fiji judiciary. The judicialofficer was told that accepting a jud-icial appointment in Fiji would be per-ceived as condoning and supportingthe military regime’s action. The Fijigovernment was particularly upset atwhat it saw as attempts to dissuade theSri Lankan appointees from taking uptheir positions.

D I S P U T E W I T H N E W Z E A L A N DThe dispute with New Zealand aroseafter the New Zealand ImmigrationDepartment sent a letter to Fiji FamilyCourt judge Anjala Wati initially deny-ing her a visa to go to New Zealand toseek medical treatment for her sick

child. The matter raised a furore inFiji. The New Zealand authorities latermade an exception on compassionategrounds for Anjala Wati and she trav-elled to Auckland, New Zealand, withher son. According to the Fiji adminis-tration, what was objectionable in theletter to Anjala Wati was the statementspelling out the New Zealand govern-ment’s policy with respect to membersof the judiciary whom it considered tobe part of the military regime andwere, therefore, covered by the travelban.

According to New Zealand ForeignMinister Murray McCully, the ban wasimposed when the interim govern-ment sacked the judiciary and reap-pointed only those who it thought werefriendly. Fiji’s interim Attorney Gener-al Aiyaz Sayed Khayum questioned theNew Zealand government’s premise,saying that Fiji’s judiciary was inde-pendent and functioned without go-vernment interference of any sort.There was not a single shred of evi-dence to show that there was any exec-utive or political interference with thejudiciary, he said.

Meanwhile, Kamlesh Arya, Fiji’sHigh Commissioner in Australia, andKuliniasi Seru Savou, Fiji’s ActingHigh Commissioner in New Zealand,were recalled.

Fiji was suspended from the coun-cils of the Commonwealth in Septem-ber for its failure to adhere to certainconditions. The Commonwealth hadset a September 1 deadline for the Fijigovernment to resume negotiationswith the opposition and a timetable forholding credible elections by October2010. Interim Prime Minister Bainim-arama, however, stuck to his proposedStrategic Framework for Change un-der which he had announced plans toimplement various socio-economic,political and legal reforms before thegeneral elections, planned to be heldby September 2014.

Fiji had been suspended fromCommonwealth meetings on two ear-lier occasions, after democraticallyelected governments were overthrownin 1987 and 2000. Both times Fiji wasreadmitted into the Commonwealth as

it restored democratic functioning.But this time, taking the disapproval astep further, Fiji has been suspendedfrom the councils of the Common-wealth. This action bans Fiji from allcontact with the Commonwealth,which means Fiji will be cut off fromall aid and assistance programmes ofthe group.

As the main regional powers, Aus-tralia and New Zealand used theirclout among the Pacific island nationsto suspend Fiji from the PIF eventhough the forum secretariat is locatedin Suva. This was despite Fiji’s smallerneighbours such as Cook Islands andthe Melanesian group’s advice that itwould be of greater benefit to remainengaged with Fiji to persuade the in-terim government to begin a dialoguewith the opposition parties and tomove towards restoring democracy.

Australian Prime Minister KevinRudd responded by warning that Aus-tralia would maintain its tough stanceagainst Fiji in order to prevent its“coup culture” from spreading acrossthe Pacific. The acrimony between thethree countries has continued withBainimarama accusing the two go-vernments of ignoring his efforts atreforming his country and preparing itfor democracy. Bainimarama says,“They fail to understand that we arecreating a country based on equal andcommon citizenry, a country of mod-ern laws, a country which will havetrue democracy.”

Of all the actions taken against Fijisince the 2006 coup, it is the travel banimposed by Australia and New Zea-land that has had the maximum im-pact on the country, since in normaltimes there is a great deal of movementbetween Fiji and its two larger neigh-bours. Australia and New Zealandhave sizable populations of people ofFiji origin. There is frequent travelboth ways for family reunions and forvacations. Students from Fiji go to thetwo countries for higher studies, andpatients requiring specialised medicalcare are referred to hospitals in Aus-tralia or New Zealand. With this levelof travel and interaction, any travelrestriction can have a negative impact.

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The refusal of a visa to a well-knownfootball player to play in a tournamentbecause his fiance’s father was in theFiji army raised hackles in Fiji, evenamong those inimical to the militaryregime. The initial refusal of a visa to awoman and her 20-month-old babyfor an emergency surgical proceduredrew wide criticism in Fiji. Australiaand New Zealand would not like toevoke such a reaction in Fiji since theanger is directed at their governmentsinstead of the interim regime.

The military regime, on its part, ishighly sensitive to criticism and doesnot hesitate to crack down on critics.Fiji-born Australian academic Dr BrijLal was asked to leave the country, andit was ensured that no reports ap-peared about his departure in the Fijimedia. Brij Lal was one of the writersof the 1997 constitution and had beencritical of the government for abrogat-ing the constitution. The Fiji Immigra-tion Department claimed that Brij Lal,an Australian national, was on a vis-itor’s visa and was not deported, butBrij Lal revealed that he had been giv-en 24 hours to leave the country.

The European Union, which hadcut off economic assistance to Fiji, hasonce again begun looking at ways torenew contact with the government.At a recent meeting in Brussels, Bai-nimarama told E.U. officials that sec-tions of the abrogated 1997constitution dealing with the rule oflaw, the judiciary, human rights anddemocratic principles would be re-vived through an ordinance. The meet-ing was held to discuss ways to resumeformal consultations with the E.U. TheInternational Monetary Fund (IMF)and the World Bank sent teams to Fijiin recent weeks to look at the interimregime’s plans for land reforms.

Land reform is one of the proposalsof the Bainimarama regime to reviveFiji’s ailing sugar industry. The landissue has been a sensitive one sinceabout 80 per cent of the land in thecountry is owned communally by theindigenous Fijian tribes and cannot besold by law. The land had been leasedto ethnic Indian sugarcane farmers.However, when the 30-year leases ex-

pired many Indian farmers were dis-placed by Fijian owners who tried togrow cane for a couple of seasons be-fore giving it up. Different sections ofthe indigenous Fijian society were ag-grieved over the returns from leasedland, even land leased by ethnic Fijiansor the government. This has resultedin irate owners holding agitations andtaking over tourist resorts and evengovernment buildings. There is a needfor a better land use system underwhich the lessees have security of ten-ure while the land owners get adequatereturn for the use of their land.

Fiji has a substantial population ofpeople of Indian origin (about 34 percent), who are descendants of Indianindentured workers who were broughtto work in the sugarcane plantationswhen Fiji was a British colony. It hasbeen the usual pattern to cast Fiji’sproblems as essentially a conflict be-tween the aspirations of the two mainethnic groups, the indigenous Fijiansand the ethnic Indians. The coups in1987 and 2000 had targeted Indian-dominated governments, but Bainim-arama’s coup does not fit into suchsimplistic theories. The military chief’sbattle was with Qarase personally overissues of governance and not takingaction against the perpetrators of the

2000 mutiny. Bainimarama has pro-posed a charter of reforms, many ofthem on issues such as land reformsthat have been pending for years. Thegovernment’s reformist agenda hasfound support among some sections ofcivil society in Fiji, and several groupsare willing to discuss it.

But there is a strong section amongthe indigenous Fijians who are fiercelyopposed to Bainimarama and the stepshe has taken to suspend the GreatCouncil of Chiefs, the chief body ofethnic Fijians.

The charter includes reforming theelectoral system – a ConstituencyBoundaries Commission and Super-visor of Elections have been appointed.The electoral reforms involve doingaway with the race-based voting sys-tem, which has divided the two majorraces, and introducing an equitablesystem giving equal weightage to all.Meanwhile, the bitterly divided oppo-sition has been making moves to cometogether. The two main groups, theformer ruling party led by Qarase andthe Indian-dominated Fiji LabourParty led by former Prime Ministerand one-time Finance Minister in theinterim government MahendraChaudhry, have come together to pressfor early elections. The various politi-cal parties have differing views on theproposed reforms and the discussionshave faltered over trivial conditions.

Australia, New Zealand and Fijihave minimal diplomatic representa-tion between them. Such a situationwould cause greater hardship to Fi-jians, while the acrimonious diplomat-ic spat would deter tourists fromtravelling to Fiji, dealing a blow to thetourism industry.

Military dictators are usually un-deterred by loud threats or even bydifficulties faced by their people; theyneed to be persuaded through a varietyof means. In these circumstances, itwould be countries and institutionsthat have maintained some contactwith the Fiji government that would bein a position to persuade the militaryregime to begin talking to the opposi-tion parties and other influentialgroups in the country. �

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THE Colombian elite, like their counterparts inIndia, are proud of the special relationship theirgovernment has forged with the United States.When most other countries in the region are railingagainst the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with theU.S., the Colombian government is looking forwardto its ratification. It is another matter that the Oba-ma administration is taking its time to do so. A fewDemocratic Party lawmakers have raised objectionsto it, citing cases of repression against trade unionsand violation of human rights. But following theinitialling of the new military cooperation agree-ment with the U.S. on October 30, the Colombiangovernment expects the U.S. Congress to ratify theFTA.

The Alvaro Uribe government has an ambitiousblueprint for incorporating Colombia into the worldeconomy. The nation of 44 million people is the thirdbiggest economy in Latin America after Brazil andMexico. Nearly 35 per cent of its exports go to Vene-zuela. But recent events have seriously disrupted therelations between the two countries. Venezuela hastemporarily barred all imports from Colombia.Trade with its other neighbour, Ecuador, was de-railed following a cross-border raid by the Colom-bian military last year.

One of the priorities of the government is torectify the negative image of the country. Bogota is amodern city with all the amenities of a First-Worldmetropolis. The crime rate is negligible and the se-curity presence in the capital is conspicuous. Privatesecurity guards with guard dogs are posted at theentrances of government buildings and commercialoffices. Fingerprinting and profiling is routine foroutsiders who want to enter them. The city’s resi-dents proudly say that it is safer than New York. Theother major cities, Medellin and Cali, are much saferthan they were in the 1980s and 1990s, when drugcartels ruled the roost and the crime rate was atastronomical levels.

One of the major reasons for the popularity ofUribe domestically is his ability to restore order in

Emerging economy

Officials at Proexport, a public-private apex body set up by thegovernment to promote investmentand trade, said the country received$10 billion in foreign directinvestment last year.

With the insurgents now confined to the jungles, the focus of the government is

on converting the country into an economic powerhouse. B Y J O H N C H E R I A N IN BOGOTA

World Affairs/Colombia

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THE LEFT-WING POLODemocratico administration ofBogota is striving to make it aworld-class city while ensuringthat the poor are notmarginalised.

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the major cities and industrial hubs ofthe country. Earlier, people wereafraid to travel out of Bogota, fearingkidnappings and hold-ups.

The President currently has an ap-proval rating of around 70 per cent.Efforts are on to get the ConstitutionalCourt to ratify amendments to the lawso that Uribe can seek an unpreceden-ted third term. But the talk in Bogota isthat he will bow out for former De-fence Minister Juan Manuel Santos.

Santos is close to Washington’s se-curity establishment. As Defence Min-ister, he supervised many of theheadline-grabbing operations againstFARC (Revolutionary Armed Forcesof Colombia) guerillas. “At this mo-ment of time, I am the person whointerprets better what President Uribewants for this country in the future,”Santos said early this year.

The influential business sectorfeels that Uribe’s focus was on counter-insurgency, and the candidacy of San-tos will give a boost to the private sec-tor. Santos, who held the portfolio offinance and industry under Uribe, isthe scion of one of the richest familiesin Colombia.

B U S I N E S S B A C K I N GAlberto Pradilla, the president of Fe-desoft, representing Colombia’s infor-mation technology (IT) sector, said thegovernment’s foreign policy was goodfor the country. Echoing the views ofthe business community, he said thatU.S. help was crucial to the country to

overcome its problems, includingthose concerning Venezuela and in-surgency. He said “Plan Colombia”, theU.S.-financed counter-insurgencyprogramme, was essential to thwartthe left-wing rebels and stop moneylaundering by the drug cartels. Duringthe Uribe presidency, Colombia gotmore than $5 billion in military aidfrom the U.S.

Pradilla admitted that the pres-ence of right-wing paramilitaries andthe killings of trade union activists hadnot helped the country’s image. Col-ombians are particularly riled by thedepiction of their country in Holly-wood films. But if there were 3,572kidnappings in 2000, there have beenfewer than 500 this year. Drug-fuelledgang wars do erupt from time to time,though. Colombia’s Deputy HealthMinister Blanca Elvira Cajlga de Acos-ta said violence accounted for a largenumber of deaths in the country.

The government is keen to ensurethat FARC is kept out of major cities.Senior officials and business people,however, concede that a military solu-tion to the insurgency is not achievabledespite all the help from the U.S., theincrease in the military budget and thestrengthening of the armed forces. Theguerilla presence in around half of thecountry, especially in the thickly for-ested and lightly populated southernand northern parts of the countrywhere coca is grown, makes it reallydifficult.

The government has in place an

amnesty plan for the guerillas, butthere are few takers for it. Previousexperience has made them cautious.The M-19 guerilla group, which wasthe second largest until the 1980s, vol-untarily disbanded after the govern-ment of the day offered it amnesty andintegration into the political main-stream. But there were targeted kill-ings of its leaders once they laid downtheir arms.

With FARC now more or less con-fined to the jungles, the focus of thegovernment is on converting Colom-bia into an economic powerhouse ofthe region. India’s success in the ITsector is admired much in Colombia.Indian companies have started takingadvantage of the Colombian expertisein the sector. Tata Consultancy Servic-es (TCS), for instance, has set up officesin Colombia; they are fully staffed byColombian professionals. It has suc-cessfully bid for a major contract fromthe Ministry of Finance.

S K I L L E D W O R K F O R C EMost of the young professionals in thecountry are bilingual and many ofthem were educated in U.S. universi-ties. As many as 15,000 people gradu-ate every year, with 5,000 specialisingin IT alone. One of the advantages ofinvesting in Colombia is that the coun-try is in the same time zone as manyparts of the U.S. The flying time tomajor U.S. cities is also comparativelyshort.

Officials at Proexport, a public-pri-

THE TRANSMILENIO RAPID transit system of Bogota has reduced travelling time for the ordinary citizen by 32 percent, gas emissions by 40 per cent, and accident rates substantially.

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vate apex body set up by the govern-ment to promote investment andtrade, said the country received $10billion in foreign direct investment(FDI) last year. Colombia, described asthe most “business friendly” state inthe region, is also the least impacted bythe global recession. More than 50free-trade zones have been approvedsince the Uribe government came topower. The country, officials claim, hasthe cheapest and best skilled force inthe region.

Indian companies are actively en-gaged also in the oil and gas sector. Oiland Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC)and Reliance have invested in Colom-bian oil and gas fields. ONGC is inpartnership with the Chinese companySinopec in Colombia.

China is today Colombia’s fourthbiggest trading partner. Though thehydrocarbon deposits in the countryare not as vast as those in neighbour-ing Venezuela, new oil and gas depos-its are being discovered on a regularbasis along the coastline. FernandoBastos, International Trade Managerof EcoPetrol, the state-owned oil com-pany, which is one of the biggest in theregion, said the country hoped to tripleits oil production to one million barrelsa day by 2015. Half of the oil producedin the country is used for domesticconsumption and the rest is exported.

Minister of Mines and EnergyHernan Martinez said Colombia had asurplus of hydel power. Electricity isexported to neighbouring countriessuch as Ecuador and Venezuela. Thegoal, according to him, is to forge ener-gy integration with the rest of the re-gion by the end of 2012.

The government is also encourag-ing the production of biofuel. It hasearmarked three million hectares ofland to produce ethanol, the aim beingto ensure that 10 per cent of the etha-nol produced is used in gasoline. Etha-nol production is expected to helpfarmers gain productive employmentand at the same time compete withillegal crops such as coca. The Ministersaid Indian technology was being usedto produce ethanol in Colombia.

Martinez told this correspondent

that the mining sector had startedlooking up only in the past six years.The country has large titanium, copperand uranium reserves. The largestnickel plant in the region is situated inColombia.

B O G O T A M O D E LThe development of Bogota is attribut-ed mainly to the initiatives of its dy-namic Mayor, Samuel Moreno, andthe left-wing Polo Democratico (Dem-ocratic Pole) party which rules it. Pres-ident Uribe once described the party as“disguised communists”. The city ad-ministration, which has powers simi-lar to that of a State government inIndia, is striving to make Bogota aworld-class city while ensuring thatthe poor are not marginalised. Half the

number of Colombians live on lessthan $4 a day. According to the DeputyHealth Minister, 8 per cent of Col-ombians suffer from malnutrition.

Education is one of the key sectorsthat the city administration is trying toreform. The District of Colombia’sEducation Secretary, Marta Lucia Ve-ga Cardenas, said the priority of thecity administration was to ensure thatevery child had access to school. Thecity administration has built 40 newpublic schools, which offer free pri-mary and secondary education. MayorMoreno said the city administrationwas seeing to it that the “fundamentalright” to education was implemented.The administration also offers finan-cial incentives to poor families to sendtheir children to school.

Other incentives being providedare free transportation to school andmidday meals. Attendance in schoolsis monitored strictly. Up to grade 2,children get educational material free.

The rigorous education impartedin the public schools in Bogota hasmade them role models for the rest ofthe country. According to Cardenas,middle-class families, which previous-ly sent their children to expensive pri-vate schools, are now gravitatingtowards public schools. Before 2002,private schools dominated the scene;today 70 per cent of the schools inBogota are public schools.

Bogota’s residents are proud oftheir rapid transit system, called theTransMilenio. The rapid transit sys-tem in Delhi was inspired by the suc-cessful experiment in Bogota. TheTransMilenio has reduced travellingtime for the ordinary citizen by 32 percent, gas emissions by 40 per cent, andaccident rates substantially. A largenumber of those who use the systemare white-collar employees. But trafficjams are still common. This has forcedthe city administration to imposecurbs on the use of private vehicles.

The aim of Polo Democratico, saidCardenas, was to make the city admin-istration a model for the rest of LatinAmerica. “It is a left-wing model thatwe hope will radicalise society,” hesaid. �

COLOMBIA IS THE third biggesteconomy in Latin America afterBrazil and Mexico. Bogota is amodern city with all the amenities ofa First-World metropolis.

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CONTROVERSY is raging in Latin America overthe military cooperation agreement signed betweenthe United States and Colombia. The Colombiangovernment insists that the only purpose of the Oc-tober 30 agreement, which allows U.S. troops accessto seven Colombian military bases, is to eradicate thetwin threats of drugs and terrorism and that it is nodifferent from earlier military agreements signedwith the U.S. President Alvaro Uribe told his fellowLatin American heads of state at the Union of SouthAmerican Nations (UNASUR) summit in Augustthat “the only focus Colombia has is to end its in-ternal wars”. But others in the regional grouping arenot willing to swallow that. Colombia’s neighbours,

Alone in a crowdThe military cooperation agreement between Colombia and the United States

rattles other countries in Latin America. B Y J O H N C H E R I A N

World Affairs/Colombia

A COLOMBIAN SOLDIER displays marijuana packs confiscated by the army in Florida Valle del Cauca province onNovember 19. Foreign Minister Jaime Bermudez said that his government would like to have more “effective toolsfrom our neighbouring countries, the entire region and the entire world” to combat the drug cartels.

Colombia says the agreement is toeradicate the twin threats of drugsand terrorism. But its neighbours,led by Venezuela, have been airingtheir fear that the agreement will beused to launch attacks againstcountries opposed to the U.S.

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led by Venezuela, have been airingtheir misgivings about the agreement.They fear that it could be used tolaunch aggression against countriesopposed to the U.S.’ strategy for theregion. William Brownfield, the U.S.Ambassador to Colombia, however,said joint military operations were notbeing planned outside Colombia andthat Article 1V of the agreement pro-hibited such actions. Colombian For-eign Minister Jaime Bermudezreiterated it during his visit to India inthe second week of November.

“We are not going to have U.S. bas-es in Colombia. What we have, as wehave had in the past, is a cooperationagreement between the U.S. and Col-ombia,” he said in an interview toFrontline. He stressed that there wasno question of his government provid-ing military bases to the U.S. The go-vernment, he said, depended on theU.S. military only for intelligence-sharing and technical cooperation.

According to him, Colombians hadsuffered a lot from drugs and drug-related activities for a long time. “To-day the largest coca cartel in Colombiais the FARC [Revolutionary ArmedForces of Colombia]. It is also a terro-rist group,” he said, adding that in-ternational help in the fight againstnarcoterrorism had not been forth-coming though the international com-munity was sympathetic to hisgovernment’s efforts in dealing withthe problem. “We have found an ally in

the U.S. in this fight, but we need coop-eration from everywhere too.”

Bermudez said that the issues in-volved pertained to “transnationalcrime and global terrorism” and thatthe Colombian government would liketo have more “effective tools from ourneighbouring countries, the entire re-gion and the entire world” to combatthe drug cartels.

The lack of international supportfor the government’s efforts was one ofthe major reasons he cited for “deepen-ing the cooperation agreement” withWashington. The goal, Bermudez said,was to dismantle the drug and terroristinfrastructure in Colombia. “When wesucceed, it will benefit not only Col-ombia but also the entire region andthe world,” he asserted.

P L A N C O L O M B I ABermudez said the controversial “PlanColombia”, signed at the end of theClinton presidency, had laid thegroundwork for the eradication of thecartels. Before Plan Colombia was im-plemented, 400,000 hectares of landwas under illegal coca cultivation. “To-day there is only 80,000 hectares,which is also high. We have managedto demobilise 50,000 people from pa-ramilitary groups and guerilla groups,but there is a lot more to be done,” theMinister said. The new agreement hasonly deepened “the cooperation” be-tween Bogota and Washington, hesaid. A recently revealed Pentagon

budget document, however, showsthat the U.S. has other plans for Col-ombia’s strategically located Palan-quero air base. The document statesthat the air base will provide an “op-portunity for conducting full spectrumoperations throughout South Ameri-ca” and the possibility of using the baseto “confront the threat” of “anti-U.S.governments”.

The language used in the docu-ment confirms the fears of many SouthAmerican countries. One sentencepertains to the potential use of Palan-quero to “expand expeditionary warcapacity”. But Bermudez said the newagreement was a transparent docu-ment, the entire text of which wasposted on the Internet.

“The best foreign policy is a gooddomestic policy. Kidnappings havebeen reduced by 40 per cent. Ourroads are safer,” said Bermudez. Healso pointed out that his country andthe U.S. were traditional allies.

Colombia was the only countryfrom the region to send troops to fightalongside U.S. soldiers in the KoreanWar of the early 1950s. In 1952, bothcountries signed their first compre-hensive military agreement. Theagreement, “Military Assistance be-tween the Republic of Colombia andthe United States of America”, con-tains a clause granting legal immunityto all U.S. forces operating in Colom-bia.

Significantly, the Colombian legis-lature was not taken into confidence bythe government before signing the lat-est military agreement. The Colom-bian State Council, a judicial body thatadvises the government, has ruled thatthe new agreement is in fact a treatyand needs the approval of the legisla-tive body.

It has described the agreement as“very unbalanced for the country”.Senators from the left-wing oppositionparty, Polo Democratico (DemocraticPole), have demanded an open debateand asked the administration to sub-mit the full text of the agreement to theCongress.

Up to 800 U.S. soldiers and 600private contractors are allowed to use

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the Colombian bases for a period of 10years. According to the agreement, theU.S. Air Force will be allowed access tofive bases and the U.S. Navy will beallowed to dock at two Colombianports, one in the Caribbean and theother in the Atlantic. The U.S. has de-manded complete immunity underColombian law for its personnel.

This agreement comes close on theheels of the decision of Ecuador to endthe U.S. military presence in Manta.Ecuador had accused the U.S. forces inManta of helping Colombia carry outan attack on a FARC camp inside itsterritory.

The Colombian Foreign Ministersaid that ties with Ecuador were on themend, but “many challenges” had stillto be overcome for relations to be nor-malised. He expressed “optimism”about the relations between the twocountries improving in the near future.

C O L O M B I A I S O L A T E DColombia finds itself isolated in theregion on the bases issue. BrazilianPresident Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, onbehalf of the UNASUR, has proposed anon-aggression pact among member-countries to prevent the U.S. from ex-ploiting the loopholes in the agree-ment to participate in attacks on otherLatin American countries. He hasgone on record as stating that he doesnot like an expanded U.S. militarypresence in the region. “I would like tosay, in a very friendly way, that if U.S.bases have been in Colombia since1952 and there are still no solutions tothe problem, we should think aboutsomething else that we [UNASUR]can do together to solve the problem,”Lula said in a speech at the UNASURsummit in August.

President Hugo Chavez of Vene-zuela has told his countrymen to pre-pare for all eventualities, includingwar. Since the agreement was an-nounced, there have been reports ofskirmishes between Colombian para-military groups and Venezuelantroops along the border. Many civiliandeaths have also been reported. TheColombian Foreign Minister toldFrontline that talks were on with his

Venezuelan counterpart to defuse ten-sions. Regional groupings such as theOrganisation of American States(OAS) are also involved in the effortsto bring bilateral ties back on track.“Colombia and Venezuela are broth-ers. We’ve been together for ages,” Ber-mudez said.

In September, Uribe made a hur-ried three-day visit to some of theneighbouring countries to explain hisgovernment’s position on the bases is-sue. He succeeded in making Presi-dent Lula and Chilean President

Michelle Bachelet tone down theircriticism of the deal. The Colombiangovernment says that the bases willremain under Colombian control. U.S.Air Force and Navy missions from Col-ombia, it says, will have to get clea-rance from Bogota before they canlaunch missions.

But an official document from theU.S. Air Force reveals a clause thatauthorises U.S. personnel to utilise anyinstallations, including civilian oneswithin Colombia, in the event of anemergency. �

VENEZUELAN PRESIDENT HUGO Chavez at a rally in Caracas on November 13 against the installation of U.S. military bases in Colombia.

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Culture of compassBuddhism, with its vision of eternal harmony of the world, shaped the culture of

the Orient, particularly South-East Asia. T E X T & P H O T O G R A P H S B Y B E N O Y K . B E H L

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ON THE ISLAND of Bali inIndonesia stands thisdramatic depiction of Bali,a great hero from theRamayana.

ion

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GAUTAMA SIDDHARTHA is one of human-ity’s wisest teachers. He lived in the 6th century B.C.in the northern plains of India. He taught lessons ofcompassion and universal love. The message spreadto all corners of Asia and shaped the culture of thecontinent. Today it is one the great religions of theworld, with millions of followers: Buddhism.

The philosophy of Buddhism was accepted withopen arms wherever it went. It is a philosophy thatlooks beyond the material aims of life to the eternal.Early Theravada Buddhism travelled in the 3rd cen-tury B.C. to Sri Lanka and to other countries ofSouth-East Asia. In the first millennium A.D., Ma-hayana and Vajrayana Buddhism spread to Indone-sia, Vietnam, Myanmar, Tibet (China), China, Koreaand finally to Japan and the northern countries ofAsia.

Since ancient times, ships carried trade goodsbetween Indonesia, India and China. Archaeologicalremains in Indonesia have confirmed the close inter-actions the country had with India over 2,000 yearsago.

In the first millennium, Chinese pilgrims trav-elled by sea and on land to the holy places of Budd-hism in India. When they used the sea route, theyspent much time in Indonesia, which had greatports. They have written considerably about the In-donesia of that time. Hinduism existed there in earlytimes and Buddhism flourished from the 7th centuryonwards. Till today, the great epic of ethics, theRamayana, is the most important cultural traditionof Indonesia. It may have arrived here by the 5thcentury. It is wonderful to see a Ramayana perfor-mance in Java, where the actors, the director, thenarrator and all the others are Muslim.

T H E B O R O B U D U R S T U P AIn the 8th and 9th centuries, magnificent Buddhistmonuments were constructed in Java. The Borobu-dur stupa was built by the Sailendra kings in thisperiod. It is one of the world’s most magnificentBuddhist monuments. It is the tallest stupa in the

Early Theravada Buddhism travelledfrom India in the 3rd century B.C. toSri Lanka and to the countries ofSouth-East Asia. In the firstmillennium A.D., Mahayana andVajrayana Buddhism spread toSouth-East Asia and northern Asia.

AN 8TH-9TH CENTURYrelief of a sophisticatedsailing ship at theBorobudur stupa, Java,Indonesia.

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BODHISATTAVA, 8TH-9THCENTURY relief, Borobudur stupa.

A VIEW OF theBorobudur stupa. Builtby the Sailendra kings inthe 8th and 9thcenturies, it is the talleststupa in the world.

THROUGH THIS GATEWAY at theBorobudur stupa one leaves kala, ortime, behind and proceeds towardsthe understanding of the final truthof “arupa”, which is formless.

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world. There are many thousands offeet of very fine relief, which one cansee as one climbs up and goes aroundthe stupa.

The bottom level presents the lifeof passions in the world: the kamad-hatu. The next level presents the law ofaction and reward: the karmadhatu.Rising upwards, numerous reliefs de-pict the rupadhatu, the life and storiesof the Buddha. He is the Rupa, thepersonification of the potential for en-lightenment within us. Beyond thatlevel come the levels of the final truth,which is formless: arupadhatu. Here,

there are no distractions of the illusoryforms of maya, and all that we see isthe stupa. This is the final truth in allBuddhist thought, beyond all forms.

Climbing up to the summit of thestupa, the devotee leaves behind themaya, or illusions of the world, tocome to the symbol of the formlesseternal. He has left behind the noiseand confusion of life: of kama, karmaand finally even rupa. This great stupaclearly enunciates Buddhist philoso-phy, where one aims to leave the worldof forms to reach finally a level of com-prehension of the formless eternal.

One is reminded of the Chitrasutra,the oldest-known treatise on art-mak-ing, which was composed out of ongo-ing traditions in about the 5th century.It states that the best way to imaginethe eternal is as formless, withoutshape, without colour, sound or smell.It also says that deities are created tohelp us relate to various concepts whileon our path towards the final truth.

The great stupa is planned as amandala, which provides a gradedpath for the ascent towards the finaltruth. This is in the tradition of theYogatantra, which was developed by

THE PRAMBANAN SIVA temple at Yogyakarta in Java, Indonesia, originally built in the 9th century. Yogyakarta hasmany magnificent Buddhist and Hindu temples and is one of the finest heritage zones in the world.

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Buddhist thinkers like Asanga fromthe 4th century onwards. Mandalasbegan to appear in Buddhist art fromthe 5th century onwards.

Borobudur has two other beautifulBuddhist temples of the 8th and 9thcenturies: the Powon temple and theMendut temple. The nearby city of Yo-gyakarta has many magnificent Budd-hist and Hindu temples, which weremade during the reign of the Sailendrakings. These have the same high qual-ity of art seen in the Borobudur stupa.This region is one of the finest heritagezones of the world.

From the 13th to the mid-14th cen-tury, one of the great Buddhist centresof the world was at Sukhothai, in Thai-land. Some of the most graceful piecesof Buddhist art were created here, in astyle that is famous even today.

U N I Q U E L Y S U K H O T H A IMonasteries of that period were per-haps made of wood and have not sur-vived. What has continued and comesdown to us is the art of the Buddhaimage, with all its elegance and beauty.In fact, since that time Thailand hashad a magnificent tradition of Ther-avada Buddhist images. The lines ofthe Sukhothai Buddha figures have avivid life of their own. The surfaces aresmooth and gently curving. The peace-ful expressions are sublime.

King U Thong of Thailand found-ed a new capital in the mid-14th centu-ry at a location 85 kilometres north ofpresent-day Bangkok. It was namedAyutthaya, after the city of Ayodhya,the birthplace of Rama, in India. Infact, the king of Thailand personifiesideal virtues, as depicted in the charac-ter of Rama. His good and moral ac-tions are believed to create peace andprosperity in the country. Till today,Brahmin priests are required at thecoronation of the Thai King, to instilthe qualities of Vishnu and Siva in him.

Many impressive structures thatshow the glorious Buddhist history ofAyutthaya survive at the site. Great

RAMA, 9TH CENTURY relief,Prambanan Siva temple,Yogyakarta.

PAGODAS AT SUNRISE, in Bagan, Myanmar. In the 11th century, King Anawratha built thousandsof pagodas at Bagan, making it one of the most glorious Buddhist sites in Asia. Inside thepagodas are paintings and beautiful Buddhas made from the 11th to the 18th century.

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Buddhist monasteries here were cen-tres of philosophy, literature and thefine arts. Wat (or temple) Maha Thatwas set up as the holy centre of thecapital city by the king Borom Rajathi-raj I. This grand complex was also thehome of the Supreme Buddhist Patri-arch at the time.

In the architecture and Buddhastatues at Ayutthaya, we see a contin-uation of earlier styles of the Sukhothaiperiod. There are modifications as newforms were adopted through the 417

years of the period of Ayutthaya. The beautiful Wat Rajburana at

Ayutthaya was made in the 15th centu-ry. The magnificent temples of Ayut-thaya show that the preoccupation ofthe kings was with what was beyondthe material world. The temple hasnumerous depictions of Garuda, onwhom Vishnu rides. The bird has beena royal symbol in Thailand since earlytimes. It might be mentioned here thatthere is a Garuda dhwaja (or royalstandard) made in the Bharhut Budd-

hist stupa railings of the 2nd centuryB.C. in central India. The Garuda alsofeatured prominently in many Budd-hist monasteries of the 11th to the 13thcenturies across western Tibet, La-dakh, Spiti and Kinnaur.

In the 15th century, imposing che-dis, or stupas, were created on a formerpalace site. This was named Wat PhraSi Sanphet. Wat Chai Wattanaram wasbuilt in the 17th century. It is anothergreat sanctuary of peace. We are takenfar from the ceaseless turmoil of the

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STANDING BUDDHA IN the exquisite Sukhothai style, 13th-14thcenturies, at the Sukhothai Historical Park.

SEATED BUDDHA, WATMaha That, 13th-14thcenturies, SukhothaiHistorical Park,Thailand. The lines ofthe Sukhothai Buddhafigures have a vivid lifeof their own. Thesurfaces are smoothand gently curving.

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world outside to the stillness of the“Buddhahood” to be found deep insideus.

In 1767, Ayutthaya fell to the Bur-mese army. The city was sacked andburnt. The newly declared king, Tak-sin, established his capital at Bangkok,which became the seat of the Thai go-vernment in 1782. Since the 1780s nu-merous temples have been made andrenovated in Bangkok. In Thailand, itis the divine responsibility of the kingto maintain the Buddhist religion.

The Temple of the RecliningBuddha, the Wat Pho, is one of theBangkok temples dating back to the17th century. King Rama I expandedthe temple when Bangkok was estab-lished as the capital of Thailand. Thecentrepiece of the Wat Pho is the hugestatue of the reclining Buddha, almost50 metres in length.

The most famous of the Bangkoktemples is the Temple of the EmeraldBuddha, or Wat Phra Kaew. The tem-ple was built from 1782 to 1784 duringthe reign of King Rama I, to house theEmerald Buddha. This temple attracts

the largest number of tourists in Bang-kok. The interior walls of the greattemple are covered with mural paint-ings depicting scenes from the Ra-mayana. In fact, most Buddhisttemples of Thailand are profuselypainted with such scenes. Till today,the Ramayana, or Ramakien, is thegreat cultural tradition of Thailand.This epic of ethics is at the heart of theculture of this country, which is ruledby King Rama IX.

The murals of Thailand are verystylised and closely related to thedance dramas of the land. The cos-tumes, crowns and jewellery are typ-ical of Thailand. The gentleexpressions and graceful gestures aredeeply rooted in the tradition of com-passion, which is found everywhere inthe best of Buddhist art.

Thailand continues the gentle tra-ditions of Buddhism. The lives of thepeople are permeated by the desire for

SEATED BUDDHAS, WAT Chai Wattanaram, 17th century, Ayutthaya,Thailand.

WAT PHRA SI Sanphet, built on aformer palace site, 15th century,Ayutthaya, Thailand.

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the spiritual search. Till today, in themidst of the modern world, the spiritof compassion of the Buddha’s mes-sage continues in this land.

M Y A N M A R ’ S P A G O D A SMyanmar was a great crucible ofBuddhist influences and art whichcame to it over the centuries. At theend of the first millennium, Myanmarhad a deep and direct relationship withthe centre of Buddhist philosophy, atBodhgaya in India. In fact, in the 11thcentury, the king of Myanmar restoredthe Mahabodhi temple at Bodhgaya athis own expense. He also made repli-cas of the Mahabodhi temple at hisown capital of Bagan.

Simultaneously, in the 11th centu-ry, King Anawratha declared Therava-da Buddhism the state religion. Toproclaim his deep reverence, he madethousands of pagodas at Bagan, mak-ing it one of the most glorious Budd-hist sites of Asia. Inside the pagodasare paintings and beautiful Buddhasmade from the 11th to the 18th century.

In the 12th and 13th centuries, for-eign invaders destroyed the Buddhistcentres of the plains of India. Scholarsand artists from India took refuge inthe deeply religious sanctuary ofMyanmar. The paintings on the wallsof the pagodas of Bagan are some of

the finest and gentlest in the entireBuddhist tradition. The themes arethose of the life of the Buddha and theJataka stories of his previous lives. Thesurviving paintings from the 16th cen-tury onwards show the transition tothe styles of Theravada Buddhism.

At Yangon, the capital of Myan-mar, is the grand Shwedagon pagoda,almost a hundred metres high. It is themost sacred pagoda in Myanmar andis believed to enshrine the relics of thepast four Buddhas. We are remindedthat it is only in recent times that thefocus of Buddhist worship has comeentirely on the last Buddha, GautamaSiddhartha. In past times, all Buddhisttraditions revered either four or sevenBuddhas. These are also depicted inthe Buddhist art of early times.

Myanmar is a deeply religiouscountry. Thousands of temples andmonasteries have been made acrossthe land. These are the traditionalplaces not only for worship but also foreducation. The country has almost500,000 monks and nuns of the Ther-avada Buddhist tradition.

Cambodia is another country thathas a great history of sacred art and

monuments. While the kings primari-ly worshipped Hindu deities, muchBuddhist art was also created. TheHindu and Buddhist sculptures ofCambodia from the 6th to the 8th cen-tury A.D. are unrivalled for their sheerbeauty and excellence.

A N G K O R T R E A S U R E SIn the early 12th century, King Surya-varman II created one of the greatestHindu temples of all time, the AngkorWat. It was dedicated to Vishnu andwas later also used for Buddhist wor-

PARINIRVANA, AYUTTHAYA, THAILAND.

BIRTH OF THE Buddha, mural, HteikPann Pagoda, 12th century, Bagan,Myanmar.

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ship. The temple has magnificent reliefcarved everywhere. The open corridorof the first storey has more than a kilo-metre and a half of such narrative re-lief, over six feet high.

In the 13th century, King Jayavar-man VII built the greatest Buddhistcomplex in Cambodia at his capital,Angkor Thom. The face towers of Ang-kor Thom have become a universallyrecognised symbol for Angkor. Thefaces look in the four directions, sym-bolising the universal benevolence ofthe Bodhisattva Lokeshvara. The

Bayon, at the centre of Angkor Thom,is the king’s own sacred temple-moun-tain. It is one of the most magnificentmonuments of Buddhism.

South and central Vietnam havemany Hindu and some Buddhist tem-ples. These were made between the 7thand 13th centuries. A Buddhist mon-astery complex was built at Dong Du-ong in the 9th century. It must havebeen a most impressive centre ofBuddhist worship in its time.

The archaeological museum at Da-nang in central Vietnam has numerous

sculptures, which show a glorious his-tory of art. The figures are graceful andtheir expressions sublime. As everywh-ere in South-East Asia, the preoccupa-tion of the people was with that whichwas beyond the material world. Thisart takes us on a great journey withinourselves to find the fount of peace andstillness that is inside each of us.

In the centre of the peninsula ofSouth-East Asia is the country of Laos.The people there are deeply religiousand Theravada Buddhism is the basisof their culture. The country has more

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than 5,000 temples, and monks aredeeply venerated. Most men in Laoslive in the monasteries for some part oftheir lives in order to imbibe Buddhistethics and a compassionate vision ofthe world.

Laos is a sacred land where ancienttraditions, such as the daily giving ofalms to monks, continue even today.Monks are those who have renouncedmaterial comforts and other attrac-tions of the world. Society believes it tobe its responsibility to look after thewell-being of these renouncers, whohave given up the ways of the world.

In the capital city of Vientianestands the grand Wat Ongtue. It hous-es a colossal Buddha image, whichweighs 10 tonnes. As in the tradition ofLaos, the great temple is also an educa-tional institution. Young men comehere to gain knowledge of the arts and

sciences as well as of the science of life. The golden That Luang stupa is a

national symbol of Laos. It was origi-nally built in 1566 and was restored in1953. The stupa is 45 metres high andis believed to contain a holy relic of theBuddha. The town of Luang Prabangis listed as a United Nations Educa-tional, Scientific and Cultural Orga-nisation (UNESCO) World HeritageSite. Wat Visounarath, originally builtin 1512, is the oldest standing temple inLuang Prabang. The art of the templeis exquisite and the interior preservesan atmosphere of great serenity anddignity. Wat Xiengthong was builtaround 1560 and is a classic example ofthe graceful architectural style ofLuang Prabang.

The Wat Mai, or “New Monastery”,was originally made in 1796. It wasgiven the present name after its resto-

ration in 1821. Its walls are coveredwith wonderful painted reliefs ofscenes from daily life and from theJatakas.

Buddhism has a great vision of theeternal harmony of the world. Thisfaith, with its message of compassion,spread far and wide and shaped theculture of a continent, a culture ofpeace and gentleness, which continueseven in the midst of the materialisticworld of today. �Benoy K. Behl is a film-maker, arthistorian and photographer. He hastaken over 34,000 photographs ofAsian monuments and art heritage,made a hundred documentaries onart history and held exhibitions in 24countries. His book The Ajanta Cavesis published by Thames & Hudson,London, and Harry N. Abrams, New York.

THE GRAND WAT That Luang, Vientiane, Laos. A national symbol of Laos, it was originally built in the 16th centuryand restored in the mid-20th century.

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WHAT impact doesglobalisation have oninequalities may ap-pear to be a straightquestion until it is ad-

mitted that these two widely usedterms are rather ambiguous. SylviaWalby, who holds the UNESCO Chairin Gender Research at Lancaster Uni-versity, United Kingdom, deals withthe problem of ambiguous or “contest-ed concepts” in this volume in simpleterms. She has the additional task as atheorist, and a social theorist at that, toshow how such concepts have to behandled when critiquing and con-structing theories.

It may come as a surprise to manythat terms that have entered into day-to-day conversations are ambiguous,but one may not pause to contest them.Consider two such terms that onereads of every day and constantly uses:“economy” and “polity”. The way wetalk about the size of the economy, itsrate of change over time and so on maygive the impression not only that thereis such a thing but that it is some kindof an object out there that can be pre-cisely measured and with some effortshaped to one’s liking.

It is often forgotten that this ob-jectification of the economy is someth-ing that has been crafted by theoristsby making some arbitrary assump-tions, which usually go unnoticed. Themost crucial of these is the decisionthat only what can be measured will beincluded for consideration (based onthe widely held but basically wrongnotion that a prime requirement of‘science’ is measurement) and that

rectly to render services (Sir JohnHicks of the U.K.).

This appears to be a satisfactoryway of conceptualising the economy asa measurable entity, but there is aproblem. What a man does (or doesnot do) sitting in a chair behind a deskin an office from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. willbe treated as work because he getspaid, but the wide variety of tasks hiswife does at home without a time limitwill be excluded from economic activ-ity, and consequently from the ‘econo-my’, simply because she does not getpaid for them. Great injustice, we maysay when expounded in this manner,but that is not the point. What then isthe economy out there that everyone istalking about? Is it an object or a men-tal construct?

Sylvia Walby has a whole chapteron Economies dealing with this ques-tion and establishing that the economyis a contested concept. The point thatshe makes is that once domestic labouralso is taken into account, the economybecomes, has to become, a very differ-ent entity and an ambiguous concept.(I am a little surprised, though, thatshe does not use the homely example Ihave given above. Her work is strictlyscholarly.) Take it a step further. Whatif some domestic labour, let us say,care-giving for children or the elderly,is taken over by the state as a welfareresponsibility, neither to be freelydone nor to be directly paid, butthrough appropriate fiscal measures?Obviously, there will have to be a fur-ther modification of the concept of theeconomy.

The polity may be a less definitive

prices, objectively arrived at by themarket, are the units of measurementfor the economy.

Let us concede for a moment thatall ‘goods’ produced can be priced andmeasured in this manner, and thatmost ‘services’ too can be similarlyquantified and measured. Once this isdone it is possible to pronounce, as agreatly respected economic theorist ofthe 20th century did, that economicactivity consists of work done for pay-ment, either to produce goods, or di-

Contested concepts

IN REVIEW

Globalization & Inequalities:Complexity and ContestedModernities by Sylvia Walby;Sage Publications, New Delhi,2009; pages 508.

The book deals with ambiguous concepts such as ‘economy’ and ‘polity’ and

shows how they are to be handled when constructing social theories. B Y C . T . K U R I E N

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concept than the economy but fre-quently enters into popular parlance.It carries with it some familiar institu-tions, the state for instance, and thenation. But what is the relationshipbetween the state and the nation? Andwhat is meant by a nation-state?Should all states aim to be nation-states? Where is the European Unionconsisting of many states and diversenationalities to be situated within thenotion of polity? These queries andmuch more are discussed in anotherchapter of the book. The discussionprovides many issues to ponder over.Consider this: “The nation-state is apowerful myth about purity. It is abouta nation having a state of its own sothat it can self-regulate its environ-ment in conformity with its values. Thenation-state myth is about the close fitof a nation and its own state, with itsown politics, economy and culturemapping onto one another in the sameterritory.”

The economy and the polity aretwo of the four “institutional domains”that Sylvia Walby uses as part of heranalytical frame. The other two arecivil society (familiar enough) and vio-

lence, which comes as a surprise initia-lly, but with convincing justificationprovided. Violence was until recentlyconsidered as situated in the publicdomain within or between states, butthen how does one locate domestic vio-lence that takes place within the priva-cy of the home, and terrorism whosebase and activity transcend stateboundaries?

’ M U L T I - S T R A N D E D ’These, of course, are not Sylvia Walby’scentral problematic. She is concernedwith globalisation and inequalities.What she argues is that traditionalconceptual frameworks are not ade-quate to deal with these issues, onethat is relatively new and the otherlong-standing. Both the concepts needto be critically scrutinised. Globalisa-tion, she says, is not a “unified pheno-menon”; it would have been better tosay that it is a “multi-stranded pheno-menon” with economic, political, tech-nological, cultural and moral strandsto it. That is why it becomes a contest-ed concept. Further, “Awareness ofglobalisation has disrupted conven-tional accounts of neatly bounded,separated, and endogenously deter-mined societies. The simple concep-tion of society as constituted byspatially and temporally congruentstructures of economy, polity and civilsociety is rejected on the grounds thatsuch congruency is rarely if everachieved.”

Add to it the need to go beyond theconcept of inequality as being primari-ly related to the economy, more specif-ically the single-dimensional conceptof income or wealth. Think of complexinequalities, which combine inequal-ity and difference, as happens whengender differences are taken seriously.To put it differently, inequality is not amatter of class alone.

It is also one of (at least) gender,and any attempt to conflate these dif-ferent forms of inequality into a singlenotion is a mistake, mainly becausethey have quite different dynamics. In-deed, inequality is associated withmany other attributes too – ethnicity,language, social origin, disability, sex-

ual orientation and much more, andthere is no way the inequalities arisingfrom them can all be reduced to thesame notion.

So, where does it all lead to? Whatis the big question for which an answeris sought? All the analysis, groping andspeculation is to see whether it can beclaimed that humanity is making pro-gress at the beginning of the 21st cen-tury. Progress?

Another contested concept! Deal-ing with it, Sylvia Walby examineswhether it is economic advancement,reduction of inequalities, human de-velopment, social inclusion, democra-cy, ecological sustainability…. She hasmuch to say on each of them.

P R O C E S S O F‘ S O C I E T A L I S A T I O N ’There are some categorical answerstoo. “There are neither fully globalisednor fully separate societies. Societies asthey have been traditionally under-stood … do not exist. Conventionalconceptions of society involve the coin-cidence of economy, polity, and cul-ture in the same territory…. However,ethos and polis, culture and polity,rarely map into each other complete-ly…. The notion that a single culture,state, and economy map into each oth-er in a one-to-one way in a modernnation-state is a myth.” Also, “The con-cept of ‘society’ should be replaced by aprocess of ‘societalisation’, a processoften begun but rarely fullycompleted.”

Basically, the book is an invitationto take up further research in socialtheory, rethinking core concepts. Theauthor also recommends complexitytheory, which offers a new set of con-ceptual tools that are capable of grasp-ing new issues of change andinterconnections on a large scale.

The book’s empirical content islimited and, in a globalising context,surprisingly confined to the UnitedStates and the European Union. Stu-dents of and researchers in social theo-ry may find the exposition and the40-page bibliography helpful, but gen-eral readers will find the work unnec-essarily repetitive and tedious. �

THE AUTHOR SAYS if domesticlabour like care-giving for children orthe elderly is taken over by the stateas a welfare responsibility throughappropriate fiscal measures, therewill have to be a modification of theconcept of the economy.

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DR GOCKHAMI’S compi-lation of Sheikh Abdul-lah’s speeches, statementsand letters as well asagreements on Kashmir is

a useful addition to the literature onthe subject. It contains a lot of materialwhich throws light on his outlook andhis policies.

It begins with his presidential ad-dress to the Sixth Session of the Mus-lim Conference on March 26, 1938,just before he converted it to the Na-tional Conference. He said: “Like us,the large majority of Hindus and Sikhsin the State have immensely sufferedat the hands of the irresponsible go-vernment. They are also steeped indeep ignorance and are in debt andstarving. Establishment of responsiblegovernment is as much a necessity forthem as for us. Sooner or later thesepeople are bound to join our ranks....The main problem, therefore, now be-fore us, is to organise joint action and aunited front against the forces thatstand in our way in the achievement ofour goal. This will require rechristen-ing our organisation as a non-commu-nal political body and introducingcertain amendments in its constitu-tion and rules.”

The editor has missed out a speechin 1939 in which Sheikh Abdullah at-tacked Mohammad Ali Jinnah for sup-porting the rulers. Jinnah’s eyes wereset on the Nizam’s Hyderabad, a fail-ing which cost Pakistan dear. In La-hore on November 1, 1947,Mountbatten gave Jinnah a writtenproposal for a plebiscite in all threeStates – Junagadh, Hyderabad andKashmir. Jinnah rejected it because itcovered Hyderabad.

Also included in the book is theSheikh’s speech on December 30,

J and K only but in its wider connota-tions of culture and civilisation and forthat purpose the National Conferencehas distinctively recorded it in the in-troduction of its constitution of theNaya Kashmir (New Kashmir).”

However, only extracts, not the fulltexts, are printed. Fortunately, we havethe texts of the letters he wrote to Mau-lana Mohammed Saeed Masoodi, gen-eral secretary of the NationalConference, right on the eve of his ar-rest on August 8, 1953. He had publiclywarned in the famous Ranbirsingh Pu-ra speech on April 10, 1952: “Kash-mir’s accession to India will have to beof a restricted nature so long as com-munalism has a foothold on the soil ofIndia. We are prepared to welcomeapplication of India’s Constitution toKashmir in its entirety once we aresatisfied that the grave of communal-ism has been finally dug in India. Ofthat we are not clear yet.”

He made a clean breast of what waspassing in his mind: “Some peoplehere and in the Indian press also have

started questioning ourvery fundamental rightto shape our destiny inour own way. They do nottell us what will happento Kashmir if there is re-currence of communal-ism in India and howunder those circum-stances are we to con-vince the Muslims ofKashmir that India doesnot intend to swallow upKashmir.”

He added: “So far asKashmir is concerned, itwants to preach the mis-sion of secular democra-cy both to India and

1944, at the Sopore session of the Na-tional Conference in which he present-ed a leftist document on “NayaKashmir” (New Kashmir). In August1945, Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, inhis presidential address at Hazari-bagh, Srinagar, in the presence ofMaulana Abdul KalamAzad, said: “Apprehen-sions regarding majori-tarian dictatorship arefound [sic.] with Mus-lims of India and if theseapprehensions can be re-moved, in particular,through the acceptanceof the principle of right ofself determination, thenthe Indian National Con-gress should have no hes-itation to put it at the topof its agenda. In Kash-mir, the National Confe-rence has accepted it notas a faith for all the na-tionalities of the States of

Kashmiri views

BOOK FACTS

Personality Behind Oration:Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah;Dr Abdul Jabbar Gockhami(Ed.); Gulshan Books,Residency Road, Srinagar;pages 374 (English), pages 94(Urdu), Rs.1,095.Kashmir Enigma: EntangledStrands, A KashmiriViewpoint by SyedTassaduque Hussain; GulshanBooks; pages 251, Rs.795.Kashmir: Accession and itsManipulation by ShowkatAhmadganai; Gulshan Books;pages 123, Rs.595.

Three books on the troubled State, the first of which makes a useful work of

reference. B Y A . G . N O O R A N I

SHEIKH ABDULLAH.HIS utterances stillhave relevance.

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Pakistan.… Many Kashmiris fear thatin case of the death of Nehru or anyuntoward happening what will hap-pen to them or their special statutes …I warn those who want Kashmir’s fullaccession with India, in all affairs.They are once again adding fuel to thefire of dispute. In case the special sta-tus is not accorded to Kashmir in Indi-an Constitution then how can we talkto Kashmiri Muslims and assure themthat India does not want to interfere inthe internal affairs of Kashmir.”

Many of his utterances have an as-tonishingly contemporary relevance.Texts of documents make this a usefulwork of reference.

The other two books are long onrhetoric and short on research anddocumentation. They, however, repre-sent accurately the Kashmiri view-point and must be read widely.

The house in which Sheikh Saheblived at Soura should be made a pro-tected monument by the State govern-ment. A “Shere-e-Kashmir Memorial

Library and Research Centre” shouldbe set up there on the lines of the Neh-ru Memorial Museum & Library inTeen Murti House in New Delhi.Apart from being a library, the centreshould be a repository of documentsand private papers of public figuresincluding, of course, Sheikh Sahebhimself. Such a centre of learning willbe a fitting memorial to a great manwhom even the Hizb chief Syed Sala-huddin praised recently, on Septem-ber 29. �

PRIME MINISTER JAWAHARLAL Nehru addressing members of the general council of the National Conferenceduring his visit to Srinagar in October 1950. The conference decided to set up a Constituent Assembly for Kashmir.

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“I HAVE written nothingwhatsoever for threeyears and I do not see anyimmediate likelihood ofmy writing. The writing

of poetry takes time and I never haveany time.” That is an all-too-accuratesummary of T.S. Eliot’s life during thethree years covered by the second vol-ume of his correspondence. Its 800pages document in dispiriting detailthe life of a writer who was not doingany writing. There was just too muchelse to do, and much too much else toworry about.

There was, to begin with, his wife,Vivienne. As a lonely, shy Americangraduate student in philosophy at Ox-ford, Eliot had married VivienneHaigh-Wood in June 1915, not manyweeks after meeting her. By 1923, thedisastrousness of the marriage was be-coming all too apparent. Vivienne wasplagued by almost constant ill health,often severe. The signs of mental in-stability were by this point hard to ex-plain away. Eliot, with a highlydeveloped sense of his responsibility toprovide for his wife, repeatedly madehimself ill worrying about her, lookingafter her, and needing to get away fromher.

Then he had to worry about in-ternational exchange rates, the bondissues of foreign governments and thepayment of war debts. Since March1917 he had worked in the colonial andforeign department of Lloyd’s Bank inthe city of London. By 1923 the strainof his divided life was becoming un-endurable, and various possibilitieswere canvassed that would buy himout of the black-coated army, but theregular salary from the bank, and eventhe distant pension prospects mat-tered more and more as Vivienne’s fu-

dernist literature and reactionary poli-tics, but he soon discovered the scale ofthe labour this required. After a while,a typist was taken on to handle some ofhis correspondence, and there was abrief period during which the poet andtranslator Richard Aldington acted ashis assistant, but, as the successivedeadlines rolled remorselessly around,it was Eliot who seemed to be respon-sible for everything, from commission-ing contributions to correcting proofsand arranging payments.

It was all too much. “I am worn out.I cannot go on,” he lamented a littlehistrionically as early as March 1923,but he still had a long way to go on.February 1925 found him “at theblackest moment of my life”, but inreality there were blacker momentsstill to come. “So life is simply fromminute to minute of horror,” he wroteto Virginia Woolf the following month,perhaps hearing a draft line of poetryforming itself somewhere in his mind.But, as far as we can tell from theseletters, during these years not manylines of poetry were forming in themind of the figure who was arguablythe most important English-languagepoet of the 20th century.

It is Eliot’s poetry, of course, thatrepresents his principal claim on themodern reader’s attention, for all hisinfluence as a critic, playwright, editorand cultural commentator. This Octo-ber, he was voted Britain’s favouritepoet – perhaps a surprising choicewhen one considers the notorious dif-ficulty of his verse, but maybe less sowhen one remembers that his light-hearted Old Possum’s Book of PracticalCats provided the inspiration for thehit musical Cats. His standing as a poetdoes not, of itself, account for the fris-son of anticipation that has for some

ture became increasingly uncertain.And then he had to worry about

Criterion, the intellectually ambitiousliterary and cultural quarterly reviewthat he edited, more or less single-handedly, in his “spare time”. The re-view had been launched in October1922, financed by Lady Rothermere,wife of Harold Harmsworth, first Vis-count Rothermere. (Harold hadhelped his brother Alfred, Lord North-cliffe, establish the press empire whoseflagship was the Daily Mail.) Eliot as-pired to make the Criterion the mostprestigious literary review of the day,promoting his favoured blend of mo-

Eliot the editor

IN REVIEW

The Letters of T.S. Eliot:Volume 2: 1923-1925 editedby Valerie Eliot and HughHaughton, Faber, November2009; pages 912, £30.

The second volume of T.S. Eliot’s letters, published 21 years after the first,

reveals the personal and professional struggles of the poet. B Y S T E F A N C O L L I N I

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time been building up in advance ofthe appearance of this second volumeof his letters. The mild sense of dramaattending the publication has beenheightened by Faber’s unusually elab-orate security measures.

A brief historical recap may help toexplain some of the fuss. In 1957, whenEliot was 68, he married his secretary,Valerie Fletcher, who was 38 yearsyounger (Vivienne had died 10 yearsearlier). Following Eliot’s death in1965, Valerie Eliot and the publishingfirm of Faber & Faber (of which he hadbeen an active director for almost 40years) controlled his estate, carefullyregulating both the reprinting of pub-lished work and citation from unpub-lished material, including letters.

In 1971 Valerie Eliot published herfacsimile edition of The Waste Land,complete with Ezra Pound’s annota-tions. She had also undertaken thehuge task of collecting and editing hisletters, the first volume of which (cov-ering the years up to the end of 1922)finally appeared in 1988. In the in-troduction to that volume, she ex-plained that she had intended it to goup to 1926, but that there had provedto be too much material for a singlevolume. Therefore, she announced,the second volume would be published“next year”. The literary and the schol-arly world waited, but “next year” nev-er seemed to come.

This delay was particularly unfor-tunate because, in the four decadesfollowing Eliot’s death, many scholarshad difficulty in getting permissionfrom the estate to consult or quotefrom unpublished material. Some in-dividual scholars were more fortunate– I was given permission some yearsago, I should record, to quote from afew letters in an essay about Eliot’ssocial criticism.

A 2 1 - Y E A R W A I T Just recently there have been encou-raging signs of a thaw. Plans have beenannounced for a multi-volume editionof Eliot’s prose, under the general edi-torship of Ron Schuchard, to be part-nered by a complete edition of hispoetry, edited by Christopher Ricks.

And now, 21 years after its predeces-sor, we have the second volume of theletters, co-edited by Hugh Haughton,with the project henceforth under thegeneral editorship of John Haffenden.

Given this history, the stock phras-es about a book having been “eagerlyawaited” or its publication being “amajor literary event” are in this caseunderstatements. For, in addition tothe considerable interest in Eliot’s po-etry and criticism, other aspects of hislife and his views have attracted broad-er media attention and even contro-versy in recent years.

It has, for example, been widelyknown that Eliot suffered acute an-guish over his decision, first, to sep-arate from Vivienne and, second, tohave her committed to a “sanatorium”.His responsibility for his wife’s phys-ical and mental problems has some-times been assessed in hostile terms, aline of popular speculation fuelled byMichael Hastings’s 1984 play Tom andViv, which was subsequently turnedinto a film. In addition, Eliot came infor some rough handling in the wake ofAnthony Julius’ 1995 book, T.S. Eliot:Anti-Semitism and Literary Form,which mounted, with great forensic vi-gour, the case that Eliot’s oeuvre as awhole was irremediably tainted on ac-count of a handful of allegedly anti-Semitic references. These controver-sies cannot have been welcome to theEliot estate and may have fuelled itsapprehension about the possible pub-lic response to any further revelations.

Anticipation has been increased bythe fact that the first volume of theletters was full of matter for those witha serious interest in Eliot’s work andcareer. It covered the years in whichEliot, arriving in England in 1914 as anunknown 26-year-old graduate stu-dent, emerged as the most startlingpoet of his time, from the publicationof Prufrock and Other Observations in1917 up to The Waste Land in 1922.

This was also the period in whichhe established himself as the criticmost admired by the intellectually se-rious young, notably through the pub-lication in 1920 of The Sacred Wood, aslim volume of critical essays that

managed to be at once offhand, excit-ing and authoritative. The letters, the-refore, had allowed us to glimpse theinside story of nothing less than themaking of modernism. What could thesecond volume offer that would be ofcomparable interest?

“Not a lot” is the short and onlypartly misleading answer. After all thisfanfare, these letters will, I fear, be adisappointment to many readers.Though they document the tribula-tions of his and Vivienne’s illnessesand unhappiness in heart-bludgeon-ing detail, they contain no great revela-tions, nor are most of them captivatingpieces of writing in the way in which,say, the recently published selection ofearly Samuel Beckett letters is.

Eliot scholars, not a small tribe,will doubtless mine them for illustra-tive or corroborative detail, but intruth they throw little light on the po-etry, not least because he was not writ-ing any (except for sections of “TheHollow Men” and the verse-dramaSweeney Agonistes, written towardsthe end of this period). Nor did hewrite any of his major critical essaysduring these years, and the letters sayvery little about his own critical, asopposed to editorial, practice. Howev-er, if what you want is a practical hand-book on how to edit, single-handedly, ahigh-end cultural and literary period-ical, this is an essential guide. Over-whelmingly, the letters from thisperiod were written by Eliot in his ca-pacity as editor of Criterion.

U N I V E R S A L S O F A T R A D E Much of Eliot’s editorial correspond-ence deals with what, to anyone whohas any experience of literary journal-ism, will be bound to appear as thefamiliar constants, almost the univer-sals, of the trade. Here, over and overagain, is the desperate last-minutescramble to meet (or sometimes notquite to meet) the deadline for the cur-rent issue, followed by repeated reso-lutions to have the material ready ingood time for the next issue. Here, indispiriting quantity, are examples ofthe various ways of sucking up to emi-nent potential contributors, of well-

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meant evasiveness with lesser suppli-cants, and of tactful dealings withimposssibly difficult authors. Here,too, are the familiar grumblings aboutthe inefficiency of printers, the usualunrealistic fantasies about circulation,and the vehemently expressed regretsat ever having taken on such a doomedand life-destroying enterprise in thefirst place.

Hand-to-mouth it may have beenin practical terms, but Eliot had a pret-ty clear idea of the kind of review hewanted to produce. It appealed, he in-sisted without any defensiveness, onlyto “the cultivated”: he reckoned thatthere were only about 3,000 such per-sons, though the basis for this high-handed piece of intuitive sociology isnot clear. It was to be essentially aliterary review, but “its scope is wideenough to include almost everything ofinterest to people of culture with theexception of economics and contem-porary politics”.

Lady Rothermere, who had hopedfor something with rather more appealto the beau monde, is reported as find-ing the journal “a little high-brow andgrave”. Though it is true that the Crite-rion did not deal with day-to-day partypolitics, it nonetheless had a verymarked political character. It was ex-plicitly intended to provide a counterto “the usual Whig and semi-Socialistpress of London”. It was hostile to allforms of liberalism, Whiggism, ro-manticism and subjectivism; in its se-vere, aloof way, it upheld what Eliotcame to call “classicism”. It is from thisstandpoint that we find him here dis-missing Arnold Toynbee as “a noxioushumanitarian” and sneering at JohnMiddleton Murry as “this apostle ofsuburban free thought”.

In trying to establish the reputa-tion of the new journal, Eliot had toperform the usual delicate balancingact: he wanted to publish high-qualityoriginal work of the kind he admired,but he also needed contributions fromestablished names, which sometimesmeant accepting work that was neitherhigh-quality nor original. The corre-spondence of any editor might catchhim out saying different things to dif-

ferent people, but there are some ar-restingly immediate juxtapositions inthese letters. When, as the editor of anew journal, he is sedulously courtingthe 77-year-old George Saintsbury,Eliot hastens to tell him that he is “themost eminent English critic of ourtime”; two years later, the journal nowestablished, he frankly confides to an-other correspondent: “Saintsbury, forall his merits, now has little point.”

Similarly, Eliot is to be found writ-ing to several authors in flatteringterms explaining that he may be able todouble the normal rates of payment toa truly exceptional contributor, “one ofwhom is, of course, yourself”. Havingalready confided this, in turn, toWyndham Lewis, Ezra Pound and Vir-ginia Woolf, he then writes to W.B.Yeats’ agent, saying: “For such an im-portant contribution from so distin-guished a writer I would make anexception” to his usual rates and paydouble. “This is the only occasion onwhich I have ever offered more thanthe standard rate; but I have very greatadmiration for Mr Yates’ work . . .” andso on, a profession whose sincerity, al-ready doubtful, was made more doubt-ful still by his misspelling of Yeats’name.

The question of two-facedness sur-faces most awkwardly in his trickyfriendship with Leonard and VirginiaWoolf. While jockeying to establishhimself in literary London, he hadbeen grateful for the Woolfs’ patron-age: their Hogarth Press publishedThe Waste Land in book form (after ithad appeared in the first number of theCriterion), and in 1924 they were topublish three of his review essays as aHogarth pamphlet entitled “Homageto John Dryden”. In 1923 the Woolfsseem to have helped to persuade May-nard Keynes to offer Eliot the positionof literary editor on the Liberal weeklyThe Nation. The position, though at-tractive, would not have provided Eliotwith the financial security he needed,but it is not clear whether the paper’suncongenial political identity played apart in his eventual refusal (LeonardWoolf himself took on the post).

At a less public level, Eliot sharedsome common ground with Leonardas a man who had considerable experi-ence in handling the moods of a men-tally unstable wife, but his directrelationship with Virginia was alwaysshot through with distrust and a kindof literary rivalry. Neither Eliot norVirginia Woolf gets high honours forconsistent candour, and the very fullannotations to these letters indicate alittle of the discreditable backbitingthat went on off-stage. Having cajoledVirginia to publish her essay “Charac-ter in Fiction” in the Criterion for July1924, Eliot enthuses to her that thepresence of her piece alongside thoseby Marcel Proust and Yeats means that“the July number will be the most bril-liant in its history”. But some monthslater he praises the next issue to LadyRothermere by saying: “There is noth-ing of the costly showiness of Proustand Virginia Woolf (neither of which Icared much about myself).”

At one point Virginia confides toher diary (quoted in the editorial anno-tations) the conviction that “There issomething hole-and-cornerish, bitingin the back, suspicious, elaborate, un-easy, about him.” There was truth inthis, though there was more than atouch of pot and kettle, too.

THOMAS STEARNS ELIOT, a 1965photograph.

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At the end of this volume, Eliotleaves his job at Lloyd’s to join Geof-frey Faber’s new publishing firm. Partof his private understanding with Fab-er was that the new firm would hence-forth publish Eliot’s books, beginningwith Poems 1909-1925, which includ-ed The Waste Land. Eliot continued towrite to the Woolfs in affectionateterms while somehow managing not totell them that the Hogarth Press hadjust lost one of its star authors.

But it must be said that Eliot, byfair means or by sharp professionalpractice, made a success of the Crite-rion during those years. He was justi-fied in boasting in October 1924: “Ithink that at the end of the third year itwill have as brilliant a record of con-tributors as any magazine could havein the time.” He had secured originalcontributions from most of the leadingmodernist writers of the time, includ-ing James Joyce, Woolf, Pound, D.H.Lawrence and Wyndham Lewis, andthe review could boast a particularlyimpressive array of European contrib-utors, a deliberate policy on Eliot’spart, one that was not matched by thehabitually parochial established jour-nals. The critical essays and, later, thebook reviews generally maintained ahigh, if at times highly ideological,standard.

Publication in the Criterion’s pag-es, he informed prospective contrib-utors, ensured “more intelligentattention than a contribution to anyother review”. Only the circulation re-mained stubbornly resistant to Eliot’sblandishments, sales never exceeding800 to 1,000 copies per issue.

Beyond documenting his life as aneditor, these letters add a little thick-ening detail to some of the alreadywell-worn themes of Eliot biographyand criticism. There is, for example,his view (to be trusted no further thanseveral other ostensibly revealing con-fessions in these letters) that therewere only “about 30 good lines in TheWaste Land”. It is somewhat morewinning to find him acknowledgingthat his own prose has “a rather rheu-matic pomposity”.

His correspondence with his

mother and brother over investmentsshows him fully sharing the familypenchant for cautious capitalism. And,we get a few asides about “Jew publish-ers” when his dealings with his Amer-ican publishers were particularlyvexed. No one could pretend that thewriter of these letters emerges as con-sistently likeable or admirable, but it ishard not to feel sympathy for a man socornered by personal unhappiness, fi-nancial anxiety and professionalfrustration.

Eliot often affected the identity ofthe “resident alien”; perhaps he cameto feel that that label accurately de-scribed his relation to earthly existenceas a whole. As a young man, he was notshort of reasons to feel ill at ease in theworld, and many of those who met himduring his early years in London re-marked on this characteristic. Alter-nating between shyness andattitude-striking, he made others feelill at ease with him, uncertain how farthey could trust this now-smooth,now-angular chameleon.

Disguise, camouflage, adaptation:Eliot was rich in the strategies of self-protection. British writer V.S. Pritch-ett later called him “a company of ac-tors within one suit”. Several membersof the company are on show in thesepages. If all of Eliot’s surviving lettersare to be edited on this lavish scale, onehas to ask whether the enterprise iswell-judged.

This edition presents Eliot’s ownletters; it does not provide both sides ofthe correspondence, even where such

replies exist. But just occasionally thetext of a letter from one of his corre-spondents is included, and the gain inour sense of the exchange is immedi-ate. There are, in addition, a few im-pressive letters from Geoffrey Faber,setting out the terms on which Eliotwas to work for the new publishingfirm, as well as Faber’s own conceptionof the kind of periodical the new Crite-rion was to be (quite like the old, as itturned out). And there are several let-ters from Vivienne to other corre-spondents which vividly illuminateEliot’s predicament, though it is notimmediately obvious why they and notothers have been included.

Vivienne’s letters have both a di-rectness and an incoherence that ripapart the smooth surface of life, whichEliot’s guarded prose was always try-ing to maintain. Two of these raw, dis-turbing scribbles, from late 1925,suggest something of what Eliot had tocontend with, but both are also mind-searing in the glimpse they give us ofVivienne’s tortured, disturbed, unen-durably miserable life. The first is tothe Eliots’ maid, Ellen Kellond, a des-perately inappropriate choice of reci-pient; it is a panicked and plunginglydespairing wail from a woman whofound herself held in a sanatoriumagainst her will, keening for the loveshe believed her husband had with-drawn, and ending: “I mean to take mylife . . . It is difficult here, but I shall finda way. This is the end.”

The second is to Eliot himself. Itbegins calmly enough but soon degen-erates. Amid illegible words and in-consequential remarks about variouspossessions, she suddenly throws her-self into an anguished apology: “I amsorry I tortured you and drove youmad. I had no notion until yesterdayafternoon that I had done it. I havebeen simply raving mad. You need notworry about me.” But he did worryabout her, ceaselessly, and this greatslab of mostly unrevealing, practical-ity-driven letters depicts in harrowingdetail a man almost drowning in thebusyness he needed to stop himselffrom being driven mad. �© Guardian News & Media 2009

Disguise,camouflage,adaptation:Eliot wasrich in thestrategies ofself-protection.

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F R O N T L I N E 8 5

“Even today, perhaps the best of us do not quiterealise the depth of Kashmiri alienation and areunready to ponder ways and means of overcomingit.”

– Prof. Hiren Mukherjee, February 25, 1994.

EVEN 15 years later, as this writer saw for him-self on a week-long visit to Kashmir, every word ofthis reproach rings true. There is little or no real-isation in India about the depth of the alienation, norany serious effort to understand its causes. Not sur-prisingly, all the cures prescribed over the years havefailed dismally. They ignored the ones who matter –the people – and do not care to ask what it is that theyreally yearned for.

Sample these two diagnoses. “Personally, I feelthat all this political talk will count for nothing if theeconomic situation can be dealt with. Because afterall the people are concerned with only [one] thing –they want to sell their goods and to have food andsalt.” The other is in the same vein: “It must beremembered that the people of the Kashmir valleyand roundabout, though highly gifted in many ways– in intelligence, in artisanship, etc. – are not whatare called a virile people. They are soft and addictedto easy living.”

The first pronouncement was made by IndiraGandhi to Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru fromSrinagar on May 14, 1948. She added: “They say thatonly Sheikh Saheb is confident of winning the plebi-scite…. I feel the only thing that can save Kashmir forIndia – and the Kashmiris – will be an influx ofvisitors this summer, preferably from Bombay andAhmedabad, since those are the ones [who] bringthe most” (Sonia Gandhi (ed.), Two alone, Two to-

gether; Penguin; pages. 517-18).The second was made by Nehru in a confidential

note to the Prime Minister of Jammu and Kashmir,Sheikh Abdullah, from Sonmarg on August 25, 1952.He also added: “The common people are primarilyinterested in a few things – an honest administrationand cheap and adequate food. If they get this, thenthey are more or less content.” He asked Kashmir’sleadership to settle the matter. “Doubts in the mindsof leaders percolate to their followers and to thepeople generally.” He remarked: “It is dangerous tomake promises which cannot be fulfilled.” Its ironywas lost on him, evidently (Selected Works of Jawa-harlal Nehru; Volume X, pages 328-329). Thismindset still holds in its thrall most in the Indianestablishment. It has been in a state of denial for oversix decades. It is reminiscent of the viceroys whoimagined that the villager was not interested in theCongress’ demand for independence. It showed, ofcourse, the profound contempt for the people. Nehruwanted Abdullah to ratify the accession and close thematter. Abdullah knew that Kashmir could not besolved without an agreement with Pakistan.

He, the man on the spot, could not ignore thepeople’s views. He knew how they felt. He tried torespond to them by proposing an India-Pakistansettlement, but he was arrested less than a year laterand imprisoned for 11 long years. Memory of thatmonstrous wrong lingers still in the Kashmiri mind.(see the writer’s article “The legacy of 1953”, Fron-tline, August 29, 2008.) But we have learnt no les-sons.

Hence Chief Minister Omar Abdullah’s remind-er in Anantnag on October 28, 2009: “No doubt theliberal funding of the Central government haschanged the development scenario here, but let metell you that it is not an economic problem and it hasto be adduced politically.” He added: “If we want torid the State from the shadow of the gun, we mustfind a permanent solution to the political problemhere. We want a basic solution to the issue. The youthof Kashmir didn’t pick up the gun 21 years ago formoney [but for] political reasons.” All this was saidat the inaugural function of the Qazigund-Anantnagrail link in the presence of Prime Minister Manmo-

Agenda for Kashmir

New Delhi must recognise thedepths of the alienation and thewrongs done, and Kashmiris mustrespond to the needs of the momentand the urges of the people.

The time has come for a realistic, practicable solution to which New Delhi and

Kashmiris must contribute. B Y A . G . N O O R A N I

Jammu & Kashmir

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8 6 F R O N T L I N E

han Singh (Kashmir Times and Grea-ter Kashmir; October 29, 2009). In1953, his grandfather sought preciselysuch a final solution acceptable to allthree parties.

The entire valley observed a totalshutdown on October 27, to mark theday Indian troops landed there in1947, and on October 28, in protestagainst the Prime Minister’s visit. Thiswriter noticed during a trip to Son-marg, on October 27, that the ruralareas were as affected as Srinagar.Why? Because, as the Chief Ministerremarked on October 19, “the woundsare raw”.

The Chief Minister is a unionist, asis Mehbooba Mufti, president of thePeople’s Democratic Party (PDP). Thisis what she told the PDP’s youth wingon November 3: “If the Kashmir issueis discussed nationally and interna-tionally, and if the CBMs [confidence-building measures] like the opening ofthe roads have become a reality, it isbecause of the sacrifices offered byKashmiri youth” (Rising Kashmir;November 4).

Never before was such languageused by the unionists. The separatistsdemanded secession from the Union,azadi, whether for accession to Pakis-tan or for independence. The unionistsdemanded restoration of the autono-my stolen from them. There is increas-ing realisation by the former thatsecession is impossible. Commonground between the two is achievabletoday.

Everyone I met accepted that thePrime Minister sincerely desires a so-lution. It must be acceptable to all thethree sides – India, Pakistan and thepeople of Jammu and Kashmir. Fourlimitations must be respected. Indiacannot concede secession. Pakistancannot accept the Line of Control(LoC) as a solution unless somethingsubstantial is also conceded. The peo-ple cannot accept the State’s divisionor acquiesce in the denial of self-ruleand the fundamental rights to itspeople.

It is pointless for anyone to de-mand that India should “recognise theexistence of a dispute” or demand en-

forcement of the 60-year-old “U.N.resolutions” or a tripartite conference.India and Pakistan have been nego-tiating on the substance of the dispute.Pakistan itself abandoned the U.N.resolutions (December 25, 2003).And, pray, who will represent Jammuand Kashmir in the tripartite talks?

Populism or jockeying for positionto brand the conciliation a “sell-out” isdestructive. The people, when facedwith a fair settlement, will repudiatethe wreckers, and it is the people wholanguish in misery. The truth is that, asPrime Minister Manmohan Singh saidon May 2, 2009, “General Musharrafand I had nearly reached anagreement.”

Pakistan’s political crisis in March2007 prevented a summit to settle theframework. President Musharraf ut-tered a cri de coeur in an interview toAaj on May 18, 2007: “First, let usresolve the situation here, the internalissue, so that we can focus on Kashmirproperly.” He revealed that it was a“fairly fair” assumption that the broadoutlines of a solution to the Kashmirissue had been worked out between thetwo countries. “We have made pro-gress on the Kashmir dispute but wehave yet to reach a conclusion.” HisForeign Minister, Khurshid Meh-mood Kasuri, confirmed this in NewDelhi recently.

A settlement requires concessionson both sides, the President said. “Andwhen both give up, then in both coun-tries there is opposition and a hue andcry. Everybody says develop a consen-sus. Arrey bhai, how to develop a con-sensus?” He further revealed that thesolution was “moving forward on thesame lines that I’ve proposed – alongthe lines of demilitarisation, self-go-vernance and joint mechanism”. Thatis the status of the Kashmir disputetoday.

T H E F O U R P O I N T SThe four main points on which an In-dia-Pakistan consensus exists are self-governance or self-rule for both partsof the State; the opening of the LoC sothat it becomes, as the Prime Ministersaid on March 24, 2006, “just lines on

a map”; a joint management mecha-nism for both parts; and demilitar-isation. It does not require muchimagination to visualise that thiswould lead to a de facto reunion of theState of Jammu and Kashmir; self-ruleor maximum autonomy on both itssides; a joint mechanism which willassuredly grow over time; and demi-litarisation. Manmohan Singh used asignificant expression on February 25,2006 – “real empowerment” of thepeople.

While this precludes secession, itgives Pakistan much more than theLoC as a boundary and it reunitesJammu and Kashmir while ensuringits self-rule.

Neither India nor Pakistan sup-ports the idea of independence.

The four points and self-rule fit likea glove since self-rule is an integralpart of those points.

A R T I C L E 3 7 0Kashmiris resent the theft of the au-tonomy that was guaranteed to them.Article 370 of the Constitution is theonly provision of the Constitutionwhich embodies a Centre-State ac-cord. Kashmir negotiated its member-ship of the Union of India from May toOctober 1949 – the negotiations tookplace between a Central team led byNehru and Kashmiris led by theSheikh. The accord was altered uni-laterally when its draft was moved inthe Constituent Assembly on October17, 1949, while the Sheikh was in thelobby of the House. (see the writer’sarticle “Article 370, law and politics”,Frontline, September 29, 2000.)

On November 27, 1963, Nehru toldthe Lok Sabha: “It [Article 370] hasbeen eroded, if I may use the word, andmany things have been done in thepast few years which have made therelationship of Kashmir with theUnion of India very close. There is nodoubt that Kashmir is fully integrat-ed…. We feel that this process of grad-ual erosion of Article 370 is going on….We should allow it to go on.” The proc-ess began after Sheikh Abdullah’s ar-rest and has continued since.

Article 370 empowered the Presi-

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JAWAHARLAL NEHRU WITH Sheikh Abdullah. Article 370 is the only provision of the Constitution that embodies aCentre-State accord. Kashmir negotiated its membership of the Union of India from May to October 1949; thenegotiations took place between a Central team led by Nehru and Kashmiris led by the Sheikh.

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dent to extend to the State provisionsof the Constitution similar to thosewhich applied to it under the Instru-ment of Accession in 1947 and items inthe Central List which fell within theacceded subjects — defence, foreignaffairs and communications. Since thiswas already agreed in 1947, “consulta-tion” with the State government suf-ficed. But its “concurrence” wasrequired to confer other powers on theCentre. This was an interim arrange-ment as N. Gopalaswami Ayyangar as-sured the Constituent Assembly onOctober 17, 1949. Even then, subse-quent ratification by the State’s Con-stituent Assembly was a pre-requisiteas Clause (2) of Article 370 makesclear. The Assembly convened on No-vember 5, 1951, and dispersed on No-vember 17, 1956, after adopting

Jammu and Kashmir’s Constitution.The State government thus lost all au-thority to accord its “concurrence”, theindispensable ratifying Assembly hav-ing gone. There vanished the onlysource for conferring more power onthe Union or accepting Central institu-tions or other provisions of India’sConstitution. All orders made afterNovember 17, 1956, by the Presidentunder Article 370 are palpably void.

But, as B.K. Nehru noted in hismemoirs, “from 1963 to 1975 ChiefMinisters of that State have been nom-inees of Delhi… elected by huge major-ities” in “totally rigged elections” (NiceGuys Finish Second, pages 614-15).Their “concurrence” sufficed evenwithout the Assembly. It was readilygiven at the Centre’s behest. UnionHome Minister G.L. Nanda confident-

ly asserted in Parliament on December4, 1964, that Article 370 could be usedas “a tunnel [sic.] in the wall” to in-crease Central power. Forget the meta-phor; what he indicated was that thisprovision, designed to guaranteeKashmir’s autonomy, could be used toextinguish it.

On July 30, 1986, the Presidentmade an Order under Article 370, ex-tending Article 249 to the State andempowering Parliament to legislateeven on a matter in the State List onthe strength of a mere Rajya Sabharesolution. The “concurrence” was giv-en by the Centre’s own appointee, Gov-ernor Jagmohan. The “manipulation”was done “in a single day” against theLaw Secretary’s advice and “in the ab-sence of a Council of Ministers,” a for-mer Law Secretary, G.A. Lone,

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revealed (Kashmir Times, April 20,1995).

Sheikh Saheb’s government ac-corded its “concurrence” to a Presi-dential Order (C.O. 101) of July 23,1975, which inserted Clause (3) to Arti-cle 368 (on Parliament’s power toamend the Constitution) to read: “Nolaw made by the Legislature of theState of Jammu and Kashmir seekingto make any change in or in the effectof any provision of the Constitution ofJammu and Kashmir, relating to (a)the appointment, powers, functions,duties, emoluments, allowances, privi-leges or immunities of the Governor”shall have effect unless it receives thePresident’s assent. This was envisagedin the Indira Gandhi-Sheikh AbdullahAccord of February 12, 1975, whichembodied the “Agreed Conclusions” ofMirza Afzal Beg and G. Parthasarathi,signed on November 13, 1974. Para-graph 5 provided for that very bar.

The wreckage was complete. It hadbegun on June 12, 1952, when Jammuand Kashmir’s Constituent Assemblyaccepted the recommendation of itsBasic Principles Committee, headedby Beg, that “the office of the head ofstate shall be elective”. On July 20, inNew Delhi, the Sheikh had to accept achange that made a mockery of theAssembly’s decision. It was agreed that“the head of state shall be a personrecognised by the President on the rec-ommendation of the legislature of theState”. Worse, he could be sacked anytime, without cause, by the Centre –“he shall hold office during the plea-sure of the President”, i.e., the Govern-ment of India. Recognition by thePresident was right for rulers of prin-cely States (Article 366 (22)); it wasimproper for an elected head of state.

Nehru explained the Delhi Agree-ment in the Lok Sabha on July 24.“They recommend and then it is for thePresident to recognise.” Nehru had theveto. Article 27 of the State’s Constitu-tion, enacted by the rump Assembly inthe Sheikh’s absence, toed Delhi’s line.“The Sardar-i-Riyasat shall be the per-son who for the time being is recog-nised by the President.” Only a provisoprovided for his election; but Article

28 said that he shall hold office “duringthe pleasure of the President”, i.e., theIndian government. Jammu andKashmir’s Constitution 6th Amend-ment Act, 1965, discarded the joke andprovided for appointment of theState’s Governor by the President. OnJuly 23, 1975, came the bar on Jammuand Kashmir’s Assembly legislating onthe Governor’s appointment. The Del-hi Agreement was wrecked twice over.This Order is patently void. A Presi-dential Order cannot amend theState’s Constitution which, incidental-ly, had received his assent. Besides, nosuch Order after November 17, 1956,can be valid.

Read any statute for autonomy andyou will find election of the autono-mous region’s head of state crucial toits autonomous character; be it inSouth Tyrol or the Aalands. In Kash-mir this is all the more necessary giventhe consistent record of constitutionalabuse and sheer fraud. Today, in 2009,Article 370 is a total wreck. However,it contains within itself seeds for re-dress of the wrong. Clause (3) empow-ers the President to “declare that thisArticle shall cease to be operative orshall be operative only with such ex-ceptions and modifications… as hemay specify.” A final Order to replace

all previous Orders can entrench Jam-mu and Kashmir’s autonomy, end thePresident’s powers and make the re-vised Article 370 permanent. That isthe only way to clear the mess. It can bebased only on a political consensus.

“ N E W D E L H I D E C I D E S ” The feeling is widespread that no go-vernment can come to power in theState except with the Centre’s approv-al. Former Deputy Chief Minister Mu-zaffar Hussain Baigh said as much toN.N. Vohra on May 2, 2003. On No-vember 1, 2009, he said: “New Delhidecides about every dispensation here.Last time Dr Farooq Abdullah met meat the airport and said ‘N.C. [NationalConference] will come to power thistime as the PDP is talking about demi-litarisation’” (Rising Kashmir, No-vember 2).

Central control over Kashmir is en-sured constitutionally, politically andadministratively. The Congress andJammu ensure political control andcompel coalition government. The val-ley has 46 seats, Jammu 36, and La-dakh four in an Assembly of 87members. In the valley the PDP’s voteis larger than that of the N.C.’s, theCongress counting for little. In Jam-mu, the Congress, the BJP and the

MEHBOOBA MUFTI OF the PDP. Shesaid at a conference in New Delhi inNovember that the differences withthe separatists had blurred.

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MIRWAIZ UMAR FAROOQ of theHurriyat. He is of the view that anautonomous identity for Kashmircould be the solution.

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N.C. wield influence. The PDP has 21seats and the N.C. 28, including eightfrom Jammu. The Congress has 17seats and the BJP 12.

Administratively, the State suffersas much as it did in 1953 when theSheikh complained of discriminationagainst Kashmiris in Central offices inKashmir itself. Conveyor, a newlylaunched monthly published from Sri-nagar, carried detailed statistics in theissue of November 2009. Of 96 IndianAdministrative Service (IAS) officers,only 23 are Kashmiri Muslims; onlysix of the 15 Deputy Inspectors General(DIGs) and 26 of the 87 Senior Super-intendents of Police (SSPs) are Mus-lim as are only 33 out of 111 IndianPolice Service (IPS) officers. Since1947 only eight of the 24 Chief Secre-taries have been Muslims. Article 312of the Constitution empowers Parlia-ment to create all-India services for theUnion and the States also if so author-ised by a Rajya Sabha resolution. Itwas applied to Jammu and Kashmiron February 26, 1958. So later was theAll-India Services Act, 1951. Kashmi-ris rightly demand that it “be rolledback”.

As if these were not enough, theArmy and other security forces do theirown bit to fuel the alienation. On a tripto Handwara, I saw Army personnelperched on house-tops. The local peo-ple complain that they enter homes atwill and make themselves comforta-ble. Cancellation of the Services’ crick-et team’s trip to Srinagar for the RanjiTrophy match offended the people. Itis the mindset that matters.

In July 1995, this writer was treat-ed to a harangue in Srinagar by Lt.Gen. J.R. Mukherjee, GOC-in-C, 15Corps, on the theme that Kashmiriswere in a minority in the valley, an ideahe later propounded in The Statesman.Ergo, their demands are irrelevant.But the cake goes to the GOC-in-C ofthe Northern Command, Lt. Gen. B.S.Jaiswal, for his remarks at Udhampuron October 31. The forces would re-main, he said, “till the threat of re-emergence of militants is totally elim-inated”, adding, “My orders to thetroops are – not only fight insurgents

but also insurgency because that is theroot cause of the whole trouble.”

The analysis is brilliant. The con-clusion is menacing. The insurgentwho uses violence can be fought withforce, but force is no solution to “in-surgency”, the popular outlook thatsustains the insurgent. All doubt wasdispelled by his remark that while theviolence “was on the decline since2006”, with 36 incidents as comparedwith 276 in 2006, “the ‘agitational ter-rorism’ was a cause for worry”. Whatmessage does this send to the troopsbut that even the peaceful agitator is aterrorist? (Rising Kashmir, November1).

Peaceful agitations, even religiousprocessions, are suppressed. Themedia are vibrant. As well as Con-veyor, a new weekly, Kashmir Life, en-tered the field recently. Both carry onlydocumented exposes. Kashmir Life(November 7) carried an excellent re-port on the havoc caused by the ban onpre-paid mobile phones. The acade-mia is in a pathetic shape. On the once-respected Kashmir University wasfoisted for political reasons as its Vice-Chancellor Riyaz Punjabi, with slen-der academic credentials. On July 14,2009, he banned the student unionafter the Shopian outrage. “There is noscope for political activity on the uni-versity campus.” Conveyor noted that“he does not have any qualms aboutinviting pro-Indian political leadersfrom the State and New Delhi to pon-tificate about most inane issues. It’snot just the V-C of K.U., but in thesame State in Jammu University RSS[Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh]shakhas operate and the RSS chief andother fascist potentates are allowed tohold their meetings. Lest we forget, auniversity is supposed to encouragecritical thinking, free debate and dis-cussion. Not curb or gag them. ButKashmir is unique” (October 2009).

T H E H U R R I Y A TBut what are the Hurriyat leaders do-ing to redress this situation? Their cryfor boycott of the elections helped theN.C. to bag the few seats in Srinagardistrict which were enough for it to

drum up a coalition. The PDP was le-nient towards them. The N.C. govern-ment of Omar Abdullah has beenrepressive, especially towards Syed AliShah Geelani.

Consider this case. Struck by hisarticles in Chattan, an intrepid Urduweekly, I made it a point to meet Engi-neer Sheikh Abdul Rasheed. Hespurned promotion as Deputy GeneralManager in J & K Projects Construc-tion Corporation and resigned to standfor election to the State Assembly. Asan independent member of the Legis-lative Assembly from Langate in Kup-wara district, he is the scourge of thelocal administration. Since 1993 hehas been exposing excesses by the se-curity forces as well as the militants. Anotable victory was won on July 9,2009, after he led a night-long demon-stration of hundreds before a policestation in protest against excesses byan army official. The Deputy Commis-sioner gave written promises of re-dress, which included the reopening ofa road that had remained shut to thepeople for 20 years, plus disciplinaryaction against the offender. Tortureneither deferred nor embittered him.As well as active social work, he pleadsin the Assembly for resolution of theKashmir dispute, maintaining thatmere economic packages offer no solu-tion. What would have been the char-acter of the State Assembly if theHurriyat had contested the elections?

Mirwaiz Umar Farooq said onMarch 20, 2007: “The Hurriyat Confe-rence will soon strengthen its publiccontact programme to make peopleaware of the four-point formula ofPresident Musharraf.” In an interviewto Kavita Suri published in The States-man on October 10, 2002, he said: “Anautonomous region with the other sidebeing a party to it could address theissue in such a way that India can sortof live with that; Pakistan can also livewith that too, and Kashmiris can alsoget something they have been aspiringfor. So we should be ready to discuss allthe options and, as I have said earlier,autonomous identity for Kashmircould be the solution.”

How is this different from the

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PDP’s demand for self-rule or theN.C.’s for greater autonomy? His col-league, Prof. Abdul Ghani Bhat, said ata seminar in New Delhi on November7: “Pakistan wants all Kashmiris to puttheir heads together. This includes thePDP, the N.C., the JKLF and even Gee-lani.”

On the same day and at the sameforum, Mehbooba Mufti said the dif-ferences with the separatists hadblurred and a fair amount of consensushad emerged. Kashmiris can help a lotwith concrete proposals; for example,to render the LoC irrelevant; “just lineson a map” as Manmohan Singh said onMarch 24, 2006; to make the pro-posed joint mechanism real and effec-tive; and to provide for a Consultative

Assembly of MLAs from both parts,which meets twice every year, alter-nately in both capitals.

New Delhi will not be able to resista demand made unitedly by the N.C.,the PDP, the Mirwaiz and his col-leagues. One hopes that in this effortleaders like Yaseen Malik and ShabbirShah will also join. If Kashmiris do notunite, New Delhi will be able to imposeits own terms, playing off one factionagainst another as it has always donesince 1948 by enticing the likes ofBakshi, Sadiq and company.

On November 3 the N.C.’s presi-dent and Union Minister, Farooq Ab-dullah, said: “There has to beconsensus among us on certain pointsto formulate a joint document which

can be projected before New Delhi fora viable solution to the Kashmir is-sue.… All political parties have to puttheir heads together to formulate thejoint document” (Rising Kashmir, No-vember 4). This writer proposes a draftfor such an exercise (see box). It can beimproved, of course.

The Mirwaiz’s proposal to talk toIndia and next to Pakistan misses thepoint that Pakistan has all but settledwith India. It cannot confer self-ruleon Kashmir. Only India can and Indiais in earnest about it. It would be follyto miss this opportunity.

Union Home Minister P. Chidam-baram said in Jammu: “The PrimeMinister has given me the task of find-ing a solution to the J&K problem….We cannot afford to pass on this issueto generations ahead.” He has rightlyopted for “quiet diplomacy with all thepolitical groups in Kashmir….We’llbuild a consensus, which would thenbe made public” (October 14).

He outlined, on October 30, a busi-ness-like procedure. Talks will be heldone-on-one or with two or three to“discover the contours of the proposalsof each group”. He amplified: “Thenwe can perhaps put down on paperwhat is the outline of the package.” Hewould visit Srinagar once every sixweeks to review the progress on thePrime Minister’s reconstruction pack-age; presumably also on the progressin his interlocutor’s soundings. Noprevious government had shown suchseriousness.

The Prime Minister means busi-ness and so does the Home Minister. Isthis effort to go up in smoke by erect-ing a Tower of Babel in Srinagar? Acacophony of conflicting and irrespon-sible voices with charges of sell-out,leaving the field exclusively to Indiaand Pakistan to settle?

Then time is surely come for a real-istic, practicable agenda to which bothmust contribute: New Delhi, by recog-nising the depths of the alienation andthe wrongs done, and Kashmiris byresponding to the needs of the mo-ment and the urges of the people.

An Agenda for Kashmir must com-prise the following:

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PRIME MINISTER MANMOHAN Singh and Home Minister P. Chidambaram,a file picture. “The Prime Minister has given me the task of finding a solutionto the J&K problem.… We cannot afford to pass on this issue to generationsahead,” Chidambaram said in Jammu on October 14.

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THE Constitution (Application toJammu and Kashmir) Order, 2009.

In exercise of the powers con-ferred by clauses (1) and (3) of Arti-cle 370 of the Constitution, and insupersession of all the previous or-ders made under Article 370, thePresident with the concurrence ofthe State of Jammu and Kashmir, ispleased to make the followingorder:-1. This Order may be called the Con-stitution (Application to Jammu andKashmir) Order, 2009.2. It shall come into force at once andshall thereupon supersede all theOrders made by the President underArticle 370 (1).3. Article 370 shall hereafter be op-erative as from the date of this orderonly with the exceptions and mod-ifications as are specified herein be-low and not otherwise.4. The provisions of Article 1 and ofthis Article shall apply in relation tothat State.5. The following other provisions ofthe Constitution shall apply in rela-tion to that State subject to the ex-ceptions and modifications specifiedherein below: ……. (to benegotiated).5.1 Parliament shall have exclusivepower to make laws for the said Statewith respect only to the matters enu-

merated in entries in List I in theSeventh Schedule (in this Constitu-tion referred to as the ‘Union List’).

...... (to be negotiated).5.2 The legislature of the State ofJammu and Kashmir shall have ex-clusive power to make laws with re-spect to all the other mattersenumerated in the said Union Listand the Concurrent and the StateLists in the Seventh Schedule.6.1. An amendment to Article 370shall be initiated either by a Bill forthe purpose in either House of Par-liament and when the Bill is passedin each House by a majority of thetotal membership of that House andby a majority of not less than two-thirds of the members of that Housepresent and voting, it shall be pre-sented to the President who shallgive his assent to the Bill and there-upon the Constitution shall standamended in accordance with theterms of the Bill.

Provided that if such amend-ment seeks to make any change inany of the provisions of the Constitu-tion specified in clauses 4 and 5 asapplied to the State, the amendmentshall also require to be ratified byeach House of the Legislature of theState by resolutions to that effectpassed by a total membership of thatHouse and by a majority of not less

than two-thirds members of thatHouse present and voting before theBill making provision for suchamendment is presented to the Pres-ident for assent. Provided furtherthat any amendment of the Consti-tution which seeks to apply to theState of Jammu and Kashmir anyprovision of the Constitution otherthan the provisions applied underclauses 4 and 5 it shall be ratified bythe State of Jammu and Kashmironly by a resolution passed as afore-said by its Legislative Assembly firstelected after the amendment ispassed by Parliament as well as by itsLegislative Council in each case by amajority of the total membership ofthe House and by a majority of notless than two-thirds of the membersof each House present and voting.

Provided further that no Billseeking to make any change in thisArticle shall be introduced in eitherHouse of Parliament.7. For the removal of House, it ishereby declared that clauses (1) and(3) of Article 370 shall cease to beoperative and no orders shall bemade by the President hereafter un-der the said clauses as from the dateof this order.8. The word “temporary” in the mar-ginal note to Article 370 shall bedeleted.

Draft of a new Article 370

1. Accord on the quantum of self-rule,safeguards against violation, and thestatus of the head of state. If Indonesiacan concede to Aceh, in 2005, autono-my in all respects save defence, foreignaffairs, national security, plus the rightto seek foreign loans, its own flag, acrest and a hymn, India must not beniggardly, oblivious of its own pastrecord.2. Freedom of movement across theLine of Control; end to the barter tradeand implementation of the eminentlysensible proposals made by Haseeb A.

Drabu, Chairman & CEO of J&KBank.3. Replacement of the bus travel ar-rangement with the rahdari permit ofold.4. Restoration of civil liberties, includ-ing the right to assemble peaceablywithout arms.5. Speeding up of the Army’s restora-tion of lands it has occupied.6. Repeal of draconian laws like theArmed Forces Special Powers Act andthe Disturbed Areas Act.7. Release of political prisoners.

8. Ensuring zero tolerance of humanrights abuses.9. Promotion of cultural and academicexchanges across the LoC.

Mehbooba Mufti’s memorandumto the Prime Minister in Srinagar onOctober 28 lists a host of matters suchas reunion of divided families andopening of roads. However, no CBM oreconomic package will be of any availunless New Delhi is prepared to bitethe bullet. And Kashmiris unitedly as-sist it in doing so and bite the bulletthemselves. �

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THE life of Nicholas Roerich (1874-1947) is thestuff of legend. The son of a highly educated lawyer intsarist Russia, Roerich pursued his legal studies toplease his father – the knowledge later came inhandy when he drafted the Roerich Pact to protectthe cultural heritage of nations. He also learned artformally, for he knew that it was an undying passionin his life. Today, 62 years after his death, he isknown primarily for his visionary paintings: 7,000of them are formally catalogued.

A belated but nevertheless heartfelt tribute waspaid to his genius in Delhi by The Academy of ThirdWorld Studies, Jamia Millia Islamia, on the occasionof a seminar on “ Nicholas Roerich, His Legacy andQuest”. It was made possible through the tireless

efforts of Manju Kak, who managed to bring onboard the Lalit Kala Akademi and its enthusedChairman, Ashok Bajpai, and the Russian Centre ofScience and Culture.

Roerich’s wide-ranging interests would thesedays be called cross-cultural studies. The CentralAsian expedition under his leadership started in Sik-kim in 1924 and ended in the same place four yearslater. Says Roerich scholar L.V. Shaposhnikova:“This circle comprised India, Chinese Sin Tsian, So-viet Middle Asia, Siberia, Altai, Mongolia and Ti-bet… the expedition mapped unknown Himalayanpasses and peaks, studied monuments of culture andhistory, gathered flora and fauna, and wrote downfolklores.” It was in the course of this journey thatRoerich’s genius as a painter became apparent.

L O V E F O R H I M A L A Y A SRoerich developed an undying love and reverence forthe Himalayas then and came to accept them as therepository of spiritual wisdom the likes of whichcould not be found elsewhere on the earth. His paint-ings, with or without human figures, have an other-worldliness that can move even the most sceptical ofviewers. They are suffused with a glow, and thecolours sing. Looking at a canvas by him on a Hima-layan motif, one gets the same pleasure as from aDhrupad – Dhruvapada – rendered by a realisedmaster.

It is not surprising, in retrospect, to find thatRoerich the artist is barely a footnote in any 20thcentury history of world art. His work does not easilyfit into any of the categories created by the West. Hewas not a cubist, fauvist, Dadaist, surrealist or anyother “-ist”. He celebrated spirituality and invitedeveryone else to do so, a trait that must have leftWestern artists, connoisseurs and scholars squirm-ing, they who had rejected publicly both God andeven the possible existence of spirituality. Westernsociety, especially its intellectuals and artists, hadwholeheartedly embraced materialism and with itattendant problems such as alienation of the individ-ual from his/her environment. Roerich, for “serious”Western art historians and critics, was at best acharming anachronism who could draw and paint

Roerich legend

The subtle play of light in hispaintings is the result of continuousmeditation, an integral part of hisspiritual evolution. His technicalmastery was not acquired in an artschool but was a result of hisinitiation into the Buddhist path.

The legacy of Nicholas Roerich and his quest for abiding spiritual knowledge are

now all but forgotten. B Y P A R T H A C H A T T E R J E E

HIMALAYAS, 1937, STATE Museum of Oriental Arts, Moscow.

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NICHOLAS ROERICH WITH Jawaharlal Nehru.

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“well enough” the physical world thatwas already being captured “so muchbetter” by still and cine cameras.

Western philosophy in the 20thcentury had cut loose from its spiritualcomponent that had been nourishedby the Jewish and thereafter Christiantraditions for many centuries. It wasdrawing sustenance increasingly fromphysics and mathematics as borne outby the formulations of Martin Heideg-ger and Ludwig Wittgenstein, two ofthe most respected philosophers of theoccidental world in the past 100 years.There were a few individuals thoughwilling to concede ground to the spiri-tual force in life, most prominently Ro-main Rolland. In art, Pablo Picasso’s“Women of Demoiselles” (1906) and

Marcel Duchamp’s “Nude Descendinga Staircase” (eight years later) com-pletely changed the concept of optical-ly perceiving a painting on atwo-dimensional surface. Picasso in-troduced the idea of depicting the hu-man figure or an object from severalangles at the same time in a painting,while Duchamp attempted to captureon canvas the continuous motion of acine camera by showing multiple ren-derings of a single figure coming downa staircase. There was nothing here ofthe spiritual quest for the unknownfound in Tibetan Buddhism or in theUpanishads. It was quite simply theartist trying to rub shoulders with thescientist, pragmatically, without anyspiritual connotations. How then in

such an environment would an artistlike Roerich be regarded as anythingother than a master of oriental sleightof hand!

Spirituality in the first three dec-ades of the 20th century in the Westwas regarded as the province of mid-dle-aged to old ladies, both those well-heeled as well as not so. The formerhad too much time on their hands andthe latter too little money. The worldhad already experienced an economicdepression, the likes of which had nev-er happened before. In popular per-ception God had not intervened tokeep the wolf from the door. There wasmassive unemployment, even starva-tion. Roerich’s life and work wasmeant to lead one away from a world of

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GUGA CHOHAN, SPRING in Kulu, 1931, Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow.

KRISHNA, 1946, STATE Russian Museum, St Petersburg. (Right) Krishna,1930, Spring in Kulu, Kulu Series, Nicholas Roerich Museum, New York.

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the Town of the Lightning, was a partof Sikkim, the small kingdom locatedon the border between Bengal, Nepaland Tibet. In Ghoom, close to the oldmonastery built by a Mongolian lamawho placed there a huge statue of Mai-treya, the Roerich family met its Hi-malayan master. They lived inDarjeeling for about 15 months, in ahouse called Talai-Pho-Brang, whichbelonged to the famous 13th Dalai La-ma.” On their travels along west Sik-kim, they met the exceptionallylearned and spiritually evolved LamaMinjur Dorje, who followed them toKullu in undivided Punjab (now Hi-machal Pradesh) soon after, when theHimalayan Research Institute Urus-vati was set up.

mindless consumption and crass ma-terialism, as if to echo Mahatma Gand-hi that there was enough in this worldto satisfy everyone’s need but not eve-ryone’s greed.

Picasso’s engagement with theSpanish Civil War (1936-39) resultedin the 40-feet-long (12-metre-long)“Guernica”, which depicts the horrorsof the senseless death of innocents op-posed to fascism. Around the sametime, Juan Miro did a mural, called“The Reaper”, comparable in emotion-al intensity to “Guernica”. Unfortu-nately, it was destroyed when GeneralFranco’s right-wing air force bombedMadrid. Roerich, along with his wifeHelena, a thinker of renown, and twosons George and Svetoslav, a very tal-

ented painter, was in India. He had bythen realised both the vanity and futil-ity of war, which invariably sprungfrom human greed. The Roerich Pactat least had an impact. The culturalheritage of warring nations was to anoticeable extent protected thoughEngland and the Soviet Union and, inthe last years of the Second World War(1939-45), Germany, suffered cruciallosses.

Roerich’s spiritual search intensi-fied, however, in 1923. In the words ofthe Tibetan scholar Ringee EdenWangdi: “In December 1923, NicholasRoerich, with his wife Helena and sonGeorge, arrived in Darjeeling, in frontof Kanchenchunga, the mountain offive treasures. At that time Darjeeling,

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It must, however, be rememberedthat Urusvati was first established inDarjeeling in December 1928. TheRoerichs chose to relocate it to Kullu,in 1929, because of its more favourableclimate. The Darjeeling connectionwas renewed in 1949, two years afterNicholas’ death, when George, accom-panied by his mother, came back withthe intention to live there. Not findinga house to their satisfaction, they pro-ceeded to Kalimpong, where they liveduntil Helena’s death in 1955.

In the mid-1940s, Svetoslav mar-ried Devika Rani, the famous actressand co-owner of the film productioncompany Bombay Talkies. The couplein old age moved from the Roerichfamily headquarters in Naggar, Kulluvalley, to Bangalore and lived to ruetheir decision. They became virtualprisoners of their secretary and herconfederate, who together wanted totake over all their properties. The mat-ter is still in the Karnataka High Court,many years after the death of Svetoslavand Devika Rani, and many valuableart objects lie in utter neglect in themean time.

The legacy of Roerich and his questfor abiding spiritual knowledge is nowall but forgotten. He was for a longtime a venerable figure in alternativeartistic circles in the West before theadvent of existentialism with its quo-rum of many poseurs and a few genu-

ine practitioners. The despair thatswept all over the Western world be-tween the two World Wars can largelybe attributed to two factors: first, theincessant need to produce and con-sume regardless of the damage causedto the environment, and second, hu-mans’ increasing vanity in thinkingthey are the sole arbiters of their owndestiny. Amongst occidental artists,only Paul Klee, and to a certain extentHenri Matisse, celebrated the grandmystery of life. Klee did it with hisplayful, child-like peregrinations inline and colour and Matisse with hispleasure for the sensual feminineform. Roerich, by going away fromMother Russia and from under thecultural umbrella of Europe, found hissalvation in the Indo-Tibetan Hima-layas and close-by environs.

The subtle play of light in his paint-ings is the result of continuous med-itation, an integral part of his spiritualevolution. His technical mastery wasnot acquired in an art school, althoughhe certainly learned the basics in StPetersburg Academy of Arts. Roerich’sart was a result of his initiation into theBuddhist path. Ven. Doboom Tulku, avery learned lama, observed in his con-cluding remark at the Roerich semi-nar: “In Darjeeling, he [Roerich]chose to live in the Talai-Pho-Brang,said to have once been a residence ofthe 13th Dalai Lama, which had be-

come a pilgrimage site for visiting la-mas and ordinary Tibetans. There hemet the Geshe Rinpoche of the Chum-bi valley with whom he established along friendship. This lama imparted tohim some of the secrets of Shambhala.”In Nicholas Roerich’s words, they are:“The teaching of Shambhala is a teach-ing of life. As in the Hindu yogas, theteaching shows how to use the finestenergies filling the macrocosmos,which energies can as mightily bemanifested in our microcosmos.”

Today, Roerich’s legacy is safe inMoscow, in other republics that con-stituted the erstwhile Soviet Unionand in New York. Ironically, the Roer-ich collection in the museum in Nag-gar is in bad shape. Neither the Centralnor the State government has doneanything to ensure the proper upkeepof the museum and the paintingshoused there. This impasse is perhapsbecause of the clash of interests be-tween the Bharatiya Janata Party go-vernment in Himachal Pradesh andthe Congress government at the Cen-tre. Each blames the other for neglect-ing the Roerich collection and letting itgo to rack and ruin. A clash of pettyegos must not let a priceless culturalexperience be consigned to oblivion.

Roerich’s paintings and writingsare indeed an experience to cherish.People today have forgotten how torelate experience to vision and viceversa. They have ceased to feel elevat-ed pleasure while looking at the worldand making new discoveries. This isthe age of the so-called electronic revo-lution and, hence, virtual reality. Tomake an impact on viewers, it has be-come necessary to grossly exaggerateany visual information. The sameholds true for the imparting of auralinformation where there is a constantassault on the auditory senses and thenervous system. Roerich’s world is oneof contemplation, of looking inwards,of realising oneself and thereby one’spotential. Ours is a civilisation of wil-fully squandered opportunities andlost hopes. It is imperative that we takepause and consider the havoc we havewreaked on ourselves. Roerich’s legacymay help repair some of the damage.�

MADONNA PROTECTORIS, 1933.

Art

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RECENTLY, the capitalwitnessed a veritable in-vasion of thousands ofpeople from western UttarPradesh who, we were

told, were sugarcane growers. A largenumber of them may well have been,but clearly a substantial number werealso hooligans and thugs. They vandal-ised the 250-year-old Jantar Mantar,smashed cement road signs and, forgood measure, damaged cars parkedon the roads they took on their avowedmission to gherao Parliament House.Some were drunk, and there were re-ports of women having been molested.

Last year, the Gujjars of Rajasthan,who want to be listed as a ScheduledTribe, blocked the National Highwayto Jaipur, stopped trains, damagedcars, buses and trucks, and created asmuch chaos as they could.

There have been earlier invasionsof the capital by huge mobs from west-ern Uttar Pradesh, generally, withgrievances that they felt would only beredressed if they paralysed the capitaland caused as much damage as theycould to property that was either pub-lic or certainly not their own.

But let us not jump to conclusions.Assuming that a large number of thosewho came for the sugarcane agitationwere indeed farmers, they were cer-tainly not the impoverished, stereotyp-ical toilers in the field, the kind madeinto icons in films such as Do BighaZameen. The really poor do not cometo these “rallies”. They cannot, as theyneed to work to earn something for theday so that their families will get so-mething to eat.

Those who take part in such ralliesare the relatively affluent farmers, theones whom Mahendra Singh Tikaitwas fond of bringing to Delhi to sit

ment hospitals that exist in the city.So, is it very surprising if the bra-

zen inequality they see stirs them tofury and violence? After all, they live inthe same country. They are told that inthis country everyone is equal and thatthe state is very anxious that they be-come prosperous and live lives at leastas good as that of people in cities suchas Delhi. The anger is at the deceptionand the monumental hypocrisy ofthose whom they elect to Parliament.

The urban-rural dichotomy, if onecan call it so, that exists in this countryis not a recent development. It hasbeen there for centuries, from the dayswhen India was a number of king-doms. We hear of the great cities ofUjjain, Kannauj, Hastinapur, Fateh-pur Sikri, Agra, Hampi, Halebid andothers. We know very little of the ruralparts of the kingdoms or empires inwhich these great cities were located.Through the centuries the wealth gen-erated in the countryside has flowedinto cities, which have given little backto the countryside.

The change from monarchies tothe new democracy that emerged in1947 did little to alter a mindset thatwas shared by urban and rural India.The countryside had to give; the citiesonly took. Take just two examples thatserve as metaphors of this mindset.

The document for the ownership ofland is different in urban areas and inthe countryside. In cities there is adeed of ownership registered with therelevant authorities. In rural Bengal –and there is no reason to suppose it isdifferent in other parts of the country –the owner of land has a record of right(ROR), locally called a khatian, inwhich in column 2, the name of theabsolute owner is always shown as thesovereign: it could be the emperor or,

around, having finished with their car-nage and chaos, with their hookahs.But they brought more than hookahswhen they came, as did the allegedsugarcane farmers. They brought an-ger and hatred, a smouldering resent-ment that erupted into vandalism andviolence.

Hatred against what, anger againstwhom? One may well ask these ques-tions with hurt and astonishment. Theanswers are fairly obvious. Againstcity-dwellers, against what they per-ceive as a luxurious way of life, againsta place with paved roads, street lights,smart buildings, smarter cars andglass-fronted shops with all kinds ofglittering goods on display.

They, on the other hand, have littleby way of power; many places have norunning water, or more correctly hard-ly any water, running or otherwise; noshops; no paved roads of the kind theysee in the capital; no street lights; noschools; and no sleek new hospitals,not even the shabby rundown govern-

New class conflict?As long as the brazen inequality between urban and rural India exists, there will

be angry confrontations such as the ones witnessed recently in Delhi.

Point of ViewBHASKAR GHOSE

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as it is now, the state. It is only incolumn 13 that the name of the actualowner is shown; technically, he holdsthe land under the sovereign.

The second example is of the verynatural, almost instinctive, manner inwhich the state considers it legitimate,by passing appropriate legislation ororders, to force inhabitants of thecountryside to sell a part of what theyproduce at a price that the state con-siders to be fair – be it rice, wheat,sugarcane or any other product. Butthe state would think it horrifying torequire manufacturers of toilet soap

and detergents or cars and machineryto sell a part of their total production tothe state at a price the state fixes. Forinstance, would the state force GeneralMotors to sell some of its ChevroletOptras, priced at around Rs.8 lakh toRs.9 lakh, to the state for Rs.3 lakh?

Notice the difference in percep-tion. This is what translates into therage of the sugarcane growers at glam-orous cities where glamorous peoplelive.

The rage of the Gujjars is for aslightly different reason. They see oth-ers walking into colleges and technical

institutions and then into jobs just be-cause they have been born in certaincommunities, and they cannot under-stand why they are denied that per-quisite. In a larger sense, both thesugarcane growers and the Gujjarsshare a perception: that they are beingtreated as different, as second-class ci-tizens. The other class. The real classbeing the one with the good life and allthat the good life brings.

All right, this is a simplification ofwhat is a very complex issue or set ofissues. But the point is not in the de-tails. It is in the perceptions that exist.And two separate and conflicting per-ceptions, which are, after all, the basisof the existence of class consciousnessof whatever kind, are visibly emerging.The perception in the ruling class, thepolitically and economically powerfulclass, is that our rural areas must bedeveloped; the aam admi must be giv-en access to education, health care,clean water, power and roads. The per-ception of those who indulge in thekind of violent agitations we have beenseeing, and will continue to see, is thatthey are deprived, not of those thingsthat are sought to be given them but ofthose things that are no different fromwhat the privileged have: not just aschool, but that kind of school; not justa health clinic, but that kind of clinicand hospital.

As long as these conflicting as-sumptions persist, the divide – angry,confrontational – will continue. Andthe tragedy is that this happens in ademocracy where the countrysidesends its representatives to Parliamentand to State Assemblies where they donot, or cannot, resolve these differingperceptions.

Mahatma Gandhi wanted to startwith our villages. We have started fromthe other end, looking at our villagesfrom the outside and determiningwhat is good for them. Perhaps, therewas a very practical basis for Gandhi’sadvocacy of the villages, which needsto permeate the thinking of our rulingelite and not be confined to the ritualadoption of an earnest demeanour andthe delivery of noble speeches on Octo-ber 2 every year. �

FARMERS DEMONSTRATING OVER the sugarcane price issue at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on November 19.

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IT has been a silent march for five decades bythe Defence Research and Development Orga-nisation (DRDO), which shuns the limelight andprefers to let its work do the talking. Its mission:self-reliance in defence technologies. In the past10 years alone, DRDO-developed systems havewon production orders worth around Rs.40,000crore. They cover a wide range: battle tanks, mis-siles, radars, electronic warfare systems, sonars,mini-submarines, unmanned aerial vehicles, ex-plosives, propellants, armaments, bridge-layingtanks, heavy-duty parachutes, and defence tech-nologies against nuclear, biological and chemical(NBC) warfare.

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The DRDO’s life sciences laboratories work to increase the efficiency of

soldiers. B Y T . S . S U B R A M A N I A N

They have developed systems thatdefend against nuclear, biologicaland chemical weapons andtechnologies that help optimise theperformance of personnel in desertregions, submarines, noisyenvironments and at high altitudes.

THE RECONAISSANCE VEHICLE, which is designed to detect and demarcate areas affected by nuclear,biological and chemical weapons and transmit data to the control centre.

FOCUS DRDO

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Other DRDO-developed prod-ucts include strategically importantmaterial such as Kanchan armourused in the main battle tank Arjun,steel for building weapon-platformson ships, titanium sponge which hasmedical applications, and compositesfor use in the nose-cone of missiles.

The DRDO’s nine life scienceslaboratories have developed portablebags for treatment of high-altitudepulmonary oedema, escape suits forsubmariners, protective clothing for

soldiers posted in Siachen and inte-grated life-support systems, includ-ing helmets, flying overalls andanti-G suits for Indian Air Force pi-lots. They have also developed diag-nostic kits for dengue, malaria,typhoid and leptospirosis. The De-fence Institute of High Altitude Re-search (DIHAR) in Leh has bred ahybrid broiler sheep for round-the-year availability of fresh meat at highaltitudes for soldiers.

The other laboratories are De-fence Bio-engineering and Electro-Medical Laboratory (DEBEL), Ban-galore; Defence Institute ofBio-Energy Research (DIBER),Haldwani, Uttarakhand; DefenceFood Research Laboratory (DFRL),Mysore; Defence Institute of Physiol-ogy and Allied Sciences (DIPAS),Delhi; Defence Institute of Psycho-logical Research (DIPR), Delhi; De-fence Research and DevelopmentEstablishment (DRDE), Gwalior;Defence Research Laboratory (DRL),Tezpur, Assam; and Institute of Nu-clear Medicine and Allied Sciences(INMAS), Delhi.

The DRDO considers the Army,the Navy and the Air Force as “part-ners in development and not merelyusers”, said W. Selvamurthy, ChiefController, R&D (Life Sciences andHuman Resources), DRDO.

The DRDO began its journey onJanuary 1, 1958, as an organisation toadvise the armed forces on its needs.Today, it is a generator, integratorand deliverer of systems and also pro-vides spin-off technologies to societyat large. “The DRDO plays a vital rolein providing cutting-edge technolo-gies to the services, in the develop-ment of industries, and in academicgrowth as well,” said Selvamurthy.

Its network of 52 laboratories andcentres makes the DRDO one of thefinest R&D organisations in theworld. In the coming years, said Sel-vamurthy, the DRDO’s thrust wouldbe to involve the private sector inR&D work, such as the preparation ofengineering drawings, the integra-tion of defence systems, testing andevaluation, and in the manufacturing

THE INTEGRATED FIELD shelter(above), which can accommodateup to 30 people for four days in theevent of an NBC attack. (Right) Asuit developed for protectionagainst NBC agents.

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of products. “In the 11th Plan (2007-2012), we will involve small and me-dium industries in R&D activities,” hesaid.

L I N K S W I T H A C A D E M I AThe DRDO involves academic insti-tutions, too, in R&D by providingthem extramural projects. It has re-search boards in the areas of aero-nautics, naval technology,armaments and life sci-ences, which fund basicresearch in academic in-stitutions. Centres of ex-cellence set up by it inBharathiar University,Coimbatore, the Univer-sity of Hyderabad, andthe University of Calcuttafocus on life sciences,high energy materialsand microwaves andmatter respectively.

In the area of NBCdefence technologies, theDRDO has helped Indiaachieve a high level ofself-reliance. Of the 60products it has devel-oped, about 45 are in use in the servic-es. These fall into five categories:systems for early detection, equip-ment for personal protection, systemsfor collective protection, equipmentfor decontamination, and productsfor medical management. Said Selva-murthy: “In the past five years, wehave developed [NBC defence] sys-tems and products worth more thanRs.500 crore, which have been in-ducted into the services.”

A radar to detect attacks by NBCmaterial is under development. “Thisis a futuristic development for the11th and 12th Plans,” Selvamurthysaid. A Rs.300-crore project to devel-op new NBC defence equipment andproducts, where small and mediumindustries will be stake-holders inproduction, is on the anvil.DRDO-developed systems and sensors thatmonitor the environment can warn ofa nuclear weapon strike. They includepocket dosimeters and portable doserate metres to measure gamma radi-

ation; radiac metre personnel locket(RPL) dosimeter to measure the gam-ma and neutron radiation received bya soldier in nuclear warfare; an in-tegrated control panel to provideearly warnings against NBC threats;and a Roentgenometer with a flashsensor that will detect the flash oflight that accompanies the explosionof a nuclear weapon.

“In the event of the use of chem-ical weapons, we havedeveloped a portablegas chromotographwhich can detect 20chemicals at a time,”said Selvamurthy.These chemical war-fare agents includenerve agents such asSuman, Serin and Ta-bun, blister-causingagents and cyanide.The DRDO has devel-oped a kit to detect re-sidual vapour ofchemical agents andnerve agents and a kitto find out whether wa-ter sources have been

poisoned by cyanide or nerve agents. “We have developed a three-col-

oured paper to find out whether achemical agent has been used. Just bynoticing the change in the colour ofthe paper, a jawan will know whethera chemical agent has been used andwear protective clothing,” the ChiefController said.

The DRDO has also fabricated aprotective clothing ensemble in theevent of the use of NBC warfareagents. It includes a canister with arespiratory mask to prevent the in-halation of radiation or chemical orbiological warfare agent particles.The canister and mask are powerfulenough to filter agents up to 0.13 mi-crons. For collective protectionagainst NBC agents, there are inte-grated field shelters that can be as-sembled underground. Each unit canaccommodate 30 individuals and hasessential supplies that can last fourdays. The armed forces have boughtthem in large numbers. An interest-

ing product is the sturdy reconnais-sance vehicle that can detectNBC-contaminated areas and trans-mit data to control centres. There isalso a mobile nuclear field laboratoryto measure radioactivity in the envi-ronment. Technologies, solutionsand apparatus have rolled out of theDRDO laboratories for decontami-nating personnel, terrain, vehicles,aircraft and equipment in the event ofan NBC attack. A decontaminationsystem mounted on a Tatra vehiclecan clean affected areas. There aremedical management products, too,including an auto-jet injector. Sol-diers exposed to nerve agents can in-ject themselves with twin antidotes –atrophine sulphate and PAM (prali-doxime chloride).

F O O D A N D H E A L T HThe Defence Institute of Physiologyand Allied Sciences has devised 18ration-scales to meet the nutritionaland energy requirements of person-nel operating in various weather con-ditions. It has also developed survivalrations and nutrition scales for Sainikschool pupils.

The DFRL has developed a widerange of ready-to-eat food productsthat can be consumed after a littlewarming. They include flavouredchappattis, sooji halwa, vegetable pu-lav, potato peas curry, aloo paratha,composite pack rations for mountain-eers and trekkers, instant basmatirice and rajma curry, and tender co-conut water (named Coco Jal).

If DIHAR at Leh has devisedtrench technologies for cultivatingvegetables during extreme winters athigh altitudes, the DIBER at Hald-wani has designed greenhouses forcultivating vegetables round the yearin snow-bound areas. Vegetables cul-tivated include tomato, cucumber,cabbage and capsicum. While the Ar-my currently uses the DRDO’s three-stage acclimatisation procedure forsoldiers posted in high altitude areas,the DRDO is now working on rapidinduction. Said Selvamurthy: “Wehave taken it up as a major pro-gramme in the 11th Plan.” �

W. SELVAMURTHY,CHIEF Controller, R&D (Life Sciences and HumanResources), DRDO.

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D E C E M B E R 1 8 , 2 0 0 9FOCUS DRDO

THE Electronics and Radar Development Estab-lishment (LRDE) in Bangalore has been spearhead-ing the development of radar systems and relatedtechnologies for the defence forces. A Ministry ofDefence research laboratory under the Defence Re-search and Development Organisation (DRDO), theLRDE’s genealogy goes back to the Inspectorate ofScientific Stores set up in 1939 at Rawalpindi.

In 1946, it was re-designated as the Technical

Development Establishment (Instruments andElectronics) and relocated in Dehradun. The elec-tronics component was relocated to Bangalore in1962 and the LRDE’s role was redefined to developindigenous and state-of-the-art military radar andcommunication systems. Today the LRDE is a pre-mier radar systems laboratory with a core compe-tence to build advanced systems in the L to X bands.

According to S. Varadarajan, Director, LRDE,the laboratory develops a range of products fromshort- to long-range sensors for ground, air and seasurface surveillance, tracking, and weapons control.Besides this, the LRDE has developed advanced ra-dar technologies, including transmit and receive(TR) modules, slotted waveguide array antenna,high-power transmitters, programmable signal anddata processors, radar controllers and multi-beamantenna.

The LRDE was roundly criticised for not success-fully developing, in collaboration with HindustanAeronautics Limited, the multi-mode radar for theLight Combat Aircraft Tejas. But the Israeli radarnow being fitted on the Tejas has an antenna de-

Range of radars

It has also developed advancedradar technologies, including TRmodules, slotted waveguide arrayantennas, high-power transmitters,programmable signal and dataprocessors, radar controllers andmulti-beam antennas.

The LRDE develops for the armed forces sensors meant for surveillance, tracking

and weapons control. B Y R A V I S H A R M A

REVATHI, A 3D, medium-rangesurveillance radar, mounted ona naval vessel.

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signed by the LRDE – the slotted wa-veguide array antenna. The LRDE isalso undertaking the design and de-velopment of the active electronicallyscanned array (AESA) technology.The AESA technology allows shipsand aircraft to broadcast powerful ra-dar signals while they themselves re-main under stealth. The AESA’s basicbuilding block is the TR module, aself-contained, miniaturised trans-mitter and receiver that makes up oneof the AESA antenna elements. In abid to develop the AESA, the LRDEhas developed L and S band TR mod-ules.

According to B.V. Ramesh, pro-ject director of LRDE’s LSTAR pro-gramme, an LRDE-developedX-band AESA radar could be fitted onthe Tejas by 2014. Two modules of theAESA radar have already beenlaunched. Ramesh also disclosed thatthe LSTAR (Long-range Solid StateActive Phase Array Radar), which is asort of a forerunner to India’s Air-borne Early Warning and ControlSystem programme, has been ap-proved by the Centre for Military Air-worthiness and Certification,integrated and tested on ground-based systems, and qualified for air-

borne applications. And a productionagency, Astra Microwave, has beenidentified for it.

Among the LRDE’s foremostproducts is Indra-1, a radar that workson the Doppler principle. It has a 50-km range and is integrated with thefire control radar. It is in deploymentwith the Army and the Indian AirForce (IAF) as part of their air defencenetwork. Indira-2, an improvementover Indira-1, was designed as per theneeds of the IAF, which wanted a ra-dar that can identify dense-formationtargets, such as a group of aircraftflying wing tip to wing tip, and can beused even at high altitudes.

The LRDE’s portable Battle FieldSurveillance Radar (BFSR) - ShortRange was developed after the Kargilconflict, when the inadequacies of bi-noculars were felt. An all-weather, au-tomated detection of intrusionssystem was needed. Over 1,400BFSRs are now being used by the Ar-my against moving surface targets. ABFSR radar that offers foliage pene-tration is under development. TheLRDE has also developed a coherent,electronically scanned C-Band Dop-pler Weapon Locating Radar for useby the Artillery Corps. Rohini is a 3D,

medium-range, vehicle-mounted sur-veillance radar that offers 360 degreecoverage and has a range of 150 to 180km, and is used against low-, medi-um- and high-flying targets. It canmeasure the range, azimuth and theheight of the target. It is designed forthe IAF and will also be part of theAkash missile system. The LRDE isalso developing the Revathi, a 3D,medium-range surveillance radarthat will give the Navy cover againstair and sea targets.

An off-shoot of the Rohini is theAslesha, a 3D low-level, light-weightradar designed for use in mountain-ous terrain and against aerial targets.The LRDE developed this radar whenthe Army wanted a system that couldbe transported by animals. It has beenevaluated at 15,000 feet (4,572metres) and cleared for induction.The Bharani is another portable,short-range, low-level, light-weightradar. It provides 2D surveillance,mainly in mountainous terrain,against aerial targets such as un-manned aerial vehicles, helicoptersand fixed-wing aircraft flying at lowand medium altitudes.

The Rajendra, a multi-function,phased array radar, is the primarysensor at the battery level for theAkash weapon system, which is to beused for air defence by the IAF and theArmy. It can perform extensivesearches, track multiple targets andmissiles, and command and guidemultiple missiles concurrently. SaysVaradarajan: “It can be mounted on aT-52 tank bed or as per the IAF’s re-quirements on a low-bed trailer.”

Having realised the importance oftimelines and technology obsoles-cence in the development of radar sys-tems, the LRDE has decided to “knitthe user with the programme at thedesign stage itself”. Says Varadarajan:“An early association of the user helpsfasten the programme. As for produc-tion, we want to be involved only withcritical design and system engineer-ing, capturing the user’s require-ments. It is for industry to realise theprototype, prove the concept and alsobe the lead integrator.” �

BHARANI, A PORTABLE, short-range, light-weight radar. It provides 2D surveillance, mainly in mountainous terrain, against aerial targets.

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1 0 4 F R O N T L I N E

WHEN the Bhopal gasdisaster revealed itselfin all its horror, with3,000 early deaths andgrave chemical inju-

ries to tens of thousands of people, itwas widely expected that the Govern-ment of India would treat it as a na-tional catastrophe and mobilise all itsresources to provide emergency reliefto the survivors and secure justice forthem. The very opposite happened. In-stead of launching a national-levelmedical treatment programme withthe best available professional help,which could have saved hundreds oflives and relieved much acute suffer-ing, the Central government left thevictims to the mercy of the MadhyaPradesh government’s pitiable healthcare infrastructure – in effect, handingthem over to quacks. In place of put-ting on trial the directors of UnionCarbide Corporation (UCC) of theUnited States and its Indian subsidi-ary, the government set free UCCchairman Warren Anderson, who hadbeen arrested in Bhopal.

In place of protecting the survivorsfrom ambulance-chasing lawyers whodescended upon Bhopal, the govern-ment became a mute spectator to thetheft of valuable medical evidencefrom the victims. This was only theprelude to a long, systematic campaignto rob the victims of their right to jus-tice, and impose a terrible settlementupon them, which would compensatemost of them with Rs.25,000 for alifetime of suffering through damageto their lungs, liver, kidneys and theimmune system. Even as people weredying in Bhopal in the first week ofDecember 1984, Indian diplomatswere at pains to tell the world that the

tionals, are strenuously trying to burythe past and erase Bhopal’s memory –at the expense of the victims, and toattract foreign investment.

Why, Minister of State for Envi-ronment Jairam Ramesh even turnedup at the plant in September andjeered at the victims. He picked a fist-ful of waste and declared: “See, I amalive!” There could have been nomeaner and more obnoxious way ofrubbing salt into the wounds of peoplewho have suffered untold injuries fromthe gas leak and had to bear the furtherhumiliation of having to drink watercontaminated by the plant. Ramesheven insinuated that there was a dirtysecret to the accident other than Car-bide’s culpability – something he “can’teven talk about”. Like UCC’s servitorsin the media, he hinted that the disas-ter was caused by negligence on thepart of its workers, or worse, sabotageby them.

The past 25 years in Bhopal make astory of death, disease and devastation,of injustice piled upon injustice, hu-miliation compounded by callousness,monumental corruption eating intomiserable compensation, and of denialof rehabilitation. Consider thefollowing:

★The Indian Council of MedicalResearch set up countless researchprojects on the toxicity of methyl iso-cyanate (MIC) and its products andthe injuries they cause. But it failed toproduce a simple treatment protocolthat would tell a general medical prac-titioner what medicines to administerfor lung injuries, eye damage, nervoussystem disorders or the poisoning ofthe kidneys or liver, and what physio-therapy exercises would help the vic-tims’ recovery. The ICMR wound up

disaster would in no way affect India’sforeign investment policy.

Twenty-five years on, their assu-rances have been largely fulfilled. Car-bide has got off the civil liability hookwith a paltry settlement of $470 mil-lion, an amount barely double its in-surance cover – for what was theworld’s most catastrophic industrialaccident until Chernobyl happened inApril 1986, and which remains theworst chemical industry accident inworld history.

Now, the government is keen to layout the red carpet for UCC’s successor,Dow Chemical Co., and is doing itsutmost to let Dow evade its respon-sibility to clean up the Bhopal plantsite, which remains contaminatedwith hundreds of tonnes of toxic chem-icals, which have poisoned water sup-plies. The captains of Indian industry,in collaboration with U.S. multina-

25 years of shameThe government’s deplorable response to the Bhopal gas disaster and its attempt

to shield the polluter constitute a blot on our democracy.

Beyond theObviousPRAFUL BIDWAI

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all its projects in 1994 – withoutproducing results.

★The Council of Scientific and In-dustrial Research failed to inform thepublic of the long-lasting toxic effectsof MIC on human health and the envi-ronment and to produce an index ofseverity of injuries correlated to dis-tance, wind direction, and so on. Sopeople living far away from the plantand unaffected by the gas exposurewere equated with the grievously in-jured in deciding compensation.

★The government appropriatedthe victims’ right to legal defence un-der the doctrine of “the state as a par-ent” but failed to gather and analyseclinching evidence to show that UCC,the parent corporation, was respon-sible for the design and day-to-day op-eration of the Bhopal plant and thatthe accident was caused by basic defi-ciencies in its safety system design.Such a design, wholly inadequate tocope with potential leaks to which ev-ery chemical plant is vulnerable, wouldnot have passed muster in any countrywith a half-way responsible licensingauthority.

★The Supreme Court comprehen-sively failed to engage with the issue ofCarbide’s liability after the originalsuit was sent back from the U.S. on thegrounds of forum non conveniens. Allit was interested in was an out-of-courtsettlement, to which it drove an all-too-willing government. Indeed, soanxious was the court to let Carbide offthe hook that it even extinguished itscriminal liability – which was restoredlater, albeit in a diluted form.

★The government originally madea demand for over $3 billion in com-pensation. However, it suddenly lo-wered the figure to $470 millionwithout any explanation. We will nev-er know what the trade-off was. Buthigh appointments were made abroadand at home presumably to repay thefavours delivered in reaching the man-ifestly unjust and collusive settlementagainst the will and interests of thevictims.

Indian society has learnt almostnothing from Bhopal. Our environ-mental and occupational safety reg-

ulations have not been tightened. Infact, the whole environmental impactassessment process has been reducedto a farce with an unconscionable re-laxation of requirements to documentpossible hazards, rigorously scrutiniseproposals and strictly monitor andverify compliance. We are invitingmore Bhopals – in Vadodara and Vapiin Gujarat, Tirupur in Tamil Nadu,Lote Parshuram in Maharashtra andSukinda in Orissa.

Our ability to cope with industrialemergencies and our capacity to reha-bilitate their victims has not improved.Our legal system remains abysmallyweak and ineffective when it comes topunishing negligence in industry andin bringing corporations to book.There is no law of torts (dealing withcivil wrongs or injury) worth the namein India. Above all, we have not learntto be humane towards victims of disas-ters who are in no way responsible forthem.

All this speaks of a deep social andpolitical pathology – of a governingelite that is simply incapable of de-fending the right to life and limb of thepoor and underprivileged who, unlike,say, the hostages of the Indian AirlinesFlight IC 814 that was hijacked to Kan-dahar in December 1999 – all upper-middle-class people, many returning

from a holiday in Kathmandu – whoare nobody’s constituency. Involvedhere is class prejudice and the bloody-minded callousness that is character-istic of a ruling class that has all butpsychologically seceded from the Ma-jority India that consists of the de-prived and the disinherited.

Our rulers have no mindspace forthe suffering of the underprivileged:they might as well belong to anotherplanet. The death toll in Bhopal, nowclocking 20,000, does not move them.Hard scientific facts about the persis-tent and extensive contamination ofthe Bhopal plant, where toxic chem-icals and heavy metals have seeped in-to underground aquifers, do not joltthem into corrective action – not evento the point of asking Dow to clean up.Their own promises to the victims, de-livered only when the latter come toNew Delhi to sit on dharnas and hun-ger strikes, do not mean anything atall.

Or else, we would have seen War-ren Anderson being prosecuted in-stead of being declared “untraceable”by Indian consular authorities – whenhis address in a posh New York suburbis public knowledge. We would haveseen genuine well-funded relief andrehabilitation programmes in Bhopal.We would have seen the victims beingtreated with the empathy and care theydeserve. This spells the complete col-lapse of the notion of shared citizen-ship and responsibility for fellowhuman beings. It returns us to a stateof primitive, uncivilised, barbaric so-ciety. That should shame us all.

In this 25-year-long dismal story, itis only the Bhopal victims’ ceaseless,determined and heroic struggle forjustice and for recovering their humandignity that stands out as a positivesign of the existence of civic life. Theyhave given up neither hope nor thefight for equal citizenship, so central todemocracy. We must respect theirstruggle and pursue Carbide and itssuccessor in every forum. We have de-stroyed the possibility of real justice inBhopal. The least we can do is to pre-vent future Bhopals – and our ownsocial retrogression. �

SURVIVORS OF THE 1984 Bhopalgas tragedy and activists outside theDow Chemicals office in Noida, nearDelhi, on November 19.

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NOW that there is somuch talk about reform-ing higher education, itis important to knowwhich models are sought

to be emulated. Clearly, there is muchthat is wrong with many higher educa-tion institutions in the country, just asmuch is wrong with the system as awhole. But the difficulties of achievingand maintaining good quality peda-gogy that is also relevant to the needsof a developing country are well knownby now.

When looking for other standardsby which to judge our higher educationinstitutions, it is pointless to comparethem only with institutions in devel-oped countries, which have the benefitof much greater resources and operatein a completely different environment.Despite this rather obvious point, toomuch journalistic writing and middle-class perception treat the higher edu-cation system in the United States asthe model that deserves emulationeverywhere else in the world. It is reg-ularly portrayed as the most dynamic,successful and attractive of all suchsystems in any country.

In India, this is also exemplified bythe sheer demand for study in the U.S.The queues of students lining up tojoin higher education institutions inthe U.S. seem to grow longer and long-er regardless of the high and risingcosts of such education and practicalconcerns such as visa difficulties. Andthe attraction for such students seemsto be not simply the lure of eventualemigration to the U.S. but a genuineperception that that system is inhe-rently superior.

How did this state of affairs comeabout? Is it really only about actualquality, or have other forces, such as

ketplace. It does not cover only highereducation; it also dissects the increas-ingly desperate advertising moves oforganised religion and the more suaveand sophisticated branding of high artand museums. But the most fascinat-ing part of his book – and the mostinstructive for us in the developingworld – is the expose of the business ofhigher education and the process bywhich such brand positioning hascome to dominate all higher educa-tional activities in the U.S.

Given the demographic changesthat have led to an ageing population,higher education in the U.S. should begoing through a period of contractionif earlier ratios of enrolment had beenmaintained. To sustain the expansionthat is now built into the system, col-leges and universities have to attractmore students than they did previous-ly. They have sought to do so by enlarg-ing the pool of potential entrants. Oneroute is to ensure greater diversityfrom within the population, by admit-ting more women, blacks and ethnicminorities. Another route is to attractthose outside the national population– therefore, the significance of foreignstudents.

It is no secret that all this requiresbranding. Twitchell’s achievement isto show how this has caused a centralchange in the way American universi-ties are organised. As the experience ofhigher education gets commercialised,outsourced and franchised, what is be-ing delivered is no longer knowledgeso much as a brand, with all the con-sumer identification markers that thisentails. So the central figure in the de-livery is no longer the professor but theprofessional manager. And the largestdepartment in most universities is nowthe “development” department, con-

effective marketing of the Americansystem all over the world, come intoplay? A book (Branded Nation: TheMarketing of Megachurch, College,Inc., and Museumworld; Simon andSchuster Paperbacks, 2004) by JamesB. Twitchell, a professor at the Uni-versity of Florida, suggests that it isessentially about successful branding.

Twitchell’s book describes the sig-nificance of branding in culture indus-tries, including those that havetraditionally been seen as far too“highbrow” or “spiritual” to actuallydescend to slugging it out in the mar-

Brand attractionThere are growing concerns in the U.S. that the central mission of its universities

of advancing knowledge has been derailed by marketplace values.

PreoccupationsJAYATI GHOSH

Indians have aperception thatthe educationsystem in theU.S. is superior.

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cerned with the raising and manage-ment of funds.

All this has changed the pyramidalstructure of higher education in theU.S. The sector is now structured like abarbell. At one end are a few elite “de-luxe” institutions with internationallyrecognised brand names that rule onthe basis of their exclusivity. At theother end is a large bulk of mass pro-viders that admit almost anyone andeveryone because they must keep ex-panding to survive. The top group re-lies more on endowments anddonations, the bottom group on stu-dent fees and state support. Mean-while, the middle category, theunderfunded and undersubscribed in-stitutions that are neither “good”enough nor large enough, is being de-stroyed.

Within the institutions of higherlearning, the game is not so muchabout getting through as about justgetting in. The focus is mostly all onattracting enrolment and much less onwhat goes on after that. As a resultboth the good and bad universities andcolleges are less concerned with theactual quality of education and the ca-pabilities of their graduates and aremore interested in their external im-age and the related ability to attractmore students. This explains the fa-mous statement attributed to DerekBok, that Harvard University (ofwhich he was president for two dec-ades) is a real storehouse of knowledgebecause “so much comes in, and solittle goes out”.

Branding is all about telling a sto-ry, and so the top institutions need tospread the story of how difficult theyare to enter. For this they have to showa high rejection rate, which means, inturn, that they must somehow attractlots of applicants. Since rank is basedon selectivity, private media rankings– most famously that of U.S. News &World Report – assume great signif-icance.

Interestingly, all the data used inthe rankings relate to “entry” featuresrather than “exit” or “output” charac-teristics. A lot of effort, not necessarilyacademic, goes into sustaining the

rankings and, therefore, the brands.“Pioneer advantage” (the benefit of along tradition) obviously helps but isnot enough. It is necessary to workcontinuously at sustaining the brandname, as Twitchell shows with hisbrief description of what Harvard sys-tematically does to ensure that it re-mains the top brand.

One might ask, this is all very well,but so what? Yes, higher education,like so much else in our increasinglyconsumerist societies, is being market-ed and advertised aggressively by com-peting institutions. But is this anadverse development? Maybe this isjust one more instance of consumersovereignty allowing students andtheir guardians to be fully aware of thecosts and advantages of different in-stitutions.

Unfortunately, this is not really sosince the hype and the ranking hidemore than they reveal. More signif-icantly, this entire approach createsbasic changes in the way higher educa-tion is conceived and delivered so thatthe original purpose (dare one call itlearning?) may be almost completelysubsumed or even swept away by thebranding process. Twitchell’s com-ment on this deserves to be quoted infull:

“Understanding the marketingmachinery operating Higher Ed, Inc.,... may explain some recent develop-ments at universities such as (1) thepredictable and supposedly uncontrol-lable eruption of grade inflation andthe concomitant charade of teaching

evaluations, (2) the single-mindedoutsourcing of almost every conceiv-able aspect of Higher Ed, Inc., (3) theselling off of academic space as thecampus becomes commercialised: Ge-orgia Tech put McDonald’s goldenarches on the floor of its coliseum, Co-lumbia University lent its name to afor-profit company offering distancelearning classes on the Internet, theUniversity of California accepted a re-search grant from a pharmaceuticalcompany to research new drugs andgive the corporation the right to get thefirst look at the results, etc., (4) the lossof any shared nationwide curriculum,(5) the collapse of good schools at thelow end of a cohort, and, of course, (6)the impact of shopping for brandededucation not just as a way to enter theinstitution but as a method of choosinga course of study. What looks likedumbing down is in reality a predict-able effect of competitive branding”(page 167).

E D U C A T I O N A S B U S I N E S SThis is why serious higher education-ists in the U.S. are worried about theimplications of education as business.There are growing concerns that thecentral mission of universities is nolonger to advance and transmit knowl-edge and has largely been ousted bythe just-in-time, immediate-gratifica-tion values of the marketplace. Theimpact of the global financial crisis hasbeen to intensify these pressures.State-funded universities have hadtheir budgets slashed and are desper-ate for high-fee-paying foreign stu-dents to maintain some semblance oftheir past structures. Private universi-ties find that the value of their endow-ments has shrunk, and so they tooneed to commercialise more activitiesand get in more revenues from whatev-er source.

We in India and elsewhere cannotafford to smirk complacently at thissorry state of affairs in the U.S. for thisis precisely the kind of system thatmany here are actually aiming for. Sowe may be looking at an image of ourown future in higher education if sanervoices do not prevail. �

Highereducation isbeing marketedand advertisedaggressively bycompetinginstitutions.

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“Urbanisation is a relentless process, which hascome to stay and has to be factored into all ourdevelopmental thinking and developmentprocesses.”

- Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the launchof the JNNURM.

THE Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Rene-wal Mission (JNNURM) was launched in December2005 by the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) go-vernment in keeping with its Common MinimumProgramme. It was a form of reform that urban areasin the country desperately needed before they spi-ralled into haphazard and over-flowing cities.

The JNNURM’s objective is to create econom-

ically productive, efficient, equitable and responsivecities. It consists of two sub-missions: Urban In-frastructure and Governance and Basic Services tothe Urban Poor. An important goal is to encouragecities to improve the existing levels of service in afinancially sustainable manner.

The JNNURM is designed to support water sup-ply, including the setting up of desalination plants-sewerage and sanitation; solid waste management,including hospital waste; construction and improve-ment of sewage and storm water drains; road net-work; transport; construction and development ofbus and truck terminals; renewal and redevelop-ment of inner-city areas; development of heritageareas; preservation of water bodies; integrated de-velopment of slums, that is housing and develop-ment of infrastructure; basic services to the urbanpoor; and street lighting.

Pune does not live under Mumbai’s shadow andhas a unique identity. One of its biggest assets is itscitizens’ awareness and their readiness to double upas activists for their city. Against this background,the best thing that the government and the PuneMunicipal Corporation (PMC) did was to launch the

City of the futureThe Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission in Pune is working to

make the city a world-class metropolis. B Y A S P E C I A L C O R R E S P O N D E N T

Pune does not live under Mumbai’sshadow and has a unique identity.One of its biggest assets is its citizens’awareness and their readiness todouble up as activists for their city.

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THE PILOT BUS Rapid Transport system in Pune has ensured smooth travel on busy roads.

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FOCUS PUNE: JNNURM

JNNURM for the city. Pune, which israpidly developing into a metropolis,can now serve as an example for the restof the State with the success of the mis-sion.

In a review of the mission’s progressin Pune, which started in 2007, it wasnoted that while there was improve-ment in many areas, much more need-ed to be accomplished for sustainabledevelopment. “We are encouraged withthe rate of progress and believe that wewill meet the deadline of December2012,” said Pravin Ashtikar, DeputyMunicipal Commissioner, PMC, who isin charge of the JNNURM. Ashtikarsaid that the Central government hadsanctioned Rs.2,441 crore for the mis-sion’s work in the city. Of this, Rs.1,024crore has been spent on various pro-jects. “We are working as per the go-vernment’s schedule and guidelinesand we will meet our targets,” he said.

Transportation infrastructure is akey area of the JNNURM. The pilotBus Rapid Transport (BRT) system hasbeen completed on the Satara road andthe Solapur road along with six termi-nals. Subways on the Nagar road, theBanner road, the Sangamwadi ap-proach Road and New Alandi roadhave also been completed. In addition,28 BRT and Commonwealth YouthGames (CYG) corridors have been ap-proved under the mission and work

should begin soon, officials say. A look at some of the projects

shows that the JNNURM has im-proved the look of the city. For in-stance, BRT bus lanes and bus stopshave ensured smooth travel on busyroads. Similarly, cycle lanes have en-sured faster movement on roads. InPune, where a large number of peopleuse two-wheelers, it was essential tohave lanes designated for smaller veh-icles. On some roads, broad pavementshave ensured the safety of walkers andenhanced the city’s looks.

According to a PMC review, thecurrent status of the CYG and BRTPhase-I is that (1) 80 kilometres, out ofa proposed 113 km of road stretch,have been widened; (2) 71 km of aproposed 86 km of footpaths and cycletracks have been laid; and (3) all roadworks are expected to be completed byMarch 2010. In addition, 16 km ofwater supply lines, 60 km of stormwater drains, 76 km of telephoneducts, and 45 km of electric ducts havebeen laid in the city.

One of the main areas of focus inthe JNNURM is to provide efficienttransportation. Some 473 buses are re-quired in Pune under the mission. Theprocess of acquiring them has begunand one can already find them in manyareas on the BRT tracks. With buses,new terminals and stops must follow.

New terminals have been proposed atChinchwadgaon, Hinjewadi IT Park,Lohegaon, New PMC limit/Wagholi/Chandan Nagar, near Dhayari Phata,and at Warje Malwadi. Additionally,there is a proposal to expand the exist-ing terminals at Swargate, HadapsarGadital, Shivajinagar and PMC build-ing, Kothrud depot, Khadki and Nigdi.

Sewerage projects under theJNNURM in Pune include sewagegeneration and treatment. Phase II ofthe project should be complete by2015. The current treatment capacityis 305 MLD (million litres/day) and atreatment plant under constructionwill take care of another 262 MLD.Lake, river and nallah improvementplans are an integral part of the mis-sion in Pune. An estimated Rs.99.96crore has been placed to construct andimprove drains in order to prevent thecontamination of natural water bodiesand to develop heritage sites. Addi-tionally, Rs.97.78 core has been ear-marked to renew and manage sewagedisposal.

The water body improvementscheme includes construction of weirsat Bund Garden and Mundhwa, im-provements to the Katraj and Pashanlakes, nallah improvement, bioreme-diation and landscaping along nallahsand rivers, dredging of the Mula andMutha rivers, channelisation workand lake formation on river beds, andconstruction of retaining walls alongriver banks.

A critical aspect of the JNNURM isthat it reforms some of the fundamen-tals in the municipal corporations ofcities. These include accounting, taxa-tion, information accessible to citi-zens, e-governance and GIS mapping.With regard to Pune, accounting re-forms at the PMC are being carried outas per the guidelines of the Govern-ment of Maharashtra. And its staffmembers are undergoing training inmore efficient accounting methods.

Further, public information suchas property tax, tenders, developmentcontrol rules, city development plans,annual accounts and budgets are nowavailable on the PMC website. TheRight to Information Act has been im-

A SEWAGE TREATMENT plant at Mundhwa in Pune. The city generatesabout 567 MLD of sewage every day, of which roughly 70 per cent is treated.

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plemented, thereby furthering the cor-poration’s commitment to the mission.

E-governance facilities such as on-line tender submission, work manage-ment system, online buildingpermission system, issuance of birthand death certificates, self-assess-ment, and a complaint redress systemare now operational. In addition,kiosks in 144 wards for tax payments,property tax collection, issuance ofbirth and death certificates, e-tender-ing and octroi are available.

Work on GIS mapping of proper-ties is also in progress. Mapping ofroads, water supply lines and sewagelines is almost complete. Property tax,an area that is normally a web of confu-

sion, has been cleaned up by the PMC.According to the review, after theJNNURM reforms were implement-ed, 93 per cent efficiency has beenachieved in property tax collection.There has been a significant migrationto the self-assessment system. Localcamps and a website for addressing taxissues have been set up. Assistance anda dispute resolution mechanism areavailable with regard to tax matters.

The second aspect of the mission isto provide basic services to the urbanpoor. Towards this, the PMC has iden-tified people in the urban poor bracketwith defined criteria after fresh enu-merations for the Below Poverty Line(BPL) category. Services such as public

toilets, primary education, group wa-ter connections, and drainage connec-tions will be provided. A reproductivehealth programme, education for chil-dren from six to 14 years, and improve-ment in housing and provision ofsecurity are also on the cards.

The JNNURM will, in its firstphase, be extended to 60 cities with apopulation exceeding one million,State capitals, and 20 other cities ofreligious and tourist importance. Stategovernments will have the flexibility ofsubstituting the designated cities withothers. PMC officials believe that it isonly a matter of time before the citybecomes one of the most progressive inIndia and a world-class metropolis. �

THREE-TIME corporator and cur-rently Mayor, Rajlaxmi Bhonsalehas played a pivotal role in preparingPune’s City Development Plan as perJNNURM guidelines. She monitorsthe implementation of the sanc-tioned projects, with a special inter-est in developing the Mula-Muthariver system, whichruns through the heartof the city, into a navi-gable waterway.

What are your plansfor the Mula-Muthariver system?

Beautiful cities likeParis, London andAmsterdam have riversrunning through them.My dream is to developPune, through whichthe Mutha and the Mu-la-Mutha rivers run,like those cities. Thiswill involve both beaut-ification and commer-cial utilisation of theland along the banksand using the 46-km-

stretch from Khadakvasala to Lonifor transportation.

How do you propose to go aboutdoing this?

The work of cleaning up the riversystem has already begun as part ofthe JNNURM scheme. Nearly

Rs.100 crore has beenspent on dredging theriver beds, channellingthe water and building aretaining wall along theriver banks.

For cleaning the wa-ter, four sewage treat-ment plants [STPs] andpumping stations havebeen constructed, andwork on the fifth STP isunder way. The totalcost is Rs.86 crore. Punegenerates around 567MLD sewage every day,of which 382 MLD, orroughly 70 per cent, istreated.

Obviously, we aretargeting 100 per centsewage treatment, and a

requisition for Rs.232 crore is pend-ing with the Government of India.Also, to keep the water, which flowsdown owing to gravity, at a navigabledepth, four bunds will have to beconstructed.

What kind of finances does thisenvisage?

Around Rs.1,000 crore. And Idon’t expect generating finance to bea problem, since the space alongsidecan be developed commercially –restaurants, hotels, malls and so on.

Any other plans?My second endeavour will be to

achieve 100 per cent segregation ofgarbage, convert the degradablewaste into manure at source andhelp people grow organic vegetablesfor their own use. These can begrown in pots or drums on terraces,balconies, open spaces in societies,just anywhere.

My dream is for every slum-dweller to have a productive pottedplant, a lemon tree for instance, out-side their doors. This is the culturalchange I want to bring about.

Clean and greenInterview with Rajlaxmi Bhonsale, Mayor of Pune. B Y A L K A K S H I R S A G A R

RAJLAXMIBHONSALE: "NEARLYRs. 100 crore has beenspent on dredging theriver beds."

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PUNE stands on the ground that rises on eitherside of the Mula and Mutha rivers. While the con-fluence of the two at the heart of the city gave it itsoriginal name ‘Punya-Vishaya’ (Land of Virtue), theelevation lent it the feel of a hill station. The cool

climate, in marked contrast with that of Mumbai,once drew bureaucrats, artists and authors to the cityin the twilight of their lives, and this gave it the namePensioners’ Paradise. Pune’s journey from there tothe present, where it has earned the sobriquet Stu-dents’ Capital of India, is a fascinating one.

In 1961, the Panshet dam, about 60 kilometresfrom Pune, broke and flooded the city, destroyingmost of its old neighbourhoods. The tragedy, howev-er, held the promise of a new beginning. In thefollowing years, the city saw a spurt of growth in theconstruction and engineering sectors. By the end ofthe decade, it had grown both economically andgeographically. In fact, the Kothrud area in Punemade it to the Guinness Book of World Records forthe fastest urban growth rate.

Today, the automobile sector is the backbone of

One city, many facesThe congenial coexistence of the old and the new makes Pune truly cosmopolitan.

B Y S I D D E S H I N A M D A R

Its surging economy is powered by astrong education sector, automobilemanufacturers and the IT industry.And firmly rooted in Marathiculture, Pune is Maharashtra’scultural capital as well.

MANY MALLS HAVE come up inthe city in recent times.

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Pune’s economy. From two-wheelersand cars to tractors and trucks, Pune’sautomobile companies make them all.Some of the big names include Volks-wagen, General Motors, Fiat, Mer-cedes-Benz, Mahindra & Mahindra,Bajaj Auto and Tata Motors. Pune it-self is a huge market for two-wheelers,which constitute about 70 per cent ofthe vehicles plying in the city. Punealso has a number of units that manu-facture automotive parts, such as forg-es, truck transmission systems,clutches and automotive safety glass.Besides, electronic giants such as LGand Whirlpool and food companiessuch as Frito Lays and Coca-Cola havemade Pune their home.

Over the years, the Maharashtragovernment has focussed on the in-formation technology (IT) sector. Itmade provisions for incentives in its ITand ITES (IT-enabled services) policyin 2003. Additionally, the Maharash-tra Industrial Development Corpora-tion undertook a Rs.600-millionproject to set up the Rajiv Gandhi ITPark at Hinjewadi over 2,800 acres(1,133.119 hectares). Microsoft intendsto set up a project worth Rs.700 crorehere. Besides, Pune plays host to all ofIndia’s software giants, including In-fosys, Wipro, Tata Consultancy Servic-es, IBM and Tech Mahindra.

Pune’s surging economy is po-

wered by an equally strong educationsector, which attracts students from allover India and from abroad. It is saidto have more schools, colleges, institu-tions and universities than any othercity in the world, lending it the nameOxford of the East.

The College of Engineering found-ed here in 1854 is the second-oldestengineering college in Asia. And theDeccan Education Society, founded in1884 by local citizens, including free-dom fighter Bal Gangadhar Tilak, wasresponsible for founding the Fergus-son College in 1885. The society oper-ates 32 institutions in Pune. TheSymbiosis International University,which operates 33 different institu-tions in the city, is one of India’s largestprivate universities.

Other well-known educational in-stitutions in the city are the ILS LawCollege; the Film and Television In-stitute of India; the Bhandarkar Ori-ental Research Institute; the NationalInstitute of Virology; the National In-formatics Centre; the Indian Instituteof Tropical Meteorology; and the Na-tional AIDS Research Institute.

Important defence institutions,such as the National Defence Acade-my, the Armed Forces Medical Col-lege, the College of MilitaryEngineering, the Army Institute ofPhysical Training, and the Army In-

stitute of Technology are based inPune. The city is also the headquartersof the Indian Army’s Southern Com-mand.

Pune is not administered by itsmunicipal corporation alone. Threecantonment boards have administra-tive control over the Pune Metropol-itan Area. Pune has been an importantcantonment town since the Battle ofKhadki (1817), in which the EnglishEast India Company emerged victo-rious. The British, however, were thelast of the many rulers that Pune saw inthe pre-Independence era.

Over a millennium ago, the regionwas ruled by the Yadavas, followed bythe Nizamshahi sultans and theMughals. In 1595, Maloji Bhosale, thegrandfather of Chhatrapati Shivaji,was appointed the jahagirdar of Pune.The town was developed by DadojiKondadev, who was the administra-tive officer and confidant of Maloji’sson Shahaji and the mentor of Shivaji.Kondadev oversaw the construction ofthe iconic Lal Mahal where Shivaji andhis mother Jijabai lived. After Shivaji’scoronation, the town saw further de-velopment and the construction of sev-eral peths (small neighbourhoods).

O L D A N D N E WOne can find peths even today, withtheir narrow roads and small cheek-to-jowl buildings of stone. However,the city has grown in all directions.Malls have come up on UniversityRoad and near the Chaturshrungitemple, where the roads are broaderand traffic moves faster. And in 2002,India’s first high-speed six-lane ex-pressway, connecting Pune withMumbai, became operational, usher-ing in further economic and industrialdevelopment.

Pune can also be called the culturalcapital of Maharashtra. Many doyensof Marathi literature, theatre and filmsmade the city their home. As the citystands rooted in its Marathi culture, itsrapid development and migration ofyoung people from other States havealtered its character without posing athreat to its past. This makes Pune oneof India’s truly cosmopolitan cities. �

PUNE IS SAID to have more educational institutions than any other city inthe world. The Symbiosis International University in Pune, with 33 differentinstitutions, is one of India’s largest private universities.

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MUNICIPAL Commissioner Ma-hesh Zagade’s vision for 2012 is of aPune that is cleaner, greener, andenergy efficient. He aims to bringabout a cultural change among itscitizens rather than enforce rules.While steering the imple-mentation of theJNNURM, Zagade is al-so working out a compre-hensive plan fortransport and infrastruc-ture building. Excerptsfrom an interview:

What is the progress onJNNURM projects?

All are on schedule.Fourteen projects to-gether worth Rs.2,441crore have been ap-proved, and we havecompleted work totallingRs.1,024 crore so far.This covers roads, trans-port, sewerage, sanitation, and lakeand river improvement.

What problems did you face inimplementing the projects?

Since Pune is not a greenfieldcity, and land is either privately heldor defence land, we have had prob-lems of acquisition. But these are nothuge impediments.

What are the city’s majorweaknesses?

Let me enumerate the strengths:good climate, a culturally developedsociety, proximity to Mumbai andthe fact that it is graduating frommanufacturing to services. Theweaknesses emerge from thestrengths. With a population pro-jected to touch 37.29 lakh by 2012,the city has a decadal growth rate of50 per cent against the national av-erage of 21.4 per cent. The challeng-

es are to provide adequateinfrastructure, transport and waterand to manage traffic and solidwaste.

One of the problems seems to besolid waste management.

The city generates1,300 tonnes of garbageevery day. Some of thisis converted into RefuseDerived Fuel [RDF],which task we have out-sourced. Though thereis a capacity to process800 tonnes of wasteeach day, but because ofa court matter, a capac-ity of 500 tonnes re-mains idle. We hopethat will be settled byearly December. We areadding a capacity of200 tonnes to convert1,000 tonnes of waste

into RDF soon. In addition, a workorder for composting 200 tonnes ofgarbage has been issued to somecompanies. This should become op-erational in four months. Our man-date is to have 100 per centtreatment through landfill andprocessing.

About 35 per cent of the populationlives in slums. Given the projectedinflux, how do you plan to preventfurther growth of slums?

The PMC survey has declared564 slums with 1,15,000 hutments.Two of the 14 projects approved un-der the JNNURM come under BasicServices for Urban Poor [BSUP]. Asum of Rs.520 crore has been sanc-tioned for slum rehabilitation, and20,600 dwellings are being built.The slum rehabilitation authority,which is an independent body, is

working on building dwellingsthrough private-public partner-ships. More importantly, we want toensure that no new slums come up.My endeavour is to bring in reformsin the system, and increase the ge-ographical accountability of the ad-ministrative units. An ordinance hasbeen issued and an FIR will be filedagainst both violators and officers.

I am also trying to set up a 600-strong police force [currently thesquad is 50 strong] to check en-croachment, under a police officer ofDCP rank. The standing committeesanctioned Rs.9-10 crore per annumfor the purpose, beginning with fis-cal 2010-11. Recruitment will beginsoon.

As in most urban areas, opendefecation is a problem in Pune.How will the PMC tackle this?

In the current year’s budget, wehave a programme for building toi-lets and have allocated Rs.3.75 crorefor the purpose. At present, 5,000toilets are under construction in theHadapsar and Warje areas. We areworking towards 100 per cent con-trol of open defecation.

What is your estimate of funds thatneed to be deployed to bring thecity’s basic infrastructure up toacceptable standards?

We need Rs.800-1,000 crore tooverhaul the water distribution sys-tem. The JNNURM has allocatedaround Rs.1,000 crore for road de-velopment. Another Rs.1,400-1,500crore will be required for road in-frastructure such as flyovers, bridgesand underpasses. Finally, 17 lakhmotorised vehicles on the roads to-day means 500 vehicles every 1,000people – on par with Japan or Ger-many. So another Rs.9,000-10,000crore for a metro.

‘Running on schedule’Interview with Mahesh Zagade, Pune Municipal Commissioner. B Y A L K A K S H I R S A G A R

MAHESH ZAGADE:"RS.520 crore hasbeen sanctioned forslum rehabilitation."

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FROM Rs.17 a kilogram barely six months ago toRs.42 a kg now, sugar is fast running out of thecommon man’s reach. The crisis is likely to turnworse because a massive shortfall in sugar produc-tion is expected this year. The shortage does nottranslate into higher prices for sugarcane farmers,however. Instead of paying a high price for sugar-cane and facilitating early crushing, the governmenthas opted to import sugar. Also, the low supportprice for sugarcane made some farmers burn theirstanding crop.

Sugarcane farmers across India today are an ag-itated lot. They are taking to the streets to registertheir protest and stopping road and rail traffic. Theymarched to the capital as Parliament convened forthe winter session. And some took the extreme stepof self-immolation. The country’s sugar consump-tion, according to official estimates, is 23 milliontonnes, but this year production is likely to be 14.5-15million tonnes only.

The sugar story is, in fact, a bitter one. An ordi-nance issued by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs,Food and Public Distribution (Sugarcane (Control)Amendment Order, 2009, dated October 22, 2009)changed the pricing regime for sugarcane, which wasdictated by the Sugarcane (Control) Order, 1966.

According to the new order, the support price forsugarcane, now called the “fair and remunerativeprice” (FRP) instead of the earlier “statutory mini-mum price” (SMP), shall be fixed by the Centralgovernment under Clause 3 from time to time. It alsospecified that any other authority fixing a price forthe crop above the FRP would have to bear thedifference: “If any authority or State governmentfixes any price above the fair and remunerative pricefixed by the Central government under Clause 3,such authority or State government shall pay theamount which it fixes above the fair and remuner-ative price as fixed by the Central government, to thegrower of sugarcane or sugarcane cooperative socie-ty, as the case may be.”

The practice so far was for States such as UttarPradesh (the second largest sugarcane-producingState after Maharashtra), Tamil Nadu, Punjab andHaryana to declare State-advised prices (SAP) thatmills were required to pay the farmers. This wasusually higher than the SMP, which was announcedby the Central government on the basis of the cost ofcultivation estimated by the Commission for Agri-culture Costs and Prices (CACP).

However, on November 19, under pressure froman unrelenting Opposition, the government an-

Bitter story

The mills are not buying the crop atthe higher SAP declared by Stategovernments before the new CentralOrdinance came. And farmers arenot willing to sell at the pricedeclared by the Centre; some ofthem preferred to burn their crop.

An inexplicable pricing regime and

skewed export-import policies bring

about a crisis for sugarcane farmers

and consumers alike.

B Y P U R N I M A S . T R I P A T H I

AT A SUGARCANE farmers’ rally in JantarMantar, New Delhi, on November 19. Thousandsattended the rally.

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nounced that it would remove theclause shifting the pricing burden tothe States. Finance Minister PranabMukherjee told an all-party meetingthat the clause that required State go-vernments to pay the difference be-tween the prices they announced andthe FRP would be dropped.

The October 22 ordinance was fol-lowed by a notification by the Ministryof Consumer Affairs, Food and PublicDistribution, which stated: “The Go-vernment of India has fixed the fairand remunerative price (FRP) of sug-arcane to be paid by the sugar mills for2009-10 sugar season at Rs.129.84 perquintal linked to a basic recovery rateof 9.5 per cent subject to an additionalpayment of Rs.1.37 per quintal for ev-ery 0.1 percentage point increase inrecovery above that level.”

Farmers received the notificationwith shock and horror. According tofigures compiled by the National Alli-ance of Farmers Association (NAFA),an umbrella organisation of farmersfrom across India, the input cost forone quintal of sugarcane is roughlyRs.233.52 now. The price announcedby the government does not meet evenremotely the input cost.

The sugarcane crop, meanwhile, isready for harvesting. But because ofthe confusion about prices, the millsare not buying at the higher SAP thatState governments had declared. Thefarmers, too, are not willing to sell atthe declared FRP. But then they needto get their fields ready for the rabiseason, which is about to start. So theyare either burning their standing cropor selling it at throwaway prices to lo-cal crushers who make jaggery (gur).At least 25 incidents of farmers burn-ing their crop have been reported fromwestern Uttar Pradesh, the sugar bowlof the State.

Instead of working out a solutionto benefit both farmers and mill own-ers, the Central government has al-lowed free import of raw sugar so thatthe mills can go ahead with the pro-duction of sugar, apparently to meetthe domestic demand. This has an-gered farmers even more, and recentlysome of them burnt a train carrying

imported raw sugar to a sugar mill inShamli, Uttar Pradesh. The farmers’ire has, for the time being, forced theUttar Pradesh government to halt themovement of imported sugar on itsterritory, but a solution to the farmers’woes remains elusive.

O N T H E W A R P A T HAt a mammoth mahapanchayat ofsugarcane farmers in Meerut on No-vember 5, farmers vowed to crippleroad and rail traffic all over India, bar-ricade Parliament House and paralysethe functioning of the Lok Sabha andthe Rajya Sabha. Various farmers or-ganisations, which have united underthe aegis of the NAFA, and partiessuch as the Rashtriya Lok Dal (led byAjit Singh) and the Bharatiya KisanUnion (led by Mahendra Singh Tikait)joined hands and vowed to take theirbattle to its logical conclusion.

“There is no way we can allow thegovernment to play with the lives of 50million farmers. The government,which claims to be a well-wisher of thefarmers, is deliberately destroying sug-arcane farmers so it can go ahead andimport raw sugar,” said Anil Singh,national secretary of the NAFA. Infact, the contents of the CACP report

for 2008-09, which advised the go-vernment to increase the price of sug-arcane, establish beyond doubt thatthe government slept over the repeat-ed warnings by experts and that it de-liberately pushed things in a particulardirection so that import of raw andrefined sugar became inevitable.

In 2006, India had a surplus sugarstock to the tune of 60 lakh tonnes. Atthat time the international price ofsugar was Rs.20,680 per tonne, whilethe domestic price was Rs.13,000 pertonne. So if export of sugar was al-lowed then, the country would haveearned precious foreign exchange. Butthe government banned the export ofsugar in 2006. It resulted in a net lossof Rs.4,608 crore in terms of exportearnings. In 2007-08, when interna-tional prices crashed to Rs.13,000 pertonne, the country exported 68 lakhtonnes!

In 2007-08, it became evident thatthe net area under sugarcane produc-tion was falling. The CACP warned thegovernment in its report for 2008-2009 that unless it raised the SMP forsugarcane, the net area under the cropwould continue to fall. The govern-ment paid no heed. The SMP for sug-arcane in 2004 was Rs.79.25 a quintal,

THE FARMERSMAKING theirway back afterthe day’s protest.

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and in 2008-09 it was Rs.81.18 aquintal, despite the input cost havinggone up substantially and despite amassive hike in the minimum supportprice of wheat and paddy.

The CACP, which submitted a sup-plementary report to the AgricultureMinistry on March 21, 2008, high-lighting the anomalies in the pricing ofsugarcane and other crops, stated:“The SMP of sugarcane would have tobe raised to Rs.175 per quintal to re-store the inter-crop parity.” In thesame paragraph, the report explainedhow the increase in the support pricefor wheat and paddy was tilting thebalance against sugarcane, the pricefor which had barely increased since2004.

“Instead of accepting my recom-mendations, the government termi-nated my services,” says Dr T. Haque,who was the CACP chairman then. DrHaque, an eminent agricultural econ-omist, who now is the patron of NAFA,says inter-crop disparity has resultedin the diminishing of the area undersugarcane production. “Last year thearea under cane production was 4.38million hectares, which has now gonedown to 4.24 million hectares,” hesaid. “I hold the entire UPA [UnitedProgressive Alliance] government, notonly the Agriculture Minister, respon-sible for the sugarcane farmers’ plighttoday because CACP reports are dis-cussed by the entire Cabinet, whichdeclares the minimum support pricefor various crops. It is the entire UPAgovernment that has failed the sugar-cane farmers.”

According to him, while decidingthe minimum support price for sugar-cane, the factors that need to be consi-dered are the cost of production ofsugarcane, the price of sugar in themarket, inter-crop price parity, andthe interests of farmers, sugar millowners and consumers. But in decid-ing the FRP for sugarcane, none of thiswas apparently taken into account –the price of sugar in the market hasshot up to Rs.42 a kg, while the price tobe paid to the farmer remains low.

According to Professor SudhirPanwar, president of the Kisan Jagriti

Manch president, an affiliate of theNAFA, all stakeholders in the gamehave been indulging in politics tonurse vested interests, making farmerssuffer in the process. “There is no oneto genuinely cater to sugarcane farm-ers’ welfare, and ever since Sharad Pa-war became the Agriculture Minister,sugarcane farmers have been the worsthit. His entire attitude seems to beimport-oriented.”

Refusing to be quoted, a senior In-dian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA)functionary told Frontline that in thepast few years the government seemedkeen on importing raw and refinedsugar. “The government policy isskewed towards imports. While wehave to face many restrictions, such asgiving 20 per cent of our sugar for levyand not being allowed to store sugarfor more than 15 days, those importinghave no such restrictions,” he said.

The ISMA president, Samir So-maih, wondered at the criteria used toarrive at the FRP. “We have no clueabout what factors were taken into ac-count for arriving at the rate ofRs.129.84 a quintal. Ideally speaking,the government should let the sugarindustry function as per market condi-tions, as is happening in Maharashtra,Gujarat and Karnataka, where the go-vernments have nothing to do withsugarcane pricing. It is a matter be-tween farmers and mill owners, andeventually the farmers, too, end upbetter off than their counterparts inSAP-ruled States such as Uttar Pra-desh. I don’t understand why the Cen-tre should now become a stakeholderbecause more state intervention bringsmore confusion,” he said. He addedthat sugarcane was not something forwhich a uniform price could be fixedfor the entire country as sugar recov-ery, cane production and input costsvaried from State to State.

The Parliamentary Standing Com-mittee on Agriculture has been ap-prised of the matter by farmers’representatives and will take it up fordiscussion in the last week of Novem-ber. Talking to Frontline, the commit-tee chairman Basudeb Acharya,Communist Party of India (Marxist)

member of Parliament from Bankurain West Bengal, said the committeewould try and ensure that the “ill-in-tentioned” ordinance, which was tocome up for ratification by Parliamentduring the winter session, did not be-come an Act. “We have spoken to MPsfrom all parties and there seems to be anear-unanimity on opposing this ordi-nance. It was discussed at the all-partymeeting convened by the Speaker, too,and we hope to successfully stall it,” hesaid.

However, sugarcane farmers havenot yet been called for a meeting by theAgriculture Minister or the PrimeMinister, though it has been someweeks since the agitations started onthe streets. Their plight has been de-scribed to the Prime Minister and alsoto Congress president and UPA chair-person Sonia Gandhi in various mem-orandums, yet no action has beentaken. A member of Parliament whocontested the last Lok Sabha electionon farmers’ issues, Raju Shetty fromKolhapur in Maharashtra, wrote to thePrime Minister highlighting the hard-ships faced by sugarcane farmers. “Idid not even get an acknowledgement,let alone an invitation for discussingthe issue,” he says.

When the powers that be showsuch apathy towards a problem thataffects millions, it is no wonder thatIndia, a sugar-surplus country barelytwo years ago, is now reduced to im-porting raw and refined sugar.

Said Prof. Sudhir Panwar: “We de-mand that the term FRP be droppedbecause this weakens the case of farm-ers when they approach the courtsagainst sugar mills for better pricesbecause while the SMP was only theminimum price, FRP is construed tobe ‘fair and remunerative’.”

Samir Somaiah expressed appre-hension about the impending changes,saying it was doubtful whether thesewould lead to any long-term solution.“The only factors determining the sug-arcane price should be the economicsof sugar, nothing else. Let the price ofsugar decide the price of sugarcane,irrespective of other considerations,”he said. �

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DalitsIT is evident from the recentcases of atrocities againstScheduled Castes andScheduled Tribes that theS.C./S.T. (Prevention ofAtrocities) Act does not ac-tually address their prob-lems (Cover Story,December 4). The Actshould be amended in sucha way that it specifically ad-dresses the various types ofharassments they face.

The Union and manyState governments in col-laboration with big businesshouses are involved in indis-criminate industrialisationof forest areas where S.C./S.T. communities have livedsince time immemorial.Though there are certainshortcomings in the S.C./S.T. Act, it can be effectivelyinvoked against cruelty toDalits, but it needs clausesthat will guarantee betterprotection for victims andwitnesses. The establish-ment of a national authorityto monitor and ensure theproper implementation ofthe Act is necessary. C.

KOSHY JOHN

PUNE

PRIME Minister Manmo-han Singh noted in a jointstatement with PresidentObama that they “sharedvalues cherished by theirpeoples and espoused bytheir founders – democracy,pluralism, tolerance, open-ness, and respect for funda-mental freedoms andhuman rights”. But India’strack record on humanrights is so dismal that theU.N. Human Rights Coun-

for the S.Cs and S.Ts for 10years, and then they were tobe brought into the main-stream. But even after 70years, the status of 99 percent of S.Cs/S.Ts is un-changed. Dalits suffer at thehands of caste Hindus andthose who benefited fromreservation. Nobody daresto speak out this truth.

R.N. AGARWAL

BIKANER, RAJASTHAN

EVEN after 60 years of de-mocracy and legislations forthe emancipation of thedowntrodden, India still hasnot achieved the desiredgoal.

K. NEHRU PATNAIK

VISAKHAPATNAM

M.P. KoiralaTHE review of the book byM.P. Koirala, the first com-moner Prime Minister ofNepal, had a lot of topicalcomments and observations(“Neighbour’s memoir”, De-cember 4). The reviewer de-serves appreciation fortaking Nepal’s case to a wid-er audience in India. How-ever, two points need to becorrected: First, M.B. Shah,not N.B. Shah, was Nepal’sambassador in the 1950s inNew Delhi (his full namewas Mahendra BikramShah). Secondly, the review-er said that some of the doc-uments were in Hindi;theywere actually in Nepali.

D.H. ADHIKARY

KATHMANDU, NEPAL

only a one-point agenda:“harassment of Dalits bycaste Hindus”. They nevertry to understand the nu-cleus of the problem. Con-stitutional provision wasmade to ensure reservation

cil is all set to ratify the factthat casteism is a form ofracism.

RAVIKIRAN SHINDE

PUNE

EVERY non-governmentalor social organisation has

Vande MataramTHE Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-hind and the DarodUloom Deoband have raked up a controversyover the singing of Vande Mataram (“VandeMataram: In rewind mode”, December 4).Jawaharlal Nehru wrote to Mohammad AliJinnah: “The two stanzas that have been rec-ommended by the Congress Working Com-mittee for use as a national song has not asingle word or phrase which could offendanybody from any point of view and I amsurprised that anyone could object to thisfact” (Selected Works of Jawaharlal Nehru,Volume 8, pages 236-37). I have come across a little-known fact in thebook Political Awakening of Hyderabad,Role of Youth and Students (Hyderabad, Vi-salandhra, 1985) written by S.M. Javad Raz-vi, a communist activist of Hyderabad. Agroup of Muslim students of Osmania Uni-versity led by Alam Khundmiri defended theright of Hindu students to sing Vande Mat-aram on campus. Khundmiri and his asso-ciates started a movement against theautocratic rule of the Nizam that came to beknown as the Vande Mataram Movement.A definitive history of the song Vande Mat-aram is available in Sabyasachi Bhatta-charya’s book Vande Mataram: TheBiography of a Song.

A.K. DASGUPTA

HYDERABAD

letters

ANNOUNCEMENTLetters, whether by surface mail ore-mail, must carry the full postaladdress and the full name, or thename with initials.

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“OVER the last few years one has heard thisconstant prattle that socialism is dead and that Com-munist parties have lost their relevance. We havegathered here today to disprove that propagandaand state firmly that the idea of socialism and thepolitical-organisational role of the Communist andworkers’ parties would continue to be relevant aslong as human beings struggle for justice and a betterlife, free from hunger and other material deficien-cies.” These were the words of A.B. Bardhan, generalsecretary of the Communist Party of India (CPI), atthe concluding session of the three-day 11th Interna-

A declaration adopted at the Delhimeeting says that the only way out ofthe current capitalist crisis for theworking class and the commonpeople was to intensify the struggleagainst the rule of capital.

The 11th International Meeting of the Communist and Workers’ Parties reiterates

their commitment to socialism. B Y V E N K I T E S H R A M A K R I S H N A N A N D T . K . R A J A L A K S H M I

Socialist agenda

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tional Meeting of the Communist andWorkers’ Parties held in New Delhibetween November 20 and 22. Thefinal session, which was open to thepublic, attracted a significant gather-ing of Left supporters, and the crowdgreeted the veteran Indian Commu-nist leader’s pronouncement enthu-siastically. Bardhan said that thediscussions over the past three daysamong the 89 representatives of 57Communist and workers’ parties from48 countries was aimed not at etchingout visions of immediate victories butat essentially reiterating a commit-ment to socialist values and workers’and peoples’ struggles.

Reiteration of this commitmentwas the essence of the speeches madeby Communist leaders from Cuba, theUnited States, Palestine and Israel atthe last session. Oscar Israel MartinezCordoves of the Communist Party ofCuba spoke and concluded his speechby saying that the Cuban people werefriends of the people of the U.S. andwere enemies only of U.S. imperialism,which has been trying to overthrow thesocialist government of Cuba eversince its inception. Scott Marshall, ofthe Communist Party of USA (CPU-SA), who spoke immediately after Cor-doves, started his speech by repeatingthe words used by the Cuban leader.

He said: “Speaking for the Com-munist Party of USA, I also say that weare very good friends of the people ofUSA but enemies of U.S. imperialismand its expansionist designs.” FatenKamal Ghattas of the Communist Par-ty of Israel and Fawaz of the PalestineCommunist Party jointly announcedthe resolve of the two parties to strivefor the legitimate rights of the Pal-estinian people. The significance of theCuban and U.S. leaders on one sideand the Palestinian and Israeli leaderson the other expressing a similar polit-ical commitment was not lost onanyone.

Along with these expressions of so-cialist solidarity, the meeting alsoadopted the Delhi Declaration, whichdelineated the participants’ commonunderstanding of the current globalsituation. A six-point concrete actionplan that would be coordinated glob-ally was also adopted after the three-day deliberations. The declaration andthe action plan were presented by Sit-aram Yechury, Polit Bureau memberof the Communist Party of India (Mar-xist), which was one of the co-hosts ofthe meeting along with the CPI.

The concrete action plan includeddecisions to struggle against the NorthAtlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO)and its global expansion, the renewedmilitary aggressiveness of imperialistsand its foreign military bases. It alsogave a call to observe November 29 as aday of solidarity with the Palestinianstruggle, to celebrate the 65th anni-

versary of the defeat of fascism in 2010and to intensify international solidar-ity for the release of the Cuban Fivejailed in the U.S. The plan also con-tained decisions to strengthen popularmobilisations in defence of workers’rights in coordination with tradeunions, strengthen popular move-ments and demand the right to work incoordination with youthorganisations.

T H E C O N T E X TSpeaking on the occasion, PrakashKarat, general secretary of the CPI(M),pointed out that the Delhi conferencemarked the continuation of a fraterni-ty and an organisational cooperationmechanism that Communist andworkers’ parties had built up over thepast decade and a half. The context forbuilding up this mechanism was thetumultuous developments in the lastyears of the 20th century, which in-cluded the dismantling of socialism inthe Soviet Union, the disintegration ofthat country, the collapse of the Com-munist-led regimes in eastern Europeand the process of restoration of cap-italism in these countries.

In this situation, a backgrounderreleased by the organisers of the meet-ing pointed out many Communist par-ties had wilted under the pressure ofthe ideological offensive and “aban-doned the revolutionary essence ofMarxism-Leninism and embraced so-cial democracy”. However, there weresome Communist and workers’ partiesthat believed these shortcomings andfailures were not due to the inadequa-cies of Marxism-Leninism or the lackof scientific method in its content butto the inadequacies and lack of scien-tific rigour on the part of those whowere apparently practising the philos-ophy. It was with this premise thatefforts were made to regroup the in-ternational communist movement andbring together those Communist andworkers’ parties that believed in thebasic tenets of Marxism-Leninism.

The CPI(M) initiated one such at-tempt in 1993 by organising an in-ternational seminar on the“Contemporary World Situation and

SITARAM YECHURY, CPI(M) PolitBureau member, A.B. Bardhan, CPIgeneral secretary, and PrakashKarat, CPI(M) general secretary, withforeign delegates at the publicsession of the meeting.

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FOR Oscar Israel Martinez Cordoves,deputy head of the Department of In-ternational Relations, central com-mittee of the Communist Party ofCuba, the trip to India to attend the11th International Meeting of theCommunist and Workers’ Partiesturned out to be important in moreways than one. This was his first visitto India, and Cordoves also addressedthe concluding session of the meetingon November 22 and received astanding ovation as a representativeof one of the countries that had sus-tained for almost five decades the on-slaught of economic blockadesimposed by the United States.

One of the demands in the presscommunique issued at the meetingwas to intensify solidarity with thestruggle for the release of the CubanFive, who have been in a U.S. prisonsince 1998. Their crime was that theyhad been sent by Cuba to monitor theactivities of violent exile groups in

Miami, Florida. Excerpts from an in-terview Cordoves gave Frontline.

What is the significance of the 11thinternational meeting in general aswell as in the context of Cuba?

This meeting is significant in thatit is one way by which Communistparties and workers’ parties the worldover get to meet, exchange opinionsand have a vision of communism aswell as debate on how the world seescommunism. We are meeting for thefirst time in Asia, and Asia is the fu-ture economy of the world.

In Asia, we’ve had the experienceof some countries that had and stillhave communist traditions like Chi-na, Vietnam, Laos and Indonesia. TheCommunist parties have been strongand at different times influencedworld opinion. This kind of a meetingis also important as it is important tohave a unity of ideas, after which wecan mobilise people. But it is very

important to have unity of ideas; thenwe can take measures.

Normally, when there is an eco-nomic crisis, the effect is more on thepoor and working class. The possibil-ity of working amongst these groupsis very strong for Communist and Leftparties. I can only imagine the num-ber of arguments that communistscan give people in this moment ofcrisis. It [the international capitalistcrisis] is a good moment for the com-munists and the Left parties.

What are the specific challenges thatCuba faces at this juncture given itslong history of resisting U.S.imperialism?

We have a big challenge in how toensure the survival of socialism inthese new conditions. For Cuba, so-cialism means independence and sov-ereignty. Independence andsovereignty can only be guaranteedunder socialism. The question is, how

‘Socialism is our only option’Interview with Oscar Israel Martinez Cordoves, deputy head, Department of International

Relations, central committee of the Communist Party of Cuba. B Y T . K . R A J A L A K S H M I

the Validity of Marxism”. Its successimparted a new confidence to the par-ticipants, and five years later, in 1998,the Communist Party of Greece (KKE)took up the task of organising interna-tional meetings to exchange opinionson important contemporary develop-ments. The KKE went on to organiseseven more meetings in the followingyears, and with each meeting, therewas a steady increase in the number ofparticipants. Consequently, this led tothe formation of a working group ofinternational Communist and work-ers’ parties, which decided on thetheme of each meeting, its venue andthe parties that would be attending.Seven meetings were held in Greece.

In following years, meetings wereheld in Lisbon, Minsk, Moscow and

Sao Paulo. The next meeting is sched-uled to be held in South Africa.

The theme of the Delhi conferencewas “The international capitalist crisis,the workers’ and peoples’ struggle, thealternatives and the role of the com-munist and working class movement”.The delegates deliberated on the dif-ferent dimensions of the subject overthree days, both in continent-specificgroups and collectively, leading to theformulation of the Delhi Declaration.The sharing of experiences and per-spectives unravelled the varied andnuanced approaches adopted by theparties in their respective countrieseven as all of them sought to pursue theideals of class struggle and socialism.

An important point of discussionwas the regime change in the U.S. with

the election of President Barack Oba-ma. All the speakers from Latin Amer-ican countries underlined that for theprogressive forces and processes intheir region, Obama’s coming to powerdid not indicate any favourablechange. They pointed out that it onlyrepresented a new and more intelli-gent tactic of Empire to stall the marchof progressive forces in the region.They underlined the various steps tak-en by the U.S. under Obama to streng-then forces of reaction in the region.The coup d’etat in Honduras was re-peatedly mentioned in this context.Oscar Cordoves specifically debunkedthe media-created impression that theObama administration had begun dis-mantling the half-century-old crimi-nal blockade against Cuba. He

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can we develop our mode of socialismwith the new generation of Cubans?There is one section that made the[Cuban] Revolution, [then there is]the section that was born after that.

The challenge is to ensure that theyoung generation maintains our his-tory and carries forward the revolu-tionary spirit of socialism. How canwe survive when America decides tocontinue with the blockades? Seventyper cent of Cubans were born in aperiod of blockade. Then there is theconstant contact with America. Thereare those who are friendly to Cuba,but they want to ideologically infil-trate the system. That is somethingwe cannot accept.

Do you think that with the change ofguard in the U.S. government, therehas been a perceptible shift in U.S.-Cuba relations?

The new government headed byBarack Obama is better than the oneled by George Bush. Obama is an in-telligent man, a big difference fromBush. He was preparing for the job,that of changing the perception of theworld about the U.S. But Obama, too,is a man of the system. He is a manwith different human feelings. He

wants to kill us in a better way. Onecan talk to him; [he is] not so aggres-sive. His rhetoric is different but hedoesn’t want to do anything. That isthe way we see the American admin-istration.

We told him we would like to ne-gotiate on equal terms. We are opti-mistic. He has been in office for more

than 100 days but is not putting anynew effort on the Cuban question orany other question. Even on Pales-tine, he has done a U-turn. Initially,he said that Israelis should stop set-tlements on Palestine territory butnow he says that it should not be aprecondition for talks.

What about Latin America? The DelhiDeclaration describes it as thecurrent theatre of popularmobilisation and working-classactions. Do you think the winds ofchange blowing there are in favourof socialism?

Socialism in Latin America is along-term objective. None of the pro-gressive Left-led governments are ac-tually changing the system, includingVenezuela. The character of the armyremains unchanged. America will seeto it that no country in Latin Americatakes to socialism. But socialism can-not just be made just by declaring it.One has to work towards it. We are apoor country; socialism is our onlyoption. Political conscience cannot bedeveloped by giving everybody a caror a television. It has to be done inanother way, by giving free healthcare and education to all.

OSCAR CORDOVES: “FOR Cuba,socialism means independence andsovereignty.”

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underlined that Obama had the powerbut not the political will to change theU.S.’ imperial methods. The Commu-nist Party of Bangladesh (CPB) sup-plemented the argument by pointingout how U.S. imperialism had encour-aged and supported fundamentalistand reactionary forces in its country,including the two-year-long military-supported dictatorial rule.

Scott Marshall pointed out thatObama’s victory in the election was anoutcome of the struggle to defeat thereactionary right regime of Bush. Hesaid that there were mixed feelingsabout Obama’s role. “Let me be clear,he is not a communist, he is not asocialist and on some issues, he is quitea moderate liberal.” Marshall pointedout that the percentage of long-term

unemployed workers in the U.S. hadreached levels not seen since the GreatDepression of the 1930s.

“In the beginning of the crisis, wewere losing 700,000 jobs or more amonth. Today, when some main-stream economists are declaring therecession over, when obscene bankingprofits are on the rise again, when thestock market is rising again, when fi-nance capital is returning to its un-regulated, predatory ways with avengeance, we are still losing around200,000 jobs a month. Among youngpeople in the U.S., the figures of theunemployed are staggering. In the agegroup of 16 to 24, only about 45 percent have jobs. And that number ismuch worse for African-American, La-tino and other racially oppressed

youth.” Marshall underlined the factthat in the current context it was sig-nificant that the largest trade unionorganisation in the U.S., the AmericanFederation of Labour and Congress ofIndustrial Organisations (AFL-CIO),had been impelled to rediscover itsworking-class roots, as witnessed in its2009 convention.

Baudouin Deckers of the WorkersParty of Belgium said: “Some parties inEurope, claiming to be communist orhaving recently abandoned commu-nism, persist in defending a Left re-formist position, an updated version ofsocial democracy. The European Leftis not worried about seeking paths to-wards socialism because this is not itsgoal. Obtaining partial improvementswithin the current system is already

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sufficiently ambitious. We will nevercollaborate with these attempts tobind workers to capitalism and impe-rialism. We are currently engaged in amajor campaign for a tax on million-aires, a tax that would hit the 72,000euro-millionaire families in Belgium.Compared to the population, it is thelargest number in the EuropeanUnion.”

C H I N A I N ‘ P R I M A R Y S T A G E O F S O C I A L I S M ’The point of view expressed by Ai Pingof the Communist Party of China(CPC) also evoked considerable inter-est. He stated categorically that Chinahad not deviated from the socialistpath. He said: “Some parties, due tolack of knowledge about the nationalconditions of China, think that Chinahas given up Marxism and has deviat-ed from the socialist path, and someeven call China’s system authoritariancapitalism. China is, and will be for along time to come, at the primary stageof socialism. There are no references inthe classics on how to carry forwardMarxism and develop socialism withour special national conditions. TheCPC has always upheld Marxism asour fundamental guiding ideology. Inorder to deal with the crisis and main-tain steady and rapid economicgrowth, the CPC and the Chinese go-vernment timely adjusted the macro-economic policies by adopting aproactive fiscal policy and moderatelyrelaxed monetary policy. The globalfinancial crisis has not bottomed yetand there are many potential risks inthe world economy. Such crises cannotbe eradicated and will recur period-ically as long as the private ownershipof capitalism and the inherent contra-diction remain unchanged.”

C R I S I S O F C A P I T A L I S MThe Delhi Declaration, which drewfrom the points raised during the de-liberations and formulated the com-mon perspective of the conference,pointed out that the current capitalistcrisis had left no field untouched andhad led to the closing of hundreds ofthousands of factories; caused tremen-

dous stress on agrarian and rural econ-omies, intensifying the misery andpoverty of millions of cultivators andfarm workers globally; and left mil-lions of people jobless and homeless.The declaration pointed out that un-employment was growing to unprece-dented levels and was officiallyexpected to breach the 50-millionmark. Inequalities were increasingacross the globe, the rich were gettingricher and the poor poorer.

The declaration stressed that theresponse of respective capitalist go-vernments to overcome this crisis hadfailed to address the basic causes of thecrisis. It also pointed out that all theneoliberal votaries and social demo-cratic managers of capitalism, whohad decried the state, were now utilis-ing the state to rescue them, thus un-derlining a basic fact that the capitaliststate had always defended and en-larged avenues for super profits.

While the costs of the rescue pack-ages and bailouts are at public ex-pense, the benefits accrue to a few. Thebailout packages announced areaimed first at rescuing and then en-larging profit-making avenues. Banksand financial corporates are now backin business and making profits. Grow-ing unemployment and the depressionof real wages are the burdens of theworking people even as the corpora-tions are given gifts in the form of bai-lout packages.

Secondly, capitalism, which in thefirst place is responsible for the de-struction of the environment, is tryingto transfer the entire burden of safe-guarding the planet from climatechange onto the shoulders of the work-ing class and working people. Capital-ism’s proposal for restructuring in thename of climate change has little rela-tion to the goal of protecting the envi-ronment. Corporate-inspired “Greendevelopment” and “green economy”are sought to be used to impose newstate monopoly regulations, whichsupport profit maximisation and im-pose new hardships on people. Profitmaximisation under capitalism is thusnot compatible with environmentalprotection and peoples’ rights. The

declaration noted that the only way outof this capitalist crisis for the workingclass and the common people was tointensify struggles against the rule ofcapital. “All sorts of theories like ‘thereis no alternative’ to imperialist glob-alisation are propagated. Counteringthem, our response is ‘socialism is thealternative’.”

The declaration further pointedout that it was the experience of theworking class that when it mobilisedits strength it could be successful inprotecting its rights. Latin America,the current theatre of popular mobil-isation and working-class actions, hasshown how rights can be protected andwon through struggle. The declarationalso pointed out that though the cap-italist system was inherently crisis rid-den, it did not collapse automatically.It also stressed that social democracycontinued to spread illusions about thereal character of capitalism, advancingslogans such as “humanisation of cap-italism”, “regulation” and “global go-vernance”.

“These in fact support the strategyof capital by denying class struggle andbuttressing the pursuit of anti-popularpolicies. No amount of reform caneliminate exploitation under capital-ism. Capitalism has to be overthrown.This requires the intensification of ide-ological and political working-class-led popular struggles.”

A number of delegates to the con-ference were of the view that the Delhimeeting and the declaration wouldgive a fillip to Communist parties andtheir movements in different countriesand strengthen the struggle againstcapitalist and imperialist forces. Ac-cording to Jose Reinaldo Carvalho ofthe Brazilian Communist Party, themessage of the Delhi Declaration was areaffirmation of what many countriesin Latin America had been stating po-litically over the past decade. And thatmessage, in Carvalho’s words: “Thestruggle for socialism, under the termsof our time, taking into account thelessons learnt from the previous his-torical period, is coming back to theagenda not as a vague ideal but as aconcrete possibility.” �

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MUMBAI is scarred, there is no doubt aboutthat. The city has taken quite a battering in the pasttwo decades – communal violence, two serial bombblasts, floods and the 26/11 terror attacks. Yet, afterevery incident Mumbai manages to pick up the piec-es and get on with life in its resilient fashion.

It has been a year since a band of 10 terroristsunleashed a gruesome assault on India’s financialcapital. The terrorists stormed two luxury hotels, theChhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST), the Jewishcommunity centre Chabad in Nariman House, Camaand Albless Hospital, and Leopold Cafe in southMumbai, and went on a killing spree in which 173people died and about 300 were injured. Eleven

A year later

Few in the city have been unaffectedby the attack. Many who died at theCST were migrants and came frompoor families. Several families losttheir only breadwinners. ButMumbai has managed to pick up thepieces and get on with life.

Obviously Mumbai has learnt a hard lesson on security, but has the city taken

adequate measures to counter terrorism? B Y A N U P A M A K A T A K A M & L Y L A B A V A D A M

A CANDLE-LIGHT VIGIL to remember the victims of 26/11 at India Gate in New Delhi on November 26.

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Terror in Mumbai

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police officers, including Anti Terro-rism Squad chief Hemant Karkare,Additional Commissioner of PoliceAshok Kamthe and senior Police In-spector Vijay Salaskar, were killedwhile combating them.

The stand-off between the securityforces and the terrorists lasted threedays, causing extensive damage in thetargeted buildings. One terrorist, Aj-mal Amir Kasab, was captured aliveand his testimony has helped unravel apart of what seems to be a major con-spiracy.

Since it is the first anniversary ofthe attack, it is perhaps relevant now toraise a few questions.

Obviously Mumbai has learnt ahard lesson on security. But have thecity’s police force and lawmakers takenadequate measures to counter terro-rism? Has the investigation yieldedany significant results? The trial of Ka-sab is coming to an end. Did he giveenough information? And how havethe families of the victims coped in thepast year?

S E C U R I T Y M E A S U R E SThe attack proved that Mumbai wasjust not equipped to handle such a cri-sis. The police had neither the weap-ons nor the training to take on theterrorists. “Once in a year we handle anautomatic gun,” said a police constablewho was positioned at The Oberoi ho-tel until the National Security Guards(NSG) arrived. “We had nothing com-pared to those men. They could wieldtwo guns at once.”

So, what exactly is Mumbai nowequipped with? During the course ofthe year, the police have receivedequipment worth Rs.38 crore. This in-cludes two rapid intervention vehicles,five troop carriers, four Sealegs am-phibious vehicles and 12 all-terrainamphibious vehicles. In addition, 314bullet-proof helmets and 97 hi-techwalkie talkies were purchased. Thecity’s armoury contains many moremodern tactical weapons bought fromthe United States and Switzerland.And the Coastal Police have received12 digital video cameras and day visionbinoculars. Two days before the anni-

versary of 26/11, Force One, a specialpolice unit, was launched to counterurban terrorism. This unit will be sta-tioned in Mumbai.

Then there are those who are scep-tical about the security arrangements.According to one police source, thereare few well-trained people who cantrain our forces. “What is the point ofhaving hi-tech gadgetry if people donot know how to use it?”

An immediate reaction to the at-tack was security checks and metal de-tectors at public places. These havenow blended into everyday life inMumbai. The fear psychosis thatspread soon after the attacks has sub-sided.

I N V E S T I G A T I O NInvestigations into the attacks are stillon. The Federal Bureau of Investiga-tion (FBI) of the U.S. has been assist-ing Indian investigators, andostensibly Pakistan is helping too.There is international pressure on Pa-kistan to cooperate with India. It isbecoming apparent that unless Pakis-tan does so, there will be gaping holesin the investigation.

While it has been proved that theLashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), a militant je-

hadi outfit based in Pakistan, is singu-larly responsible for the attack, muchmore needs to be established. Wasthere a local hand? Who exactlyplanned the attack? Were recces of thetargets done?

What has been gleaned from in-vestigations, however, is that 10 “fi-dayeen” suicide attackers came to thecity via the sea route. They had hi-jacked a fishing boat the night before,slit the throat of its occupant, andsailed to a certain distance off theMumbai coast, after which they gotonto a rubber dinghy which theyrowed into one of south Mumbai’sfishing colonies. They landed at about9 p.m. on November 25, split into“buddy pairs” and proceeded to carryout violent attacks on four major tar-gets and one smaller one (LeopoldCafe). There is evidence that they usedGPRS tools to find their way aroundthe city.

Of the 10, Kasab was capturedalive. Coincidently, it was his face thata news photographer captured at theCST. Kasab’s interrogation has re-vealed that the highly trained fidayeen,the cream of the crop as it were, werereally foot soldiers working for theLeT. Their phone calls (leaked to the

AT THE CHHATRAPATI Shivaji Terminus onNovember 24. The station, where 55 peoplewere killed in the terror attack, now has a reasonable amount of security.

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media) with their handlers, whichwere made via the Voice over InternetProtocol (VoIP) method, prove that.Every move was orchestrated by thehandlers.

A banker, who fortunately escapeda round of fire that killed 10 people,said he had heard one of them on thephone ask “uda dho?” or “shall we killthem?” On receiving an affirmative,they pumped bullets into a line of menand women taken hostage at The Obe-roi.

The Indian police are dependingon the FBI to trace the calls made tomobile phones carried by the attack-ers. The U.S. agency apparently hasenough leverage with the United ArabEmirates (UAE) to get these details.Investigators say the operation wasdefinitely planned overseas. It in-volved collecting detailed intelligence,reconnoitring the places to be attackedand meticulous planning of the finalattack.

An important development thisOctober was the arrest in the U.S. ofDavid Headley, an American of Pakis-tani origin, for his alleged involvementin plotting attacks against India andDenmark. Indian investigators havereason to believe that Headley and an

associate, Tahawwur Rana, also fromPakistan, may have been in Mumbai tomap targets. There is currently enoughevidence to prove that Headley joinedthe LeT in 2006 and was trained bythem, said a Mumbai police officer.

There is not enough proof, howev-er, that he was instrumental in 26/11.Headley’s passport says that he visitedIndia nine times from 2006 to 2009,although he is said to have left thecountry much before 26/11. Rana leftIndia on November 21, 2008, five daysbefore the attack. A police source saysthis could entirely be a coincidence asmany of the leads with regard to Hea-dley and Rana are at present leadingnowhere.

“The only thing it confirms is thatthe plot goes much deeper than wasinitially thought,” he says.

Headley, also known as Daood Gi-lani, while in Mumbai set up a visaagency that helped people emigrate orlook for employment abroad. It mayhave been a front for his covert activ-ities. He lived in an upmarket neigh-bourhood, ate at popular cafes andappeared to know the city well.Whether he was responsible for con-ducting recces or recruitment willcome out in time.

C H A R G E S H E E T A N D T R I A LOn February 25, 2009, the Mumbaipolice filed an 11,280-page chargesheet against the perpetrators of theattack. The charge sheet categoricallystates that the men came from Ka-rachi. It is the LeT that planned andexecuted the attack. By doing this theyalso debunk theories that HemantKarkare was killed by some “other”groups because he was exposing in-formation that would hurt certain po-werful organisations. Additionally, itsays the attack on Mumbai was part ofa larger design to wage war on India.They have the names of 35 people fromPakistan who belong to the LeT andwho aided and abetted in executingthese attacks.

Investigations reveal that “thetraining modules, on a graduatingscale, were held in Pakistan and Pakis-tan-occupied Kashmir. The 10 terro-

rists underwent a gruelling trainingschedule that included training forphysical fitness, swimming, weaponhandling, tradecraft, battle inocula-tion, guerilla warfare, firing sophisti-cated assault weapons, use of handgrenades and rocket launchers, han-dling GPS and satellite phones, mapreading, etc.” The charge sheet says themen were so highly indoctrinated thatthey had no hesitation to become fi-dayeen, a terrorist who fights untildeath. Meanwhile, Kasab has beenkept in a cell at the Arthur Road jail,which now resembles a fortress. Histrial, which began in April 2009, isnearing completion. “The death penal-ty is inevitable. Kasab has been givenour constitutional rights and is there-fore entitled to a fair trial, but under nocircumstances can anyone judge himnot guilty,” says a lawyer following thecase.

So far 265 witnesses have deposedbefore the court. They include mem-bers of the NSG, who had an in-camerahearing. One of the most poignantdepositions was by Arun Jadhav, awireless operator. Kasab and his part-ner Ismail Khan had shot Jadhav, whowas in the jeep that Karkare, Kamtheand Salaskar arrived in. Assuming hewas dead, the terrorists left him in theboot of the car.

Jadhav witnessed the entire kill-ing. When defence lawyer Abbas Kas-mi asked him why he did not fire backat the duo, Jadhav broke down in courtsaying that he wanted to but that hewas so critically injured that he couldnot even cry out in pain. In fact, whenthe police found the abandoned jeepthey almost shot him thinking he was aterrorist.

In his confessions, Kasab says hecomes from an extremely poor familyin Faridkot in Pakistan. The son of aroadside food vendor, he was lured bythe LeT with promises of money thatwould help his family. “They [LeTcommanders] trained us for threemonths. During this time they wouldrepeatedly tell us that we were servingGod and that we would be rewardedwell once our mission was over,” hesaid. “One day they told me I was ready

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and gave me instructions on what Ihad to do in Mumbai.”

T E R R O R T A R G E T SA few hours after the attack on theCST, the bustling railway station be-gan operating as usual. As many as 55people were killed here – the largestnumber at a single target. The stationnow has metal detectors installed anda reasonable amount of vigilance, butwith lakhs of commuters passingthrough every day, there is only somuch that can be done, said the policeofficer.

The Taj and The Oberoi openedtwo wings, which were not badly dam-aged, within 25 days of the attack.They have announced that the sectionsthat bore the brunt of the onslaughtwill be opened in 2010. In the immedi-ate aftermath of the Nariman Housetragedy, there was an overwhelmingresponse from members of the ChabadLubavitch movement to continue thework of the murdered couple, RabbiGavriel Holtzberg and his wife, Rivka.According to Chabad centre sources,more than 4,000 couples volunteered

to come to Mumbai. But the centre wascautious and chose to respond by func-tioning from an undisclosed locationled by Rabbi DovBer and ChernaGoldberg, directors of the ChabadHouse in Goa.

While the rubble has been clearedand some amount of cleaning up hasbeen done, most of the house has beenkept as it was for the Jewish period ofmourning, which is one year. The wallsare pockmarked with bullets and thereare gaping holes where sections of awall were blasted open by the explo-sions, which were heard all over Cola-ba on that night 12 months ago.

For residents around NarimanHouse the memories are still vivid.One woman said that it was an emo-tional moment for her when the gate tothe building was restored because itwas as if the place was coming to lifeagain. However, some, like Damyanti-behn, the mother of Harish Gohil whodied from a stray bullet, would like it tobe pulled down.

Leopold Cafe, a landmark, openedwithin three days. It has left the shat-tered glass and bullet holes in the walls

remain as a reminder of the incident. Frontline tried to track down fam-

ilies that lost members during the at-tack. Many who died at the CST weremigrants and had come from poorfamilies. Several lost their only bread-winners. The families lived in far-flungsuburbs; the government aid has ei-ther run out or is used for children’seducation. Life goes on in the form ofsome miserable hand-to-mouth exis-tence, say the few families interviewed.

L I F E G O E S O NOne year after losing her husband atthe CST, Rajkumari Gupta says thatshe has survived only because shetakes one day at a time. “People tell meI should be happy with the money fromthe government but only I know thepain of losing my husband. The moneyis a godsend and it is the only way thatmy four children can continue withtheir education.”

Her husband, Rajkumar Gupta,sold bhel on Platform 7 at the CST. Hefell to bullets fired by Kasab and hispartner. Rajkumari takes on jobs froma small manufacturer of plastic hairclips and this brings in “a few hundredrupees”. She says that it gives her theoption of staying with her children.

A daughter who lost her father atThe Oberoi says that the family hastried to lead a normal life, celebratingbirthdays and taking a summer vaca-tion, because that is what he wouldhave wanted.

Few in the city have been unaffect-ed by the attack and the tragedy thatunfolded subsequently. Whoever onespeaks to has some connection to theattack. A friend or family member mayhave been at one of the targets, couldbe living in the vicinity, or could be aregular at the CST.

There has been some talk that be-cause the affluent were affected, thereaction to the incident was greater.That does not hold much water be-cause from all appearances it was anattack on Mumbai as a city. A pointwas made by targeting the affluent, butit was an assault to cripple the mega-polis, which in many ways is a sittingduck. �

A DISPLAY OF skills by Force One, a commando unit of the MaharashtraState Police that was created in the aftermath of 26/11, in Mumbai onNovember 24.

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AS I write this on the eve ofthe 26/11 anniversary, sev-eral thoughts flood mymind. First is the plight ofthe families of all victims,

including the policemen who werekilled that day. My heart goes out par-ticularly to those from the lower eco-nomic stratum who lost theirbreadwinners in the attack. Possiblythe families of those who were workingin the organised sector were compen-sated by their employers. But whatabout the families of victims who wereself-employed?

This is where the government hasto step in and not quote rules which donot permit a generous compensationby way of money and employment tothe spouses and children of the vic-tims. It will no doubt be a great strainon the exchequer. But then it is a moralresponsibility of the government, be-cause every act of terrorism that leadsto loss of lives of citizens is a failure ofgovernance.

A number of concerned citizenswith an intelligence or law enforce-ment background strongly believe that26/11 deserved a blue ribbon commis-sion as in the case of 9/11. The latterwas probed by a bipartisan group ofeminent Congressmen, and its reportwas comprehensive and pulled nopunches. It carried many recommen-dations that were eminently practicalfor swift implementation. It is a pitythat the Indian government did notchoose to do this. More disappointingwas the Maharashtra government’sdecision to keep some parts of the RamPradhan Committee findings secret,on the grounds, real or specious, thatreleasing them to the public wouldprejudice the Kasab trial.

both the State and Centralgovernments.

The importance of a clinical scruti-ny of 26/11 is highlighted by the cur-rent investigation into the DavidHeadley-Tahawwur Rana episode.Since 2006, they successfully man-aged to enter India on several occa-sions – nine times in the case ofHeadley – ostensibly to set up an im-migration service agency. Theyroamed about freely and establishedmany contacts. Until now we knowonly a few of their contacts. Many oth-ers were possibly roped into a grandterrorist design.

There is a suspicion that the in-genious duo had left behind a fewsleeper cells. Rana was in Mumbai atleast until November 21, 2008, fivedays before the attack. Thereafter, hetravelled to Pakistan where Headleywas already in position. It is possiblethat they had a substantial role in exe-cuting 26/11, given Headley’s spite forIndia. In one of his intercepted e-mailshe had poured venom against Indiaand expressed his resolve to retaliateagainst its “anti-Islamic posture”. It islikely that Rana was a more commer-cial person in the immigration busi-ness. All this is still a matter ofconjecture.

The point, however, is that the epi-sode has revealed chinks in the proce-dure adopted for issuing Indian visas.The media are baying for the blood ofthe Indian Consul-General in Chicagowho issued them. He maintains thatthe prescribed procedure was fol-lowed. The drill is that if the applicantwas born in Pakistan, vetting by theMinistry of Home Affairs is mandatorybefore granting a visa. It is possiblethat Headley and Rana, having ac-

The families of 9/11 victimsshowed extraordinary solidarity. Asimilar forging of relationships by as-sociates of the 26/11 victims shouldhelp persuade the government to re-lease the whole of the Pradhan Com-mittee report and take other remedialaction. In any case, it is not too late tocreate a group of national experts onterrorism to study 26/11 in depth andfind out what went wrong exactly. Thepurpose should be to learn from themistakes that happened on the occa-sion, and not to punish those whofailed in their duties on that day.

Expert opinion is that there weremany mistakes, including the failureto deny access to live television cov-erage to terrorists holed up in the twohotels that were attacked and to facil-itate access to the fire service vehiclesto douse the flames engulfing the TajHotel. If an exhaustive inquiry is notordered, all of us will be forced to be-lieve that there has been a cover-up by

Chinks in the systemGiven the spread of the terror network, there is no alternative to a strong

intelligence edifice at the police station level.

Law and OrderR.K. RAGHAVAN

Column

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quired U.S. and Canadian citizenshipsrespectively, hid their Pakistani con-nections successfully and suppressedthe fact that they were born in Pakis-tan. Assuming that they had declaredtheir true place of birth, would a refer-ence to the Home Ministry havehelped, if neither figured in the data-bases on the basis of which visa appli-cations are cleared? This is a mootquestion, opening up deficiencies inthe system. Genuine applicants maysuffer if the government were to adoptmore exacting scrutiny of all thosewith a Pakistani connection.

Rana and Headley came to noticeonly after the FBI tipped off India.This should embarrass the intelligenceestablishment and the police depart-ment at all places that the two visited.It also highlights the enormity of thetask of monitoring the activities of allforeigners entering India. This iswhere the importance of grassroots in-

telligence lies. The Intelligence Bureauhas much fewer resources than theState police and its intelligence wing.The latter two are more trained to keepan eye on a Chief Minister’s adversar-ies, within and outside the party, thanon terror suspects.

Ultimately all gaps in the systemcan be traced back to the shamelesspoliticisation of police forces. FormerUnion Home Secretary Madhav God-bole, an eminent civil servant with areputation for integrity, said the samething on national television in theAyodhya context. It is grievous to ig-nore such sane voices. There is no al-ternative to a strong intelligenceedifice at the police station level. Noth-ing else will work in these times whencommunication among terrorists cutsacross nations, nay continents. Manyreports indicate that the FBI collectedvaluable data on Rana and Headleythrough monitoring telephones and e-

mail traffic. These two channels havebecome a goldmine of information.However, terrorists are now fullyaware of the growing sophistication ofintelligence agencies in keeping trackof what is going on in cyber space. Theyare, therefore, likely to adapt their op-erations in such a way that no criticalcommunication is available to law en-forcement monitors before an attack.

The latest arrest of a father-sonduo in Brescia in Italy reveals the ex-traordinary spread of networks thatassist terrorism. The two, running amoney transferring agency, are knownto have transferred $229 to activateVoice over Internet Protocol connec-tions for use by suspects on the eve of26/11. This is a real-time example ofhow this channel, most difficult to ea-vesdrop on, is helping terrorism.

I do not think Indian intelligenceagencies lag behind their counterpartselsewhere in the world. We have out-standing professionals in the policewith state-of-the-art equipment back-ing them. What is relevant is that alltraining at police and intelligencetraining establishments must quicklychange the focus from routine policingto one that is technology driven. Prin-cipal technology majors in the countrywill have to chip in to make good anyshortfall in government resources. TheHome Minister is technology-savvyenough to bring about the requiredtransformation.

Finally, one dumb question that isasked of many of us: Are we safer thanbefore in the context of governmentclaims that much has been done tobolster the police and intelligencewings of law enforcement? I would liketo say “Yes”. That will, however, be toolofty an assertion. The best of securitysystems are porous and there will begaps however much we try. Take forinstance, the recent Fort Hood (Texas)carnage in which an Army Majoropened fire at colleagues and killed 13people. It is learnt that he was notmerely unstable but also a religiousfanatic. Such aberrations abet thecause of the terrorist. It is therefore notenough to be prepared. We also have tobe lucky all the time! �

PLATOONS OF THE Mumbai police march near the seafront on theanniversary of the 26/11 terror attack.

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Published on alternate Saturdays.WPP No.CPMG/AP/SD-15/WPP/2008-2010 & MH/MR/South-180/2009-11.Postal Regn. No.TN/ARD/22/09-11. RNI No.42591/84