Saturday, May 16, 2009
His crass politics of calling Manmohan Singh weak has worked against him.
I'm glad that he will have to retire on a losing note. He absolutely deserves it!!
Friday, May 15, 2009
Bye! Bye! Advani
A negative vote to negative politics. A negative vote to divisive politics.
Friday, May 1, 2009
Viewpoint: How to stop terrorism -Appeal to Advani
http://www.gnani.net/
Every channel worth its TRP has started a movement against terror in India.
They declare during every alternate commercial break that, we the people won’t tolerate terror anymore; we will stop it. We won’t allow it to happen anymore. We will take to task any and every politician who is soft on terror.
Nice and well meaning words, no doubt. But can we stop terrorism by candle light rallies? No. we will only add to traffic chaos for the common man. If the politicians or trade unions affect traffic with their rallies, we will move the Supreme Court against them. If our candle rallies are denied permission, well we will still move the Supreme Court to allow them.
Will the channels organize parallel intelligence gathering agencies, will they start funding of commandos in every star hotel, will they run joint coordination committees for the three services... well, in short, will they take over the governance of the country from politicians to stop terrorism? Impossible. If they can first succeed in making the voters of south Mumbai (where Taj and Trident are located) cast their votes without fail in the next elections, it would be a formidable achievement by itself. The number of voters, who did not vote at all, was double the votes of the winning candidate there during last lok sabha elections.
Let us leave the syrupy sentiments and patriotic jingoisms out and get down to the real business of stopping terrorism. That is the task of the government and those who run it. All that the channels, media, print and otherwise, you and I can do is to only function as pressure groups to make the government and those who run it to do their jobs properly.
And to be a pressure group or a lobbyist is not all that easy either. It demands responsibility from us first to understand the system, secondly to assess how it works and thirdly to demand accountability from those running it and fourthly to know that questions to ask and fifthly to mobilize public opinion in favour of issues and not sentiments or rhetoric.
Do we first really understand what terrorism is all about.
Let me repeat- terrorism is not a mindless act of violence by non- thinking individuals or groups. It is also politics - politics by other means.
It is the politics of the disgruntled who are not or cannot be accomodated by the system which is disgruntled with them. The role of the state, as Karl Marx famously said, is to mediate between the various sections of the society at war with each other. When the state fails in that endeavour, the war is on. The state also enters into war with its citizens in the name of citizens.It becomes a bystander in wars between citizens. It also becomes a partisan with one section against the other. Terrorism , in short is, non-democratic politics.
And when the democratic politics is weakened by self serving and corrupt politicians and bureaucracy, terrorism is inevitable. The corrupt politician- bureaucrat alliance uses terrorism to further its selfish agenda of looting by perpetuating fear among its citizens and strengthening its military arm at huge costs to the public.
India is now in the brink of this danger. Mumbai terror attacks are being used by the state through the media to escalate the feeling of insecurity among people and thus cooerce their consent for spending huge amounts for expansion of specialised armed forces throughout the nation. The fauji worship has reached a nauseating peak, with no critical questions against their working methods.
But terrorism cannot be fought or prevented by mere expansion of our firepower. To attack it, we need to attack the tools of terrorism and roots of terrorism.
One of the primary tools of terrorism is corruption. The 1993 blasts in Mumbai were done with RDX smuggled from outside the country. The corrupt customs officer aided the smuggling. Issuing of identity cards to thousands of fishworkers may not be sufficient if only those ID cards could be obtained for anybody for an extra payment.
About a decade ago, the killers of Rajiv Gandhi and EPRLF leader Padhmanabha entered Tamilnadu only through the sea route. They could not have executed the murders without the support of a corrupt government machinery at every check post and a handful of local tamils who showed solidarity to the Tamil cause and abetted the crime without even being aware of it.That takes us to the roots of terrorism. While changed circumstances now help us with USA threatening Pakistan to behave, We need to look internally within our own realm. Can terrorism survive without a local support? Punjab showed it cannot. And what brings local support to a terrorist act? What can we do to wean such support
away?
Most of the terror attacks since independence can easily be classified into two categories - religious and secular. The secular attacks are by the various insurgent groups of the north east and the Maoists of the red corridor from east to south. Here the issues involved are socio economic.
The religious attacks relate geographically only to Kashmir and Punjab. (The Khalistan terrorism is now a thing of the past, thanks to the inclusive democratic practices that weaned popular support to terrorism.) And the terror acts in Kashmir in the name of jihad have their origin in two facts of history. The creation of Pakistan by the wily British and the self determination aspirations of Kashmiris. Though kashmiri self determination issue is overshadowed by the religious colour painted by Pakistan's own aspirations to annexe it, the terror acts of jihad relating to Kashmir never spilled over the boundaries of Kashmir.
The phenomenon of bomb blasts in buses, trains and markets happening anywhere through length and breadth of India is of recent origin. To be precise just 15 years old.
It is a post Babri Masjid demolition development.
And Babri Masjid demolition has been the first biggest terror act since independence. Our refusal to acknowledge it as terror act has led us down the treacherous path of terrorism upto Mumbai attacks. Various political parties and the media, print and electronic continue to condemn babri masjid demolition but have never categorised it as an act of terrorism. The post Godhra genocidal violence of Gujarat have been widely condemned but not categorised as acts of terrorism.
In both instances, leaders of a particular political formation have led from the front, inspiring and goading the emotionally charged followers to indulge in acts of arson, vandalism and killing. In both instances, police forces have been silent spectators. And remember, both instances did not require the help of specialised commandos to stop the acts of terror. Existing police forces were sufficient enough to stop the acts but they did not stop. And to this day, no politician or bureaucrat has been held accountable for these acts of terror.
Right from Babri masjid demolition, through Mumbai blasts, Gujarat carnage, bus and train blasts, attack on parliament, temple etc. the media has not vociferously
demanded resignations of politicians from ministries. Only for attack on Hotel Taj, the media cried from the burning rooftop and extracted three heads, two home ministers and one chief minister. As usual no bureaucrat gets such treatment.
While we are demanding (rightly) Pakistan to hand over the wanted terrorists hiding in its soil, we have done nothing about the terrorists living among us, walking around freely and participating in our democratic processes.
Let us remember, no jihadi terror can succeed in this country without the help of few locals. And until Babri masjid demolition, it was impossible to recruit Muslims from any part of this country to fight Pakistan's war in Kashmir.
With Babri Masjiddemolition, for the first time, the average Muslim Indian was baffled, confused, worried and afraid. A big political party participating in electoral democracy was openly against the community, demolishing its masjid in the name of Ram, justifying such vandalism. And the other big political party was an impotent accomplice to all this. The insecurity created in the mind of an average Muslim at this juncture can never be fully understood by anyone belonging to any majority religion, culture or language in any part of the world. The condition was ripe for hatemongers and extremists to recruit.
One should say it is a wonderful tribute to the belief and faith of average Muslim Indians in the democracy of India that despite the fear and insecurity created by Babri Masjid demolition and Gujarat carnage, only a few tens of them among several millions became recruits to the cause of terror. Their primary concerns continue to be roti, kapada aur makhaan.
But the average Muslim Indian continues to be under psychological pressure everyday watching the terrorists of Babri Masjid demolition and Gujarat carnage gaining in power in the democratic structure of India. Last year, evidence emerged from Tamilnadu about sangh parivar's front organisation Hindu munnnai indulging in acts of vandalism of its own temples and blasting RSS offices to fix blame on rival religions and movements. This year Malegaon blasts have shown the true colours of saffron clad activists. But the BJP leaders and future prime ministers are openly defending them. What does this mean to the average Muslim Indian who is already plagued by poverty and illiteracy?
And Let us remember, that terrorism in India in the name of Jihad will never come to an end, unless we recognise and punish the terrorists of Babri masjid demolition.
To put it bluntly, the onus of stopping terrorism in India rests with L.K.Advani today. The buck stops there.
Advani must atleast now confess. He must tell the nation that demolition of Babri Masjid was an act of terror by his comrades in arms. He must acknowledge that the Gujarat carnage executed with the support of the chief Minister Narendra Modi and his police force was another act of terror by the sang parivar. He must declare that everyone responsible for killings and arson will be brought before law. He must apologise to the nation for practising the politics of terror in the name of democracy. He must come forward to announce that his party will rebuild the babri Masjid.
Such an act of remorse and self purification by Advani alone will convince the Muslim Indians of this country that the democracy here will never fail them. The majority moderates and peace lovers among Muslim Indians will find the job of convincing the angry and disturbed post- babri masjid- demolition generation that India is theirs.
And this is the only way Indian polity can emulate USA or UK in democratic practice of having a two party system of conservatives and liberals of the right. India has the added advantage of having a powerful pressure group of left.
It is time BJP dropped its religious communal agenda, reformed itself to emerge as the republican party of India. And to achieve this, Advani must apologise to this nation before facing the next elections.
And the electronic channels, I hope are listening, have a job cut out for them. In their resolve to stop terror and to take to task any and every politician abetting terror, they must first appeal to Advani to hand over Modis and Tokadias. Will they?
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
The 'Majbhoot Neta' ran away from Devil's Advocate?
Advani walks out
Narendra Modi has been known to end interviews halfway, if he finds that the questioner is being deliberately hostile, but for the statesmanlike and generally diplomatic L.K. Advani, it was probably a first. Last week, the BJP leader walked out of Karan Thapar’s Devil’s Advocate at the start of the recording. He took exception to Thapar’s brusque and taunting questions that the BJP had opted for tainted candidates, including admitting in its ranks the controversial former bureaucrat Neera Yadav. Incidentally, Yadav was subsequently denied entry into the party.http://www.indianexpress.com/news/fronting-for-a-cause/446026/0
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Where does Advani stand on Art 370?
Home Minister L.K. Advani today categorically ruled out in the Rajya Sabha the abolition of special status to Jammu and Kashmir, saying it was not on the agenda of the NDA government.“It is not on the agenda of our government to scrap Article 370 (which gives special status to Jammu and Kashmir),” the Home Minister told Mr Balwant Singh Ramoowalia during question hour.
"The demand for restoration of pre-1953 position will never be considered... We do talk about Article 370 but there is Article 371 and sixth schedule of the Constitution also," Mr Advani said. "The autonomy is not a big deal but I would prefer to use the expression decentralisation of power rather than autonomy."Mr Advani, who is also the Home Minister, said mere debate on the autonomy issue was no cause for concern. "These demands rose from time to time... The Sarkaria Commission, which recommended more powers to the states, was constituted because of such demands."He, however, suggested decentralisation of power as the requirement for the moment.
New Delhi, Apr 1 (PTI) Close on the heels of the party avoiding any direct reference to its pet issue of Article 370 in its 'Vision Document', Bharatiya Janata Party Thursday said there was a perceptible difference in the situation in Kashmir over the last 50 years. "There is a difference of sky and earth between the situation in Kashmir at the time of late Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, who sacrificed his life for integrating the valley with the rest of the country, and now," party General Secretary Pramod Mahajan told reporters here. He said while the Jansangh founder went to Kashmir defying the permit system required to enter the state, now Federal institutions like Supreme Court, Election Commission and even the Central Administrative Tribunal had jursdiction over the state. "His (Mukherjee's) sacrifice did not go in vain. The state has now become an integral part of the country and certain temporary and transient Constitutional provisions of that time have got diluted over the years," he said in an apparent reference to Article 370, whose abrogation the party had been demanding since Jansangh days.
Issues dealt by the committee
1. Measures to improve the conditions of people affected by militany.
2. Schemes to rehabilitate all orphans and widows affected by militancy.
3. Issues relating to relaxation of conditions for persons who have forsworn militancy
4. An effective rehabilitation policy,including employment for Kashmiri pandit migrants
5. An approach considering issues relating to return of kashmiri youth from areas controlled byPakistan
6. Measures to protect and preserve the unique cultural and religious heritage of the state
Advani's Autobiography is RSS Version of Events
Author-RAM PUNIYANI
http://www.radianceweekly.com/105/1981/TYRANNY-Vs-TERRORISM/2008-04-25/Hindutva/Story-Detail/Advani039s-Autobiography-is-RSS-Version-of-Events.html
Ram Puniyani is a Professor in Biomedical engg. at the Indian Institute of Technology, Powai. Apart from his teaching and research activities, he pursues a parallel track concerned with issues related to social problems,particularly the one's related to preservation of democratic and secular ethos in our life. Also has serious interest in the understanding the Human Rights of weaker sections of society. He is a member of EKTA, Committee for Communal Amity, Mumbai and has been associated with different secular initiatives for many years. He has also been engaged in understanding global and local changes, which have resulted in communal violence. He is particularly concerned with the adverse effects of globalisation and the rise of fundamentalism, particularly in India. Ram has contributed articles to various magazines and journals on these themes. He has authored three books around these subjects: Fascism of Sangh Parivar, The Other Cheek and Communal Politics: an illustrated primer. At present Ram is continuing with his endeavour to understand these phenomena with a focus on human relationships geared around substantive liberty, equality and fraternity.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
The Iron Man Melted and Gifted the Terrorists !
April 13: No rousing speech, no rip-roaring slogan.
But 759 words packed in five pages, telling the tale of the “Iron Man” who melted when faced with a hijack crisis, wept in a corner when a shrine was demolished, wrung his hands in frustration when a pogrom was being carried out and abandoned his stand on Mohammad Ali Jinnah at the hint of brewing trouble back home.
Manmohan Singh, the “weakest Prime Minister” with little mastery over the art of speech-making, today responded to his principal tormentor L.K. Advani in a way few politicians have in the middle of the heat and dust of a general election: he wrote down his thoughts and read them out.
The most dramatic day yet in Campaign 2009 unfolded in the least excitable fashion in Mumbai when Manmohan picked up a sheaf of papers and deadpanned through the contents as if dealing with dry data from the Planning Commission.
The style was placid but not the substance. Homily after homily flew at “Mr Advani” — each rapier thrust slicing open an unhealed wound of the recent past. From the Kandahar hijack to the Gujarat riots to the Jinnah controversy, Manmohan tore into the record of his rival .
Just in case the soft-spoken Manmohan could not be heard beyond Mumbai, where he was addressing the media, Rahul Gandhi picked up the microphone in Kochi, four hours away from Thiruvananthapuram where Advani was campaigning.
“If Advani is a strong leader, how would he have been the home minister and not know something fundamental like this?” Rahul asked, referring to a statement attributed to the BJP leader that he was in the dark about the release of terrorists in exchange for hijack hostages.
The western and southern flanks taken care of, Sonia Gandhi struck from the east, targeting Advani on the same subject and asking a campaign audience in Shillong: “How can you trust such a person?”
The Prime Minister had replied to Advani twice earlier in the past few weeks but today’s written statement was the most scathing yet.
But Manmohan did lay stress on the face the country is more familiar with. “Throughout my life, I have believed that substance triumphs over style, performance over public relations and hard work over short-cuts. I am not a sloganeer. I will readily concede that most of my opponents make more rousing speeches.”
Advani did not respond today. BJP leaders in Delhi said they were happy that the focus was shifting towards the party’s slogan: “Strong leader, decisive government”.
But Congress leaders reacted with glee. The party’s spin doctors said unleashing Manmohan and supplementing that with pincer attacks by Sonia and Rahul were part of a deliberate approach. “Almost all leaders have been exposed too much on television or at campaign meetings but not Manmohan Singh. His statements have a novelty factor,” a Congress leader said.
Besides, the party feels that Manmohan’s clean reputation in governance and “quiet efficiency” have earned him the spurs to take Advani head-on. “We never did this when Vajpayee was Prime Minister. But now we have a Prime Minister who has proved his mettle,” the Congress leader said.
However, the Congress is still not too keen on a US-style “presidential contest” between two personalities – the reason Rahul and Sonia also fired away from the other flanks, party sources saidhttp://www.telegraphindia.com/1090414/jsp/frontpage/story_10819855.jsp
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Wrong Placard
In a letter addressed to over 1000 religious leaders, the perpetual PM-in-waiting promised a 'consultative mechanism' on 'policy matters' if voted to power ( http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090412/jsp/frontpage/story_10810571.jsp ). In the same letter he promised for the security of Ram Sethu. Earlier BJP’s Tamil Nadu unit chief promised to declare Sethu as a national monument. This is not for the first time the demolishers turned protectors appealed to the religious sentiments of people attached to the Sethu issue. For three years now, BJP and constituents of Sangh parivar have created ruckus without letting people know about the originators of the Sethusamudram canal project. RSS even employed a fake scientist Punish Taneja who went on to mislead the online followers of ‘Save Sethu’ campaign for two years with blatant falsehood and pseudo scientific theories. He was later exposed by one investigative news report of IE ( http://www.indianexpress.com/news/fraud-scientist-takes-rss-for-a-ride-down-lord-rams-bridge/33813/0 )
The Sethu Samudram Canal Project(SSCP) envisaged deepening of the shallow waters connecting the Palk Strait and Gulf Of Mannar to allow the ship movements from west to east coast and vice versa without going all around Srilanka. It involves dredging of shallow water regions including ‘Ramar Sethu’ (Adam’s bridge - a partly submerged discontinuous chain of limestone shoals and sand bars) for a width of 300m and up to a depth of 10 m. All feasibility and techno-economic studies were conducted during NDA’s rule (http://sethusamudram.gov.in/Study.asp ) and the NEERI- National Environmental Engineering Research Institute, Nagpur, approved the alignment no 6 after considering other alignments. UPA government only initiated the execution of the project in 2005 after the preparation of detailed project report. Unfortunately amidst the petitions, sound bites, chakka jams and political slogans, all voices which were debating the pros and cons of the project, cost-benefit analysis and possible ecological damage turned less audible. The project has now hit a roadblock with a wary government not wanting the Sethu issue snowball into another Ayodhya episode. It agreed to constitute an expert committee to examine the alternate alignments. Expectedly BJP is using it as a trump card in election season.
Some questions need to be answered. Who gave the green signal to the project? Why were Sangh Hindutva champions silent then? What explains the U turn of Adavni's BJP after losing the power at the centre? How many of us are aware of the promise “Sethusamudram project in Tamil Nadu will be speedily completed” made in the NDA manifesto for 2004 LS elections? Had they not lost power they would have merrily pursued the project without making an issue?
- From SSCP website. What is Sethusamudram Project?
The channel project was originally proposed by a Britisher, Commandar A.D.Taylor of the Indian Marine in 1860.In 1955, the Government of India set up the Sethusamudram project committee to tool into the feasibility of the project.After several studies, the government took a concrete step towards the execution of the project when Rs. 4.8 crore was allocated for a feasibility study of the Sethusamudram Ship channel Protect in the 2000-01 Union Budget. Following a directive from the Union Ministry of Shipping, the Tuticorin Port Trust undertook a Ground breaking feasibility-cum environment study for the project.
http://sethusamudram.gov.in/WhatisSethu.asp
http://www.hindu.com/businessline/2000/03/02/stories/140260ss.htm
- We are committed to implement the project (March 2003 )
Finance Minister Jaswant Singh on Thursday pledged the government's commitment for an early start of a project pushed by Tamil Nadu politicians for decades and naval planners since the 1850s - the Sethusamudram Canal project.This is a project to deepen the Palk Strait and, thus, have a straight sea route between the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Bay. It is yet to get formal cabinet approval, though the techno-economic-environmental assessment study is on and should be ready by May.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/40212485.cms
- PM Vajpayee at a public meeting in Nagercoil, Feb 2004
The Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, today gave the assurance that the Sethu Samudram project, a "cherished dream of the people of Tamil Nadu,'' would soon be realised.
http://www.hindu.com/2004/02/03/stories/2004020306750400.htm
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Ballad of an old Hawk
Stunning the nation with a sudden distress.
Everybody went in a state of utter shock
The nation mourned the dead, except the old hawk.
“Where is my chariot?” shouted the bald man.
“Bring it out to me as fast as you can.”
Men around him thought he must have gone mad
“A Yatra in this hour? Won’t it look bad?”
“Oh you idiots!” scorned the iron-man
“We need a riot! Go, bring my van!
“The time is just ripe, we need to reach the mob.
“And fire up the hatred, and then the next job
Is to call the press and say it clear and loud
All these are the handiworks of secularists and Dawood.
Remember guys for ever one of my wisest sayings
That Bombs and Blood had always ensured our gains.
The Rath started to roll its wheels amidst the dust
Many towns and villages one by one it passed.
Atop the Rath, stood a man with hawkish eyes
With a heart full of hatred and lips full of lies.
Preaching hate everywhere, spitting filth and fire
Spreading canards to all (like a perfect liar)
But alas! Nobody had cared a little time,
To listen to the old fox’s rotten old rhyme!
Temples and Mosques had lost all their charm
Votes can no longer be bought by shouting “Jai Shri Ram”
The man atop a lone chariot now looks a bit funny!
People say the clown’s name is L K Advani.
(I wrote this poem immediately after the Sankatmochan blasts in Varanasi and the announcement of Bharatsuraksha Rathyatra by L K Advani).
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Wishing Good Luck to Dr Mallika Sarabhai
Dr Mallika Sarabhai, one of the India's best known dancers and a social activist is contesting against Shri L.K.Advani from the Gandhinagar loksabha constituency as an independent candidate. She comes with a promise of change towards citizen centered democracy. She made a mark on the campaigning by inviting her opponent for a debate on set of questions related to local issues. Our team wishes her good luck.
Advani's Bhay Ho! song continues to reverberate
Today, Jairam Ramesh, an alumnus of IIT, Chairman of Congress manifesto committee and campaign-in-charge came out in an open letter to call the bluff of Advani on his new found love (on the eve of elections) for Indian black money hoarded in swiss bank accounts. Jairam Ramesh has advised Advani not to use obscure and unauthenicated Internet sources. In my opinion this was long overdue. Jay Ho! Jairam! Par Advani se Bhay Ho!
A Letter to Advani - Jairam Ramesh
Dear Shri Advani,
With regards,I have always been amused by the sources you cite in your speeches in Parliament and outside. But your use of some obscure and unauthenicated Internet source to raise the pitch on Indian money stashed away in Swiss banks is really the limit. It is not just amusing. It is shocking, coming from a leader of your purported stature.
To put it bluntly, Shri Advani, you are lying. That your entire edifice of numbers on the black money issue is a total hoax has been demonstrated most convincingly by two of India's most distinguished economists -- Ashok Desai and Bibek Debroy -- who have both been critical of the Congress as well in the past on various issues.
That there are Indians with Swiss bank accounts is incontrovertible -- many of them, incidentally, may well be BJP supporters and part of your election funding may well be coming from these sources. There can also be no dispute on the fact that we must try and get this money back. We have had amnesty schemes in the past -- some have succeeded and some have not. But I would like to ask you a straight question -- in the six years that you were Home Minister, can you tell the country one single step you took to get Indian accounts in Swiss banks made transparent?
Your use of 'ISI' data to claim that poverty has increased during 2004/05-08/09 is another example of complete bogusness. I think you may well be referring to a study done by Inter Services Intelligence of Pakistan and not by our prestigious Indian Statistical Institute. The study of ISI, Kolkata stops at 2004/05 and whatever conclusions you have drawn from that study are completely false. I have already written to your aide Sudheendra Kulkarni on this issue. I attach a copy of the email I have sent him.
Goebbels believed that if you keep repeating a lie several times, people will begin to believe it. Your ideological brotherhood has perfected this dictum.
Jairam Ramesh
Thursday, April 2, 2009
When Afzal becomes Anand Mohan
"If a Hindu had been convicted in place of Afzal, or if Parliament attack case convict had the name Anand Singh or Anand Mohan, he would have been hanged by the UPA government long back" --- Advani in an election rally during Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections
"We'll hang Afzal if voted to power" --- Vijay Kr Malhotra, BJP's chiefministerial candidate during Delhi assembly election campaigning
B.Raman, security and intelligence analyst :
Just as there is no conclusive evidence to show that dangerous crime in the US has decreased due to the imposition and execution of the death penalty, there is no conclusive evidence to show that the absence of the death penalty in the European Union countries has created difficulties for their counter-terrorism agencies. Despite the absence of the death penalty, indigenous terrorist organisations in Europe have been withering away one after another— the Baader-Meinhof and the Red Army faction of Germany, the Red Brigade of Italy, the Action Directe of France etc. Even the Irish Republican Army of the UK and the Basque separatists of Spain have been having second thoughts about resorting to terrorism. This was partly because of the firm counter-terrorism policies of the European governments which made it clear to the terrorist organisations that terrorism will not pay and partly because of the collapse of the state-sponsors of terrorism such as the erstwhile USSR, East Germany and Yugoslavia.
The European governments are now facing difficulty due to the increasing activities of the jihadi terrorists as seen in Spain and the UK. Well-informed sections of public opinion and professional counter-terrorism experts are advocating greater powers of detention, search, interrogation, surveillance etc for the police and other agencies to enable them to deal with the jihadi terrorists, but no one is demanding the re-imposition of the death penalty. They feel confident that they they can deal with the situation without he need for the re-introduction of the death penalty.
Death penalty can be particularly counter-productive in the case of jihadi terrorist groups, which glorify acts of terrorism as acts of martyrdom.Deaths at the hands of the state—either during an encounter or a terrorist operation or after a trial— would be projected as acts of martyrdom.
There is another aspect, which needs to be considered in any debate on this issue. The security forces are authorised by law to kill a terrorist or a dangerous criminal in exercise of the right of self-defence. They can kill in order to protect themselves or others, if they reasonably conclude that there is no other way of protecting themselves or others. A dilemma arises in respect of executing an arrested and convicted terrorist because he is being executed as a punishment for what he did in the past and not due to a fear of what he may do in the future. So long as he is in custody serving a life imprisonment, he can no longer kill. What is the point in executing him?
For more on B Raman on Death penalty, Afzal issue :
http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20061004&fname=raman&sid=1&pn=1
"Figures with the Union home ministry show that though the apex court has sentenced 50 persons to death in the last 10 years, none of them has yet been hanged. Of the 50 convicts, 32 were sentenced more than five years ago and include high-profile names like Murugan and Santhan, who were part of the Rajiv Gandhi assassination plot."
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
A Letter to Advani from 'Say no to Advani' team
Thanking you,
View Point: Can Advani match Manmohan?
Is that true? Let us examine their qualifications.
Born in 1932, Manmohan Singh graduated in economics from Punjab University, read for his tripos (first class honours) from St John's College, Cambridge University, where he won the Wright's Prize in 1955 and the Adam Smith prize in 1956. He got his DPhil from Nuffield College, Oxford University, in 1962.
His thesis was on "India's Export Trends and Prospects for Self- Sustained Growth". By age 30, he understood that Nehru's inward- looking economic policy was misplaced.
He has worked at the United Nations, served as governor of the Reserve Bank, deputy chairman of the Planning Commission and chairman of the University Grants Commission. He has taught at Punjab University and Delhi School of Economics.
In government, he reversed what we call Nehruvian socialism during his five years as finance minister between 1991 and 1996. His policy crafting gave India economic success, through a doctrine now called Manmohanomics, which he continued in his five years as prime minister from 2004 to 2009.
In 1991, the year Manmohan became finance minister, India's per capita GDP was $328, and Pakistan's was $458. In 2008, Pakistan's was $623 and India's $900. From 28 per cent behind Pakistan, India went ahead 30 per cent because of him. No Indian leader has ever been as qualified, or as effective, as Manmohan Singh.
Born in 1927, L K Advani attended D G National College, Hyderabad, Sindh, but could not get a degree. His website says he got an LLB from Bombay University's Government Law College, but does not say when, and his autobiography does not mention this degree at all.
He worked for the RSS publication Organiser till 1967, where he wrote film reviews. After a brief term in the Delhi municipal council, because of his RSS connection, Advani was nominated to the Rajya Sabha. Jailed along with other opposition leaders during Indira Gandhi's emergency of 1975-77, Advani came to power as the combined opposition defeated the Congress for the first time since independence.
Because of his journalism experience, Advani became minister for information and broadcasting in 1977. At the age of 45, this was his first job in an executive position. It was a brief experience; the government collapsed in two years.
In the 80s, Advani became a star when he campaigned on the Babri Masjid issue across India. It was demolished on December 6, 1992. He says he did not anticipate this, showing his lack of understanding of the Indian mind, and of consequences. Over 2,000 Indians were killed.
As home minister in Vajpayee's government (1999-2004), Advani got his second executive job at age 72. Did he build his tough-man image then?
No.
He surrendered to Jaish-e-Mohammad at Kandahar after the hijacking of an Indian Airlines plane in December 1999, and released Masood Azhar and Omar Saeed Shaikh, who later beheaded Wall Street Journal's Daniel Pearl.
In March 2002, as Union home minister he could not prevent the massacres in Gujarat, in which 1,000 were killed.
If he has no record to speak of, why do his supporters call him strong?
Advani actually has very little experience in executive or policy positions. And he does not show evidence of being able to overcome this lack of experience through his intellect, or his effort.
His autobiography ("My Country, My Life") is maudlin, and peppered with mistakes. With typical hyperbole, he calls the emergency the "darkest period in Indian history" but then he reports its years wrong (pages 259, 266, 270). He spent years in villages in RSS service, but mistakes (on page 69) Guinea worm for tapeworm.
Advani's problem is that his intellectual bandwidth is limited by his ordinary education. He is not at the same level as Oxbridge's Manmohan, and Harvard's Obama.
His reading is basic and he likes it pre-digested through writers like William Shirer and Thomas Friedman.
In a lifetime in opposition, Advani has stirred the pot with drawing-room solutions to emotional problems. The sort of problems that trouble our aching nationalists. India is weak -- we must build an atom bomb! Pakistan is doing terrorism -- we must hit back! Hindu sentiment is hurt -- we must replace the Babri masjid!
Such a Manichean and innocent view of the world is touching, because it comes out of trauma (Advani was kicked out of Karachi at partition).
One of the most moving moments of his life, according to Advani, was when on a tour to the Himalayas, he asked what a passing stream was, and was told it was the Indus, Sindhu nadi, from which he gets his Sindhi identity and we get our nation's name.
He is unable to separate himself from this sentimentalism.
Though he keeps attacking India's minority-ism, his own mentality is still that of a besieged minority from Sindh.
Manmohan was also kicked out (he is from village Gah in Chakwal), but has lifted himself above our sub-continental pettiness.
Manmohan has the exposure, and the intellect, to detach himself from the insanity below. Advani cannot do this, because he has been wading in it and beating his breast, even after Indians built one of the most successful democracies in the world.
Crucially, Manmohan has deep access into pan-Indian culture because of his ability to read, in addition to Hindi and Gurmukhi, Urdu.
He educated Indians on Iqbal through his budget speeches as finance minister. I was familiar with Tarana-e-Hindi (which Indians know as Saare jahan say achcha), but I had not registered its most stirring couplet till I heard Manmohan recite it in his Punjabi lilt: Yunan-o-Misr-o-Roma, sub mitt gaye jahan say, ab tak magar hai baqi naam-o-nishaan hamara.
Advani does not have this access into his own culture because, as he wrote to his regret, he did not learn to read Sanskrit. His grandmother could read Gurmukhi, but he could not.
While he speaks Sindhi well (Benazir opened a conversation with him in Sindhi but then could not continue it), he cannot read it in Nastaliq because he went to an English-medium school, St Patrick's in Karachi.
He mistakes Persian script for Arabic (page 34).
He writes that till the age of 20 he did not even speak Hindi properly. Not particularly good qualifications for a man whose policy thrusts -- Ram temple, Uniform Civil Code, Article 370 -- are all cultural.
Politically, both Manmohan and Advani are weak, and dependent.
Manmohan is a member of Rajya Sabha (not directly elected), and serves at the pleasure of Sonia Gandhi.
Advani contests for the Lok Sabha, but from Gujarat, where he is at Modi's mercy (Advani cannot speak Gujarati). And he has spent a lifetime bending his knee to the RSS, which echoes his seething resentment of Muslims.
But while he's politically weak, Manmohan is undisputed master of policy. And because of his integrity, Sonia Gandhi has given him a freehand where it matters.
Sonia did not push for the Indo-American strategic alliance; that is all Manmohan.
Manmohan brings an economist's cold view to policy: he has the mind of the bania, rather than the warrior, whom we more readily identify with Advani. Advani loves Rajasthan, India's only martial state, and has "developed a fascination for this land of heroes and martyrs."
India does not need its leaders to be martial heroes and martyrs. We need education and healthcare and a strong economy.
India, and also Pakistan, needs a bania's self-preserving mentality because under the warrior's code, we commit suicide quite easily, like we did in 1962's avoidable war with China.
Advani doesn't want the Indo-US nuclear deal because it is surrender.
Under it, some current and all future nuclear installations will be now classified as civilian and subject to international regulation, while others will be outside scrutiny, free to make weapons. What is wrong with this deal? India has been starved of nuclear technology for four decades, which it will now get freely. But Advani says it makes us 'strategically subservient' because the US does not treat us as 'equals'.
He sees foreign policy in terms of honour and dishonour.
Advani is clueless on economics because of his lack of education, and uninterested in it because the subject lacks heroic emotion.
If he does take power, his urge for martyrdom will be disciplined by India's bureaucracy, as Vajpayee's was before him। He will be made more realist by the limits of power, which will deflate his bombast, as he finally gets a proper education, at age 82.
http://www.asianwindow.com/india/can-manly-advani-match-weakling-manmohan/
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Advani's Record as the Union Home Minister
June 19, 1998: 25 at ChapnariJuly 28, 1998: 16 in two villages of Doda districtAugust 8, 1998: 35 at KalabanFebruary 20, 1999: 4 at Muraputta, 9 at Barlyara and 7 at BllalaJune 30, 1999: 15 in Anantnag districtJuly 19, 1999: 15 at LayataFebruary 28, 2000: 5 near QazigundMarch 20, 2000: 35 at ChatisinghporaAugust 1, 2000: 31 Amarnath Yatris at PahalgamAugust 1-2, 2000: 27 in Qazigund and AchabalAugust 2, 2000: 11 in Doda districtFebruary 3, 2001: 6 in Mahjoornagar in SrinagarFebruary 11, 2001: 15 in Kot-ChadwalMarch 2, 2001: 15 in ManjkoteMarch 17, 2001: 8 near Atholi in DodaJuly 21, 2001: 13 including 7 Amarnath pilgrims at SheshnagJuly 22, 2001: 12 in Cheerji and Tagood in Doda districtAugust 4, 2001: 15 in Ludder-Sharotid Har area in Doda district
"The Hizbul Mujahideen, once the strongest militant outfit in Jammu and Kashmir, now faces decimation. The outfit has lost its top leaders and cadres in encounters with security forces, especially Jammu and Kashmir police.The group, which once ran an unquestioned writ in the Valley such foreign militant outfits could not do without it, lost some of its top leaders like Hanief Bhat, Sajjad Bhat and Rahool Bhat. Last year, it had lost as many as 23 top commanders and 300 foot soldiers. The Hizb’s cadre strength always stood between 5,000 and 7, 000 until a few years ago. "
Dramatic improvements in Jammu and Kashmir, where terrorism related killings - at 768 - fell below the 'high intensity conflict' mark of a thousand deaths for the first time since 1990 (when they stood at 1,177). At their peak in 2001, fatalities had risen to 4,507.
From 1998-2001 (excluding left wing extremism)
Year No. Of Deaths
1998 3764
1999 3754
2000 4975
2001 5839
From 2002-07(Including the fatalities due to left wing extremism)
2002 4455
2003 4217
2004 3208
2005 3188
2006 2765
2007 2598
"As many as 18,350 civilians died during the past nine years in 61,226 incidents of violence in Jammu and Kashmir, north-east, naxal-affected States and communal flare-ups.Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil may be facing flak for a string of recent terror attacks, but his Ministry has quickly compiled statistics of violent incidents and civilian deaths for two periods – 1999 to 2003 of the BJP-led NDA rule and 2004 to 2008 – to show that incidents of violence were actually on the lower side during the UPA rule. While during 1999-2003, the number of civilian deaths were put at 11,714 in 36,259 incidents of violence, the 2004-2008 period witnessed 6,636 civilian deaths in 24,967 incidents, showing a substantial decline.In Jammu and Kashmir, in 18,106 incidents as many as 4,519 civilians lost their lives during 1999-2003, while in the 2004-2008 period the number of incidents in the State came down to 7,769 resulting in 1883 civilian deaths.Similarly, in the north-eastern States, in 7,697 incidents of violence 3,051 civilian deaths occurred during 1999-2003 while during 2004-2008 the region saw 6,498 incidents of violence which resulted in 1,899 civilian deaths.In 3,761 incidents of communal violence as many as 1959 civilians lost their lives during 1999-2003, but the number of incidents came down marginally to 3,472 during 2004-2008 and the civilian deaths dropped to 573.However, 2004-2008 witnessed a higher number of incidents of naxal violence – 7,228 in which 2,281 civilians died. During 1999-2003, the number of incidents of naxal violence were put at 5,695 resulting in 2,185 civilian deaths."