4 GANGTOK, FRIDAY 27 FEBRUARY 2015HIMALAYAN MIRROR EDITORIALENGLISH DAILY PUBLISHED FROM GANGTOK

HIMALAYAN MIRRORFEBRUARY 27 2015 VOL 9 NO. 166

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Going federal: The 14thFinance Commissionempowers states by

putting more money intheir hands

Dhaka’s war within

The salient feature of the 14th FinanceCommission’s report is that it takes a big step for-ward in giving chief ministers an incentive to raisetheir standards of governance. By enhancing thestatutory transfer of central tax collections to statesby a massive 10 percentage points to 42%, theFinance Commission has told chief ministers thatthe buck stops at their table. Implementation of therecommendations will empower states and allowthem to

customise government interventions in keepingwith local needs. This is to be welcomed.

This report will give people a chance to test theirchief ministers and see if their performance match-es their rhetoric. Let’s hope they live up to expec-tations. The Finance Commission envisages anincrease of less than two percentage points in theaggregate transfer of central funds to states over thenext five years. Federalism in India, however,receives a boost as discretionary transfer of fundsfrom Centre to states will reduce. This should helpin reducing friction between two levels of govern-ment and, in the process, enhance the level of coop-eration in reforming other areas of the economy.

India’s governments have often been below paras they have not done enough to build their capac-ity. Linking a small part of grants to panchayats topresenting audited annual accounts is a step in theright direction. So is the suggestion that an inde-pendent fiscal council be set up. The level of fiscaldeficits influence an economy’s inflation rate andmacroeconomic stability. An independent councilwhich provides an advance assessment of theimpact of fiscal policy and fiscal implications ofbudgets will help raise their quality.

Looking ahead, more money in the hands ofstates should

preclude them from running to the Centre forhandouts or ‘special packages’ on every occasion,relying more on their own resources. This shouldbe accompanied by greater freedom in tweakingcentral policies to suit state circumstances as thelatter see fit. Once states control their own des-tinies, those that reform faster will perform better.If states acquire a stake in reform, that will be along-term

solution to the conundrum of national politics inrecent years, where everybody except the rulingparty at the Centre feels compelled to adopt themost puerile and populist policy position blockingreform and perpetuating the status quo.

After a Bangladeshi court decided to issue a warrant forthe arrest of former prime minister and BangladeshNationalist Party (BNP) chief Khaleda Zia on Wednesday,the stand-off between Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League (AL)government and the opposition is expected to worsen. ThatZia’s arrest was ordered after she failed to appear in court forthe fourth time in two cases of graft is unlikely to mitigate theaggression of an opposition that has held the country to ran-som through a nationwide blockade ordered by Zia lastmonth to compel Hasina to call fresh elections. At least 100people have been killed since, but neither opposition norgovernment has shown an inclination to soften up for a seri-ous and sustained dialogue.

Having been out of power since 2006, and after its self-defeating boycott of the general election in January 2014, theBNP’s desperation to return to power is visible. Members ofits alliance — especially the fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islamiand Hefazat-e-Islam — have been responsible for large-scaleviolence ever since verdicts began to be pronounced againstJamaat leaders in the 1971 war crimes trials. While notexcusing the government for its high-handedness, particular-ly its detention of senior BNP leaders, the onus is on theopposition to own up to the breakdown in law and ordercaused by its agitation. Coupled with the war crimes ver-dicts, this is part of the larger battle for the identity ofBangladesh and Hasina’s government is undeniably on themoral high ground here.

Despite progress on socio-economic indicators underHasina, Bangladesh cannot afford a long-term collapse of itspolitics. Having the comfort of numbers and tenure, the gov-ernment may not see any need yet to reduce the BNP’s self-inflicted pain. However, it is failing to restore normalcy.Given the extremist hold on the opposition space and a reck-less BNP, Hasina cannot afford to not talk to Zia, while therefusal to compromise will certainly not serve Zia. WithPrime Minster Narendra Modi likely to visit Dhaka soon andWest Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee having justconcluded a visit, India must resolve its own Centre-state dif-ferences to deliver on the Teesta waters deal and the landboundary agreement. It wouldn’t be wise to underestimatethe positive impact these might have. Meanwhile, Delhimust urge the warring parties in Dhaka to talk.

Meeting point SrinagarThe agreement

between the PDPand BJP to form a

coalition government inJammu and Kashmir hasbeen attacked from bothsides. In Kashmir, thePDP is being accused bythe radicalised intelli-gentsia of selling out tocome back to power. Andon February 16, the RSSlaunched a scathingattack on the BJP’s nego-tiators for resiling fromthe party’s long-standingcommitment to deleteArticle 370 of theConstitution and agree-ing to phase out theArmed Forces (SpecialPowers) Act.

Government formationwill not end the acrimo-ny. Before the elections,both the BJP and the PDPhad confidently predictedthat they would winhandsomely on theirown. The suspicion willtherefore linger that bothhave sacrificed theirbasic principles in orderto save face. These suspi-cions do justice to neitherparty. Mufti MohammadSayeed could have easilyformed a governmentwith the Congress, thefive independent MLAsand Sajjad Lone’s party,all of whom had offeredhim their support. But hedeliberately chose theharder option of trying toforge an alliance with theBJP because he under-stood that this was theonly way of makingNarendra Modi’s BJPtruly understand andaddress the specific con-cerns of the Valley.

Chief of these is theconviction of Kashmirison both sides of the LoC,born out of six decades ofbitter experience, thatthey will never know

peace till the conflictwith Pakistan over theirstatus is resolved. Muftialso learned from hisown bitter experience in

2008 that Kashmir wouldnever get a stable govern-ment, and true peace, tillthe growing rift betweenJammu and Kashmir washealed.

The origins of this riftgo back to the days of themaharajas, whenKashmir’s emergingintelligentsia began tochafe against Dogra, thatis Jammu’s, dominanceof the kingdom. Kashmirgained ascendancy whenthe National Conferencecame to power in 1947,but it was Jammu’s turnto nurse a grievance. In1949, the maharaja’sparty, the Praja Parishad,merged with theBharatiya Jana Sangh ona platform of completeunion with India. Thispresented a threat toKashmiri ethno-national-ism — “Kashmiriyat”.

The 2002 elections,

possibly the first entirelyfree elections in the

Valley, ousted theNational Conference butthe fragility of the PDP-Congress allianceshowed how deep thedivide had grown. For, asthe 2008 electionsapproached, then ChiefMinister Ghulam NabiAzad was forced toattach greater importanceto fending off the BJP’schallenge in Jammu thanpreserving the autonomyof Kashmir. The conflictfinally came to a headwith the Amarnath landscam of 2008, when theBJP in Jammu blockadedthe Kashmir Valley andprevented most of its fruitharvest from reaching theIndian market.

The 2014 electionresults have

shown that, far fromsubsiding after the 2008crisis, the divide betweenJammu and Kashmir has

become almost unbridge-able. After his own sear-

ing experience in 2008,Mufti was convinced thathealing the rift had to behis first task. He hadappreciated the prompt-ness with which the courtmartial and sentencing ofthe five soldiers involvedin the killing of threeboys in the Machil fakeencounter of 2010 hadoccurred under theNarendra Modi govern-ment. He therefore chosethe harder path of form-ing a government withthe BJP.

The BJP had reasonsfor pursuing an alliancewith the PDP that hadnothing to do with con-spiracies to “saffronise”the Valley. It had gainedan absolute majority inParliament last May, witha vote share of just 31 percent, only because of thecollapse of the Congressand the resulting absence

of an organised opposi-tion. It knew that thiswould not last forever. Itsleaders, therefore, facedthe same choice that AtalBihari Vajpayee and L.K.Advani had after 1991: toretain power, the BJP hadto broaden its supportbase, but to do so, it hadto dilute its ideology andmove further towardspragmatism. Modi hadbeen begun moving awayfrom the Sangh Parivar’shardliners shortly beforePresident Obama’s visit.This shift has gainedmomentum after thevisit: in recent weeks, itis not only Modi, but alsoRSS chief MohanBhagwat who has made apoint of quoting SwamiVivekananda’s immortal1894 speech onHinduism in publicaddresses.

The two parties havetaken so long to arrive atan agreement because thegap between them wasvery large. Jammu wantsan end to the ambiva-lence of its position with-in the Indian Union. Itwants refugees who fledfrom Pakistan in 1947 tobe granted full citizen-ship and voting rights inthe state, and a redrawingof constituencies toaccommodate them. Italso wants a series ofstate laws on citizenshipand inheritance to bebrought in line withIndian law.

But it can only havethese if it respects, andconcedes, the Valley’sneed to preserve its dis-tinct identity, itsKashmiriyat. Thus, thedemands of the PDP addup to just this: let sleep-ing dogs like Article 370lie, and do not disturb theprocess of normalisation

with Pakistan that beganin 2005.

With sagacious leader-ship, a BJP-PDP coali-tion in Jammu andKashmir could create awin-win situation notonly for Kashmir, notonly for India, but alsofor the whole of SouthAsia. It would prove toKashmiris that they havenothing to fear from aHindu-dominated Centralgovernment in India. Byreassuring the world thatIndia remains wedded toreligious pluralism andsyncretism, it wouldenable Modi to wieldIndia’s “soft power”more effectively in theshaping of a new interna-tional order. It wouldenable India to resumethe normalisation processin Kashmir and substan-tially improve Pakistan’schances of winning thedo-or-die battle againstsectarian terrorism initi-ated by its 20-pointNational Action Plan andits 21st constitutionalamendment. The result-ing build-up of trustcould also facilitatecooperation to stabiliseAfghanistan after the USleaves.

Finally, working withthe PDP could weardown the hard edge ofprejudice againstMuslims that lies at thecore of the SanghParivar’s ideology. Sixyears of peaceful, respon-sible coalition rule inJ&K, India’s onlyMuslim-majority state,will therefore go a longway towards healing thewounds that Partitioninflicted on the Hindupsyche 67 years ago.

(Courtesy : IndianExpress)

by Prem Shankar Jha

MA, MO & GOMAMATA, MODI & GORKHALAND

The last two agitationsfor a separate statefor the Darjeeling

region have been like runaway trains which startedwith a abrupt jerk, gatheredsudden speed, roared andthundered across time andspace in break-neckmomentum and thencrashed head-on into someunknown, unheard, deso-late and isolated stationhaving created havoc andmayhem all across its run-away route. Only in thecase of the statehood move-ments in Darjeeling, thebleak and dreary stationswhere they crash headlonghad names-the first wasnamed DGHC and the sec-ond GTA.

Now, while what setforth the train into itsuncontrolled journey isknown to all- wide spreadmis-governance by theState Government, domi-nance and exploitation inthe hands of the State, lackof infrastructure, cravingfor a Separate State for thegenuinely aggrieved resi-dents of the DarjeelingHills, wide-spread disillu-sionment against the step-motherly treatment by themainland of West Bengaland for the sake of aNational Identity for thepatriotic and otherwisepeace-loving Gorkhasresiding for ages in this partof this Nation. But what isunknown is what causedthe train to crash head-onso suddenly when it seemedit would run its course andmaybe complete its jour-ney.. The 28 month agita-tion started and carried onby the then undisputedleader Mr. SubhasGheshing had a violentcrash into a granite hillnamed DGHC and the morerecent one under Mr. BimalGurung collided more vio-

lently into a money treenamed GTA but whatcaused the brakes to beapplied just when the desti-nation seemed close is amystery still waiting to bedeciphered.

The first mystery proba-bly can never be explainednow- it sadly being nowconsigned to ashes in theManju Tea estate. But thesecond can probably beexplained in the Ma Mocontext.. Mamta- Modicontext.. both of these veryshrewd and street, smartpoliticians led the naive andgullible leaders of theStatehood movement intobelieving they were themessiah of Indian GorkhaCommunity before thestormed into power…oncethey were cozilyentrenched in their respec-tive chairs, their colourschanged… the Gorkhastatehood issue suddenlybecame a political liabilityfor both of them. After allthose wanting a separatestate could decide the fateof just 3 or 4 Assemble con-stituencies and only a sin-gle Lok Shaba Seat whilethose opposed to thedemand could and woulddecide the composition ofthe State Government inWest Bengal and almost 40Lok Shaba seats. In a par-liamentary democracy likeours seats matter, every-thing else can take a hike.

In 2007 when the GJMMreignited the Gorkhalandflame, it was up against thethen Left Front which wastaking its last gasps of air inthe Government. MamataDidi, the all conqueringDidi was all set to form thenext Government. In herquest to garner the maxi-mum number of seats andin her efforts to be seen as asenior statesman, didiwooed the leadership of theDarjeeling Statehoodmovements and perhapsshowed them flowerydreams. All of it was for-

gotten once she led theTMC into the WritersBuilding- and then the car-rot and stick policy of hersstarted which the GJMleadership were forced toshallow having no otheroptions considering thealleged involvement ofsupporters of the GJM inthe Madan Tamang case aswell as the several otherlegal tangles that the StateGovernment had laid outfor the supporters and lead-ers of the GJM.

Finding that despite theblatant misuse of the StateMachinery, the voices cry-ing for a separate State stillwere not quieted, the TMCGovernment played whatthey felt was a masterstroke- and master stroke itwas for the Divide and RulePolicy that they initiated,has forever changed thecomplexion of Hill Politics.For the TMC led govern-ment in West Bengal aswell as for all opponents ofthe Darjeeling Statehoodmovement, it no doubt wasa political master stroke butfrom the view point ofethics and morality, nothingcould have been worse. Itshowed the levels thatTMC could stoop to. Itexhibited their meannessand their back-ground. Incomparison, the old guardsof the erstwhile Left FrontGovernment appeared likethe true Bhadralokes thatthe Bengali community isso famous for. At least theynever stooped so low. Theyfought the Statehood move-ment on a Political leveland never on an ethniclevel. The much famed Ne-Bu-La pact (Nepali-Bhutia-Lepcha) lay in tatters bothin letter and spirit. So muchon Ma and her Mamata….

The statehood demandsromance with BJP has asimilar story. The Congressled UPA I government wasat its fag end with the BJPwaiting impatiently on theside lines to come to power.

Each Lok Shaba seat wasimportant for both the BJPand the Congress and GJMcould deliver one seat tothem. The poaching gamebegan and BJP being thebetter manipulating sidemanaged to cajole the GJMleadership into supportingthe legendary JaswantSingh as a candidate for theDarjeeling ParliamentarySeat. Being the Politicalheavyweight he was, theGJM were convinced thatthe Statehood demandwould be catapulted to ahigher plane in the Nationalscenario. The BJP too ledthe GJM and the easilycredulous public ofDarjeeling to believe that aStatehood was just aroundthe corner if their man waselected. The public sentJaswant to Parliament witha record majority. But alasUPA came back to power atthe Center and the role ofthe highly respectedJaswant Singh turned out tobe that of an appointmentfixer.. All he did for theStatehood Demand was tofix appointments for theGJM leaders during theirfrequent Delhi with whoev-er they wanted to meet,mostly for photo sessions.

Five years later, the BJPwas all set to storm intopower in Delhi and Modiset to become the PrimeMinister of the largestdemocracy of the world.This time around SardarS.S.Aluwalia was pitchedin as the saviour of theGorkhas. With the BJPsweeping the elections witha brute majority the air inthe Hills of Darjeeling wasjubilant .. Statehood wasaround the corner was thebuzz in the air. SardarS.S.Aluwalia had madevery good sounding noisesin the lead up to the elec-tions. The public interpret-ed it as a confirmation thatthe new Parliament wouldvery soon set the DarjeelingArea free from the adminis-

tration of West Bengal.Sadly even before the hon-ourable Sardar on whomwe had put so much faith,himself stood on shakygrounds. Not only was henot made a minister in theUnion Cabinet as waswidely expected, he wasalso stripped off the post ofthe Vice President of theBJP. For those who couldsee, the writing was on thewall again… someone whohimself was on the way outcould offer us little. It alsoshowed how little the cen-tral leadership thought ofthe issue which helped theDarjeeling MP win theParliamentary elections.

The BJP and Modi nowhave their eyes firmly onWriters Building- the nextWest Bengal AssemblyElections to be held in thecoming year seems moresaffron than ever beforewith the likes of Amit Shahand others almost making ittheir next agenda. The Am-MO (Amit-Modi) combinewill not do anything whichwill dampen their chancesin the forthcomingAssembly elections in WestBengal. And certainlyspeaking of a separate statefor Darjeeling and evenmaking positive noises inthis direction will be suici-dal for the BJP chances inBengal. So is it optimisticto be expecting anythingfrom the BJP for the over-whelming support that thepeople of Darjeeling hadgiven them? I say it wouldbe foolish to expect any-thing.

I have always felt that theBJP was never actually sin-cere about the Statehoodissue in Darjeeling. I wouldbe most happy to be provedwrong but the opinion Ihave built of the BJP over aperiod of time is that allthey ever cared about wasforming a government atthe Center by whatevermeans, even if meant mak-ing false promises and

assurances just for the sakeof winning seats. Had theyreally been serious, consid-ering the brute majoritythey have at the Lok Shabaat the moment, they wouldhave at least placed thematter for discussion in thefloor of the Lower House ofParliament. Before thisbudget Session started, theLok Shaba had 55 sittingsin which 320 hours werespent. 36 Government Billswere placed and 31 of thempassed. 871 issued wereraised by members ofParliament in the last threesessions and 1291 issuedwere raised during the zerohour discussions.Surprisingly, not a singleword about a separate statefor the Darjeeling region.In the last threeParliamentary sessions, 68private members Bills wereintroduced by members ofthe House though nonewere passed by the house.Had the BJP really beenserious about the demandof Darjeeling, they couldhave allowed our MP fromDarjeeling to at least placea Private Members Bill inthe floor of the House..This just shows how seri-ous BJP is about theStatehood issue.

To end, I can just add onemore things.. Giving andtaking should always gohand in hand- when the BJPcan bypass Parliamentwhen they want to takeaway the farmers land bytaking the Ordinance Route(Land Acquisition Act)why can they not take upthe issue of returning theland of Darjeeling to itsown people, through thisvery route??

Let’s make no furthermistakes- neither MA norMO are interested to grantGO…

(The writer is the Editor ofHimalayan Times,Kalimpong)

Sandip C. Jain