Issue 56 Vol III, January 31, 2008

C O M M E N T

Farm suicides continue unabated

Between 1997 and 2001 as many as 78,737 hapless debt ridden farmers in India committed suicides. The next five years, from 2002 to 2006 have proved worse, seeing 87,567 farmers take their own lives. This means that on average, there has been one farmer’s suicide every 30 minutes since 2002. Records show 1, 66,304 farmers’ suicides in a decade since 1997.

According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) in its report Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India, 2006  worst figure recorded ‘in any year for any State’ since the NCRB first began logging farm suicides. Farm suicides in Maharashtra rose dramatically in 2006, more than in any other part of the country. The State saw 4,453 farmers’ suicides that year, over a quarter of the all-India total of 17,060. The previous worst — 4,147 in 2004 — were also in Maharashtra. It has seen ‘36,428 farmers’ suicides’ since 1995, ‘in official count.’ ‘2006 is the latest year for which data are available.’

The suicides in Maharashtra mark an increase of 527 over the 2005 figure. This was four and a half times bigger than that in Andhra Pradesh, the next worst-hit State, which saw a rise of 117 farm suicides over 2005.

It was also more than twice the increase of 198 in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh taken together. Worse, it means farmers accounted for half ‘the increase’ in all suicides in Maharashtra in 2006.

Significantly, Maharashtra’s upward rise occurred despite relief packages of both the Prime Minister and Chief Minister — worth Rs. 4,825 crore in all — were being implemented in the Vidharbha region, where the rate of suicides has been alarming.

The NCRB figures show an unrelenting uptrend in what can be termed the ‘SEZ’ or (Farmers) ‘Special Elimination Zone’ States. These States, which account for nearly two-thirds of all farm suicides in the country, include Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh (including Chhattisgarh).

As a group, the ‘SEZ’ States saw an increase of 6.2 per cent in such deaths. Among them, Maharashtra (4,453), Andhra Pradesh (2,607) and Madhya Pradesh-Chhattisgarh (2,858) show a sharp upward spike.

Karnataka (1,720) reports a decline. So though the all-India numbers for 2006 reflect a very small decline of 61 over the 2005 figure of 17,131, the broad trends of the last decade continue. And the trend of rapidly rising farm suicides, particularly post-2001 in the ‘SEZ’ States, remains unchanged.

According to well known journalist P.Sainath the “so the minuscule decline in the figure for the country as a whole marks no break from the dismal decade-long trend.”

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Bush war on truth in Iraq
Lies and more lies

TOP US officials ran roughshod over the truth in the run-up to the Iraq war, lying 935 times in a two-year period leading up to the Iraq war, a study released on January 23 found.

How consistently and over a two year long period American president George W. Bush and his team lied prior to attack on Iraq is documented. Also, how like faithful voice of the master, a vast majority American media propagated their lies ass its own before March 2003 attack and afterwards. What are worse large sections of the media across the world picked up these lies and further spread to the gullible public?  For some it was just lackey’s role to drum up the fabricated facts that the Bush administered churned out on a daily basis.

A study by two non-profit journalism organisations found that President George W. Bush and officials issued hundreds of false statements about the national security threat from Iraq in the two years that followed the September 2001 terrorist attacks in New York. The study concluded that the statements “were part of an orchestrated campaign that effectively galvanised public opinion and, in the process, led the nation to war under decidedly false pretences.”

The study is posted on the website of the Center for Public Integrity, which worked with the Fund for Independence in Journalism.

The study counted 935 false statements in the two-year period. It found that in speeches, briefings, interviews and other venues, Mr. Bush and officials said unequivocally on at least 532 occasions Iraq had weapons of mass destruction or was trying to produce or obtain them or had links to Al-Qaeda or both.

Charles Lewis and Mark Reading-Smith of the Fund for Independence in Journalism staff members, writing an overview of the study assert, “ It is now beyond dispute that Iraq did not possess any weapons of mass destruction or have meaningful ties to Al-Qaeda.”

Mr. Bush led with 259 false statements, 231 about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and 28 about Iraq’s links to Al-Qaeda, the study found. That was second only to Mr. Powell’s 244 false statements about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and 10 about Iraq and Al-Qaeda.

 Named in the study along with Bush were top officials of the administration during the period studied: Vice-President Dick Cheney, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, Defence Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Colin Powell, Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and White House press secretaries Ari Fleischer and Scott McClellan.

The remarks compiled by the center, totaling about 380,000 words, are largely well-known and range from assertions that Saddam Hussein was seeking uranium to build a nuclear weapon, to warnings of a link between Iraq and the al Qaeda militant network blamed for the September 11 attacks.

The Center for Public Integrity said the comments show how Bush and senior administration officials "methodically propagated erroneous information over the two years beginning on September 11, 2001."

One ominous comment came in September 2002, when Rice said in a CNN interview that the United States should not wait for proof of Iraq's nuclear capabilities. "We don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud," warned Rice, then Bush's national security adviser.

Yet the war goes on. For government credibility remains severely damaged. And then that the president unlike Nixon has never really been held to account for his repeated falsehoods.

The Bush administration's warnings about prewar Iraq, from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's "mushroom cloud" to Vice President Dick Cheney's statements on weapons of mass destruction, are now available in a searchable online database http://www.publicintegrity.org/WarCard

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War against global terror is borderless
Ajmer Alam Wani

IF one goes by the report of William M. Arkin on National and Homeland Security, the surge is about to hit Pakistan. The top US Commander for the Middle-East says the deteriorating situation in the country and the increased violence in the frontier area have prompted Islamabad to accept plans for US forces in the country for the first time since early 2002. Meanwhile, a top counter-terrorism diplomat says the situation has become so dire that the United States cannot afford to wait.

This cooperation and operations, in an area previously off-limits to the US military, comes despite Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf’s rejection last week of unilateral operations by US military forces. No one on the US side is publicly suggesting that US forces operate unilaterally. Nonetheless, there is a sense of urgency here that suggests that very possibility.

Speaking at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies earlier this week, former Ambassador-at-Large for counter-terrorism Henry ‘Hank’ Crumpton starkly described the situation in the Pakistani frontier area and the possibilities that could drive unilateral American action. Pakistan, he said, was “Not exercising their sovereign responsibility within this tribal area. And as Al-Qaeda is able to expand the safe haven that enables them to plot and to plan and to train and to deploy operatives in this global battlefield, including into our homeland....it poses a direct threat to us and the United States. We have a responsibility to protect our citizens.”

Crumpton stressed that geographically, culturally and socially neither the US nor Pakistani Army operations would be successful without the cooperation of tribal leaders and the local people. Still, Crumpton said, “We cannot wait. We need to address this issue because it’s getting worse, not better.”

The best way to fight Al-Qaeda in Pakistan, Crumpton said, “Is work with the Pakistanis at a local-level and also being transparent with the Pakistani government.” He spoke of building up “trusted networks at a tribal-level and of integrating military, intelligence, diplomatic and economic means. Military success, he said, will come only if “the next day,” change also takes place in the hospital and the infrastructure, bringing “hope.”

The clear message behind Crumpton’s talk, as well as in earlier statements by other US military officials, is that the US has “no plans” to operate unilaterally on Pakistani soil.

But unilateral US operations could come if Islamabad bureaucratized the new mission and imposed so many constraints that the American augmentation ends up bringing nothing.

Another way unilateral action could come is if Pakistan sees the value in Americans conducting operations it does not want to undertake or acknowledge itself. But the US and Pakistan would have to proceed with caution, because the local public would surely protest anything seen as a violation of national sovereignty and could grow more resentful at the incitement provided by American deployments and the issue of unilateralism.

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Obituary: Dr. S.S. Joshi a Dedicated Scholar

THE untimely demise of Dr. S.S. Joshi is one of the most unfortunate and shocking jolts. Punjab and the whole country has lost one of the most dedicated and great scholars. It is a great loss for me because I had the honor of knowing him for more than thirty years. Dr. Joshi was humble, very balanced, and the most well read and informed scholar I ever came across.

I had the opportunity to meet and work with several Punjabi scholars. Two scholars impressed me the most, one was Dr. Prem Parkash Singh and the other was Dr. S.S. Joshi. I feel these scholars reached the level of the great Pandini. I have personally learnt a lot from these scholars; particularly from Dr. Joshi, who lived close to us in Patiala.

Dr. Joshi was a great resource of knowledge and was a living encyclopedia for me. I used to call him or just go to his house if I had a question. He was always polite and pleasant. Ever though linguistics was his specialty, but his knowledge knew no bounds; history and philosophy were equally his favorite subjects.

Dr. Joshi belonged to a Hindu Brahman family but his love and respect for the Sikh Gurus was so deep and profound that I have rarely seen it even among the most dedicated Sikhs. He used to say that the Sikh Gurus have made the greatest contribution to this country and mankind, and for that we have to be always grateful.

Dr. Joshi had great opportunities in England but he loved Punjab so much that he came back and wanted to live the rest of his life in Punjab. He has made tremendous contributions to the Punjabi language, Punjabi culture, and Punjabi people. He told me that he never regretted leaving England and always that he belonged to Punjab. I am sure that Punjab will always remember him as one of its favorite sons.

Even though he is not physically with us, yet he will always continue to inspire us with his dedication and commitment for the Punjabi language and Punjabi people. He has truly become a symbol of Punjabiat. We will always remember his great contributions. Punjabi University Patiala should really be proud of Dr. Joshi’s remarkable achievements.

[Sawraj Singh M.D. F.I.C.S. Chairman, Washington State Network for Human Rights]

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