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FRONTLINEDECEMBER 5, 2008 INDIA’S NATIONAL MAGAZINE RS.15WWW.FRONTLINE.IN

Long road aheadBarack Obama gets there after a steep climb,

and a new America waits for him to deliver on his promise: "Yes we can"

CHESS VISWANATHAN ANAND

Lord of the board 85TERRORISM MALEGAON

Of saffron variety 112SRI LANKA WAR IN THE NORTH

Chilling stories 48

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On the CoverBarack Obama at his first press confe-rence after being elected President, onNovember 7 in Chicago.

PHOTOGRAPH:JUSTIN SULLIVAN/GETTYIMAGES/AFP

COVER DESIGN: U. UDAYA SHANKAR

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ASSEMBLY ELECTIONSTicket troubles 25Rajasthan: Issues to the fore 26Mizoram: Quiet contest 28Chhattisgarh: Politics of rice 29Distress in the farms 31Madhya Pradesh: The spoilers 32Delhi: Battle of claims 34

SPACEChandrayaan-1 in the lunar orbit 36ISRO milestones 40The role of ISSDC 41India on the moon 126

NOBEL PRIZEPhysics: Broken symmetries 43

WORLD AFFAIRSSri Lanka: Chilling stories 48Curbs on the media 52Malaysia: Emerging son 54U.S. raid on Syria 56Interview: Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri, former Foreign Minister of Pakistan 59

ARTBuddhism: Vehicles of peace 64

CHESSViswanathan Anand: Lord of the board 85

CIVIL LIBERTIESTribunal on torture 91

TERRORISMOf saffron variety 112Shock of Assam 118

TRAVELAfrican experience 128

COLUMNR.K. Raghavan: Will he, won’t he? 82Bhaskar Ghose: Creative connection 89Jayati Ghosh: IMF at it again 94Praful Bidwai: Two cheers only 106

BOOKS 74

THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE 81

UPDATEGM in low gear 96Hope amidst despair 104

LETTERS 110

COVER STORY Long road aheadEnthused by “hope” and “change”, an Amer-ica that has recognised its diversity elects adark-skinned man to lead it. 4

RELATED STORIES

Beyond race 8The other side 10Waiting for peace 14

A Roosevelt moment 17Great expectations 21

WORLD AFFAIRSThe latest UTHR-J reportblames the government and theLTTE for making lifeunbearable in the war zone. 48

CHESSThree titles in as many formats:Viswanathan Anand is the onlyWorld Champion to prove himself in every possible way. 85

TERRORISMThe Malegaon blast probepoints to the existence ofseveral Hindu extremist outfitsin Maharashtra. 112

4 F R O N T L I N E

eras, not as a candidate but as the President-elect. The Bush years had taught the American people

to fear others and to despair about their prospects.Obama’s campaign put forward hope and change asits motif. For proof of that hope and change, Obamaneed only have pointed to the crowds at his ralliesover these two years and the enthusiasm they exud-ed. The crowds now came out and elected him Presi-dent.

The answer to those who wonder about the pow-er of democracy, he pointed out, was “told by linesthat stretched around schools and churches in num-bers this nation has never seen; by people who wait-ed three hours and four hours, many for the very firsttime in their lives, because they believed that thistime must be different, that their voice could be thatdifference.”

AT the selected hour, Barack Obama walkedwith his family down a broad catwalk into history.Thousands greeted them in Grant Park, Chicago,and millions more did so through their televisionscreens. Obama’s opponent, John McCain, had con-ceded a hard-fought and long election cycle. Obamahugged his family, and then turned to face the cam-

The weight of expectations makes the journey tough forBarack Obama. But nothing in histransition team justifies his slogan,“change we can believe in”.

Enthused by “hope” and “change”, an America that has recognised its diversity

elects a dark-skinned man to lead it. B Y V I J A Y P R A S H A D IN NEW YORK

Long road aheadCover Story

F R O N T L I N E 5

Obama won a clear majority (52per cent) of the 133 million votes cast.No Democrat since 1976 has won amajority of the votes. Even more as-tounding was Obama’s feat in the elec-toral college (E.C.). The founders ofthe U.S. political system worried thatdemocracy might amount to mob rule,so they created a mechanism to cir-cumvent the will of the voters.

Each State gets a certain number ofE.C. votes on the basis of its populationand the number of elected representa-tives it sends to Washington, D.C.Since each State elects two Senators,States with very small populations(Wyoming and Vermont) have a dis-proportionate impact on the E.C. Thishas traditionally benefited the Repu-blicans, who derive their support fromthe sparsely populated States of the

BARACK OBAMA, JOINED by histransition team, speaks to the mediaon November 7 in Chicago. He isflanked by Vice-President-elect Joe Biden (left) and Rahm Emanuel,who will be the new White HouseChief of Staff.

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south, the mid-west and the mountainstates.

The Democrats have, in the pastseveral decades, dominated the poli-tics of the more populous States on thetwo coasts (California and New York,for instance). But their populations areat a disadvantage in the E.C. In thiselection, Obama triumphed in many ofthe traditional Republican States(such as North Carolina, Virginia, In-diana and Colorado). He earned 364votes to McCain’s 163. It was alandslide.

O B A M A ’ S M A C H I N EObama’s campaign was monumental.The energy unleashed within thecountry was something to behold. Cer-tainly there was the growing disen-chantment with the overwhelmingfailure of the George Bush presidency.The Iraq war, the sub-prime economy,the collapsed infrastructure made dra-matic by Hurricane Katrina, and thegeneral sense of fear and belligerenceturned off substantial sections fromthe Republicans.

Bush’s approval rating hoveredaround 28 per cent during the courseof the presidential campaign. JohnMcCain inherited not only Bush’smantle but also a party whose mainideas had come unravelled. The chaosin Iraq and an admission by formerFederal Reserve chair Alan Greenspanthat the laissez-faire economic policiesmight have been excessive pushedMcCain’s head below water. A lack offresh ideas meant that McCain couldonly harp on about lower taxes. Withunemployment on the rise, incomewas the problem, not taxes.

Any Democratic candidate wouldhave been in a good position given thiscontext. But Obama was not just anycandidate. He was disciplined anddexterous, who not only carried theweight of history lightly but also madesure to remain unruffled by the riotousattacks by the Republicans. Withoutfresh ideas, they threw everything athim. He did not pay them back in theirown coin, preferring to stay with theissues, careful to act in accordancewith his pledge to create a new gram-

mar for American politics. The oner-ous primary campaign pitted Obamaagainst some heavyweights in theDemocratic Party, most notably Hil-lary Clinton.

Hillary attacked Obama on everyfront – his skin colour, his name, hisage, his resume. None of it worked. Shedid win some States with impressivemargins, but she did not build the na-tionwide organisation that catapultedObama to the Democratic Party’s can-didacy. Not taking the lesson of hissuperb field-game to heart, McCainhurled the same kinds of things atObama: his name, his religion, his re-sume. But none of these mattered.

What counted was that Obama’steam used every available (old andnew) technological means to reach outto potential voters, register them andbring them to the polls. The campaignbuilt up a database of small donors andvolunteers, many from States that theDemocratic establishment had givenup on as too hard to win (the “Red”States). Obama’s campaign reachedout to all these volunteers and madethem the backbone of its effort to reachinto neighbourhoods and workplaces,to transform everyday conversationsinto political discussions.

The Obama machine was well-oiled and unprecedented, able to gath-er the grievances of the populationaround the standard of transforma-tion. This was not an anti-Bush cam-paign alone but one that spoke to theaspirations of the population andtransformed their resentments intohope.

O B A M A ’ S I N S P I R A T I O NThe war in Iraq appeared a fiasco with-in months of its start. By late summer2003, opinion polls showed supportfor the war falling along with the pop-ularity of Bush. The Democratic Partyheld its primary campaign over thewinter of 2003-04, and during thecourse of a less-than-inspiring fight,Senator John Kerry won the nomina-tion.

Kerry ran a miserable campaign,unwilling to challenge Bush on thequestion of torture and unable to nail

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the increasingly unpopular war on theBush administration (Kerry had votedin October 2002 to authorise the use offorce against Iraq). Kerry insufficient-ly galvanised those who felt imprison-ed by the triumphant tone of theRepublicans.

At his nominating convention,Kerry appeared already defeated. But afew days earlier, the Democratic Partyhad found its saviour. In 17 minutesand with 2,300 words the little-knowncandidate for Senator of Illinois, Ba-rack Obama, rocked the country. Asrhetoric, his speech was powerful, par-ticularly if you factor in the smoothdelivery by Obama. But what made itall the more momentous was that itworked for the Democrats, as the mo-ment when the party rediscovered itscapacity.

Obama’s plea to go beyond parti-sanship was not new; indeed that iswhat every candidate seems to say. Norwas the laundry list of grievances helaid out. What was new was the fluencywith which he talked to a new kind ofAmerica, not one that was captured byeither the Democrats or the Republi-cans.

He reached out beyond the Demo-crats’ base of unions, civil rights orga-nisations and environmentalists.Marrying pragmatism with inspira-tional rhetoric, Obama hastened pastthe litmus tests that often trap Demo-cratic candidates into the “wedge is-sues” Republicans use to move theirbase (abortion rights has been themain lever). Obama went home to Chi-cago and won the senatorial contesthandily.

Two years later, he entered theDemocratic primary for the presiden-cy. Others have run for President withas light a resume (Abraham Lincoln,for instance). That would be an issue,but it was not substantial. Obama tookup the mantle of the progressive candi-date, one carried in previous primariesby Jesse Jackson (1984, 1988) and Ho-ward Dean (2004).

The Democratic Party establish-ment’s candidate was Hillary Clinton,who inherited its donors. But what theparty could not have foreseen was that

its base was not prepared to anoint itschoice. Kerry’s failure to win an elec-tion against a President embroiled inan unnecessary war proved that thejudgment of the party elders was not tobe trusted.

Obama’s machine moved rapidlyto consolidate this base and to speakfor it. Using all the new technologyavailable, Obama reached out to theactivists and to those who quickly be-came activists. They helped raise mon-ey, hold house parties to spread theword, and became the foot soldiers ofhis accession. “Hope” and “change” en-thused them, and Obama’s deft abilityto side-step the minefields of the “cul-ture wars” (abortion, gay marriage)widened his appeal.

Since the 1980s, the DemocraticParty’s establishment has adopted thetheory of triangulation: insecure aboutthe party’s positions, the Democrats,like other Third Way parties, tried tomimic the Right on many issues. Oba-ma’s rhetorical flourishes did not sub-scribe to such mimicry. His was acannier tactic, to claim that the major-ity of Americans did not subscribe todivisiveness. He was unwilling to bedrawn into a politics of division.

John McCain never knew what hithim. Picking Sarah Palin, McCaintried to gain traction with his conser-vative base as well as draw in somewomen who felt embittered by HillaryClinton’s loss. His hopes did not panout. His campaign looked angry anddisgruntled. When he said “hope” hesounded sarcastic. The sub-prime col-lapse towards the end of the campaignsealed his fate. He suspended his cam-paign and rushed to Washington, as ifto take charge of the process. But hisown party failed him by refusing to besteamrolled into voting for the bail out.McCain looked ineffectual rather thanpresidential.

Obama, meanwhile, maintainedhis cool. He consulted with the estab-lishment economists and spoke reas-suringly about the need to move thebail out from Wall Street to MainStreet (and, through a jobs pro-gramme, to the unemployment lines).This was the moment at which the

election was decided. Polls showedMcCain in the dust and Obama on arelentless rise. The vote on November4 was a forgone conclusion.

M A K I N G H I S T O R YThe son of a white mother and a blackfather, one whose middle name is Hus-sein, and one who has lived and trav-elled widely around the world; this isnot the typical biography of a Presi-dent. Even 20 years ago it would havebeen impossible to imagine the mo-ment. But much has changed in thepast decades. The civil rights laws ofthe 1960s gave full legal equality tonon-white citizens, although this bare-ly altered the conditions of deprivationfor those who need only glance back-ward to see their enslaved ancestors.

Nevertheless, the new conditionsof the 1980s enabled select non-whitecitizens to move into the upper reachesof the military, the academy, and thecorporate world. In this post-segregat-ed world, diversity was valued, andmainstream institutions prided them-selves for hiring non-whites. It is thischange that opened the doors of Occi-dental College, Columbia Universityand then Harvard to Barack Obama. Ageneration of black, Latino, and Asianyouth came out of these elite institu-tions to positions of authority in thecountry’s institutions. What distin-guished Obama from most of thosewho graduated from these colleges isthat he decided to relinquish the lureof Wall Street for the most impover-ished streets. He became a communityorganiser.

In his 1995 memoir, Dreams of MyFather, Obama narrates how he wasmoved by the culture of the civil rightsmovement. From it he learnt that“communities had to be created,fought for, tended like gardens. Theyexpanded or contracted with thedreams of men – and in the civil rightsmovement those dreams had beenlarge.”

His journey through the streets ofChicago to the presidency was markedby a determination to allow people tohave big dreams and to tend to com-munities, small and large. But the ad-

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JOHN MCCAIN, THE Republican presidential candidate, greets his runningmate Sarah Palin at his election-night rally in Phoenix on November 4.

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vantage for Obama was that his pur-suit of the highest offices came at atime when diversity had become thedominant ethos. His achievement ishis and of his times. He is not a blackpolitician, someone who wins office ina predominantly black neighbourhoodand principally tends to the needs ofthe black community. He is a dark-skinned man who leads a nation thathas come to recognise its diversity.

Obama’s victory is not, however, avictory over racism or social turmoil.The police will continue to discrimi-nate against black drivers; bank offi-cials will continue to snub black buyersin what are seen as white neighbour-hoods. The petty insults and the mea-ningful discriminations will not beovercome when he swears the oath tooffice in January 2009. This does notlessen his ascent, but only sharpens itsmonumental nature: he won the elec-tion despite the persistence of structu-ral racism.

O B A M A ’ S A G E N D AShortly after winning the election,Obama named his transition team.Congressman Rahm Emanuel, whoworked in the Clinton White House,will be Obama’s Chief of Staff. With areputation for hard-nosed partisan-ship, Emanuel comes to the team witha commitment to pragmatic, right-of-centre politics (and an unhealthycloseness to Israel).

In his early statements, Emanueltried to ratchet down the campaign’s

rhetoric, talking about doing what“you get elected to do”. The issues hewants on the table are those that havebipartisan support, such as children’shealth care and stem-cell research.Neither of these is bold. This is alongthe grain of what many in the Demo-cratic establishment have begun tosay. Democratic leaders such as Ha-rold Ickes point out that “the countryremains very evenly divided”, so Dem-ocrats must govern with those who didnot vote for them in mind.

The transition team is headed byBill Clinton’s White House Chief ofStaff, John Podesta, now head of theCentre for American Progress. Podestahas brought on several people from theCentre’s orbit, including Sonal Shah,an Indian American who has on occa-sion participated in events organisedby Hindutva groups (she has since saidthat “my personal politics have noth-ing in common with the views es-poused by the VHP [Vishwa HinduParishad], the RSS [RashtriyaSwayamsewak Sangh] or any such or-ganisation,” although this does not an-swer why she has participated in theiractivities).

Apart from the policy wonks, thereare the corporate figures, many ofwhom raised funds for Obama. Theseare not the giants of the corporateworld, but they are nonetheless fromfinance, real estate and insurance(people like Citigroup’s Michael Fro-man, Vestar Capital Partner’s FedericoPena and Rock Creek Ventures’ Julius

Genachowski). There are also a slate ofcentrist Democrats, people such asArizona Governor Janet Napolitanoand former Clinton official CarolBrowner. Obama has also brought inDemocratic veterans such as SamNunn and Warren Christopher to leadthe transition into the Defence andState departments respectively.

Nothing in this transition teamresonates with Obama’s slogan,“change we can believe in”. The per-sonnel, at any rate, seem to be more ofthe same. This is why Nobel Prize win-ner Paul Krugman used his perch atThe New York Times to urge Obama tohave the “good sense to ignore thisadvice… this year’s presidential elec-tion was a clear referendum on politi-cal philosophies – and the progressivephilosophy won.”

Obama could face a revolt withinthe activist base if he does not moveswiftly on some of its issues. He hasindicated that he will use his executivepowers to reverse a series of Bush mea-sures, such as the restriction of U.S. aidto global outfits that teach safe sex orprovide abortions.

In addition, Obama has signalledthat he will begin a process to close theU.S. prison at Guantanamo, as well asreverse many of the policies of the waron terror that go against the GenevaConventions. Finally, Obama willmove against the Bureau of LandManagement’s policy to open about360,000 acres (14,400 hectares) ofland for oil and gas drilling. These aresignificant gestures that would reverseparts of the Bush agenda. They are alsored meat for the activist base.

For many, the Obama victory re-mains a “people’s victory”. The desirefor change awakened by his campaignremains alive and it will make toomany concessions to the establish-ment difficult to stomach. Obama isaware of this. In his victory speech, hetempered the emotions with a caution-ary note. “The road ahead will be long.Our climb will be steep. We may notget there in one year or even in oneterm. But America, I have never beenmore hopeful than I am tonight thatwe will get there.” �

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“Will Obama, the first black Presi-dent in the history of the UnitedStates, realise Martin Luther King’sdream or Condoleezza Rice’s night-mare? The White House, which isnow his house, was built by blackslaves. I hope he won’t forget it, ever.”

— Eduardo Galeano, “Ojalá,”Página/12, November 6, 2008.

AS the world savours Barack Oba-ma’s ascent to the highest post in theUnited States, the same politicalpundits who impatiently insistedthat we transcend race by not talkingabout it have made race the issue dujour. We’ve heard jubilant claimsthat Obama’s victory marks the finalnail in the coffin of racism.

Unfortunately, these prematureproclamations obscure what is mostsignificant about this election: Oba-ma’s politics of hope – his vision ofuniting the nation around the cre-ation of a caring, compassionate cul-ture built from the “bottom up”– isactually rooted in the traditions ofabolition-democracy, the ex-slaves’post-emancipation Republicanism,and Obama’s own direct experienceorganising the black urban poor inChicago.

The President-elect brings anage-old vision of civil society, born inthe age of Reconstruction (1865-1877), that demands democratic en-gagement and understands thestate’s role to support those in need,educate its citizens, ensure equal op-portunity for all, protect civil liber-ties and civil rights and removediscriminatory barriers. It was a po-litical vision for the nation, not justfor African Americans, and one thatwas tragically rejected by most whiteAmericans. By the 1890s, white su-premacists had effectively used legal

and extralegal means, includingmob violence and assassination, todisfranchise black voters.

Not until the mid-1960s, thanksto black struggles for the franchise(culminating in the passage of theVoting Rights Act of 1965), do we seeany significant national black partic-ipation in electoral politics. So whenShirley Chisholm became the firstAfrican American to seek the Demo-cratic presidential nomination in1972, most black voters had only re-cently had their rights restored. In-deed, Obama himself was only thethird African American elected tothe Senate since Reconstruction.

With the restoration of the blackfranchise came the resurrection ofthe radical Republican vision of ex-slaves, now seeking a home in theDemocratic Party. Black folks downin Mississippi and Alabama calledthemselves “freedom democrats”,and the first black political conven-tion in Gary, Indiana, in 1972, casttheir role as “the vanguard in thestruggle for a new society”. JesseJackson’s presidential bids of 1984and 1988 embodied this vision. His“Rainbow Coalition” built allianceswith Latinos and Asian Americans,supported Native American rights,opposed factory closings, supporteda single-payer health plan, called forfederal assistance to strugglingfarmers, promised to cut military ex-penditure by at least 20 per cent, andproposed expanding affirmative ac-tion for women, among other things.Like Obama now and Chisholm be-fore him, Jackson mobilised millionsalienated from politics, bent on mov-ing the country in a new direction.

Clearly, Obama could not havewon on Jackson’s platform, and yethis campaign embraces many of the

same tenets – a state that interveneson behalf of the downtrodden, ex-pands democratic participation, andtakes seriously the principle of equalprotection under the law.

Of course, there is no guaranteethat President Obama will not be-tray his political heritage, and hismilitarism already stands in sharpcontrast to his hero, Dr. MartinLuther King, Jr., who insisted thatwe cannot end poverty without end-ing war and the unbridled and vio-lent march of global capital.Likewise, we will never have real ec-onomic stability unless the U.S. de-fends workers’ rights around theglobe, supports environmental jus-tice, democratises economic institu-tions and protects the rights ofwomen and persecuted minorities.

So the question is this: will Oba-ma be the first “freedom democrat”in the White House, or will he proveto be just another Democratic Presi-dent who happens to be black?Moreover, will America embrace orreject freedom democracy, or whatW.E.B. Du Bois has called “the gift ofblack folk”?

Robin D.G. Kelley is a Professor ofHistory and American Studies at theUniversity of Southern California.Author of many prize-winningbooks, his latest is TheoloniousMonk: The Life and Times of anAmerican Original (December2008).

Beyond race

MARTIN LUTHER KING (right) withJesse Jackson Jr. at the LorraineMotel in Memphis on April 3, 1968, aday before he was assassinated.

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Will Obama be the first “freedom democrat” in the White

House? B Y R O B I N D . G . K E L L E Y

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BARACK OBAMA’S victory in the United Statespresidential election has elicited a mixed responsefrom various capitals. International public opinionhas been overwhelmingly in favour of the African-American candidate, but some governments are wa-ry about an Obama presidency. Many governments,especially the ones in India, Israel and Colombia,were extremely happy with the Bush presidency for avariety of reasons. India was favoured with a nucleardeal. Israel was allowed to keep on expanding andput the peace process on the back burner. Colombiawas the beneficiary of huge amounts of U.S. assis-tance to crush left-wing guerillas and organisations.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had told Bush,the lame-duck President, on his last visit to Wash-ington that the Indian people deeply loved him. Thiswas at a time when Bush’s domestic approval ratingwas at a historical low. The Prime Minister’s remarksreflected the Indian political establishment’s mind-set. The Republican candidate, John McCain, prom-ised on the campaign trail to strengthen further the“special relationship” between the two “largest de-mocracies” of the world, the U.S. and India. Obama,too, said he would strengthen bilateral relations and,in a letter to the Indian Prime Minister, expressedhis “strong commitment to take forward the Indo-U.S. strategic partnership”.

K A S H M I R Q U E S T I O NBut the President-elect’s views on the Kashmir issueriled the government in New Delhi. In an interviewto Time in October, just before the U.S. went to thepolls, Obama said that he wanted “to devote seriousdiplomatic resources to get a special envoy in there,to figure out a plausible approach” to find a solution

to the Kashmir dispute. He said that he had soundedout former President Bill Clinton to be the specialenvoy. On previous occasions, he had said that apositive direction to the Kashmir dispute would en-courage Pakistan to cooperate wholeheartedly withthe U.S. in Afghanistan. Like many others in the U.S.political establishment, Obama is of the view thatthere is a linkage between Afghanistan and Kashmir.

His major foreign policy focus, if his talk on thecampaign trail is to be taken seriously, will be onAfghanistan. He has said on umpteen occasions thatU.S. troops will withdraw from Iraq and then con-centrate on the “good war” in Afghanistan. He hasdescribed the war in Afghanistan as the “central

The other side

New Delhi, which has beencomfortable working with the Bushadministration, is somewhatdisturbed by the President-elect’sremarks on the Kashmir issue.

Barack Obama’s victory has been widely welcomed, but some nations are wary of

what it might hold for them. B Y J O H N C H E R I A N

Cover Story

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front in the war on terror”. GeneralDavid Petraeus, who heads the U.S.Central Command (Centcom), whichcovers Central and West Asia, said inSeptember that the challenges of theregion could only be solved by involv-ing all the major players, including Pa-kistan, Iran and Saudi Arabia.

Many foreign policy analysts havebeen calling for a change in U.S. pol-icies towards Pakistan. Barnett Rubinand Ahmad Rashid, writing in the in-fluential Foreign Policy journal, havesuggested that Washington shouldpursue a “high-level diplomatic initia-tive designed to build genuine consen-sus on the goal of achieving Afghanstability by addressing the legitimatesources of Pakistan’s insecurity”, espe-cially vis-a-vis India. According to re-ports, Rashid consulted Petraeus inconnection with the article.

Obama’s talk about sending U.S.troops on cross-border raids into Pa-kistan to root out terror havens was,

however, appreciated in New Delhi.India has been an open supporter ofPresident Bush’s doctrine of pre-emp-tion. The latest illustration was thesupport expressed for the U.S. militarystrike against Syria in late October.Pakistan has been subjected to morethan 19 aerial strikes in the past coupleof years. Since 2004, the Bush admin-istration has secretly authorised mil-itary raids against 20 countrieswithout a declaration of war. Obamahas on several occasions expressedsupport for bolstering the U.S. mil-itary’s Special Operations Forces,which engage in cross-border raids.

During the eight years of the Bushadministration, the U.S. de-linked re-lations with India from those with Pa-kistan. Washington carefully kept ahands-off policy on Kashmir, a factmuch appreciated by the Indian for-eign policy establishment. Thingscould now change. “Human rights”formed a central plank in Obama’s

campaign. He spoke extensively on petAmerican liberal agendas such as Dar-fur and Zimbabwe, besides criticisingthe rampant human rights abusescommitted under the Bush adminis-tration as it conducted its “war on ter-ror”. Most observers expect thenotorious Guantanamo Bay prison,where suspects have been incarceratedand tortured, to be closed down underthe Obama presidency.

Obama also said after his victorythat he would seek “a world with nonuclear weapons”. Fears are alreadybeing expressed in New Delhi thatwith Congress and the Senate underDemocratic control, the new adminis-tration will bring back the Compre-hensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), andother long-pending treaties opposedby Bush, on top of the agenda. Indianpolicymakers are reassuring them-selves that President Obama will bemore preoccupied with the global eco-nomic crisis and domestic issues for atleast the next two years. New Delhi canalso draw solace from the fact thatObama has never stood consistently byany of his commitments.

His selection of Rahm Israel Ema-nuel as his Chief of Staff could be apointer of things to come. Emanuel,who holds joint U.S.-Israeli citizen-ship, fought in the Israel Defence Forc-es in the early 1990s. His father was aleading member of the terrorist Irgungang, which was responsible for thekilling of hundreds of Palestinians inthe run-up to Israel’s independence.The appointment of Sonal Shah in thecore group of the Obama-Biden “tran-sition team” is being viewed positivelyin New Delhi. Shah, who worked in theClinton administration, has denied re-ports alleging that she was once amember of the right-wing VishwaHindu Parishad in India.

Obama’s grandiose plans forbringing about peace in West Asia andend the wars in Iraq and Afghanistancould take a long time to unfold. Thenew administration hopes to involve

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CELEBRATIONS IN KISUMU inwestern Kenya, the home town ofObama’s father, after his victory.

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regional powers and major globalplayers to find solutions. The IraqStudy Group (ISG) report in 2007 rec-ommended a “new diplomatic offen-sive” to achieve political stability inIraq. It emphasised the importance ofengaging Syria and Iran in a regionalframework that would also include theUnited Nations and the EuropeanUnion. The Obama presidency couldwell choose to proceed on the linesrecommended by the ISG. The ISG’s“New Diplomatic Offensive” was alsofor a “comprehensive Arab-Israeli”peace agreement to safeguard U.S. in-terests in the region.

I R A N ’ S G E S T U R EThere is an acknowledgement inWashington of the reality that in theeight years of the Bush presidency,Iran’s power and influence expandedconsiderably. Thanks mainly to theBush administration’s blunders, Teh-eran now has considerable leverage inAfghanistan, Iraq and the rest of WestAsia. Iran has been consistently sig-nalling that it is willing for a “grandagreement” with the U.S. provided itssecurity interests are addressed. Ira-nian President Mahmud Ahmadine-jad broke with tradition to send thePresident-elect a prompt congratula-tory letter, in which he praised theAmerican people and expressed hishope for significant changes in U.S.foreign policy.

During his campaign, Obama saidhe was open to a dialogue with Iran butalso pledged to “toughen” sanctions onthe country to prevent a “nuclear-armed Iran”. Many of Obama’s top ad-visers want him to prioritise the Iranissue. Dennis Ross, his senior foreignpolicy adviser, is a signatory to a recentreport – “Meeting the Challenge: U.S.Policy toward Iranian Nuclear Devel-opment” by the American EnterpriseInstitute, a think-tank with close con-nections with the powerful Jewish lob-by in the U.S. The report has beendescribed as a virtual road map for awar with Iran.

Ross has also been held respon-sible for Obama’s pandering to theZionist lobby in the last months of the

campaign. Obama went to the extentof saying that Jerusalem should be thecapital of Israel. This is a position thateven President Bush did not dare totake. If Obama spurns the olive branchoffered by Iran and opts to continuewith the tough line of the current Pres-ident on the Iranian nuclear issue andPalestine, he will send the wrong sig-nals to the Arab street and to the Mus-lim world in general.

Iran has already reacted strongly toObama’s comments in his first post-election press conference. Obama saidthat it was “unacceptable” for Iran todevelop nuclear weapons and thatthere should be a concerted interna-tional attempt to prevent it. Iran is asignatory to the Nuclear Non-Prolifer-ation Treaty (NPT) and has insistedthat it is interested in harnessing nu-clear energy for peaceful purposes on-ly. Tiny Israel has the largest nucleararsenal in the region, surpassing thatof India. The Iranian media comparedObama’s comments to those of Presi-dent Bush.

In his letter to Obama, Ahmadine-jad said that the world expected“changes” from the new administra-tion. According to Ahmadinejad, theprevious administration’s policieswere “based on warmongering, occu-pation, bullying, deception and humil-iation”. Many of Washington’s closeallies in Europe and West Asia wantthe U.S.-Iran dialogue to resume.

A F R I C A N R E S P O N S EAfricans were the happiest with Oba-ma’s victory. Kenya, his father’s home-land, declared a national holiday tocelebrate it. “Barack” in Arabic andSwahili means “blessed”.

President Bush had lavished a lotof aid on a few African countries thatwere close military allies of the U.S. Itwill be a hard act for Obama to followas he will inherit a battered economy.Because of the deep financial crunch inthe U.S., the Obama presidency mayhave to scale down its developmentalactivities in the African continent. TheBush administration’s initiatives onthe African continent include the Mil-lennium Challenge Account (MCA)

and the President’s $15-billion Emer-gency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).

Obama will, however, have to dealwith the mess the Bush presidency isleaving behind. He will have to decidewhether to continue bankrolling theEthiopian occupation of Somalia. TheEthiopian invasion, carried out underU.S. supervision, has complicated thesituation in the Horn of Africa. Thehumanitarian situation has worsenedmainly because of unnecessary Amer-ican meddling. The crisis in the Congo,which threatens to trigger a regionalwar once again, will need Obama’s ur-gent attention. The war in the Congo isa proxy one, with the big powersscrambling for its bountiful naturalresources.

The African Union (A.U.), andAfrican civil society in general, has tak-en a stand against the U.S. militarycommand for Africa (United StatesAfrica Command, or AFRICOM),which wants to set up military bases onthe continent. So far, only Liberia hasbeen willing to give basing facilities tothe U.S. military. Both Obama andMcCain endorsed President Bush’splans for AFRICOM. Most Africanstates view it as part of PresidentBush’s neocon agenda for the world.AFRICOM was former U.S. DefenceSecretary Donald Rumsfeld’s finalplan before stepping down. Its aimsinclude combating the growing Chi-nese influence in the region and secur-ing energy supplies from thecontinent.

On his campaign trail, Obamatalked about starting a new aid pro-gramme – “Add Value to InitiativeProgram” – aimed at boosting Africanagricultural output. But critics havepointed out that the initiative will bemeaningless if it is not accompanied bya fair trade system and climate-changelegislation.

Obama’s views on the situation inDarfur are well known. He, along withVice-President-elect Joseph Biden,have been votaries of a proactive policyagainst Sudan. Both of them have sup-ported the call for the establishment ofa no-fly zone over Darfur, unilaterallyif necessary. They have used the term

D E C E M B E R 5 , 2 0 0 8


“genocide” for the casualties that haveoccurred there in the past six years offighting.

Meanwhile, Southern Sudanseems to be gearing up for an armedshowdown with the central govern-ment in Khartoum. A referendum onindependence for Southern Sudan is tobe held in 2011. Pro-U.S. governmentsin the region are helping the southernSudanese with arms and training withthe tacit approval of Washington. Therecent revelations of tanks and anti-aircraft guns from Ukraine being rout-ed via Kenyan ports have exposed thegame plan for balkanising Sudan.

R U S S I A ’ S A L I E N A T I O NObama seems to be aware of the depthof Russia’s alienation from the U.S.following the Bush administration’sdecision to set up missile bases in Po-land and the Czech Republic. The “col-our revolutions” in East Europe andCentral Asia, manipulated from West-ern capitals, coupled with the aggres-sive enlargement of the North AtlanticTreaty Organisation (NATO) and theE.U., have not helped matters. Wash-ington’s attempts to isolate Moscow onthe Southern Ossetia issue have failed.Even Bush started soft-pedalling onhis support for Georgia after the de-tails of its military adventurism wereexposed.

Obama has been ambiguous on themissile-defence system that the Bushadministration wants to install in Cen-tral Europe at Russia’s doorstep. Rus-sian President Dmitry Medvedevannounced on the day of the Obamavictory that short-range missileswould be installed in Kaliningrad, aRussian enclave in Central Europe sit-uated between NATO members Po-land and Lithuania. His predecessor,Vladimir Putin, had warned in Febru-ary 2007 that Russia would be “forced”to target U.S. missile systems if theywere installed in Poland and the CzechRepublic. In the second week of No-vember, the British newspaper TheDaily Telegraph reported that Obamahad refused to commit himself to themissile-defence project. One of Oba-ma’s foreign policy advisers told the

newspaper that the President-elect re-mained committed to the missile-de-fence shield but would deploy it only“when the technology is proved worka-ble”. Several test firings of the systemhave ended in failure.

L A T I N A M E R I C A ’ S A N G E RLatin America distanced itself fromWashington in the years of the Bushpresidency. Most of the important La-tin American countries are under lef-tist administrations. A recent pollconducted in 18 Latin American coun-tries rated Bush among the least pop-ular leaders of the world. BarackObama’s advisers on Latin Americahave said that there will be a shift instyle. The White House under the newdispensation will appoint a special en-voy for the Americas. The emphasiswill be on constructive partnership.The U.S. will find it difficult to counterVenezuela’s growing influence in theregion. A bankrupt U.S. is in no posi-tion to dole out financial aid to needyLatin American countries.

President Hugo Chavez, whoseopinion about the present incumbentof the White House is well known, saidthat Obama’s victory was “a sign thatthe era of change which has taken rootin South America could be reachingthe doorstep of the United States”. Hesaid he was willing to talk to the newPresident “on equal footing and with

respect”. Venezuela had expelled theU.S. ambassador in September. “For ablack man to become President of theU.S. is not a small thing. The entireworld is watching,” Chavez said.Though Obama called Chavez an “au-thoritarian figure”, he has not goneback on his offer to talk to the Vene-zuelan leader “without preconditions”.

Cuban leader Fidel Castro, in anarticle that appeared a day before theU.S. presidential election, said thatObama was the better candidate incomparison with the warmongeringMcCain. Obama had promised to easesome of the harshest aspects of theU.S. blockade on Cuba. He hadpledged to lift travel restrictions, sothat Cuban Americans could visit theirfamilies in Cuba, and to allow remit-tances to be sent to Cuba.

Obama has even offered to open adialogue with Cuba. If this happens, itwill be the first time in 50 years that aU.S. President sits down for talks withthe Cuban government. But Cubandiplomats are sceptical about Obama’scapability to override the powerful,right-wing Cuban-American lobby inthe U.S.. They point out that it wasanother young and charismatic Demo-cratic President, by the name of JohnF. Kennedy, who ordered the invasionof Cuba. It was during the Clinton ad-ministration that many of the draco-nian laws reinforcing the blockadeagainst Cuba, such as the Helms-Bur-ton law, were passed.

Hispanics, who constitute a bigsegment of the U.S. population now,voted overwhelmingly in favour ofObama. The Bush administration’s de-cision to construct a permanent fenceacross the U.S.-Mexico border has an-gered the whole of Latin America.Obama, too, had supported the con-struction of the 4,500-km wall, but healso said that he was in favour of acomprehensive package of reforms tohelp illegal immigrants achieve legalcitizenship rights. Migration, anyway,is no longer a hot-button issue becauseof the economic recession in the U.S.Many Latin American migrants are al-ready returning to their home coun-tries. �

PRESIDENT MAHMOUDAHMADINEJAD of Iran broke withtradition to send Obama acongratulatory letter.

ATTA

KEN

ARE/

AFP

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LIKE the five peas in a pod in Hans ChristianAndersen’s fairy tale who believed the world to befirst green then yellow, the Israelis see the worldstrictly through their own interests, or perceivedinterests. Days after the United States presidentialelection and its dramatic results, most of the Israelimedia are focussing on the President-elect’s attitudetowards Israel and the West Asian conflict (aka the“peace process”), with an emphasis on Iran.

The tasks before Barack Obama are Herculean.He must first of all tackle the tremendous economiccrisis shaking the world and the painful uncertaintyabout the future – jobs, income, mortgages, educa-tion, health – gripping the majority of Americansand millions of others in the Western world. He mustdecide on how to proceed in Iraq and in Afghanistan.He will have to end the secrecy and the roughshodtrampling of civil and human rights that have char-acterised the George W. Bush administration. Hewill have to repair America’s relations with the in-ternational community and the system of conven-tions, treaties and accords it has built up since 1945.He will have to restart American research into fieldsstifled by the evangelicals. In short, he is faced with achallenge of perhaps unprecedented magnitude.

But here in Israel, all this hardly impinges on theview of the coming administration. Most Israelis sawthe U.S. elections as a choice between a continuationof past policies, as represented by John McCain andhis supporters, and something new and unknownand hence threatening. McCain, who sang “Bomb,bomb, bomb Iran!” and whose Republican asso-ciates ensured unconditional devotion to Israel’sright-wing camp, seemed to many Israelis like a safepair of hands. Obama, who does not shout, whospeaks in reasonable tones and suggests that dia-logue might be better than “pre-emptive” attacks,who does not use the Bush administration rhetoricabout “rogue nations” and “axis of evil”, looks to theIsraelis like a new kid on the block who cannot betrusted to maintain the bullying order.

Obama did his best: he appeared before theZionist lobby, the American Israel Public AffairsCommittee, or AIPAC, (which should strictly be de-scribed as the right-wing Likud lobby) and mouthed

Waiting for peaceShould Israelis continue to evaluate the relations between Israel and the U.S.

in the terms coined and tendered by the Zionist lobby? B Y Y A E L L O T A N IN TEL AVIV

Cover Story

A PALESTINIAN PAINTER putting the finishingtouches to his painting of Barack Obama, inRamallah on November 4. Polls have periodicallyshown that many Israelis would favour a completewithdrawal from the occupied territories in returnfor a peace accord with the Palestinians and Syria.

MU

HAM

MED

MU

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/AP

This is a crucial question because thereality is much more complex andshifting than the image projected inWestern media. Much of this imagehas been crafted by the alliancebetween right-wing Israelis andAmerican fundamentalist Christians.

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all the usual platitudes as did his rivalHillary Clinton and his running mate,Joe Biden. It helped, and indeed over70 per cent of the Jewish-Americanvoters gave him their support. This isroughly in keeping with the traditionalJewish preference for Democrats. InIsrael, however, American citizenswho voted went the other way – abouttwo-thirds of them voted for McCain.

I S R A E L I S ’ D E S I R E F O R P E A C EBut should we continue to evaluate therelations between Israel and the U.S.in the terms coined and tendered bythe Zionist lobby or in terms of theconditions in West Asia? This is a cru-cial question because the reality on theground is much more complex andshifting than the image projected inthe mainstream media in the West.Much of this image has been crafted bythe alliance between right-wing Israe-lis (that is, the Likud and its circle) andAmerican fundamentalist Christians,

widely known as evangelicals. The lat-ter were central players in the adminis-tration of Bush Jr., and they combinedwith the neocons – a strange sect ofex-Marxists with a peculiarly bellige-rent ideology – to steer the U.S. into itspresent quagmire. Between them theyco-opted the West Asian narrative.

In their presentation, Israel’s veryexistence is threatened by Hamas,Hizbollah and, most dangerously, theIslamic Republic of Iran. A secondHolocaust may begin at any momentunless Israel is totally supported, wha-tever its actions. This rhetoric has beenreverberating in the U.S. elections onthe understanding that Israel’s inter-ests are identical with those of the U.S.People who question this presentationare dubbed “controversial” or even“anti-Semitic” – adjectives that deliverthe kiss of death to candidates aspiringto public office.

But between this picture and thereality on the ground in West Asia,

there is a considerable discrepancy. Inthe first place, nothing the severestcritics of Israel’s policies dare say in theU.S. is stronger than some of the arti-cles and editorials in Haaretz, Israel’sleading broadsheet, and numerousHebrew websites. Polls have period-ically shown that half or more of theIsraelis would favour a complete with-drawal from the occupied territories inreturn for a peace accord with the Pal-estinians and Syrians. Moreover, thesettlers in the West Bank are widelydistrusted and disliked by the bulk ofthe Israeli public because of their con-stant provocations and violence, notonly against their Palestinian neigh-bours but also against the Israeli sol-diers who are sent to protect them.

T H E I S R A E L - I R A N C O N T R A S TAs for Hamas and Hizbollah, these aremilitant organisations who, it is true,have repeatedly attacked Israel, butthey are just that, militant organisa-

OBAMA IN THE Hall of Names at the Yad Vashem museum in Jerusalem on July 23 looking at pictures of Jewskilled in the Holocaust. The Likud/Zionist lobby will continue to cry out that Israel is in constant danger, but inside the famous Washington Loop, it will be seen for what it is – a formula for ensuring the unbroken flow of support.

DANIEL BEREHULAK/REUTERS

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tions, mere irritants to the strongestmilitary power in the region. The Ira-nian threat, too, is greatly overstated asserious analysts keep reiterating. Evenif the Islamic republic is secretly tryingto produce nuclear weapons – and ma-naging to hide the process from theinspectors of the International AtomicEnergy Agency – it could be no lessthan several years away from a viableweapon. By contrast, Israel has hun-dreds of nukes of all sorts and is underno IAEA supervision whatsoever.

Moreover, Iran has not invadedany country for hundreds, if not thou-sands, of years and is not an aggressivepower. Israel has repeatedly invadedneighbouring countries and seizedchunks of their territories – it evenattacked Iraq, with which it has noborder. Conclusion: it is Iran ratherthan Israel that is being threatened.

What will all this mean to Presi-dent Obama? To evaluate his generalphilosophy, we can start by looking athis campaign promises. Even if, likemost elected individuals, he does notquite live up to them, they do give anindication of his world view. Here are10 of Obama’s campaign promises(from the campaign website http://www.barackobama.com/issues/): ● Reduce the U.S.’ carbon emissionsby 80 per cent by 2050 and play astrong positive role in negotiating abinding global treaty to replace the ex-piring Kyoto Protocol.● Withdraw all combat troops fromIraq within 16 months and keep nopermanent bases in the country.● Establish a clear goal of eliminatingall nuclear weapons across the globe.● Close the Guantanamo Bay deten-tion centre.● Double U.S. aid to cut extreme pov-erty in half by 2015 and accelerate thefight against HIV/AIDS, tuberculosisand malaria.● Open diplomatic talks with coun-tries such as Iran and Syria to pursuepeaceful resolution of tensions.● Depoliticise military intelligence toavoid ever repeating the kind of ma-nipulation that led the U.S. into Iraq.● Launch a major diplomatic effort tostop the killings in Darfur.

● Only negotiate new trade agree-ments that contain labour and envi-ronmental protections.● Invest $150 billion over 10 years tosupport renewable energy and get onemillion plug-in electric cars on theroad by 2015.

This is an impressive list. It in-dicates a general preference for resolv-ing problems by constructive means.Both the verb “negotiate” and the ad-jective “diplomatic” appear twice. Itacknowledges that the task before theU.S. is immense and costly and willrequire understanding and patience ifthe mistakes of the past are not to berepeated – for example, the need to“depoliticise military intelligence”.

Furthermore, when your declaredgoal is to eliminate all nuclear weap-ons across the globe, you are in a betterposition to call on Iran to abandonsuch a presumed project and call onIsrael to (a) come clean about its nucle-ar arsenal and (b) demand its elim-ination. This would certainly be a hugeimprovement over the policies of pre-vious administrations.

B U R N I N G I S S U E SWithout expecting Obama to achieveall he has promised, I certainly expecthim to tackle the big and burning is-sues first. He is committed to with-drawing from Iraq – “and keep nopermanent bases in the country”. Hehas to deal with the situation in Af-ghanistan and its extension in Pakis-tan – two very complex andchallenging tasks. He must consider towhat extent the North Atlantic TreatyOrganisation is a useful adjunct toAmerican power and where the linesmust be drawn vis-a-vis Russia, if therelatively small clash in the Caucasus isnot to grow into a much bigger one.

Before all this, Obama’s adminis-tration will have to help the U.S., andwith it most of the world, to overcomethe economic downturn that is threat-ening to undermine whole societies,starting with Middle America. NoAmerican President has faced such achallenge since Franklin Delano Roo-sevelt. Today, after decades of aggres-sive free-market policies and

“trickle-down” economics, it will bemuch harder than it was in the 1930s.

What then of the West Asian con-flict and the so-called peace process,with their numerous photo opportuni-ties? I imagine that this issue will re-main on the back burner. It is not themost urgent problem for the new ad-ministration to tackle. China and In-dia, Russia and Africa, these are theelephants in the room. Sad to say, theplight of the Palestinians has beenmostly ignored for the past 60 years,and although it has worsened in thepast decade and a half, it will continueto be shunted aside while the biggerand more urgent issues require the fullattention of the White House and U.S.Congress. The Likud/Zionist lobbywill continue to cry out that Israel is inconstant danger, but inside the famousWashington Loop, it will be seen forwhat it is – a formula for ensuring theunbroken flow of financial, militaryand diplomatic support.

Israelis have drawn comfort fromthe appointment of Rahm Emanuel asObama’s Chief of Staff. Emanuel hasstrong links with Israel and is sup-posed to be a good friend of AIPAC –but he is not a neocon. He comes fromthe Bill Clinton camp and was closelyinvolved with the so-called OsloAgreement, which climaxed with thefamous handshake between YasserArafat and Yitzhak Rabin on the WhiteHouse lawn. He is Obama’s personalfriend and is known as a skilful Wash-ington insider. If this appointment re-assures Zionists of all stripes that thenew administration will not “abandon”them – that is, put real pressure on theIsraeli government to make real con-cessions – then it will spare the ObamaWhite House some unnecessary stress.

I may be mistaken on all counts,but while not overly optimistic aboutthe chances of true peace in the oldWest Asian conflict, I am not morepessimistic than I was before Novem-ber 4 – and a whole lot less pessimisticthan I would have been if McCain hadwon. He might have proceeded to un-leash World War Three, starting withan attack on Iran. So let us count ourblessings and hope for the best. �

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NEW YORK,1932: Longlines of joblessand homelessmen wait to getfree dinner atthe municipallodging houseduring theGreatDepression. AP

BARACK OBAMA’S victory speech inspiredconfidence and raised expectations. His victory washistoric not just because it had brought a colouredman to the White House for the first time in U.S.history. It also signalled that the more than three-decade-old neoconservative turn in economic pol-icymaking in the U.S. is discredited and challenged.In more ways than one, Obama’s later campaignmade clear that a change from that policy was re-quired, raising expectations that the President-electwill seek to re-route capitalism in new directions.

A Roosevelt moment

There are bound to be vestedinterests opposing restructuringof the capacities and structurescreated during the globalisationphase. The fear is they may be partof the Obama team.

Obama should rise to the occasion not just by emulating FDR but by

going beyond him. B Y C . P . C H A N D R A S E K H A R

Cover Story

D E C E M B E R 5 , 2 0 0 8


The question on everyone’s mind,at home and abroad, is: Will Obamaensure that the Golden Age of 20thcentury capitalism, the high growth,welfare-statist years of the 1950s and1960s, is not the exception that itseems to be, by launching a new era ofcreditable growth, higher employmentand lower inequality?

That question is based on an ob-vious interpretation of Obama’s com-fortable mandate. As has been notedrepeatedly, the political tide turneddecisively in his favour because of thefinancial crisis and the popular angeragainst a private sector that engi-neered the crisis and an administra-tion that supported and rewardedthese private sector entities and indi-viduals. The victims of that anger di-rected at the Bush administrationwere the Republicans and McCain.

Obama did not fail to use the evi-dence that the Bush administrationhad helped precipitate this crisisthrough partisan policies, which fa-voured Wall Street vis-a-vis MainStreet, the rich as opposed to the poorand middle classes and the banks andfinancial firms rather than homeown-ers facing foreclosure. Not surprising-ly, economic circumstances andObama’s campaign have increased ex-pectations that he would turn theeconomy around rather quickly. Hisability to address the crisis and triggera recovery will ensure that he can pro-tect the high popularity ratings he nowcommands.

The contours of the crisis are nowwell known. It has questioned the sol-vency of many financial institutions,including some banks, necessitating a$700 billion-plus bailout, which in-cludes a bank recapitalisation fi-nanced with taxpayers’ money. Therestructuring of the financial sector isexpected to result in a loss of 70,000more jobs in the U.S. alone, on top ofthe 150,000 jobs estimated to havebeen lost in the financial sector world-wide. This is already triggering a mas-sive slowdown in the retail market, theservices sector and real estate in thefinancial centres of the world.

The financial crisis has also led to a

contraction of credit, not because of alack of liquidity, which the Federal Re-serve has injected in sufficient quanti-ties, but because of uncertaintiessurrounding the ability of counterpar-ties to meet future commitments onany credit provided. A consequencehas been the curtailment of debt-fi-nanced consumption and investment,which are already affected adversely bythe wealth-erosion ensured by the col-lapse of house and stock prices. Theresulting recession has taken the un-employment rate to 6.5 per cent, withjob losses in September and Octoberalone exceeding half a million. This, inturn, is expected to intensify the reces-sion even further, and the resultingdownward spiral is seen as threateninga depression comparable to that of the1930s.

The implication of all this is ob-vious. Support for the private sectorthrough low interest rates, financialbailouts and the like is unlikely to stopthe downward spiral, because of in-solvency and the collapse of businessconfidence. Nor will tax cuts spur de-mand, because they may be used tobolster savings and compensate for theerosion of paper wealth and home eq-uity. It is necessary for the governmentto also intervene with expenditures informs varying from an unemploymentdole and prevention of housing fore-closures to large-scale infrastructuralinvestments. It is another matter thatObama can seek to combine his com-mitment to combat climate changeand promote sustainable technologieswith the need to expand demandthrough a fiscal stimulus.

These circumstances have encour-aged comparison with the situationwhen Franklin D. Roosevelt took officein 1933 in the middle of the GreatDepression. Roosevelt with his NewDeal and much else showed that hewas not going to be cowed down by theprevailing conservatism. He declaredhis commitment to intensified bankregulation, insurance of smaller bankdeposits, public works programmesand social security. This meant that hesought to stall the downturn by sub-stantially increasing regulation of the

financial sector and providing a fiscalstimulus to the economy.

However, capitalism in crisis is noteasily saved. FDR’s initiatives did notdeliver the expected expansionary re-sults, and unemployment was higheven at the end of his first term. Someargue that Roosevelt did not go farenough in terms of the money he com-mitted to the fiscal stimulus; others saythat when the damage is severe evenstate intervention cannot easily repaira system driven by private initiative.By all accounts, it was the SecondWorld War that delivered the recoveryfrom the Depression.

D E P L E T E D T R E A S U R YThis has lessons for Obama, defined bycircumstances. The so-called lame-duck Bush administration has alreadychosen to drain the Federal Reserveand the Treasury to save an economy ithas helped damage. The programmeto restructure troubled assets, which isslated to absorb $700 billion of tax-payers’ money, is only a part of therescue commitment. And this occursafter the Bush team widened the fiscaldeficit to finance its misadventures inIraq and Afghanistan and to cover itstax concessions for the wealthy.

According to one estimate, whenthe financial rescue is added on, theU.S. budget deficit could more thandouble next year to almost $1 trillion.This would make it difficult for Obamato deliver on his promises to allocatesums for universalising health insur-ance (between $60 billion and $110billion) and alternative energy ($150billion) and also to find the much larg-er sums needed for a fiscal stimulusthat may prevent a recurrence of theFDR rupture – between rhetoric andreality. He will have to fight much op-position to even try this option, to findout whether it works or not.

Unfortunately for him, he cannoteasily conjure up a war. He has as hislegacy not just an economic crisis but aUnited States that is weary of war,even if in isolated theatres across theworld. And his call for change hadmore than a hint that he would sub-stitute diplomacy for war.

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AP

WASHINGTON, MARCH 4, 1933: President Herbert Hoover, left, shakes hands with President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt in front of the White House. Some argue that Roosevelt did not go far enough in terms of themoney he committed to the fiscal stimulus. His initiatives did not deliver the expected expansionary results, andunemployment was high even at the end of his first term.

Yet comparisons with the Roose-velt era are rife. To quote Clive Crookof Financial Times (November 7,2008): “Is Mr. Obama an FDR for thenew century? A President has manyways of ruining his reputation, andthis is a different world, yet the idealooks plausible. Like Roosevelt, Mr.Obama inherits a crisis not of his mak-ing. Like Roosevelt, he is brimmingwith energy to get things done. LikeRoosevelt – happy days are here again– he has given the country a jolt ofoptimism just by turning up. FDR un-derstood that his greatest strength wasnot being [Herbert] Hoover; he em-phasised (and exaggerated) the differ-ences. Mr Obama gets it and does nothave to try so hard. Could he be moredifferent from George W. Bush?”

Thus, the historic election of thefirst black President in the U.S. in the

PRESIDENT GEORGE W. Bush and his wife, Laura (obscured), welcomePresident-elect Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, to the White House onNovember 10. An estimated $1-trillion budget deficit next year would make itdifficult for Obama to find the money needed for a fiscal stimulus that mayprevent a recurrence of the FDR rupture – between rhetoric and reality.

JIM

WAT

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/AFP

D E C E M B E R 5 , 2 0 0 8


middle of a crisis that is acknowledgedto be the closest to Great Depression isindeed seen as one more Rooseveltmoment. The question is: will and canObama rise to the occasion, not just byemulating FDR but by going beyondhim? Obama made clear his intentionsin his very first press conference afterhis election as President. “We are fac-ing the greatest economic challenge ofour lifetime, and we’re going to have toact swiftly to resolve it,” he reportedlysaid. “I’m going to confront this eco-nomic crisis head-on by taking all nec-essary steps to ease the credit crisis,help hard-working families and re-store growth and prosperity.”

If Rahm Emanuel, appointed thenext chief of staff by Obama, is to bebelieved, the President-elect is serious.His team would put in place a compre-hensive programme of social and eco-nomic reform, treating the “financialmeltdown as an historic opportunity todeliver the large-scale investmentsthat Democrats had promised foryears.” Even before he takes officeObama is expected to push for imme-diate assistance to an automobile in-dustry that is near bankrupt.

Thus, there is a hint that the Oba-ma team would use the FDR momentto make a break. But there are indica-tions to the contrary as well. To startwith is his choice of advisers. If still-speculative reports are to be believed,the likes of Lawrence Summers, Ro-bert Rubin and Paul Volcker are to beleading members of his economicteam. As Mark Ames notes in The Na-tion (November 10, 2008), Summers,the most-favoured candidate for Trea-sury Secretary, was brought to Wash-ington in 1982 by his then dissertationadviser Martin Feldstein, “to serve onRonald Reagan’s Council of EconomicAdvisers. Those first years in the Re-agan administration were crucial inthe right-wing war against New Dealregulation of the banking system andfinancial markets – a war that Re-agan’s team won, and that we’re allpaying for today.”

As for Volcker, we cannot forgetthat as Chair of the Federal Reserve hesought, at the end of the 1970s, to deal

with inflation by raising interest ratessharply – the “Volcker shock” – result-ing in the devastation of a number ofdeveloping countries exposed to exter-nal debt.

Candidates like these do not in-spire the confidence that they will bewilling to try what needs to be tried.While circumstances may force themto wear borrowed Keynesian hats, theywould balk at spending that is not fi-nanced out of additional taxes. Butthey would oppose taxes on the rich onthe grounds that it would erode confi-dence. Obama may use the fact thatworld governments are looking to theU.S. for new leadership to combat aglobal crisis that originated in the U.S.He can also use the fact that China haschosen to put a huge $586 billion intothe global kitty aimed at financing a

fiscal stimulus. Moreover, financialcommitments by governments in theUnited Kingdom and the rest of Eu-rope to prop up their financial sectorsmakes clear that they too see the needfor proactive state policy. These factorsmake it possible for the incoming pres-idency to lead a globally coordinatedKeynesian-type stimulus that hasmore chance of working than manyother plans that are on offer.

However, global Keynesianismwithout a global economy and globalgovernment presumes the existence ofnational economic policy space, so thattrade diversion, capital flows and cur-rency movements do not underminethe effort. With uneven developmentbeing an abiding and visible feature ofcapitalism, not all regions can reflatesuccessfully while being fully integrat-ed with more developed centres. Dif-ferences in inflation rates would haveimplications for exports and imports,which would affect capital flows, cur-rency values and interest rates, leadingto very different growth and distribu-tion effects.

A reversal of globalisation may,therefore, be a requirement for com-bating the current crisis successfully.That reversal can come in a “compet-itive” environment that revives memo-ries of global war, or it can come in acooperative environment in which allcountries realise that “coordinated”protectionism, however limited, is thebest option. This, however, does in-volve a degree of painful restructuringof capacities and structures createdduring the globalisation phase.

There are bound to be vested in-terests opposing such restructuring.The fear is they may be part of theObama team. But the situation callsfor global leadership of a kind that theU.S. is currently least well placed todeliver. That makes Obama’s missioneven more difficult. But then, untilquite recently few suspected he wouldbe in the seat where he can face suchdifficulties. Being in that seat he hasthe power to overcome them. And theenthusiasm and the tide that broughthim to power may take him further.The message is, “Yes, he still can.” �

AT THE NEW York Stock Exchangeon November 11. U.S. stockstumbled as production cuts ataluminium-maker Alcoa and anexpected cash drain at automakerGeneral Motors heightened fears ofan economic slump.

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THESE are the worst of times and the best oftimes. In the present context this is better suited tobeing the opening line of Great Expectations ratherthan A Tale of Two Cities. Moreover, in being electedthe 44th President of the United States, Barack Oba-ma has done far better for America and the worldthan for himself. To switch literary gears, bliss will beit to wake up on the January dawn when Obamatakes the oath of office. The rivers of tears in the seaof faces during his victory speech in Chicago on thenight of November 4 bore witness to the enormity ofthe world changing, even when nothing haschanged, and the weight of expectations that willburden him from day one. Obama’s victory is rootedin three factors: structural changes in American so-ciety and politics, Obama’s own performance, andthe strategic blunders by his opponent.

S T R U C T U R A L C H A N G E SThe structural changes since President George W.Bush “won” the election eight years ago are as pro-found domestically as they are globally. With almost200,000 troops bogged down in Iraq and Afghan-istan, America is overstretched militarily. Russia isreturning, China is resurgent, and even India is onthe rise. Economically, the U.S. national debt is closeto $10 trillion, double what it was when Bush tookoffice. The $700 billion surplus he inherited fromthe Clinton administration has been turned into ahalf-trillion-dollar deficit.

The reputational free fall of the past few years hasbeen so steep and deep that the respect and ad-miration in which America used to be held are butdim and fading memories. The hope and optimism

that the country proudly symbolised have given wayto the indignity of everyone having to take off theirshoes prior to entering boarding areas at U.S. air-ports and fortress-embassies abroad, which projectfear and paranoia where once courage ruled.

Domestically, job creation under Bush fell toone-sixth of its level under Bill Clinton. Five millionmore Americans have been pulled down into povertyand another seven million have been pushed out ofhealth insurance coverage as premiums almost dou-bled. The Bush administration also oversaw a mas-sive redistribution of wealth from the poor to the richas income inequality widened. In the meantime, thedemographic composition of U.S. society itselfchanged significantly. The great-melting-pot societyhas produced a plurality of ethnic and religiousgroups jostling for space and attention in the crowd-ed political landscape.

The net result of these internal and global chang-es was that Americans became weary of further over-seas military entanglements and, therefore,suspicious of “Bomb, bomb, bomb Iran” McCain;fretful of the Iraq quagmire, and thus supportive ofthe candidate who promised to terminate that warrather than the one who threatened to continue itindefinitely until an impossible-to-define victorywas achieved; anxious to retain jobs and be reas-sured on health care affordability and old-age pen-sion; and receptive to Obama’s promise to reversethe shift in relative taxation under Bush – from therich to the rest – that McCain, contrary to his earlierprinciples, wanted to retain.

The wedge-issues of guns and flags, and the cul-ture wars against homosexuals and minorities, areincreasingly irrelevant to the young. When Obamawas born of a black Kenyan father and a white Kan-sas mother, in several States of the United States hisparents could have been charged with the criminaloffence of miscegenation. Today, inter-racial mar-riages and mixed-race children rarely draw attentionor comment.

The best articulation of these changes came fromformer Secretary of State and long-time RepublicanColin Powell. Endorsing Obama on October 19, Po-well noted how so often Obama had been accused ofbeing a Muslim. The correct answer to this, he said, is

Great expectations

Obama appears to possess all thequalities of a truly great President,and the combination of gravedomestic and foreign, economic and security crises gives him theopportunity to prove it.

Americans have pressed the reset button on the promise of America. That is

cause enough for all of us to join in the celebration. B Y R A M E S H T H A K U R

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that Obama is Christian, not Muslim.The right answer, he added, is what ifhe was? He then recalled a photo in amagazine, of an American mothermourning her 20-year-old soldier son,Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan, slain inIraq. The top of the headstone of herson’s grave in Arlington NationalCemetery had not a Christian cross northe Jewish Star of David but the Islam-ic star and crescent.

There is nothing wrong, Powell in-sisted, with a seven-year-old MuslimAmerican child believing that he or shecould be the President of the country.Fareed Zakaria made the same argu-ment in his column in Newsweek onOctober 27 in opting for Obama, say-ing that his nine-year-old son Omar’shorizons would be broader in a coun-try that had chosen one Barack Hus-sein Obama as its 44th President.

O B A M A ’ S B R I L L I A N C EObama appears to possess all the qual-ities of a truly great President, and thecombination of grave domestic andforeign, economic and security crisesgives him the opportunity to prove it.He has a razor-sharp intellect, poise,grace, an even temperament, a strongcharacter, eloquence and oratoricalskills that can inspire and rouse themultitude, and organisational bril-liance that can harness their energyand enthusiasm to a larger purpose.

His message never wavered overthe nearly two years of the campaign:the need for change guided by the hopefor a better future. His style, too, re-mained largely constant: speaking re-spectfully to Americans asfellow-adults and appealing to theirbetter angels. He proved the enduringveracity of Ronald Reagan’s (and BillClinton’s) political insight that it isbetter to appeal to the people’s besthopes than to their worst fears.

The primary and general electioncampaigns were models of fund-rais-ing and organisation, in registeringvoters and getting out the vote, whichwill be studied in classrooms and cam-paign headquarters for years to come.Obama converted stumbling blocks,for example his one-time preacher Jer-

emiah Wright, into stepping stones:delivering one of the great speeches onrace. His cool and calm demeanourgave the pictorial lie to increasinglywild allegations of radicalism and con-sorting with terrorists. While he suc-cessfully eschewed the caricature ofthe angry black man, McCain fell vic-tim to the imagery of an angry old manwho was increasingly out of argu-ments, out of tune with the changingtimes, and also out of time. The threepresidential debates were crucial in ce-menting their contrasting personas.

Strategically, Obama carried onfrom where he had left off in the con-test against Hillary Clinton, focussingon the delegate count in the primariesand the electoral college count in thegeneral election. For, in reality, there isnot one election to choose the Presi-dent but a combination of 50 separateelections State-by-State, with the win-ner taking all electoral college votes inevery State in which he wins.

In both the primary and the gener-al election, Obama launched and led asocial movement that relied on newforms of organisation and created asense of excitement last felt at the timeof John F. Kennedy. Obama’s back-ground in community organisation,derided by political rivals to their owngreat cost, proved the key both to hissuccess at the bottom-up strategy andto his ability to connect with the broad-er community.

M C C A I N ’ S B L U N D E R SBattling strong headwinds, any Repu-blican candidate was likely to lose thiselection. Still, Senator John McCainmade three strategic blunders thatcontributed to the scale of his defeat:the choice of running mate, the reac-tion to the financial crisis, and the re-course to negative attacks. WhereObama grew in stature by the mannerin which he met every challengeMcCain retreated into the farthestfringes of American politics as thecampaign progressed.

As the Governor of Alaska, SarahPalin was hardly known in the rest ofthe country. Apparently she wowed atravelling troupe of Republican king-

makers with her social conservatism,articulate speaking skills, attractivepersona and strong reformist creden-tials. But the more she was exposed tothe people – and the campaign manag-ers tried to limit her exposure as muchas possible, with not a single press con-ference in the entire campaign – themore her failings shone through.

To put it bluntly, she was arrogant,ignorant and wacko, literally winkingher way through the vice-presidentialdebate with Joe Biden. And deeply po-larising and confrontational to boot.The disenchanted McCain camp isnow busy leaking all sorts of storiesabout her, such as thinking that Africais a country, not a continent. Opinionpolls in the later stages of the cam-paign and exit polls on the night of theelection confirmed that she hadproved a net liability for McCain, withsubstantial numbers of people ques-tioning his judgment as a result of herselection as running mate.

That question mark over judgmentgrew bigger on September 24 whenMcCain responded to the financial cri-sis by announcing that he was sus-pending his campaign and cancellinghis appearance in the first presidentialdebate in order to return to Washing-ton to broker a solution. In contrast,Obama came across as calm and mea-sured in a crisis, a steadying influenceagainst McCain’s erratic and temper-amental response matching the impul-sive selection of Sarah Palin withoutproper vetting or due diligence.

Sarah Palin also performed, withgusto, the running mate’s traditionalrole of attack dog. It was unfortunatethat early on she alluded to herself as apit-bull with lipstick. The old-style un-relenting series of negative attacks onObama in speeches, and radio and tel-evision advertising, and by computer-generated automated telephone calls –with many of the attacks bearing onlythe most tenuous of connections to re-ality – was a massive turn-off for mostindependent voters.

In his choice of running mate andcampaign narrative, McCain had toperform two contradictory tasks: rallythe Republican base and attract the

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independent, floating voters. The se-lection of Sarah Palin and the resort tonegative attacks rallied the base butrepelled the independent. They alsorallied the Democratic base, neutralis-ing the anger of Hillary Clinton’s sup-porters and others who had beenshocked by how quickly and how muchObama had tacked to the centre assoon as he clinched the party nomi-nation. Not only did McCain fail tooutline a positive vision of why peopleshould vote for him; he also, by takingthe low road, alienated many who hadsupported him previously for his prin-cipled stands.

The Republican Party of GeorgeW. Bush abandoned its core principlesof small government, fiscal conserva-tism and suspicion of entangling over-seas engagements. But there is a largerproblem. Its base – the real America towhich both McCain and Sarah Palinappealed – is a shrinking demographicas America in reality becomes increas-ingly diverse on almost every demo-graphic attribute. The old Dixie is

dead; appealing to that ever-shrinkingminority will be a losing strategy hen-ceforth.

The party will have to abandon itshostility to intellectuals, become moresocially inclusive and welcome newideas as well as social cohorts. The pro-spects within the Republican Party of arapid rise of the Bobby Jindals ofAmerica have grown brighter. TheDemocrats will hope that the Republi-cans are slow learners. Yet it is thelatter who led the way with the high-profile inclusiveness of Henry Kissin-ger, Colin Powell and CondoleezzaRice.

T H E C H A L L E N G E S A H E A DIn the middle of his victory speech,Obama cautioned jubilant supportersthat even while they celebrated theyknew that the challenges confrontingthem were the greatest of their life-time: “Two wars, a planet in peril, theworst financial crisis in a century.” Theemphatic margins of victory for theDemocrats on Capitol Hill as well as in

the White House mean that the size ofthe mandate matches the enormity ofthe challenges. Obama won 365 elec-toral college votes to McCain’s 162.The polls proved remarkably accurate:Obama’s election-night margin of vic-tory was 6.5 per cent, compared withthe 7.6 per cent average of opinionpolls compiled by Real Clear Politics.The Democrats gained at least six Sen-ate and 20 House seats in Congress,with a few still to be decided at the timeof writing.

In his speech on race in March,Obama made it clear how the historyof racism is not a specifically blackproblem but rather a generic Amer-ican problem. The nation as a wholewould continue to have been hobbledin fulfilling its manifest destiny untilsuch time as it had cleansed its soul ofthis stain. How appropriate then thatVirginia, the capital and heart of theconfederacy, should have voted forObama. And he won the votes of theworking class whites in Indiana, once astronghold of the Ku Klux Klan. Some

VIRGINIA GOVERNOR TIMOTHY M. Kaine wipes tears as he celebrates Barack Obama’s victory, in McLean onNovember 4. ‘The nation as a whole would continue to have been hobbled in fulfilling its manifest destiny until suchtime as it has cleansed its soul of the stain of racism. How appropriate then that Virginia, the capital and heart of theconfederacy, should have voted for Obama.’

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pollsters tell stories of southern whitessaying they would be voting for the‘nigger’. One small step for Obama, agiant leap for equality.

In his victory speech, Obama fit-tingly framed the progress around thestory of the 106-year-old black womanAnn Nixon Cooper, who during herlifetime had witnessed the enfran-chisement of both women and blacks,the forced bussing in Montgomery andthe hoses in Birmingham during thegreat civil rights movement, and casther vote for Obama in this election.The cascade of memories that broughtbittersweet tears of joy and sadness tothe likes of Jesse Jackson and OprahWinfrey on election night, capturedvividly on camera, has been collective-ly cathartic for the nation.

K I N G , K E N N E D Y A N D L I N C O L NIn cadence and vision as well as inwords, Obama consciously channelledMartin Luther King’s great speechwhen he said he had climbed themountain and seen the promised land.I may not get there with you, King said,but he promised that his people would.The next day he was killed. Here’sObama on November 4: “The roadahead will be long. Our climb will besteep. We may not get there in one yearor even one term, but America, I prom-ise you – we as a people will get there.”

He echoed John F. Kennedy incalling for “a new spirit of patriotism,service and responsibility”. And, final-ly, for good measure, he quoted Abra-ham Lincoln on the need for nationalhealing: “Though our passions mayhave strained it must not break ourbonds of affection.”

Obama has pledged to end the warin Iraq and bring the troops home assoon as possible without endangeringtheir lives or risking a complete col-lapse. The war in Afghanistan hewants to win by reinforcing the troopswith more American and allied sol-diers while reinvigorating the nation-building side of the equation.

The endangered planet desperate-ly needs not merely U.S. engagementbut American leadership on the threatof climate change which may already

have crossed the tipping point. Thefinancial crisis is a crisis of governance,both domestic and global. The world isinterdependent in areas as diverse asfinancial markets, infectious diseases,energy security, climate change, nat-ural disasters (think of the 2004 tsu-nami), terrorism, product safety, foodsupply and water tables.

This is why, in Obama’s words, al-though “our stories are singular, ourdestinies are shared”. Yet our collectivecapacity to manage this shared destinythrough coordinated policy responseshas fallen behind the rise in the num-ber and intensity of interdependentsectors. In a world in which the risksand perils are global, responsibilitiestoo have to be global.

To borrow language from the cli-mate-change context, all countrieshave a common but differentiated re-sponsibility for the stability of theglobal economic and financial systems.The major developing countries – Bra-zil, China, India, Mexico, South Africa– have limited access to current globaldecision-making channels and theprocess of sharing responsibility formanaging the global order.

In order to be made responsiblestakeholders in the management ofglobal regimes and the outcomes thatcome from collective decisions, theyneed joint ownership of the process.The existing institutions and arrange-ments can no longer cope with thegrowing number, range and gravity ofmajor global problems. The accumu-lating anomalies need to be addressedurgently and collectively. The globalfinancial crisis is an opportunity to re-place antiquated, creaking and not-up-to-the-task institutions with moreefficient, effective and credible mecha-nisms and forums.

The dramatic challenges duringand at the end of the Second WorldWar produced a generation of states-men who rose to the occasion for de-signing new institutions that haveserved their purpose well but havebeen overtaken by new circumstances.Most are now moribund, tattered, out-dated or anachronistic. We need lead-ers who can rise to the challenges of the

21st century and embed multilateralcooperation in global institutionscrafted in and for this century. Rede-signing the architecture of global go-vernance, from peace and security todevelopment and finance, environ-mental protection and resource con-servation, and human rights andhumanitarian protection, is an urgenttask of international diplomacy.

Obama gained the presidency byusing civic nationalism to transcendethnic bounds. He could be a leader fora world bereft of statesmen by usingcosmopolitan internationalism totranscend national boundaries. On thenight of November 4, he promised tolisten especially to those who dis-agreed with him. One hopes that hewill display the same trait towardscountries that disagree with the Unit-ed States, abandoning the deeply alie-nating habit of belittling, dismissingand attacking anyone and everyonewith a dissenting point of view wheth-er domestically or abroad.

Historically, Republican Presi-dents begin as instinctive unilateral-ists and end up as reluctantmultilateralists. Democrats are the op-posite, starting off as soft multilateral-ists by belief but finishing asunilateralists by practice. Bill Clintonand George W. Bush are good exam-ples. Obama promises that “a newdawn of American leadership is athand”. Let us hope so. For in an in-creasingly interdependent and glob-alised world, the promise of the alwaysimperfect yet ever-perfecting union –that out of many, we are one – appliesjust as much to the world beyondAmerica’s shores as it does to all with-in, from sea to shining sea and fromocean to warming ocean.

The problems and perils, the ha-treds and divisions, the threats and thechallenges neither fade nor dwindle.But that is tomorrow’s task. Americanshave just pressed the reset button onthe promise of America. That is causeenough for all of us to join in the cele-bration and the hope. �Ramesh Thakur is the founding direc-tor of the Balsillie School of Interna-tional Affairs in Waterloo, Ontario.

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INTERNAL rumblings in the run-up to electionsand their manifestations in the larger politicalsphere are not new to the Congress. The party haslived through this in every election since the first one.But even with this track record, Margaret Alva’saccusations of malpractices in ticket distributioncame as a serious embarrassment for the party. TheCongress leader from Karnataka alleged in an in-terview that the party ticket had been up for saleduring the Karnataka Assembly elections in Mayand that relatives of more than 20 leaders had been

given the ticket in the current round of elections inMadhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Jam-mu and Kashmir. She also questioned the denial ofthe party ticket to her son and former Union Minis-ter C.K. Jaffer Sharief’s grandson, asking why theyshould be denied nominations when relatives of oth-er leaders were being given the ticket.

The allegations embarrassed the leadership, es-pecially leaders considered close to Sonia Gandhi.Margaret Alva’s outburst is seen as having the coteriethat is believed to have formed around the partypresident as the target. No Congress worker will darename the coterie in public, but many say in privatethat the clique is headed by a senior leader fromGujarat, with two senior leaders from Karnataka andMadhya Pradesh respectively playing a big part in it.“Unless their influence is curtailed the party cannotreally progress. This realisation is widespread. Thatis why so many leaders in Karnataka, including for-mer Deputy Chief Minister Siddharamaiah, madebold to support Alva,” a leader from Madhya Pradeshtold Frontline. There are many in the Congress whobelieve that the action against Margaret Alva waslimited to allowing her to resign as party generalsecretary and dropping her from the Congress Work-ing Committee because Sonia Gandhi was convincedthat there was some merit in her allegations.

There is a feeling in the Congress that the allega-tions have done some damage to the Congress’ cam-paign, though no one would admit that in public.Before the Margaret Alva episode, the leadershipthought that the party was making up for lost groundin BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh aswell as in Congress-ruled Delhi. It was also holdingon to the lead against the ruling BJP in Rajasthanright from the start of the campaign.

This was happening, said a senior South Indianleader, in spite of obvious disadvantages: “The partywas not in a position to highlight the gains of theManmohan Singh government properly because theissues of internal security and price rise were dom-inating popular opinion. Still, we were doing well onthe ground and were in the process of ironing outthings even in Madhya Pradesh where the party wasdivided between factions led by Arjun Singh, KamalNath, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Digvijay Singh and Su-

Ticket troubles

The BSP, which is contesting in a much larger number ofconstituencies than last time, mayeat into the traditional votes of theCongress, whose campaign has beenaffected by the “cash for ticket”allegation by the Karnataka leader.

The Congress has suffered an embarrassment in the Margaret Alva episode. The

BJP banks on this and the BSP factor. B Y V E N K I T E S H R A M A K R I S H N A N IN NEW DELHI

MARGARET ALVA. HER outburst led to herresignation as party general secretary.

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resh Pachauri. But that process hasbeen impacted negatively by this de-velopment. If nothing else, the embar-rassment caused by the Alva episodehas slackened the pace of our groundretrieval in three crucial States.”

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)has been quick to try and capitalise onthe issue and has added the “cash forticket” scam to its campaign reper-toire. The BJP believes that the issuehas caught voters’ attention, particu-larly in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattis-garh. In Rajasthan, however, MargaretAlva’s outburst has had a different ef-fect. BJP leaders who did not get theparty ticket seem to have taken theircue from it. In the Khetri constituency,supporters of the sitting MLA, RamGujjar, alleged that the seat had beensold to a “bidder with tonnes of mon-ey”. There are indications that similarallegations are likely to come from oth-er parts of the State. An added motiv-ation for such allegations may arise outof the factionalism that marks theState unit, with groups owing alle-giance to Chief Minister VasundharaRaje, former Chief Minister BhaironSingh Shekhawat and former UnionMinister Jaswant Singh.

According to the political analystHariraj Singh Tyagi, that money playsan important role in the selection ofcandidates in North India is wellknown. “Almost all parties, the Con-gress, the BJP and even the BahujanSamaj Party [BSP], have perpetuatedthis practice, and it is virtually impos-sible for any of them to adopt a ‘holierthan thou’ attitude. Because of this,ground-level campaigners may find itdifficult to push a self-righteous linethough leaders at the higher level maytry to advance it,” he said. Tyagi’s viewis that while the Margaret Alva episodehas caused some embarrassment tothe Congress and triggered some prob-lems in the Rajasthan BJP, it is notbound to have a decisive impact.

The BJP’s internal assessment atthe national level reflects the politicaland organisational manifestations indifferent States. According to this as-sessment, the party is unmistakablyahead in Madhya Pradesh and has an

edge in Chhattisgarh and Delhi. Ac-cording to a senior national leader, Ra-jasthan is where the party has an uphilltask. But some leaders believe that thepresence of BSP candidates in a largenumber of constituencies will enablethe BJP to hold on to Rajasthan. In-deed, the BSP’s presence is thought tobe a positive thing for the party in theother three States too. “The BSP effectwill be most beneficial in Delhi, fol-lowed by Chhattisgarh and MadhyaPradesh. In Madhya Pradesh, thereare certain areas where the BSP canaffect us negatively,” said a BJP leaderfrom South India.

The Bharatiya Jan Shakthi (BJS)party led by former BJP Chief MinisterUma Bharati is also impacting the saf-fron party negatively. The BJS effect, itis believed, will be felt in some 20 seats.

The leadership of the BSP, thethird prominent player in MadhyaPradesh, Rajasthan, Delhi and Chhat-tisgarh, thinks the calculations of thetwo major players will go awry in allthe four States. “There cannot be agovernment in any of these Stateswithout our support. That is the waythings are developing,” said AmbethRajan, Rajya Sabha member of theparty.

It remains to be seen how the cal-culations of the various players areborne out at the hustings. But onething is certain. Midway through thecampaign, the hopes of all the majorplayers are on the rise, though the Con-gress has had to face an unseemlyembarrassment.

ISSUES TO THE FOREBy T.K. Rajalakshmi in Jaipur

“IT is always a case of jaat (caste)versus janata (people) here. Most po-litical parties prefer the former at thetime of elections,” observes Bhanwar-lal, a vendor in Jaipur. However, in the13th Assembly elections in Rajasthan,caste may well play a determining rolein assigning the ticket but issues willmatter more in the voting on Decem-ber 4, political observers say.

The “Tilak, Tarazu, Talwar” triad

symbolising the consolidation of up-per-caste (Brahmin, Bania and Raj-put) votes may also not work in favourof either of the two principal conten-ders, the BJP and the Congress. TheBSP, which had two legislators in theprevious Assembly, is contesting in allthe 200 seats this time and is expectedto field candidates from all castes.

The Samajwadi Party, too, has an-nounced its intent to contest from allthe seats, with party chief MulayamSingh Yadav claiming that his partywill “help” form the government in theState. There are indications that theruling BJP may face an uphill task inretaining the 120 seats it won last timeand that the Congress, too, may notattain a clear majority.

In 2003, the Congress fared poorlythough there was no apparent waveagainst the Ashok Gehlot government.Caste alone could not have caused sucha debacle. In fact, no pollster couldgauge the strong undercurrent of re-sentment against the incumbent go-vernment. More important, theresentment against the National Dem-ocratic Alliance (NDA) at the Centredid not translate into votes against theBJP in the State. Likewise, the Con-gress is now hopeful that any angeragainst the Central government led byit will not have any effect on its pro-spects in Rajasthan.

In 2003, the electorate did not per-ceive the Congress to be a unified forcecompared with the BJP, which, despiteits own weaknesses, threw its weightbehind Vasundhara Raje. But thistime, several incidents in the past fiveyears have alienated huge sections ofthe electorate from the BJP. Police fir-ing killed agitating farmers in Sri Gan-ganagar and Tonk districts. The Gujjaragitation for Scheduled Tribe (S.T.)status took a violent turn and morethan four dozen people were killed inpolice action. There are at least 17 con-stituencies spanning seven districtswhere the Gujjar vote can impact theprospects of any party.

There were also several attacks onthe minorities in the State, the mostnotorious one being that of WalterMasih, which was recorded live on

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camera. The government also enacteda law checking “forcible” conversions,alienating the minorities further.

The Congress came out with itscomplete list of candidates on Novem-ber 8. On the other hand, the completelist of BJP candidates was awaitedeven on November 11 though the partymaintained that there would be 60new faces because of the delimitationexercise.

Nonetheless, on November 6, withthe clarion call of “Jai Jai Rajasthan”,the BJP launched its campaign in thepresence of several party heavyweightsincluding the prime ministerial aspi-rant L.K. Advani. Also present wereleaders in charge of the State, M. Ven-kaiah Naidu and Gopinath Munde,party president Rajnath Singh and for-mer Union Minister Jaswant Singh.

Advani launched a blistering at-tack against the Centre on terrorism,inflation and recession, perhaps re-minding the electorate that the LokSabha elections were round the cornerand that the voter should look beyondState issues. Controversies surround-ing the Ram Sethu issue and the Amar-nath Shrine Board were also referredto in good measure, indicating that theparty had not forsaken its core Hin-dutva agenda. Chief Minister Vasund-

hara Raje chose to counter thecorruption charges the Congress hadlevelled against her government.

Overall development is to be thethrust of the BJP campaign, which willhighlight the government’s achieve-ments in generating employment,making electricity available and empo-wering women. The failure of the Cen-tral government to check price rise andterrorism is a stick the BJP is using tobeat the Congress with.

Anil Chaturvedi, vice-president ofthe State unit of the BJP, does notseem to think there is any anti-incum-bency factor working against the go-vernment. The police action on theagitating Gujjars, according to him,will not be an issue. “We did not dis-turb the OBC [Other Backward Class-es] quota but gave an additional 5 percent reservation to Gujjars along withother economically backward com-munities.

“The Gujjar community is happy asa Bill was passed by the Assembly. Thefact that the Gujjars were killed doesnot matter to the voters; what mattersis that we got the Bill for them,” hesaid. The BJP is also confident thatMeenas, an influential S.T. commu-nity, are by and large with it.

However, a party insider said that

though the BJP might put on a show ofgreat unity, the fact that leaders weresitting separately to discuss potentialcandidates gave a different picture al-together.

The Congress may have scored apoint in declaring its candidates in ad-vance, but the fact that the PradeshCongress Committee office was setupon twice by disgruntled party mencannot be ignored. Then, senior Jatleader Parasram Maderna took hiswoes to the party high command afterthe first list was out, claiming that hismen were not adequately represented.

Though Gehlot is the leader of theparty in the State, he is still not official-ly declared the chief ministerial candi-date as the party fears it will alienatecastes other than his, especially thenumerically strong Jats. This time theparty is keen to tap the minority votebank as well.

Issues such as corruption and theworsening law and order situationform the central plank of the Congresscampaign. The party has put out ad-vertisements in leading newspapers,highlighting the unemployment, wa-ter shortage, debt burden, land mafiaand crimes against women in theState. Congress spokesperson Satyen-dra Singh said the party had prepareda list of all the wrongdoings of theVasundhara Raje government and wasgoing to use every conceivable form ofcampaign.

“Even BJP workers say that theCongress is going to form the next go-vernment,” said Raghuveer Meena,Congress legislator from Sarada inUdaipur. He said the Vasundhara Rajegovernment had done little for farmersduring the drought. “They are trying totake the credit for the NREGA [Na-tional Rural Employment GuaranteeAct], which is a Centrally fundedscheme,” said Meena, adding that Guj-jars would vote against the BJP.

The Left parties are contestingmore seats this time than in previouselections. The prolonged farmers’struggles led by the Left parties, main-ly the Communist Party of India (Mar-xist), in the Sri Ganganagar andHanumangarh belts, and Bikaner, Si-

FARMERS AT A meeting in Sri Ganganagar district in 2004. Several incidentsin the past five years, such as the police action against agitating farmers,have alienated huge sections of the electorate from the BJP.

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kar and Nagaur, are expected to fetchsome dividends this time.

The campaigns by the CPI(M) tomake NREGA a reality has also beenone of the reasons for its decision tocontest from 34 seats. “The reason whywe are contesting from this many seatsfor the first time is because we feel thatwe have done good work in these ar-eas,” said Rajendra Shukla, a memberof the party’s State secretariat.

The CPI(M)’s Amra Ram, who hasbeen elected repeatedly from Dhod inSikar, will contest from Data Ramgarhthis time because of the delimitationexercise. Data Ramgarh is the constit-uency represented by former StateCongress chief Narayan Singh.

Het Ram Beniwal, another stal-wart of the CPI(M) and who led thefarmers’ agitation in Sri Ganganagarsuccessfully, is the candidate from Sa-dul Sheher. Last time he lost by a thou-sand votes. There is little doubt thatthe CPI(M) and its agrarian frontplayed a crucial role in putting the is-sues of farmers centre stage.

The development indicators forthe State are not very optimistic andwill be a concern for the BJP though asection of the urban voter is happy thatthe government has done a lot by wayof improving infrastructure and beaut-ifying cities. But the lack of develop-ment elsewhere and the corruptioncould present serious challenges be-fore the ruling party.

QUIET CONTESTBy Sushanta Talukdar in Guwahati

NO door-to-door campaigns, nomusical road shows, no feasts, no sep-arate public rallies. These are some ofthe restrictions imposed on politicalparties by the Mizoram People’s Fo-rum (MPF), an organ of the powerfulMizoram Presbyterian Church. Thishas made electioneering in Mizoramlow-key and colourless compared withthe 2003 Assembly elections. Howev-er, the battle is tough this time in thistiny north-eastern State with the rul-ing Mizo National Front (MNF) trying

to defend its 10-year-old bastionagainst the Congress in the Assemblyelections scheduled for December 2.

The third player is the UnitedDemocratic Alliance (UDA), compris-ing the Zoram Nationalist Party(ZNP), the Mizoram People’s Confe-rence (MPC) and the Zoram Kuth-nathawktu Pawl (ZKP), a platform offarmers. The UDA’s presence hasmade it difficult for psephologists topredict an outcome.

The MNF’s main slogan is devel-opment. “Our main plank is contin-uation of the great developmentactivities initiated by the MNF govern-ment over the past 10 years and fin-ishing the unfinished task ofdevelopment,” Chief Minister and par-ty president Pu Zoramthanga toldFrontline. In the present 40-memberAssembly, the MNF and its ally, theMaraland Democratic Front (MDF),have 23 seats, followed by the Con-gress (11), the MPC (3) and the ZNP(2). There is one independent mem-ber. The Chief Minister is confidentthat his party has overwhelming pop-ular support and that the MNF will bevoted back to power for a third term.

Describing the health care schemeintroduced by his government asunique, Zoramthanga said it coveredthe entire population of Mizoram. Headded that Mizoram was the mostpeaceful State in the country and thatit had been made possible by theMNF’s good governance.

Zoramthanga announced thenames of the “God-fearing” candidatesat the MNF general headquarters, orHnam Run, on No-vember 6. The MNFwill contest from 37seats. It has concededtwo seats to its ally, theMizoram CongressParty (MCP), and oneto the MDF. Zoram-thanga will contestfrom ChamphaiNorth, which he rep-resents, and also fromChamphai South.Both constituenciesare close to the India-

Myanmar border. In 2003, Zoram-thanga contested from Champhai andKolasib and won from both seats.

The Congress has promised to un-dertake massive economic reformsaimed at alleviating the condition offarmers and to create income-generat-ing avenues for the weaker sections.However, its main election plank is“corruption”. Pradesh Congress Com-mittee president and former ChiefMinister Lalthanhawla asserted thatthe people would throw out the MNFover the “rampant corruption and mis-use of the public exchequer”. Lalthan-hawla, who has been projected as theparty’s chief ministerial candidate, iscontesting from two constituencies,South Tuipui and Serchhip.

The party has fielded 38 candi-dates, leaving two seats for its ally, theHmar People’s Conference (HPC).Lalthanhawla said that the tie-up withthe HPC would help the Congress infive other seats. “We are going to get anabsolute majority and come back topower,” Lalthanhawla said. He hopedthat electioneering by Prime MinisterManmohan Singh and party presidentSonia Gandhi in the last leg of cam-paigning would improve the party’sprospects.

The UDA has projected formerChief Minister and veteran politicianBrigadier T. Sailo as its chief minis-terial candidate. Sailo had a brief stintas Chief Minister in his first tenure,from June 2, 1978, to November 10,1978, but held the office for a full termfrom 1979 to 1984. Mizoram was atthat time a Union Territory.

In 1986, Lalthanhawlastepped down as ChiefMinister to make way forthe then MNF president,Laldenga, who had led atwo-decade-long under-ground insurgent move-ment from 1966 to 1986, tohead the MNF-Congressinterim government afterthe signing of the Mizo Ac-cord on June 30, 1986.Lalthanhawla becameDeputy Chief Minister inthe Laldenga Ministry.

ZORAMTHANGA, CHIEFMINISTER of Mizoram.

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The MNF became the first insur-gent group to form the government inan Indian State when the first full-fledged MNF government was in-stalled in 1987. The MNF came topower with 24 of the 40 Assemblyseats, followed by the Congress with 13and the People’s Conference withthree. In 1989, the Congress recap-tured power and Lalthanhawla be-came Chief Minister again; he went onto hold two terms from 1989 to 1998.

The Congress is trying to woo peas-ants with the campaign that the fundsthat were allocated by the Centre forproviding relief to farmers hit by therecent “Mautam” have not reachedmany people. The allegation is ironic,because the ruling MNF grew out ofthe Mizo National Famine Front(MNFF), which was formed in re-sponse to the “Mautam” of 1958-1959.(Mautam is a famine that follows theflowering of a particular variety ofbamboo, at intervals of 47-50 yearsover a wide range. The flowering leadsto an increase in the populations ofrodents and insects, which finish feast-ing on the bamboo seeds and then turnto other crops.) Zoramthanga was oneof the front-ranking undergroundleaders.

The MNF counters the Congresscampaign by telling voters that thoughthe Mautam resulted in acute foodshortage and a famine-like situation,there was not a single starvation deaththis time, unlike in the previous Mau-tam, thanks to the timely and effectiveintervention by the MNF government.

POLITICS OF RICEBy Venkitesh Ramakrishnan in Raipur

COMPETITIVE populism is thename of the game in Chhattisgarh,where Assembly elections are sched-uled to be held in two phases on No-vember 14 and November 20. Theruling BJP and the principal opposi-tion Congress-Nationalist CongressParty (NCP) alliance have been en-gaged in a contest of promises. Majorissues that concern the people, such as

programmes to create livelihoods forthe poor and measures to improve thesecurity climate, have been pushed tothe background. This, in a State wheremore than a thousand people havebeen killed in the past four years, mostof them civilians, in repeated extremistattacks and in conflicts between theCommunist Party of India (Maoist)and Salwa Judum, a vigilante group.

This exercise of offering sops start-ed with the introduction of a govern-ment scheme, about 10 months beforecampaigning started, to provide rice atRs.3 a kilogram for families below thepoverty line.

Soon afterwards, the RamanSingh-led BJP government an-nounced that salt would also be pro-vided under the scheme, at 25 paise akg. A scramble followed to obtaincards that marked out families as eligi-ble for the scheme. The cards werecoloured saffron, the colour associatedwith the BJP and the Sangh Parivar. Asthe months wore on, the BJP’s ban-ners, posters and media advertise-ments turned the scheme into anelectioneering tool, seeking votes inthe name of “Rs.3 rice and 25 paisesalt”.

The party’s election propagandareminded the people that the State go-vernment had earmarked Rs.945 croreto make available 35 kg of rice everymonth to the approximately 36 lakhfamilies belonging to the BPL category

The Congress initially opposed thescheme, saying it was unproductiveand was a move to gloss over the realproblems of the State. But by the timethe party got around to publishing itselection manifesto, it had fallen to thelure of populism.

The manifesto announced that ifthe party was voted to power, RamanSingh’s record would be bettered andall ration-card holders would get riceat Rs.2 a kg. Not to be outdone, theBJP’s manifesto promised rice at Re.1/kg and free salt. Other promises in-cluded interest-free loans in the agri-cultural sector and free electricity tofarmers with 5 horse power pumps.

The BJP describes its freebies asmeasures to “control the ill-effects of

the inflation and price rise” that theManmohan Singh government has in-flicted on the nation. The State Con-gress’ rejoinder is that money for therice and salt scheme was advanced bythe Central government. The RamanSingh government, it says, is only afacilitating agency. It also claims thatthe ruling party is corrupt.

Candidates have come up withtheir own sops during electioneering.In the Raipur Rural Assembly seat, theBJP’s Nandlal Sahu and the Congress’Satyanarayan Sharma have promisedto upgrade the small town of Beer-gaon, some 10 km from Raipur, into acorporation. Beergaon is at present amunicipality.

In Dantewada, where naxaliteshave a strong presence, the police haveregistered a first information report(FIR) against Mahendra Karma, se-nior Congress leader and founder ofSalwa Judum: he allegedly tried tobribe voters with cash. Karma, who isalso the Opposition leader in the As-sembly, is facing a stiff electoral battlein a constituency that was once consi-dered his bastion.

This time, the Communist Party ofIndia’s (CPI) Manish Kunjam is put-ting up a strong fight and reportedlyhas the support of some naxalites whodo not want to see the founder of SalwaJudum returned to the Assembly. Kar-ma says that the money he distributedwas not meant as bribes but constitu-ted “payment” for workers he hadhired.

A certain cynicism marks the cam-paign of the main parties. Speaking toFrontline, Indra Dev, Professor Emer-itus in the Sociology Department ofRaipur University, said that these par-ties had scant respect for their ownstated positions on a variety of social,political and policy issues. “Their ap-proach smacks of an audacity that ulti-mately nobody would question themand hence they do not have to be ac-countable to the public or to them-selves. That is why you see these tallpromises from even those parties thathad first expressed themselves againstpopulist policies.”

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Election Commissioner, said: “Thebattle to distribute free rice will ulti-mately bring down the productivity ofChhattisgarh.”

At Kurubhatta village in Mahasa-mund, the Lok Sabha constituency ofCongress leader and former ChiefMinister Ajit Jogi, farmer Krishna Ku-mar Sahu summed up the responsefrom the peasant community, whichultimately has to produce the rice thatthese parties are promising to distrib-ute at reduced prices.

“It is all right to announce distribu-tion of rice at reduced prices, butwhere would that leave us? All thesepoliticians talk about the interests offarmers, but where would this compet-itive price reduction lead the farmersto?” he asked. He pointed out that thereal concerns of farmers, such as grow-ing agricultural expenditure, were notaddressed by any of the mainstreamparties (see box).

According to Krishna Kumar Sahuand many other farmers in the districtsof Mahasamund, Raipur and Durg, theaspiration for a political alternative be-yond the BJP and the Congress is in-deed strong in the community, but nosuch political force seems to be emerg-

ing. “Of course, we know that partieslike the CPI, the CPI(M) and the BSPhave a commitment to take up the is-sues and problems of the poor andmarginalised communities, but inChhattisgarh they are not a majorpresence and have not come around tofighting for our cause,” he told Fron-tline.

Electioneering by the major par-ties, thus, does not seem to reflect thereal issues affecting the people. Elec-tions in Chhattisgarh seem to hinge onorganisational factors rather than po-litical or policy matters.

Numbers become important inthis background. In the 2003 Assemb-ly elections, the BJP won 50 seats with39.26 per cent of the votes, while theCongress won 37 seats with 36.71 percent of the votes. The NCP won oneseat but captured 7.02 per cent of thevotes. The NCP and the Congressfought that election separately, butthis time they are together, and, there-fore, in terms of electoral arithmeticthey seem to have an advantage overthe BJP. But then in politics two andtwo need not always add up to four.

In terms of organisational prepa-redness, there is little doubt that the

BJP had the head start with its rice-and-salt campaign The BJP’s electionmachinery is well structured with cen-tral coordinator Ravi Shankar Prasadcamping in Raipur. Various units andSangh Parivar affiliates have clearlydefined roles, and internal assess-ments have expressed satisfaction withthe way those roles are being per-formed.

The BJP’s assessment at the begin-ning of the campaign was that the anti-incumbency feeling in the State wasnot directed against Chief MinisterRaman Singh but against some of hisMinisters and MLAs. On the basis ofthis premise, the party ticket was de-nied to 18 sitting MLAs. The party lea-dership is sure that this repeat of the“Narendra Modi formula” will help theparty. But the move has brought BJPcandidates up against rebel candidatesin as many as nine seats. The rebelsinclude Virendra Pandey, an erstwhileJan Sangh leader and a founder-mem-ber of the BJP, who is challenging In-dustry Minister Rajesh Munat atRaipur City West.

According to Jogi, the fact that theBJP chose to take out 18 sitting MLAsfrom the fray reflects the party’s con-tradictions. “The party is so riddledwith corruption that it dare not field itsformer MLAs. Already people aremaking a comparison between thisclutch of MLAs and those who were inimportant positions during the Con-gress government. This comparison isclearly in our favour,” he toldFrontline.

However, Congress workers at var-ious levels admit that the party’s orga-nisational machinery is no match forthe BJP’s and that the campaign ismore or less dependent on Jogi. ButJogi’s close associates point out thatthe Congress has a strong base in some20 constituencies, including Ambika-pur, Abhanpur, Baikunthpur, Bhatap-ara and Kota, which have a longtradition of returning Congress candi-dates.

“In contrast, the BJP does not havethat many sure seats. A large numberof Chhattisgarh voters are by traditionsupporters of the Congress. In 2003,

CONGRESS GENERAL SECRETARY Rahul Gandhi, former Chief MinisterAjit Jogi and party candidate Mahendra Karma at a rally in Dantewadaconstituency in the naxalite-affected Bastar district of Chhattisgarh. Karmais the founder of Salwa Judum, the anti-naxalite vigilante group.

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THE interests of farmers are consi-dered to be at the core of the electioncampaign in Chhattisgarh. The prin-cipal contenders, the Bharatiya Ja-nata Party (BJP) and the Congress,have announced special schemes forfarmers. Both parties have promisedfree electricity for farming and goodprices for rice, the main crop.

The Congress has promised a bo-nus of Rs.251 on every quintal ofpaddy procured by the government,while the BJP has promised Rs.270 aquintal. The Congress has said a go-vernment headed by it will not allowfarm land to be acquired withoutfarmers’ consent and pledged to fix acap on the sale of agricultural land to“outsiders”. The BJP has promisedinterest free loans to farmers.

Neither party, however, has any-thing to say about the suicides byfarmers in the State. The BJP leader-ship, of course, denies that there isany such thing in Chhattisgarh. Con-gress leaders say that farmers inChhattisgarh have been committingsuicide in large numbers in recentyears, but they have not thought it fitto reach out to the bereaved familiesor to make it an election issue. ChiefMinister Raman Singh pointed thisout to bolster his argument of denial:“You have so many parties in theopposition... Do you think that theywould have remained silent if therewas an actual issue like this?”

But the data with the NationalCrimes Record Bureau (NCRB) andthe State Police Department’s recordtell a different story. According tothe NCRB report of 2006, 1,483farmers committed suicide in theState in that year. That is, four casesof suicide a day.

The NCRB put the number offarmer suicide cases in Chhattisgarhas the fourth highest in the country,behind only Maharashtra (4,453)Andhra Pradesh (2,607) and Karna-taka (1,720). Even in terms of the

Farmer Suicide Rate (FSR), which iscalculated in terms of the number ofsuicide cases for every one lakhfarmers, Chhattisgarh’s figures arehigh. The FSR put Kerala in the topspot with 142.9 cases for every onelakh farmers. Karnataka was secondwith 36.4 and Chhattisgarh wasthird with 33.7.

The government has no use forthese figures. “Nearly 80 per cent ofChhattisgarh’s population belongsto the agricultural community andmany farmers among this large pop-ulation may have committed suicideowing to personal reasons, but theyhave not done so on account of debtor other economic constraints,” Ra-man Singh told Frontline.

However, a tabulation of theChhattisgarh Police on farmer sui-cides between January 2004 andJune 2008 (a copy of which is in thepossession of Frontline) for the dis-trict of Raipur shows that in this pe-riod as many as 63 farmerscommitted suicide because of pover-ty and debt. The most striking entryrelates to farmers who committedsuicide after “losing mental bal-ance”: as many as 526 such deathstook place in the past five years.There were also 567 cases of suicideby farmers who could not cope with“distressing illnesses”. The ChiefMinister refused to comment whenhis attention was drawn to whatthese entries indicated.

Frontline visited two bereavedfamilies in Mahasamund district.The heads of both families, GaneshSahu of Kurubhatta village and San-tosh Nishad of Gorali village, com-mitted suicide several months ago.In both cases, police records attri-buted the suicide to “distress on ac-count of poverty and debt”. Both thefamilies said they had not receivedany compensation from thegovernment.

Purushottam Sahu, father of 36-

year-old Ganesh, said that officersfrom the block development office orthe Agriculture Department had notcared to visit them. He said his sonhad a debt of approximatelyRs.1,50,000 and it was becoming in-creasingly clear that he would not beable to pay it back. “Over the years,input costs of farming have risen byleaps and bounds, and the returnsare getting smaller. There is no in-tervention from the government toprovide assistance in the form ofloans, fertilizers or labour. The sit-uation does indeed upset mental bal-ance. Almost all the farmers who arelisted as having committed suicideowing to mental imbalance musthave suffered from financial con-straints,” Purushottam said. Thefamily has given up farming andleased out the land in return for 35boras (sacks) of paddy a year. Onesack of paddy fetches about Rs.700.

Daulal Chandrakar of the districtunit of the Kisan Congress had triedto draw attention to the plight offarmers in the district. According tohim, the district has the highest FSRin Chhattisgarh at 83 cases of suicidein a year for every one lakh farmers.He told Frontline that he had sent allthe details to the State Congressheadquarters, but nothing hap-pened.

Arvind Netam, a senior Congressleader from a tribal community, ad-mitted that the State leadership hadreceived all the details from time totime but said that the party was notable to take up the issue because ofdifficulties in coordination. Netam’sreference to “coordination difficul-ties” might be a reflection of the fac-tionalism that plagues the Congress.With the principal opposition partyriven by internal dissensions and theruling party in denial mode, theredoes not seem to be much hope ofimmediate relief for the farmers.

Venkitesh Ramakrishnan

Distress in the farms

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THE SPOILERSBy Purnima S. Tripathi in Bhopal and Guna

THE traditional bipolar Congress-versus-BJP character of Madhya Pra-desh politics is changing to a multipo-lar one in the November 27 elections.Mayawati’s BSP and Uma Bharati’sBharatiya Jan Shakti (BJS) party arealso in the fray, and the moot question

is which of the two parties, the Con-gress or the BJP, they will affect more.

The BJP, which came to power inNovember 2003 with a three-fourthsmajority after 10 years of Congressrule, has done little to invite popularanger. In fact, Chief Minister ShivrajSingh Chouhan has a clean imagethough some of his Ministers are ac-cused of corruption. Some of hisschemes, such as the Ladli Laxmi Yoja-na for the girl child, have earned pop-ular support.

But all is not apparently well withthe government, which came to powerpromising a bhay, bhookh, bhrashta-char mukt samaj (a society free of fear,hunger and corruption). In the pastfive years, nothing much was done forpoverty alleviation. Starvation deathsand malnutrition among childrenwere routinely reported. No major em-ployment creation pro-grammes were launched.Fear among the minor-ities reigned supreme asattacks on Christiansand Muslims increased.

“There has been nomajor qualitative differ-ence between the previ-ous Congress regime andthe present one. This hasdisillusioned the com-mon voter,” said a seniorpolitical observer. Peo-ple looking for alterna-tives could thus find onein the BSP or the BJS oreven the GondwanaGantantra Party (GGP), which has astrong base among the tribal people inthe Mahakoshal region.

The new front-runner is the BSP,which is contesting all the 230 seats inthe State for the first time. It has at-tracted people from all castes andbackgrounds, including professionals.The party has also given eight seats toMuslim candidates, the highest num-ber to Muslims by any party in theState.

The BSP’s slogan of sarvjan hi-taay, sarvjan sukhay (in the well-be-ing of all is the welfare of all) has beenreflected in the distribution of the tick-

et. More than three dozen Brahmins,two dozen Thakurs and 18 members ofthe minority community, includingMuslims, Christians, Jains and Budd-hists, figure in its list. “Mayawati iscapable of springing a surprise,” said apolitical observer in Bhopal. “Her par-ty’s campaign started well in advancewithout any hype, and it is well orga-nised and disciplined.” Not surprising,given the fact that running the BSPshow in Madhya Pradesh are over9,000 engineers and 900 doctors, withthe help of a few retired bureaucratsand police officers.

S.C. Tripathi, former Director-General of the State police, is one ofthem. Tripathi is known to have beenclose to former Chief Minister DigvijaySingh and former Prime Minister AtalBihari Vajpayee, in whose securityteam he worked. He joined the BSP

recently. “This is the on-ly party that has the gutsto speak of reservationfor the poor among theupper castes. It believesin the welfare of all eventhough Dalits remain itscore supporters,” hesaid. He added that theBSP’s policies were nei-ther pro-Hindu nor pro-Muslim, unlike that ofthe BJP or the Congress.Architect Sanjiv Saxena,once a BJP sympathiser,is contesting from Bho-pal South on the BSPticket. He said profes-

sionals had associated themselves withthe BSP this time to bring about a“qualitative change in the pattern ofgovernance”. He said a survey done byhim showed that over 70 per cent ofthe voters saw no difference betweenthe Congress and the BJP.

Bhupendra Saxena, his campaignmanager, said: “People, especially theyounger lot, are looking for a changenow. We have to take the elephant [theBSP symbol] around and make peopleaware of its presence and the outcomewill be startling.”

According to Ibrahim Quereshi,former Chairman of the State Minor-

SHIVRAJ SINGHCHOUHAN, MadhyaPradesh Chief Minister.

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they got confused because of factional-ism. So, what we are looking at is aminor course correction, and that ishappening,” said Arvind Netam, se-nior leader of the Congress who hailsfrom a tribal community.

Congress workers are happy withthe alliance with the NCP and pleasedthat internal squabbles between thefactions led by Jogi, Vidya CharanShukla and Motilal Vohra are now un-der control. Still, the central leader-ship dare not announce Jogi as thechief ministerial candidate for fear ofannoying Shukla and Vohra. The Con-gress-NCP combine faces rebel candi-dates in 12 seats, but the leadershipdoes not see that as a major threat.

However, the BSP, which has putup candidates in all the 90 seats, aswell as the CPI and the CPI(M), whichare contesting 12 and seven seats re-spectively, pose some problems for theCongress. The BSP won one seat and6.94 per cent of the votes in 2003 andis likely to increase its vote and seatshare. The Left parties hope to do thesame and have been trying to developsome mass resistance movements inBastar, Bijou and Durg.

The CPI (Maoist) has a significantfollowing in around 20 Assembly con-stituencies spread across the regions ofDantewada and Bastar. The party’spolicy is to boycott the polls, but in pastelections it selectively supported can-didates of the Congress and the BJP.This time, indications are that theMaoists will back non-Congress andnon-BJP parties, such as the CPI.

If voters in Chhattisgarh do indeedvote for these parties in large numbers,the State might well end up with ahung verdict, creating room for a grea-ter say for the smaller parties.

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ities Commission and president of AllIndia Muslim Backward Classes Fed-eration, there will be a hung Assemblythis time in which the BSP and otherparties, such as the GGP and the BJS,will have a decisive role to play. “Wehave seen both the Congress and theBJP. In the past five years, 55 Muslimswere killed in the State, many inci-dents of communal violence were re-ported in which the government tookno action, and incidents of arson andlooting against Muslims have in-creased. Secular parties such as theCongress, too, which has its govern-ment at the Centre, failed to protectus,” he said.

Leaders of the BSP say the partywill win 50-70 seats. “This time therewill be no government without ourparticipation,” said Rajaram, who is incharge of the party in Bhopal. He saidif this was not the case, then long-timeloyalists of both the BJP and the Con-gress would not have flocked to theBSP for the ticket.

Deserters from the Congress in-clude Balendu Shukla, Shankar PratapSingh Bundela (popularly known asMunna Raja), Devendra Singh Raghu-vanshi and Hafizur Rehman. Shukla, aone-time confidant of the late Mad-havrao Scindia of the Congress, is con-testing from Gwalior on the BSP ticket

while Munna Raja refused the Con-gress ticket from Chhattarpur to con-test on the BSP ticket from Rajnagar.Raghuvanshi is contesting for the Bha-mori seat in Guna district and HafizurRehman for the Bhopal Central seat.

According to Raghuvanshi, notjust Bhamori, but the adjoining four orfive seats could go to the BSP becauseof a trickle down effect. He said theadvantage was that a BSP candidatebegan with a base of nearly 10,000votes (the core Dalit vote) when otherparty candidates began from zero. Butkeeping in view its past performance,the BSP’s confidence at the momentcould be a bit presumptuous.

In 2003, the party won only two ofthe 158 seats it contested and had avote share of 7.26 per cent. It claimsthat this was because the party was in ashambles in Madhya Pradesh then andthat the president of the State unit,Phool Singh Baraiya, had revolted atthe last minute, causing a split. Ataround the same time, the Mayawatigovernment in Uttar Pradesh had fall-en following the BJP’s withdrawal ofsupport.

“But this time we have our owngovernment in Uttar Pradesh, the or-ganisation here is strong, and our cam-paign started much ahead of everyoneelse’s. Besides, we are getting supportfrom all castes and communities,” saidRajaram. It would not be surprising ifthe Uttar Pradesh experiment, inwhich the BSP romped home, is re-peated in Madhya Pradesh, he said.

Uma Bharati also is capable ofspringing a few surprises this time.Knowing the BJP’s strategy (she wasits star campaigner last time), sheknows exactly what to do. “Not only inBundelkhand, where she has a strongsupport base, but all over the StateUma Bharati could damage the BJP.All she needs is 5,000-6,000 votes andthe BJP’s party will be spoiled,” said asenior political analyst.

The Congress, which until a fewmonths ago was talking of comingback to power, is already looking sub-dued, mainly because of widespreaddesertions following ticket distribu-tion. Over 50 Congress rebels are in the

HAFIZUR REHMAN, BSP candidate for Bhopal Central, proceeding to file hisnomination papers, on November 7.

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fray. Congress leaders who did notwant to be named said bungling in theticket distribution could turn out to bethe party’s undoing. Union HumanResource Development Minister Ar-jun Singh apparently has pointed thisout to Sonia Gandhi in a letter. Con-gress functionaries, however, denythis.

“Resentment at the time of ticketdistribution is a routine thing in bigparties and our president Suresh Pa-chauri will talk to the rebels and thingswill be sorted out,” said Rajiv Singh,general secretary of the State Con-gress, who claimed that the Congresswould form the government. Thatlooks quite unrealistic because theparty won just 39 of the 230 seats in2003 with a vote share of 31.6 per cent.This was despite the hushed talks ofthere being an informal understand-ing between the Congress and the BSP.Nothing much has changed in the in-tervening period to alter this positiondramatically.

The BJP, which swept the previouselections winning 172 seats and 42.5per cent votes, is confident that its own“achievements” and the Congress-ledCentral government’s failure to checkthe price rise and terrorism will bringit back to power. But Uma Bharati,who herself is contesting from Tikam-garh and is reported to be drawingsubstantial support from a section ofOther Backward Classes (OBC) voters,and Mayawati could play the spoilers.

Besides, Mayawati’s formula ofBrahmin-Dalit unity, which workedwonders in Uttar Pradesh, is also ontrial here, and if the Uttar Pradeshresult is any indication, it could seri-ously damage the BJP’s prospects. ButBJP leaders are in no mood to admitthis. “Our supporters are not driven bycaste or religion, but ideology and theywill stay with us,” said Govind Malu,media-in-charge of the party in Bho-pal. “We have given a clean govern-ment; we promise development, ofwhich we have given ample proof; ourChief Minister has a good image as wasevident by the massive response to hisashirvad yatras; we have rid the Stateof naxalite and dacoit problem; and we

created employment for one lakh peo-ple.”

Besides, he said the party had ef-fectively countered any anti-incum-bency factor. It has denied the ticket to61 of its sitting legislators.

BATTLE OF CLAIMSBy Ajoy Ashirwad Mahaprashasta in New Delhi

SCUFFLES, protests, defections,boycotts, lobbying and cajoling are allpart of the run-up to the elections tothe Delhi Assembly, scheduled for No-vember 29. These elections, along withAssembly elections in four otherStates, are being watched avidly be-cause their results, it is believed, willindicate the trend in the general elec-tions in 2009.

The leaderships of the two mainparties, the Congress and the BJP,however, have their hands full trying topacify disgruntled members who havebeen denied the party ticket or feelsidelined in other ways. A BJP leadersaid that there were 4,000 applica-tions for the party ticket for the 70Assembly constituencies. The Con-gress may have had an easier timechoosing its candidates since it re-ceived only 700 applications, but ithad a fair share of its own controver-sies.

The final lists of both parties inevi-tably left out many ticket-seekers, whohave been registering their protest bybringing in large crowds almost everyday outside the State offices of theirrespective parties, and sometimeseven outside the national offices.

It was this difficulty that reported-ly made both the Congress and the BJPannounce their lists unusually late.The BJP, which has conceded fourseats to its ally, the Shiromani AkaliDal (Badal), did better than the Con-gress. Though both parties announcedtheir candidates in two phases, theBJP announced its list earlier than theCongress both times, giving the im-pression that it was more sure of itself.Its chief ministerial candidate is VijayKumar Malhotra, the party’s sole

Member of Parliament from Delhi.Malhotra defeated Manmohan Singhin the 1999 general elections from theSouth Delhi constituency.

The Congress announced thenames of its candidates for 22 seats onNovember 10, the day before the lastdate for filing nominations. Partysources said that the election-in-charge, Oscar Fernandes, was closelywatching the BJP’s nominations be-fore finalising the party’s candidates.The Congress list retained 50 sittingMembers of the Legislative Assembly,but the preferences of some old-timerswere reportedly ignored in favour ofcandidates who the leaders felt had abetter chance of winning.

This seems to have happened inthe BJP, too. Old-timers such as VijayGoel and O.P. Kohli, members of theparty’s selection committee, reported-ly walked out of a meeting. Afterwards,Goel wrote to the party’s central lea-dership complaining that he was beingsidelined.

Party nominations became fraughtwith controversies this time largely be-cause of the delimitation exercise, afterwhich many old constituencies disap-peared while new ones were carvedout. As a consequence, the carefullynurtured caste and community equa-tions in the old constituencies weredisrupted. There are more urban con-stituencies now, while the number ofconstituencies reserved for the Sched-uled Castes is down to 11 from 13. Theredrawing of the constituencies alsoled to bitter rivalries between sittingMLAs and delayed the party lists.

The large number of applicationsfor the party ticket received by the BJPshows that the party hopes to do well,banking on the anti-incumbency sen-timent against the Congress, whichhas been in power for 10 years. Theparty’s election-in-charge, Arun Jait-ley, said: “We, being in the opposition,will benefit from the anti-incumbencywave. The voters have been affected atthree levels. Price rise and mismanage-ment of the economy at the first level,security issues and terrorism at thesecond, and at the third, local, level byissues such as the hike in power prices,

D E C E M B E R 5 , 2 0 0 8


the sealing drive, water shortage, badroads and poor education.” The BJP isplanning to play up the sealing anddemolition drive in 2006, in whichhundreds of properties were sealedand many people were displaced.

Questions have been raised aboutthe timing of the regularisation ofabout 1,500 unauthorised colonies inDelhi a few months before the As-sembly elections. The president of theBJP’s Delhi unit, Harshvardhan, said:“According to the Delhi Human Devel-opment Report 2006, unplannedjhuggis are there everywhere in Delhi,and 40 lakh people live in unauthor-ised colonies without any basic amen-ities. Regularisation of unauthorisedcolonies just before the elections ispurely an election stunt. The govern-ment had 10 years to authorise them.The Sheila Dikshit government hasfailed to give flats to poor slum-dwell-ers, as had been promised in its mani-festos in the last two elections.”

Ajay Maken, Union Minister of

State for Urban Development, howev-er, told Frontline that the announce-ment came as the logical culminationof a process that began in February2007 with the announcement of NewMaster Plan 2021, which containedthe basic provisions for authorisation(Frontline, August 15, 2008). He saidthat the process began two and a halfyears ago and therefore could not beconstrued as a “knee-jerk reaction” tothe November elections.

Sheila Dikshit has expressed confi-dence that her government will winthe popular mandate. In a recent in-terview to a newspaper, she said, “Wewould like to think there is pro-in-cumbency. People feel that this is agovernment that has performed forthe past 10 years. We have taken somebold steps such as power privatisation.We now have over 130,000 vehiclesrunning on compressed natural gas(CNG). We have increased green coverin the city to 20 per cent from 2 percent 10 years ago. We implemented the

Delhi Metro plan, which lay in files for20-30 years. We also gave legal accep-tance to unauthorised colonies. It isthere for everybody to see.”

She further said that the govern-ment was building 14,000 homes forslum-dwellers under the Rajiv RatanAwas Yojana with financial help fromthe Jawaharlal Nehru National UrbanRenewal Mission and that “the dream”was to build four lakh homes. “Thesealing was something that was doneunder court orders. Neither the Mu-nicipal Corporation of Delhi nor theDelhi government had anything to dowith it,” she added, referring to the2006 drive against unauthorisedproperties.

Opinion polls conducted by somenews channels say the Congress has anedge. Some polls, despite showing adecline in the popularity of the Con-gress, have predicted its victory.

One factor that both parties try todownplay is the growing presence ofthe BSP. Banking on its social engi-neering formula that proved a successin Uttar Pradesh and boosted its voteshare by 9.89 per cent in the April2007 municipal elections in Delhi, theBSP has constituted committees –Brahmin, Dalit and Vaishya panels –to target different sections of voters inthe capital. Its election-in-charge, G.C.Dinkar, said his party was contestingall 70 seats and that party supremoMayawati would campaign. The BSPwon 17 seats in the municipal elec-tions, denting Congress bastions. Inmany of the 272 wards of the Munici-pal Corporation of Delhi, BSP candi-dates lost only by narrow margins.

Both the Congress and the BJPseem to be organising defections fromthe BSP. More than 20 office-bearersof the BSP, led by former Delhi unitpresident Jage Ram Bhati, declaredtheir support to the Congress in Sep-tember. The BSP councillor from Har-kesh Nagar, Shri Giriraj, and fiveprominent leaders of various partiesjoined the BJP after resigning fromtheir respective parties recently. How-ever, many Congress and BJP mem-bers lined up with the BSP after theywere denied the party ticket. �

AMRISH GAUTAM, THE Congress candidate for the Kondli seat in Delhi, onhis way to file his nomination on November 11.

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will become sub-orbital and crash on to the moon’ssurface.

The engine should be fired opposite to the direc-tion of the velocity of the spacecraft. In other words,if Chandrayaan-1 were to be travelling from left toright, the firing was to be done from right to left. Thatis, the thrust should be in the opposite direction sothat the spacecraft slows down.

AN unambiguous message that India sent outwhen Chandrayaan-1 safely entered the moon’s orbiton November 8 was that the Indian Space ResearchOrganisation (ISRO) could now confidently talk ofsending a spacecraft to Mars. Overcoming the chal-lenges posed by the treacherous manoeuvre to insertChandrayaan-1 into the lunar orbit was no meantask. India succeeded in executing this manoeuvre inits very first attempt.

ISRO accomplished this complex manoeuvrewith aplomb at 4.51 p.m. when commands wereradioed from the Spacecraft Control Centre (SCC) inBangalore to Chandrayaan-1’s on-board engine tofire. At the end of nearly 14 minutes (817 seconds) offiring of the engine, when the Doppler signals re-ceived by the two tracking antennas at Byalalu vil-lage near Bangalore showed that everything hadbeen on the dot, there was tempered jubilationamong the scientists. And, at 6.33 p.m. on November12, the engine was fired again, for 58 seconds, at theend of which the spacecraft was in its final lunar orbitof 100 km by 100 km.

The operation, which was done in several mis-sions of the USSR and the U.S., called for precisecalculations. When the spacecraft passes by the vi-cinity of the moon, commands should be given to itsengine, called the Liquid Apogee Motor (LAM), tofire at the right moment and exactly for the requiredlength of time. If the engine is under-fired, the spa-cecraft will skip the moon and fly away into deepspace. If the burn duration is in excess, the spacecraft

India succeeded in executing thismanoeuvre in its very first attempt.ISRO can now talk confidently ofsending an Indian spacecraft toanother planetary body.

ISRO accomplished with aplomb the complex manoeuvre to insert Chandrayaan-1

into the lunar orbit. B Y T . S . S U B R A M A N I A N

At home in thelunar orbit

MOON AS VIEWED by Chandrayaan-1’s TerrainMapping Camera on November 4 from a distanceof 3,11,200 km.

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For about 500 ISRO technologists,scientists and radio engineers whowere scanning their plot-boards at theSCC, located at ISTRAC, ISRO’s Te-lemetry, Tracking and Command Net-work at Peenya, Bangalore, the finalminutes were excruciating.

At 4.51 p.m., commands were ra-dioed to Chandrayaan-1’s engine tostart firing when the spacecraft passedat a distance of 500 km from the moon.This was to reduce the spacecraft’s ve-locity to enable the moon’s gravity tocapture it.

To Team ISRO’s delight, as the817-second firing got under way, itcould see on the plot-board the accu-racy with which the manoeuvre pro-ceeded, the deceleration of thespacecraft, and its final entry into thelunar orbit.

Chandrayaan-1’s aposelene (far-thest distance from the moon) was7,502 km and its periselene (nearestdistance from the moon) was 504 km.These were on the dot, as predicted.

G. Madhavan Nair, ISRO Chair-man, succinctly captured the mood

when he said, “The last 20 minuteswere so critically important, I can saymy heart skipped a beat or two.” Heexplained the dramatic manoeuvrethus: “Think of the satellite as a para-chute free-falling from an aircraft. Wehad to ensure that Chandrayaan’senormous velocity in deep space wasarrested in time and also that it was seton the right track. A host of commandshad to be given to ensure that all ele-ments were in good form.”

M. Annadurai, project director,Chandrayaan-1, called it “an achieve-

AT THE INDIAN Deep Space Network at Byalalu near Bangalore, the 32-metre-diameter antenna in various stagesof rotation while tracking Chandrayaan-1 on October 22.

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ment not only for ISRO but for thewhole nation”. He recalled the hardwork put in not only by the Chan-drayaan-1 team but the top ISROmanagement for the past four and ahalf years to realise this moment.

Annadurai, who led a team of acouple of hundred people in integrat-ing the 11 scientific instruments in thespacecraft, said, “Chandrayaan-1 to-day graduated into a real lunar mis-sion. The first step towards achievingthe lunar mission has been taken.”

The Doppler signals from the spa-cecraft received by the two huge anten-nas – with diameters of 32 metres and18 metres – at Byalalu showed that thespacecraft’s trajectory was exactly aspredicted, he said. There were enoughearly indications from the behaviour ofthe accelerometer (on board the spa-cecraft) that the manoeuvre would besuccessful, he explained.

For S.K. Shivakumar, Director, IS-TRAC, the moment provided “a greatsense of relief and a wonderful feeling”.The SCC, the nerve centre of oper-ations at ISTRAC in communicatingwith Chandrayaan-1, is his baby. Healso led the team that built the 32-metre antenna, which he described as“an all-out Indian effort”. The 18-metre antenna was built on a turnkeybasis by the Germans. He was pleasedthat the tracking of Chandrayaan-1 byboth the antennas was excellent.

“Traditionally, it is the launch veh-icle that gets the applause. This time, Iwas pleased that the command net-work too got accolades,” Shivakumarsaid. He described the signals receivedfrom the spacecraft as “resounding”.

“It was a feast for the eyes” for B.R.Guruprasad, ISRO’s Public RelationsOfficer and an authority on rocketry ,who was present at the SCC.

“It was a very, very meticulouslyplanned operation. The way Chan-drayaan-1’s trajectory went in realtime was unbelievable. We could seeon the monitors the slowing downprocess – the deceleration of the spa-cecraft” before it entered the lunar or-bit, said Guruprasad.

The mission began at 6.22 a.m. onOctober 22 when the Polar Satellite

Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C11), an ad-vanced version of the standard PSLV,rose from the second launch pad at thespaceport at Sriharikota in AndhraPradesh. It was a dramatic lift-off be-cause the Sriharikota island had beenbuffeted by rain and thunderstorm forthe previous five days. By then ISROlost 10 hours of the 49-hour count-down to the lift-off.

But by T minus four hours, ISROwas back on track, doing in parallelmany pre-launch operations thatshould be done in sequence. Eighteenminutes and 20 seconds after the lift-off, the fourth stage of the PSLV putChandrayaan-1 into a perfect ellipticalearth orbit with an apogee of 22,866km and a perigee of 256 km (Frontline,November 21, 2008).

From then on, ISRO executed fivemanoeuvres to increase the ellipticityof the spacecraft’s orbit to propel ittowards the moon. The manoeuvreswere executed by radioing commandsat the opportune moments from theSCC to its LAM to fire and increase theapogee height in order to take the spa-cecraft towards the moon’s vicinity.The five manoeuvres took the apogeeheight to 37,900 km, 74,715 km,164,600 km, 2,67,000 km and finally3,80,000 km. The fifth manoeuvretook place on November 4 when theLAM was fired to take Chandrayaan-1to its apogee of 3,80,000 km. Themoon is 3,84,000 km from the earth.

During this journey of Chan-drayaan-1, its Terrain Mapping Cam-era (TMC), a scientific instrumentbuilt by India, was successfully oper-

ated twice to take pictures, first of theearth and then of the moon. Then, onNovember 8, came the most crucialmanoeuvre of inserting Chan-drayaan-1 into the lunar orbit.

The USSR and the U.S. had floun-dered in their initial attempts to inserttheir spacecraft into lunar orbits. Thedetails of the USSR’s failures are notavailable.

The U.S. “attempted” its test flightsof Ranger 1 and Ranger 2 to the moonin 1961. Its Ranger 3 missed the moonin January 1962 by 36,793 km.

Ranger 4 crashed on the lunar farside in April 1962. In October 1962,Ranger 5 of the U.S. missed the moonby 724 km. In January 1964, Ranger 6did a hard-landing on the moon and itstelevision camera failed. In July 1964,Ranger 7 did a hard-landing and itstelevision camera took pictures of themoon.

Japan and China succeeded intheir first attempts, in 1990 and 2007respectively, with their Hiten andChang’e-1 spacecraft. Both entered thelunar orbit. On November 8 afternoon,there was palpable tension in the SCC


After studyingthe final orbitfor a few days,ISRO willswitch on the 11 scientificinstruments.

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at ISTRAC as ISRO technologists andradio frequency engineers sat in frontof their consoles and radioed com-mands for retro-firing to Chan-drayaan-1.

B.N. Suresh, former Director, Vik-ram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC),and currently Director, Indian Insti-tute of Space Science and Technology,both located at Thiruvananthapuram,explained that this complex ma-noeuvre called for reorienting Chan-drayaan-1 to 1800 and givingcommands to the LAM to fire in orderto push the spacecraft in the oppositedirection. That is, orders for firing theLAM should go when the spacecraft isin its apogee of about 3,80,000 km andexactly for the required length of time.

Suresh said this would push thespacecraft in the opposite direction ofits velocity. That would reduce Chan-drayaan-1’s velocity, the moon’s grav-ity would become a dominant force,and Chandrayaan-1 would be capturedby the lunar gravity. So, instead of be-

ing a satellite of the earth, Chan-drayaan-1 would become the moon’ssatellite, Suresh said.

S. Ramakrishnan, Director (Pro-jects), VSSC, explained that “the preci-sion of firing the LAM at the right timeand the motor’s burn duration are im-portant and it should give the precisedelta velocity to the spacecraft”.

He described the accuracy withwhich Chandrayaan-1 was inserted in-to the lunar orbit as “a fantasticachievement”.

Ramakrishnan explained the sig-nificance of this achievement thus:“We now have the capability to send anIndian spacecraft to another planetarybody. We can now confidently talk ofsending an Indian spacecraft to Mars.”

After the lunar orbit insertion ma-noeuvre was done and Chandrayaan-1achieved an aposelene of 7,502 km anda periselene of 504 km, ISRO executeda series of manoeuvres to reduce thespacecraft’s orbit and bring it closer tothe moon. These manoeuvres were the

opposite of what was done for the spa-cecraft to approach the moon.

On November 9, ISRO gave com-mands to the LAM to fire to reduceChandrayaan-1’s periselene from 504km to 200 km. The aposelene re-mained the same at 7,502 km. On No-vember 10, the SCC performed “adifficult manoeuvre” of steeply reduc-ing the aposelene from 7,502 km to255 km and the periselene from 200km to 187 km. The periselene was re-duced from 187 km to 101 km on No-vember 11.

Uncertainties besieged the ma-noeuvre to reduce Chandrayaan-1’s or-bit as well, for the moon’s gravity fieldis not well characterised. It is not sym-metrical like that of the earth and it hasnot been fully understood yet. As An-nadurai said, these orbit reductionmanoeuvres also “went off very well”.

After studying the final orbit for acouple of days, ISRO will switch onChandrayaan-1’s 11 scientific instru-ments one by one. �

IMAGE OF THE earth taken by Chandrayaan-1 on October 29 from a height of 9,000 km. It shows the northern coastof Australia.

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A WEEK before the launch it looked like themost unlikely place to house the all-important Indi-an Space Science Data Centre (ISSDC) for the Chan-drayaan-1 lunar orbiter mission. The ISSDC isintended to be, according to the website of the IndianSpace Research Organisation (ISRO), “the primarydata centre for the payload data archives of Indianspace science missions”. This data centre will beresponsible for the ingestion, archiving and dissemi-nation of the payload data and related ancillary datafor all space science missions.

The centre’s building, located next to the build-ing on which stands the massive deep space antennaDSN-32 on the Indian Deep Space Network (IDSN)campus at Byalalu near Bangalore, was under con-struction and one wondered how it would be ready intime for the launch. Of course, the data from the 11on-board experiments would start coming in onlyafter the satellite reached the final lunar pole-to-poleorbit, which would be around November 15. Eventhen the ISSDC building was far from a state requir-ing only the final touches.

One had to make one’s way past piled-up stones,cement, tiles, bricks and water puddles, and con-struction workers who were busy obviously workingagainst time. But inside the under-constructionbuilding, you were in for a surprise. It seemed that,given the fast-approaching launch schedule, it hadbecome necessary to get the data infrastructureready first and then the building shell around it. Toturn around what is usual in construction businessmust have required some ingenuity on the part of thecivil engineers and the building contractors.

To the right of what would eventually be themain entrance to the building is a corridor. To theleft of that is a big hall housing massive computersystems and allied electronics. To the right of thecorridor are several smaller rooms with scores of PCsat which people were busy poring over tables andgraphs displayed on large desktop monitors. To theleft of the main entrance is another huge hall withseveral video monitors, much like a satellite controlroom. It is indeed what one may call the instrumentcontrol room. Here were the computers for the prin-cipal investigators of the various experiments andtheir scientist-engineer teams to sit and monitor theperformance of their respective instruments via boththe video images on the monitors and the datastreams in the computers on their desks once thespacecraft reached its designated final 100 km cir-cumpolar orbit around the moon.

The downlink signal that will be received at theantenna control centre at Byalalu will be both inS-band and X-band. The former is meant for com-munications between the Spacecraft Control Centre(SCC) of the ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Com-mand Network (ISTRAC) headquarters at Peenya inBangalore for orbit control and housekeeping oper-ations and the latter for data recorded by the on-board experiments. The signal received by DSN-32(which is built in what is known as the Cassegrainconfiguration) is reflected on to a sub-reflector sit-uated at the focus of the large 32-metre-diameterdish, which in turn reflects it towards the centre ofthe dish where there is an opening. From here thesignal is carried by a waveguide – comprising a seriesof seven oval-shaped reflectors – into the antenna

Data bank

An important part of the missionfrom the perspective of ISRO, thelaunch contractor of payloads, is theavailability of data from foreignexperiments to Indian researchers.

The Indian Space Science Data Centre

will ingest, archive and disseminate

payload data for all space science

missions. B Y R . R A M A C H A N D R A N

AT THE SPACECRAFT Control Centre of the ISROTelemetry, Tracking and Command Network, atByalalu near Bangalore.

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control room situated under the baseof the antenna.

As L. Srinivasan, the head of oper-ations at Byalalu, explained, the sixthmirror is what is known as dichroicmirror in honeycomb configuration,which is transparent to one band andreflects the other. This serves to sep-arate the S- and X-band data streamsby transmitting the higher frequencyX-band through and reflecting the S-band. After separation, the X-band da-ta will be reflected by the seventh mir-ror on to an antenna feed and digitaldown converter and then on to a seriesof cryo-cooled low-noise amplifiers(LNAs). The insides of these LNAs aremaintained at sub-zero temperaturesof 15 K (-258oC). Similarly, the S-banddata will also be sent separatelythrough the feed-down converter-LNA combination of devices.

Both the unscrambled and ampli-fied data streams are sent to the SCC(interview with S.K. Shivakumar, Di-rector, ISTRAC, Frontline, November21). Here a basic check is first done onthe X-band or science data to ensurethat it is in the expected format. This isthen checked for quality by ensuringthat it is “frame-synchronised”; that isto say the data received are proper andcan, therefore, be used for further pro-cessing. The quality-assured data aresent directly to the ISSDC at Byalalu.

The science data received at theISSDC will first be segregated into da-ta streams for each payload. The segre-gated data will be processed togenerate Level-0 and Level-1 dataproducts at Byalalu itself for distribu-

tion to the various science users. Lev-el-0 data are basically raw data. Thislevel corresponds to converting the ze-ros and ones – the binary representa-tion – of the data received to somebasic format. For example, if the datacorrespond to some imagery, they willbe converted to the corresponding pix-el representation.

All the orbit-related and attitudedata at the time of data gathering willbe added on at Level-1 so that the exactsatellite position is known for any cor-rections that may be required to bemade to the basic data, according toSrinivasan. The Level-1 product is thusa gross product; a quick-look product,to which no corrections to any param-eter – say, geometric corrections suchas geographical or coordinate correc-tions because of the tilt of the cameraor vibrations – have been made. Thesewill be done at Level-2. Upwards ofLevel-3, products would be applica-tion-specific.

Raw payload data/Level-0 dataand Level-1 data will be available at theISSDC in the respective servers of dif-ferent payloads. Through the differentmeans of dissemination – Internet ordedicated links – that have been estab-lished for access to all users (Frontline,November 21), these will be trans-ferred to the respective Payload Oper-ations Centres (POCs) for furtherprocessing, analysis and generation ofhigher-level data products.

Each POC is co-located at the re-spective institutions of the PrincipalInvestigators (PIs) of the various on-board experiments, which will gener-

ate the higher-level products depend-ing upon their requirement andvarious applications. For such purpos-es the data may have to be band-sep-arated because a particular applicationmay depend on a particular frequency,say, visible or infra-red, which wouldbe carried out at the user’s end, Srini-vasan pointed out. The PI will alsocoordinate the science to be done withthe data with other investigators in agiven experiment, who could be fromdifferent institutions.

The higher-level data productsgenerated by the POCs will be trans-ferred to ISSDC archives for storageand dissemination. The data archivesfor Level-0 and higher products will beorganised following the internationalPlanetary Data System (PDS) stan-dards. The ISSDC has been designedwith a mindboggling storage capacityof 400 petabytes (400 x 1015) or 400million billion bytes of data to be ar-chived for 20 years, according to Ban-gararaju, a senior engineer associatedwith the IDSN.

An important part of the missionfrom the perspective of ISRO, thelaunch contractor of these payloads, isthe availability of data from foreignexperiments to Indian researchers.While the payloads CIXS (Chan-drayaan-1 X-ray Spectrometer) andSARA (Sub-keV Atom Reflecting Ana-lyser) have collaborating Indian insti-tutions – the ISRO Satellite Centre(ISAC), Bangalore, and the SpacePhysics Laboratory (SPL), Thiruva-nanthapuram – and associated co-in-vestigators, Indian researchers haveapparently shown interest in datafrom other experiments as well.

After considerable negotiation, ithas apparently been agreed to shareraw and calibration data of each of thepayloads. Accordingly, a nodal Indianinvestigator for each of the foreignpayloads has been identified withwhom the PIs of the non-Indian exper-iments will coordinate the sharing ofthese data. Of course, all the processeddata from the six non-Indian experi-ments (except for CIXS and SARA)will be the property of the respectivePIs. �

THE SIGNAL RECEIVED by the 32-metre-diameter antenna is reflected onto a sub-reflector situated at the focus of the dish, which in turn reflects it towards the centre of the dish where there is an opening.

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THREE physicists of Japanese origin share thisyear’s Nobel Prize in Physics: one half of the prize hasgone to the 87-year-old Japanese-American Yoichi-ro Nambu of the University of Chicago “for the dis-covery of the mechanism of spontaneous brokensymmetry in subatomic physics”and the other half jointly to twoJapanese physicists, 64-year-oldMakoto Kobayashi of the HighEnergy Accelerator ResearchOrganisation (KEK), Tsukuba,and 68-year-old Toshihide Mas-kawa of Kyoto Sangyo Universi-ty, “for the discovery of the originof the broken symmetry whichpredicts the existence of at leastthree families of quarks in na-ture”.

What is broken symmetryand what does one mean byspontaneous broken symmetry?

Symmetries have an intrin-sic beauty and aesthetic appealabout them – we sense them inarchitecture, sculptures andshapes, for example. One mightask, well, why should it be sowhen most of the things aroundus are not symmetric? But, ac-tually, many are almost symmet-ric, not perfectly though.

Flowers, fruits, trees, animal forms, and so on doexhibit symmetry. There are reasons for this. Symm-etry helps them grow. From the perspective of ablooming flower, for instance, all directions in spaceare identical. There is no reason for it to prefer onedirection to another.

But a symmetric state need not always be thepreferred state. A spinning top is in a perfectly sym-metric state. There is perfect rotational symmetry.But it is an unstable state. The moment it stops, itfalls down and points in an arbitrary direction inspace, thus breaking the rotational symmetry. Thisphenomenon occurs in the description of physicalsystems at the microscopic level, too, though phys-icists have always looked for symmetries in theirdescription of nature. Symmetry has an aestheticvalue in physics as well. It simplifies notations andenables equations describing physical systems to becast in elegant-looking compact forms that suggest

unification of some kind. It alsosimplifies many awkwardmathematical calculations andthus has a significant role in themathematical description of themicroscopic world.

More importantly, any un-derlying symmetry of a physicalsystem implies the existence of aconservation law. For example,the fact that when two elemen-tary particles collide and scatter(into two or more particles) thetotal initial energy is the same asthe final energy is because of anunderlying symmetry of invari-ance under time translation –the physical process is the samewhether it happens now or later– of the equations of motion.Similarly, the conservation ofelectric charge is the conse-quence of a more subtle mathe-matical symmetry (called gaugesymmetry) of Maxwell’s equa-tions of electromagnetism.

Broken symmetries

Yoichiro Nambu introduced theconcept of spontaneous symmetrybreaking in elementary particlephysics. The work of MakotoKobayashi and Toshihide Maskawacompletes the major missing piecein the Standard Model.

This year’s Physics Nobel goes to three physicists whose work sheds light on our

understanding of the elementary particles of nature. B Y R . R A M A C H A N D R A N

YOICHIRO NAMBU. HE takes onehalf of the prize.

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While physicists did come acrosssituations of broken symmetry in theearly 20th century – a crystal, for in-stance, is a state that breaks trans-lational and rotational symmetry, ormagnetised material – one can say thatthe realisation that broken symmetriesplayed a significant role in the descrip-tion of the basic building blocks ofmatter and the interactions betweenthem came some decades later. Thatwas the period when attempts wereafoot to evolve a unified theory of thefundamental particles and the forcesof nature in one single mathematicalstructure.

Initially, the only known particleswere the proton, the neutron and theelectron and the known forces of na-ture were the electromagnetic forceand gravitation. Two additional forcesbecame known, which also had to beincorporated: the weak nuclear force,which causes radioactivity and makesstars shine, and the strong nuclearforce, which binds neutrons and pro-tons inside the nuclei. But as experi-ments began to probe higher andhigher energy domains, particle phys-ics started becoming messy. Particlesthat physicists did not know how to fitinto the known scheme of thingsproliferated.

The search for symmetries in thisexpanding zoo of particles led to theintroduction of symmetries in abstractinternal space unlike the more tangi-ble symmetric operations in realspace-time, such as rotations andtranslations. It also led to the consider-ation of more complex mathematicalsymmetries – from “global symme-tries” (symmetric operations that aresame at every space-time point) to “lo-cal symmetries” (operations that varyfrom point to point). The latter arereferred to as “gauge symmetries”. Thesimplest gauge symmetry is that asso-ciated with electromagnetism (calledabelian gauge symmetry).

It also came to be realised soon thatprotons and neutrons were not ele-mentary, that is, they were not the fun-damental building blocks of matter,but that quarks (which, however, werenot seen) were. Three quarks are need-

ed to make up particles such as theneutron and the proton, which arecalled baryons, and a quark and anantiquark are needed to make up par-ticles such as the pion, which are calledmesons. It is also believed that theelectron and its other cousins, collec-tively called the leptons, are not com-posite and are themselves elementary.Now, we also know why we do not seequarks. It is because of the more com-plex gauge symmetry (called non-abe-lian gauge symmetry) of the force ofinteraction between quarks, the mani-festation of which is the strong nuclearforce within nuclei.

But “broken symmetries” – sym-metries that are not exact – were alsopart of this journey of discovery intothe laws of sub-nuclear dynamics. Inelementary particle theory, besidescontinuous symmetry operations suchas rotations (in real space-time as wellas in internal space), three symmetriesthat are discrete operations also play avery important role: mirror symmetry,or parity (P); charge symmetry (C);and time symmetry (T).

If there is mirror symmetry, allevents of the microworld should occurin the mirror-reflected world in exactlythe same way as in the real world.Charge symmetry implies that a parti-cle and its antiparticle (which is identi-cal except for its opposite charge)behave and interact identically. Simi-larly, time symmetry requires that anevent forwards in time should be iden-tical to one backwards in time.

The mirror of physics was shat-tered in 1956. The two Chinese-Amer-ican physicists T.D. Lee and C.N. Yang(Nobel Prize, 1957) suggested that P-symmetry might be broken by theweak force. They said that even thoughin the macroworld nature seemed torespect mirror symmetry, in the quan-tum world it might be broken.

And soon enough, the landmarkexperiments of C.S. Wu involving thebeta decay of cobalt-60 revealed thatthere was a distinct up-down asymm-etry in the decay products (see figure),thus proving that mirror symmetrywas indeed broken in weakinteractions.

Around the same time, there was aconundrum involving the decays ofparticles called the neutral kaon (aparticle with the quantum attributecalled “strangeness”), which could beresolved only by postulating that C-symmetry was broken in nuclear weakinteractions. However, the Russianphysicist Lev Landau suggested thatall was not lost as the combined oper-ation of C and P restored the symmetryof weak interactions. That is, if youwent to a mirror-reflected world whereall matter was replaced by antimatter,all physical phenomena (of the micro-world) would be the same.

But this reconciliation did not lastvery long either. In 1964, James Cro-nin and Val Fitch (Nobel Prize, 1980)found that a very small fraction of kaondecays violated the CP symmetry aswell. Now, in quantum physics it isknown that the combined operation ofall three discrete symmetries (CPT)has to be strictly exact. So if CP is

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violated to a small degree, it is tanta-mount to time symmetry being brokenby that much. (If you were to meet analien and did not know whether thebeing was from a matter world or anantimatter world, it would be a goodidea to compare data on kaon decays inthe two worlds before proceeding toshake hands. Otherwise, if the alienhappened to be from the antiworld,shaking hands would be catastrophicand result in the annihilation of bothof you – because particle and antiparti-cle would combine to end up in a puffof energy.)

In 1967, the Russian physicist An-drei Sakharov proposed three condi-tions for the currently observedmatter-antimatter asymmetry in the

universe – the universe is predomi-nantly made of matter only – and oneof them was that the laws of physicsshould distinguish between matterand antimatter. What the breaking ofCP symmetry achieves is preciselythat. That is, we now at least have aqualitative understanding of whythere is matter-antimatter asymmetryin the universe. But whether the de-gree of CP violation in the currentlyaccepted theoretical models of particlephysics is of the right amount to ex-plain the surplus matter that was cre-ated along with the Big Bang remainsto be demonstrated.

The currently accepted successfulmodel that unifies particles and forcesin one theoretical framework is calledthe Standard Model. According to it,the fundamental building blocks ofmatter comprise three families (orgenerations) of particles (see table).The first and the lightest family in-cludes the stable particles that makeup the cosmos we observe – the proton(made of three quarks up, up anddown), the neutron (made of threequarks up, down and down) and theelectron. The particles of the remain-ing heavier families are unstable anddecay immediately to the lighter kinds.

The Standard Model also includesthree of the four known forces alongwith their carrier particles: electro-magnetism is mediated by the photon,which has zero mass; the weak force ismediated by the heavy carriers W andZ bosons; and the strong force be-tween quarks is carried by eight parti-cles called gluons. The most familiar ofthe forces, namely gravity, is yet to beincorporated because a quantum de-scription of the force continues to defyphysicists, who hope that a higher-lev-el theory such as supersymmetry orstring theory will enable gravity to beunified with the others.

One of the problems that confrontphysicists in the context of the Stan-dard Model today is the so-called hie-rarchy problem: Why do the particleshave such different masses? And whyare the forces so different? At present,physicists believe that this arises be-cause the underlying symmetry of the

Standard Model, which is a gaugesymmetry more complex than the sim-ple one of electromagnetism, is “spon-taneously broken”. This spontaneoussymmetry breaking (SSB) is achievedthrough a hypothetical Higgs “field”that filled the space in the early uni-verse. This destroyed the original un-derlying gauge symmetry and gavemass to particles and force carriers.The differences in masses arose be-cause of the varying strengths of theirinteractions with the Higgs field.

In quantum theory, every particleis associated with a field and vice versa.But the Higgs particle (which also getsmass because of the spontaneousbreaking of symmetry) has never beenseen. It is believed that because of itshigh mass it could not have been pro-duced in existing particle acceleratorsand hence has not been seen yet. How-ever, physicists hope that if it exists, itshould be produced at the Large Ha-dron Collider (LHC) at CERN (Euro-pean Organisation for NuclearResearch), which was commissionedin September.

It was Yoichiro Nambu who in-troduced the concept of SSB in ele-mentary particle physics, for which hehas been chosen for this year’s Nobelaward. In 1956, John Bardeen, LeonCooper and Robert Schrieffer (BCS)found the long-sought theory to un-derstand the puzzle of superconduc-tivity (Nobel Prize, 1972), amechanism by which electricity sud-denly begins to conduct with zero re-sistance in certain materials undercertain conditions. They showed thatin the quantum domain lattice vibra-tions caused electrons to overcome theelectrostatic repulsion between themand combine to form bound states,called Cooper pairs. Nambu tried tounderstand the BCS theory in terms ofthe breaking of the gauge symmetry ofelectromagnetism. It took two yearsfor him to solve this problem. Throughthis formulation, he discovered SSB inthe language of quantum field theoryused in particle physics.

Nambu realised the crucial factthat for SSB to occur the properties ofthe “vacuum”, or the ground state of

JAPANESE SCIENTISTS MAKOTOKobayashi (right) and ToshihideMaskawa at a news conference inTokyo on October 10. They share the other half of the prize.

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the theory, were important. He observ-ed that in SSB, while the fundamentalequations respected a symmetry, theground state need not. In supercon-ductivity, he showed that the vacuumwas a charged state, with a charge of-2, formed by the “condensation” ofCooper pairs and was not an emptystate with zero charge. This broke thegauge symmetry of electromagnetism.The really bold assumption that Nam-bu made in 1960 was to extend the ideathat SSB could also exist in theories ofelementary particles. (“The term spon-taneous symmetry breaking,” saysNambu, “is not a succinct one. But ithas stuck for lack of a better one.”) It isthe mathematical tools that he devel-oped in this context that have foundapplications in the Standard Modeland in the Higgs mechanism.

In elementary particle theory, thevacuum was hitherto similarly as-sumed to be empty apart from “quan-tum fluctuations”. Nambu introducedthe concept that there could be sit-uations where the vacuum is not emp-ty, with certain quantum fields havingnon-zero values analogous to the su-perconductivity case. In two landmarkpapers with Giovanni Jona-Lasinio, heestablished a solid theoretical frame-work to his ideas. He showed thatwhen the symmetry was spontaneous-ly broken, the particle spectrum of thetheory must include a massless parti-cle, which has come to be called theNambu-Goldstone boson. Further, ifthe symmetry that was broken was agauge symmetry, the Nambu-Gold-stone boson became massive.

Now, in the light shed by Nambu,we can understand the Standard Mod-el. The Higgs field breaks the gaugesymmetry of the vacuum, and as a re-sult we have a massive Higgs particle,which the particle physics communityexpects to detect with the new LHC. Itis thought that at the time of the BigBang, the universe (and the vacuum)was perfectly symmetrical. But theHiggs field, like the spinning top, wasnot in a stable configuration. So, as theuniverse cooled down, the Higgs fielddropped to its lowest energy level, thestable state, which, however, broke the

symmetry. The Higgs field became akind of all-pervading moss, differentamounts of which stuck to differentparticles to give them varying masses,as John Ellis of CERN explains theHiggs phenomenon in lay language.

There is, however, an importantdifference between the BCS theory ofsuperconductivity and the StandardModel in particle physics. In the lattercase, the symmetry-breaking Higgsfield occurs as a hypothetical externalinput into the total energy of the sys-tem. In the former, on the other hand,the symmetry-breaking Cooper pairsarise as a consequence of the internaldynamics of the system. While theHiggs case is referred to as SSB, theBCS case is often called dynamicalsymmetry breaking (DSB). In Nam-bu’s view, however, both are the same.“In my opinion, symmetry breaking isalways a dynamical question,” Nambuhas said. “Thus, a BCS theory and aHiggs theory can be equivalent.”

According to Nambu, the StandardModel is only an intermediate theory,at the level of the phenomenologicalGinzburg-Landau theory of supercon-ductivity (formulated in 1950), whichpreceded the BCS theory. “The BCSequivalent is yet to be found,” he says.He has, however, postulated that, theStandard Model could be a pheno-menological representation of BCS-like dynamics involving a condensateof a bound state of the top quark andits antiquark (analogous to the boundstate of electrons, the Cooper pairs, inthe BCS theory). The top quark (theheaviest of the quarks), according toNambu, has the right order of high

mass (about 175 giga electronvolt, orGeV) for the bound state to act like theHiggs that the Standard Model re-quires and be able to give the rightmasses to the various particles.

“I too believe that the spontaneoussymmetry breaking may not be be-cause of the Higgs particle,” says G.Rajasekaran of the Institute of Mathe-matical Sciences in Chennai. “Nam-bu’s top quark condensate is one way[of realising SSB] and there are otherways,” points out Rajasekaran, whohimself suggested way back in 1971another dynamical mechanism.“However, the Higgs way is the sim-plest and most straightforward, andnature might have chosen it,” he adds.Of course, seeing signatures of aHiggs-like particle at LHC energieswill not tell us whether the Higgs parti-cle is elementary or composite a laNambu. This may, however, get re-solved only at still higher energies. Butfor either picture of symmetry break-ing, not finding a Higgs-like signal atall will definitely be a setback for theStandard Model.

M A T T E R - A N T I M A T T E RA S Y M M E T R YThough the breaking of CP symmetry,required for our existence in the mat-ter-dominated world as posited bySakharov, and seen experimentally aswell, should have also existed from thetime soon after the birth of the uni-verse, its origin would seem to be dif-ferent from the SSB by the Higgs field– at least given our present under-standing within the context of theStandard Model. But an explanation ofeven that small degree of CP violationin kaon decays had to be somehowincorporated into the Standard Model.This is where the work of the other twoNobel laureates comes in.

In 1959, when large particle accel-erators came into operation and a lotof data on weak particle decays wereobtained, Nicola Cabibbo, an Italianphysicist, made an important contri-bution to providing a consistent pic-ture. In 1963, he proposed that in theinternal abstract symmetry space, theweak interaction was tilted by an angle

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with respect to the strong interactionand to electromagnetic interactions.Of course, at that time quarks had notyet been postulated.

The first steps towards the Stan-dard Model were then taken in 1970 inthe form of the Glashow-Salam-Wein-berg unified model, which had onlythree quarks as originally proposed byMurray Gell-Mann and George Zweigin 1964. However, this model predic-ted certain particle interactions thathad not been seen. To solve this, S.L.Glashow, J. Iliopoulos and L. Maianihypothesised the existence of anotherquark, called charm. With this addi-tional quark, not only were two com-plete families of quarks obtained butalso the unwanted reactions could besuppressed in a natural way by extend-ing the Cabibbo tilt to two dimensions.This was achieved by applying the Ca-bibbo tilt as a two-dimensional rota-tion on all the four particles through a2 × 2 matrix. The existence of charmwas confirmed in 1974. This also tiedup neatly with the two known familiesof leptons – the electron and the muonfamilies (see table).

How does this double brokensymmetry (of CP) occur? Each kaon isa combination of a quark and an anti-quark. The weak force repeatedly flipsa quark into an antiquark and vice ver-sa, thus transforming a kaon into anantikaon time and again. In this way,the particle flips between itself and itsantiself. But if there is CP violation,however minute, the symmetry be-tween matter and antimatter will bebroken at some point.

In 1972, Kobayashi and Maskawa

(KM) investigated what kind of parti-cle structure could accommodate thebreakdown of CP symmetry. However,the above two-family structure, theyfound, could not accommodate the ob-served CP violation. They, therefore,extended the particle structure tothree families and applied the Cabibborotation on all the six particles using a3 × 3 matrix. It turned out that a mini-mum of three families (or six quarks)would be required to accommodate aCP-violating parameter in the rotationmatrix. After the discovery of a thirdlepton in 1977, the Kobayashi-Maska-wa idea was picked up as it could benaturally accommodated as the leptonof the third family. But, of course, theKM model predicted the existence oftwo more quarks. The bottom quarkwas discovered in 1977 and the top onein 1994.

“Our work consists of two parts,”pointed out Kobayashi in his post-award interview. “One is [that] fourquarks is [sic] not enough to explainthe CP violation…. And it is quite alogical consequence of the argument.But the second point is then that…what kind of new particles can ex-plain…. And there are quite many pos-sibilities logically. But… six quarkscame as one possibility. So, in thatsense, we were confident about thefirst part…. But the second part wasquite uncertain at that time… butgradually we came to believe that thisis actually the case.”

In 1964, under the assumptionthat CP violation was exclusive tokaons alone, Lincoln Wolfenstein pro-posed a mechanism. But if the Cabib-

bo-Kobayashi-Maskawa (CKM)mechanism is at work, then CP symm-etry should be broken more strongly inbottom particles, the heavier cousinsof kaons. This led to the setting up ofthe so-called “B Factories”, the BaBardetector at SLAC National AcceleratorLaboratory at Standford and the Belledetector at KEK, capable of producingmore than one million B mesons a day.In 2001, both the experiments con-firmed the symmetry violation in Bmesons in remarkable agreement withthe CKM model that had predicted it30 years earlier.

The Kobayashi-Maskawa explana-tion of the breaking of CP symmetry is,however, still only a parametrisationtechnique based on Cabibbo’s originalidea. It is yet to be described in themore fundamental terms that some-one like Nambu would approve of. TheKobayashi-Maskawa work neverthe-less completes the major missing piecein the Standard Model. But, by ignor-ing Cabibbo, the Nobel award has leftbehind an unwarranted controversy.Indeed, the Italian National Institutefor Nuclear Physics has expressed itsbitterness about the omission.

“The Nobel Committee has freeditself from this criticism by associatingKM’s work to the understanding of theorigin of broken CP symmetry, whichCabibbo’s work had nothing to with,”says Rajasekaran. “However, the crit-ics do have a point since Cabibbo’scontribution is of fundamental impor-tance. The fact that it is called theCKM matrix shows how intricatelyconnected the ideas of Cabibbo andKM are,” he adds. �

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IN the third week of November, it would be 11weeks since the Sri Lankan government orderedUnited Nations agencies and international non-go-vernmental organisations out of areas controlled bythe Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in theNorth. The ostensible reason for the orders was thatthe government could not take any chances with thesecurity of international aid workers following theescalation of hostilities between the governmentforces and the LTTE.

The government reasoning has raised concernabout the well-being of innocent civilians trapped inthe war zone. After all, if the all-out war posed athreat to the liberty and life of aid workers, whatwould be the fate of an estimated 2.5 to 3 lakhinternally displaced people (IDP) in the Wanni?

Innumerable sanctimonious statements havecome from government functionaries about the su-preme focus of the Army to wage the war with zerohuman casualty and ensure a steady supply of essen-tial commodities to the internally displaced, at theleast at the minimum level of subsistence. But is itpracticable? How has it worked on the ground in thelast eight or so weeks? The Wanni has been deprivedof independent observers to monitor the groundsituation (barring the four forays by U.N. observersfor a few hours accompanying food and medicineconvoys).

Herein lies the enormous significance of Special

Report 31 of the University Teachers for HumanRights (Jaffna), or UTHR-J, released on October 28.The UTHR-J, whose reports are based on grassrootsinputs from a band of relatively unbiased observers,has an impeccable track record in collating facts andfigures to the extent possible in a battle situation.The organisation has acquired a reputation that ishard to tarnish. It is known to call a spade a spadeand is never deterred by the Tigers’ terror tactics.Hence the latest UTHR-J report, titled “Pawns of anun-heroic war”, makes chilling reading. Neither theLTTE nor the Mahinda Rajapaksa governmentmakes a pretty picture of itself, while the miseries ofordinary citizens are painted completely on theUTHR-J canvas.

“We give a few cases here to show that, if any-thing, the human rights situation is deterioratingwith signs of it getting worse. We do not minimisethe importance of complete documentation. But thetask is so demanding that it needs to be undertakenby organisations with dedicated resources. It maynot even be possible in the current climate of terror.Inquiring into an individual case is much more de-manding and frustrating than it was two years agoand one is left with the uncomfortable feeling ofbeing a source of danger to someone. One feels trulyhumble before those who are willing to expose vio-lators under these perilous conditions,” the UTHR-Jnotes in its summary of the latest report. Despite thecategorical and candid nature of the revelations, thecontents of the report have to date not been contest-ed either by the government or by the Tigers. That iscause for serious worry.

A question uppermost in the minds of Sri Lanka-watchers since the current state of siege in the Wanniis about the way civilians have coped with the Tigers,on the one hand, and the advancing military and itsperiodic aerial bombardment, on the other. TheUTHR-J report makes some startling observations:

“The people’s relationship with the LTTE is com-plex. The general mood among the people wasstrongly anti-LTTE four months ago, and resistancecontinues. But with increased aerial bombing and

Chilling storiesThe latest UTHR-J report blames the government and the LTTE for making life

unbearable in the war zone. B Y B . M U R A L I D H A R R E D D Y IN COLOMBO

Civilians have to cope with forcedconscription by the Tigers andperiodic aerial bombardment fromthe advancing military. Many ofthose forced into conscription havechosen to take their own lives.Desertions have been reported, too.

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shelling and stories of increasingly re-pressive treatment of minorities com-ing from other parts of the country, themood is changing.

“We have seen this happen repeat-edly from 1987. But the fact that a largenumber of unwilling persons havebeen conscripted to fight must have anadverse internal impact within theLTTE. Resistance to the LTTE is eitherpassive or tragically fatalistic. Oursources affirmed that a few girl con-scripts used their weapons to killthemselves, but were unable to givemore details. The girls found the mil-itaristic environment and the injunc-tion to kill utterly unbearable. Onfurther inquiry, we were assured that

such things do happen, as people hearwhen they move around areas wherebattles are fought and meet LTTEcadre who talk. What is more signif-icant, they said, was inexperiencednew conscripts faced with the terriblesensation of battle and deafening ex-plosions around them, taking refuge intheir cyanide capsule or their ownbullet.”

On the influential clergy, the re-port notes that a number of Christianchurches in the Wanni are stridentlypacifist. But as a group, they were un-able to resist conscription of theiryoung. When one of their young dies inbattle, the ministers of the churchesand the Pentecostal faith have

preached at funerals that God in hismercy took away these young people tospare them the pain of killing others.“Young conscripts, who resist theLTTE as conscientious objectors, areliable for heavy punishment. For thisreason, several of them have taken per-sonal vows and informed their parentsand guides not to worry on their ac-count as in whatever situation theyfind themselves, they have sworn notto kill, but are ready to be killed in-stead,” the report says.

The UTHR-J further observes thatthe LTTE had a large camp at Moon-ru-Murippu, now overrun by govern-ment forces. The camp had scores ofmetal cages, with pointed wires ex-

SRI LANKA ARMY commandos patrol Akkarayankulam town, an LTTE stronghold south-west of Kilinochchi, whichwas captured by the military on November 4.

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tending inside. Conscripted personswho refused to fight were shut inside.“The pointed wires ensured that theyhad to stand in a bent position and getpricked if they tried to move. Theywere let out only when they agreed tothe LTTE’s demands. These cages had,during the ceasefire, been used to co-erce people, particularly businessmenabducted for extortion. By October2008, the LTTE had once again be-come very aggressive in conscription.They visited families with lists provid-ed by Village Headmen (GS [gram se-vak] officers). For a family with threeor four children, they demanded twofighters; one for a family with two; andnone for a family with one. The generalattitude of the populace now is not toquarrel with the LTTE. They figurethat many of those who objected toconscription had been placed on thefront line and are dead. But many ofthose who joined without resistancehave been placed in safer areas andhave survived. Since early September,sources from the Wanni say that theLTTE has conscripted 9,000 ‘veryyoung’ persons who are now undertraining,” the report says.

It asserts that a large number ofdesertions have been reported fromLTTE circles; recently about 250 cadreran away and are hiding in the jungle.Three of them are very senior and asper the report, many of the LTTE con-scripts are desperately trying to identi-fy escape routes to thegovernment-controlled area.

The report observes: “After the Army announced safe

areas for civilians in East Wanni inViswamadu (Vattakachchi and Dhar-mapuram) and Oddusuddan, by 9thOctober, the civilians were moving to-wards these areas. Yet their utility re-mains questionable withoutagreement from the LTTE and the ab-sence of a sufficient number of neutralmonitors. A section of the civilians,both natives of Kilinochchi district andthose who came from further south,had plans of moving to Jaffna in fish-ing boats that came from Jaffna.Around September end, nearly 2,500of them had gathered in Ruthirapu-

ram, three miles north-west of Kili-nochchi, with plans of crossing thelagoon to Jaffna. At this time, therewas a wave of bombing and shellingaround Kilinochchi, in which theLTTE political office was hit. A shellfell in Ruthirapuram, injuring a girl inher 30s.

“The LTTE came there and wantedto shift the people to the East Wanni.Some people objected saying that theywant to go to the government-con-trolled area. The LTTE named a largesum of money adding that if anyonewould pay that sum, they could payand go. The people were then shifted tothe east. Apart from the LTTE stop-ping them, there are other pressingreasons why families are reluctant toflee from the Wanni. Many of theirchildren have been conscripted andare either dead or serving on the battlelines. As far as the government is con-cerned they are marked, irrespective ofthe fact that their children were for-cibly removed. Once in the govern-ment-controlled area, they would bephotographed, confined to camps andparaded before masked informants,

often persons from their area whoknow their family history.”

The report also raises some dis-turbing questions about the excessiveemphasis of the Mahinda Rajapaksagovernment on the military strategywith little or no attention paid to theresolution of the genuine grievances ofthe minorities in the island nation andthe manner in which it has left in-nocent civilians stranded in the warzone at the mercy of the Tigers. It notesthat in the North, as the Army ad-vances along the western half of theWanni and edges closer to Kilinoch-chi, an estimated 200,000 displacedcivilians (the latest U.N. figures say thenumber of IDPs is close to 300,000)attempting to escape the ravages of thewar, are getting hemmed in.

As per the report, the IDPs, forcedto move at short notice owing to thecontinual bombing and shelling, hadeven stopped putting up temporaryshelters. “The choices for them werenever human. Initially they movednorth to escape shelling from the ad-vancing army. Then the LTTE pre-vented those who tried to move into

AN INTERNALLY DISPLACED Tamil at the Sithamparapuram refugee camp in Vavuniya.

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government-controlled areas. Thegovernment in turn confines those es-caping LTTE-controlled areas in massdetention centres from which they arenot allowed to leave. Those in Vavuni-ya find themselves in a place of crimeand lawlessness, where torture, mur-der, extortion, abduction and rape areroutine and women are powerless. Theblame lies mainly with the securityforces and Tamil paramilitary ele-ments working alongside them,” itsays.

The report surmises that the south(the part of the island nation outsideNorth and East) too will not escapeunscathed as a very disproportionateburden of fighting the war is placed onthe backs of rural Sinhalese youth,sowing the seeds of future discord. Itmaintains that for the poor everywh-ere it is their families that are theirmain source of joy, and accuses thegovernment of treating their childrenas cheap cannon fodder for the sake ofits perverted ideology instead of pro-tecting them.

The report says: “The plight of thepeople of the Wanni, whose children

are forced into military service by theLTTE and have suffered continuousdeath, deprivation and displacementbecause of the government’s heavyweaponry, has long been headlinenews. The U.N. and internationalagencies were the only ones present toprovide reliable humanitarian capa-bility as well as to witness. That thewhole structure was dismantled litera-lly overnight on an order from a go-vernment too well known for itsdisregard of the rule of law and hu-manitarian norms, should make uswonder at the fragility of internationalmachinery we expect so much from. Itraises questions about what the inter-national order and agencies should re-alistically aim for. Have humanitariannorms fallen victim to the ‘war on ter-ror’, whose rhetoric so many nation-states across the globe find useful? Areinfluential governments being soft onthe Lankan government, because theywere earlier soft on the LTTE?

“Since 1986 many people haveposed the exasperating question, ‘Howon earth does one deal with a pheno-menon like the LTTE?’ It has over theyears shown a capacity to descend tothe lowest depths without any qualmsin the treatment of its own people, dothe unthinkable such as conscriptingchildren as young as ten, exploit andbetray the most intimate forms of trustand one could go on. To those whounderstand that this phenomenongrew out of a persistent denial of politi-cal rights to the Tamils, accompaniedby humiliation and violence, it is inaddressing these that the cure shouldbegin,” the report says.

The predicament of the U.N. agen-cies and international NGOs (INGOs)is unenviable. For a variety of reasons,the government continues to viewthem as “suspects’’ and makes use ofevery opportunity to paint them in abad light. A report posted on the De-fence Ministry’s website on November7 best illustrates the point. Under theheading, “A new twist - INGO vacancyads with LTTE obituaries”, it reads:“According to available evidence, it ap-pears that the local propaganda new-spapers published by the LTTE carried

advertisements from international aidand relief organisations such as theICRC, Save the Children and the Dan-ish Refugee Council for vacancies intheir organisations, alongside LTTEobituaries for its terrorist cadre, in theKilinochchi and Mullaithivu districts.‘We are greatly concerned with this asthe LTTE might have used the INGOsto shield its recruitment drive and lureyouth for interviews and later to beabducted in due course,’ a defence ob-server said.

“The positions advertised by theICRC [International Red Cross Com-mittee], Save the Children and DanishRefugee Council are for field officer,project officer and radio operators inKilinochchi. Defence analysts are notruling out the possibility that someagents or individual members of theseorganisations, that are supportive ofthe LTTE, having these advertise-ments placed, in order to both attractyouth to the dwindling LTTE cadre,and also funding the terrorist outfiteither locally or abroad through theseadvertisements… .

“Recently the government tookproactive measures to relocate INGOsand many aid agencies in safe quartersin Vavuniya, following clear assess-ments obtained of the possible dangerto workers of these organisations bythe LTTE. The government decisionhas minimised collateral damage anddenied LTTE ‘aid canopies’ which ithad used on many an occasion to divertaerial attacks.

“Earlier, it was found that LTTEterrorists have taken heavy earth-mov-ing vehicles, trucks, tractors and sever-al land cruiser jeeps from theNorwegian People’s Aid (NPA) in Kili-nochchi, which was reported to thedefence authorities much later, whenit was said these were taken forcibly.”

What has been made out to be agrand conspiracy hatched by the IN-GOs in league with the Tigers turnedout to be much ado about nothing. Theadvertisement in question appeared ina newspaper circulated in the Tiger-dominated areas and is a newspaperregistered with the government agent.“How else can we recruit our local staff

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THE Mahinda Rajapaksa govern-ment, under fire from several quar-ters for its attempts to control themedia, opened another front on Octo-ber 10 by notifying a new set of normsto regulate all aspects of private tele-vision broadcasting, including classi-fication of stations and services; issue,revocation, and duration of licences;fee structure; territorial coverage;ownership; duties and responsibili-ties of private television broadcasters;content of broadcasts; and extendedpowers of the Ministry.

The notification issued by theMinistry of Information and Broad-casting, titled “Private TelevisionBroadcasting Station Regulations”,was made under powers conferred bythe Sri Lanka Rupavahini Act, No.6of 1982.

Reactions from the media indus-try was sharp and swift. Four separateorganisations approached the Su-preme Court challenging the regula-tions on the grounds that they posed aserious threat to the freedom of ex-pression. As the opposition to the reg-ulations gathered momentum, MassMedia Minister Anura Priyadharsha-na Yapa announced on November 8that enforcement of the regulationswould be postponed by a month. In aknee-jerk reaction, he also requestedthe heads of media institutions tosubmit their views on the proposedregulations. Counter-proposals couldbe forwarded to the Secretary to theMinistry within the next two weeks,he said.

The anxiety of the government tohave some control over the content ofbroadcast/telecast by the electronicmedia would have been considerednormal as the island nation is at warwith the LTTE and there have beenstray incidents of a section of themedia indulging in irresponsible re-porting. However, the track record ofthe government in its management of

media affairs is so poor that no one isprepared to allow the government tobe the prosecutor and the judge. Theapproach of the government is one of,“either you are with us or you are withthem”. This has antogonised themedia community within and with-out.

The International Press FreedomMission to Sri Lanka was on a visit tothe country from October 25 to 29. Itfound “deterioration” in the pressfreedom situation since its previousvisit, in June 2007; it said the sit-uation was marked by a continuationin murders, attacks, abductions, in-timidation and harassment of themedia. In the recent World PressFreedom Index published by Report-ers Sans Frontieres (RSF), Sri Lankafinds itself with the lowest press free-dom rating for any democraticcountry.

The Mission said: “The Interna-tional Mission is alarmed at the use ofan anti-terrorism law for the firsttime in the democratic world to puni-sh journalists purely for what theyhave written. J.S. Tissainayagam, B.Jasiharan and V. Vallarmathy havebeen detained since March 2008 andlater charged under the Prevention ofTerrorism Act. The Mission is wor-ried about the dangerous precedentthis sets for all media nationally andinternationally. In recent monthsjournalists and media institutionsseeking to report independently onthe ongoing conflict have been at-tacked and intimidated in a seemingeffort to limit public knowledge aboutthe conduct of the war and to revealtheir sources.”

The mission further noted thatmedia in the North and the East of thecountry continued to suffer the worstforms of insecurity. He said mediaaccess to war-affected areas was heav-ily restricted with journalists forcedto reproduce information dissemi-

nated by the conflicting parties. Itfound that the media were constantlythreatened by all parties to the con-flict in an effort to curtail indepen-dent and critical reporting. TheInternational Mission condemnedthe murder of P. Devakumar in Jaffnain May 2008 and over a dozen others,documented since 2005. It main-tained that in the LTTE-controlledareas, the freedom of expression andthe freedom of movement continuedto be heavily restricted, preventing di-verse opinions and access to pluralsources of information.

The mission said that the newmedia rules provided for a number ofcontingencies under which broad-casting licences could be cancelled,including seven different grounds re-lating to broadcast content. A popularbroadcast channel has been asked tosubmit transcripts of news broadcasts“to be carried” every week.

The television stations TelshanNetwork Limited (TNL), Swarnava-hini and Dialog Television (Private)Limited, along with the Sri LankaPress Institute and the Centre for Pol-icy Alternatives in their applicationsto the Supreme Court, pleaded with itto declare that the regulation wouldinfringe upon the channels’ funda-mental right to the freedom of expres-sion, the public’s right to receiveinformation, and the right to freedomof thought.

The petitioners argued that theimpugned regulations were not madeunder any law and were not capable ofbeing made under any law, but theywere in effect meant to be substantivelaw, which was both illegal and mis-conceived. In fact, the non-CabinetMinister of Mass Media and Informa-tion, Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena,at a Cabinet press briefing held onOctober 30, referred to the regula-tions as “the Act that has beenpassed”.

Curbs on the media

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The petitioners claimed that theMinister was not empowered tomake the regulations and, in anyevent, the provisions relating to thesuspension or revocation of a licencewas ex facie inter alia contrary to theInterpretation Ordinance.

Further, they argued that the saidregulations entitled the Minister tocancel a TV licence on variousgrounds, including change of owner-ship of the licensee, change in thename of licensee without prior ap-proval, and the broadcasting of cer-tain programmes. The regulationsgive the Minister the right to suspendthe permission to broadcast for aspecified period ‘in the interests ofthe public and in the interests of na-tional security’ in order to preventmisuse of such channel. However,the period of suspension was notspecified in the regulations, and wasentirely based on the discretion of theMinister, the petitioners claimed.

The grounds for suspension andcancellation or revocation of licencesset out in the regulations lack preci-sion and clarity and are as suchdangerously capable of being abused,the petitioners said. They are highlysubjective and are a threat to the veryexistence of private television broad-casting stations, which will be com-pletely at the mercy of the Ministerand his agents who collectively act forand on behalf of the government ofthe day, according to the petition.The petitioners alleged that privatetelevision broadcasting stations hadbeen singled out for discriminatorytreatment.

F M M ’ S P E R S P E C T I V E The Free Media Movement (FMM),an NGO engaged in the protection ofthe interests of the media commu-nity, maintained in a statement thatthe new regulations were cause forserious alarm on a number of points,and listed its preliminary concerns. Itargued that the regulations providedthat an application to the Minister

for a licence to operate a private tele-vision station may only be made by aSri Lankan citizen, a partnership inwhich all the partners were Sri Lan-kan citizens, a company in which themajority shareholding was held bySri Lankan citizens, or a statutorybody. It said that in the modern con-text of globalised economies andtransnational technology, this be-came an unusual requirement.

On the ineligibility of politicalparties to obtain a private televisionbroadcasting licence, the FMM saidthat while in itself that may seem alegitimate restriction, in the Sri Lan-kan context, in which state-ownedmedia institutions operated in prac-tice, not as public service broadcast-ers but as mouthpieces of thepolitical party in power, the restric-tion on private broadcasting licens-ing would serve only to aggravatethat anomaly. “Moreover, the Minis-ter is empowered to suspend the op-eration of a station if, in his opinion,such a suspension is required in theinterest of the public interest or na-tional security. Such broad powersare invariably prone to abuse,” it said.

Confirming the worst fears of themedia on the real motives of the go-vernment, on November 4 the go-vernment ordered thestate-controlled channel Sri LankaRupavahini Corporation to stop alive programme relating to the free-dom of expression in the island. TheFMM noted:

“The SLRC had invited FMMconvener Uvindu Kurululasuriya toparticipate in the discussion to repre-sent media organisations. The othertwo panellists were Chritha Harath,adviser to the Media Minister, andDamma Disanayaka, a university lec-turer. After 45 minutes, the discus-sion was stopped suddenly, acommercial break was announcedand the stations started to play songscontinuously, discontinuing the livediscussion.”

B. Muralidhar Reddy

to man our missions in the LTTE ar-eas? It is elementary and the govern-ment is fully conscious of the situation.Yet, some trigger-happy bureaucrat inthe Defence Ministry was allowed toindulge in mud-slinging against theINGOs, including the ICRC. And theyexpect us to be the bridge between thepeople stranded in the war zone andthe government. It cannot get moreironical,” lamented a senior official ofan INGO.

If the government is really seriousabout defeating the LTTE militarilyand winning the hearts of ordinary ci-tizens, it should stop looking for mo-tives behind the actions of every playerin the troubled areas. In the words ofthe UTHR-J report, “A responsible go-vernment must think and do the politi-cal work it is there to do, in winningover the Tamils and to persuade theworld that it has a viable plan to min-imise the damage and loss of life, be-fore sending in the armed forces. Toconduct a war with the present chauvi-nistic outlook is utterly irresponsiblewith the Sinhalese youth being sacri-ficed, even if the state has no empathyfor the Tamil victims. But what is to begained by giving the Tamils the mes-sage that they would lose everythingand have no place in this country if theLTTE is defeated?” �

IN THE WANNI region on July 5,LTTE supremo V. Prabakaran lightsa lamp to commemorate suicidebombers. Resistance to the LTTE iseither passive or tragically fatalistic,the UTHR-J report says.

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World Affairs/Malaysia

NAJIB TUN RAZAK’S emergence as the pro-spective Prime Minister of Malaysia is being por-trayed by the ruling Barisan Nasional (B.N., theNational Front) as the only effective denouement ofthe snap general elections held in March. The Oppo-sition Pakatan Rakyat (P.R., the People’s Pact), how-ever, does not think so.

Anwar Ibrahim, P.R. leader, has not given up hisefforts to unseat the incumbent Prime Minister, Ab-dullah Ahmad Badawi, through a political realign-ment of forces within the House of Representatives.By the end of the first week of November, though,Anwar had not made any visible progress in thepublic domain, while Najib had galvanised his politi-cal base.

By November 3, Deputy Prime Minister Najibhad emerged as president-elect of the United MalaysNational Organisation (UMNO), the B.N.’s mostpowerful constituent. The ruling coalition’s conven-tion is that the Prime Minister’s post goes to theUMNO president. And, under the recently revisedpolitical calendar of the party, organisational elec-tions will be held during the general Assembly ses-sion in March next year. So with Najib havingsecured unassailable support, amounting to his un-opposed candidature for the UMNO presidency,there is no shadow of political doubt within the B.N.ranks about the way forward.

Of 192 UMNO divisions, 140 had nominatedNajib for the highest party post by early November.His presumptive challenger, Razaleigh Hamzah,won the nod of only one unit, his own, and foundhimself with no prospect of securing the 58 nomi-

nations needed to force a contest. This set the stagefor the son of the late Tun Abdul Razak, who hadcarved out a niche for himself among the leaders ofMalaysia’s freedom struggle era, to assume the officeof Prime Minister. In a sense, all this must make for astory of succession with a sense of political folklore inMalaysia.

However, the upscale developing country, one ofthe better-known members of the Association ofSouth East Asian Nations (ASEAN), is currentlyexperiencing unprecedented political fervour. Ab-dullah has found it difficult to remain centre stagedespite having led the B.N. to a nearly two-thirdsparliamentary majority in the general elections.Surely, he had put at risk his commanding 90 percent plus parliamentary strength to get this victory –more so, almost 18 months ahead of the due date.The B.N. managed to win 140 seats out of the 222 atstake. Nonetheless, Abdullah is paying the price forhaving won a qualitatively shallow victory as distinctfrom a quantitatively impressive one under the zero-sum political calculus.

At the same time, there are no obvious signs thatthe opposition can indeed translate into reality aparadigm shift in Malaysia’s politics. Anwar andother opposition leaders such as Lim Kit Siang haveoften portrayed the results of the March elections asa mandate for transforming Malaysia into a trulymultiracial society. Right now, the opposition par-ties, their civil-society allies and external experts seeMalaysia as a country with a social fabric of multira-cial patchwork.

Seen under such a political prism, the indigenousMalay-Muslim majority does not have an “incentive”to strive for dynamic social linkages across the racialspectrum. For historical reasons, which the majoritycommunity does not wish to reverse, Malaysia ishome to a sizable ethnic Chinese minority and asmaller Indian-origin population.

In this perspective, the opposition parties andexternal experts have not really called for the blanketabolition of Malaysia’s state policy of affirmativeaction in favour of Malay Muslims in education andemployment. The affirmative action, as a state-re-sponse to a one-time historical reality of disadvan-

Emerging son

The incumbent Prime Minister,Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, was“reasonably quick” to recognise thathe could not hope to remain at thehelm on the plea that he did not lose the March general elections.

Najib Tun Razak gets the support of the United Malays National Organisation to

become the next Prime Minister of Malaysia. B Y P . S . S U R Y A N A R A Y A N A IN SINGAPORE

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tages for Malays in their own home-land, is too sensitive an issue for anypolitical party to deal with.

Within these parameters, the op-position parties have argued for a shiftfrom Malaysia’s contemporary paradi-gm of “command politics”. They saythat their unprecedented tally of overone-third parliamentary seats in theMarch elections can be seen as theclearest mandate in their favour. Theimportant sub-theme in this argumentis that the opposition parties wouldhave obtained a clear majority to forman alternative government but for “theabsence of a level playing field”.

It is this standpoint that Anwar,formerly a Deputy Prime Ministerfrom the UMNO stream, is deployingas the springboard for his “project” tounseat Abdullah and form an alterna-tive government. However, the Abdul-lah-Najib lobby points out that theB.N. government remains short of atwo-thirds majority by only eight seats.

In contrast, Anwar will require the loy-alty of at least 30 Representatives fromthe Treasury benches to be able toform an alternative government.

It is in such a political ambiencethat Najib has emerged as the UM-NO’s choice for Prime Minister. Theeasy part for Najib is that Abdullahwas “reasonably quick” to recognisethat he could not, in this atmosphere,hope to remain at the helm on the pleathat he did not at all lose the Marchgeneral elections. The more “difficult”part of the argument is that the peopledid not really vote for Najib as PrimeMinister, if they also did not vote forAnwar or the opposition.

Prime ministerial successions dur-ing the term of an elected Parliament isnothing new in politics, and Najib cer-tainly has the option of calling for amandate of his own, sometime afterreaching the helm. The larger ques-tion, therefore, relates to his politicalcredentials. He is now the Finance

Minister, a position that offers him achance to address the growing con-cerns of the people in the context of theforebodings of “a future shock” be-cause of the “global financial crisis” ofAmerican origin.

For him, a potential political spin-off, as different from the administra-tive “opportunity” of addressing pop-ular concerns, is that Anwar’s powerbid may be frowned upon by some sec-tions of society. After all, Malaysia be-longs to a region where day-to-daydemocratic discourse, taken as “nor-mal’’ in countries such as India and theUnited States, is often seen as a wasteof time.

A critical challenge for Najib willbe Malaysia’s relatively new phenome-non of assertive articulation of deep-seated discontent by the ethnic minor-ities. The banning of the Hindu RightsAction Force (Hindraf) with effectfrom October 15 did not produce anyinstantaneous political backlash.However, it is widely acknowledgedthat the articulation of ethnic grie-vances by Hindraf did play a part indefining political choices in the Marchelections.

Anwar has suggested that Hindraftone down or move away from posi-tions that could be interpreted as bla-tantly sectarian when viewed from theMalay-majority perspective. Signifi-cantly, Parti Islam-Se Malaysia (PAS),a key constituent in the oppositioncamp, has now given up the divisiveagenda of turning the country into aShariah-based Islamic state. The PAShas even offered to mediate betweenHindraf and the government.

Ethnic issues turned into a crisisunder Abdullah, though he projectedhimself as a hands-on politician with asoft touch compared to the reputationof his predecessor Mahathir Moha-mad as a leader with nerves of steel. Atone stage of the “momentum” generat-ed by the Hindraf campaign for equalrights, Najib did apologise for a templedemolition, which was believed tohave emboldened the group led by pro-fessionals. But he may still need toaddress ethnic issues from a broaderperspective. �

PRIME MINISTER ABDULLAH Ahmad Badawi (right) with his deputy andUMNO president-elect Najib Tun Razak.

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THE raid by the United States military insideSyria on October 26, which led to the killing of eightcivilians, has raised the political temperature inWest Asia. Carried out by American Special Oper-ations forces a week before the presidential electionin the U.S., the raid is the most serious violation ofSyria’s sovereignty since the occupation of Iraq fiveyears ago. The U.S. authorities have told the mediathat one Iraqi militant was killed in the operation.U.S. intelligence officials said that the target of theearly morning helicopter attack was Abu Ghadiya,whom they described as the mostprominent smuggler of Al Qaedafighters into Iraq.

The Syrian government insiststhat all those killed were innocentcivilians, four of them children. Thecountry’s leading newspaper, Tshi-rin, described the incident as cold-blooded murder.

The timing of the raid surprisedobservers. Washington has praisedDamascus in recent months for itshelp in stopping resistance groupsand Arab fighters from crossing intoIraq through the long and porousborder between Iraq and Syria.General David Petraeus, until re-cently the top U.S. commander inIraq, had said that the inflow of for-eign fighters had dwindled. “Syria

has taken steps to reduce the flow of foreign fightersthrough its borders with Iraq,” he said in December2007.

The American raid also comes at a time whenSyria is engaged in delicate behind-the-scenes nego-tiations with Israel. Turkey has used its good officesto broker the talks. Syria now has significantly im-proved relations with European governments. Presi-dent Basher al Assad has been feted in recent monthsin several Western capitals. Ian Black, writing in TheGuardian, described the American attack as “a finalvengeful lunge against a country that others are nowwooing but which still attracts profound hostility inWashington”.

Surprisingly, India seems to have condoned theAmerican act of aggression. The Ministry of ExternalAffairs said in a statement that the “scourge of terro-rism affects many nations around the world. Whilethis must elicit decisive responses, when such actionsresult in the death of innocent civilians, they defeatthe very objective of the intervention.”

Syria itself has been subjected to terrorist attacksby “jehadi” groups. A recent suicide bombing in Da-mascus claimed 17 lives. Senior Syrian officials andArab resistance heroes have been assassinated in the

past one year under mysterious cir-cumstances.

S Y R I A P R O T E S T S Syria reacted strongly to the attack. Asimilar incident of violation of its sov-ereignty took place last year – Israelijets bombed a site in the Syrian deserton the claim that a nuclear reactorwas being constructed there withNorth Korean help.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem, speaking to the media inLondon where he was on an officialvisit, described the U.S. attack as acriminal and terrorist aggression. Hesaid that the Bush administration fol-lowed the policy of cowboys.

Syria has said that it will cease tocooperate with the U.S. along the

Might as right

The commando raid, similar to theraids routinely conducted by the U.S.inside Pakistani territory, was inblatant disregard of the sovereigntyof Syria. Syria also feels cheated as ithas been trying to help containterrorism across its border with Iraq.

The U.S. military attack on Syria to flush out terrorists receives worldwide

condemnation. B Y J O H N C H E R I A N

World Affairs/Syria

WALID AL-MOALLEM,Syrian Foreign Minister,described the U.S. attack asa terrorist aggression.

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border with Iraq until the latter apol-ogises for the raid and promises to de-sist from further cross-borderincursions.

A report in the official Syrian newsagency in the first week of Novemberindicated that Syria had significantlyscaled down the policing of its borders.It had deployed 10,000 troops toguard the 650-km-long border withIraq. These troops, who guarded theborder with Israel earlier, were re-de-ployed on American request.

The Syrian government has alsoordered the U.S. Embassy in Damas-cus to close the American CulturalCentre and the American school. Theschool, one of the oldest in the region,was opened in 1956 when John FosterDulles was the U.S. Secretary of State.

Syria has provided footage on the

civilian deaths and the destruction ofproperty. It has withdrawn its envoysfrom Washington and Baghdad in pro-test against the attack. There havebeen huge anti-U.S. demonstrations inDamascus. Walid al-Moallem told themedia in Damascus in the first week ofNovember that his country would re-sort “to more painful measures if theU.S. does not give an official explana-tion for the attack”.

Syria, he said, had only imple-mented “introductory measures” andwarned that it retained the option ofescalating its responses. The countryhad constructed new observation tow-ers and control centres to stop mil-itants and smugglers from crossinginto Iraq.

Syria has other reasons to feelcheated by the West. As a result of the

American occupation, Syria has had totake in an estimated 1.5 million Iraqirefugees. A stable Iraq is of utmostimportance to Syria. With this goal inview, Iraq has been engaging all politi-cal formations in Iraq in talks. In July,Syria hosted a meeting of technicalborder security experts representingcountries of the region and the U.S. Inearly October, it sent an ambassador toBaghdad after a gap of more than 26years, indicating an improvement inbilateral relations. In November, topSyrian, Iraqi and American officialswere supposed to meet and discussproblems relating to Iraq’s security.

B U S H D O C T R I N E The U.S. commando raid in Syria hasbeen similar to the raids that are beingroutinely conducted inside Pakistani

SYRIANS DEMONSTRATE IN Damascus on October 30 against the U.S. raid.

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territory. A senior U.S. official told theAmerican media after the attack onSyria that “as targets present them-selves, and are identified they becomemore and more at risk. Just like inPakistan, there will be steps taken todeal with it.”

P R E - E M P T I V E S T R I K E SObservers have noted that the cross-border raids undertaken by the U.S.forces, in blatant violation of the sover-eignty of the countries involved, haveonly increased as President George W.Bush gets ready to demit office. Bushhad, in a speech at the United NationsGeneral Assembly in September, em-phasised once again the right of theU.S. to launch pre-emptive strikes. Hesaid that “we have an obligation to pre-vent our territory from being used as asanctuary for terrorism and prolifer-ation and human trafficking and orga-nised crime”.

Bush apparently hopes to set aprecedent for his successor to emulate.Before the recent cross-border attacks,Washington did not bother even to in-form the host countries. The Iraqi go-vernment, after initially keeping quiet,has criticised the U.S. for the attack onSyria. It had no other option since allmajor political parties in the country,cutting across the sectarian divide, hadissued strong statements condemning

the attack. “The Iraqi government re-jects U.S. aircraft bombarding postsinside Syria. The Constitution does notallow Iraq to be used as a stagingground to attack neighbouring coun-tries,” said a government spokesmanthe day after the attack. Iraq’s govern-ment has now introduced a specificclause in the proposed security dealwith the U.S. that would disallow U.S.forces from using Iraqi territory tolaunch attacks against its neighbours.

Indications are that pre-emptivestrikes will continue. U.S. President-elect Barack Obama repeatedly statedon the campaign trail that he wouldnot hesitate to despatch Americantroops to root out the Taliban and AlQaeda from their sanctuaries insidePakistan.

Close allies of the U.S., like Israeland Colombia, have been practisingthe Bush doctrine for some time now.Colombia killed a top RevolutionaryArmed Forces of Colombia (FARC)leader inside Ecuadorian territory thisyear, leading to a diplomatic crisis inthe region.

If recent statements are anythingto go by, the Indian government seemsto be supporting pre-emptive strikesand hot pursuits across borders in theso-called war against terrorism. Someanalysts are of the opinion that therecent U.S. raid will give Israel yet an-

other pretext to attack Syria. Israel cannow argue that an attack on Syria isjustified to stop the supply of arms tothe Hizbollah in Lebanon.

The violation of Syrian sovereigntyhas been criticised in most capitalssave a few. Professor Richard Falk ofPrinceton University, New Jersey, whois an expert on international law, de-scribed the attack “as a serious vio-lation of international law”.

He emphasised that internationallaw only allowed the use of violence inself-defence. He said that the Bush ad-ministration had unilaterally expand-ed the scope of the right ofself-defence. “This is a suspension ofthe rule of law in the name of counter-insurgency or homeland security. It isan extension of executive authorityand the imperial presidency,” he toldthe website Truthout.

American commentators alsopoint out inherent flaws in using the“law of self-defence” to authorise mil-itary attacks. They underline the factthat in both Iraq and Afghanistan,America is the aggressor, and not thedefender. They emphasise that the Ira-qi and Afghan people never attackedthe U.S. It was the U.S. that invadedthe two countries. More importantly,the U.N. Charter, to which the U.S. is asignatory, makes attacks on sovereigncountries illegal. �

AT THE FUNERAL of the victims of the attack.

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KHURSHID MAHMUD KASURI was ForeignMinister of Pakistan from late 2002 to early thisyear. In the first phase turbulence marked the rela-tionship but gave way to a period of unprecedentedcreativity. If the turbulence yielded to an unprece-dentedly creative phase from mid-2004 onwards, itwas only because the Indian electorate replaced theBharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Al-liance (NDA) regime with the Congress led-UnitedProgressive Alliance (UPA) government headed byManmohan Singh. The BJP leaders watched theradical improvement with dismay. Every move bythe Prime Minister was denounced as appeasement.

As Foreign Minister, Khurshid Mahmud Kasurimade a mark for his consistent advocacy of goodrelations with India. He incurred criticism at homefrom some, which was misconceived. He is a staunchPakistani nationalist in tune with his people’s aspira-tions and mindful of his country’s interests. As Presi-dent, General Pervez Musharraf played a historicrole in bringing the Kashmir dispute to the veryoutskirts of a solution. For that, his place in history issecure.

His indefensible ouster of the Chief Justice ofPakistan Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhary in March2007 created an upheaval which arrested the proc-ess. Fortunately, both President Asif Ali Zardari andPrime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani remain commit-

ted to the peace process and have retained the servic-es of the emissary of old, Tariq Aziz.

To Manmohan Singh goes the credit for craftingformulations that established a firm India-Pakistanconsensus on Kashmir. General Pervez Musharraf(retd.) paid rich tributes to him when I met him inIslamabad on October 24. So did Kasuri in a detailed

‘Call Kashmiris totake part in talks’

“I have a feeling that if we talk to the Kashmiris – since it servesthe interests and aspirations of theKashmiris – common sense woulddemand that they acquireownership.”

Interview with Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri, former Foreign Minister of Pakistan.

B Y A . G . N O O R A N I IN LAHORE

KHURSHID MAHMUD KASURI: "What hashappened in the last three months in Kashmircannot now be ignored."

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on-the-record interview in Lahore athis bungalow on October 17. He is as-siduously at work on his memoirs,which, judging by his remarks, bid fairto be meticulously documented.

The interview must be read in thecontext of the background and the out-look of the speaker. He said a lot thatwas of value on the practice of diplo-macy, the perils of the past and thechallenges of the future. His father,Mian Mahmud Ali Kasuri, was aniconic figure at the Bar and in politics.He joined the Muslim League in 1942and drafted a progressive electionmanifesto for the Punjab League alongwith leftists such as Danial Latifi. Heheaded a committee set up by Presi-dent Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in 1972 todraft a new democratic constitution,but resigned from both offices in Octo-ber 1972 because of his commitment tocivil liberties and fundamental rights.He was vice-president of Air MarshalAsghar Khan’s Tehrik-e-lstiqlal andopposed Zia-ul-Haq as stoutly as hehad opposed Bhutto.

Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri ranksamong the few Foreign Ministers whohad an impressive academic back-ground, with an M.A. from Cambridgeand call to the Bar from Gray’s Inn. AsForeign Minister he was never at a lossfor words or lacking in sincerity ofcommitment.

The interview exposes both thecostly folly and the ignominious col-lapse of Operation Parakram. It wasthe advisories from the United States,the United Kingdom and others thatcalled the BJP’s bluff. Noteworthy as isthe Pakistani perspective on the recentpast, of enduring value are his com-ments on the primacy of the ForeignMinister and the Foreign Office; theirinteraction with the back channel; andthe worth of what passes for “track-twodiplomacy” in South Asia. That is notall. It would be foolish to ignore hiswarning of the dangers that disputesover river waters pose for the future ofIndia-Pakistan relations. He is an avidreader and reads this magazine care-fully. He said: “I would like to place onrecord my appreciation of the highstandards maintained by Frontline.”

Excerpts from the interview:

Mr. Kasuri, you became ForeignMinister in 2002, only a few monthsafter India had massed troops alongthe Line of Control (LoC) in Kashmirand the international boundary.Exactly what was the status ofrelations that you found between Indiaand Pakistan when you becameMinister?

I think your question answers itbetter than I could have even thoughtof responding to it. When you have a

million soldiers, eyeball to eyeball, youcan understand the state of relations.In European history, of which I am astudent, I remember I was told thatwhen you had mobilisation of troops, italmost amounted to something justshort of a declaration of war. So, whenyou had that sort of a situation, whatsort of response do you expect fromme? Suffice it to say it could not havebeen worse.

The world was alarmed. Therecould be a conflagration. South Asiawas called the most dangerous placeon earth. People were talking of a war,between two countries which had nu-clear weapons. The American andBritish companies were warning theircitizens to leave India and Pakistan.Frankly speaking, I think India alsofelt the pinch of that, particularly fromBangalore and other areas where a lotof money was coming into [the] IT[information technology sector]. Wedid as well; but, obviously, I assumeIndia must have suffered more than wedid. Proportionately we also suffered alot. There was a danger that war mightbreak out between the two countries. Iremember at that time the Americans– I want to put it on record – did theirbest to try and lower the temperature.Colin Powell was the U.S. Secretary ofState. He and I used to talk often. Heused to tell me that he was trying to

PRIME MINISTER ATAL Bihari Vajpayee and President Pervez Musharraf meet in Islamabad on January 5, 2004,during the SAARC summit. "It was a very important meeting which ended in the Islamabad Declaration in which,from our perspective, for the first time the Prime Minister of India openly said that there was need for a resolution of the Kashmir dispute which should be acceptable to both Pakistan and India."

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talk to the Indians as well. We hadfrequent interactions with the Euro-peans and the Americans. The wholeworld was alarmed; otherwise, theycould not be taking so much interest.

In which month did you becomeForeign Minister?

I think it was in November 2002.There were more than a million

soldiers at that time. In that atmo-sphere I issued a statement that myfirst priority would be to improve rela-tions with all our neighbours, includ-ing India. The mention of India wasenough to rile up a lot of people inPakistan and I had editorial commentagainst me; people saying this fellowwas some sort of a pacifist, too soft. ButI was very clear from day one that Pa-kistan’s national interest demandedpeace in South Asia. I assume, as laterevents proved, that there were sensiblepeople in India who also thought it wasin India’s interest to have peace withPakistan. In that atmosphere I wasquite clear that improvement of rela-tions with India should be my top pri-ority, particularly when there was athreat of war.

When did relations begin to improve?Well, you know I am writing a book

and I wish you had interviewed me fiveor six months later. At the moment I goentirely by my memory. I now realisethat these events are five years old andI am trying to collect some facts. But Ican tell you that it took some time. Alot of our common friends – the U.S.and the Europeans, as well – helped.The fact that the U.S., the U.K., andother European countries asked theircitizens to leave had a very direct im-pact on both Pakistan and India be-cause they thought that Pakistan’seconomy had begun to do very welland later on we went so fast that in oneparticular year we were second only toChina in GDP [gross domestic prod-uct] growth. It did start hurting us, Iwould be honest with you because weneeded to prevent war. As subsequentevents proved, India thought likewise.India lost about, if I am not mistaken,1,800 or 1,900 soldiers without war

ever breaking out. This is not a figure Iam giving but a figure which, I think,was given on the floor of the House byMr. George Fernandes [the DefenceMinister] and, if my memory servesme well, he mentioned a figure of1,841. So many soldiers had died with-out a bullet being fired. Obviously, ittold on India also.

I think, however, that mobilisationhad one positive impact. As far as Pa-kistanis were concerned, when it wasover. We were happy. We neverthought war was an option for us. Werealised that India had come to theconclusion that it was not an option forIndia either. The fact that there wassome sort of a nuclear parity, the factthat Pakistan had means of deliveringweapons must have also contributed tothat realisation in India. We were, ofcourse, aware that India had detonat-ed a nuclear device in 1974. So wecould be under no illusions. But thefact that Pakistan had demonstratedits capability in 1998, I think, in a verylarge measure brought about sanity inSouth Asia. It was good for India andfor Pakistan to realise that war was notan option. But for Pakistan, we real-ised that, despite a million soldiershaving been mobilised, India had alsocome to the conclusion that war wasnot an option.

Did you at any time feel that India wasbluffing?

Well, the Indians were very fond ofsaying later on that it was “coercivediplomacy”. I do not know what itmeant.

Were you ever, at any time, scared?Panicked that India might launch awar?

I really did not think so. I thoughtthat nuclear parity in South Asiawould prevent India ever undertakingthat because there were earlier occa-sions – I was not Foreign Minister then– when there had been some sort ofmobilisation. It was described as somesort of “exercises” on our borders andcertain messages were sent from Pa-kistan, I understood later on. Thosealso had a positive impact in prevent-

ing war. If I am not mistaken, it wasSahibzada Yaqub Khan, the then For-eign Minister, who also happens to bea relative of mine, who was sent toIndia with a special message on a cer-tain occasion.

That was in early 1990 [soon after theeruption of armed militancy inKashmir]

Yes. When I write my book I willhave to check well all the dates. Mr.I.K. Gujral, whom I know well, whowas a friend of my father, was India’sMinister for External Affairs. We metvery often when I visited Delhi or hecame to Lahore to meet my father. Myfather had taught him at the Law Col-lege. At that time Mr. Gujral also, Ithink, mentioned what I had heardindependently in Islamabad. It wasnot appropriate of me to ask eitherSahibzada Yaqub Khan or Mr. Gujralwhat the contents of the message were.It is, however, sufficient for me to saythat following that meeting betweenthe two Foreign Ministers there wereemergency Cabinet meetings in India.So I was aware even before I becameForeign Minister that although we hadnot demonstrated our nuclear device,the fact that there was now nuclearparity in South Asia would help us.

But I was convinced that we couldnot prolong it. It would hurt the econo-mies of both India and Pakistan. AsForeign Minister of Pakistan, it wasmy business to see that we try to im-prove relations. I always believed thatQuaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnahdid not ever dream of this sort of arelationship between Pakistan and In-dia.

The one major event thereafter wasthe Vajpayee-Musharraf summit inJanuary 2004, when the SAARC (SouthAsian Association for RegionalCooperation) summit was held inIslamabad. Can you elaborate on whathappened?

It was a very important meetingwhich ended in the Islamabad Decla-ration in which, from our perspective,for the first time the BJP leadership,the Prime Minister of India, openly

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said that there was need for a resolu-tion of the Kashmir dispute whichshould be acceptable to both Pakistanand India. Prior to that, some of theBJP leaders had been saying – and infact others had also said before – thatKashmir was some sort of an atut ang[inseparable part] of India, which, ofcourse, Pakistan never accepted. Nowthey were saying that there could be noresolution of Kashmir until both par-ties accepted the solution. This was avery positive development.

At my joint press conference withMr. Yashwant Sinha, at a hotel in Isla-mabad, I was asked, “What about theKashmiris?” I replied that commonsense would dictate that Pakistanwould never accept a solution whichthe Kashmiris would not accept be-cause it would not really have any life.It would not serve any useful purpose.The purpose of this exercise is to bringabout peace between India and Pakis-tan which could not be achieved if,while talking of Kashmir, we produceda solution which the Kashmiris wouldnot accept.

Would you like to comment on thepart in the Islamabad Declaration of2004 in which Pakistan gave acommitment that it would not allowits territory to be used for terroristattacks against India?

First of all, it was not for the firsttime that that was done. Secondly, youhave international opinion also to con-sider. Thirdly, why should you regardit as unilateral? There should be mu-tual restraint by both. It is not justincumbent on Pakistan, it is on boththe countries. One would assume thatthis is inherent in any inter-state rela-tions. Which implies also sovereignequality and non-interference in eachother’s country, under the U.N.charter.

Following that there was a flurry ofback-channel talks between TariqAziz and Satish Lambah. How muchwas Pakistan’s Foreign Office kept inthe know about these back-channelactivities?

Let me tell you one thing, and

those who know me would vouch for it.I would never become spokesman foranything – and I was required to bePakistan’s spokesman as Foreign Min-ister – unless I was a party to everyth-ing. The usual method was that wesent certain messages; messages be-tween Delhi and Islamabad. Thesewere detailed messages; sometimes in-volving construction of sentences, syn-tax, full stops and semi-colons.

Non-papers, you mean?Well, I did not wish to say that but

since you say. Well, of course, eithergovernment can deny it. But this wasan attempt to bridge the gap betweenthe two, and this had gone on for long.What used to happen is that Mr. TariqAziz dealt on different occasions; first,with Mr. Brajesh Mishra and, after thechange of government in India (in2004), with Mr. J.N. Dixit. After Mr.Dixit passed away, he dealt with Mr.Satish Lambah. The common methodwas that these messages would pass,we would comment on what they sentto us and they would comment onwhat we sent to them. This went on formonths, may be, for more than a year.When I write my book, I will, of course,get all the dates. I have some of my ownnotes to support me. You have got mejust like this on a visit to Lahore when Iwas not expecting this interview.

That is why I used to say that a lotof progress has been made. This is notsomething that I alone said. If you readsome of the statements by the PrimeMinister of India you will find thatthere was optimism. Why would thatoptimism be there? It could not be in avoid. Similarly, when President Zarda-ri assumed office in Pakistan he spokeof “good news” in a short period oftime. I do not know what his sources ofinformation were. I am not in powernow. But he did mention that, nowthat he was President, he knew theback channel and what had been goingon. That means that even Mr. Zardari,when he took over, was confidentenough to say, on the basis of the workwe had done, that there were goodchances [of success].

But I must comment on someth-

ing. What has happened in the lastthree months in Kashmir cannot nowbe ignored. At that time we used to sayto the Government of India that it wasabsolutely essential to involve theKashmiris. But the Indians were notamenable to our suggestion. We ap-plied a lot of diplomatic pressure. Wecontinued, repeatedly, to urge uponthem. The result was that we achievedthe second best thing: the Kashmiriswere allowed to come to Pakistan,which meant all the Hurriyat leaders.Later, even others, not in the Hurriyat,like Mr. Omar Abdullah and MissMehbooba Mufti, came. All of themvisited Pakistan and met our leader-ship and our leadership from AzadJammu & Kashmir visited India andmet your leaders.

It was the result of our efforts thatthis interaction took place. Now, afterwhat has happened in the last threemonths, it is absolutely essential thatthe good work that has been done be-tween the two governments must finddirect ownership. I have a feeling thatif we talk to the Kashmiris – since itserves the interests and aspirations ofthe Kashmiris – common sense woulddemand that they acquire ownership.But they are not going to acquire theownership unless we call them directlyas participants. It should not be sodifficult for the Government of Indiabecause they have already agreed andthey have allowed Kashmiris to cometo Pakistan, talk to our leadership, andour Kashmiri leadership has gone andtalked to your national leadership. So,this would be a logical next step. What

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has happened in Kashmir in the lastthree months emphasises the need forgreater Kashmiri participation as wellas interaction amongst themselves.

How significant has been the progressin the back channel? How far havethey come?

I think there has been a lot of pro-gress, and you should not make me sayall the things. You should wait for mybook.

Fundamentally, what should be theinteraction between back-channeldiplomacy and official diplomacy?

You see, there are some things. Iwill give you my experience. We dorealise that the wars that Pakistan andIndia fought have really been overKashmir. What we were talking of wason the entire gamut of relations be-tween India and Pakistan under thecomposite dialogue. But we needed amore focussed discussion. The troublewith formal talks is that whenever youcome out there is a battery of media-persons standing outside and theyforce you to say things. Otherwise, theyreport that the talks had failed. Myexperience tells me it [the back chan-nel] is an excellent way of dealing withissues without putting everything inthe glare of publicity. Instantaneouspublicity can be a disaster because it

enables those who are opposed to thepeace process, on both sides of the in-ternational border, to put their ownspin and scuttle the process.

Would you comment on and amplifyformer President Pervez Musharraf’sfour-point formula, which he has setout on page 304 in his book In the“Line of Fire”?

Speaking from memory there arefour elements – identification of theregions in Kashmir; demilitarisation;joint mechanism; and self-gover-nance. When I talked to the Kashmiris,who were visiting here, they alwaysasked me for some sort of guarantees. Isee their point. If we had completedthe work, we would have addressedthis issue. Hopefully, now that theback channel would still be continued,I hope consideration would be given tothis aspect, which the Kashmiris haverepeatedly raised with us.

I would also like to say that I foundthat Prime Minister Manmohan Singhwas very sincere in his desire for peacewith Pakistan and the way he tried totackle the issue of Jammu & Kashmir.He repeatedly talked of the need formaking the Line of Control“irrelevant”.

Would you comment on the otherissues – Siachen, Sir Creek, the

Wullar barrage, which we call theTulbul Navigation Project?

Sir Creek, I think, is ready for sig-nature tomorrow. A joint survey hasbeen carried out. We have agreed onthe joint maps. It requires politicalwill. This, frankly, applies to Siachenalso because a lot of progress has beenmade there as well. I would like tocomment generally on water. A lot ofpeople are now predicting that futurewars would be over water. I am, there-fore, very greatly alarmed at the dis-pute over the waters of the Sutlej. Wework hard at improving relations be-tween Pakistan and India. It will allcome to a naught if Pakistanis feel thattheir water supplies are going to beinterfered with.

I think that one of the achieve-ments of the government in which Iwas Foreign Minister was that on theBaglihar dam we made sure that theconflict resolution mechanism in theIndus Waters Treaty was resorted toand a neutral expert appointed whoserecommendations were accepted bythe Government of India. Theychanged the design of the dam. Theimportant thing is that the water hasbeen allocated, the percentage hasbeen allocated. They should not betampered with under any circum-stances. This is far more dangerousthan any other issue between Pakistanand India, potentially.

As distinct from the back channel,there is the so-called “track-twodiplomacy” in South Asia. Candidly, inall the seminars and exchanges haveyou found a single constructive ideaemerging?

I have always believed that therewill never be peace between Pakistanand India if you confine the talks to thetwo Establishments. They are too fro-zen in their attitudes. We need to in-volve a lot of people outside the officialumbrella. I do admit that some of themhave frozen ideas; as frozen as those ofthe Establishment. But when retiredsoldiers, admirals, bureaucrats anddiplomats, academics and public fig-ures meet, it creates the right idea for aresolution. �

AT THE BAGLIHAR hydropower project on the Chenab river, at Chanderkote,145 kilometres north of Jammu, which was inaugurated by Prime MinisterManmohan Singh on October 10. "[O]n the Baglihar dam we made sure thatthe conflict resolution mechanism in the Indus Waters Treaty was resortedto and a neutral expert appointed...."

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lime representation of the spiritual quest: movingfrom the multiplicity of the forms of the world to thesimplest form, the stupa. The railings around thestupa symbolically marked the space where we leftbehind the confusions and attachments of the world.Inside, we were to meditate upon the inner truth.

The gateways of the railings depicted the fertilityof the world of forms. These were “birth-gates”through which the “many” emanated from the “One”.They were also the gateways for the reintegrationwith the One. (The garba-griha, or “womb-cham-ber”, echoes the same concept of the One from whomeverything emanates.) The yakshis sculpted on thegateways presented the vital forces and beauty of thenatural order around us, and here we saw all this inits true context. Maya, or mithya, thus became the

THE story of Buddhist art is a fascinating jour-ney, taking us on the path of true knowledge, awayfrom the illusions of the world. The earliest monu-ments of the Buddhist and Jaina faiths have a sub-

Vehicles of peace

By the Gupta period, from the 4th tothe 6th century A.D., sublime deitieswere made in all Indic faiths. Theirpurpose was to transport us throughtheir grace and beauty to a realm of inner peace and joy.

From stupas, Buddhist art progresses to a point where the human form is used

to convey ideas that transcend mortal existence. 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

SCULPTED BEAM, STUPA railing, Kankali, Mathura region, 2nd century B.C. The pulsating vine of the abundance ofthe natural order is carried by human figures as it courses through the world, bringing with it the wealth of nature.

Art

first personified representation in In-dian art, the precursor to deities. Ofthese early presentations, Lakshmilustrated by elephants, representingthe generous fertility of the world offorms, proved to be among the mostendearing and has continued to be de-picted to this day.

Scholars such as the American artcritic Thomas McEvilley who havestudied pre-Socratic Greek philosophypoint out similarities between theGreek and Indic traditions. Ananke,the early Greek goddess of bonds, is asimilar deity, who creates the chains ofour attachments to the multiplicity ofthe world.

Besides the prolific representa-tions of Maya, the fruitful abundanceof nature, other deities gradually cameinto being in Indic art. Indra and Suryacame to be seen in the 2nd century B.C.in the Buddhist caves at Bhaja. A 1stcentury B.C. Buddha from the Math-ura region is among the earliest sculp-tures of the Enlightened One.

By the 1st century A.D., a largenumber of deities were created innorthern and central India. These in-cluded the Buddha, Bodhisattvas, Jai-na Tirthankaras, Siva, Vishnu,Kartikeya and Lakshmi. They were thepersonifications of concepts and qual-ities. We were to look upon them toawaken the qualities within ourselvesand eventually be filled with those andbecome one with the deity.

By the Gupta period, from the 4thto the 6th century A.D., sublime deitieswere made in all Indic faiths. Theirpurpose was to transport us throughtheir grace and beauty to a realm ofinner peace and joy. The pain and con-fusing attachments of the materialworld were to be left behind as weresponded to the tranquil gaze of thefigures. The Buddha personified thestillness within us, undisturbed by thedesires and pains of the world: a state

PADMAPANI, MAHOBA, 11TH century A.D., Lucknow State Museum.The Bodhisattva Padmapani, the bearer of the lotus, is the embodiment of compassion. The figure sits gracefully, in a posture that has come to beknown as “royal ease”.

SeriesThis is the third partof a five-part series.

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in which the armies of Mara have beendefeated. The true victory is over therestless mind. Behind the half-closedeyes, the look is within, to the endlessrealm of peace to be found there.

In the Buddhist caves of this peri-od, at Ajanta, we see the reshaping ofthe path of the philosophic quest. Ear-lier, the heart of the cave, deep withinthe hill, presented the grandeur of sim-plicity. Now it is the beauty and graceof harmonious form that meets us inthe hall of meditation. Beauty itself isnow a vehicle to create peace and asense of harmony within us.

Chitrasutra, the treatise on art,which was penned during this period,states that the purpose of art is to con-vey the essence and harmony of thewhole of creation. It says that art madewith the understanding of this grace,

which underlies all that there is, has adeep and transforming influence uponthe viewer. It is more valuable, it says,than worldly possessions.

Cave 26 is a grand chaitya-griha,or prayer hall, perhaps the last excava-tion at Ajanta. The Buddha is madewithin a stupa and sits, with pendantlegs, upon a throne. The MaitreyaBuddha, who is yet to incarnate in theworld, is often made in this fashion.The circumambulatory path aroundthe shrine is carved elaborately.

On the left wall of the cave is amarvellous depiction of the Buddha’svictory over the armies of Mara. Theseforces represent the turbulence andconfusion of the mind. Mara’s daugh-ters, depicted below, represent our de-sires that keep us bound to a life of painin the material world. The Buddha is

serene as he rises above all these and isready for enlightenment.

A profoundly moving scene is thatof the Mahaparinirvana of the Budd-ha, when he finally achieves releasefrom the mortal world. This is one ofthe grandest, yet most sensitive, de-pictions in all of Buddhist art. The fig-ure of the reclining Buddha is about 22feet (6.6 metres) long and is bestviewed from near his feet. Ananda, hisdisciple, sits at his feet, desolate at theloss. To the solemnity and grandeur ofthe noble achievement of Mahapari-nirvana, Ananda adds a human touch,which is unforgettable.

A number of grand viharas (resi-dences of monks) were excavated inthis period. These are considerablylarger than the earlier viharas and arepainted profusely. In fact, practically

THE SITE OF the Vikramashila university, Bihar. The final developments in Indiaof Buddhist philosophy and logic took place in the environs of the university, not veryfar from present-day Bhagalpur. The many temples and stupas that were constructedhere included those built by Tibetan devotees. Atisa, who was to play a pivotal role in thedevelopment of Tibetan Buddhism from the 12th century onwards, was at this university.

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the way to enlightenment who delayedtheir own nirvana to help others onthe path. They could be prayed to forhelp. This was a significant change inthe practice of Buddhism. The newschool, which followed this path, cameto be known as Mahayana, or the GreatVehicle.

T H E F I R S T U N I V E R S I T I E SIn the meantime, vast universitiescame up under the benevolent patron-age of the Gupta and Pala kings, whopatronised establishments of all faiths.The size and splendour of these, whichis discernable from the remains of theNalanda and Vikramashila Mahavih-aras, is amazing. The Nalanda univer-sity’s grandeur and rigorous academicatmosphere are also brought alive bythe writings of the 7th century Chinese

every inch of the wall and the ceilingspace was originally covered with finepaintings. Early literature has manyreferences to such halls of murals. Theones at Ajanta form a priceless collec-tion as they are the only surviving sig-nificant body of ancient paintings.These exquisite murals are also amongthe greatest treasures of the Buddhistheritage.

Earlier, the path to nirvana, theextinguishing of the illusory self, or theego, was a personal exercise, throughself-discipline and constant endea-vour. It was a path of renunciation,through which we were to lose gradu-ally our attachment to the attractionsof the material world. Many wouldhave found this path difficult to followand, in time, helpful Bodhisattvaswere conceived. These were beings on

LEOGRPH, TERRACOTTA PLAQUE,Vikramashila site. As the dynamismof the intellect came to the fore inthe spiritual path, such rearingcreatures became widely prevalentin the art of all Indic faiths.

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pilgrim Xuanzang, who spent manyyears studying under the learned Shi-labhadra and others there.

At these, the first universitiesknown to man, the endeavour was tounderstand fully the many qualities ofBuddhahood, or Enlightenment, andto create logical paths that could befollowed by the seekers in order to at-tain the final knowledge. The qualitiesof Buddhahood were personified in apantheon of deities. By meditatingupon the personified qualities, a wor-shipper was to imbibe the virtues pre-sented. Having attained thosequalities, one became that deity.

M E T H O D O F Y O G ABy the 4th century, the method of Yogaor Yogatantra was established in Indicthought. It was a graded path of evolu-tion, through discipline and medita-tion. In the art of the Buddhist faith,Cave 90 of the early 6th century, atKanheri, has the earliest survivingmandala, which presents such a grad-ed path. The Buddha at the centre rep-resents the final or universal Truth.The Buddhas and other figures aroundhim are the personifications of wisdomand compassion, which lead us to theultimate knowledge at the centre.

Again at Kanheri, in Cave 41, be-longing to the late 5th or early 6thcentury, is the first known depiction ofthe Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara with11 heads, presenting a view of the moredetailed iconography that was devel-oping. On either side of the veranda ofthe early Cave 3 are made colossalBuddhas, over 22 feet tall. This was thebeginning of the tradition of Brhad, orcolossal, Buddhas, which spread nearand far.

The Buddhist caves at Ellora weremade in the 7th century. These are thelargest Buddhist excavations to be car-ried out in India. They also reflect the

THE EXCAVATED RUINS of theancient university of Nalanda, Bihar.In the entire history of thedevelopment of Buddhist philosophy,there is a supreme place ofimportance for the NalandaMahavihara.

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THE BUDDHA,NALANDA, late-6th/early-7th century A.D. Thisdynamic outlook isrepresented in the changingstyles of art, from the post-Gupta period onwards. (Right) A section of theNalanda Mahavihara. Thequalities of Buddhahoodwere personified in thevibrant style of art that wascreated in the university’sintellectual atmosphere.


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developments in iconography. Fromthe simple, ethical message of the orig-inal teachings, the doctrine had be-come much more complex. Sculpturalpanels with Bodhisattvas were in-creasingly used to carry the icono-graphic message.

The 8th century saw the foundingof the Pala dynasty, which ruled overmost of Bengal and Bihar until the12th century. It was a period of flour-ishing trade and prosperity. The Palaswere patrons of monasteries and art.Towards the end of the 8th century,Dharmapala founded the Vikramashi-la university, which was to rival theimportance of Nalanda itself, in pre-sent-day Bihar. By this time, Budd-hism had entered its third majorphase: the Vajrayana school.

In the earlier Buddhist thought,liberation was possible only throughseveral lifetimes of effort. The Vajraya-na offered the possibility of nirvana ina single lifetime. At the heart of thissystem was the teacher-initiate rela-tionship, where the seeker was guidedby his teacher. Complex rituals, man-tras or chants, and mudras or handmovements, of Vajrayana Buddhismwere codified in the form of tantras.Tantra literally means to “carry onknowledge”.

D Y N A M I S M O F T H E I N T E L L E C TThe emphasis in this period was on theintellectual quest. This is constantlyreflected in the art. Art in the previousperiod was naturalistic. Its focus wason a gentleness that moved us and dis-solved our sense of the ego; whichtransported us through grace and ec-stasy. The purpose of art remained thesame in this period. However, the dy-namism of the intellect, which analy-ses the processes of the realisation ofthe truth, came to the fore.

The many qualities of Buddha-hood and the steps on the path to en-lightenment came to be studied andpresented in great detail. The qualitiesthat move us towards a realisation ofthe Truth were presented in a mannerthat left no room for ambiguity ordoubt. This was Vajrayana Buddhism,the Vehicle of the Thunderbolt, whose

YAKSHI, STUPARAILING, Kankali,Mathura region, 2ndcentury B.C., MathuraState Museum. The treesand the fruit of thenatural world springforth at the touch of theyakshi. (Below) Yakshi,Bharut stupa railing, 2ndcentury B.C., IndianMuseum, Kolkata. Thisdeity is the earliestpersonification ofoverflowing wealth in theart of all Indic faiths.


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SAMVARA, RATNAGIRI, 8TH century A.D., Patna State Museum. In the Pala period, the pantheon of personified deities became larger and morecomplex. The effort was to depict highly sophisticated ideas in clear and unmistakable detail.

logic was “as striking as a clap of thun-der”. It was also “as indestructible as adiamond”.

In this period of great intellectualvigour, the deities represented com-plex paths of realisation. One of themost remarkable qualities of the artand philosophy of this time is the in-tellectual freedom which it represents.There appears to be no limit to thediverse presentations of the personalvisualisations of the deities.

We see from the numberless varia-tions in the mandalas and in the dei-ties that there was great freedom ofthought and expression. Great teach-ers from Nalanda and Vikramashilahad different approaches to the path toenlightenment.

As recorded in the surviving tradi-tions of Tibet and the Indian Hima-layas, the visit of each teacher fromthese universities began a new wave ofunderstanding. Each teacher broughtfresh nuances to the practice of thefaith. Many sects, with different prac-tices, continue their legacies until to-day. It is a wonderful blend of thecontinuation of ancient knowledgewith the living experience and real-isation of each new thinker.

Crowned Buddhas, instead of theearlier bare-headed ascetic figures, be-gan to appear often in Pala times. Thecrown here denoted the highest spiri-tual achievement. Wrathful Bodhi-sattvas also began to appear. These areto awaken the determination and ar-dent vigour with which the devoteemust pursue the search for the Truthand the fearlessness with which onemust face the obstacles and confusionson this path. As in the Hindu art of thisperiod, female deities, who are thecounterparts of the male ones, becomeprolific. These were first seen in thecaves of western India, in the 6th cen-tury.

Metal images were much easier totransport than large stone ones. It isthese that travelled to Nepal, Tibet andfurther northwards, as well as to thecountries of South-East Asia. Thesculptures transmitted the conceptsand styles of Buddhist art far and widein this period. Advanced forms of Tan-

tric Buddhism were developed andthese travelled from here to othercountries. The Pala period was one ofthe greatest ages of vibrant Buddhistthought and humankind’s philosophicquest.

The journey of Buddhist art hasbrought us to a point where the humanform is used to convey ideas that tran-scend our mortal existence. The sub-ject of the art is the depiction of the

essence and not just the optical realityof the world.

As stated in Chitrasutra, the de-piction of harmony and beauty has atransforming influence upon the view-er. When we respond to beauty, forthat moment we come out of ourselves,our worldly cares and concerns are leftbehind. In that moment, we are ab-sorbed in the grace that is everywherein creation. �

THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN, inhis latest book uses a maximfrom Texas to illustrate theinevitable calamity that willbefall us if we do not begin to

discover imaginatively ways of meet-ing the crisis of global warming: “If allyou ever do is all you’ve ever done, thenall you’ll ever get is all you ever got.”

Pained by the burning down of therainforests, he uses the eminent ento-mologist Edward O. Wilson’s state-ment that it is “like burning all thepaintings of the Louvre to cook din-ner”. The environment had to bear thebrunt of “going flat” or introducing afree market economy.

Friedman goes on to suggest thatthe code the United States must followis “green” just as it was “red” in the ColdWar era, which symbolised “the over-arching Communist threat, the symbolthat was used to mobilise our countryto build up its military, its industrialbase, its highways, its railroads, ports,and airports, its educational institu-tions, and its scientific capabilities tolead the world in defence of freedom”.Observing the “green code” will leadthe country towards a cleaner and agreener environment, he argues.

After his now-famous The World isFlat, which he wrote for the corporateworld, Friedman turns to green con-sciousness hoping that the executiveworld, which patiently gave its ears tohis views on globalisation, will now beready audience for his anxiety andwarning about global warming and theacceleration of the melting of glaciers.It is in view of this urgency that Fried-man’s book, Hot, Flat, and Crowded,comes as one more addition to the in-

pering with nature and the recklessmisuse of our surroundings and drawsthe reader’s attention to the contam-ination of soil, water and air, affectingvegetation, birds and wildlife, and alsoto those who have the arrogance torefuse to be persuaded.

Thinking green for him “meansmaking America the world’s leader ininnovating clean power and energy-efficiency systems… of having a deeperrespect for the world’s forests, oceans,and biodiversity.”

D E V A S T A T I O N O F B I O D I V E R S I T YAs he argues, the world is slowly get-ting flat because of equal opportuni-ties; crowded because of the rise ofpopulation; and hot because the wholeworld apes the American way of life,where you possess the creature com-forts of a car, a fridge, a washing ma-chine and a television set. To enjoy allthis you need more energy. This is,according to him, “unsustainable” asthe use of more energy means morecontamination of the atmosphere withcarbon dioxide and, consequently, thedevastation of biodiversity.

Added to this fall-out is the in-creasing gap between the haves andthe have-nots, between those who uselaptops and those who cannot be partof the “flat” world because they do nothave the facility of even an electricbulb: “In particular, the convergenceof hot, flat, and crowded is tighteningenergy supplies, intensifying the ex-tinction of plants and animals, dee-pening energy poverty, strengtheningpetro dictatorship, and acceleratingclimate change. How we address theseinterwoven global trends will deter-

creasing literature on climate change,a bold and decisive step to raise anenvironmentally conscious public andshake off any complacency.

A sincere diagnosis of the ecolog-ical problem facing humanity, Fried-man’s book uses opinions of variousexperts in the field of environmentwhom he has interviewed or has hadserious discussions with. He is, indeed,deeply concerned with the fatal tam-

Green act

IN REVIEW

Hot, Flat, and Crowded: WhyWe Need a Green Revolution– And How We Can RenewOur Global Future by Thomas L. Friedman; AllenLane; pages 438, £20.

The book says that a meaningful solution to the climate crisis is possible only if

the U.S. changes its mindset on environmental issues. B Y S H E L L E Y W A L I A

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mine a lot about the quality of life onearth in the twenty-first century.”

Among the public there might beconcern, but a widespread and deeplyfelt worry for the environment andtangible action are lacking. The U.S.,argues Friedman, has to first examinethe challenges of energy, biodiversityand climate change and then begin todwell on solutions concerning cleanenergy and a political leadership thatrealises that all economic, political andsocial changes in the future are goingto be relative to the dictates of nature.If the U.S. has to maintain the “moralleadership” of the world, it has tochange its mindset on issues of theenvironment.

The book, therefore, contributes tothe campaign of sending out a wake-up call to the citizens of the world tocome forward and act now for main-taining the ecological balance. Hu-mankind owes it to itself and thefuture generations, which will admon-ish this generation if timely action isdelayed to prevent global warming andthe depletion of natural resources.

Friedman writes in the openingchapter: “America has a problem andthe world has a problem. America’sproblem is that it has lost its way inrecent years partly because of 9/11 andpartly because of the bad habits thatwe have let build up over the last threedecades, bad habits that have wea-kened our society’s ability and willing-ness to take on big challenges.” Thisbehaviour and lifestyle is visible in thevery “nature of American capitalism”that ignores the limited natural re-sources at our disposal.

“ E N E R G Y - C L I M A T E E R A ”The location in time of the book ishistoric, that is, it is not A.D. 2008, but“1 E.C.E.” – the first year of the “Ener-gy-Climate Era” – and the focus is noton elucidation of the problem, butmore on discovering and suggestingsolutions. Friedman strongly believesthat the U.S. must lead the way with asense of purpose and a will to act: “In aworld that is getting hot, flat, andcrowded, the task of creating the tools,systems, energy sources, and ethics

that will allow the planet to grow incleaner, more sustainable ways is go-ing to be the biggest challenge of ourlifetime. But this challenge is actuallyan opportunity for America. If we takeit on, it will revive America at home,reconnect America abroad, and retoolAmerica for tomorrow.”

Americans have to understandthat nature does not need us; it is wewho need nature. A meaningful solu-tion is possible only if the U.S. beginsto see the challenge and sits up to takefull responsibility to fight the onset of“the silent spring” – the title of RachelCarson’s book on ecological conscious-ness – and decides to use sources ofclean energy such as solar, nuclear orwind instead of fossil fuels.

An idealist, Friedman looks aheadin time when each one of our domesticappliances would be connected via theInternet to solar energy that is auto-matically drawn at the cheapest rate,and when our cars would charge theirbatteries on solar energy, which will besold back to the grid when surplus.

Market policy needs to undergo adrastic change so that renewable ener-gy sources are made cheaper and fossilfuels are no longer subsidised. TheU.S. mission must focus on innova-tions and experiments to bring incleaner fuel and reduce the demandfor energy. This approach will be con-tagious to the rest of the world, a con-crete step towards a greenerenvironment worldwide.

That he has turned his attentionfrom the “benefits” of globalisation to

his deeply felt eco-concerns, paradox-ically, represents the coexistence of afar right-wing stance and a shift to theLeft. Flat, hot and crowded are imagesthat represent the condition of a glob-alised world where the U.S. needs tobecome the role model. Though Fried-man’s concern is timely, he undoubt-edly takes a biased standpoint ofconsidering the U.S. as a leader thatcan set examples for the rest of theworld through green politics. Nowherein the book does he examine the havoccaused by multinationals to forests,though he sounds depressed at theconsequences of international trade.

Friedman looks enviously andlongingly at the public transport sys-tem in Europe, which helps in the re-duced use of private vehicles andconsequently in the reduction of car-bon fumes, though on the other handhe favours free enterprise. The para-dox seemingly stares the reader in theeye, though the recent collapse of cap-italism has triggered the re-examina-tion of a free market obsession, leavingno doubt that rampant privatisation isnot the answer to global prosperity.And the spectre of Karl Marx returnsto haunt the world again.

Indeed, Hot, Flat, and Crowdedtakes a sceptical look over the shoulderat the level playfields that Friedmanhad sung praises of and comes to theconclusion that these are times in his-tory when we need to awaken to thedanger to the environment. Indisput-ably, climate change is taking placeand human activity is the cause. Thispotential global crisis requires a syn-chronised response in view of the plan-etary emergency, which poses a threatto the future of humanity.

We have before us irrefutable evi-dence on the extent of damage done tothe environment. And until we realisethat there is an urgent need to collab-orate and innovate in all possible waysat the global level, we can scarcely be ina position to counter the cataclysmicresults of global warming. Friedmanmight go on within such a scenario towrite the obituary of capitalism and hisnext book could be “Flat and Termi-nally Ill”. �

The book sendsout a wake-upcall to thecitizens of theworld to comeforward and act now.

AMITAV GHOSH’S newnovel, Sea of Poppies,moves slowly and with acertain rugged grandeur,like the great ship that is in

many ways the sutradhar of this tale:Ibis, the tall-masted jahaj that lookedlike a great bird and had indeed oncebeen a “blackbirder” in its terrible past,transporting generations of slavesfrom western Africa.

In 1837, Ibis is acquired by newmasters for the opium trade, now thatthe slave trade has formally been abol-ished, and the ship sets sail from Balti-more to Calcutta (now Kolkata) with ascruffy crew and a cargo of cotton todefray part of the expenses of its year-long journey. But the ship’s humancargo have left their mark in the formof innumerable peep-holes and air-ducts bored into the ’tween-deck, holesthat now make the timbers “weep” inthe heavier seas, drenching the bales ofcotton so thoroughly that they have tobe jettisoned.

It is the vision of this ship, which inMarch 1838 touches the waters of theGanga where they meet the Bay ofBengal, that comes like a “sign of desti-ny” to Deeti, the opium widow who willleave her tiny village in northern Bi-har, leaving behind everything famil-iar to her, not only the poppy-seedpaste with which she cooked and thepoppy-seed oil with which she mas-saged her daughter Kabutri’s hair, butalso the little daughter – to travel inthis vessel to the distant island of “Ma-reech”, or Mauritius.

Tensions between the British andChina are building up, and there is talkof waging a war for opium. In India,East India Company officials force thestruggling farmers to plant poppy on

with Zachary Reid, the mulatto car-penter, a freed son of a slave, whosigned on as a crew member of Ibis inBaltimore – and who suddenly, after aseries of events, finds himself having totake charge of the ship. In this task, hehas the assistance of a strange group oflascars who address him as MalumZikri and regard him as one of theirkind who can nevertheless pass off as a“gentleman”.

Zachary’s is not the only suddentransformation in these turbulenttimes: barriers of caste, class, religionand language are all eventually brokendown on board the ship. Deeti, thehigh-caste widow, and her low-castelover Kalua come on board the ship toescape persecution; a young French-woman born and brought up in Cal-cutta comes aboard dressed as aBrahmin woman; a former zamindarfinds a friend in a recovering opiumaddict from China; a hill man finds hislife partner in a woman from theplains. Old identities begin to dissolveon board Ibis. It is also generally aperiod of upheaval all over the world.Even Benjamin Burnham, the ownerof Ibis, became an opium nabob andmade his fortunes profiting on the cur-rents of global trade.

It is an exciting tale about a part ofhistory that has rarely been looked atso closely and with so much sensitivity.The story is beautifully plotted and af-fectingly told, with a vividly picturedcast. It is a measure of success for ahistorical novel of such sweeping scopethat we are soon drawn into the lives ofindividual characters, caring for themand wondering about their destinies –even the most marginal ones, thosewho are curled up in a corner of theship’s hold, even those who we know

more and more land instead of the oldwinter crops of wheat, masoor dal, andvegetables with which they could feedtheir families. A huge opium-proces-sing factory at Ghazipur, near Deeti’svillage, processes and sends out theopium to the rest of the world con-trolled by the British empire. The fac-tory is “among the most preciousjewels in Queen Victoria’s crown”, forits godowns hold a substantial portionof the wealth upon which the Britishempire was built.

Meanwhile, plantation ownersdesperately need indentured labourersto work in their fields. One such plan-tation owner in Mauritius sends word

Splendid novel

IN REVIEW

Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh; Viking/Penguin; pages 515, Rs.599.

Even more than a fine plot and rich historical detail, it is the language that carries

Amitav Ghosh’s new novel through 500-odd pages. B Y U M A M A H A D E V A N - D A S G U P T A

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are destined to do little other than fallsick, shrivel up, die and be thrownoverboard to float as corpses in theship’s wake.

Ghosh’s careful research bringsalive the atmosphere of early nine-teenth-century India, from the opiumfactory whose sixteen godowns store somuch of the Empire’s treasures, to thesights and sounds of Calcutta’s Lal ba-zaar; from the treatment of the “girmi-tiyas”, or those who have signed theagreements to be transported to Maur-itius as indentured labourers, to life onboard the ship as it leaves India, pull-ing out towards the Black Water andtaking with it hundreds of men andwomen, jahaj bhais and behens whowill never return to the shores of theirhomeland:

“Slowly, as the vessel’s motionmade itself felt in the pit of every stom-ach, the noise yielded to a pregnant,fearful stillness. Now the migrants be-gan to absorb the finality of what wasunder way: yes, they were moving, theywere afloat, heading towards the voidof the Black Water: neither death norbirth was as fearsome a passage as this,neither being experienced in full con-sciousness... Somewhere in the dark-ness, a voice, trembling in awe, utteredthe first syllables of the Gayatri Mantra– and Neel, who had been made tolearn the words almost as soon as hecould speak, now foundhimself saying them, asif for the first time: Om,bhur bhuvah swah, tat-savitur varenyam... Ogiver of life, remover ofpain and sorrow...”

Sea of Poppies is thefirst of a planned tril-ogy, and this is a goodthing because the novelends rather dramat-ically. Despite thesprawling canvas, thepace never slackens fora moment in this mostwell-crafted of Ghosh’snovels since The Sha-dow Lines and The Cal-cutta Chromosome.Even more than a fine

plot and rich historical detail, it is thelanguage that carries the novelthrough more than 500 pages – a spir-ited, playful, passionate and fiercely,gloriously living language that throbsand thrives with every encounter be-tween people and cultures, a languagethat turns and moves as naturally asthe waters upon which the travellerssail.

“And where’d you learn that kind oftalk?” Zachary asks Serang Ali, theleader of the lascars. “Afeem ship,” re-plies the lascar. “China-side, Yankeegen’l’um allotim tok so-fashion.”

And just so, the novel’s prose re-flects the quicksilver nature of this lan-guage: “jamna” is introduced to uswithin quotation marks on page 16,soon after the lascars have comeaboard, as the lascar word for “fore”;on page 17, we are told that Mauritius

has appeared on thejamna bow, and jamnais already a part of thenovel’s language.

The language of thenovel changes subtly tosuit the moods of thestories that it weaves to-gether. The rajas ofRaskhali have theirown words to describethe colours of thebreeze – “a strong, stea-dy breeze was ‘neel’,blue; a violent nor-east-er was purple, and alistless puff was yellow.The squalls thatbrought the Ibis toHooghly Point were ofnone of these colours:

they were winds of a kind which theHalders were accustomed to speak ofas ‘suqlat’ – a shade of scarlet that theyassociated with sudden reversals offortune.”

As for Deeti, the stray wisps of songthat she murmurs contain some of theloveliest poetry of the novel: “Kaisekate ab / Biraha ki ratiya?/ How will itpass / This night of parting?”

There is also the language of theBurnham household, one of colonialextravagance and pompousness,where a huge staff consisting of “bo-bachees”, “consumahs”, “khidmut-gars”, “farrashes”, “bichawnadars”,“matarnis” and “harry-maids” scurryaround to keep the Burnhams in com-fort. And when the gentlemen gatherto discuss the prospects of a war withChina in the environment of a crack-down on opium trading, we hear thepious rationalisations of wartime.

“No one dislikes war more than Ido,” declares Mr. Burnham virtuously.“Indeed I abhor it. But it cannot bedenied that there are times when waris not merely just and necessary, butalso humane. In China that time hascome: nothing else will do.” His state-ments meet with approval and sup-port.

“There is no other recourse,” ex-claims one of the dinner guests. “In-deed, humanity demands it. We needonly think of the poor Indian peasant –what will become of him if his opiumcan’t be sold in China? Bloody hurrem-zads can hardly eat now; they’ll perishby the score.” Another dinner guestpiously offers up yet another reason togo to war: evangelism. “My friends inthe Mission are agreed that a war isnecessary if China is to be opened up toGod’s word.”

Coming at a time when parts of theworld are still engaged in conflict,where language is still used to justify awar of aggression, where new forms ofexploitation are devised to retain olddivides, this deeply thoughtful novelasks the reader to look into the pages ofhistory, and at individual life stories,for answers. Sea of Poppies is a splen-did novel from one of our most elegantstorytellers. �

AMITAV GHOSH. HE isone of the most elegantstorytellers of modernIndia.

V. S

UD

ERSH

AN

It is an excitingtale about apart of historythat has rarelybeen looked atso closely.

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PAKISTAN’S politicians,diplomats and soldiers aremore ready to write theirmemoirs than their Indiancounterparts are. This

writer learnt of some in the offing bymen formerly in high positions duringvisits to Karachi, Lahore and Islama-bad in October. We are in for surprises.There is, sadly, no comparable effort inIndia.

Air Marshal (retired) M. AsgharKhan entered politics and founded theTehrik-i-Istiqlal party in 1972 in oppo-sition to Z.A. Bhutto’s Pakistan Peo-ple’s Party (PPP). His is a splendidrecord of opposition to autocracy, be itunder Ayub Khan, Bhutto or Zia-ul-Haq. This book is based on the Tehrik’srecord of events (December 19, 1971 –January 12, 1975) and a diary that hekept of events thereafter until July2001.

By universal acknowledgement, heis a man of high, transparent integrity.But, as happens with some such, also aman of self-righteousness whose cen-sures are not always just. He tends tobe selective and glosses over his owngrave mistakes.

Another gentleman of the samehigh quality, Sardar Sherbaz KhanMazari’s memoirs, A Journey to Dis-illusionment (also published by Ox-ford University Press, Karachi), are farmore objective. He records, for in-stance, how Khan Wali Khan, darlingof the Indian establishment and forlong a recipient of its favours, cut asordid deal with Zia-ul-Haq and be-trayed colleagues. He also suggestedthat Bhutto be executed before theelections.

It is fascinating to compare thesetwo men, both utterly honest and un-compromising in their principles.Both reached thus far and no further.

Sharif was very responsive. He ex-plained the policy towards Afghanis-tan and agreed that the recognition ofthe Taliban regime was a hasty step.”

China did not intervene militarilyon Pakistan’s behalf in the 1965 and1971 wars. In 1972, Zhou Enlai rejectedthe idea of a military pact. For a politi-cal leader to talk of one in 1997 is tobetray political incompetence of a highorder. Nawaz Sharif’s regret about rec-ognition of the Taliban is significant.Such disclosures abound in this book.It is a work no student of Pakistan canmiss. The material is of absorbing in-terest and continuing relevance.

However, as well as the material inthe diaries, the author’s disclosuresand comments in the concludingchapter are also noteworthy. On the1965 war, the author, then Command-er-in-Chief of the Pakistan Air Force,confirms the view that President AyubKhan did not expect India’s retaliationagainst Pakistan’s reckless military ad-venture by launching an attack on theinternational border.

He was not informed either by thePresident or the Army of Pakistan’sventure though he was C-in-C of theAir Force. The author was sent to Chi-na to ask for Chinese aircraft but with arequest that they be sent to Indonesiato be sent in crates by sea to Pakistanso as not to offend the Americans. Oneshould not wrestle on a half stomach,as the saying goes.

Asghar Khan’s reflections on themirage of an Islamic state are very rele-vant and pointed. “They satisfied thereligious urge of the more gulliblemembers of our society. Scant regardwas paid to that aspect of Islam whichis its most important feature; that is,social justice and human dignity.”These words are true of Muslim reli-gious bigots in every country. �

In Asghar Khan’s case that was not theonly reason for his failure. Opportun-ism at crucial moments tarnished hisrecord. His “Message to the Officers ofthe Defence Services of Pakistan” inthe wake of the rigged elections ofMarch 1977 remains a blot on his rec-ord. It called them, in effect, to disobeythe government of the day. In the cir-cumstances, it was a shoddystratagem.

The book unwittingly exposessome who are lauded in India. Samplethis entry of April 22, 1997: “ImranKhan of Tehrik-i-Insaf came. Hewants to merge with Tehrik-i-Istiqlalbut wants to retain the name of hisparty.” A woman who retains hermaiden name after her marriage doesnot practise deceit.

A politician who wants to “merge”his party with another and yet retainits name is, if not deceitful, certainlydevious. Under what colours does hehope to parade himself before thepublic?

One is often struck by the politicalnaivety and smugness of members ofthe armed forces. On June 23, 1997,India and Pakistan agreed on a formatfor a composite dialogue on a host ofissues, including Kashmir. Five dayslater, the Air Marshal had lunch withPrime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

The diary entry for June 28, 1997,reads: “Discussed the talks with Indiaabout Kashmir. I suggested that Pakis-tan should try for a defence pact withChina. I explained the difficulties andthe advantages of this proposal. Nawaz

A soldier’s politicsIN REVIEW

My Political Struggle by M. Asghar Khan; OxfordUniversity Press, Karachi;pages 595, Rs.695.

This is a work no student of Pakistan can miss. B Y A . G . N O O R A N I

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books/review

THIS exhaustive work of syn-thesis marks the culmina-tion of Richard Evans’trilogy on the rise and fall ofNazism. Unlike the previous

volumes, it cannot by the nature of itssubject confine itself to Germany, andas German troops head abroad so doesthe author.

Much of the book is given over toan account of the conquest of Europe,its rule and the subsequent collapse.But as the empire shrinks, so the nar-rative returns to the Reich and to theapocalyptic finale, which left thoseGermans who survived the Alliedbombers and Gestapo executioners lit-tle, if any, better off than those whomthey had ruled so brutally.

It is a lengthy but readable work,and the narrative is interspersed withextracts from some of the war’s mostvivid first-hand accounts – the travailsof the Polish doctor, Zygmunt Klu-kowski, the amazing survival story ofVictor Klemperer and the bitter ques-tioning of the soldier, Wilm Hosen-feld.

Beyond this lies a remarkable mas-sif of recent scholarly writings. Theauthor has researched an impressiverange of sources and the key findingsof other historians on the Nazi wareconomy, military strategy and theevolution of the Final Solution are ef-fectively integrated into a single story.

Evans begins with the invasion ofPoland. Recent research has shownthis to have been every bit as brutal – ifon a smaller scale – as what followednearly two years later in the SovietUnion. It was in Poland that the SSfirst set the parameters for the comingrace war as it engaged in an orgy ofviolence against civilians.

Evans rightly implicates the Wehr-

the regime was still expelling Jewsfrom Germany into France as late asOctober 1940.

He is good on the gradual blurringbetween Nazis and other Germans,but says less about how anti-semitismin the Third Reich compared with el-sewhere. If it was peculiarly Nazi in itsvirulence, one would have to explainwhy other countries such as Romaniaand Croatia were competing with Ger-many in sheer murderousness.

In fact, what was justified in thename of national socialist ideologyneeds to be seen firmly within the con-text of the war. Time and again, thesheer whirl of events pressed itself un-expectedly upon this regime wherebrawn outstripped brains. That the Fi-nal Solution grew out of the contradic-tions implicit in the regime’s attemptat demographic engineering in occu-pied Poland is now clear.

What is unclear is the origin of theforced population transfer policy thatbrought ethnic Germans back “home”and turfed out Poles, Jews and othersto make way for them. Was it somekind of long-term pre-war plan to real-ise the dreams of Mein Kampf?Scarcely.

The whole disastrous policy wasonly triggered in the first days of thewar because the panicked Baltic Ger-man minority mistakenly feared thatthe Red Army was about to come andmassacre them all and begged Berlinfor help. As it was, Stalin had no suchintention and those high up in theReich were taken by surprise. Yet,within weeks, they were talking asthough they had always planned onmoving hundreds of thousands of peo-ple around.

It sounded as if it was going to beeasy and Himmler was already plan-

macht in this as well, although he blursthe distinction between the shooting ofcivilians in cold blood and the Army’slong-standing military policy of vi-cious reprisals that was unleashed bythe Poles’ resistance.

Evans also follows Ian Kershawand Christopher Browning, two of themost scrupulous historians of the Hol-ocaust, in showing how the Final Solu-tion grew out of the failure of Nazipopulation politics more generally inPoland. Expulsions of both Poles andJews were blocked and the Jews wereforced into ghettoes.

While Evans does not present theNazi war effort as solely obsessed withthe destruction of the Jews, the geno-cide is never far from his mind. Per-haps, extermination was alwaysimplicit in the regime’s ideology, butEvans does not dwell on the likelihoodof the so-called Madagascar option (aforced expulsion of Jews from centralEurope). Neither does he explain why

Fall of Nazism

IN REVIEW

The Third Reich at War: Howthe Nazis led Germany fromConquest to Destruction byRichard J. Evans; Allen Lane;pages 926.

The book gives persuasive answers to questions about the most violent of

regimes in history. B Y M A R K M A Z O W E R

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ning for a new racial order in the eastthat would have allowed the SS to ex-pel or kill more than 50 million peopleby 1970.

On the Nazi new order’s continen-tal dimensions, Evans is solid, al-though one wonders about hischaracterisation of interwar Yugosla-via as an “artificial creation” (was it anymore artificial than Czechoslovakia,Belgium or Germany?), or the ideathat Hitler’s lawyer, Hans Frank, wasplaced in charge of rump Poland as ameans of sidelining him.

Focussed on the regime’s anti-Jew-ish drive, he offers the reader less guid-ance on the strange ambiguities of itsattitude towards the Slavs (after all,Hitler’s allies, the Slovaks and Croats,were Slavs too) or on the complexitiesof collaboration in the West. But whenthe war goes bad, and the narrativereturns to concentrate on the Reich,his skills as an expert on German socialhistory really emerge.

The role of the church and the Ar-my in resisting the Nazis is succinctlyweighed up, and there are brilliantpassages on wartime cultural life andthe universities. Furtwangler conductsBeethoven’s Ninth Symphony for Hit-ler’s birthday. Party favourite WernerEgk earns handsomely by writingworks that likened the conquest of theSoviet Union to Columbus’ discoveryof America.

But at the same time, there werecomplaints about falling standards inthe classrooms, and fewer classroomsof any kind as the bombing raids in-tensified. In fact, almost the only war-time success of the Nazi GermanStudents’ League was to get studentsto abandon the practice of duelling;there were now plenty of other ways ofdemonstrating one’s courage.

As the regime turned its terror onordinary Germans, such demonstra-tions took more unexpected forms. Yeteven to the end, as Evans notes, manyGermans still believed in the Fuhrer.One Air Force officer’s wife comparedHitler to Jesus Christ, suffering underwhat she saw as his lonely burden forthe sake of the Nazi idea.

It was during the David Irving libel

trial that Richard Evans became well-known for championing the cause ofhistorical truth against Holocaust re-visionism. As he argued, the ideal vir-tue of the professional historian is touse the evidence responsibly so that heor she can be trusted when makingevaluations of historical responsibility.And few areas of the past have beenmore closely tied to such evaluationsthan the Third Reich.

Who was responsible for the rise ofNazism? For the outbreak of war in1939? For the atrocities that followed?The history of modern Germany hasbeen written more than any other un-

der the sign of responsibility and TheThird Reich at War is a book veryaware of that imperative.

It does not dwell on the ways inwhich the Nazis may have been un-comfortably like other Europeans, noron the grey zones and ambiguities ofoccupation. What it does is more thanvaluable enough. In its no-nonsense,emphatic way, it gives the reader per-suasive answers to questions asked forso long, that will continue to be asked,about this most violent and inexplic-able of regimes and the people inwhose name it ruled. �

© Guardian News & Media 2008

ADOLF HITLER. A German Air Force officer’s wife compared Hitler to JesusChrist, suffering under what she saw as his lonely burden for the sake of the Nazi idea.

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SOMETIMES a phrase isaround so much it hardlygets noticed. Lexicographicresearch shrugs it off eitheras a “nonce term” – here to-

day, gone tomorrow – or somethingthat has been around so long that itneeds no examination or explanation.

So it is with let’s do this. You haveheard it a thousand times: when some-one asks helplessly, “What’ll we do?”your reply goes, “Let’s do this,” and youshow the way. Ah, but what happens tothe phrase’s meaning when the em-phasis shifts to “Let’s do this”? Thegentle instructive changes to thestrong imperative; it is a whole newballgame.

I ran the traps, as the hunters say,on the emphasis shift in this phrasewith my favourite etymological sourc-es and got a series of shrugs and eyerolls because the phrase as writtenrather than spoken is too common-place. But Joe Pickett, editor at theAmerican Heritage Dictionary,tracked down an early usage of theshifted stress in a violent song by theheavy-metal band Korn titled “Let’sDo This Now” and noted that “it’s thedoing that is stressed, not the thingitself. And while it anticipates futureaction, the expression functions as aclincher.”

We saw it during the late politicalcampaign when Sarah Palin was askedby Sean Hannity of Fox News for thereaction of her daughters to her com-ing campaign: the Governor said she“asked the girls what they thought, andthey’re like: ‘Absolutely. Let’s do this,Mom!’ ” (The use of “they’re like” rath-er than “they said” reflects a currentdismissal of the dull verb said; I used avariation above as “your reply goes”rather than is to demonstrate with-it-

light, token U.S. land forces – ‘gettingU.S. combat boots on the ground’ ” – asthe four-star General Volney Warnerput it – “would signal to an enemy thatthe U.S.… can only be dislodged at therisk of war.” The vivid figure of speechsoon triumphed over the formal “in-fantry in the field”.

The word boot, in this symbolism,does not stand for a high-ankle shoebut for the person who wears it. In1944, Marine inductees were calledboots, and their introduction to servicein the Second World War was in bootcamp.

By the time of the 1991 operation“Desert Storm,” that strategy was as-cendant: although air and sea powerwere highly important, a war could notbe decisively won and territory con-trolled without a credible componentof armed individual human beings onthe ground.

Throughout 2007 and the 2008presidential campaign, focus was ontimetables or benchmarks for ultimatewithdrawal of U.S. “boots” from Iraq.However, candidates in both politicalcamps agreed on the need for addi-tional brigades of troops to suppress arising threat in Afghanistan. In time,defence and diplomatic officials re-sponsible for national security in theincoming administration will face aquestion framed in a phrase with his-torical echoes: Will there be a need formore or fewer boots on the ground?�

The New York Times Service

ness.) Turn now to the defiantly un-expurgated Urban Dictionary, a down-and-dirty repository of what the pio-neer slanguist Francis Grose in his1811 dictionary called “the vulgartongue”.

Today’s urban (meaning “street”)website defines the new phase of thephrase as “Commonly said by uppitygroups of people, but also those readyto… just get down to business.” A sec-ond sense: “Usually said before a fight,or when an event is about to go down.You are wanting to be part of thisevent.” Here is a vogue phrase in whichpunctuation marks define meaning. Iflet’s do this is followed by a colon, itcoolly suggests a specific course be tak-en together. If the phrase is followed byan exclamation mark, it is a commandto get moving, Buster, or get trampledin the rush.

B O O T S O N T H E G R O U N D“From the barrage of television ads toboots on the ground” began the lead onDan Balz’s report in The WashingtonPost of the Obama campaign’s finalthrust in Colorado. This used to be afootball metaphor – the “air game” andthe “ground game” – but the militarymetaphor has carried the field.

Infantry footwear has been slog-ging through mud for centuries, butboots on the ground is a relatively newexpression. Earliest citation that Mat-thew Seelinger, chief historian of theArmy Historical Foundation, can findis in an April 11, 1980, article in TheChristian Science Monitor.

During the Iranian hostage crisis,plans for a rescue operation were madein the Jimmy Carter administration,and there were worries that the SovietUnion would intervene. “Many Amer-ican strategists now argue that even

Let’s do this If let’s do this is followed by a colon, it suggests a specific course. If followed by

an exclamation mark, it is a command.

The EnglishLanguageWILLIAM SAFIRE

Column

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IT is more than a week since Ba-rack Obama achieved what to anAfrican American has been amere dream. As John McCain de-livered what was billed the Con-

cession Speech and thereafter Obamamatched him word for word in elo-quence from Grant Park, Chicago, fora while the power of the English lan-guage seemed to convey the whole sig-nificance of the historic moment. Yet, Ibelieved it fell a notch short, becausethe symbolism of the moment couldhardly be captured even by the best ofrhetoric.

The Obama magic has cast a spellon many of us normally not given tosentiment or emotion and are thou-sands of miles away from where all thishappened. The euphoria is, of course,dying down, and the question eve-rywhere is how Obama will deliver onthe promises he made during his hecticand imaginative campaigning. Most ofus who desperately want him to suc-ceed are overawed by the burden ofexpectations he carries. What aboutthe man himself. He has displayedunique poise and determination,which generate all-round confidence.

As one who dabbles in criminaljustice and has a modicum of knowl-edge of the complexities that mark theUnited States scene, I know that Oba-ma faces formidable challenges, whichare too much even for the world’s mostpowerful Chief Executive. Past U.S.Presidents, especially Bill Clinton, hadworried on the crime problem. Theyspent a substantial amount of time try-ing to improve policing in the big ci-ties, and went further to fund policemanpower accretions and actionablecriminal justice research.

Cities such as New York, Washing-ton, Philadelphia and Los Angeles

erally known that an average blackperson in America is more likely to behurt criminally by another black per-son. What about black crime per se?

According to the BJS, for 100,000U.S. residents, the number of blacks injail during 2007 was 815, a 45 per centincrease since 1990. The correspond-ing figures for whites and Hispanicswere 170 and 276 respectively. AlsoBJS figures for 1990 to 2005 show that94 per cent of black victims of hom-icides were killed by persons fromwithin the community itself. Signif-icant is the fact that drug turf war ac-counted for more black victims thanothers of any other group.

The first question to the first blackPresident is whether he will make atleast a modest attempt to alter the im-age of his blighted community as onethat is steeped in crime, both as ag-gressor and as victim. Obama will bedamned if he does not take any positivesteps towards reducing crime amongblacks. At the same time, if he evincesfar too much interest he could be ac-cused of being sectarian. He will, the-refore, have to walk the tight rope forthe first few months.

Significantly, in the months beforethe presidential election, he had com-mended the Harlem Children’s Zone(HCZ), a unique community-buildingproject that has nearly transformedparts of Harlem in New York City froma drug-infested, poverty-stricken hell-hole into an area that has operational-ised successfully education, health andother welfare projects for people innearly 100 blocks. The project wasconceived in 1970 as an anti-truancyprogramme and has been sustained bygood private sector sponsorship. Dur-ing his campaign, Obama vowed toextend the HCZ to at least 20 cities

benefited greatly from this. One does not know what Obama’s

ideas are, but one does know that he isgreatly concerned with the conditionsthat contribute to crime, particularlyamong the black community in big ci-ties. This is notwithstanding the factthat according to figures put out by theBureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) andthe Federal Bureau of Investigation(FBI), violent crime in the country hasshown a decline over the past fewyears. But then, who trusts statistics?The recent murder of an Indian soft-ware professional in Seattle and theearlier killing of two Indian students inLouisiana University, all three fromAndhra Pradesh, convey an impres-sion to the contrary to most people inIndia.

Interracial violence in the countryis not uncommon. Obama’s electioncould accentuate it in parts of the mid-West where white supremacists areknown to be active. Of greater concernshould be intra-racial crime. It is gen-

Will he, won’t he?In dealing with crime among the African-American population, Obama will have

to walk the tight rope for the first few months.

Law and OrderR.K. RAGHAVAN

Column

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nationwide and was determined tofind the money for it. Of course, thiswas when the current financial crisishad not set in. Propping up pro-grammes such as the HCZ is the besthe can do to tackle urban poverty, illit-eracy and crime.

With regard to the police itself, Iam not sanguine whether he can doenough to alter the average black’s fearand distrust of the white policeman.Despite attempts to push up the Afri-can-American numbers, representa-tion for the black community in majorpolice departments has remainedmodest. Obama’s arrival could indi-rectly persuade more blacks to join thepolice. This is just a hope, and nothingmore. It will happen only if white po-lice supervisers are more sensitive tothe black rookie and go the extra mileto make the latter more comfortable.

Another issue that should agitateand possibly embarrass Obama is theeasy availability of guns. It is a million

dollar question whether he has theguts to take on the mighty gun lobbyrepresented by the National Rifle As-sociation (NRA). This has politicalconnotations because the NRA has al-ways had unconcealed Republicansupport, and possibly the furtive back-ing of Democrats.

Obama has flip-flopped on thisemotive issue. In the past, he wasknown to be against laxity in adminis-tering the gun laws. Surprisingly, how-ever, he supported the U.S. SupremeCourt’s judgment in June 2008, whichoverturned the ban on handguns in theWashington, D.C., area. It is anybody’sguess whether in doing so he had hisbid for the presidency in mind.

Obama’s arrival has been widelywelcomed in West Asia as well. Hispromised early withdrawal of U.S.troops from Iraq could explain this.Some Al Qaeda websites have alsobeen positive to him. Actually, a state-ment attributed to Abu Umar al-Bagh-

dadi, the pseudonym adopted by aleader of the Islamic State of Iraq, anAl Qaeda affiliated organisation, re-leased in the form of an audio tape, hasbeen extremely conciliatory in tonewhile asking for the U.S.’ early exitfrom Iraq. Such moves should pose adilemma to Obama who is committedto the pull-out.

The practical difficulties and com-plexities in the mechanics involvedand the impossibility of agreeing to adeadline should place Obama and hispolicymakers in a tight corner. But anydelay in the process could trigger arevival of terrorist action, somethingthat could influence a reversal of U.S.focus on peace.

It is against this background thatObama will have to arrive at a decisionon what he is going to do with thecontentious Guantanamo Bay camp.Both McCain and Obama had takenthe position that holding prisonersseven years after 9/11 was untenable. A

THIS UNDATED PHOTO obtained from a MySpace webpage shows Daniel Cowart, 20, holding a weapon. He and Paul Schlesselman, 18, were arrested in Tennessee in October for threatening to kill Barack Obama.

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rough estimate is that there are stillabout 255 prisoners in the camp. Ofthese, 13, who form part of the 23 origi-nal detenus picked up in January2002, have spent nearly seven years.Sixty of those in the camp have beencleared for release but are still lan-guishing in Guantanamo because ofprocedural difficulties. Only 18 of thedetenus are facing war-crime charges.In a Senate speech in 2006 Obama hadtaken the position that the chargesagainst those held in Guantanamo hadto be taken seriously.

More recently, during the electioncampaign, he stated that the U.S. legalsystem was strong enough to take careof terrorist charges, a slight contradic-tion of his earlier position. The wholeworld will watch with interest what heis going to do about a detention campthat has become infamous for itsdownright disavowal of internationallaw and the basic principles of humanrights.

D E A T H P E N A L T Y Another flip-flop that Obama could beaccused of is with regard to his viewson the death penalty. He is knownwidely for his abhorrence of the penal-ty. As a Senator in Illinois way back in2003, he brought about reforms in thecontroversial death penalty law in fa-vour of greater respect for humanrights, including the mandatory rec-ording of interrogations of the accusedin police custody, a procedure thatcould eliminate framing of the inno-cent.

In fact, around that time, thecourts in the State found that morethan 10 prisoners on the death row hadbeen indicted wrongly for a crime theydid not commit. Obama brought ingreat powers of persuasion on the oc-casion, a quality that was to stand himin good stead in later debates on manycontentious issues.

This anxiety to protect the inno-cent accused and a general dislike ofcapital punishment was quite out oftune with his criticism of the U.S. Su-preme Court’s judgment in June thisyear, when it struck down a Louisianalaw that prescribed death for a child

rapist. When asked to explain an ap-parent contradiction in his well-known stand, he took the position thatwhile he was generally against thedeath penalty, he favoured it in cases ofextreme cruelty, like child rape. Whatsupports his apparent hair-splitting ishis statement in his memoir, Dreamfrom My Father, that he supporteddeath for crimes which are “so heinous,so beyond the pale, that the communityis justified in expressing the full mea-sure of its outrage by meting out theultimate punishment”. One can hardlyblame him for a slight conflict in thepositions he has taken on two differentoccasions, because the man’s utter hu-manity and compassion for fellow-be-ings are beyond dispute and speak forthemselves.

Closely impinging on his stand on avariety of criminal justice issues is thequestion of what he will do when hehas to pick judges for the U.S. SupremeCourt when vacancies arise during histenure. The current bench is widelyknown for a conservative dominance,and given his opposition to George W.Bush’s nominees, Chief Justice JohnG. Roberts Jr. and Judge Samuel A.Alito Jr., Obama may be expected toinject some arch-liberalism into thecourt as and when vacancies arise.Asked what he was looking for, hequipped that Chief Justice Earl War-ren was his model. He added: “I wantpeople on the bench who have enoughempathy, enough feeling, for what or-dinary people are going through.”

Earl Warren had carved his namein the annals of the court through hislandmark judgment banning segrega-tion in schools. Warren’s appeal there-fore to Obama is obvious and mostreasoned. Possibly Obama wouldbring in an Asian American as well.

His Harvard Law School educa-tion and the teaching of Law in Chica-go for 10 years equip him eminently tomake a rational and not a purely emo-tional choice during the process ofshaping the future of the country’s Su-preme Court. That is something manyAmericans who voted for Obamawould look forward to and endorsewholeheartedly. �

D E C E M B E R 5 , 2 0 0 8


PETE SAMPRAS has won the most Grand Slamsingles titles but does not have his name on the Rollof Honour of the French Open. Bjorn Borg won fiveWimbledon and six French Open titles but fell short

of claiming the US Open and Australian Opencrowns. Ivan Lendl, winner of three straight USOpen titles, could never conquer Wimbledon.

These extraordinary talents attained greatness intheir own way. But given a choice, these championperformers would have certainly traded anything forthe titles that always eluded them. Unlike these greatsportsmen from the world of tennis, chess maestroViswanathan Anand has made sure he has no suchregrets when he looks back at his achievements in acareer spanning well over two decades. Having wonevery worthy title in the game at least once, heclaimed the World crown for the third time in Octo-ber by overpowering the Russian challenger Vladi-mir Kramnik. He not only retained the game’s mostcoveted prize but also made more than just history.And we are not talking about the whopping 7.5million euros that came along with the title.

Anand’s first success in the World Championshipcame in the tough 128-player knockout format in2000. He regained the honour in a strong eight-player field in 2007 when the title was decided on theaggregate points scored in 14 rounds, played on adouble round-robin basis. His latest triumph camein a best-of-12-game match-play format againstKramnik, who had been unbeaten in three Worldtitle clashes since 2000. Three titles in as manyformats made Anand the only World Champion toprove himself in every possible way.

Against Kramnik, the 38-year-old Indian reac-hed the magic figure of 6.5 points following a tensedraw in the 11th game. Kramnik, needing to win withblack pieces to keep the contest alive, offered a drawafter 24 moves and, with it, accepted Anand as thetrue, undisputed champion of the chess world.

A section of the chess world, mostly from Europeand certain parts of the erstwhile Soviet Union,wanted Anand to prove himself in the match-playformat to earn its acceptance as a true World Cham-pion. For over a decade, its spokespersons pointed toAnand’s not-so-impressive match record to substan-tiate their argument.

Personally for Anand, it was very important towin this match. Though he has been honoured withthe prestigious Chess Oscar five times, the inabilityto prove himself in the match-play format gave the

Lord of the board

A section of the chess world, mostly from Europe and certainparts of the erstwhile Soviet Union,wanted Anand to prove himself in the match-play format to earn its acceptance of him as a true World Champion.

Three titles in as many formats: Viswanathan Anand is the only World Champion

to prove himself in every possible way. B Y R A K E S H R A O

VISWANATHAN ANAND, SEEN through histrophy, at a news conference in Bonn, October 29.

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sceptics a reason to discount his great-ness. Anand went down to AnatolyKarpov (1991 and 1998), Gata Kamsky(1994) and Garry Kasparov (1995) inmatches. Though he settled the scorewith Kamsky in the same year, his fourdefeats in five games against Kasparovin 1995 left him with a baggage that hecarried until the other day.

In a way, it was poetic justice thatAnand defeated none other thanKramnik, in Bonn, to silence his de-tractors. Kramnik is the man hailed fordethroning Garry Kasparov, themighty fellow-Russian regarded as thestrongest player in the history of thegame. Following that epoch-makingtriumph in 2000, Kramnik came outundefeated against challengers PeterLeko (2004) and Veselin Topalov(2006) to earn the reputation of beingthe strongest match player sinceKasparov.

Last year, when Anand pushedKramnik to the joint second spot onhis way to the World title in Mexico,the dethroned Russian came up withsome uncharitable comments: “On pa-per Anand may be the World Cham-pion. But from my point of view, thereis a difference in significance betweena title won in a match and in a tourna-ment. For me, the forthcoming match[in Bonn] with Anand is more impor-tant. If I lose that, I will accept com-pletely the fact that I have lost the title,but right now, I have no such feelings.At present, I take the view that I havejust lent Anand the title temporarily.”

The last sentence hurt Anand, butKramnik went on: “Federer is betterthan Nadal, but cannot compete withhim on clay. Everyone has his or herstrong side. Mine is match play, whe-reas Anand’s is tournaments. He is ve-ry even and stable and can draw withthe top players and beat those lowerdown.”

For almost one year, Anand waitedpatiently to silence Kramnik when theRussian exercised his one-time right tochallenge him for the title. “Kramnik’staunts helped me concentrate betterand stay focussed through the match,”declared Anand after finishing the job.Indeed, when the time came, Anand

gave a fitting reply – without uttering aword. The chess world heard the mes-sage loud and clear.

Anand needed to win in the match-play format against Kramnik to showthat he was no less than the illustriouschampions in the history of the game.He formed a team (called “seconds” inchess parlance) comprising formerWorld Champion Rustam Kasimdzha-nov, long-time associate Peter HeineNielsen, surprise packet RadoslavWojtaszek and fellow-Indian SuryaShekhar Ganguly. This support staff,finalised in April, worked tirelesslyduring the match and put in up to 16 to

18 hours a day to make sure thatAnand realised his most cherishedgoal.

Kramnik, on the other hand, hadHungary’s Peter Leko, who assistedAnand before his match against Kar-pov in 1998, Frenchman Laurent Fres-sinet and fellow-Russian SergeyRublevsky as his team of “seconds”.

Before the match started, thechoice of Leko was considered a pluspoint for Kramnik, but it did not takelong for experts to question the choicesmade by the Russian. During the in-tense war of pieces, Anand showed hewas better prepared for the biggest

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ANAND’S FIRST MOVE, with white pieces, in the 11th game on October 29, in Bonn had Vladimir Kramnik thinking for over two minutes. A tense battleended with Kramnik’s offer of a draw, which meant the title went to Anand.

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match of his career. He uncorked sur-prises that left Kramnik in knots. Heworked on a new opening choice withwhite pieces to add to the worries ofthe Russian.

A comfortable draw with blackpieces saw him gain the psychologicaledge in the first game. In the second,another peaceful draw kept things inbalance. The third game saw Anandproduce the kind of stuff classics aremade of. From a position that lookedfairly even, Anand squeezed out a for-ceful victory, that too after being twopawns less on the board. This was ahuge psychological blow for Kramnik,for he enjoys a reputation for not los-ing many games, even fewer whenplaying with white pieces.

Anand’s third career victory with

black pieces clearly hurt Kramnik’sego. The world expected Kramnik toretaliate. The ardent followers of thegame did not have to wait for long.After the fourth game ended in a dulldraw, Kramnik returned with whitepieces and dared Anand to repeat thesame opening sequence seen in thethird game. Anand took up the chal-lenge and, within a few minutes of thestart, had Kramnik worried. Beforelong, it was clear that Anand had onceagain outprepared Kramnik. Towardsthe end, a desperate Kramnik went foran innocuous-looking pawn and lostalmost immediately.

The experts were quick to questionKramnik’s decision to test Anand inthe same opening lines as seen in thethird game, but Anand found it “a very

normal decision”. He said, “It’s so-mething I could entirely see myself do-ing. You must be guided by your chessconsiderations. You cannot second-guess these things on the basis of aresult. I think, when he played GameThree and lost, the normal thing is togo back and see if you find some chinkin the armour. If you find something,you repeat the variation and beat youropponent in the same thing. In history,you’ll find as many examples of peopleswitching openings as people staying,and neither strategy by itself is a mis-take. As it turned out, he had not quitecaught up and I scored a second win.But there is no way that he could knowthis before.”

The following day, it was not toughto notice that Kramnik was yet to re-cover from the reverse suffered in thefifth game. As a result, Anand did nothave to produce anything exceptionalin the sixth game to win again. At thisstage, the score stood at 4.5-1.5 inAnand’s favour. Kramnik drew solacefrom the mathematical probability ofbouncing back in the match, but goingby the form of the two players, it lookedhighly improbable. Anand was clearlyseeing more on the board and not mis-sing much. Kramnik was struggling tofind answers to the questions Anandposed.

Kramnik fans were almost in astate of shock. Going by the enviablematch-play record of Kramnik andAnand’s not-so-impressive results inthis format, the Russians were busysearching for reasons for the lopsidednature of the mega contest. With thesecond half still to go, Kramnik wasexpected to come very hard at Anand.He is known to consider a draw a “goodresult” with black pieces and strikewith white.

The loss in two games with whitepieces forced him to shed his safety-first method and play aggressively,which is most unlike his style. Kram-nik was out of his comfort zone, andAnand had to simply add to his dis-comfort with some more draws. Everydraw meant Anand was getting closerto this target and Kramnik was drift-ing away from his goal. Anand started

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the second half with white pieces anddrew without really creating anychances. The following day, the drawneighth game saw Kramnik having theupper hand. Suddenly, Kramnik ap-peared to be gaining in confidence forthe first time in the match. After a dayof rest, Kramnik missed a winningcontinuation with black pieces againstAnand in the ninth game. Had Kram-nik won, it would have been Anand’sfirst ever defeat with white against theRussian. The narrow escape broughtAnand just half a point away from thetitle.

Another rest day followed, and theworld waited for Anand to force onemore draw to clinch the match. ButKramnik, who promised to fight untilthe end, finally enjoyed his best day ofthe competition. He outplayed Anandin just 29 moves in a highly complexbattle to take the match into the 11th

game. The day of rest proved a difficultone for Anand. “It was not fun. The restday came exactly at the wrong mo-ment. When you need one game, thensuddenly, you get a rest day. It’s quitetough. I tried to relax a bit but I did notsucceed at all,” was the candid admis-sion of a man for whom a draw wouldhave signalled the biggest triumph ofhis career.

Anand, with white pieces, reachedearly for the 11th game and quicklyplayed his first move, which left Kram-nik thinking for over two minutes.Kramnik leaned back, looked at theceiling, stared at Anand and then final-ly chose the opening of his choice. Atense battle followed for the next threehours, during which Anand took histime to be safe.

An exasperated Kramnik read theposition well and realised there was noway he could force a victory with black

pieces. Anand accepted the draw offerand thus ended the most-followedmatch in the 122-year history of theWorld Championship.

Since American Bobby Fischerbeat Boris Spassky in 1972 to claim thetitle, Anand became the first non-Sovi-et to win the title match against a Sovi-et/Russian. After the Second WorldWar, only two players – Fischer andAnand – have won the world title fol-lowing match victories over Soviets/Russians. This also gives a fair idea ofthe domination of players from theerstwhile Soviet Union in the history ofthe championship.

When it was all over, Kramnik gra-ciously accepted defeat and acknowl-edged Anand as the true champion. “Itwas a very difficult match for me fromthe very beginning, I am happy to haveplayed this match. I am happier to playwith such an opponent like Vishy. Heis a great player and for me it was veryinteresting, not only to fight for thetitle but also for a fact that it was a veryinteresting chess experience. And ba-sically, I am disappointed. But it is notover. I am going to make use of thelessons that I’ve learnt here.”

Next year, Anand will have to de-fend the title against the winner of thematch between the 2005 championVeselin Topalov and the reigningWorld Cup winner Gata Kamsky.However, as things stand, an air ofuncertainty hovers over this matchsince Kamsky has expressed his dis-pleasure over the suggested venue. Butthen, chess and controversies havegone hand in hand.

At present Anand is the worthychampion of the world. At Bonn, hesuccessfully exorcised the ghosts thathaunted him for over a decade. He hasproved his prowess in the biggestmatch of his life with a matchless per-formance. With this, Anand has ce-mented his place among the greats ofthe game.

Unlike Sampras, Borg and Lendl,Anand is free from the clutches of theuncomfortable sense of incompletion.Completely at peace with himself,Anand can now take time to plan hisnext move. �

FACT FILE

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In everyday life, ‘if’ is a fiction, in the theatre ‘if’ is an experiment.In everyday life, ‘if’ is an evasion, in the theatre ‘if’ is the truth.When we are persuaded to believe in this truth, then the theatre and life are one.

THESE are some of the con-cluding lines of PeterBrook’s book The EmptySpace. It relates eloquentlyto a dilemma that a perform-

ing artist – or, for that matter any cre-ative artist – has to face. How far doesone proceed with creativity as an ex-pression of one’s inner awareness andone’s thoughts and emotions, and howfar does one temper it with what oneperceives as “understandable” and“significant” to the audience.

Let me put it in rather crude terms.Does an artist have to pander to theperceptions of an audience or can hereveal to them what they have not seen,insights they would not have beenaware of, significance they would havemissed? Can he assume he is possessedof a superior mind or must he limithimself to what he thinks an audiencecan accept?

Behind this is a basic fact that nocreative person can wish away or turnaway from, namely, that all creative artis about communicating, of crossingthat great and terrifying silence thatseparates one individual from another.An artist can produce a painting andsay this expresses his awareness of thesubject and declare that he does notcare what others think of it. If it meansnothing to others, his work is futile andpointless. On the other hand, it doesnot necessarily mean that visual artshould be confined to creating posters.

Having been in the middle of this

it to be. There is expression, to be sure;but that expression needs to be tem-pered with communication or else theexpression does not make sense.

Time after time, when directing aplay I have had to agonise over themanner in which I have seen a partic-ular play and its presentation. To takethe view that “I see the play in theseterms and I’m going to present it justso, as a series of broken images” is assilly as “this has to be done in this orthat manner because the audience willnot accept anything else”. The firstmay ensure that the play fails in thebasic attribute of all theatre, the abilityto communicate, and the other mayshackle one’s creativity and result insomething acceptable enough but dull,boring and stereotyped.

Many years ago, I presented JeanAnouilh’s Antigone where I had thechorus played by a girl, who came onstage in everyday clothes and spoke tothe audience as to someone she knew,a close friend. It worked very well in-deed; to some of the audience it wasthe high point of the play as they saidthey were startled to be spoken to bythis girl, used as they were to the tradi-tional chorus of several persons, andsome were even familiar withAnouilh’s own depiction of the chorusin his script as an elegant, rather sig-nificant man.

Peter Brook talks, on the otherhand, of a presentation of an eveningof Artaud’s Theatre of Cruelty wherethey presented a number of fragments.In the first they substituted all the dia-logue with screams, and he said theaudience was confused. While somewere silent, there were others who gig-gled. It seemed to me, when I read ofthis, that perhaps at that moment theconnect with the audience failed. The

for some 40-odd years, acting and di-recting numerous plays, this is a di-lemma to which I find it very difficultto find a complete answer. Perhaps,the considerations are different for dif-ferent art forms, and theatre morethan other art forms needs an au-dience to be complete.

As Peter Brook says: “So, for theauthor or director to work for his owntaste and his own judgement, he mustwork approximately for himself in re-hearsal and only truly for himself whenhe is hemmed in by a dense bank ofaudience.”

But that would be true only at onelevel; on another, the need to com-municate with an audience, with read-ers, with viewers, that is, with people,is surely as valid for all forms of art. Amusician is as fine as those listening tohim realise, a dancer is as exquisite asthe awareness of those watchingmakes her, a novel is as great as itsreaders consider it to be and a paintingis as beautiful as those seeing it realise

Creative connectionThe need to communicate with an audience, with readers, with viewers is surely

valid for all forms of art.

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“creativity” had gone a little too far.Brook confirms that, saying that “grad-ually only the enthusiasts or deter-mined scoffers filtered through”.

But he is talking of a milieu wheretheatre is a living and vibrant form, notone where a handful of determinedlovers of the form are striving to keep itgoing. The choices that have to bemade here are far sharper; the desper-ate need to build a theatre-going and, atheatre-loving mass of people whoalone can sustain theatre has to be keptin mind, and to do this without com-promising artistic integrity and cre-ativity. The dilemma can beharrowing.

To then start doing what is euphe-mistically called experimental theatre,which is nothing short of bizarre, evengrotesque, is a cop-out. What that doesis get a group of like-minded persons

and play to them, so it becomes a sortof cult rather than anything else. Or,and this is a version of what Brook callsThe Deadly Theatre, it is used as avehicle for political propaganda. Thatagain attracts only the converted, anddefeats – and destroys – theatre as aform. Antigone is, of course, also politi-cal theatre, but in the sense that Hen-rik Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler or A Doll’sHouse are. They are primarily creativeworks, as is Arthur Miller’s The Cruc-ible, and create drama out of socialevils or injustice. That, sadly, is notwhat we see here in this country atpresent. The age of Badal Sircar andVijay Tendulkar have passed and withit the excitement and sense of antici-pation they brought when a new playwas put on.

And yet, to some of us, theatre is alive form that we work with and which

we seek to make as inclusive as we can.Not by playing to ghetto audiences butto a much larger number who seek tobe diverted, stimulated, awed, per-haps, and who wish to leave with asense of satisfaction and a greaterawareness, dare one say, of the waythings are. To create that is the essen-tial fascination of the form, to achieveeven a part of that is the modest goalthat one must set oneself.

A great dancer once said to me thatafter one of her performances in Ma-drid, an old lady who was waiting forher to come out held her hand andwept, saying “Thank you, thank you.”No artist can want more than that, fordeep down the sense of beauty andsomething beyond that had touchedthe old lady. A similar response is whatall those who keep striving to presenttheatre to people crave for. �

‘THE STORY OF Antigone performed by the Italian Mistral Company for Modern Dance at the opening ceremony of the 20th Cairo International Festival For Experimental Theatre in Cairo on October 10. Expression needs to betempered with communication or else the expression does not make sense.

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ARUN KUMAR, 20, simply hugged his father,Thankachen, who was in tears while describing hisson’s ordeal. He could not speak a word, not becausehe was choked with emotion, but because he was onan artificial ventilator system with which he movedaround. Arun lost his power of speech after he con-sumed poison in desperation at the harassment, ille-gal detentions and torture by the police since

February. Now he cannot even stand properly; thetorture has damaged his spinal cord.

Thankachen told a 14-member jury at the Na-tional People’s Tribunal on Torture in New Delhi onOctober 17: “I am only a taxi driver and have spentmore than Rs.9 lakh for my son’s treatment. I couldget him out on a conditional bail three days after hewas arrested only by selling off my wife’s gold chain.”

Thankachen said the police torture began afterthe owner of the driving school, where Arun wasemployed, accused him of having an illicit relation-ship with his wife. The police now say they have atheft case registered against him. Affidavits filed inthe District Magistrate’s court and the State HumanRights Commission (SHRC) about the torture havenot yielded results.

Magudeeswaran of Chinnakaratupatti village inTamil Nadu’s Dindigul district lived a normal life

Victim of the system

According to a survey, 1.8 millionpeople in India are subjected topolice torture every year. More than60 per cent of them either belong toreligious minorities or are Dalits.

A national project seeks to raise awareness on torture and ultimately influence

policies relating to the misuse of official power. 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

WITNESSES AT THE National People’s Tribunal on Torture in New Delhi on October 17.

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before July 7, 2007, when he boughthimself a second-hand motorbike. Hetrusted the person who sold him themotorbike when he promised to givehim the vehicle’s papers sometime lat-er. The next day, the police picked himup saying that he had stolen the veh-icle. Accusing Magudeeswaran of theftand pickpocketing, a sub-inspector al-legedly asked him for a bribe ofRs.500. He refused to give the money.Subsequently, the police arrested hiscousin Siva, too.

Magudeeswaran said his mothercomplained about this to the DeputySuperintendent of Police, but the offi-cials who came to inquire about theincident apparently asked him to signon a sheet of paper stating that thepolice officer had not asked for a bribe.He said threats from the local policeallegedly increased after that and hewas asked to sign a statement sayingthat he had taken back all the chargesagainst the police.

“When I refused, they hung me up-side down for an hour, punched andcaned me for hours with my feetapart,” he said weeping. What wasworse, Magudeeswaran alleged, med-ical officers at the government hospitalwhere he was treated refused to givehim his medical reports, with which hehoped to make his case strong. Withdeformed legs and a few skull injuriesstill to be treated properly, he was outon conditional bail when he appearedbefore the tribunal.

Ram Chander is a compounder in adispensary at Gohpur village in Vara-nasi, Uttar Pradesh. On December 16last year, the police picked up RamChander and two others on a charge ofmurdering a fellow compounder,Dharmendra. According to RamChander, Dharmendra died when afew people attacked the dispensary.He said he and two others were beatenup in the police lock-up until they be-came unconscious. The police wanteda confessional statement from them.

“The beating continued through-out the night. My genitals were tied toan iron pillar with a string, which led toprofuse bleeding. I was then tied to apillar and beaten on my buttocks,” he

told the tribunal. He was then taken tothe village chowk, stripped in front ofthe villagers and hit on the genitals, hesaid. Complaints have been sent to theSenior Superintendent of Police, theNational Human Rights Commission(NHRC), the Uttar Pradesh HomeSecretary and the SHRC, but the al-leged perpetrators are yet to bearrested.

The police have many excuses suchas the “ticking bomb theory” to justifytheir behaviour. But the case of KurvaMadanna of Mahbubnagar, AndhraPradesh, defies even that logic. On Oc-tober 5, 2007, the police beat up thefarmer and his son following a disputeover water between Ma-danna and his brother.

Such a dispute con-stitutes a civil case. De-spite complaints to thehigher authorities, noaction was taken againstthe assistant sub-inspec-tor or against Madanna’sbrother at whose behestthe police allegedlytortured them.

Instead, Madannacontinued to get threatsfrom the police. Thetorture damaged his legspermanently.

The NHRC has senta notice to the district’sSuperintendent of Police asking for hisresponse in the case.

To think of these cases as mereexceptions would be grossly mislead-ing. The National Project on Prevent-ing Torture in India (NPPT),supported by the European Union andthe Friedrich Naumann-Stiftung furdie Freiheit (Friedrich NaumannFoundation), has studied more than6,000 such cases. It seeks to raiseawareness on torture and ultimatelyinfluence policies relating to the mis-use of official power, and has been op-erating in 47 districts across nineStates in India – Andhra Pradesh, Bi-har, Karnataka, Kerala, Orissa, Rajas-than, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh andWest Bengal.

The national tribunal, which heard

17 such victims of torture, was orga-nised by People’s Watch, a humanrights organisation based in Madurai,and followed a series of State-level tri-bunals held from April to August. Areport of the tribunal, with the obser-vations of the jury, will be sent to theNHRC, the Union Home Ministry andthe State governments concerned.

R O U T I N E S T R A T E G YHenri Tiphagne, the executive directorof People’s Watch and the national di-rector of the project, said that in India,torture was entrenched and was oftena routine law-enforcement strategy.“In the name of investigating crimes,

extracting confessionsand punishing perpetra-tors, torture is inflictednot only upon the ac-cused, but also upon bo-na fide petitioners,complainants and in-formants. Torture in theform of custodial death;custodial rape; threats;psychological humili-ation; and deprivation offood, water, sleep andmedical attention isrampant in our country,”he said.

Call it coincidence orsystematic victimisa-tion, it has been proved

once again that the equations of power– both legal and sociological – actagainst the marginalised sections ofsociety. During fact-finding surveys,project officials found that more than60 per cent of the victims of tortureeither belonged to religious minoritiesor were Dalits. An extrapolation of theNPPT data suggests that 1.8 millionpeople in India fall victim to policetorture every year.

Meanwhile, India boasts of a stag-gering 125 statutorily created humanrights institutions. But, as seen in the17 cases heard by the tribunal, evenapex institutions meant to protect hu-man rights and redress grievances so-metimes fail to respond promptly.

The question that often comes tomind at this stage is how the Indian

HENRI TIPHAGNE,EXECUTIVE director ofPeople’s Watch.

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THE JURY AT the tribunal. The jury suggested more accountability fromstate officials, a protective mechanism for victims and witnesses, andrehabilitation of victims.

state looks at torture as a method ofinvestigation. Justice Shivraj Patil,chairperson of the tribunal and a for-mer acting chair of the NHRC, made adefinitive statement that torture wascompletely illegal. Validating this,Sankar Sen, former Director-General(Investigation) in the NHRC and a ju-ry member, said that Article 21 of theConstitution, which granted the citi-zen protection of life and personal li-berty, as interpreted by the SupremeCourt, immunised one against torture.

Usha Ramanathan, another jurymember and an independent law re-searcher, pointed out that the IndianPenal Code did not define torture ex-cept for a small reference in Section330. Two precedents in court – D.K.Basu vs the State of West Bengal(1996), which is generally seen as awatershed case, and Sube Singh vs theState of Haryana and others in 2006 –discuss the matter of compensation forthe victims but do not discuss puni-shment for the perpetrators.

All the jury members agreed thatthe tradition of officials of the stateacting with impunity should not beallowed to continue. It was decided todraft a recommendation report for thepromulgation of a domestic law thatboth defines and condemns torture asa crime. With this, the jury also recom-mended that India should fill its legalvoid against torture by ratifying theUnited Nations Convention AgainstTorture, which it signed in 1997.

Along with these demands, the ju-ry suggested more accountability from

state officials, a protective mechanismfor victims and witnesses, and rehabil-itation of victims.

K.R. Venugopal, former specialrapporteur of the NHRC, recommend-ed that “the membership of bodiesoverseeing human rights should be in-creased and activists from civil societyorganisations should be allowed intothem. More openness of the statutorybodies is the need of the hour.”

However, there were also some dif-ferences among the jury members re-garding the efficiency of statutorybodies concerned with human rightsin India. While those who had workedwith the NHRC earlier defended itsactions in many cases, critics suggest-ed that mere laws and bodies wouldnot solve the problem of torture if theprocedures to follow up torture casesdid not change.

For instance, some jury membershighlighted the fact that the SHRCand the NHRC referred the affidavitsfiled by torture victims back to the dis-trict and village officials, sometimeseven to those who have been accusedby a victim of having tortured him/her.Usha Ramanathan said that thoughpolicemen are tried for custodialdeaths, the torture that went into suchdeaths was ignored by the courts. Sheargued that the charge of tortureshould also be filed separately alongwith murder charge in such cases.

The cases heard in the tribunal,perhaps, reflect a scenario that wouldemerge with the state machinery fight-ing to bring in draconian laws. Indira

Jaising, member of the United Na-tions’ Committee on the Eliminationof all forms of Discrimination AgainstWomen (CEDAW), aptly said that theissue of torture could be dealt withonly politically.

“No one has forgotten the rape caseof 1974 [following which the EvidenceAct was amended]. Today, it is not justthe poor people in India but the hu-man rights defenders who have beenunder attack of torture. Instances inKashmir, Manipur and Chhattisgarhhave proved it all over again. A vigilantmedia and an aware civil societyshould take it upon themselves tohighlight such kind of injustices,” shesaid.

The 1974 case relates to that of a16-year-old tribal girl who had gone tothe police to file a complaint regardingher missing husband. She was alleged-ly raped by two policemen in the com-pound of the Desai Ganj Police Stationin Chandrapur district of Maharash-tra. Acquitting the accused, the ses-sions court held that because the girlwas “habituated to sexual intercourse”her consent was voluntary. (The courtarrived at this conclusion perhaps be-cause she had premarital sexual rela-tions with the boy she had elopedwith.)

The Nagpur Bench of the BombayHigh Court set aside the judgment,saying that passive submission due tofear induced by serious threats couldnot be construed as consent. However,the Supreme Court held that the girlhad raised no alarm and that therewere no visible marks of injury on herperson thereby suggesting no struggleand therefore no rape, and acquittedthe accused. The case sparked off awhole new movement for reform in theEvidence Act.

If torture, even in the most minorform, is allowed, it will violate demo-cratic principles and eventually lead tothe worst forms of state violence, saidthe jury members. In such circum-stances, Godless Justice, the title of thedocumentary film on torture by SunitaThakur which was screened at the tri-bunal, might just otherwise becomeperpetual. �

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IT has been some time now sincethe International Monetary Fund(IMF) lost its intellectual cred-ibility, especially in the develop-ing world. Its policy prescriptions

were widely perceived to be rigid andunimaginative, applying a uniform ap-proach to very different economies andcontexts. They were also completelyoutdated even in theoretical terms,based on economic models and princi-ples that have been refuted not only bymore sophisticated heterodox analysesbut also by further developments with-in neoclassical theory.

What may have been more damn-ing was how out of sync the policiesproposed by the IMF have also beenwith the reality of economic processesin developing countries. The 1990sand early 2000s were particularly badfor the organisation in that respect: itseconomists and policy advisers gotpractically everything wrong in all theemerging-market crises they werecalled upon to deal with, from Thai-land and South Korea to Turkey toArgentina. In situations in which thecrisis has been caused by private profli-gacy, they called for larger fiscal sur-pluses; faced with crisis-induced assetdeflation, they emphasised high inter-est rates and tight money policies; toaddress downward spirals they de-manded fiscal contraction through re-ductions in public spending.

The countries that recovered clear-ly did so despite their advice, or inseveral cases because they actively pur-sued different policies. And the recog-nition became widespread amonggovernments in the developing worldthat IMF loans were too expensive be-cause of the terrible policy conditionsthat came with them. So returning

ingly, in this period the IMF in turnwas called to book by its own auditors,for apparently poor management of itsfinancial resources.

But what is interesting about IMFeconomists is how thick-skinned andimpervious they appear to be. Not onlydo they simply ignore the devastatingcriticisms from outside that complete-ly undermine their own arguments,they even ignore their own internalresearch when it comes up with con-clusions that do not fit with their worldview. And they appear to be uncon-cerned with the growing evidence thatthey are both unconnected to realityand unable to influence it in any pro-ductive way.

Such intellectual autism is certain-ly deplorable, but for a while we did notreally need to be too bothered by it anymore, since it seemed to matter so littleto the rest of the world what the IMFsaid or did. But every crisis is also anopportunity, and the IMF has beenquick to seize on the current globalfinancial crisis as an opportunity toincrease its own influence.

Given its record of incompetenceand its current irrelevance, one mightimagine that there would be some jus-tified hesitation on its part to makegrandiose and generalised policy pro-posals. But that is too far from what theIMF is used to doing, and so its recentpronouncements continue in the samehortatory fashion, albeit in a slightlymore subdued and even confusedmanner.

The most recent World EconomicOutlook was released in mid-Octoberthis year, to be presented at a meetingof the IMF that discussed the financialcrisis. What is chiefly remarkableabout this report is not just the contin-

IMF loans early became something ofa fashion, led by some Latin Americancountries.

And, of course, for the past fewyears an even more terrible fate hadbefallen the IMF: that of increasingirrelevance. From 2002 onwards, theIMF, along with the World Bank, be-came a net recipient of funds from de-veloping countries, as repayments farexceeded fresh loans. The developingworld turned its attention to dealingwith private debt and bond markets,which is where the action was. Lessdeveloped countries found new sourc-es of aid finance and private invest-ment from other sources, as China,South-east Asia and even India to alimited extent, began investing in oth-er developing countries.

So the IMF has not really been asignificant player in the internationaleconomic scene in the recent past, andthe reasons for its very existence wereoften called into question. Embarrass-

IMF at it againTo developing countries lining up for liquidity, the IMF is pushing the same

disastrous conditions that caused financial collapse in other emerging markets.

PreoccupationsJAYATI GHOSH

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ued confidence in its own capacitiesbut also the very blatant double stan-dards the IMF is now openly using forindustrial and developing countries.

In the industrial countries, threat-ened by economic depression, the talkhas now turned to going beyond mone-tary measures that do not address theliquidity trap, to fiscal expansion torevive the flagging economies. Thistalk is likely to get louder in the run-upto the Barack Obama administrationtaking charge in the United States,since the President-elect has made hisown preferences clear in that respect.

But the record of the IMF in thismatter is equally clear: countries in themidst of a financial crisis are supposedto do fiscal contraction, whether theylike it or not. When the governmentaccount is in deficit, it must be reducedor converted into a surplus: when it isalready in surplus, that surplus mustbe increased. If this is pro-cyclical andcauses the crisis to spread to the realeconomy and create a sharp downsw-ing that is just too bad; this is, after all,the “right” medicine and the necessarypain must be gone through to recovereventually.

In this context, what does the IMFnow say about fiscal policy? “Macroec-onomic policies in the advanced econo-mies should aim at supportingactivity, thus helping to break the neg-ative feedback loop between real andfinancial conditions, while not losingsight of inflation risks... Discretionaryfiscal stimulus can provide support togrowth in the event that downsiderisks materialise, provided the stimu-lus is delivered in a timely manner, iswell targeted, and does not underminefiscal sustainability.” (IMF, World Eco-nomic Outlook October 2008, page 34,emphasis added.)

So, the IMF completely breaksfrom all its past practice to recom-mend that in this situation the devel-oped countries should engage incountercyclical fiscal and monetarypolicies to get out of the crisis. Allright, then what about the developingcountries, who have this time beencaught in a crisis that is not of theirown making? For them the same ad-

vice is not tenable at all. Consider thefollowing:

“While emerging economies havegreater scope than in the past to usecountercyclical fiscal policy shouldtheir economic outlook deteriorate...this is unlikely to be effective unlessconfidence in sustainability has beenfirmly established and measures aretimely and well targeted. More broad-ly, general food and fuel subsidies havebecome increasingly costly and are in-herently inefficient.”

In fact, there is room for tighteningon all fronts, both fiscal and monetary!“Greater restraint on spending growth,including public sector wage increas-es, would complement tighter mone-tary policy, in the face of risinginflation, which is particularly impor-tant in economies with inflexible ex-change regimes” (page 38).

So, the cards are now all out on thetable, and it is clear that they have beendealt unevenly. And even the rules ofthe game seem to differ for the IMF.There is one rule for industrial coun-tries in crisis, no matter how irrespon-sible they have been in the run-up tothe crisis; and another rule for devel-oping countries, even the most pru-dent and fiscally “disciplined” of them.

In fact, this partiality of the IMFeven extends to its analysis of the cur-rent crisis, where, bizarrely, develop-ing countries are held responsible forsome of this mess. “While there is in-deed some evidence that monetarypolicy may have been too easy at theglobal level and that the global econo-my may have exceeded its collective

speed limit, excessive demand pres-sures seem to be concentrated in emerg-ing economies and do not appearegregious at the global level by thestandards of other recent cycles. It ishard to explain the intensity of therecent stress in financial, housing, andcommodity markets purely throughthese macroeconomic factors, al-though they have played some role”(page 23, emphasis added).

Once again, all this would not mat-ter too much if the IMF were to remainas irrelevant as it has been recently.But now, as the crisis spreads and en-gulfs developing countries, and asglobal credit markets seize up and cre-ate credit crunches, more and moredeveloping and transition countriesare going to need access to liquidity.Already several countries have linedup for this: Pakistan, Ukraine, Hun-gary and Iceland. And once again theIMF is pushing the same disastrousconditions that caused economic andfinancial collapse in other emergingmarkets.

In this context, it is terrifying tohear that European Union govern-ments are calling for a strengtheningof the IMF and even imploring surpluscountries like China to put more mon-ey into the IMF’s coffers. With its cur-rent personnel and ideologicalframework, such strengthening of theIMF will only mean that conditions getmuch worse for the developing world.The need to examine alternative andless destructive sources of emergencyfinance for crisis-affected developingcountries is therefore urgent. �

A BANNER AT a National Labour Day rally in Bangkok. A file picture.

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updateGENERAL MOTORS, the biggest cargroup in the United States, warned onNovember 7 that it could run out ofcash early next year without a govern-ment bailout, a merger or asset sales.

GM said its liquidity during thefirst half of 2009 would “fall signif-icantly short” of the minimum re-quired even with the draconianmeasures it has put in place or is plan-ning in order to raise its cash by $20billion next year.

The warning came as it reportedthird-quarter results, which were de-layed for 45 minutes while trading inits stock was suspended in New York.These showed an operating loss of$4.2 billion compared with $1.6 bil-lion a year earlier.

Ford, the second-largest U.S. car-maker, earlier reported an operatingloss in the third quarter of $3 billion asits production and sales slumped amidthe financial turmoil. The strugglingmanufacturer, which made a net lossof $129 million, was drained of $7.7billion cash in the quarter and will cutthe costs of its dwindling North Amer-ican workforce by a further 10 per cent.GM spent $6.9 billion in the same pe-riod and will cut core white-collar jobsand slash capital spending.

The two groups are in urgent talkswith the outgoing George Bush ad-ministration and the Obama teamabout gaining access to $50 billion ofsoft loans on top of $25 billion in feder-al aid for green technologies.

GM chief executive officer RickWagoner said: “The U.S. government’sactions to help stabilise the credit mar-kets and eventually ease the creditcrunch are an essential first step to theeconomy’s and the auto industry’s re-covery but further strong action isrequired.”

Ford chief executive officer AlanMulally said the industry would notrecover until 2010. “We could accessbridging loans and pay them back and

keep this very important industry aliveas it is so important to the economyand the overall recovery,” he said.

But GM’s approach to the WhiteHouse for $10 billion in aid to helpfinance a merger with Chrysler, thethird big carmaker suffering a cashoutflow as consumers desert dealer-ships, was turned down. It said themerger was now off the agenda.

Instead, underlining the worst fi-nancial crisis for 70 years, GM said itwould retain the minimum amount of

liquidity for the rest of this year. But itsaid that, in the first half of next year, itneeded a dramatic turnaround in mar-kets or access to capital markets, otherprivate sources of funding, govern-ment aid, drastic cost-cutting or all ofthese.

Amid predictions the industrycould collapse next year, Ford said itwas cutting its North American hourlyemployees by 2,600, bringing thisyear’s reduction to 7,000. More than2,000 white-collar staff will also go bythe end of January.

It is halting merit pay increases inthe U.S. and performance bonuses forall global employees. Capital spendingis being slashed to as low as $5 billion ayear. Volvo, its Swedish arm, is axing6,000 jobs.

Mulally said: “These are challeng-ing and historic times for the globalautomotive industry, but I am moreconvinced than ever that Ford has theright plan to see us through.... We willemerge as a lean, globally integratedcompany poised for profitablegrowth.”

Ford, which sold Jaguar and LandRover to India’s Tata this year, said itsoutput was down by half a million carsin the second quarter and forecast thatthe overall U.S. car market would be2.3 million vehicles lower. The Euro-pean market would be down 1 million.Chief financial officer Lewis Boothsaid the company planned to cut pro-duction in the current quarter by378,000 units, including 211,000 inthe U.S. But the group had alreadyachieved $3 billion in cost savings inthe first nine months of this year and itretained $18.9 billion in cash.

The plight of the U.S. industry con-trasted sharply with that of the Ger-man carmaker Porsche, whichreported a 46 per cent surge in annualpretax profits to €8.6 billion, thanks toearnings of €6.8 billion on hedgingtransactions.

David Gow© Guardian News & Media 2008

GM in low gear

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GENERAL MOTORS CHIEF executiveofficer Rick Wagoner. A file picture.

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A E R O N A U T I C S L A B C L U S T E RThe Defence Research & Development Organisation(DRDO) plays a crucial role in the country’s pursuit ofself-reliance in its defence aviation needs and has al-ready delivered to the armed forces aeronautical sys-tems such as Lakshya, a Pilotless Target Aircraft(PTA); Nishant, an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV)for surveillance; aircraft arrester barriers and a varietyof aerial delivery systems, brake parachutes and balloonbarrage systems. The DRDO is developing many sys-tems that will increase the strike capability of the IndianAir Force (IAF). While the majority of its activities suchas the development of the Light Combat Aircraft(LCA), the Kaveri engine for the LCA, UAVs, avionicsand airworthiness functions are carried out in six differ-ent centres located in Bangalore, work on the parachut-es and aircraft arrester barriers is pursued in the AerialDelivery Research and Development Establishment inAgra.

The Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA),Bangalore, under the Department of Defence R&D isthe nodal agency for the design and development of theLCA. Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) is the

principal partner in the LCA programme, with the par-ticipation of laboratories of the DRDO and the Councilof Scientific and Industrial Research, public and privatesector industries and academic institutions.

The Aeronautical Development Establishment(ADE) was initially tasked with supporting the ongoingacquisition of equipment for the IAF and type approvalof the aeronautical stores supplied by industry. Rapidexpansion of R&D activities in the ADE took place inthe 1970s and 1980s. The 1990s saw its emergence asthe DRDO’s major aeronautical systems research lab-oratory, involved in practically all aspects of aeronauti-cal research, design and development relevant tomilitary aviation except propulsion systems.

The Defence Avionics Research Establishment(DARE) started as a project laboratory. Over the pastdecade, it has made rapid progress in the areas ofairborne electronic warfare (EW), airborne processorsand testing and evaluation of systems. It has implement-ed concepts in concurrent engineering in partnershipwith industry in order to achieve shorter time frames fordesign to induction and seamless transfer of technol-ogy. DARE has two major wings – the EW wing and the

Designing fordefence

Tejas, the Light Combat Aircraft.

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Mission Avionics Wing(MAW). The EW wing con-centrates on the design anddevelopment of radar war-ners and EW suites for vari-ous aircraft. These systemsare under manufacture atBharat Electronics Limited.MAW has pioneered indig-enous development in thearea of mission avionics,such as the development ofthe mission computer forthe LCA, Su-30 and Jaguaraircraft.

In 1959, a nucleus of thepresent-day Gas Turbine Research Establishment(GTRE) was formed with the inception of the Gas Tur-bine Research Centre in Kanpur. In 1961, the GTRE’swork in aero gas turbine technology was moved to Ban-galore and was brought under the DRDO. The GTRE iscommitted to implementing a comprehensive engine de-velopment programme.

The Centre for Airborne Systems (CABS), Banga-lore, is dedicated to the design and development ofairborne early warning and control systems.

Airworthiness functions related to military aircraftand airborne systems, hitherto discharged by the Directo-rate of Aeronautics, are now handled by the Centre forMilitary Airworthiness & Certification (CEMILAC),Bangalore, which was established in 1944. CEMILAChas 14 Regional Centres for Military Airworthinessspread across India.

The Aeronautical Research and Development Board(ARDB) was set up by the Government of India tocoordinate activities at and provide funds to academicinstitutions and national scientific laboratories for futur-istic, scientific technology that can be applied to aeronau-tical systems. For this purpose, a grants-in-aid schemewas instituted. Besides project activities, the board pro-motes centres of excellence in select areas such as com-putational fluid dynamics, systems design andengineering and composite structures technology; somemore centres are under consideration. Intellectual prop-erty developed through ARDB funding is shared with thegrantee institution. The board also promotes seminars,the presentation of papers in India and abroad and thewriting of books.

M A J O R P R O D U C T S A N D T E C H N O L O G I E S

LCA-Tejas: Tejas, the LCA, is state-of-the-art and is thesmallest lightweight, multi-role supersonic combat air-craft. It has a length/span of 13.2 metres/8.2 m andweighs 8,500 kilograms. The LCA is India’s first modernfighter aircraft and was designed specifically to meet therequirements of the IAF. It has a flat rated engine and atail-less compound delta platform and employs the latestflight avionics, fly-by-wire (FBW) guidance and controltechnology and multimode radar. Its structures are madeof composite material. The LCA is capable of shorttake-off and landing, has high manoeuvrability, and awide range of weapons fit. It is in an advanced stage ofdevelopment.

The LCA programme achieved a significant mil-estone when it successfully test-fired the Close CombatMissile R-73, marking the beginning of weaponisation.The LCA Prototype Vehicle (PV-1) created another mil-estone when it made its successful first flight.

S P I N - O F F S F R O M T E J A S

The Tejas programme has the following spin-offs: devel-opment of a naval variant, reusability of developed tech-nologies and infrastructure for programmes such as theIntermediate Jet Trainer (IJT), the transport aircraft pro-gramme (SARAS) and futuristic programmes includingnext-generation combat aircraft, super lead-in fightertrainer (SLIFT). Some of the technology developed dur-ing the Tejas programme has been utilised for the Mi-rage-2000 aircraft (carbon brakes), the Mig-27 (missioncomputer technology) and the Bison aircraft upgradeprogramme. The AUTOLAY software developed for theTejas programme to manufacture composite materials isbeing used by Airbus and Boeing. The independent ver-ification and validation (IV&V) process established forthe software of safety critical systems has been adoptedfor the Integrated Guided Missile Development Pro-gramme and other aerospace programmes.

The Tejas programme has led to the development ofseveral state-of-art aeronautical technologies such asdigital FBW flight control systems (FCSs); manoeuv-rable trajectory; accurately deliverable high lethalityfield interchangeable warheads; multiple target tracking;composite airframe; nitramine-based smokeless propel-lant; ram rocket technology; three beam command guid-ance system; highly efficient heat exchangers; directdrive valve based actuators and carbon-carbon braketechnology. The following advanced technologies make

M. Natarajan, DRDODirector General.

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the LCA-Tejas one of the best fighter aircraft in theworld: (1) Aerodynamics: The LCA aerodynamic con-figuration has been evolved to meet the demands ofmodern combat. Extensive wind-tunnel testing on scalemodels and complex computational fluid dynamic analy-ses have resulted in minimum supersonic drag, low wingloading and high rates of roll and pitch.

The tail-less compound delta platform helps keep theLCA small and light. It also means fewer control surfac-es, wider choice of external stores and better close com-bat, high-speed and high-alpha characteristics. It hasbeen designed to be unstable. Relaxed static stabilitygives improved aerodynamic efficiency and enhancedagility and manoeuvrability.

(2) Airframe and all-weather capability: Advancedcomposites constitute more than 40 per cent of the LCAairframe including the wings, fin and fuselage, resultingin significant weight reduction. Co-cured, co-bondedtechnology for fuselage components, fin, rudder, ele-vons, airbrake and landing gear doors has ensured cost-effectiveness. The radome is made of Kevlar. The air-frame has been strengthened to withstand high Gmanoeuvres and optimised for high strength and dura-bility. The LCA is designed for active combat in anyadverse weather condition. Lightning protectionschemes have been developed on the basis of high-voltage and high-current tests conducted in the LightningTest Facility set up at CABS.

(3) Power plant and fuel system:The LCA will be powered by the Kav-eri engine developed at the GTRE.Fuel tanks are integrated into the fuse-lage and wings. For extended range,there are additional 800/1,200 l fueltanks at the midboard/inboard wingstations and at the centerline stationunder the fuselage. An in-flight re-fuelling probe further extends theLCA’s range and endurance.

(4) Weapons system: Successfuldeployment of weapons is the pri-mary mission of a combat aircraft.The LCA can carry a variety of mis-siles, bombs and rockets to suit mis-sion requirements: air-to-air,air-to-ground or air-to-sea. Effectivepilot-vehicle interface for easy inter-pretation of targets, a host of sensors

ensuring early threat detection and a low visual signaturegive the LCA the upper hand in close air combat. Super-sonic speeds at all altitudes and the availability of highperformance radar give it effective beyond visual rangeattack capability. To further enhance its mission effec-tiveness and multi-role capability, it carries additionalsensors for guidance, navigation, reconnaissance andEW.

(5) Avionics: The integrated digital avionics suite ofthe LCA interfaces with all other aircraft systems. Accu-rate navigation and guidance is realised through a ringlaser gyroscope based inertial navigation system (INS),with provision for INS/global positioning system (GPS)integration. In the EW suite, electromagnetic and electro-optic receivers and jammers ensure jam-resistant radiocommunition.

(6) Cockpit and radar: The new-generation glasscockpit incorporates two multifunction displays. Criticalinformation required in close combat situations is flashedonto the head up display. The hands on throttle and stick(HOTAS) concept ensures that every control needed in acritical combat situation is available at the pilot’sfingertips.

The bubble canopy gives the pilot an excellent all-round view. The advanced multimode radar takes care ofdetection, tracking, terrain avoidance. Delivery of guidedweapons allows simultaneous multiple target engage-ments. Pulse-Doppler gives lookdown shoot-down capa-

Tejas in formation. Thestate-of-the-art aircraft,India’s own fighter, is inan advanced stage ofdevelopment.

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bility. Its ground-mapping feature, frequency agility andother techniques of electronic counter-countermeasuremake the radar truly state-of-the-art.

The environmental control system (ECS) gives thepilot a high degree of comfort and provides all the on-board electronic systems with adequate cooling. TheECS supplies compressed air for the pressurisation of thecockpit, radar and fuel tank.

(7) FCS: The digital FBW FCS is another advancedfeature of the LCA. The aircraft’s unstable configurationdemands a highly efficient integrated FCS (IFCS). TheIV&V activity is an integral part of the software devel-opment process and ensures correctness, consistency,completeness and adherence to military standards.

LCA-Navy: It is a spin-off of the LCA-Tejas. Theproject was sanctioned in 2003, with about 40 per centfunding from the Indian Navy, and the aircraft is expect-ed to roll out by 2010. The naval version of the aircraft(LCA-Navy) has been configured to operate on an air-craft carrier. The programme aims to build two proto-

types: the LCA-Navy Trainer (NP1) and the LCA-NavyFighter (NP2).

Kaveri: The GTRE is developing the “Kaveri en-gine” for the LCA-Tejas. The engine is an advancedtechnology, 80 kN thrust class, twin spool, low bypassratio augmented turbofan engine. The 16 units fabricatedand the Kaveri core engine (Kabini) have been tested on ahigh-altitude test bed in Russia. More than 1,600 hours oftests have been completed and fuel consumption andother parameters are close to the requirement. The finalphase will envisage the production of the standard Kaveriengine. The DRDO is looking for a partner for a joint

venture. The 404 GE engine that the LCA is fitted withpresently does not fully meet its requirements. Thus, thedevelopment of the indigenous Kaveri is essential for theLCA.

Kaveri for the Navy: A marine version of Kaveri hasbeen evolved to develop shaft power to propel navalships. The Kaveri Marine Gas Turbine (KMGT), as it hasbeen named, was transported to the naval dockyard inVishakapatnam and installed in the marine gas turbinetest bed. The Indian Navy has been involved in thedevelopment of the engine. It participated in and support-ed the testing phase. After a successful phase-I, details ofphase-II for higher output power are being worked upon.

Nishant: It is a Remotely Piloted Vehicle. It is amulti-mission, reusable UAV, which has been inductedinto the armed services. It is used for day/night battlefieldsurveillance and reconnaissance, target tracking and lo-calisation and artillery fire correction applications. TheNishant system has been designed to meet the army’srequirement for a mobile system that is easily redeploya-

ble. It is launched from a mobile hy-dropneumatic launcher andrecovered using a parachute, therebyenabling its deployment in remoteareas. Nishant has an all-up-weightof 375 kg (with a payload componentof 45 kg) and is powered by a 52horsepower rotary engine. It incor-porates a fully digital FBW system. Ithas autonomous flight capabilitiesand is controlled from a user-friendlyground control station through a jam-resistant command link. A sophisti-cated image-processing system isused to analyse the images transmit-ted from the UAV. The Nishant UAV

has a maximum speed of 185 kmph, flies at an altitude of3,600 m and has an endurance of 4.5 hours, a commandrange of 160 km and a length/span of 4.63 m/6.64 m.With certain upgrades in avionics including computersand software, it is being exported to Singapore. Thedevelopment of the Nishant UAV is a classic example ofthe synergising of the capabilities of a number of DRDOorganizations such as the ADE; R&D Engineers, Pune;the Defence Electronics Application Laboratory, Dehra-dun; the Instrument Research & Development Establish-ment, Dehradun; the Defence Electronics ResearchLaboratory, Hyderabad; and a host of private and public

The combat free fall(CFF) parachute system.

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sector entities. Lakshya: It is an indigenous, cost-effective, reusable, high subsonic PTA, which hasnow gone into production. It carries two expendablesub-target tow bodies in flight and provides a targetacceleration of 3 g, has a weight of 750 kg, speed of0.65-0.8 Mach at altitudes ranging from 300 m to 9km and an endurance of 50 minutes. Lakshya can belaunched from land or ship using a solid propellantrocket motor. A ground control station can track thePTA up to a range of 100 km.Early warning sys-tems: DARE has introduced a hi-tech early warningsystems for the country’s military aircraft. It hassuccessfully developed the missile approach warn-ing system (MAWS) and the laser warning system(LWS) and proven them in the IAF’s Avro transportaircraft. This has led to the Indian Army adopting itfor its Cheetah helicopter. The IAF, too, has pro-posed to incorporate this system in its MI-17 medi-um-lift helicopters. DARE is going further, with thedual colour MAWS, a technology that is still in theR&D stage in the United States and Europe. Avion-ics upgrade of the MiG-27: The DRDO along withHAL undertook the task of upgrading the avionics ofthe IAF’s MIG-27 aircraft. The initial operationalclearance of the aircraft is over. Work is also inprogress for an advanced early warning suite forthese MiGs. With these systems, the upgradedMiG-27 aircraft will have high combat superiorityand strike capability comparable to or even betterthan most other aircraft of contemporary class acrossthe globe.

Recovery parachute system for space capsulerecovery experiment (SRE): The DRDO has suc-cessfully designed and developed a parachutes andfloatation system for the SRE undertaken by theIndian Space Research Organisation as a part of itsPolar Satellite Launch Vehicle programme. This wasa significant experiment, which was conducted toestablish re-entry technology in country and gainconfidence in the Reusable Launch Vehicle.

Combat free fall system: The CFF parachutesystem consists of a manoeuvrable gliding parachutesystem, life-saving devices (auto opening devicesfor both the main and reserve parachutes), an altim-eter, navigation devices (GPS and a compass), a lifesupport system (oxygen system), protective clothing(jumpsuit, boots, gloves, a helmet and goggles), ajack knife, an equipment carrier, a night vision de-

Recovering Nishant,an Unmanned AerialVehicle, using aparachute.

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vice and communication systems.This system is capable of withstanding free fall from

30,000 feet (9,144 m). The system has been accepted bythe Indian Army, and the technology has been transferredto Ordnance Factory Kanpur. The protective clothing canbe used for both high altitude high opening and highaltitude low opening modes of operation. The CFF jump-suit is designed so that the paratrooper can use the outergarment in conjunction with the inner insulating garmentor separately. The oxygen system protects paratroopersfrom hypoxia and decompression sickness. The CFF hasbeen accepted by the Services, and the technology hasbeen transferred.

Brake parachutes: The well-proven, single canopybrake parachute is designed to stop aircraft with landingweights varying from 9,500 kg to 15,760 kg at the normallanding speed of 260 kmph and at an emergency landingspeed of 310 kmph.

Cheetal (re-engineered Cheetah) helicopter: It has

been qualified and certified by CEMILAC. This hel-icopter’s high altitude performance was validated by itslanding on the peak of the Saser Kangri (23,200 ft, or7,101 m) in the Ladakh region. This was a historic eventfor aviation in India. TARANG: DARE has designed anddeveloped the TARANG radar warner system. It hasbeen interfaced with almost all fighter planes, transportaircraft and helicopters of the IAF. TARANG-1B is anupgraded version. Flight trials on the MiG-27 and theJaguar have been completed. Three systems were clearedfor development flight trials on the MI-25, IL-76 andAN-32. An installation study on Jaguar-TS has beencompleted. Flight trials on the MiG-21 and the MiG-29are under progress.

Certification of new aviation fuel: The Oil andNatural Gas Corporation Ltd. has produced a new avia-tion fuel made out of natural gas instead of crude pet-roleum. After extensive testing by CEMILAC, the fuelhas been approved for use in civil and military aircraft.This makes CEMILAC the first agency in the world tocertify aviation fuel made from natural gas. This fuel isalso cheaper than fuel made from crude oil.

N A T I O N A L I N F R A S T R U C T U R E F A C I L I T I E SThe DRDO has created, not only for itself but also forother scientific organisations and for industry, sophisti-cated R&D infrastructure/assets for the following activ-ities: systems engineering, design and analysis,modelling and simulation, software development, testing

The Unmanned Aerial Vehicles/Remotely Piloted Veh-icles developed at the Aero-cluster Lab of the DefenceResearch & Development Organisation have a strongpotential for use in civil applications. They can also beused by the paramilitary forces and the coast guard.

A major spin-off of the Light Combat Aircraft pro-ject has been software development. Some of the appli-cation software that has been developed has variousnon-aeronautical applications as well.

Graphical Interactive Three-dimensional Appli-cations (GITA) is a user-friendly computer-aided de-sign (CAD) package, well suited to the mechanical,automobile, aeronautical and tool design industries.

Finite Element Structural Synthesis Expert (FI-NESSE) is a general purpose finite element analysispackage.

FINEGRAF is a powerful interactive graphics preand post processor that makes complex finite elementmodelling and the interpretation of results much easier.

AUTOLAY is a software system for the design,analysis and manufacture of composites. It reduces thedesign cycle time of high quality, robust laminated com-posite components.

PRANA is a virtual reality software tool that giveslife to CAD and engineering analyses data in the virtualworld. Numerous packages for computer-aided manu-facture and computational fluid dynamic codes for aero-dynamic analyses have also been developed.

Software spin-offs

Nishant in flight.

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and evaluation, instrumented range, engineering data-base-quality standards and processes, human resources,knowledge base and R&D management. A brief accountof such facilities created for the Aero Cluster Labs ispresented here.

Flight simulation facilities: The DRDO has createdseveral such facilities to investigate fighter aircraft per-formance, handling qualities and capabilities in closecombat and mission system performance. A virtual real-ity centre has been set up to address the requirements ofvirtual prototyping of the LCA. The Aeronautical Mate-rial Testing Laboratory, a national facility, is one of itskind for testing aeronautical material and components.Digital flight simulators for the Ajeet and Kiran aircrafthave been also created. The DRDO has helped set upsophisticated test facilities and three centres of excel-lence in the areas of computational fluid dynamics, aero-space systems design and engineering and compositestructure technologies at the Indian Institute of Science,Bangalore; the Indian Institutes of Technology; someuniversities; and at other technological institutions suchas the National Aerospace Laboratories.

Some of these test facilities are a modified trans-sonicwind tunnel at NAL, a 200-mm hypersonic wind tunnel atIISc, a high-temperature low-cycle fatigue test facility atIIT Bombay and a full-scale fatigue test facility at NAL.Two national research initiatives in the fields of gasturbine-enabling technologies and micro aerial vehiclesare being proposed. Also, the DRDO will establish with-

in the next three years a world-classaeronautical test range facility nearChitradurga, Karnataka, at a cost ofRs.1,000 crore. Parachutes, UAVsand bombs will be tested here.

Lightning Test Facility: The ef-fects of lightning on aircraft can beclassified into direct and indirect ef-fects. Direct effects include localburn-through, tufting of non-metalliccomposites, splintering/shattering,fuel ignition, and the puncture of elec-trical insulation. Indirect effects arethose caused by the electric and/ormagnetic fields of lightning and in-clude temporary upset/malfunctionand/or permanent damage to variouselectronic/electric circuitry. The fa-cility is equipped to conduct all thehigh voltage and high current tests asper military specifications to ensure

that aircraft are lightning-worthy.Normally Aspirated Twin Cell Engine Test Facil-

ity: The facility has been established at the GTRE fortesting aero gas turbine engines. ECS Test Facility: Thefacility was designed and established by the GTRE to testthe ECS module of the LCA. Combustor Flow Visual-isation Test Facility: The test facility operates on aclosed loop system with a continuous supply of water.The 3D model of the combustor is placed inside thefacility and water is allowed to flow in this model. Flow isvisualised by injecting air bubbles, and flow patterns arerecorded in the presence of sodium light and in helium-neon laser light.

Bird Ingestion Test Facility: Dynamic and staticbird ingestion tests are set up so that the impact of birdingestion on critical components such as rotor blades, thebullet nose, the compressor disc and the casing of theKaveri engine can be tested. Cyclic Spin Test Facil-ityThis facility tests the structural integrity of the turbinerotor of the gas turbine engine and evaluates its low-cyclefatigue life.

High technology avionics flight test bed: It is usedto carry out flight testing and evaluation of the variousairborne equipment developed at DRDO laboratories.Other infrastructure created at the DRDO by the Aero-cluster Labs are the Mini-bird test facility, the MilitaryGas Turbine Test Facility, the High Cycle Fatigue TestFacility, and the Structural Dynamics and Vibration TestFacility. �

Nishant, a closer view.

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updateON November 4, a 19-year-old Dalityouth was killed in police firing at E.Kottaipatti village in Tamil Nadu’sMadurai district, a kilometre fromUthapuram where 15 Dalit womenwere injured and 70 houses were ran-sacked when the police reportedly letloose terror hardly a month earlier(Frontline, November 7). Uthapuramhad seen the demolition of a section of“the wall of untouchability” after thegovernment intervened in response topublic demand.

The firing apparently followed thefailure of a small band of policemen todisperse a crowd that was protestingagainst an attack on the convoy of K.Krishnasamy, president of Puthiya Ta-mizhagam, a Dalit political party, theprevious day when he visited Uthap-uram and nearby Dalit villages. In thepolice action a number of people, in-cluding women, were injured. Reportssaid the police asked the protesters toremove the roadblocks so that a policeparty, led by Deputy Inspector-Gener-al of Police, Madurai Range, couldproceed on its way to Elumalai, whereKrishnasamy’s car had been targeted.

Muruga Devi, 40, the mother ofthe victim, K. Suresh, said her son waskilled in the police firing when he triedto protect her from the police attack.An official release, however, said thepolice went to the place to control aclash between two groups of peopleand they opened fire when stones werethrown at them. In a quick response,Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi an-nounced a solatium of Rs.2 lakh for thevictim’s family. He also ordered an in-quiry by a retired District Judge.

A team from the National Com-mission for Scheduled Castes, led byAssistant Director P. Narayana Moor-thy, visited E. Kottaipatti on Novem-ber 7. The villagers told the team thatSuresh’s body was dragged to a dis-tance of 500 metres before it was takeninto a vehicle.Krishnasamy told a press

conference that his convoy had beenattacked by a group of persons who didnot want peace to prevail at Uthap-uram and other villages. He said hewas not given enough police protec-tion and wanted the government totake action against those responsiblefor that. He alleged that a 300-strongmob had erected barricades andplaced boulders on the narrow strip ofland at Ezhumalai village to preventthe movement of vehicles.

State secretary of the CommunistParty of India (Marxist) N. Varadara-jan, in a statement, blamed the attackon the police failure to provide ade-quate security to Krishnasamy and de-manded a judicial inquiry into thefiring. He later met the Chief Ministerand apprised him of the initiatives byhis party to bring peace and normalcyto Uthapuram and nearby villages.

At a meeting held in Madurai, Vi-duthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi generalsecretary Thol. Thirumavalavan con-demned the police failure to providesecurity to Krishnasamy and com-plained of bias against Dalits. He saidonly an unbiased approach by the go-vernment could lead to a lasting solu-tion to issues concerning Dalits.

The attack on Krishnasamy’s con-voy led to sporadic violence in severalsouthern districts. There was tensionin Madurai, Dindigul, Virudhunagar,

Tirunelveli and Thoothukudi districtsfor three days with protesters targetingbuses. Hundreds of persons were ar-rested.

Uthapuram has almost returned tonormal and in the surrounding villagesthe process is on. Although the ChiefMinister promised to set up peacecommittees, the district administra-tion was yet to act. The police have filed15 first information reports (FIRs) andcharges have been made against about850 persons, including Dalits andnon-Dalits. The menfolk of E. Kottai-patti, Goundanpatti, Chellayeepuramand Elumalai, all Dalit villages, havefled their homes fearing arrest andtorture.

Signalling a change in the ap-proach of the district administration,the new District Collector, P. Seeth-araman, who replaced S.S. Jawahar,visited Uthapuram and other villageshours after he took charge on Novem-ber 10. He ordered the officials to con-duct a peace committee meeting andsought the people’s cooperation.

Welcoming the change in the ad-ministration, P. Sampath, convener,Tamil Nadu Untouchability Eradica-tion Front, said the people expectedthe administration to take firm andhonest steps to end caste-based op-pression.

S. Viswanathan

Hope amidst despair

AT E. KOTTAIPATTI village near Uthapuram, women grieve for K. Suresh,who was killed in police firing.

S. J

AMES

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IF India’s policymakers could se-cede and create a separate coun-try, it would be a safe bet that thenew state would join the ranks ofa minuscule minority of the

world’s nations, such as Israel, Georgiaand the Philippines, which rooted forJohn McCain in the United Statespresidential election and are inmourning over the landmark victory ofBarack Hussein Obama.

The mood of disappointment andforeboding that prevails in the corri-dors of power in New Delhi over Oba-ma’s impending presidency is totally atodds with the overwhelmingly posi-tive, even euphoric, sentiment theelection result has generated in boththe Indian and the global public.

The nostalgia that large sections ofour ruling class and business elite feelfor George W. Bush’s presidency can-not be explained solely by the oft-heard trite statement that Bush “mayhave been bad for the world, but he wasgood for India”; so good that, as PrimeMinister Manmohan Singh famouslytold Bush: “The people of India loveyou deeply.”

This, of course, is a patent absurdi-ty. A deeply destabilised, unhappy andinsecure world, which Bush did somuch to bring about by waging warand spreading hatred, cannot be in In-dia’s interest. The consequences ofBush’s adventurist policies and actions– including the global economic crisis,dangerous climate change, the mas-sive destruction and Islamophobia(and extremist reaction to it) caused bythe occupation of Iraq and war in Af-ghanistan, intensified rivalries withRussia and Iran, besides a moreskewed global order and considerableweakening of multilateral institutions

tory different from, say, a hypotheticalwin by Democrats John Kerry or Jo-seph Biden.

The triumph of a black in a societywhere he could have been sold as aslave just 140 years ago and whereAfrican Americans could not votebarely four decades ago is itself causefor celebration.

The import of Obama’s election isall the greater because it comes at afateful moment in world history, whenmultiple crises have converged – in-cluding a global financial meltdownand a ballooning economic crisis, dis-crediting of the neoliberal economicmodel, decline of U.S. hegemony, acontinuing climate crisis, and majorchanges in the geopolitical situation.These have put a big question markover the very notion of development asmarket-led accumulation of capitaland material goods to which humanneeds must be subordinated.

In this sense, this is a generalisedcrisis of the bourgeois order or capital-ist civilisation, whose resolution de-mands radical remedies: a newegalitarian economics, a new demo-cratic politics based on mass participa-tion and real accountability, and a newgeopolitical order based on justice andequity, which demands major changesin relations between states andpeoples.

N E W D E A L ?Obama has a historic opportunity toaddress these epochal issues. Domes-tically, he has the mandate to inaug-urate a New Deal, by re-regulating theeconomy, getting the state to interveneto meet people’s needs through mas-sive health care and social security pro-grammes, and launching large-scale

– are undoubtedly harmful for India. They cannot be offset by the pa-

rochial “gains” from the U.S.-India nu-clear deal and the deepeningIndia-U.S. strategic alliance, even as-suming these gains are real – a propo-sition this column has seriously andrepeatedly criticised.

What our policymakers feel reallythreatened by is the eclipse of the era ofneoconservative domination of theU.S. and the world to which they hadattuned their own policies to the pointof bandwagoning with Washington.

There lies the rub. The true signif-icance of Obama’s historic victory isthat it breaks the long conservativespell over U.S. society and politics –decisively and through a remarkablegrassroots mobilisation process basedon the promise of healing social di-vides, which was pivotal to Obama’scampaign. That is what makes his vic-

Two cheers onlyObama’s historic victory breaks the conservative spell at this watershed moment

in global affairs, but it would be wrong to pin too many hopes on him.

Beyond theObviousPRAFUL BIDWAI

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public works. In the 1930s, FranklinD. Roosevelt energised American so-ciety and economy through his NewDeal by launching public works, in-cluding 40,000 buildings, 8,000parks, 72,000 schools and 80,000bridges.

These dramatically reduced pover-ty, put purchasing power into thehands of people, promoted equity,built up the infrastructure, and gener-ated a big economic stimulus. The en-tire cost of these programmes (intoday’s dollars) was about $500 bil-lion. This is only a fraction of the $2trillion-plus that the U.S. is spendingon merely stabilising the banking sys-tem temporarily.

Obama will be under pressurefrom the establishment, including hisown advisers from the Chicago free-market economics school, to tinkerwith the regulatory margins and bailout corporations and banks, withoutbreaking with the neoliberal paradi-gm. This would only perpetuate Casi-no capitalism and the cycle ofdestruction, restructuring, concentra-tion and yet more destruction.

Yet, the logic of Obama’s promiseson health care, education, taxation andsocial security, and his $200 billionpackage of economic measures underdiscussion, is such that he will be im-pelled to discard that paradigm – if heremains true to his word. These mea-sures include expenditure on roads,ports, bridges and other public works.

P R O G R E S S I V E C L I M A T E P O L I C YObama will probably adopt a far moreprogressive policy than the Republi-cans on energy and climate change,with a promised investment of $150billion over 10 years to develop renew-able sources.

Under Obama, the U.S. is likely totake a less hostile approach to the Kyo-to Protocol. But his earlier proposal toput an economy-wide cap on green-house gas emissions, and get industryto buy carbon credits from the govern-ment, might be diluted given the do-mestic economic crisis.

Obama can be expected to opt for abetter civil liberties policy, probably

outlawing torture and severe interro-gation methods, and closing downGuantanamo Bay detention camp. Hewill probably also relax immigrationand citizenship policies, making lifeeasier for America’s 12 million illegalmigrants. This too is welcome. Howev-er, whether he moves to dismantle in-trusive surveillance and other harshprovisions of the PATRIOT Act is anopen question.

Obama is likely to face stiff resis-tance to all his progressive measures.Much of his economic agenda will de-pend upon the Cabinet appointmentshe makes and the advice he listens to.Going by present indications, the twotop candidates in the running for theTreasury Secretary’s post are formerWorld Bank chief economist Law-rence Summers and Timothy Geithn-er, chairman of the New York FederalReserve. Neither inspires much confi-dence of a break with deregulation andother neoliberal policies. So the jury isstill out on this issue, although achange of direction seems likely.

Positively disturbing is Obama’svery first appointment: Rahm Ema-nuel as the White House chief of staff.Emanuel is a conservative Democrat, aWashington “insider” and a former in-vestment banker, who has been closeto the family of Chicago mayor Ri-chard Daley, a controversial politicaloperator. Emanuel will control accessto the President.

On foreign policy and security is-sues, Obama is likely to adopt a farbetter posture than the Republicans.He promises a less arrogant U.S. and areturn to a multilateralist and cooper-ative approach. This will be a welcomedeparture from the Bush-McCainagenda. Although he promises to set a16-month timetable to withdrawtroops from Iraq, the U.S. is likely tomaintain a substantial military pres-ence in Iraq, including bases and “ad-visers”.

Obama is likely to induct moretroops and intensify the war in Af-ghanistan. Unless this is done in coop-eration with Pakistan, and under itsinitiative, this could turn out to behighly problematic. Obama’s original

remarks favouring unilateral strikes inPakistan against Al Qaeda-Talibanmilitants are unlikely to be helpful al-though he has tried to revise them.

It is on Iran, Russia, nuclear weap-ons and Son-of-Star-Wars-style ballis-tic missile defence that Obama’s rolewould be extremely positive. If he be-gins a dialogue with Iran, stops expan-sion of the North Atlantic TreatyOrganisation (NATO) close to Russianborders, delays the deployment of Bal-listic Missile Defence (BMD) in Po-land and the Czech Republic, andrenews the Strategic Arms ReductionTreaty (START) due to expire nextyear, while de-alerting and disarminga substantial number of nuclear weap-ons, he will have made a major contri-bution to defusing rivalries started oraggravated by the Republicans.

It may be unrealistic to expectObama to take a major initiative onresolving the Palestinian crisis. His bi-zarre statement on an undivided Jeru-salem as the capital of Israel does notspeak of a high level of engagementwith that fraught issue. But a detenteor settlement with Iran could changethe face of West Asia. The central issuein all this is whether Obama is pre-pared to acknowledge that the neoconproject has failed and that U.S. poweris in decline and will shrink further inthe future. This remains an open ques-tion. Obama’s agenda may turn out tobe mixed, not radical enough.

One thing is clear, though. Indianpolicymakers must stop viewing Oba-ma through a Republican-taintedprism or by narrowly focussing on hisstatements on Kashmir, outsourcingand nuclear proliferation, includingthe Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty(CTBT).

If they want to engage Obama, theymust address broad-horizon globaland regional issues such as West andCentral Asia, multilateral institutions,a Bretton Woods-II, and structuralchanges in the global financial system,including strict public regulation, con-trols on capital mobility, and a globaleconomic reconstruction programme.It is unclear if they can rise to thechallenge. �

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Voyage to moonTHE articles on the moonmission were excellent(Cover Story, “DestinationMoon”, November 21).

SITAPATI MUKHERJEE

KOLKATA

THE launch of Chan-drayaan-1 may be a greatachievement for India’s sci-entific community, but willit help the common manfight hunger and poverty?India’s meagre resourceswould be better spent ineradicating hunger.

DR. VITULL K. GUPTA

BHATINDA, PUNJAB

IS it prudent to spend tax-payers’ money on a missionthat other countries have al-ready undertaken? Manydeveloped countries usetheir money to improve thestandard of living of theirpeople.

S.R. DEVAPRAKASH

TUMKUR, KARNATAKA

Raj ThackerayTHE arrest of MaharashtraNavnirman Sena leader RajThackeray was seen bymany people as a bold step.But his release the next dayshowed that the Indian Pe-nal Code had no teeth andthe State government wassoft-pedalling on the issuein view of the vote bank atstake (“Hate campaign”,November 21). Violence inthe name of a popular causeshould always be nipped inthe bud. The burning of rail-way coaches in Bihar was al-so uncalled for.

S. BALAKRISHNAN

JAMSHEDPUR

IT is sad that regionalism iscoming to the fore in Indianpolitics. Politicians playvote-bank politics for theirown selfish interests.

MAHESH KAPASI

NEW DELHI

IT is tragic that violence hasbecome a part of life in thecountry. It is sad that no po-litical leader is able to standup to parochialism and thelikes of Raj Thackeray.

AKHIL KUMAR

NEW DELHI

RABBLE-ROUSING willnot help anyone in the longrun. It will only tarnish theimage of Maharashtra.

K.P. RAJAN

MUMBAI

THE killing of the youngman from Bihar in police ac-tion in Mumbai has given

political leaders from Bihara chance to shed crocodiletears.

This was not the first in-stance of attacks on Biharisoutside their home State.Why have Bihar’s leadersfailed to address the issue sofar?

RAJNISH KUMAR JHA

NEW DELHI

Salwa JudumTHE conclusions drawn bythe team appointed by theNational Human RightsCommission to inquire intothe activities of Salwa Ju-dum seem to have been pre-determined (“Far from fair”,November 21).

It would be a sad day forour democracy if these half-

truths, based primarily onone-sided information,were actually accepted bythe Supreme Court.

DR. NUTAN THAKUR

LUCKNOW

Climate changeSUSHIL KUMAR DASH’Sbook Climate Change: AnIndian Perspective is timely(“The earth is sick”, Novem-ber 21).

One hopes the book willgenerate greater awarenessabout climate changeamong the public andpolicymakers.

BHANU PRATAP SINGH

VARANASI

Greed factorMONEY, originally con-ceived as a convenient toolfor human progress, hasemerged as the objective ofhuman quest (Cover Story,“Bubble Burst”, November7). The natural curiosity ofhuman beings had laid thefoundations of science, en-gineering and technology.

But now every humaneffort is measured in termsof money.

ALWAR NAIDU SADANALA

NELLORE, TAMIL NADU

CORRECTIONIn the article on Integrated Gasifica-tion Combined Cycle technology("Maximum power, November 7),the last row of the table on page 51should read "APGENCO, 2009, In-dia; 125 (planned); High ash coal;210 (estimate); 7.6 (estimate);31.7%" and not as published.

Hindutva terrorPRAFUL BIDWAI has hit the nail on thehead in his column (“Saffron terror”, Novem-ber 21). All these years, Indian Muslims havebeen accused of living in a world of “denial”and not willing to accept the “fact” that theyoung among them are involved in unleash-ing terror on the Indian state. As a youngMuslim, I know the suffering and frustrationthat has become the order of the day forIndia’s largest minority. Repeated demandsfor comprehensive probes into terror attackscovering the Hindutva angle fell on deaf ears.I suppose the alleged involvement of SadhviPragya Singh Thakur is only the tip of theiceberg and more such revelations will fol-low. I hope the Malegaon blast investigationis taken to its logical conclusion.

MUTHI-UR-RAHMAN SIDDIQUI

BANGALORE

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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● November 2003: A bomb explodes at the Moham-madiya Masjid in Parbhani, Maharashtra. Severalinjured. ● August 2004: Bomb blast at the Quadriya Masjidin Jalna, Maharashtra. Several injured.● August 2004: Bomb blast at Merag-ul-Uloom Ma-drassa in Purna, Maharashtra. Several injured. ● April 2006: Two Bajrang Dal activists die whilemaking a pipe bomb in Nanded, Maharashtra. In-vestigations reveal that the house belongs to a Rash-triya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) worker.● January 2008: Bombs explode at Gadkari Aud-itorium, Thane, Maharashtra. Perpetrators turn outto be members of the Sanatan Sanstha, which islinked to the Hindu Jan Jagran Samiti, a well-known extremist organisation in Maharashtra. ● September 2008: A bomb explodes at BhikhuChowk in the largely Muslim-populated town of Ma-legaon in Maharashtra. Five people die and 89 sufferinjuries.

EVIDENCE emerging from the investigation in-to the Malegaon bomb explosion led the police toSadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur and two associates,Shivnarayan Singh Kalsangra and Shyam BhawarlalSahu. With their arrest on October 23, they becamethe first to be picked up in connection with theincident. Subsequently, Maharashtra’s Anti-Terro-rism Squad (ATS) arrested six other people, includ-ing two Army officers, one serving and the otherretired. The ATS believes that a couple of top Hin-dutva leaders and right-wing politicians may be in-

volved in the blast. Informed sources say that themastermind, a “Ramji”, is still at large and once he isfound the entire “Hindu fundamentalist plot toavenge the recent blasts perpetrated by jehadigroups in India” will be unravelled.

The sadhvi’s arrest is the first case of a Hinduright-wing member being taken into custody andheld responsible for a bomb explosion. Although thepolice are yet to make a statement about radicalHindu groups being responsible for other blasts inthe State, they say there are enough facts to indicatethat these groups are involved in those strikes.

As the investigation progresses, what seems to beemerging is that there are several Hindu extremistoutfits in Maharashtra, some of them linked to oneanother, and they all have a single-point agenda –combating jehadi terror with terror. Political observ-ers and secularists believe that the saffron brigade,which is known to cause terror through communalrabble-rousing, has now adopted a different form ofviolence. They say that the establishment must, inthe same way it cracks down on jehadi terror cells,pay attention to the rising saffron movement andsuppress it before it is too late.

“Until now, the police were under the assump-tion that only Muslim groups would carry out terrorattacks. Ever since the Parbhani blast and the Nand-ed incident, we [human rights groups] have beenasking them to look elsewhere, too. Why would ajehadi group place a bomb in a mosque on a busyprayer day where a number of Muslims would bekilled? They do not gain anything by this,” said As-ghar Ali Engineer, a Muslim scholar and humanrights activist.

He added: “I am certain that the arrest of thesadhvi and others is just the tip of the iceberg. Wewill soon see exactly what these so-called Hindutvagroups are responsible for. If the police are left to dotheir job without any pressure, much more will berevealed and hopefully the real culprits will becaught.”

T E R R O R T R A I LPragya Singh Thakur, 36, was arrested in Surat afterthe police traced the ownership of a motorcycle used

Of saffron variety

A shocking development was thearrest of two Army officers, oneserving and the other retired, inconnection with the explosion. Itjust goes to show the extent of right-wing infiltration in thecountry’s establishments.

The Malegaon blast probe points to the existence of Hindu extremist outfits in

Maharashtra. B Y A N U P A M A K A T A K A M

Terrorism

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did so few people die? Why didn’t youpark [the bike] in a crowded area?”While arguing her own case, she toldthe court that she and the two othersarrested along with her were innocentand were being implicated as part of alarger game to defame the Hindutva

in the Malegaon blast to her. A tele-phone conversation, transcripts ofwhich were presented in court, con-firmed that she did not only own thebike but was involved in the terrorstrike in the town. She says in thephone call to one of the accused: “Why

movement. Originally from Indoreand operating largely out of there, Pra-gya Singh was once an active memberof the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Par-ishad (ABVP), the Bharatiya JanataParty’s (BJP) student wing. She wasalso a member of Durga Vahini, theVishwa Hindu Parishad’s (VHP)women’s wing.

As a student, the motorbike-ridingPragya Singh was known to beat uproadside Romeos. She took up sanyasin 2006. In the past few years, she hasallegedly been a member of variousright-wing organisations and has beennetworking with godmen, Hindu spir-itual leaders and those inclined to-wards Hindu extremism, with the aimof advancing the Hindutva agenda.

The other two arrested with PragyaSingh were also from Indore. Shivna-rayan Kalsangra allegedly assembledthe timer device for the bomb used inMalegaon. Shyam Bhawarlal Sahu re-portedly was one of its planters. Fivedays after their arrest, Sameer Kulkar-ni was picked up for his alleged role inarranging the chemicals for the bomb.

He was a member of the ABVP andis now an active member of the Ab-hinav Bharat, a Maharashtra-basedright-wing organisation. Retired Ma-jor Ramesh Upadhyay was also heldthat day for allegedly training the ac-cused in bomb making. A few dayslater, three other members of the Ab-hinav Bharat were taken into policecustody.

On November 5, the police had amajor breakthrough when they arrest-ed a serving Army officer, LieutenantColonel Shrikant Prasad Purohit. Heapparently provided the RDX (Re-search Department Explosive) for thebomb and along with Ramji master-minded the operation. This sentshockwaves across the country. He isthe first officer from the Indian Armyto be arrested in connection with aterror attack. The Army was quick todefend itself by saying Purohit’s arrestdid not mean everyone in the forceswas communally inclined. Should hebe found guilty, he would be punished,the Army said.

Ever since the Nanded incident,

PTI

SWAMI AMRITANAND ALIASDayanand Pandey, who wasarrested in Kanpur for his allegedrole in the Malegaon explosion.

SAMEER KULKARNI, WHO was picked up for his alleged role inarranging the chemicals for the bomb used in Malegaon, beingproduced in a Nashik court on October 30.

PTI

APPRAGYA SINGH THAKUR. Herarrest is the first case of a Hinduright-wing member being takeninto custody for a bomb explosion.

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there have been murmurs that right-wing organisations affiliated to politi-cal parties were being active in form-ing terror modules. In April 2006,Naresh Kondwar and HimanshuPhanse of the Bajrang Dal were killedwhile making bombs in Nanded, asmall town in Maharashtra. Investiga-tions revealed that the owner of thehouse in which the bombs were beingmade was an RSS member.

It was found that Kondwar andPhanse were responsible for bombinga mosque in Parbhani in 2003. Thepolice also established that membersof the Bajrang Dal cell in Nanded wereresponsible for the blasts in Jalna andPurna in 2004.

Soon after the Malegaon case ar-rests, the question people were askingwas why Nanded was not taken moreseriously. Were the government andthe police all too quick to dismiss theincident as a one-off case? Was this nota clear indicator of what washappening?

K.P.S. Raghuvanshi, the ATS chiefat the time, said it was taken seriouslybut the case languished once it wastransferred to the Central Bureau ofInvestigation (CBI).

He pointed out that the ATS had,in fact, been cracking down on right-wing organisations for their role insome of the attacks. In August thisyear, it arrested members of the Sana-

tan Sanstha and the Hindu Jan JagranSamiti for their role in the Thane andPanvel blasts. The Malegaon arrestshave come in the wake of concertedefforts by the ATS, and the police areconfident that in the coming daysmany more will fall into their net.

H I N D U E X T R E M I S MThe arrest of so many right-wing activ-ists by the ATS is enough cause forconcern about the rapid growth of ex-tremist groups in Maharashtra. A po-lice officer told Frontline: “In the nameof protecting Hindutva and the per-ceived threat to it, these groups arebecoming very popular. They attractcadre by making dramatic speechesduring Hindu festivals. Clearly, theirbase is expanding and one has to watchout for them.”

The officer said that typically manyof its activists were unemployed andhad been brainwashed into believingthat they could save their country bycarrying out right-wing plans. Therewere vast numbers who believed thatthis was the best option to combat theso-called war on Hindus, he said.What was disconcerting, he said, wasthat a sophisticated chemical like RDXwas used in the blasts. With adequatesupport, these groups could have ac-cess to even more weaponry and am-munition, thus increasing their strikepower, he pointed out.

Among the groups under the scan-ner is the Abhinav Bharat, which isnamed after an organisation set up bythe Hindutva ideologue Vinayak Da-modar Savarkar in 1904 to strikeagainst the British. Himani Savarkar,who is married to Savarkar’s nephew(she is also the niece of MahatmaGandhi’s assassin Nathuram Godse),has come out supporting the sadhvi’sinnocence in the blast.

The Sanatan Sanstha and the Hin-du Jan Jagran Samiti are reportedlylinked to the RSS. In January this year,their operatives attempted to bombthe Gadkari Rangayatan theatre inThane to protest against the staging ofAmhi Pachpute, a Marathi satire onthe Mahabharata. Other groups in-clude the Durga Vahini; the HinduRaksha Samiti, which played a role inthe recent Dhule riots and is affiliatedto the Shiv Sena; and the RashtriyaJagran Manch, which is also linked tothe RSS. The police are monitoring theactivities of some VHP and BajrangDal members also.

The trend towards extremist beha-viour is not new to Maharashtra. In theearly 1900s, Bal Gangadhar Tilak’s callto fight the imperialists through any-thing other than peaceful methodsfound favour not just at the groundlevel but even among Western-educat-ed upper-class Hindus.

The RSS, which has its headquar-ters at Nagpur, has deep roots in theState. Generations have grown up onits ideology. In contemporary timesthe Shiv Sena’s stunning rise in Mah-arashtra was to a great extent depen-dent on the Hindutva ideology.

It must be observed that PragyaSingh and her associates are not fromMaharashtra. But the State, owing toits well-organised right-wing extre-mist cadre, is conducive to carrying outtheir operations.

I N F I L T R A T I O NInterrogation of Major (retd.) RameshUpadhyay revealed that the BhonslaMilitary School in Nashik was used asa training ground by the conspirators.While the school has denied its in-volvement in the blast, it is under the

OUTSIDE THE MOSQUE in Parbhani, Maharashtra, where an explosioninjured several people in November 2003. Naresh Kondwar and HimanshuPhanse of the Bajrang Dal, who were killed while making bombs in Nandedin April 2006, were allegedly responsible for bombing the mosque.

AFP

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scanner for allowing Bajrang Dal ac-tivists to hold training sessions in theuse of arms and martial arts.

Incidentally, the school was found-ed by B.S. Moonje, who was Savarkar’sclose friend and who assisted in cre-ating the RSS. The school’s links to theRSS is open knowledge.

“It is deeply worrying that Armypersonnel are involved in such terroractivities,” said Engineer. “It just goesto show how deep the infiltration is inthis country.”

According to Engineer, constantindoctrination over decades by theVHP, the RSS, the Bajrang Dal and theBJP has resulted in this kind of vio-lence, which will be disastrous for In-dia. “During the six years of BJP rule,they infiltrated into crucial areas: thepolice force, the army and the educa-tion department. We are seeing theresults of that,” said Engineer.

Ram Punyani, secretary of the AllIndia Secular Forum and a humanrights activist, said that the deep andwidespread ideological indoctrinationbegan years ago but was propagated

thoroughly during the National Dem-ocratic Alliance [NDA] regime. Itplaced its members in the bureaucra-cy, particularly in the education de-partment, and in the cultural arena, hesaid. “RSS people who once headed adepartment may have retired, but theyhave ensured that the damage contin-ues, as they would have hired a numberof like-minded people. So you canimagine how deep the penetration is.It will take generations to root thisout,” said Punyani.

P O L I T I C A L G A I N SThe emergence of these small radicalHindutva groups has put parties suchas the Shiv Sena and the BJP in a spot.Leaping to get some political mileage,the Shiv Sena came out in total supportof Pragya Singh. It even said it wouldoffer her legal help, as she was truly afighter for its people. While the VHPand the Bajrang Dal have not been veryvocal, the BJP is doing a bit of flip-flopon the issue. Initially it denied anyassociation with Pragya Singh but lat-er supported her.

It has been saying vociferously thatthe investigation is biased and lackingin transparency. Maharashtra ChiefMinister Vilasrao Deshmukh, howev-er, said that those parties that oncesought lethal POTA (Prevention ofTerrorism Act) charges framed againstsuspects from minority communitieswere now asking the government to goeasy on the Hindu right-wingextremists.

With the general elections justround the corner, each party has toplay a careful game. For the Congress itwill be a tough call. If it lets go of theMalegaon suspects, that will furtheranger an already seething Muslimcommunity, which believes it is facingsevere persecution because of the jeha-di terror attacks. Yet, the Congress alsohas to appease the larger Hindu pop-ulation.

In the course of time, there will bemore arrests and perhaps the wholestory will unfold. Or, as in other terrorattacks, the true masterminds will nev-er be found and the real story nevertold. �

MEMBERS OF THE Durga Vahini at a training programme in Bhopal in 2006. Durga Vahini, which is also under thescanner, is the women’s wing of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad.

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The youngest of the blast victims was a five-year-oldgirl who suffered 80 per cent burns. Her father, whohad come to pick her up from school, was killed onthe spot.

The terror attacks, carried out with arithmeticalprecision, was perhaps the worst-ever the countryhas witnessed. Not surprisingly, Prime MinisterManmohan Singh, United Progressive Alliance(UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Union HomeMinister Shivraj Patil, senior Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) leader L.K. Advani, Communist Party of India(Marxist) leaders Brinda Karat and BasudevAcharya, and Communist Party of India leader D.Raja rushed to the blasts sites.

After the initial shock and panic, the entire State

A NEW face of home-grown terror unveiled itselfon the streets of Guwahati, Kokrajhar, Barpeta Roadand Bongaigaon, all in Lower Assam, on October 30when nine bombs, including three car bombs, ex-ploded, killing 86 people and leaving 826 injured.

There is speculation that outfitsbased in Bangladesh are involved.Public anger is, however, directed at the government, which is accusedof absolute negligence.

The October 30 serial blasts point to the collusion between local and outside

terrorist agencies. B Y S U S H A N T A T A L U K D A R IN GUWAHATI

MOURNING THEDEATH of hisfather and brotherin the blasts in Guwahati. PT

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Shock of Assam

Terrorism

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erupted in protest against the terrorstrikes. For 11 days, people took to thestreets under different banners, bothpolitical and non-political, to expresstheir anguish. Bandhs were called bythe BJP, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad(VHP), the Bajrang Dal and the AllAssam Students Union (AASU).

In Ganeshguri locality, close to theState capital, a mob torched ambu-lances, police vehicles and other publicproperty to vent their anger against thefailure of the security apparatus to pre-vent the blasts and the loss of lives.

Twelve days after the blasts, theState government claimed that the Na-tional Democratic Front of Bodoland(NDFB) and the United LiberationFront of Asom (ULFA) were involved

in the explosions. An official releasestated that the involvement of someactive members of the NDFB and UL-FA had come to light during the courseof investigation by the Special Investi-gation Team (SIT). The SIT claimedthat it had identified the main culprits.The police have so far arrested eightpersons in connection with the serialblasts and related cases. The releasefurther stated that the probable invol-vement of other agencies and orga-nisations was also under investigation.The State government, however, re-frained from naming them, leavingroom for speculation about the identi-ty of the agencies and organisationsinvolved.

Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi said

that it was unclear if the NDFB as anorganisation was involved or onlysome of its cadre were involved. Hemaintained that the possibility of “out-side forces” providing support to carryout the terror attacks could not beruled out but added that no force fromoutside would be able to carry out anymajor strike without the help of localmilitant groups. Bangladesh, he said,had become the biggest problem infighting terrorism in Assam and thatMyanmar had become a safe haven forinsurgent groups.

Advani, who visited the blasts sites,went on record that the terror attackshad confirmed once again that Bangla-deshi soil was used for anti-India ac-tivities. He exhorted the Union

AN INJURED PERSON being taken to hospital after the blast at Pan Bazaar in Guwahati.PTI

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government to exert pressure,preferably diplomatic, on Bangladeshto ensure that its territory was not usedas a base for anti-India activities.Without naming the organisation be-hind the blasts, the senior BJP leaderpointed to newspaper reports based onpolice sources that the blasts were thehandiwork of the Harkat-ul-Jehadi Is-lami (HUJI) based in Bangladesh, theLashkar-e-Taiba based in Pakistanand ULFA. He said that although UL-FA had denied its involvement hewould not exonerate the outfit, goingby its past history of targeting innocentHindi-speaking people. He allegedthat ULFA, whose leaders had re-ceived shelter in Bangladesh, hadtransformed itself from an insurgentgroup into a terrorist outfit.

The Asom Gana Parishad (AGP),the main Opposition party in the State,and the BJP demanded the dismissalof the Gogoi government for its failureto protect lives and for being “soft to-wards Islamic fundamentalists”.

Brinda Karat and D. Raja cau-tioned against the Sangh Parivar’s at-tempts to communalise the terrorattacks. They said terrorists had noreligion, language, caste or creed andmust be punished.

P O L I C E B A F F L E DThe precision with which the terroriststriggered nine synchronised blasts infour districts within half an hour hasbaffled the Assam Police and securityagencies alike. Inspector-General ofPolice (Special Branch) Khagen Sarmasaid that while the needle of suspicionpointed to jehadi elements, ULFAmight have provided the logistic sup-port to them.

Ballistic experts from the ForensicSciences Department are under theimpression that local outfits lacked theexpertise to make such highly sophisti-cated bombs. It was difficult to gatherthe huge quantity of explosives used(as much as 80 kg of RDX, or ResearchDepartment Explosive), as it was notreadily available within the State andthe country, they opined.

Forensic investigations revealedthat about 25-30 kg of RDX was used

PRIME MINISTER MANMOHAN Singh, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, UnionHome Minister Shivraj Patil and Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi at theblast site at the CJM Court premises in Guwahati on November 1.

PTI

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in each of the car bombs in Guwahati;ammonium nitrate with plasticiserswere used as propellants. Such a hugequantity of explosives was never usedin the State in the past – the maximumthat was used in a single blast wasabout 10 kg in the Dhemaji blast byULFA on August 15, 2004, when 13people, including 10 children, werekilled.

Remnants of a ProgrammableTime Delay Device, which is often usedby ULFA to trigger serial blasts, ob-tained from the Ganeshguri blast sitehas led investigators to suspect thatULFA could have provided the logisticsupport.

The NDFB’s name cropped up af-ter the SIT arrested a few Bodo youthin connection with the blasts near thecourt of the Chief Judicial Magistrate(CJM) and at Fancy Bazaar in Guwa-

hati and at Ganeshguri. Police sourcessaid that the arrested youth had eitherowned the three cars in which the ex-plosives were kept or provided otherforms of logistic support.

On November 10, a day before theState government officially announcedthe complicity of the NDFB and ULFAin the blasts, contingents of the AssamPolice and paramilitary forces wererushed to cordon off the designatedcamps of the NDFB in Baksa, Udalguriand Kokrajhar. The decision to sendthe troops to confine the NDFB cadrein the camps came after a meeting ofthe Strategy Group of the three-tierUnified Command Structure headedby the Chief Minister. Gogoi decidedto enforce the ceasefire ground rulesstrictly.

(The NDFB had entered into a cea-sefire agreement with the Centre on

PEOPLE FROM ALL walks of life taking part in an anti-terrorism rallyorganised by the AASU in Guwahati on November 11.

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May 24, 2005. The extended ceasefireis due to expire on December 31, but ifthe blasts probe establishes the invol-vement of the NDFB, New Delhi islikely to call off the ceasefire.)

Cadre of the NDFB, however, re-fused entry to police officials whowanted to carry out a search inside thecamp. The police claimed that 12 blastsuspects had taken shelter at the camp.

The NDFB denied its involvementin the blasts and described the allega-tion as “false and baseless”. In a state-ment issued by its “information andpublicity secretary” S. Sanjarang, itstated that “all persons who have beenarrested from different places so far onallegations of being involved in theblasts are civilians and they are neithermembers of the NDFB nor had anyrelationship with the NDFB.”

“The NDFB is working for peace ofthe entire region and is on the peaceprocess with the Government of Indiaat present to solve the long-cherishedpolitical problem of the Boro peoplethrough a peaceful negotiation. Ourcadre are huddled in the designatedcamps and are complying with the cea-sefire ground rules at their level best,”the statement added. The outfit point-ed out the NDFB could not be heldresponsible simply because “vehiclessuspected to be used in the blasts be-longed to Boro people”.

Meanwhile, ULFA has alleged thatthe Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sanghwas behind the blasts. In an earlierstatement, Anjan Barthakur of UL-FA’s central publicity unit said theblasts were the handiwork of the “Indi-an occupational force”.

The police also arrested Nazirud-din Ahmed from Moirabari in Mori-gaon district. The arrest related to anSMS purportedly sent by a little-known outfit, the Islamic SecurityForce (Indian Mujahideen), to a televi-sion news channel claiming respon-sibility for the blasts. A senior HomeDepartment official, however, saidthat the SMS could have been a tacticto confuse the investigators.

Nani Gopal Mahanta, Coordina-tor, Peace and Conflict Studies, Gau-hati University, says that the

government has failed on four fronts –anticipation, political strategy, polic-ing, and response to terrorism. Terro-rism or insurgency has become part ofAssam’s polity ever since the emer-gence of ULFA in 1979.

T H E M O S T B O M B E D P L A C E SThe areas where the serial bomb blaststook place in Guwahati are perhaps themost bombed places in South Asia. Ni-neteen bomb blasts have taken place inGaneshguri in the past 12 years. Theblasts in Tripura and Manipur whichoccurred a few days before the Assamblasts should have alerted the Gogoigovernment, he remarked.

In the past 13 years, 788 blasts haverocked the State, while security forceshave seized about 5,600 live bombs.

“There is no political strategy totackle terrorism although it has en-gulfed the State for more than 29years. The strategies adopted by thegovernment to tackle terrorism havebeen rag-tag, piecemeal, divide-and-rule,” Mahanta said. He pointed outthat the State, which had a populationof three crore, had fewer than 60,000police personnel (the majority ofwhom are assigned to government of-fices and VIP security).

This was perhaps one of the lowestpolice-people ratio in the world, henoted, and said that an insurgency-prone State like Assam should havebetter disaster management strate-gies. In this connection, he mentionedthe late arrival of ambulances at theblasts sites.

Faced with the accusation of in-telligence failure, the Unified Com-mand – the three-tier commandstructure of the Army, the Assam Po-lice and Central paramilitary forces forcounter-insurgency operations – hasdecided to set up a joint control roomat the Assam Police headquarters toensure quick sharing of hard intelli-gence. The State Cabinet has decidedto set up a research and analysis wingwithin the Special Branch of the As-sam Police for sustained research onthe activities of terrorist groups so thatprimary intelligence can be convertedinto actionable intelligence. �

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updateAT 8.31 p.m. IST on November 14, theMoon Impact Probe (MIP) of Chan-drayaan-1, with India’s flag painted onits sides, impacted the moon’s surfaceand emphatically signalled India reac-hing the moon. India thus joined Rus-sia, the United States, Japan and theEuropean Space Agency in the eliteclub of those who have impacted aprobe on the lunar surface.

At 8.06.54 p.m., radio frequencyengineers beamed commands fromthe Spacecraft Control Centre (SCC) atISTRAC, ISRO’s Telemetry, Trackingand Command Network at Peenya inBangalore, for the MIP to separatefrom the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft,two days after it had reached its finalorbit of 100 km above the moon.

The MIP separated as plannedwithout any hitch. Soon, its three in-struments – a video camera, a radaraltimeter and a mass spectrometer –went into action. The video cameratook pictures of the moon’s surfaceduring its 25-minute descent; the al-timeter measured the MIP’s altitudefrom the moon; and the spectrometeranalysed the constituents of themoon’s extremely thin atmosphere.

The 35-kg MIP, which was built atthe Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre inThiruvananthapuram, followed acurved path and struck the Shackletoncrater on the moon’s south polar re-gion exactly as determined, at 8.31p.m. .

“Just as we had promised, we havegiven India the moon,” said ISROChairman G. Madhavan Nair. “It wasduring Jawaharlal Nehru’s time thatthe nucleus for India’s space pro-gramme started. It is only fitting thaton Children’s Day, celebrated in hishonour, India should plant its flag onthe lunar surface,” he added.

Former President A.P.J. Abdul Ka-lam, himself a rocket technologistfrom ISRO, who was present at theSCC, said: “…Technological excellence

and creative leadership at ISRO havecombined to make Chandrayaan suc-cessful. The whole country should beproud of ISRO.”

M. Annadurai, project director,Chandrayaan-1, called it “ISRO’s giftto the children of India on the occasionof Children’s Day.” S.K. Shivakumar,Director, ISTRAC, was equally happywith the success.

In the entire Chandrayaan-1 mis-sion, every event took place with clock-work precision: the Polar SatelliteLaunch Vehicle (PSLV-C11) puttingChandrayaan-1 in a perfect, initial or-bit around the earth on October 22, theseries of manoeuvres to make the spa-cecraft approach the moon which isabout 3,84,000 km away, the criticalmanoeuvre of inserting Chan-drayaan-1 into the lunar orbit on No-vember 8, the manoeuvres to reducethe spacecraft’ s orbit to bring it closerto the moon, the spacecraft reachingits final lunar orbit on November 12,and, finally, the MIP separating fromthe spacecraft and crash-landing on

the moon on November 14.The sequence of events on Novem-

ber 14 began around 7.15 p.m. Thespacecraft got oriented in the right at-titude before the command went fromthe SCC for the MIP to separate fromChandrayaan-1. There were positivesignals that the MIP had separated.“For the 25 minutes of its descent to-wards lunar soil, we received contin-uous radio frequency signals from theMIP,” Annadurai said. When the sig-nals dropped, it indicated that the MIPhad crashed onto the Shackleton cra-ter. Data kept pouring in from thethree instruments on the MIP for theentire duration of its descent.

The MIP is a technological fore-runner to India soft-landing a rover onthe moon in 2012-13. Two other ob-jectives of the MIP mission were todemonstrate India’s capability to im-pact an instrument at a planned timeand at the desired location on themoon and to perform a scientific ex-ploration of the moon at close range.

T.S. Subramanian

India on the moon

ISR

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LUNAR SURFACE PHOTOGRAPHED by the MIP during its descent.

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Travel

THE images of Botswana that come alive on hiscomputer screen bring more than just beautiful me-mories to Shekar Dattatri. “I found excellent ex-amples of ecotourism there. While it may not bepractical to replicate these in India, there are manythings that we can learn about responsible wildlife

tourism from this beautiful country in southern Afri-ca,” says the award-winning wildlife and conserva-tion film-maker. “Tourists who know nothing aboutconservation should leave the place wiser for theexperience. Ecotourism should not only benefit wild-life but also local communities.”

In May this year, Dattatri was part of a smallexpedition into the heart of Botswana, one of themost beautiful and unspoilt destinations in theworld. The trip started at the Selinda game reserve, aprivate concession (land contracted out for tourism),and wound its way through the virtually untouchedwilderness of the Okavango, the largest inland deltain the world.

As the Okavango river descends from the moun-tains of neighbouring Angola and enters north-westBotswana, it fans out to become a vast delta. Teem-ing with wildlife, the delta is a virtual showcase ofAfrican mega fauna – hippopotamuses, elephants,lions, leopards, impalas, African cape buffaloes, hye-nas and warthogs. The birdlife includes martial andBatteleur eagles, marabou storks, saddle-bill storksand numerous other species.

But for the vast expanse of water, the area occu-pied by the Okavango delta would have been a des-ert. Some years ago, a neighbouring country hadplans to build a dam across the river. That wouldhave left the delta starved of water. Fortunately, theplan was dropped and the Okavango remains a para-dise of extraordinary beauty and richness.

This protected wilderness is so vast that it caneven be seen from space. In satellite images, it lookslike a frying pan, complete with a handle, and itstotal expanse is a staggering 17,000 sq km. A com-parison would be edifying: the Nagarahole NationalPark in Karnataka, about which Dattatri made a filmin 1997, is only 627 sq km.

Hundreds of islets dot the Okavango delta. “Theabundant water and lush vegetation have resulted ina mind-boggling assemblage of wildlife, turning thedelta into something of a utopia,” says Dattatri.

The astonishing fact is that most of these isletswere apparently formed by the action of termitesover a long period of time. When the water level inthe delta is low, termites start building mounds on

“I found excellent examples ofecotourism there. There are manythings that India can learn aboutresponsible wildlife tourism fromthis beautiful country in southernAfrica,” says the film-maker.

A wildlife film-maker’s journey through Botswana’s Okavango delta, an unspoilt

destination. B Y T . S . S U B R A M A N I A N . P H O T O G R A P H S B Y S H E K A R D A T T A T R I

SHEKAR DATTATRI BESIDE a termite mound inthe Okavango delta.

African experience

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the exposed ground. Over the years,the mounds get larger and larger, so-metimes reaching a height of almostfour metres.

Every year, the Okavango river ac-

cumulates an enormous amount of fer-tile silt and deposits it in the deltaduring its annual flooding cycle. Thissilt settles around the termite mounds.Birds, which perch on these mounds,drop excreta loaded with variousseeds. From these, vegetation springsto life. Grass grows around the moundand trees take root. This small, vege-tated piece of ground, says Dattatri,then traps more silt during the suc-ceeding floods, and gradually growsinto a little islet. As many neighbour-ing islets keep growing this way, theyconjoin and eventually become largerislands.

The substrate beneath the Oka-vango delta is Kalahari sand which, initself, is not very fertile. What lendsfertility to the delta is the silt that the

river brings from the Angolan high-lands year after year. The islands cre-ated by the termites are, therefore,extremely lush and provide food andcover to a variety of animals that hopfrom island to island. The impala, thezebra and the buffalo come for thegrass and predators follow them. Ele-phants too use the islands. Thus, theaction of the humble termites has cre-ated opportunities for even the might-iest of animals in what wouldotherwise have been just a sheet ofwater.

Botswana has the best situationpossible to preserve its wildlife. Acountry one-sixth the size of India andwith fewer than two million people, itexperiences very little of the pressureon land and other population-related

AN AERIAL VIEW of the Okavango delta. Its total expanse is 17,000 sq km and in satellite images it looks like a fryingpan, complete with a handle.

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problems that India has. What’s more,its President, Ian Seretse Khama, has adeep interest in wildlife and conserva-tion. “When you have a country likeBotswana with such a wealth of wild-life and a President who is keenly in-terested in preserving it, you canimagine what the thrust will be, rightfrom the top, towards conservation,”says Dattatri. Khama was earlier thechief of the country’s army. His fatherwas Botswana’s first President.

Botswana is a land-locked country,bordered by South Africa, Namibia,Zimbabwe and Zambia. It is a stable,relatively prosperous democracy, withmuch of its revenue coming from itsdiamond mines. Diamonds accountfor more than 70 per cent of the coun-try’s export earnings. Cattle-rearing isthe second most important avocationand tourism is the third largest reve-nue-earner.

The Botswana model is “high-val-ue, low-volume tourism”, which bringsin good revenue without putting toomuch pressure on fragile habitats. It isspecialised wildlife tourism, with theOkavango delta and its myriad islandsbeing at the heart of it.

Dattatri flew to Maun in Botswanavia Johannesburg, South Africa, wherehe was joined by two of his naturalist-

companions from the United King-dom and the Netherlands. Maun is thegateway to the Okavango delta. It hasgrown rapidly in the past few yearsfrom a village to a vital wildlife hub.

Small charter flights operate fromMaun to various wildlife campsaround the delta, each of which has itsown small dirt strip for landing andtakeoff. “Sometimes the pilots have tomake several approaches to shoo awaythe lions or elephants sitting on theairstrip and create enough space onthe runway to land or take off,” ex-claims Dattatri.

From Maun, the team took a char-ter flight to Selinda, a privately oper-ated wildlife reserve. “This is whereBotswana scores with its brand of eco-tourism,” says Dattatri. “Selinda offersa good example of the best practices inecotourism”.

The Government of Botswana ap-portions areas of wilderness into dif-ferent blocks and auctions them toprivate ecotourism operators. Eachblock covers an area of about 1,50,000acres (one acre is 0.4 hectare). Sincethere are no fences, animals can movefreely without hindrance. Entrepre-neurs can bid for such blocks, calledconcessions, for a tenure of up to 15years, paying a royalty to the govern-

ment. The operator then has to man-age the range on his own and earn hisrevenue.

“However, this does not mean thathe can do whatever he wants in thegame reserve. He cannot, for instance,build a couple of hundred concreterooms to maximise his profits,” saysDattatri. Only eco-friendly cottages,using locally available material, are al-lowed.

In Selinda, there are only 14 cot-tages in the entire concession of150,000 acres; each cottage can ac-commodate just two people. Conse-quently, the cost for a day at Selinda isquite high – about $750 a person,which includes the expenses for wild-life safaris, payment for guides, andfood and accommodation.

There are no television sets or air-conditioners in the cottages. Silentgenerators supply electricity to thecamp. No littering is allowed anywh-ere in the concession and plastic is

WALKING SAFARIS ARE arranged in the Selinda game reserve.

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TEEMING WITH WILDLIFE, the delta is a virtual showcase of African mega fauna. Clockwise from above, a herd ofelephants, a giraffe, a hippopotamus and a warthog in Selinda.

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training programme also equips themto look after their guests in style andcomfort while guaranteeing an unfor-gettable wilderness experience.

All the private camps have smallfleets of top quality all-terrain vehiclessuch as Land Rovers and Toyota LandCruisers. These are not only speciallyoutfitted for the comfort of the guestsbut are maintained in excellent condi-tion to keep noise and pollution to theminimum.

Southern Botswana has lost a lot ofits wilderness, but the northern part ofthe country is still extremely rich andpristine. Within minutes of flying outof Maun, Dattatri and his companionssaw great swathes of scrubby grasslandwith clusters of trees here and there.Immediately on landing on an “air-strip”, they ran into warthogs, giraffesand other uniquely African animals.What enthralled Dattatri were thespectacular sunsets for which Africa isfamous. “In the African wilderness,when the sun sets and darkness de-scends, it is as if you have been trans-ported back millions of years in time,”he says.

“The camps may sport an ethnic

THE RICH BIRDLIFE in Okavango includes (clockwise from above left)martial eagles, marabou storks, ground hornbills and saddle-bill storks.

taboo. The high cost keeps away day-trippers who would otherwise ruin thearea by descending on it in hundreds.“It’s certainly not egalitarian, but thenit helps preserve the wilderness in itspristine state,” says Dattatri, addingthat there are other parks in Botswanathat are accessible to tourists who can-not afford the kind of rates charged bypremium camps such as Selinda.

Despite the high rates, margins arefairly slim for concession owners asthey are almost fully responsible forthe upkeep of the land. Not only dothey have to provide their guests withservices commensurate with thecharges, but they have to keep the areafree from poachers.

Dattatri’s wildlife guide at Selindawas Humphrey Gumpo, a young manwith boundless enthusiasm. It is noteasy to become a licensed guide in agame reserve in Botswana. There areseveral written, oral and practical ex-aminations to pass before being certi-fied as a guide. The guides are expectedto be able to identify all the birds andanimals in the area and be able to an-swer even complicated questions onthe ecology of the region. The rigorous

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THE ECO-FRIENDLY COTTAGESmay sport an ethnic and rusticappearance from the outside, butwithin, everything is comfortableand practical.

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and rustic appearance from the out-side, but within, everything is com-fortable and practical. Thanks to thepleasant weather during most of thetourist season, a cool breeze fills theroom the moment you open the cur-tains. At night you are lulled to sleep tothe soothing sounds of the Africannight. The noisy hippos in the swampnearby add to the ethereal charm of theplace,” says Dattatri.

At Selinda, walking safaris are ar-ranged for those who are interested.These can be of different durations:from a half-a-day’s stroll to two orthree days of rigorous walking, spend-ing the nights out in the wilderness.“It’s very different from a jeep safari,which is virtually risk free. When youwalk, you encounter wild Africa on itsown terms and must be prepared foranything,” says Dattatri.

Guides are required to carry a load-ed rifle when walking in the bush andare even authorised to shoot an animalin case of real danger. The governmentrules are very strict, and every bullethas to be accounted for, and every shotfired by a guide, even to scare away ananimal, must be reported and justifiedin great detail in writing. The paperwork involved ensures that no one be-comes trigger-happy, adds Dattatri.

During their two-day stay at theSelinda game reserve, the team sawflocks of marabou storks, which aresomewhat similar to the adjutantstorks found in India. Like the adju-tants, marabou storks too have nakednecks since they feed a lot on carrion,digging deep into the blood-soakedcarcasses as vultures do. Dattatri andfriends also came across a large gather-ing of about 200 elephants. Smaller

families of elephants were often seenwherever there was vegetation andwater.

Dattatri explains why African ele-phants have such large ears. “Since sa-vannah elephants spend most of theirtime out in the open, their body can getoverheated. The large ears act like ra-diators. Constant flapping of the ears,which have an extensive network ofblood vessels in them, cools the bloodcirculating through them. Since manyanimals do not sweat, they have adap-tive mechanisms and behaviouraltraits to stay cool despite high ambienttemperatures in summer.”

Two species of African hornbillsare common at Selinda – the largeground hornbill and the smaller yel-low-billed hornbill. The ground horn-bills can fly, but all their foraging isdone on the ground. They feed on liz-

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ards, snakes and insects and some-times the fledglings of ground-nestingbirds also. The yellow-billed hornbill isomnivorous and can be seen constant-ly flitting from tree to tree in search offood.

After two nights at Selinda, theteam flew to Xigera, in the middle ofthe Okavango delta, where a boat waswaiting for it for the four-day expedi-

tion to Maun. “The delta is a maze ofthousands of creeks and channelsflowing through vast expanses of papy-rus reeds and it would be extremelyeasy to get lost. Thankfully, our guide,Luke, knew the waters like the back ofhis hand and never missed a turn dur-ing the entire journey,” marvels Dat-tatri.

The expedition team spent the

nights camping under the stars, sleep-ing on small islands, sometimes withelephants or other animals nearby.The journey was an unforgettable ex-perience for Dattatri. “Barring Ladakhand one or two places in the north-east, there is virtually no true wilder-ness left in India, and it was enthrall-ing to be in a landscape with no humanhabitations for miles in any direction.When we stopped the boat to take inthe scenery the only sounds that couldbe heard were the sounds of nature.”

The two aluminium boats theytravelled in carried enough rations,water, and tents. “The tents were ac-tually mosquito nets on frames, sowhen you lay in your bed it was asthough you were completely in theopen with nothing between you andthe bush. At night, as we drifted off tosleep, we could often hear lions roar-ing, leopards calling and baboons,frightened of predators, making alarmcalls. The sky was so clear that it was asthough you could reach out and touchthe stars,” reminisces Dattatri. “It wasprimordial.” �

ON A SAFARI with wildlife guides from the Selinda camp. (Below) Atypical charter plane for ferrying tourists to wildlife camps.

Published on alternate Saturdays.WPP No.CPMG/AP/SD-15/WPP/2008-2010 & MH/MR/South-180/06-08.Postal Regn. No.TN/ARD/22/06-08. RNI No.42591/84

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