www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 31st August 2013
COMMENT
A Reality Check
Is the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) a government in waiting or is it trapped in a sink-hole from which deliverance is unlikely? Opposing the government, simply because it is the government, has never been the way of a credible democracy. How to run an administration, while defining and projecting a national vision, even as domestic policies, from the economy, defence, foreign affairs, science, education, health care, women’s empowerment and much else are calibrated, is a considerable challenge. Modern democratic government requires intelligence, hard work, command of the brief and an ability to communicate with the public at home and abroad. The attitudes of BJP MPs on the pending food bill evoked the following comment from the Hindu (no supporter of the government): “The National Food Security Bill has been derailed yet again in the past few days due to continuous disruption of Parliament…..This is only the latest episode in a long saga of of virtually continuous disruption from the Budget session onwards…..Some parties have lost all credibility in this tussle. The Bharatiya Janata Party, for one, speaks in different voices on the Food Bill. Even as some BJP leaders complain the draft does not go far enough, others argue that it is unaffordable. The Times of India, no friend of the government either, while fiercely critical of the Food Security
Bill, as state interference in what it considers to be the domain of the free market, censured MPs over “the Logjam” in parliamentary business. The present Parliament, it remarks, has the “dubious distinction of having passed the smallest number of Bills, and spent the least time discussing legislation. ” In the time remaining, MPs must “pass important (economic) reform measures pending before Parliament. This will be the best way the political class can signal that it’s serious about putting the economy back on track. For example, the passage of the Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill, which will replace a land law dating back to the 19th century would give a fillip to real estate and infrastructure sectors….. ” So it would. Equally the food bill now passed, which has been implemented in four Congress-ruled states from the bithday of Rajiv Gandhi will now have huge financial burden on the Indian exchequer. The new government after the next election will have to worry for this act of the Lok Sabha now. The Tamil Nadu and Chhattisgarh states already have almost similar provisions for food aid to the most needed. The Congrerss party and the UPA would have rather worked on something similar with the some proper and genuine deliberations with diffrent parties rather than taking, what appears to be a pre-election political gambit.
The arrest of Abdul Karim Tunda (see Media Watch, page 12) , the 70 year-old Ghaziabad-born Laskar-eTaiba bomber trained in Pakistan, and the capture of his key terror aide, Mohammed Alauddin,56, at Karadighi village in the West Bengal district of North Dinajpur, with a stack of counterfeit currency in his possession, is a dismal reminder of the threat to India posed by homegrown jihadis. Tunda started his career as a jihadi with the founding of the Indian Mujahideen, which is now spreading its tentacles across north east India. Alauddin, like Tunda, has provided a mine of information to Indian security agencies. Tunda worked with Dawood Ibrahim and the Sikh Babbar Khalsa International leaders Wadhawa Singh, Paramjeet Singh Panjawar and Ratandeep Singh under the supervision of Pakistan’s Inter Services Directorate. India is faced with an undeclared war in which proxies mingle and hide among ordinary communities. India’s Muslim citizens, for their part, need to introspect and take responsibility in the large interest of community and nation. Whatever the shortcomings of the Indian state and society at large, they do provide a level of security and justice for Muslims that is sadly lacking in much of the Islamic world, if events in Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan be any guide. The ills within a contemporary state, especially those working to democratic norms, are best addressed through peaceful
mechanisms, including mass protests and demonstration, if need be, such as we witnessed in the United States and apartheid South Africa, led by iconic visionaries Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela. To take up the sword needlessly opens the possibility of perishing by the sword. It is surely wiser, in this day and age, to turn swords into ploughshares and ensure peace, reconciliation and prosperity as the charter for unborn generations. India’s Muslims, young and old alike, have it in their grasp to contribute nobly to a better India: pluralist, caring, just and democratic, upholding at all times the rule of law. A useful postscript to this fraught subject would be the Pakistan dimension to the problem, which was lucidly spelled out way back in 1957 by the noted historian of the subcontinent Wilfred Cantwell Smith: “To the simple fact of Pakistan’s establishment the Indian Muslims could have easily adjusted themselves, had it not been for that ‘Islamic’ nation’s subsequent activities…..Pakistani Muslims have had so heavy an investment in the conviction that Indian Muslims are mistreated that at times one cannot but detect a morbid welcoming of adverse news and a resistance to awareness of Indo-Muslim welfare.” This surely has been the seedbed of Pakistan’s subsequent ill-judged policies towards India, which, without a course correction, has become a looming disaster.
General Herbert ‘Hawk’ Carlisle, presently Chief of the US military’s Pacific Command, had once led the US delegation at an executive group meeting of the Indian and US air forces: now he has set the cat among the pigeons by talking “about expanded engagement,” involving the setting up of a US military base at Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala. This prompted India’s Defence Ministry to issue a curt rebuttal: India “will not allow any foreign country to establish a military base on Indian soil.” Replying crisply to a callow Indian reporter, National Security Advisor Shiv Shankar Menon (who had returned from a visit to Washington) said: “You ask me did I go and ask the Americans to defend India. My answer is no. That is not the question that in today’s day and age you need to ask.” President Obama’s overblown projection of IndiaUS ties as “the defining relationship of the 21st century should be seen for the hyperbole it is. India has been (and is) happy to be classed as an American partner, which is not the same as an American ally, such as, say, Britain, Turkey, the Philippines or Poland. There are areas where Indian and American interests converge, there are others where they diverge, the clearest evidence being Pakistan. Seema Sirohi’s trenchant piece on this Indo-US divide (First Report August 19) is well worth reading. She writes: “The Pakistan military’s signals to India are clear….. The continuous
attacks along the Line of Control (in Kashmir) are an unmistakable attempt to shatter the peace…..and pull the rug from under the shaky feet of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.” The US “has done nothing to rein in the Pakistan military. What’s more, it continues quietly to furnish sophisticated military weapons to Pakistan that are highly unsuitable against terrorists but very suitable against India.” She quotes extensively from the authoritative Congressional Research Services report on the massive range of transferred US weaponry. The 20-year, $20 billion US military aid package to Islamabad - often funded through devious accounting - tells its own damning tale. Washington arms Pakistan as a “regional balancer” (US quote) with India, “which also fits in with China’s plan,” remarks our scribe perceptively. The US and China are on the same page they were in 1971, when India won its war against Pakistan over Bangladesh. Then, the US and China supported the Pakistan military junta led by General Yahya Khan; they now cleave to General Ashfaq Kayani, Pakistan’s de facto ruler. Keeping India in check is still the name of the game, transcending by a wide margine America’s welcoming pieties on Pakistan’s emergent democracy. “Where does this leave…..the (US) strategic partnership with India……” Seema Sirohi asks teasingly. Firmly rooted, methinks, to the ground realities of Realpolitik.
Indian Mujahideen: Need for Muslim introspection
Getting Indian foreign policy right
3 In complete darkness we are all the same. It is only our knowledge and wisdom that separates us. Don't let your eyes deceive you - Janet Jackson
Sarah Teather MP Liberal Democrat MP for Brent Central
Helping everyone get on in life
0It’s that time of year again. School-leavers up and down the country will have just received the results of their GCSE and A level exams. After months of hard work, a few important pieces of paper could be what direct youngsters towards their first job, an apprenticeship, or a place at university. These should be exciting, life-defining moments. But they can also be fraught with uncertainty. Whilst many will be celebrating the success of their hardearned achievements, others will be mourning a set of disappointing results. The emphasis placed on good exam results in the UK today shows just how crucial a good quality education can be in helping young people get on in life. This time last year, I was writing to tell you about the Liberal Democrats’ work to help school children from poorer backgrounds. For too long, a child’s start in life has been the deciding factor in how well they do at school and what they go on to achieve subsequently. Poor seven-year olds are twice as likely to fall short in reading and writing than those from wealthier backgrounds. Worse still, such gaps tend to widen as children progress through school. The Pupil Premium, our top pledge in the Lib Dem manifesto, will mean that primary schools receive £1,300 for every disadvantaged pupil, up from £900 this year. This will help ensure that more pupils are able to achieve higher standards. On top of this, over the last few months, the Liberal Democrats have taken further steps to help those from disadvantaged backgrounds get the education they
deserve. The Targeted Basic Need programme will provide £820m to fund an extra 74,000 school places in areas of need across the UK – over 300 extra places will be created in Brent alone. But this is only the start. Getting good results at school is often the first step towards getting a job or an apprenticeship. In today’s job market, that can be tough. Job creation is key to fixing this problem. The Lib Dems have helped businesses create more than one million private sector jobs by investing in projects such as housing, transport and infrastructure. We have also helped to create over one million apprenticeships and 100,000 work placements to help young people get that important first step onto the jobs market. In Brent, the area I represent, more than 3,000 young people have started an apprenticeship since the Liberal Democrats came into Government in 2010. This is clearly a great start, but there is still much more work to be done. The Liberal Democrat Jobs Campaign will create a further one million jobs across the UK. The Liberal Democrats in Government are working hard to ensure that children in the UK not only get the best possible start in life, but that when they leave school there are a variety of opportunities available to them, whatever their talents and interests. I hope that those students who have received results over the last few weeks will be looking forward to the futures that lie ahead of them. I would like to wish them all the very best in whatever they choose to do next.
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