WORLD ENVIRONMENTAL COUNCIL

To put it succinctly, the inexplicable government decision can be attributed to the 'Kalam effect'. Here was a brilliant, non-controversial, self-effacing, supposedly pliable, scientist whom the political class elevated to the office of the President. What does he end up doing. In just one tenure - no wonder they denied him a second one - he outshines the political class. His popularity with the Indian public has assumed such proportions that it overshadows the political stalwarts across party lines. In a direct election or referendum they would be relegated to being mere also-rans. The government, or for that matter the political class, is not going to repeat the earlier mistake; at least not so soon after Dr. Kalam's departure from Rashtrapati Bhavan.

With her proven competence, had Kiran Bedi been made the Police Commissioner of Delhi she would have electrified Delhi by the positive changes that she would have brought in. A no-nonsense police officer with amazing resilience and inner strength, she would not have spared the political offenders or the land mafias that have taken control of the city. What is more, with the Commonwealth Games coming to Delhi in the near future, she would have been the cynosure of all eyes, especially the media - Indian as well as foreign. In the process the lady would have outshone and outperformed the two ladies who rule the roost - in Delhi and the political apex in India. Kiran Bedi would have taken the Kalam legacy several notches higher. She would have been a hands on person - a spell-binding speaker as well as a doer. Hers would not have been a ceremonial post. What is more, after retirement she might have been induced to enter the political mainstream - horrible thought for power coteries and political fiefdoms. Bedi would have represented a refreshing change. The politicians have denied Bedi her due. She might still turn out to be their nemesis. Should she go that way, India would certainly be behind her, as it was behind Dr A P J Abdul Kalam, former President of India.

Meanwhile, the political class has given itself a breather. The loss is that of Delhi and its citizens.

July 26th 2007
©Vinod Saighal
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A Critique of the Military Dimension of South Asian Security
(Extract from Chapter 1 - Footnote to the main text on Page 56):
The Pakistan establishment has been so intimately involved with the terrorist organizations nurtured by them for so long that disengagement, even it were to be finally mandated by the military top brass would be difficult, if not impossible. During an interview given to a news channel, Star TV in early 2002 on the heels of the press conference by the then Indian army chief, this author had stated inter alia that while it might be true that through its proxy war or Low Intensity Conflict Pakistan was pursuing its strategy of bleeding the Indian army by a thousand cuts, seeing the size of India and the Indian army these were all flesh wounds to which salve could be applied. In the process Pakistan was haemorrhaging internally, a potentially fatal condition. Schisms have further developed amongst the terrorist organizations based in Pakistan between those that continue to enjoy support from Pakistan’s ISI and those considered beyond the pale. However, quite a few of the prominent terrorist groups that are close to or remain substantially controlled by the ISI have large number of cadres deeply sympathetic to Al-Qaeda and its affiliates, regardless of their leadership’s perceived closeness with their military and ISI handlers. These elements have been suspected of moonlighting for the more radical groups opposed to the policies of the military regime.
In the light of the foregoing, the author in a BBC interview in London on 16 September 2003 had questioned the wisdom of the Western world putting all its eggs in the basket of the military dictator of Pakistan.

July 20th 2007
©Vinod Saighal
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INDIAN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION 2007 - REDUCED TO A ZERO SUM GAME
(Addressed to All Indians Who Can Feel, See, Hear and Who Care)

That the downslide in the Indian polity, which has been going on for many years, is fast reaching its nadir is borne out by the manner in which the selection of the President has been conducted by the political class and, furthermore, the style in which electioneering is being orchestrated. A quick glance first at the selection procedure.

The Selectors Cabal
- The Ruling Party. Not more than half-a-dozen people who call the shots, all vying with each other to show their loyalty to the dynasty; are rewarded accordingly. The present head of the dynasty having already reduced the stature of the Prime Minister to its lowest point since Independence would now like to create a similar dependency in the Rashtrapati Bhawan. Concern for the national interest or the dignity of the highest office was never a consideration. To quote the media, the ultimate choice, where due diligence evidently had not taken place, was the lowest common denominator in the search for consensus within the UPA.
- The UPA (or the governing coalition). The coalition partners were generally willing to follow the ruling Congress provided there were to be a consensus within the UPA. The major wreckers of the consensus within UPA were the Left parties led by the CPM.
- The Left Parties. The principal wreckers who have ceaselessly undermined government consensus on practically every major issue. Again the decision-making cabal comprised less than six people.
- The Principal Opposition Party. One point agenda to try and foist a person most suited to their right wing ideology. The cabal at the top comprising doddering old leaders of yesteryear who simply will not let younger people come up to revive the decline in the party. Their own fossilisation resulted in the selection of a candidate who is older than their tired selves.
- The leader of the BSP. Reaches agreement with the Congress leader on mutually beneficial considerations (well documented by the media). Neither leader interested in a person of eminence and integrrity becoming the President.
- The Other Political Parties (collectively calling themselves the Third Front). A motley group; the less said about their concern for dignity,decorum or concern for the national interest the better.
- Common to all the political parties (mentioned above). Zero inner party democracy or consultation with the rank and file. No concern for what the people of India are saying or feel about the nationally humiliating political machinations.
- The Present Incumbent. Had won the respect of the nation. Was immensely popular. Could have gone out in a blaze of glory. At the end of the day slipped from the pedestal and barely remained standing. His predecessor, another respected figure who had conducted himself with dignity throughtout his presidential tenure fell from grace under exactly similar circumstances.

We The People of India (The Largest Democracy in the World). Had absolutely no role to play in the selection process. The political class was and remains totally immune to the voice of the overwhelming law-abiding, non-agitating, non-rabble rousing majority. Technically, since the party cabals have taken over, the people of India, at this stage of the election, are as removed from the process of electing the president as would be an astronaut sitting on the moon watching the process without in any way being able to affect it. In other words just about thirty people (the cabalists), perhaps each one having several skeletons in his or her cupboard, and many of whom are known to have subverted and continue to subvert the legal process, will decide the outcome, completely disregarding the views of one billion plus Indians. Reduced to its essentials this is the stark reality which the people of India, the Election Commission and the Courts must face. The system worked reasonably well the way it was designed when the legislators who form the Electoral College were people of standing and when such a large percentage of them were not criminals, bootleggers, mafia dons, tax-dodgers, smugglers of people, currency, goods and the like. Evidently, something needs to be done before the next presidential election.

NOW COMING TO THE MEDIA
The very manner of choosing the candidates selected by the political cabal was such that everybody was kept guessing till almost the very end. It might have been deliberate, or there might have been other reasons, including the difficulty of arriving at a consensus. Therefore, due diligence about the candidates could not be carried out - an essential exercise in any democracy for the persons likely to occupy the highest office in the country. It resulted in the media trying to dig up every bit of dirt on the candidate most likely to carrry the day - in this case, as things stand, Mrs. Pratibha Patil. To tabulate the accusations, or besmirchment attempts to date by the opposition politicians and the media and other interested parties, these have been described as:
- She felt that the time had come to remove the veil. She quoted or misquoted or partially quoted historical texts. The result: the main proposer the Congress Party felt embarrassed. Muslim clergy were quick to take offence. Mrs Patil tried to cover her confusion.
- Mrs Patil, while a minister in the State government was a strong votary of population stabilisation. She is supposed to have said that, "those who objected on grounds of religion should be ignored, because the need of the hour (according to her) was family planning, it being the highest religion (of prime importance) for India. She has been pilloried on this score as well.
- Activities related to her Trust that cannot stand scrutiny. They show her in very poor light.
- She believes in spirits, having attended the session that was run by the Brahmakumaris in Mt. Abu.

Comments of Citizens not party to media denigration, exposures or partisan politics.
- Mrs. Patil would actually be congratulated by most non-partisan Indians for having taken the lead in saying that the time has come for the women of India to be emancipated. That is the essence of her comment, even if the historical context can be questioned. The fact is that the objections have generally come from the hardliners, the Muslim clergy and opposition members. Who has bothered to take a sounding of how the veiled and oppressed women, often treated as chattel, actually feel about Mrs. Patil's statement?
- Family Planning. Mrs. Patil should get full marks if she made that statement and if she still holds those views. It is the prime concern for India, which most politicians have shied away from. India has one of the highest low birth weight indices in the world. Malnourished, mentally retarded children can be seen in practically every slum and bustee in the country. The majority of the women in the slums do not want so many children. Most of them simply keep coming, because of the nightly onslaught of the drunken male, and because family planning facilities have not reached them.
- She believes in spirits or mediums. What a travesty of facts. She attended a session where thousands others were present. On coming out she was confronted by the media and perhaps did not want to offend the people who invited her or did not know how her remarks would be construed. Whatever her inner feelings or beliefs, is she not entitled to them? Incidentally, the organisation that invited her at Mt. Abu is accredited to the United Nations and had been invited to set up their representation in New York. Mr. Kofi Annan, the previous Secretary General is known to have showered praise on them. Before the last general election that brought the Congress Party to power, its leader visited Mt. Abu to meet the same Dadis. President Kalam and some of the most eminent people from around the world who have had interaction with the Brahmakumaris have been very effusive in their praise. Hardly anybody who comes into contact with the Dadis, many in their eighties, can fail to be impressed by their humaneness, childlike purity and spirituality. Their dedication has allowed the organisation to set up thousands of centres in over 90 countries. So much for mischievous media comments.
- The way her Trust was run leaves much to be desired. This is indeed a very serious allegation. If proved, should in normal circumstances lead to her opting out of the race.
All things being equal and seeing that practically all politicians of today (barring a handul of honourable exceptions) have many more skeletons in their cupboard and are party to illegalities of far more serious nature if investigated, or allowed to be investigated, the question that should be uppermost is, "seeing that there are only two serious contenders left in the fray, how far should the media go in continuously denigrating the lady, who all things said and done, has a very dignified bearing, and who for her entire political life has comported herself with dignity and decorum, something that is alien to most of our politicians today". Because if the process is carried too far and in the process she is pulverised to a degree that there is no respect left for the person how will she be able to discharge her presidential duties in the years to come. It being probable that she is the candidate most likely to succeed a thought should be given to this aspect by the media. Meanwhile, the people of India have to find a way out of the political mire into which a reasonable electoral system has now been pushed. Will this become the norm or is there a way out?

June 27th 2007
©Vinod Saighal
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The Indian President – NOT Exactly a Rubber Stamp
Seeing the interest generated in the forthcoming Presidential election, additional inputs based on the queries raised after the earlier piece on the subject are appended below. Media debates by constitutional experts and political figures have tended to concentrate on the composition of the electoral college and the horse-trading for a consensus candidate. It is proving illusive. Evidently, the party which has the greatest say in the UPA is keen on sponsoring a nominee who is considered a party loyalist, more appropriately a loyalist of the coterie running the political party. (Needless to say that one of the bigger failings of Indian democracy has been the lack of inner party democracy).

For the first few decades after independence the office of the president remained non-controversial and largely ceremonial, owing to the comfortable majority enjoyed by the Congress party that produced several illustrious prime ministers. Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi his daughter, and Lal Bahadur Shashtri, the prime minister during the 1965 Indo-Pakistan war, who died in Tashkent, are all respected figures of the post-independence political pantheon. The prime ministers of the day generally called the shots and the presidents simply went along. At least there were seldom any major tremors. The office of the president grew in importance and stature after the Emergency declared by prime minister Indira Gandhi consequent to an adverse judgment against her by the Allahabad High Court. Political analysts are fairly unanimous that Emergency, under the prevailing circumstances, could only have been declared by a rubber stamp president personally beholden to Indira Gandhi giving his assent. All occupants of the Rashtrapati Bhawan, thereafter, were mindful of the universal opprobrium heaped on the hapless incumbent who had signed the Emergency decree.

When Indira Gandhi came back to power a second time she sponsored Giani Zail Singh, a former chief minister of Punjab and home minister in the central cabinet, to the post of the president. The electoral college went along. Giani Zail Singh did not ruffle any feathers till Mrs.Gandhi was alive, in spite of the fact that she had ordered operation Blue Star and sent in the Indian army to flush out the Sikh extremists holding out in the Golden Temple in Amritsar. After Mrs. Indira Gandhi’s assassination Giani Zail Singh immediately swore in Rajiv Gandhi, her son as the prime minister, although the Congress Working Committee (CWC) had not met up to that time to select a new leader. Mr. Zail Singh thus paid his due as a Gandhi family loyalist. It turned out to be his last act of subservience.

As the years went by under the premiership of Rajiv Gandhi, Giani Zail Singh became more and more assertive. He withheld assent to the controversial Postal Bill. It lapsed. What is more interesting from the point of view of the residual powers of the president was the rumour that swept the political circles after the Bofors controversy blew up in Rajiv Gandhi’s face, to the effect that the president was seriously considering dismissing the Rajiv Gandhi government and calling fresh elections. The situation became so tense that the Rajiv Gandhi government started closely monitoring every move of President Zail Singh, lest he go ahead with the controversial move. There is no evidence on record, however, that Mr. Zail Singh was indeed contemplating such an action and as to what the constitutional ramifications of that move would have been. That Mr. Rajiv Gandhi was on tenterhooks for a given period of time can almost be taken as a fact.
President APJ Abdul Kalam though a political novice, which showed in some of his decisions, became a highly popular president. The non-political person won deep respect and admiration from the people of India. If it had been the people’s choice he would have easily won a second term.
Dr. Kalam, had he stood his ground, could have incommoded the Manmohan Singh government on several occasions, most notably the dissolution of the Bihar State Assembly to which he recorded his assent at some unearthly hour during a state visit abroad. Later on, when the case went to the Supreme Court, the Supreme Court overturned the government decision, although not restoring the status quo ante. Fresh elections followed the Supreme Court ruling. The Nitish Kumar coalition won a clear majority. The Bihar political earthquake could be deemed to be the forerunner of the political earthquake that took place in the recent UP elections. Mayawati’s BSP also won a clear majority.
Based on the Supreme Court decision in the Bihar Assembly dissolution case some of the flak came Dr. Kalam’s way. He passed off his hasty decision as part of what he termed his “learning curve”. It becomes a clear case of the leeway that the president has in exercising his discretion.
Another case in point is the controversial Office of Profit Bill - a post facto justification to cover political wrongdoing. Had President Kalam withheld his final assent, or delayed it inordinately, it could conceivably have led to the fall or break up of the UPA government.
That the president is an important player in the era of coalition governments becomes clear from the quest of every major political party to nominate a person who would be favourable to them, thereby virtually debasing the highest office in the land and dealing a further blow to the Constitution. Such are the discretionary powers that vest with the president in the case of hung parliaments - i.e., when no party has a clear majority - that the person whom the President invites to form a government and, more importantly, the time given to that person (party) to test a governing majority on the floor of the house become crucial factors in deciding as to who and which party would form the government.

Going a step further, the President has the power, as brought out earlier, to give assent or withhold assent to an enactment of the parliament before it becomes law. After sending back a bill to parliament for its reconsideration the president is obliged to accord consent, irrespective of whether the observations made have been addressed or not. However, no time limit is set in the Constitution for the president to sign a bill when consent is withheld.

The president plays an important role in many other cases. To list just a few: the president can query the government on the name(s) of justices for the highest court sent for his approval. The same is the case with the selection of governors of states. The governments of the day might yet force the issue, but the very fact of the President having indicated his disapprobation is taken serious note of by the public and the media, often much to the acute embarrassment of the government.

The President is considered, by virtue of his office, to be the guarantor of the independent functioning of constitutional bodies like the Election Commission. The president can also make a reference to the Supreme Court when in doubt about the constitutional legality of any bill sent to him for his assent.

In the light of the foregoing the exercise being undertaken by the political parties to elect a person to the highest office, who in their opinion would safeguard their pary's interest, is an exercise which indicates the pernicious influences that have come to the fore. It questions the democratic credentials of the political parties, more so the persons at the helm responsible for lack of inner party democracy.

To sum up: while the President may be in a position to rock the boat or influence mid-course corrections, the incumbent in the Rashtrapati Bhavan is constitutionally not in a position to pilot the boat.

(Information relating to books can be accessed from: www.vinodsaighal.com & www.amazon.com)

New Delhi
June 14th 2007
©Vinod Saighal
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Revitalised Ganga Action Plan

(PRESENTATION MADE ON BEHALF OF THE ECO MONITORS SOCIETY AT THE ECO REVIVAL SUMMIT 98 ON 9th NOVEMBER 1998 AT THE INDIA INTERNATIONAL CENTRE, NEW DELHI).

Well over a decade ago a youthful Prime Minister fired the imagination of the nation by outlining his vision for the purification of the Ganga. Unfortunately, despite huge outlays, there is very little to show for it on the ground. The dream of the former Prime Minister lies as shattered as lay his body after the assassination, before his cremation. Should we then give a decent burial to the Ganga Action Plan as well. We don't think so. As much as the Himalayas, the River Ganges embodies the very core of India's civilisational continuity and its quintessential spiritual flow - past, present and future. From the mists of antiquity, when the first great Rishis meditated on its banks, to the eternality of mankind's quest in the millennia to follow the Ganga has to retain its purity for the millions who come to worship on its sacred banks - at a myriad sanctified places along the course of "Ganga Mayya".

To revitalise the turgid Ganga Action Plan we recommend the setting up of a national task force, freed from all political and bureaucratic control, along the following lines:

Ø The national task force (NTF) to be constituted by an enactment of Parliament or under a directive by the Supreme Court of India or by any other means which would guarantee the independent functioning and efficacy of the programme.

Ø The NTF to be headed by any person of outstanding ability. Suitable guidelines to be incorporated in the initial enactment for ensuring the impartiality of the selection as well as the competence of the person selected to carry out the mandate.

Ø The allocation for the Action Plan to be made directly by the Planning Commission to the NTF.

Ø The NTF to have an accompanying special court or an empowered tribunal to ruthlessly eliminate all obstructions to the speedy implementation of the Action Plan. No subordinate authority in any of the States would have the power to interfere with, question, or stay the progress of the Action Plan.

Ø The NTF would be empowered to requisition the services of any qualified personnel of the Central or State governments for periods of time determined by the apex body of the NTF. In like manner, the NTF would have lien on any law and order forces of the Central or State governments for ensuring compliance with the decisions of the NTF and/or the empowered tribunal headed by a serving or retired Justice of the Supreme Court.

Ø Guidelines for the standards of purity, beautification and ecotone restoration to be attained, as well as the time frames in which these are to be attained would be laid down at the time of establishing the NTF.

The key ingredients of the revitalised Ganga Action Plan have been highlighted. Sensible modifications and mid-term corrections for the scheme could be carried out from time to time as the scheme progresses. It is possible to concomitantly set up national task forces along similar lines for some of the other major river systems on the subcontinent. The methodology recommends itself for application for long term flood control measures on a subcontinental or interstate basis.

It must be kept in mind, however, that the setting up of the NTF for the Ganga Action Plan and other task forces of a similar nature must, from their very inception, have a proviso for winding up of the task forces within stipulated time frames. Failing which, the country will be saddled with one more massive bureaucracy which would add further deadweight to the leviathan already crippling the country's growth. A contract-based, performance-oriented Action Plan, which would automatically get wound up on completion, would be the answer. After setting up the NTF mechanism the government and bureaucracy would remain totally out of the loop. Benign over-watch could be maintained by a non-governmental oversight committee.

© Vinod Saighal
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RE-APPRAISING THE IDEA OF INDIA

(Talk delivered by Maj.Gen. Vinod Saighal (retd) at the Rajiv Gandhi Institute for Contemporary Studies, New Delhi on May 10, 2003)

The ‘Idea of India’ has been variously commented upon by several persons, many of them well known, from the perspective of their own background, whether they be writers, expatriates, political scientists, constitutional experts, philosophers and the like. Almost invariably the discipline or the academic background of the person putting forward the ideas has manifested itself in the views expressed, perhaps naturally so. This point is mentioned because the diversity of views of the idea of India can be seen to be as abundant as the idea of India itself. On the academic plane, i.e. from the perspective of persons who are able to put across their views to a larger audience through their writings or discourses the ‘Idea’ has been regarded, or at times discredited as one or the other label, most notably cultural, civlisational, political or an amalgam of complexities, too difficult to discern with any degree of clarity. As if these complexities were not enough, the present dialogue on the idea of India has been overwhelmingly coloured by the controversy raging over secular and non-secular debates that have taken place or are taking shape at the very moment when the world itself is being buffeted by contradictions that it thought it had wound down for a century or more.

To a lay person standing aside from the debate on the idea of India, which itself is a subliminal thrust towards a perceived ideal for the person informing the debate, the idea per se becomes a superimposition of the beliefs or prejudices of the person concerned. Standing back, at some remove from a direct involvement, it should be possible for any objective observer to anticipate with a reasonable degree of accuracy the position that would be likely to be taken by a well known person putting across his or her idea of India. This statement should not be construed as a criticism of a given mindset of the idea of India, which in several cases would be seen to conform to the ideal of the person formulating the idea of India. The digression at the start of the paper is made to show that the very subjectivity attached to the idea of India makes it an imperfect ideal for being accepted as such – in case it is meant to be so – by the majority of the people who go through the humdrum of Indian existence without trying to look for anything beyond the travails of their existence. To that extent the debate remains esoteric.

The amorphous nature of the idea of the ‘Idea of India’ allows for as many interpretations as there are people pondering over it as an intellectual exercise. There are so many ways of looking at a country whose civilisational base goes back to the dawn of civilization itself. An individual, or groups of individuals, who in their remoteness remain steeped in the traditions patterned on the lives of their forefathers since time immemorial do not have to delve into aspects that are of analytical, philosophical or historical interest to writers and savants, who debate these issues. They live the tradition. It is part of their very being. It is the continuum that in their mind was without beginning, flows effortlessly into the present, and by their reckoning, moves as easily into the future. It is a faith and an understanding untrammeled by self-doubt or doubt about the tradition in which they are steeped.

There are others, comprising the bulk of the people of India, living in India, who may share the attitudes of their brethren, although the pre-modern type of existence would appear to be an anachronism to many people who have stepped into the modern world. Here again, by and large the new lifestyle adopted by them – by some as recently as the last 30 or 40 years – need not lead to questioning of their civilisational past or their idea of what that past was and how it is to be lived in the present. Therefore, in a statistical sense it would be only a small percentage of Indians who would be grappling with the question of what the idea of India represents to them or for them.

A re-worked idea of India, shaped at the beginning of the new century through the dizzying scientific breakthroughs taking place at a myriad points on the scientific horizon, must take into account the externalities that will have a major effect on the thinking of the Indian nation, of all nations, for that matter. True, that in a country like India the external impulses are felt most keenly, in the first instance, by the power elites and the globalised elites in the metropolitan cities most receptive to them. On the face of it they do not directly buffet the minds of people in communities still steeped in the ways of their forefathers. Although the trickle down effect is slower, much slower, it cannot be escaped altogether, even by people living in remote regions of the country, cocooned in their time warp due to their relative inaccessibility. Nevertheless, since the policies being enacted by the governing elites are directly influenced - or imposed upon - by the prime movers of globalisation they will, over a period of time, have an effect on the lives of most people; whether it would be to a lesser or greater degree will be determined by the distance of the communities from the centers of globalisation. Naturally, there will be other determinants as well.

* * **

The India, which now situates itself at the dawn of the third millennium after Christ, must take into account the political aspect. Modern India, after attaining its independence in 1947 has been shaped, reshaped or become misshapen by the parliamentary form of government that the founding fathers of post-independent India chose for it in the belief that it represented the best ideal for ‘their’ idea of India; for transforming it after centuries of subjugation into a strong healthy society. Therefore, the country’s political identity is based on its commitment to certain fundamental principles, namely justice, liberty, equality, fraternity and the dignity of the individual. Fundamental rights institutionalize, respect and protect the individual’s dignity and freedom. The Directive Principles go further in that they have a strong egalitarian thrust. After 50 years of what many would call national decline, at least in the realm of governance, blame is being put upon the constitution, which India gave itself on achieving independence. Rightly or wrongly, whether condemning it outright or picking holes in it from time to time, it remains undeniable that the people at the helm of affairs who guided India’s destiny through that turbulent period of the partition of India must have based their actions upon their idea of India. Something akin to what is being attempted now; except that in the present case the projections remain academic and possibly idealistic without the compelling burden of transforming those ideas into actions that could shape the country’s future for the next 50 years or more, as was the case with the decisions that followed the ideation of the founding fathers of that earlier era.

It would be futile to keep harping on the rightness or otherwise of the decisions taken at that time by the leaders of the country whose stature and idealism as well as the sacrifices made by them during the freedom struggle conferred upon them an aura and mystique that few leaders can hope to achieve in the present day. Their stature as leaders beloved of their people reverberated beyond the confines of the India’s geographic boundary. It cannot be a matter of satisfaction that charismatic leaders of yester year who rode as colossi on the national as well as global arenas have almost disappeared from the face of the earth, yielding place to pygmies who lead their people through autocratic dispensations or the vagaries of the ballot box. In the latter case, often coming to power for reasons far removed from their ability to lead their people.

Whether the Constitution failed India or the people who were in the ascendant over the years as educators, intellectuals, governing elites as well as the haves, failed the constitution and the country is a debate that is not likely to die down any time soon. Nor is it likely that the constitution, which for all its failings – real or imaginary - has become reasonably well embedded can be displaced or turned over in the foreseeable future. Fed up with the state of affairs, public ferment is bound to lead to changes, mostly for the good of the people as well as the country. Whether intellectuals and the educated elite, both within the country and the expatriates, will play a significant role as harbingers of salutary changes remains an open question. In the earlier centuries, men of letters influenced the thinking of their countrymen, or even the world, over long periods of time. In some cases the movement of ideas would be considered to have been glacial by present reckoning. This is where the most significant change has come in for the men of letters, the shapers of ideas, in the form of information technology. Hence, the ivory tower appellation of rarefied intellectual debates need not apply any longer, or at least not to the same extent. Diffusion and dissemination can take place very fast, with lightening speed if the mediums of transmission and diffusion happen to be receptive to the idea.

The political shape of the nation is bound to play an over-sized part – overwhelmingly larger, when compared to other factors that determine the future of the country. Ignoring this fact, building an ideal that does not take into account the ground reality in which India is anchored in the opening years of the 21st century, or mired as some others might like to word it, would make the idea devoid of substance.

* * *

Two major streams that dominate the intellectual as well as political discourse of the country today relate to the place of religion in modern India and the relevance of the philosophy and ideals of Mahatma Gandhi. Coming first to religion, it was denied sufficient space in the political mainstream - as well as by officialdom - due to the political philosophy and the thinking of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of India and the Congress Party that played an overarching role in the country’s affairs in the opening decades after independence. Moreover, it might have been a conscious effort on the part of all concerned to exorcise the ghosts of the violent partition of India. Whether the post- secular society that India became in the last decades of the 20th century was inevitable on account of the transformations taking place in neighbouring countries and their influence on the two largest religious communities in India is a question that could be taken up by future historians. Whatever be the case, religion, in its more assertive and virulent form came up front in many parts of the world. India was no exception. Even if externalities had not impinged upon India, the country would have reached the same point, almost inevitably so, by a different route. If interdenominational clashes between the two main communities had not come to the fore earlier, it was also on account of the firm governance that obtained in the first few decades after independence, due as much to the latent stability resulting from over one century of strong, well regulated centralized authority in India. It was this latent stability, added to the competence and commitment of the leaders and civil servants who governed the country in the period immediately after independence that kept a lid on many of the ills seen raising their ugly heads today in the country. Matters, of course, came to a head during the emergency. The post-emergency decline in almost all spheres of governance and in almost all strata of society has led the country to the state that it finds itself in at the beginning of the new century. That it is not a happy state of affairs hardly needs reiteration.

The second important aspect relates to the philosophy of Gandhi. Although Gandhi continues to form an important part of the ongoing political and economic discourse taking place in the country, and elsewhere in the world for that matter, it has to be mentioned that in spite of the ideals of the Mahatma quoted with reverence at most forums discussing the future course of the country, his economic and political philosophy has not really found acceptance in the country, in so far as their practical application goes. And at the end it is difficult to think of an idea of India that completely dissociates itself from the maxims of the Mahatma, whether they relate to governance, sustainable development, harmony in pluralistic societies or for the conduct of nations in the global arena. It is not surprising that Gandhi continues to attract the attention of so many people around the world, both as the man and the ideals that he stood for. Unfortunately, the debate around the Mahatma rages, especially in India, around elements that were never put into practice in the land where they took birth.

Looking back on the events of the 20th century, both pre- and post-independence in India, one cannot fail to get the impression that although he did not lose hope or his faith in his ideals Gandhi might have died a disillusioned man. If not disillusioned, certainly heartsick at the turn of events. Did the bloodletting that took place at the time of partition in the land where for over four decades he had preached ahimsa indicate that his philosophy had failed? Amongst others, this was the land of Mahavira and Buddha. It did not end with partition. The bloodletting continues to this day, in every part of the subcontinent where the father of the nation traveled. If present indications are anything to go by it could continue till well into the future seeing the current trends across national divides in all directions in the subcontinent. Hence, it can be seen that the ground reality is almost diametrically opposed to the Gandhian tradition that so many Indians continue to extol in public forums, be they intellectuals, social workers, politicians or economists. The ordinary Indian too continues to revere the memory of the Mahatma. When the state of affairs threatens to get out of hand people still go to Rajghat in ever increasing numbers to take a pledge at the samadhi of the Mahatma.

The increasing hiatus between Gandhianism and the policies followed by Gandhi’s successors in India, regardless of their political leanings, raises fundamental questions for the idea of India. For the people of India, and for people around the world there can be no perception of India, real or imagined, where the ideals of the Mahatma do not loom large. How is this contradiction to be reconciled? Because, if it is not addressed and is merely glossed over at every public place within the country and without, where the name of Gandhi is taken, India will not be able to emerge unscathed from this troubling dissonance between the precept and its practice.

Seeing that India itself has veered so far away from the Gandhian mould it should have been possible to reject Gandhi’s philosophy out of hand and move forward without a backward glance at an ideal that was considered impractical; or could not be put into effect in a land were shallowness, hypocrisy and untruthfulness have become the order of the day, at least in public life. In which case, getting rid of the baggage of Gandhianism and getting on with the governance of the country in the non- Gandhian mould that it has adapted should have been easy.

This has not been the case. At the same time that untruthfulness and venality are in full cry, the very leaders who have propelled the country in that direction have not been able to dispense with the trumpeting of Gandhi’s legacy because of a lurking fear that should it be discarded India would not only have lost its way, it would have lost its soul. Then there would be no turning back. The thought of that final break, even shedding the pretence that is, troubles these peoples. They know that without the pretence they would not be able to face their countrymen, not at the hustings, not in public, possibly not even in private. At a deeper level they are not unaware that a final abandonment of Gandhianism would be tantamount to condemning themselves to a karmic descent too horrid to contemplate. For, no matter how immoral the lot that governs the nation, in their heart of hearts they are deeply religious, albeit in a very warped sense of what their understanding of being religious should be. They also know that in India the vast majority of their countrymen revere the Mahatma and in spite of their poverty, deprivation and misery still closely adhere to the thoughts and ideals of Gandhiji. For they are the ideals of Vivekananda, Sri Aurobindo and so many other sages and seers who moulded the character and destiny of India through the ages. That destiny that awaited India at midnight of 15th August 1947 has still eluded the country. Beneath the despair and turmoil that afflicts the land that destiny still awaits India. India will yet produce the leaders who will take India to the pinnacle that the Mahatma and the sages before him dreamed of. And therefore, the ideal cannot be lost sight of. The ideal of Mahatma Gandhi is far too important for the redemption of India, if it is to find its feet and its true destiny. For the very same reason it is important for the world as well.

It is necessary to go a step further. The reasons as to why when the majority of Indians believe in it and the political leaders profess to believe in it, Gandhianism has not prevailed in the country of its origin have to be gone into. The main reason could be the difficulty of transplanting the Gandhian ideal of the early 20th century. Under an alien dispensation that ruled the country, and because of it being alien, it started uniting the country ideologically in the earlier decades before independence. The circumstances that obtained post-independence after the partition of India are not the same. And as the years went by, leading ultimately to the dominant market capitalist economy model pervading the world in the 21st century, the implementation of those ideas became even more difficult. Firstly, as mentioned earlier, the conditions had altered radically, and secondly, having moved so far away from the Gandhian philosophy and its economic derivatives it became increasingly difficult to retrace the steps taken. Having said that, the attempts at strengthening panchayati raj and the adherence to the principle, if not the practice, of sustainable development would qualify as a bow in the direction of Gandhianism.

Meanwhile a fundamental change has taken place in the make up of the people of India - and the world as well. More than fifty years after Gandhi’s death, the capitalist model – and the morality that goes with it - have become the norm. Even countries most staunchly opposed to it earlier, have embraced it whole-heartedly, notably Russia and China. Could people of those days when Gandhi was popularizing the charkha have anything in common with Deng Xiao Peng’s famous exhortation to his countrymen that, ‘it is glorious to be rich’. If it is glorious to be rich, then there is nothing left of the Gandhian philosophy. If not the masses, at least the political class and the elites of modern India have embraced Deng’s dictum as fervently as the Chinese in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangdong, in most cases as strongly as the American themselves. Whatever be the reason for this departure from socialism to capitalism, it is undeniable that going back to the economic idealism contained in Gandhi’s writings would relegate India to an economic abyss from which there would be no recovery in the world of today. May be, when consumerism that is fast overtaking the globe makes life itself unsustainable on the planet, people across the world will start reappraising the economic philosophy of Gandhi. That is why the world is not going to forget Mahatma Gandhi. By association India, rightly or wrongly, will benefit from that grand reversal, whenever it takes place on a global scale. If India is to remain as part of the global economy, without completely shedding some of the desirable aspects of its socialist past, it must start its own reappraisal for benefiting from the vision of Gandhi wherever it is possible to transform that vision on the ground under the prevailing conditions in the country and the world. If the world has to save itself from self-destruction Gandhian non-violence must become the leitmotif of a globalised world, and a reformed UN structure that allows non-violence between states to become the norm for the 21st century.

It was possibly Mahatma Gandhi who said: ‘for my worldly needs my village is my world; for my spiritual needs the world is my village’.

* * *

The Indian diaspora is playing a much bigger role in moulding India’s selfhood than it did before the 1990s. There could be several reasons for the renewed interest and what is more the new activism of the Indian expatriate community, which is now far more affluent and self-assured than their counterparts who left India to seek their fortunes in other lands before and after India’s partition. The self-assurance and higher incomes have allowed people of Indian origin from around the world to participate more directly in India’s development. The pace at which the interaction is taking place could have, over the ensuing decades, a positive effect far out of proportion to the strength of the Indian diaspora that is actively engaged in the exercise to move India forward. More importantly, the Indian diaspora is making itself heard in safeguarding the country’s interest in the corridors of power in USA and elsewhere. The idea of India of the expatriates is in many ways distinct from that of their fellow Indians, in India. It is born out of their need for self-assertion in their adopted countries in a world where civilizations appear to be actually clashing - with the attendant uncertainties that such clashes generate for non-local persons.

The image of India for consumption in the West, notably America, as well as for home consumption in India is also being shaped by Indian expatriates who now number in the tens of millions and whose wealth has grown into the tens of billions of dollars. Their writings, actions and interactions have left an indelible impression on India’s image abroad. The new lot of expatriates that went to find their fortunes in the West after the information technology revolution represented a different breed from those that had gone earlier. The latter day emigrants being largely the products of prestigious Indian institutes started off at higher base income levels and quickly rose to prominence in several fields. For the same reason they were far more self-assured, articulate and conscious of the need to rebuild India, as well as to refurbish its image. Their common institutional backgrounds allowed them to network far more effectively than their predecessors. Networking allowed them to form pressure groups for influencing policy and thinking about India in the countries of their adoption. This cohesion did not go unnoticed in India, by the government of India, the political parties, the states, as well as the Indian media. In-country networking led to inter-country networking. As their self-confidence grows, along with their ability to influence developments in India, it suggests that the Indian diaspora will continue to play a significant role in the years ahead in remoulding India’s image. Over a period of time this interaction between India and Indian expatriate communities is bound to enrich India in several ways.

When one speaks of global projection of the idea of India, there is a dual purpose attached to the idea of India. Firstly, it refers to the idea, which harmonizes with the idea that the Indian diaspora have formed and are propagating. It has to be dynamic. It cannot be something that is congealed in some hoary past and frozen at a given point in time, to be resurrected for showing India in a better light than the situation in the country at the dawn of the new millennium would warrant. Similarly, an idea of India that is superlatively formulated to show India as the repository of all earthly wisdom from time immemorial, to the exclusion of the contribution made by other civilizations would be at variance with the true spirit of the very wisdom that is being extolled. Arrogance, be it intellectual or on account of a great heritage, would not go down well with other components of the human mosaic of the 21st century. Therefore, the other aspect of the image that India wishes to transmit to the world must bring out the harmonizing effect of the ancient message that traveled from India to many parts of the world before many of the world’s religions in the ascendant today had come into being.

India will not be able to find its true identity or realistically arrive at an idea of itself, which the country can live comfortably with, as also make it a worthwhile idea for global projection unless the internal contradictions that are coming up are first addressed.

* * *

No set of people can really live in isolation or remain indifferent to the crosscurrents being generated in the globalised world. The advance of technology will soon invade every remote niche that remains in the world, be it spatial, in the geographical sense, or the privacy of the human mind, in the metaphysical sense. Hence, seeing the pervasiveness of the processes that are being mobilized for invading the last bastions of the human as well as the natural environment it would be appropriate to look around the world to see whether there is any country whose society can be seen, or can be deemed to be progressing towards the ideal state that a conclave of this nature would be attempting to interpret, or define, even if it were to remain a process of mere intellectualization, at some remove from the practicality of the ideal sought.

Who shapes the national - and international - dialogue? It is an important question, because it is those people who have gathered unto themselves the instruments for shaping the dominant discourse of today, who are leading the world into the cul-de-sac of negativism and violence. When scanning the global horizon in pursuit of seeking out societies that my be headed toward an idea of an ideal state that comes nearest to the global ideal of the 21st century, one finds that wherever one looks, be it USA, Russia, China, the countries of Latin America, Africa, Asia or Europe it is seen that almost all these societies have developed into systems that have been unable by and large to maintain or improve upon the social cohesion of societies, which is fast breaking down in most parts of the world. There are many factors that are leading to the fragmentation of stable or relatively stable systems - and societies - that had enjoyed a greater measure of peace and harmony than they do now. Whether the state of churning or flux has been brought on by the post-World War II, followed by the post-Cold War reordering of the world order, or whether it is a byproduct of rapid modernization and globalisation, is a question that can be debated at length. Whatever be the case, the ambient condition today within societies - and between nations - is far from harmonious. Nor, on the face of it, does it seem to be heading in a direction that could bring comfort to people or nations.

* * *

The questions that would be uppermost in one’s mind when contemplating India’s future must take into account some, if not all, of the aspect that are tabulated below: -

Has the political self-assertion, or the attempt at self-assertion by some of the deprived segments of Indian society now finding political representation ameliorated the condition of these classes as a whole or has it merely enabled the new leaders of the backward classes to exploit the situation for their own aggrandizement at the cost of their communities, without bringing any real benefits to the latter? Carrying this thought process further, ‘ will these new leaders be co-opted into the governing elites once the process of self-aggrandizement has reached levels that allow them to emulate the sections that they were agitating against’?
What will be the outcome a few years hence of the metropolitan elites around the world consciously collaborating with the forces of globalisation? These forces might have started from America. However, they are no longer limited to that country.
Leaders of political struggles, revolutionaries, upholders of public morality, social scientists and many others in similar categories have sought to describe their struggle or movement as one of liberation. It can be argued that the phrase ‘struggle for liberation’ has fallen into disuse, or become hackneyed. Nonetheless, it may become necessary to have another look at these clichés. Since they served their purpose admirably in the past, are they still relevant or do they sound hollow? Hollowness can result from overuse or misuse or it can be the result of the quality or worth of the people who use these slogans for purposes that may be far removed from the ideology that they proffer. At the end of it all when applying the term liberation to India, some clarity must obtain as to where the process of liberation would lead i.e., liberation from or liberation to? What the people are being liberated from has been variously described as hunger, want, deprivation, marginalisation, humiliation and all the ills that are visited upon the proverbial have-nots anywhere in the world. ‘Liberation to’ in its ideal sense can best be described in Tagore’s immortal poem, which reads:
Where the mind is without fear

and the head is held high,

Where knowledge is free,

Where the world has not been broken

Up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;

Where words come out from the

depth of truth;

Where tireless striving stretches its

arms towards perfection;

Where the clear stream of reason

has not lost its way

into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;

Where the mind is led forward

by three into ever-widening thought and action –

into that heaven of freedom,

my father, let my country awake.

***

All countries have their religious practices, faiths and beliefs. The distinctiveness of India lies in the primacy attaching to the concept of self-abnegation and self-denial. In many ways it goes deeper than similar tendencies that manifest themselves in many other religions and countries. It is for this reason that absolute poverty cannot be assigned a true statistical value in India. Because, at any given time, it is difficult to guess as to what percentage of the poor follow a lifestyle, which can be deemed to be below the poverty line due to circumstantial indigence, or the state of poverty being induced volitionally. It is practically impossible to fathom the number of mendicants who go around the country because they have chosen to adopt that particular way of life. Similarly, stories are still heard of well to do people giving up their wealth, finishing their duties as householders, and retiring to the banks of the Ganges to pass their remaining days in prayer, fasting, meditation and the like.

Most religions in the world, if not all of them, stress on the need for forgiveness, tolerance and compassion. In India compassion extended to all living beings. Many followers of Jainism to this day go to great levels to ensure that no harm comes to other living creatures. Compassion for all beings must remain at the forefront of societal activity and, when the country is strong enough, even form part of India’s relations with other nations.

** *

When looking at the tragedy unfolding in the Middle East and the region on account of the unilateral US intervention, shedding at some stage even the fig leaf of justification for occupying Iraq the supine-ness of the leaders of the countries opposed to the intervention has to be examined. This is especially so in the case of India. In spite of the widespread anger against the Anglo-American intervention, the government chose pragmatism as the state response to the tragic event. Although the government’s response was in conformity with the response of practically all the governments in the world that chose to play it safe, the issue is raised in this discussion because it is in juxtaposition to the idea of India, which leaders of India after independence have been propagating to the world. Although the world has long become weary of the sermonizing coming from Indian shores, the message that came through was that India was a country that cherished the ideals of rightness of action and rightness of response. In abandoning its core values - the idea of an ancient civilization, steeped in wisdom and conscious of the difference between right and wrong - as a basis for conduct of foreign policy, the governmental elite of the country has vacated the space for basing international relations on the higher plane of moral principles to non-governmental entities or individuals who might command a measure of respect in public life. Needless to add that such abandonment of the path, or even the pretence, of right conduct, is in conformity with the prevailing norm across nations as the forces of globalisation infuse the world with their non-virtues or the pleasure principle as the fulcrum of all actions.

** *

To project or even propel India into a future which many people view with trepidation one must look over one’s shoulder into the past. Not that remote past from which many people today want to draw their inspiration - more consciously than the ordinary consciousness that inheres in the minds of most Indians as to what that past might have been. That would be going too far back. Here, the past merely refers to the period after independence, divided into those early years when many of the participants (at the discussion) were very young, the Republic of India even younger. How did people of this generation look at India at that time, as it was unfolding in the ever present and flowing into a future that beckoned enticingly, even enchantingly. Doubtless there were difficulties, trials and tribulations, which the nation was undergoing. Whatever may have been happening, dejection and despair were not in the ascendant to the same level that they are today. A few decades on, having journeyed with India into the new century, the same generation has a different vision of India. In spite of the remarkable progress made in many fields – and the achievements are certainly there for everyone to see – the spirit that pervades the nation seems to have lost the freshness and innocence, perhaps naiveté of those early years. What India has evolved into in the first decade of the new century is certainly not in keeping with the vision of what India should have evolved into that people in the first decades after independence cherished.

Here we come to the first dissonance. India has gained in many respects. In several other ways India has declined. How does one strike a balance between the gains and losses when the gains are in the material plane and the losses in planes other than material. Care is being taken to avoid the use of the word spiritual when chalking up the gains and the losses. For while efforts to resurrect the hoary past merge into the realm of the spiritual, the understanding of spirituality obtaining now in India - and perhaps the rest of the world - is not the same as it might have been when the great Vedic hymns to creation were being first sung on the banks of sacred rivers that now stand as polluted as the spirits of the souls that still ritualistically immerse themselves in these flows to seek salvation. Looking at it this way, the foremost image that leaps to the surface in the consciousness plane of the beings of today is a vast sea of pollution where the scum that rises to the surface represents, symbolically, the spiritual progress, even if it cannot be measured so as to be able to offset it against the material gains; represented almost exactly on the day of the discourse by a figure of 77 billion US dollars (the external reserves of the country in early May 2003).

Where does one go from here? Should the country pitch headlong into the globalising mainstream and let the currents carry it in the direction of the new forms of nirvana, attained by the leaders of globalisation - the USA and the West, ably followed by their counterparts in the extreme east, China and Japan. Following the leader, in the true spirit of globalisation and the direction in which it is headed, will prevent people in India from falling between two stools, in this world and the next. The dilemma is very real. There are no easy answers. Having said that, answers have to be found. For it is not a question of black and white, of simply tossing a coin and then following the path indicated by the upward face of the coin, pointing towards the sky, the sun and the stars. It may be easier for other countries to do so, like China has done. India’s manifest destiny does not lie in that direction. It lies in realms that can never be reached by true practitioners of globalisation. Writing in The Hindu (October 1, 2002), Naresh Gupta aptly sums it up when he states: “the world of today has achieved much, but for all its declared love for humanity, it has based itself far more on hatred and violence than on the virtues that make man human.

There is a need to engage with those who belittle and condemn India, so that their varied and rich talent does not remain tied to an acerbic condemnation of their country – no matter how real their concern – in a language that can only be appreciated by the educated elite and foreigners who joyously lap up this condemnation and confer great honors upon the authors. Condemnation for the sake of condemnation no matter how beautifully expressed is not likely to lead to any real amelioration of the conditions that gave rise to the anger or the condemnation. Writing in Young India in 1929, Mahatma Gandhi said: “My mission is not merely brotherhood of Indian humanity… My patriotism is not an exclusive thing… The conception of my patriotism is nothing if it is not always, in every case without exception, consistent with the broadest good of humanity at large.” Rabindranath Tagore said that while nationalism was often a blessing, too often it has been a curse. The Indian philosophy of Vasudeva Kutumbam promotes the feeling of ‘one world’. Jawaharlal Nehru propounded the concept of ‘Panchsheel’ as the basis of mutual relationship. The Bhagvad Gita and the Isavasyopanishad tell us that the yogi sees himself in all beings and all beings in himself. He sees the same in all. If one sees all living things as if they were in his body i.e. feels their joys and sorrows as his own, and sees the same Universal Spirit in all things then there is no need for protecting oneself against others. When a man understands that all beings are, indeed, the all-pervading Spirit, then he realizes the oneness of all things.

***

Whatever be one’s station in life - from those who are below the poverty line to those who are the wielders of power - all need to be reminded that the primary status of everyone in the country is first and foremost that of a citizen. In that respect, all are coequal. Similarly, the comity of nations will have to push towards a United Nations dispensation wherein from the most deprived nations barely existing as civilized structures owing to over-exploitation and marginalisation, to those mighty nations who decide what is good for the world, all must strive for the democratization of the UN. Therefore, in reshaping the idea of India, its leaders have to recast their philosophy. They must resume engagement with all those who were being referred to as the ‘third world’ countries. The concept of the third world can be redefined to embrace all deprived nations whose primary impulse is towards global stability and harmony. In an over-exploited world these are mostly nations who are struggling to simply find a place in the sun. The idea of leadership itself must undergo fundamental transformation. Traditionally, when talking of a leadership role amongst nations, the implication was to unite the group to confront other groups of nations seeking dominance in some form or the other. That remained the mindset of the post-colonial era after World War II, when the marginalized nations of the world were trying to position themselves as a third force between the two superpowers of the day.

The 21st century reality of the unipolar world does not confer any leadership role upon India, should the country remain wedded to the prejudices of its earlier experience. If India wants to be heard, if it wants to strike out independently for charting a course that propels the world away from confrontation and the growing spiral of violence, it must adopt as a nation the values that enriched India in the past and continue to enrich mankind wherever those values take root. Simply put, those values relate to non-violence and self-abnegation. The aspect of non-violence has already been touched upon. The point at issue now is, as to whether self-abnegation or self-denial, the greatest of human virtues in an individual can be extended to a nation. If the course of the history of violence since the last century, added to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction is taken as a guide, the answer must be in the affirmative. There does not seem to be any other way. India is ideally positioned to take the lead. It must continue to make economic progress and strengthen itself internally and externally. However, having achieved these goals it should deny itself a position at the top table. It should not hanker after a permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council, as that body is presently structured. India should categorically state that it remains anchored to the aspiration of all third world countries that are looking to change the lot of their people; be they mired in backwardness and poverty because they were the victims of exploitation in the colonial era, or on account of misgovernance. Having been a part of the third world, India must seek a collective betterment for all the nations who comprise the vast collectivity known as the developing nations. Either they all benefit from the new dispensation, even if it were to be so incrementally, over a given period of time, or they collectively hold out for a more just world order. India must assure them that it will not desert them no matter how tempting the offers from the rich man’s club. In reshaping the idea of India the individual and national identity must aspire to march together for a better self and a better world.

* * *

When picking up a daily newspaper at random in any of the metropolitan cities on any given day the impression is likely to remain that India is an aggregation of dissonances.

The images that flicker across the reader’s perceptual frame could include: unity in diversity in juxtaposition to increasing disunity - the more the diversity, the greater the disunity; national integration opposed by national dis-aggregation; cultural plurality yielding place to cultural segregation; multi-ethnicities leading to multitudinous divisions; and now at the beginning of the new century the overarching intrusion of capitalism in full cry, which in developing countries like India translates into the accentuation of the divide between the haves and have-nots’. It hardly needs to be stressed that for India to move ahead it needs to rededicate itself to the ideas of social justice, equality, fraternity, individual liberty and human dignity that were so well set out in the preamble to the Constitution of India.

***

People who gather together to talk about the idea of India or write about it, wherever they might happen to be have to think about providing a set of guidelines, if not answers, for the new generation growing up at the beginning of the 21st century to shape the future of India. The questions that they would be grappling with would include, inter alia:

· How much has the globe impinged on India?

How much is India impacting the world?
What do the young people of India want?
What questions are they posing?
What is our response?
Do we have a response (to their questions)?
When we write about these matters or articulate them in different forums in India and abroad whom are we targeting?
What audience is it actually reaching?
In the land of tolerance isn’t it strange that discussion on tolerance has become one of the hottest issues?
Role models. Who are they?
Who or what represents the essence of India?
For whom?
India’s conscience. Who are its minders and keepers?
Do we really need minders and keepers?
***

Whatever the transformation in recent years and regardless of the polarization between religions and ethnic divides that is taking place, humaneness as the deeper instinct prevails more in Indian society than in many other societies. For example, the type of mass exterminations which were carried out during the Muslim invasions in many parts of Asia and during the era of the Christian colonization of the world, have never been attributed to Indian expansionism. Even the atrocities attributed to Indian security forces pail in comparison when compared to the scale of the atrocities committed by the armed forces of other nations. Any number of examples can be given: Pakistan, in East Bengal where the Pakistan army slaughtered three million people and raped half a million women, all of them Pakistani citizens since East Bengal was still a province of Pakistan when these atrocities were committed; the US excesses in Vietnam; the Chinese excesses in Xinjiang and Tibet; and so on.

***

At the dawn of the new millennium after Christ, when one looks around, it becomes abundantly clear that the spiral of violence within societies, and between nations, has reached self-energizing momentum that might only be stilled by a cataclysmic event, the likes of which has not been witnessed before in human experience.

Between societies and groupings that cohere to form nations the ideal situation that must be worked towards would be one where the need for primacy does not arise. Non-violence appears to be the antithesis of the global reality in today’s world. Nevertheless, the concept of non-violence which can be deemed to be the most profound contribution that ancient Indian thought made to the world must regain its primacy, within India and without, if human society is to continue to live in a civilized form. That the essential harmony of all sentient beings, indeed sentience itself, as put forward by Mahavira, Gautama Buddha and many others was made the basis for India’s freedom struggle by Mahatma Gandhi should not be looked at in isolation, as a mere reiteration of non- violence. By introducing the ancient precept into the mainstream of the anti-colonialism struggle in India, Gandhi may have been looking well beyond to the universal projection of his innate belief in the virtue of non-violence as a survival imperative for humanity, just when scientific breakthroughs were on the verge of putting immensely destructive capabilities into the hands of mankind.

© Vinod Saighal
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Making of the President – Unmaking of the Indian Constitution
Making of the President – But not at the cost of Unmaking of the Indian Constitution. The article reproduced below appeared in the Economic Times (30 May 1997), almost exactly ten years ago, prior to the election of the president of India at that time. If anything, it is more relevant today when partisan politics and vote banks politics threaten to further erode the functioning of the Constitution. In recent years it has been proved time and again that the political class on entering the hallowed sanctums of the Indian parliament in New Delhi and the State legislatures does not respect the vox populi. Since results are based on the constitutional lacuna of first-past-the-post, the majority of the legislators are elected with very low percentages of the popular vote. By extension it implies that over sixty or seventy and, at times, even 80 to 90 percent of the constituents did not vote for the elected representative. Now almost 30 percent of them have criminal cases against them, often charged with heinous crimes, including murder, rape and dacoity. Yet the political class has neither shown the inclination nor mustered the will to further amend The Representation of People Act. Hereafter, things are likely to go from bad to worse, going by present trends.

Under these circumstances the selection of the president in July 2007is an important landmark. The way the political parties are going about it, they appear to be bent upon politicizing the highest office in the land. Before they end up by degrading it to their own level the Indian public or “We the People” must intervene to prevent such an outcome. Almost any sounding taken from the people in practically every part of India will indicate that other than the present incumbent, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, none of the names being thrown up by the political class have any appeal for the people of India. Irrespective of which agency conducts the poll the candidates being suggested by the political parties would garner support of less than 9 percent as the first choice of the people, going down to as low as 1 to 3 percent.

As opposed to this India has thrown up non-political, iconic figures who are not only role models but enjoy respect even across India’s frontiers. There are many such names. They include Sreedharan of Delhi Metro fame, Ratan Tata, Azim Premji of Wipro and Narayan Murthy of Infosys. Were a national referendum to be taken each one of them would easily garner well over 50 percent of the national vote. The figure could actually go up to 70 or 80 percent. The question then arises that if India is blessed with people of such high distinction, moral fiber, public esteem, proven competence in their chosen fields, and enjoying international respect then why are the people of India deprived of their services for occupation of the highest office in the land. It is time that ‘we the people’ took the process away from a handful of political bahubalis and coteries and made it a truly democratic one. There is still time to do so. To achieve the desired results and to prevent political chicanery from vitiating democracy at the apex the following action needs to be started immediately by all concerned:

Ø Media to start highlighting the possibilities open to the public through public pressure on each one of the legislators having electoral college votes;

Ø Flooding the print media with letters to the editor;

Ø Indicating their preferences to the electronic media every day at every opportunity;

Ø NGOs, RWAs, Ex-servicemen Leagues, schools, colleges, IIsM , IIsT and all other bodies and institutes of similar nature to hold public meetings and pass resolutions;

Ø Eminent citizens’ groups to personally approach and persuade some of the respected names mentioned earlier to enter themselves as independent candidates of peoples choice; fine tuning for ultimately putting one of them as the people’s candidate would follow; CII, FICCI, ASSOCHAM and regional chambers of commerce to take the lead in this exercise;

Ø Any other activity of this nature that creates an irreversible momentum for democratic fulfillment.

Evidently, the people have no direct voting rights. However, since the voting by the electoral college is by secret ballot enough pressure can be put on every legislator, irrespective of the person’s political leanings or hue, to exercise a conscience vote in keeping with the aspirations of the people. Should the citizens of India put their collective shoulder to this exercise for the next 6 to 8 weeks on a daily basis Indian democracy could be put back on a very sound footing. ‘We the People’ would have truly carried the day.

Vinod Saighal

Convenor, MRGG (Movement for Restoration of Good Governance)

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The Making of the President by Vinod Saighal
If, in spite of constant buffeting, the edifice of democracy still holds in India it is because some pillars of it are still strong.

Hence, whatever the means adopted to stem the rot in the body politic, it has to be ensured that the pillars that provide it some foundational stability are not weakened further. The office of the President falls into this category.

There should be no room for complacency in the era of coalition governments and fractured polities. If the spirit of the Constitution has to be safeguarded the role of the first citizen will become more crucial in the years ahead.

Hence, it behoves the polity, the public and the press to take a more incisive look at the presidential elections of ’97. Failure to do so might lead to the type of debasement that has crept into the other democratic institutions in the country.

The procedures for the election of the President (and vice-president) are well-established. The Election Commission will set the ball rolling in a few weeks from now.

Press reports have confined themselves to factual narration of the composition of the electoral college and the weightage of votes between the elective bodies. Though deliberations of party leaders and pressure groups have been reported, attempts to enlarge the debate have been rather desultory.

This may turnout to be a costly mistake. Before the vote is cast (in a secret ballot) the public must make it clear to the elected representatives that further attempts at subversion of democracy by persons whom it no longer respects will not be tolerated.

The first, and possibly the most important, aspect relates to what is being referred to as consensus. The consensus of the early decades of Independence was altogether different from the consensus of today. The very connotation of the term has undergone a metamorphosis.

Too much emphasis on the need for unanimity in electing Presidents often goes against the grain of democracy. For, such consensus mostly meant imposition of the views of party supremos than a free expression of views.

With such ‘imposed’ consensus, the first citizen of the land becomes psychologically beholden to party caucuses. An element of quid pro quo does come in, more so if the incumbent desires a second term in office.

Since the worst fears of a terminal degeneracy in the body politic have not proven to be unfounded, it is necessary to anticipate events in order to ensure that the office of the President is not dragged into sordid controversies.

Almost the entire process of governance at the political apex today seems to be concentrated upon devising stratagems to subvert the law and order apparatus of the state. In such a circumstance, what sort of consensus should the public accept or the press champion?

There is still time for the press, and the public, to get more meaningfully involved in the presidential election of ’97. The matter must not rest in the hands of a few purveyors of power.

Every member of the electoral college must exercise his vote conscientiously. Under no circumstances must the office of the President become an object of unseemly controversy by the misconduct of the person elected to that office. The personality of the incumbent must not in itself become the cause for perpetual political strife.

Dignity and decorum must remain the hallmark of the person occupying the august office, which for a period of time in the near future might turn out to have more importance than the office of the prime minister.

Indian democracy is in a transitional phase. Only the deft hand of a universally respected person will guide democracy in the right direction in its reconstructive phase.

The most suitable persons in the land should be considered for the office of the President of India in 1997.(The Economic Times, New Delhi, 30 May 1997 by Vinod Saighal)
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New Delhi
May 22nd, 2007
© Vinod Saighal

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TIME-TESTED TRAVESTY

WHY SONIA GANDHI COULD NEVER HAVE BECOME THE PRIME MINISTER OF INDIA

In its May 14, 2007 issue on TIME 100 Leaders a prominent place has been given to Mrs. Sonia Gandhi. The third paragraph of the write up selected by the news magazine reads:

"When her party won national elections in 2004, she was offered the prime ministership; she listened to her "inner voice" and turned it down, and anointed the economist Manmohan Singh in her stead. It was a gesture that was, well, Gandhian. And it solidified her hold on power. For ordinary Indians, this act of renunciation held tremendous mythic resonance.Though Singh is Prime Minister, it is Sonia, 60, who is the kingmaker. And her most lasting legacy may lie in her children Rahul and Priyanka, one of whom may well become India's Prime Minister someday, ascending to the high office that their mother has - thus far - spurned". (Emphasis added). Unquote.

Assuredly TIME must have assessed a few thousand items from its archival retrieval system to select a piece on a person whose influence transcends India’s national borders. Inexplicably TIME chose a piece that does not do credit to either the magazine or Mrs. Sonia Gandhi. Besides the evidently fawning nature of the piece selected – one amongst the many that appeared at that time – it is an indefensible misrepresentation of the facts. Anybody with an elementary knowledge of the functioning of Indian democracy would know the manner in which governments have been formed in New Delhi after every election since India became independent. The fact is that Mrs. Sonia Gandhi was never “offered” the prime ministership, so the question of having "turned it down" doesn't arise. The details of the meeting that took place with the President are not in the public domain. These may be revealed after many years should Dr. Kalam choose to do so in his post-retirement years, or they may never be revealed.

By presenting a falsified version of the account a disservice has been done to Mrs. Sonia Gandhi who single-handedly revived India’s oldest and, perhaps, most respected political party, which was declining at an alarming rate. Mrs. Gandhi’s revival of the grand old party of Indian politics did a service to Indian democracy by restoring a semblance of political balance as an extreme right wing party was tending to pull it away in directions that might not have stabilised the long-term social cohesion of India.

As to why Sonia Gandhi might not ever become the prime minister of India attention has to be drawn to a petition admitted in the Supreme Court. A news item, in the Times of India, New Delhi, April 17, 2007 mentions that the opposition party, which had held Sonia Gandhi’s foreign origin as an issue against her taking on any constitutional office asked the Congress party to initiate a political debate over the matter. The opposition party’s call for a debate followed the admission of a petition by the Supreme Court on whether a person of foreign origin could hold a constitutional office. Although the Supreme Court had earlier, on an election petition, ruled that Sonia Gandhi was an Indian citizen, the petitioner, however, got around the ruling by so framing the petition as to focus on her competence to hold an office at the highest level in the country.

The controversy regarding Ms. Sonia Gandhi has unnecessarily taken on a political hue and the clamour against her a political bias. In the political cacophony thus generated the true import of the question of denial of the highest office to a citizen of foreign origin is lost sight of. Very simply stated the nation cannot afford to take a chance. It has nothing to do with the persona of Mrs. Sonia Gandhi. It has everything to do with national security and the supreme national interest. Today NATO forces are deployed in Afghanistan, not too far from the borders of India. They are already making forays into NWFP and FATA of Pakistan. Should the situation deteriorate further they might make deeper inroads into Pakistan, thereby coming much closer to the Indian border. Currently, India's relations with the West are on a reasonably good footing owing to the common perception of threat from global terrorism. It should be recalled, nevertheless, that not too far back the West - Italy included - was siding with Pakistan and even China . Even today several western countries, again including Italy, are opposed to India’s nuclear stand and a seat as a permanent member of the Security Council. Hypothetically, as Prime Minister, Mrs. Sonia Gandhi being a person of foreign origin from a NATO country, would be the final arbiter of several decisions regarding India’s security. Should India ever have to confront NATO she would almost certainly face mental anguish, torn between conflicting loyalties to her motherland and her adopted land. It is not inconceivable that India might be obliged to retaliate against NATO forces including Italian forces should India perceive a direct threat to itself. Under these circumstances the question should never arise of a foreign origin person being the ultimate arbiter of India’s security. An example has been given of only the National Security aspect. Similar illustrations can be given from diverse fields where clash of interest between India and Europe or the West could take place in the coming years, although the trend presently is in the other direction. The argument put forward against foreign origin persons holding the highest office in the land, or, for that matter, any office that has a bearing on national security is prima facie unassailable.

Taking a cue from the write up in the latest issue of TIME Indian negotiators, especially the Prime Minister, has to ensure that any nuclear agreement signed with USA in no way compromises India's long-term regional interests or its future security needs.

Vinod Saighal

Convenor MRGG (Movement for Restoration of Good Government)

New Delhi
May 8th, 2007
© Vinod Saighal
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LOSING PAKISTAN BY DEFAULT: MISSIVE FOR BENAZIR BHUTTO
(Through her lawyer who defended her)

Dear Dr.Hassan,
When my book Restructuring Pakistan* first came out many people in Pakistan felt that the title of the book was provocative. It is only when the leading newspaper of Pakistan, DAWN, Karachi came out with a review that serious thinkers and concerned people in your country gave it a more considered look. In the five years since the book came out Pakistan appears to have followed a course almost exactly on the lines given out in the book, i.e., all the misgivings seem to have taken shape in a manner that would confirm the worst fears of well-wishers of Pakistan, more so in the Western World. The latest developments in Islamabad, where a bunch of maulvis and a gaggle of girls seem to have brought the mighty military dispensation to a state of semi-paralysis are worrisome, to say the least. Grapevine has it that a large number of girls who are in the forefront of the agitation in Islamabad were adopted, kidnapped, or induced in other ways to join the madrassas set up by hardline outfits after they were orphaned in the massive earthquake that struck Kashmir two years ago. The military dispensation that has ruled the roost in Pakistan is clearly on the back foot. Gen. Musharraf seems to have painted himself into a corner by the ill-conceived and too-clever-by-half sacking of the Chief Justice of Pakistan. The high-handedness against some television stations has enraged the media – both national and foreign. Meanwhile, the clamor for introduction of the Shariah gathers momentum. In many places the hardliners have gone on the rampage, burning down beauty parlours, music shops and several other establishments not liked by the Jihadis. According to AHRC: “Shariah law taking the place of civil law and Shariah courts taking the place of country’s common law courts is an even greater attack on the judiciary than the initial attack on Chief Justice Choudry. This displacement of the law and its courts by Shariah law and its courts will have far deeper implications for the future of the country than the military regime may have intended. The whole issue of the civil liberties of the people in Pakistan, as well as the problems of property have been risked by this move. The most affected sections would be the women of Pakistan against whom Shariah law has been misapplied to the detriment of their rights. The present crisis is of tremendous importance from the point of view of democracy, human rights and rule of law in the country”. (Unquote).

The government remains a helpless spectator while Pakistan Civil Society is intimidated by small but determined band of well-armed hardliners. Since the situation seems to be getting out of hand the Pakistan military is again examining the option of arriving at an accommodation with the PPP leader Benazir Bhutto (BB). The quid pro quo has been discussed threadbare in many papers. It need not be gone into here. It is against this background that I am writing to you because you are a respected and eminent lawyer who has represented most of the Prime Ministers of Pakistan in law courts within the country and, at times, outside the country. Ipso facto it makes you a close advisor of Benazir Bhutto. Please make it clear to her that this is a historic moment for freeing Pakistan from the clutches of the military and the mullahs for once and for all. The troubles for Pakistan in the past have stemmed from the fact that enlightened leaders (like BB) have failed to take a clear and uncompromising stand against the hardliners. In many countries, and increasingly so in Pakistan, the fair name of Islam is being tarnished by the hardliners - as well as by those viscerally opposed to them. The former, who are in the minority, are well organised, well armed and vociferous. The latter, the tax paying middle class and civil society, which far outnumber the Jihadis is laid back, passive and non-assertive. For them as well as for much of the non-Islamic world the great religion that arose from the Arabian desert to dominate half the world of the time has, in its 21st Century avatar, been reduced to just a three-word descriptive, namely, “cruelty, coercion and fatwas”. Civil Society, much the larger component in Pakistan and in many other Islamic countries, fails itself if it refuses to get organized to take on the Jihadi menace before it is too late. In country after country the silent majority gets pushed to the wall under the agitational weight of much smaller bands of people whose firebrand tactics intimidate the government as well as law-abiding people.

Most significantly, the larger plurality, especially in Pakistan and Bangladesh, has been let down by the very leaders – in both cases women, BB in Pakistan, and Sheikh Hasina in Bangladesh - in whom they reposed their faith. Both these ladies had a fantastic political legacy and large public following. They could have been hands down winners. Their one fatal flaw was to have compromised with the hardliners to garner just that little bit extra – no more – electoral support from the latter against their opponents. In almost every case the support that they got from the Jihadist did not translate into many electoral seats, but in the process they lost the support of many of their backers, horrified at the devilishly opportunistic accommodation with the fundamentalists against whom they should have been fighting tooth and nail. In the process they too did their bit to empower the fundamentalists and fell between two stools. If their close advisors do not remove the veil before their eyes they will continue to fall between two stools. Invariably the winners will be the hardliners, who know what they want and never compromise with their opponents till they meet a superior force, like the Pakistan Army and its agency the ISI.

Farooq Sahib, in the light of the foregoing, you should advise Benazir Bhutto and her Pakistan Peoples’ Party not to compromise once again with General Musharraf or the mullahs. The time has come to stand up and be counted. BB must categorically denounce the hardliners for attempting to impose the Shariat, portions of which are an abomination on the human race. They are a crime against women and a taint on any civilised society. Civil society in Pakistan is fed up with the advent of the killjoys. It is natural to sing, dance, play, fly kites and roam about where fancy takes one. Man was born free, woman more so. Who are these 21st century fanatics to legislate for what people should eat, drink or do? Where they congregate and with whom they do so, as part of free people, is their own business, not of self-appointed guardians of morality. Benazir Bhutto has now before her the opportunity of a lifetime. She should fearlessly go forward to denounce the Shariat and the fundamentalists in Pakistan from every pulpit. She should clearly and unequivocally announce to the people of Pakistan that this time she stands for the freedom of Pakistanis and the emancipation of Pakistani women. If elected, she should promise to deliver Pakistan from the scourge of the mullahs and their fatwas and the Shariat. Islam in its essence is a religion that is sublime and compassionate. Terror and tyranny should have no place in it. She has to fight to win on the platform of the famous rallying cry, Liberty, Equality, Fraternity.

Sheikh Hasina of Bangladesh has to do the same. Dr. Farooq Hassan, the lawyers in Pakistan are in the forefront of the struggle to restore the majesty of law in their country. You are one of the most distinguished lawyers of your country. Please remove the shackles of self-doubt from the mind of Benazir Bhutto. She became the president of the Oxford Debating Society in her time. The fire in her has been artificially banked by the military, the mullahs and, possibly, the man she married. Let this be the start of a new era for BB and Pakistan. Good luck and good wishes for BB’s and your success.

Yours sincerely

Vinod Saighal

Dr. Farooq Hassan, D.Phil.;

BA (Juris),MA,M. LiTT (OXON);

DCL (Columbia),DIA(Harvard);

Sen.Adv.Sup.Ct. (Pakistan),

Barrister at Law (UK),Attorney at Law(US).

New Delhi
April 25th, 2007
© Vinod Saighal

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Blueprint for the Eco-Revival of the Planet

Dear Dr.Pachauri,
The Excerpt reproduced below could well have been written after the IPCC report on global warming and climate change. As a matter of fact it was written a decade ago and published as the introductory chapter of Third Millennium Equipoise:

(Quote)

INTRODUCTION
" The book Third Millennium Equipoise started out as an attempt at a grand synthesis of the accommodations that must be reached to effect a smooth transition to global governance patterns that might be able to restore the health of a dying planet. A few years hence it might be too late, if it is not already the case. One fine day people will wake up and say that this is not the world they knew or wanted. “How did we get here,” they might ask. The question would have become meaningless by then. It would have lost even its academic relevance.

It is not as if people were unaware of what was happening around them or that they had stopped caring. Threats to the planetary environment are being highlighted almost daily. People have become conscious of the fact that the planet may no longer be able to cope with the stresses being generated. The majority of human beings are passionately concerned with the health of the world in which they live. They wish to do something about it. Many of them “are” doing something about it. By any reckoning, when such large numbers are involved in setting things right, the collective efforts should have borne fruit. To an extent they have been successful in arresting the decline. But the result is nowhere near the sum total of the effort put in. The planetary stresses – and human stresses, which contribute to the planetary stress – keep multiplying. Apparently there is a very major contradiction working here. It has to do with the inadequacy of the patterns of response when facing such grave threats.

The state of apparent well being experienced in some parts of the world is illusory. It is just that the full effect of the havoc being wrought elsewhere has not yet reached these havens of surface tranquility. It can be likened to a wasting disease which slowly affects different organs of the body. Till the palliatives work things do not appear very bleak. Then, one fine day, it is all over. When the end comes it is sudden and swift. Perhaps mercifully so. The planet is in a similar state.

The juggernaut of the decline of the human condition – which in turn results in planetary decline – moves inexorably forward. It cannot be stopped in the way that planetary affairs have been managed to date. ................................................................"

(Unquote)

I am again bringing the book to your notice because the next IPCC conference for recommending remedial measures is to be held in Bangkok in May 2007.You had mentioned in an earlier correspondence that you would be bringing the book to the notice of your fellow panelists. If this has not happened, may I request you to please follow it up at the earliest with special reference to the section, “Blueprint for the Eco-Revival of the Planet”. The measures highlighted therein nearly a decade ago require urgent attention not only of the IPCC and its members, but also of national governments, UN Security Council, UN General Assembly and a host of other organizations. It may interest you to know that the first review of the book appeared in the UN Chronical in New York (UN Chronical 3/98). Thereafter, some of the most august personages around the world have commented on the importance of the book as a blueprint for planetary survival. The list of the commentators reproduced below includes scientists, statesmen and spiritual leaders amongst others; It is illustrative, not exhaustive. For example, it does not include the comments of so many other eminent persons, including the comment sent by Mr. Al Gore when he was the Vice President of USA.

Yours Sincerely

Vinod Saighal

“THIRD MILLENNIUM EQUIPOISE”
WHAT DISTINGUISHED PEOPLE IN THE WORLD HAVE TO SAY ABOUT THE BOOK:

“THE WRITER BRINGS OUT IMPORTANT FACTORS FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF GLOBAL PEACE AND TRANQUILITY”. (ÄCHÄRYA SHRI MAHÄPRAJÑA).

“OUTSTANDING BOOK OF DISCERNMENT”(SOKA GAKKAI INTERNATIONAL, JAPAN).

“TOUCHES ON ISSUES OF PRIORITY CONCERN TO UNITED NATIONS IN AN ENLIGHTENED AND SOPHISTICATED WAY”. (MR. KOFI A. ANNAN, SECRETARY GENERAL, UNITED NATIONS).

“TME PRESENTS A HOLISTIC APPROACH TO THE PROBLEMS OF GLOBAL GOVERNANCE AND SECURITY”. (DR. RONALD S. McCOY, PRESIDENT IPPNW AND MEMBER CANBERRA COMMISSION).

“IMMENSELY THOUGHT-PROVOKING BOOK”. (POLITICS INDIA, AUGUST 1998).

“DRAWS A ROAD MAP TO A N-WEAPONS-FREE WORLD. MAKES PEACE SEEM ALMOST ACHIEVABLE”. (INDIA TODAY, OCTOBER 26, 1998).

“FASCINATINGLY DETAILED BLUEPRINT FOR A NUCLEAR-WEAPONS-FREE WORLD”. (REVIEWED BY HORST RUTSCH IN UNITED NATIONS CHRONICLE NO.3, 1998).

“…LAYS OUT AN AMBITIOUS AGENDA FOR GLOBAL GOVERNANCE AND SECURITY”. (KHALEEJ TIMES, DECEMBER 5, 1998).

“I LOVED, IN PARTICULAR, YOUR EPILOGUE FOR THE SHEER ART OF ITS PRESENTATION”. (PADMASHREE PROFESSOR V. VENKATACHALAM, CHAIRMAN, INDIAN COUNCIL OF PHILOSOPHICAL RESEARCH).

“SAIGHAL’S OPUS STANDS OUT…OWING TO THE WAY IN WHICH HE HAS TIED UP VARIOUS FACETS”. (ECONOMIC TIMES, JUNE 13, 1999).

“VINOD SAIGHAL’S CAREFULLY THOROUGH AND METICULOUSLY ARTICULATED PROJECT DESERVES SERIOUS ATTENTION”. (DR. KARAN SINGH, THE BOOK REVIEW, MAY 2000 / 9)

“THE HUMILITY OF SAIGHAL’S HUMANISM THAT IS EVIDENT THROUGHOUT HIS ARGUMENT MAKES HIS BOOK AN ADMIRABLE CONTRIBUTION TO THE CURRENT DEBATE ON GLOBAL STABILITY”. (NETWORK, THE SCIENTIFIC AND MEDICAL NETWORK REVIEW, SCOTLAND – No. 70, AUGUST 1999).

"YOUR BOOK, 'THIRD MILLENNIUM EQUIPOISE', IS ONE OF THE MOST FASCINATING BOOKS I HAVE EVER READ. THIS IS A BOOK THAT ALL PRESENT WORLD LEADERS AND THOSE WHO CARE ABOUT THE FUTURE OF PLANET EARTH SHOULD READ". (DR. EDWARD J. WILSON, PRESIDENT, INTERNATIONAL CHILDREN'S COMMUNITY; PRESIDENT KWANEES INTERNATIONAL).

ORIGINAL, UNIQUE AND VERY INTERESTING VISION ABOUT THE PROBLEM. (THIERRY MEYSSAN, RESEAU VOLTAIRE / AXIS FOR PEACE.)


The Head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Dr. R.K. Pachauri has agreed to forward my book, Third Millennium Equipoise to all his co-panelists as they would be looking into the remedial measures in the next report of the IPCC. An international seminar was held in the IIC, New Delhi in November 1998 on "EcoRevival of the Planet", based on the chapter of the same title in the book. I was the keynote speaker at the opening plenary session. Subsequently, Dr. Manmohan Singh advised the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation to hold a global seminar on the agenda given out in the book for global governance patterns. At the bottom of this mail you will find the comments of some of the best minds and the most eminent persons who have read TME.
In the light of the above may I request you to please bring it to the notice of all those seriously concerned with the dark clouds looming on the planetary horizon. They will find valuable insights for solutions to the existential problems confronting humanity and most, if not all, life forms on Earth.

Kind regards
Vinod Saighal

CHINA, TIBET, INDIA: STATUS QUO OR REAPPRAISAL

Chanakya the master of statecraft in ancient India practiced his art in and around the subcontinent. His art has not flourished all that well in India the land of his birth in the decades following Independence. Before we get down to understanding as to how Hu Jintao might yet again have outsmarted his counterparts in New Delhi it would be worth reproducing relevant excerpts from the book Global Security Paradoxes: 2000-2020 with special reference to the chapter “China, Tibet, India: Status Quo or Reappraisal?”

-After establishment of Chinese unity through the bloody route, the Chinese leaders understood, more comprehensively than anyone else, that power, in the ultimate analysis, did flow from the barrel of a gun. Having understood the currency of power they quickly went on to occupy Tibet while India was embroiled in Kashmir. Indian leaders were not able to grasp the global reality of that period. They tried to rebuild India on the platform of idealism. They made way for the Chinese in Tibet. They have been making way for the Chinese ever since.

Militarisation of any region takes place on account of perceived military threats to that region. In the second half of the twentieth century the Chinese rapidly militarized Tibet to consolidate their grip on the conquered territory. In addition to the internal unrest caused by the occupation they might have had misgivings regarding the intentions of India and/or the USA. Mention is made of only these two countries because no other nation or community of nations had, or would be likely to have in the foreseeable future, the direct interest or the military wherewithal to mount any credible challenge to continued Chinese occupation of Tibet. Today the world at large and certainly USA and India are reconciled to the Chinese presence in Tibet. The misgivings that China may have entertained in the twentieth century – if at all – of being militarily challenged in Tibet cannot obtain at the dawn of the twenty-first century. Therefore, since no country seriously questions the status quo, China can safely undertake the demilitarization of the Tibetan Plateau and the loosening of its harsh grip on the Tibetan people without any qualms. The perceived raison d’etre for the militarisation of Tibet having disappeared altogether in the new millennium makes it possible for the Chinese to arrive at an accommodation with the Dalai Lama and undertake demilitarization without a backward glance.

Today, the view from Beijing on the Tibetan issue would be that everything is moving along better than expected. From the Chinese standpoint it is a dead issue. Washington and the European capitals, they feel, keep the issue alive merely to embarrass China. In the Chinese perception, as far as the West is concerned economics will, hereafter, propel geopolitics. Hence, if geo-economics is what matters China is exceptionally well placed – at least for the time being. The other power that has any locus standi is India. As Beijing sees it, India does not have the stomach to question China’s policy in Tibet.

For several decades India was a little more than a bit player vis-à-vis China in Central or South East Asia or for that matter anywhere else, with some exceptions. Therefore, it really did not have many options regarding Tibet. Not only did it supinely accept Chinese outrages in Tibet, linked to developments that threatened the security of India, it curtailed severely the options that could have been exercised by the Dalai Lama to enlarge the Tibetan question. It needs to be restated here that India did not advocate the challenging of China’s position in Tibet in the last century, nor does it wish to do so now, unless China by its actions forces India and the rest of the world to throw open the whole question of the occupation of Tibet. To obviate such a situation the obvious course for China would be to settle the boundary dispute with India and meet the very reasonable minimum demands of the Dalai Lama. (Emphasis added)

China has sat on the question of autonomy for Tibetans and the boundary dispute with India for several decades. It may not be prudent for it to prolong these issues in the fashion that it did before. Dramatic changes could take place that might not be in China’s interest if it continues to drag its feet from a position of near-absolute unassailability, to the extent that the world had practically reconciled itself to the Chinese position, primarily because the prime contenders, India and the Dalai Lama, were not willing to challenge it or do anything about it.

The moment the twentieth century mindset is shed, as being totally inadequate, the realization dawns that the simple issue of the restoration of the Dalai Lama has assumed such extraordinary military dimensions that one is hard put to find any parallel in recent times. The nature of the military build up in Tibet is just not commensurate to the challenge that the Dalai Lama poses. How on earth can a handful of followers of an itinerant monk militarily challenge the might of the Peoples’ Republic of China? The very notion is absurd. Whichever way they look at the problem the military dimension should not enter into the reckoning unless the Chinese wish to use Tibet as a launch pad for aggression against India at some future date. That assumption too becomes difficult to comprehend in the case of Tibet. In the eyes of the Government of India, except for not insurmountable differences on the boundary issue, the Tibetan question has been settled once and for all. The Dalai Lama has not advocated an armed uprising and nor would the Indian government countenance such action from Indian soil. Hence, China is very comfortably placed vis-à-vis Tibet at the dawn of the twenty-first century. By not demilitarizing Tibet it forces India to militarise the eastern Himalayas. Should over-militarisation again erupt into a major conflagration the ‘settled’ Tibetan question would automatically stand re-opened, regardless of the outcome of the struggle. The rest of the world acquiesced in the Chinese conquest of Tibet in the 1950s because India did so. Had India challenged the usurpation, the world, without doubt, would have sided with India at that time. China should remain eternally grateful to India for not only serving Tibet to it on a platter, but for compounding the Himalayan blunder by then going on to champion that country’s case before the rest of the world, in the difficult years following the communist takeover. Thereafter, India maintained a stoic silence while the genocide in Tibet proceeded apace. Hence, from a geopolitical standpoint it is vital to China’s long-term interests to demilitarize Tibet with concomitant demilitarization of the eastern Himalayas on the part of India.

Chinese leaders have invariably taken a long-term view of China’s security since the communist takeover. Even in the turbulent early stages when the communist regime was threatened from various directions and faced large-scale internal unrest on account of collectivization they did not hesitate to challenge the might of USA in Korea. This was in spite of the fact that the USA possessed atomic weapons and the Chinese did not. They were also aware that the USA had demonstrated its ability to use atomic weapons in the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Having conquered Tibet, unopposed by India, they would not only have readily accepted the boundary indicated by India, but might have even agreed to a forward Indian presence beyond its boundaries for a given period had India adopted an uncompromising attitude in the early turbulent period of China’s consolidation. Unfortunately for the Tibetans and the world at large the leaders of the country south of the Himalayas displayed a lack of geo-political realism.

Post–1962 it was difficult for Nehru’s successors to undo the initial blunders of that great statesman, whose idealism, in this particular case, was wholly misplaced. The country had to live with the initial mistake till it was able to show some spine in the closing years of the 20th century. By that time its economic position had started improving and it was able to declare itself a nuclear power after the Pokhran II tests of 1998. The latter could have been a feather in the cap of another tall leader of the country had Mr. Vajpayee not then gone on to compound the monumental error of the Nehruvian period on his visit to China as prime minister in 2003. Pandit Nehru was naïve. India had just become independent. He was experimenting with non-alignment. He was hoping to co-opt China into the same fold. After full 50 years there was absolutely no excuse for Mr. Vajpayee and his team of strategic advisers to compound the original sin – for it was nothing less than a sin – by making the statement in China that India considered Tibet a part of that country. The Chinese strategic community must have been stunned by India throwing away its last trump card in such cavalier fashion. Vajpayee’s successors went and repeated the assurance, thereby leaving themselves no escape route for a rainy day. No wonder the Chinese in the final declaration after the Hu Jintao visit said repeatedly that they were happy to note that India accepted Tibet as a part of China. Put in another way they were happy to note that it was India itself that had further undermined the Dalai Lama’s position and the cause of Tibetan autonomy; the question of independence had been abandoned much earlier. At this stage it is worth examining the consequences of the ineptitude of India’s leaders with regard to the countries’ long-term strategic interest.

First of all by reiterating that Tibet is unquestionably a part of China it gives the Chinese, or rather confers upon them, the legal right to question the boundary with India as well as Bhutan. What is more, it confers similar rights on their successors. When the Chinese occupied Tibet they would have been relieved to have negotiated a treaty with India on the autonomous status of Tibet had this country opposed their occupation of Tibet tooth and nail. In those earlier years, in fact for several decades thereafter, the Chinese were not really interested in occupying more Indian territory after 1962. They kept - and continue to keep – the boundary question alive so that Indian leaders never question China’s occupation of Tibet or its activities in Tibet, which include the marginalisation and genocide of Tibetans and the ecological devastation of Tibet.

From the time of Indira Gandhi’s declaration of Emergency and more so after her demise Indian leaders have gotten into the groove of sacrificing the national interest in the internal governance of the country. The same tendency is reasserting itself in external relations as well. There is a strange phenomenon operating in this country whereby national leaders – and this includes military chiefs as well – get carried away on their visits to foreign countries, especially the USA and China. The charm offensive and the encomiums showered upon them by their hosts evidently work wonders. Almost invariably they end up giving much more than they get in return. Moreover, there is a tendency amongst these leaders to shine personally as great statesman on the world stage at the cost of the long-term interest of the country. The same tendency manifests itself in other fields as well.

Of course it is possible to put an altogether different construction on the attitude and actions of the Indian leaders dealing with China since Independence. China’s history has been one of aggressiveness with its neighbours. India’s historical experience has been just the opposite. Chinese leaders are the product of China’s past, just as India’s leaders are the product of India’s past. The latter’s worldview would, in any case, have carried a pacific strain. Consciously or subconsciously it would have been reinforced by the passage of Mahatma Gandhi on the Indian stage in the first half of the 20th Century. No Indian leader of stature has been able to abjure Gandhi’s philosophy, at least not publicly. The influence on the psyche of the people of India as a whole goes much deeper. With this background it would not be wrong to suppose that Indian leaders gave up several negotiating advantages in the belief that India’s and, more importantly, Asia’s long-term interest could only be served by complete harmonization of India-China relations. Most Indians still hold that view, the Chinese occupation of Tibet and the 1962 war notwithstanding. It is not in China’s interest, and certainly not in the interest of Asia and the world that India be forced by Chinese intransigence to abandon its historical perspective and faith in pacifism as an instrument of state policy. It was in this spirit that Nehru went to Bandung as the leading votary of Panchsheel. It would indeed be sad if Chinese leaders in the 21st Century were to take India’s lack of aggressive posturing as a sign of weakness carried over from the previous century.

In the light of what has been stated above China, in its own long-term interest, having been assured of India’s acceptance of Tibet as a part of China, should commence the phased demilitarization of the Tibet Autonomous Region and permit the return of the Dalai Lama on the lines of the very modest proposals put forward by him. Failure to do so would automatically, in the not too distant future, reopen the entire Tibetan question. What is more, it would force India to militarize its borders with China far more meaningfully than at present. Militarization creates its own logic – mostly tragic. China’s demilitarization of Tibet has now become an ineluctable ecological imperative as well. The sooner China gets going on this long delayed step the better it would be for Sino-Indian relations and for peace and harmony in Asia.

The world has been so inured to the China, Tibet, India equation of the previous century that it failed to take into account the importance of perhaps one of the most significant developments of recent years as it moved into the new century. The epoch-making event that needs to be emblazoned across all points of the horizon is that in spite of the merciless repression visited upon the fragile Tibetan nation – fragile in numbers and fragile in its ecology – since the Chinese invaded Tibet the Dalai Lama has remained steadfast in his belief in non-violence. Any other leader, recoiling in horror at the magnitude of the devastation wrought on Tibet and its people, would long ago have changed course; in the manner of so many insurgent and terrorist organizations that have sprung up all over the world to cause a veritable nightmare for the well-being of so many nations. The Dalai Lama stood rock-like in his belief in ahimsa as propounded by the Buddha and Mahavira several millennia ago and as practiced by Mahatma Gandhi in the 20th century when challenging the might of the greatest empire of that age. The Dalai Lama’s steadfastness becomes doubly commendable in the face of the bitter opposition by a large portion of the Tibetan youth who do not see any hope for salvation – for their country or people – at the other end of the road taken by their spiritual leader, no matter how much they might revere him personally. This self-sacrifice and steadfastness of the Tibetan people to uphold the values they cherish, in the face of prolonged inhuman repression, has to be seen in contrast to the violence and suicide bombings erupting elsewhere in the world in the face of much lesser wrongs, imagined or real, perpetrated against oppressed people. Today it is perhaps the only experiment of its type on a large enough scale that the world is aware of. It must not be allowed to fail. More, so for the sake of humanity at large than just the Tibetan people. The whole world has an immense stake in seeing the Dalai Lama’s experiment succeed. The stakes are simply too enormous for humankind in the midst of the turmoil that has now engulfed the world. The spiritual leader of Tibet stands as a beacon for people everywhere. A satisfactory outcome of his struggle will renew humanity’s faith in itself in a world rent asunder by so many hatreds and divisions.

New Delhi
December 7, 2006
© Vinod Saighal
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Blueprint For Preventing Iraq’s Descent Into Chaos

Present day Iraq was a British construct after the fall of the Ottoman Empire at the end of World War II. In less than a century after its formation the British along with their American allies are in the forefront for the deconstruction of Iraq. The trifurcation of Iraq, should it come about, will not be very different from the three original Ottoman provinces that were amalgamated in 1922 and placed under a Hashemite King. While Iraq itself may have been unified comparatively recently by the British, Baghdad, its capital, has a much longer history that has been woven into the myths and legends of the Middle East for over a millennium. In fact, no other city of the Arab world embodies so distinctly the Arabian flavour than Baghdad. From AD 786-809, under fabled Haroon al-Rashid - who established relations with China’s Tang Dynasty and the emperor Charlemagne - Baghdad gave the world astronomy, alchemy, hydraulics, diplomacy, fiscal administration and the postal service. Up to the early 12th century it remained the most important intellectual center in the world. Baghdad had been under siege by the Assyrians and later by Cyrus the Great from Persia. However, it was only in 1258 that Baghdad was sacked for the first time by the Mongols riding under the command of Hulagu, the grandson of Genghis Khan. Legend has it that he erected a pyramid of 700,000 skulls out of his victims. In 1401, another foreign invader, the Turco-Mongol Tamerlane ("Timur the Lame"), devastated Baghdad yet again. Then for six centuries Baghdad managed to survive relatively peacefully till the “shock and awe” visited upon its inhabitants by the 2003 invasion of the Anglo-American combine.
In the most recent invasion a figure of over half a million deaths is already being mentioned for the Iraqis since the March 2003 invasion. This figure could go up considerably if the deaths of young children caused due to malnutrition and lack of medicines were to be taken into account since the 1991 invasion of Iraq. In the latter case one or two million deaths had been reported. During the shock and awe bombing of Baghdad and other Iraqi cities, most notably Fallujah, Depleted Uranium (DU) was freely used. The use of DU could lead to very large number of casualties for the coming generations exposed to it either directly or indirectly. That is not all. The manner in which Iraq is sought to be vacated by the occupying forces could lead to further sectarian killings on a much larger scale than is presently the case. Iraq and the Iraqis have suffered enough. Surely, a way can be found to prevent Iraq from descending into a condition of semi-permanent chaos. In the ensuing paragraphs a plan of action for preventing a cataclysmic break up of Iraq is spelled out.

The Action Plan

The Action Plan comprises three distinct components as under:
- Status of the city of Baghdad
- Restructuring Iraqi Armed Forces
- Functioning of the Federal Structure
Each of these aspects is amplified below.

The Status Of The City Of Baghdad

The key to the stabilization of Iraq is the stabilization of the city of Baghdad; the key to the re-development of Iraq is the redevelopment of Baghdad.
First the outline plan:
- Baghdad to be declared a separate city-state.
- Security of Baghdad
- Law and order in Baghdad
- Administering Baghdad city-state
- Infrastructure development of Baghdad
- Restoring Civic Services in Baghdad
- Turning Baghdad into the cultural and education center of the Arab World.

Baghdad to be Declared Separate City-State

Baghdad should be declared a separate city-state with a clearly delineated perimeter. Its status could be akin to the Vatican Status in concert with the pattern of administration followed for Chandigarh, the city design by the French architect, Le Corbusier in the early 1950s. After the trifurcation of Punjab shortly after the Independence of India, both the States of Punjab and Haryana laid claim to Chandigarh as the capital of their respective states. Without going into details the present status of Chandigarh is that it is centrally administered as a Union Territory with both the Punjab and Haryana state governments locating their governing complexes in the city. As of now the model functions satisfactorily with the people of Chandigarh happy to be administered under a central government dispensation. Neither Punjab nor Haryana have had any difficulty in carrying out the governing functions of their respective states from Chandigarh.

Security of Baghdad

The security of Baghdad should be handed over for an initial ten-year period to a military force provided by the Egyptian government. The Government of Egypt would designate an Egyptian Army Corps for exclusive deployment in the city of Baghdad. To cater for expenses associated with the task Egypt would be paid US $ 2 billion per annum for all expenses related to the security functions performed by the Corps in Baghdad. Every two years a review could be undertaken for assessing the operating expenses involved and the amount augmented if necessary. Similarly, the Corps could be beefed up by the Egyptian Government based on ground conditions. Payment to the latter would initially be dispensed by the US government.
The Corps Commander, whose credentials would be vetted by the US and the Iraq government would be given total freedom to restore law and order for the first two years. The Egyptian Corps would function in a manner similar to the SOFA (Status of Forces Agreement) that the US government negotiates for its troops deployed on overseas duties.
The Egyptian Corps Commander would be supervised by a Supervisory Committee comprising designated representatives from the following: The US ambassador in Iraq; Head of the UK Forces in Iraq; Representative of the Iraqi Government; Representative of the UN Secretary General; Representative of the World Health Organisation. Under clear guidelines framed by the Supervisory Council the Egyptian Force Commander would have a free hand to restore normalcy in Baghdad. For carrying out this task he could impose martial law in designated segments of the city for given periods of time in order to rid the city of weapons of all types held by individuals, militias or organizations operating outside the law or against the rules for holding or carrying of weapons promulgated by the Egyptian Force Commander. The Egyptian Forces deployed for the purpose would have the freedom to launch any type of operations for ridding the city of clandestine weapons or individuals or groupings attempting to take the law into their own hands. For security and restoration of law and order in Baghdad the Egyptian Force would be the sole force deployed for the purpose. The Iraqi Army would be based in camps situated outside the periphery of the city in designated areas. The Army Headquarters would remain in Baghdad. The US Army would be responsible for providing security cordon around the periphery of Baghdad city-state and for manning all entry and exit points along designated routes. All entities, including the US Government locations, the Iraq Government complexes, foreign embassies, Iraq armed forces headquarters and the like would be permitted to deploy security elements for protection of their respective complexes in situ as well as for protection of VVIPs, designated dignitaries or individuals. All other protection within the city would be provided by the Egyptian forces. The latter would have the authority to shoot or apprehend elements carrying weapons or causing disorder. All militias would be given notice by the Egyptian force commander to exit the capital within a given time frame, after which they would be liable to be summarily apprehended and incarcerated or executed. Zero tolerance in this regard would be the order of the day. In executing his task the Egyptian force commander will not be hampered by any of the other entities holding power in Iraq.

Maintenance of Law and Order & Administration in Baghdad City-State

Security and day-to-day law and order are complementary functions. To begin with security as well as law and order would be handled by the Egyptian forces. They would take help from the existing police forces. Suspect elements would be weeded out and replaced by carefully selected personnel. The local police could be supplemented by the military police personnel of both the US and Egyptian forces. Once a semblance of security for the citizens of Baghdad has been ensured the strengthened local police, augmented by carefully selected fresh inductees, would gradually assume routine law and order functions. Stringent selection procedures would be established for recruiting local magistrates, superior judiciary for the city-state and other administrative elements. All persons selected would remain secular and function as per international norms prevalent in well-established democracies. Where necessary civil servants and magistrates could be hired internationally for fixed tenures with Baghdadi understudies. Gradually the citizens of Baghdad would assume all responsibilities for self-governance, including local elections under neutral supervisory authorities. Here again, persons showing signs of sectarianism would be excluded.
For the first three years the costs of running the administration of Baghdad would be borne by the Central government and international donors. Thereafter, as trade, commerce and services pick up local taxes would be levied till the time Baghdad becomes financially self-sustaining.

Infrastructure Development & Restoring Civic Services in Baghdad

Going by the size of the population affected, the people of Baghdad have suffered the most since the March 2003 invasion of Iraq. For the average Iraqi living conditions, which were appalling in the earlier stages have remained abysmal in spite of the billions of dollars that have been sunk in. To put it mildly the money was misspent. Along with the stabilization of the security situation in the city the immediate priorities would be: restoration of electricity, water supplies and health and hygiene. Other development projects would be taken up for turning the city into a modern metropolis with first-rate transportation. International tenders could be floated under the aegis of a neutral body with impeccable credentials. Many of these services could be built on BOT (Build, Operate, Transfer) basis. They would provide employment to local Iraqis from the city. Middle class and wealthy Iraqis who have moved out to other countries would be invited back to help in the re-building and re-vitalization of the Baghdad city-state, which, in less than ten years could become one of the finest cities of the Middle East - a modern day version of the fabled dream city of the great Caliph Haroun-Al-Rashid.

Turning Baghdad into the Cultural & Education Centre of the Arab World

Universities and entities from around the world would be invited to set up modern educational, cultural and recreational facilities. Initially these would be developed for the Baghdadis. Later on they would be thrown open to all Iraqis and students selected from the rest of the Arab World. It would be the endeavour of all concerned to ensure that the education provided remains modern and secular. Friendly governments could also chip in to set up high tech facilities in the city. At the end of the day the aim would be to develop Baghdad into the most admired and vibrant capital in the Arab World.

Restructuring Iraqi Armed Forces

The broad outlines for restructuring of the Iraqi Armed Forces include, inter alia:
- The army to be divided into three commands: The Southern Command comprising Shiite divisions formed into one or two corps; Central Command comprising Sunni troops for the Sunni dominated central region; The Northern Command for deployment exclusively in the Kurdish region consisting of Kurdish troops.
- Simultaneously a composite command could be envisaged of carefully selected troops from all denominations. After suitable training they would become the nucleus of specialist units.
-The army headquarters located in Baghdad would comprise senior officers and personnel selected for their national and secular outlook and proven competence.
-In the first phase the three Commands would be responsible for security in their respective geographic commands. They would also be responsible for guarding the borders of Iraq in their designated sectors.
- Academies and officers’ training schools would be set up for joint training in facilities set up in Baghdad. All officers selected for training, basic as well as advanced, would be carefully vetted.
-Training facilities for non-commissioned officers and other ranks would be set up under respective regional commands.
- Medical, nursing and other specialized services would operate directly under Army headquarters and allocated to commands on as required basis.
Other details for professionalising the army have not been included in this short paper. These can be spelt out a later stage.

Functioning Of The Federal Structure

The broad parameters of the proposed trifurcation of Iraq along federal lines have been discussed in various forums. Much of the mayhem has resulted from irresoluteness that has crept in because of the vacillation in Washington, much of it brought about due to the run up to the November 2006 elections in the USA. Now that these are behind them, both parties – Republicans and Democrats - can get together purposefully to move forward to retrieve the situation in Iraq. There can hardly be two opinions at this point in time that the US policies in Iraq have generally failed. However, notwithstanding the many wrong turns that were taken earlier on, the US Army in Iraq is not an army that has been defeated or severely mauled. When a foreign country is invaded the casualties are expected to run into the tens of thousands in the first phase of capture itself. The American Army was lucky. Iraq was not seriously contested. Therefore, some years down the line a few thousand US casualties do not represent a critical situation from the military point of view. The greater problem is the demoralization resulting from the wrangling in Washington – irrespective of whether it is justified or not. The moment a clear, unmistakable plan of action is decided in Washington and conveyed to Iraq and the world the fog of uncertainty would lift and a situation considered hopeless to many would reveal facets that indicate brighter possibilities for stabilizing the situation.
One possibility would be to go along with the practically non-functioning present dispensation and improve its functioning by quelling sectarian conflict in Baghdad after declaring it a city-state and thereafter bringing about normalization by curtailing sectarian strife, and then spreading it outward in concentric circles. With persistence and clear enunciation of intent, regardless of opposition from various sectarian and extra-territorial interests in the region, a degree of normalization would automatically ensue. The present state of uncertainty would be dispelled after the plan, so adopted, is given bi-partisan support in Washington.
Before going into other aspects there has to be a consensus in Washington that the type of re-construction projects entrusted to firms like Halliburton would be a closed chapter. Hereafter, all funds allocated for Iraq would have to be overseen by a respected oversight committee comprising members from both parties. The reconstruction activity would require to be monitored all the way down the line to the execution of the projects on the ground – in good condition and without cost and time overruns. Half the unrest in Iraq and the anti-American feeling stems from mismanaged projects, diversion of funds and not meeting expectations made with great fanfare in Washington and Baghdad after an easy victory.
It should not be too difficult to ensure pipeline security and greater output from production sites once the revised plans are announced and implementation undertaken with quiet purposefulness and professionalism. A development tax should be levied at the wellhead on each barrel of oil. Its utilization and distribution between the federating units has to be clearly spelled out. Here again, if funds are properly utilized and results begin to appear on the ground sectarian strife would automatically come down and the animus against the US troops gradually simmer down.
The American government has to firmly indicate its stance on the question of US troops in Iraq. Naturally several factors having a regional bearing would impinge on a decision of this nature. A suggested framework could be as under:
- In the longer-term the US is committed to a complete withdrawal once normalcy is restored. A caveat relating to the Kurdish region could be put in.
- It would withdraw approximately 50,000 military personnel within 18 months of the revised plan taking off on the ground.
- Thereafter, further reduction every six months to a year depending upon the competence achieved by the restructured Iraq Army.
It is important that the revised plan is circulated in-house in the Pentagon, the State Department, the Defence Department (the Pentagon should be free to give its own comments that may be at variance), the CIA and other selected committees and entities. Once a general consensus is obtained the plan should be communicated to all concerned and faithfully executed down the line. The sniping in Washington should then come down, if not cease.

Concluding Remarks

The USA has messed up things in Iraq. It was a wrong decision that was taken for all the wrong reasons. There was a large element of deception that has eroded the credibility of the US Administration – internally among the American people and externally among the allies. The start point for retrieving the situation in Iraq is to acknowledge the mistakes and then forget the past. Witch hunting and recrimination will not serve any purpose. Lessons would have been learned in Washington to ensure that such deception is never again allowed to influence major commitment of US forces abroad. The situation in Iraq is certainly grim. It is, however, far from being irretrievable. Fresh initiatives along the lines indicated, with sensible modifications and mid-term corrections, whenever required, should allow Iraq to get up on its feet again.

New Delhi
November 17, 2006
© Vinod Saighal
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The missive sent on behalf of MRGG to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court may please be noted. .
Vinod Saighal (Convenor, MRGG)
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31st October 2006
Hearing on Petitions on Ninth Schedule
   On the very day that I had delivered the talk on ‘Why the War on Global Terrorism is Not Being Won’ I had mailed the text to you along with letter dated August 2, 2006. Several high-ranking personages and constitutional experts had attended the talk. It was sent post-haste because part of it touched upon certain aspects of subversion of the Constitution that might gradually be ushered in. The talk has since been published in the United Service Institution of India Journal, July-September 2006. Prior to that views on the subject under review had been submitted in my capacity as Convener MRGG (Movement for Restoration of Good Government) as per details given below:

  *  Reservations in IIsT and IIsM vide letter dated 8 April 2006.
  *  Increasing Tendency of Parliamentarians to Routinely Nullify Court Decisions vide letter dated 6       June 2006.
  *  Restoring A Modicum of Habitability to Delhi vide letter dated 19 September 2006.

   The legislative competence of Parliament to pass laws in order to circumvent or preempt judicial review by taking the Ninth Schedule route to make them immune to adjudication would not only destroy the basic structure of the Constitution, it would imperil the very foundations of democracy in India. Without judicial review of legislation that could affect fundamental rights or the basic character of the Constitution, the country could easily take a wrong turn, endangering its fragile democracy, which has taken root against overwhelming odds. In India, after nearly 60 years of democratic functioning the danger of military dictatorship is virtually non-existent. What is more worrisome today is the erosion of democratic norms at the hands of politico-criminal mafias – some with extra-territorial linkages - that are raising their ugly heads in state after another. Vested interests, who by their very existence and functioning undermine good governance, are attaining positions of dominance at the Centre as well. At times like these the over-watch functions of higher judiciary become doubly important for safeguarding the sanctity of the country’s democracy.

   On an earlier occasion the reducto ad absurdum argument had been cited in a letter sent to you. To take the argument further, suppose the Members of Parliament in their wisdom pass a law to the effect that no member of parliament could be prosecuted for any criminal act until approval were to be taken for such prosecution from a parliamentary body constituted for the purpose and concomitantly take the Ninth Schedule route to make the legislation immune to adjudication would it not spell the end of the rule of law in the country. Take another instance: should the MPs decide in the manner outlined above that the sums made available to them under the MPLAD scheme should henceforth amount to rupees 100 crores per MP would the judiciary remain idle spectators, regardless of the correctness of the exercise in legislative terms. Many other examples of a similar nature can be given. Under no circumstances can commonsense or rationality be allowed to suffer diminishment through legislative intemperance. Hence, the ineluctable imperative of judicial review.

   A long period of time has elapsed since the very first Constitutional amendment enacted in 1951 introduced the Ninth Schedule through Article 31 B. Much water has flowed down the Yamuna since then. Heed has to be taken from the example of other countries that have been attempting to put certain categories of legislation beyond judicial review. Recently, constitutional experts in democracies around the world, including in the USA, have expressed grave concern at the turn that the US democracy seems to be taking by putting, or attempting to put, certain categories of legislations beyond judicial review. Most non-partisan observers have opined that it could seriously undermine American democracy. By undermining judicial independence and judicial review of legislation several countries have opened the route to fascism and dictatorship of vested interests, even without a military takeover. Democracy in India will flounder if judicial review of legislation put in the Ninth Schedule is disallowed.

Hon’ble Chief Justice

Supreme Court,

Tilak Marg, New Delhi – 110001.