Gobind Thukral

IT has become a routine of sorts. Young and educated Akali finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal and nephew of four times Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal often throws away prudence and appeals to the ‘good sense’ of his colleagues to get rid of subsidies as these are eating away precious resources and hampering real economic progress.

Senior Badal chides him publicly. He warns “not to be irresponsible” and refrain from scoring “brownie points by betraying people”. On the vital question of subsiding power to the farm sector and atta dal scheme for 13 lakh poor families, elder Badal asserts categorically, “Cabinet colleagues should refrain from making irresponsible statements... Every minister has to perform creditably within the ideological framework given by the party. I strongly disapprove of the tendency of saying one thing during campaign and then doing the opposite on coming to power.” This time there was a written statement from the chief minister’s office and later several ministers came on record to oppose the position taken by Mr Manpreet Singh Badal.

The finance minister bows saying that he will not like to comment on the senior Badal who is an esteemed leader and his dear uncle and the one who has brought him into politics and sustained him by constantly helping him win four elections to the Punjab Assembly. To quote him, “The Chief Minister is a political stalwart and a highly honourable man. If he has made some observations, I fully respect that”. The matter rests there; shall we say between the finance minister and the chief minister or between a respected uncle and his bit delinquent nephew?

How could the matters of State, matters of life and death for millions of Punjabis be allowed to be debated in this cavalier fashion? Someone ought to stand up and be counted. There is certainly something that disturbs Manpreet Singh and he needs to articulate, often enough to invite the ire of his uncle despite his statement this time at the Chandigarh Press Club having been laced with free flow of laudatory comments about his uncle and his cousin, Sukhbir Singh Badal, president of the ruling Akali Dal. Clan stands at the top claiming all the loyalties indeed.

Yet the harsh realities about the fiscal health of Punjab and governance or its lack can not be wished away so lightly in the name of the clan or filial affection. Akali Dal during the 2007 elections had promised to subsidise electricity to farmers and scheduled caste families. It is costing Rs 2,600 crore this year to the already bankrupt Punjab State Electricity Board. Its debt burden has touched Rs 7,000 crore and not many banks are ready with cash too bail it out. The Atta Dal scheme is adding another 1,000 crore each year despite center’s generosity of allotment of subsidized wheat. Shagun scheme for the marriage of daughters from the poor families costs another Rs 500 crore. Punjab needs right now a neat Rs 2,000 or even more to fund various schemes; power subsidy [Rs 2,600 crore against Rs 2,000 last year] Rs 640 crore for pensions- an increase from to Rs 2,750 crore from Rs 2,100 crore last year and expected salary hike up to Rs 790 crore. Punjab’s debt burden and Akalis are never accusing the Congress for burdening Punjab would rise by Rs 3,000 crore this year from Rs 57,000 crore. By this count, the state would touch anywhere near 68,000 crore.

Punjab had promised to reduce the deficit to Rs 1,000 crore to earn some grants from the union government for prudence in financial matters. Increase in VAT collections at the end of this fiscal are targeted at Rs 7,000 crore, up from Rs 5,100 crore in 2007. Other taxes also show some buoyancy. But these do not finish the mismatch between the resources and expenditure.

Manpreet builds his case around two points. He says Punjab is a landlocked and predominantly agricultural state, the avenues of new taxes are sparse, hence his case against the subsidies. He argues that people are not interested in mere sops, but in quality of service. They would appreciate uninterrupted power with minimum fluctuations rather than free but erratic supply of power. “We should provide better education and health services instead’, he adds with his usual passion. What he perhaps does not say is that some rich farmers, 14 per cent who own above 15 acres are enjoying at the cost of the poor. In Punjab that is dominated by agriculture, 67 per cent ruralites own no land. Out of 33 per cent who own land, 26 per cent own between 5-10 acres and 9.53 per cent between 10-15 acres. The elder Badal loves them, as the landowners form the base of the Akalis.

The junior Badal wants to take care of the rest. Is that so simple? Does he not know tax collection in Punjab can easily be doubled or even trebled? Look at the booming markets all around. Is Punjab not one of the most corrupt states? Ask any farmer or any other citizen that has a brush with officialdom.
How would one wish the agrarian crisis that has often forced the farmers to desperation and suicides could be ended by subsiding power or poverty problems solved through free two square meals a day.

There is also a powerful argument put forward by former finance minister and present cooperation minister Capt. Kanwaljit Singh that subsidies to farmers are a global phenomenon and these are imperatives if the social and economic fabric is to be maintained. Punjab can offer nothing more than that in this liberalized atmosphere and its duty is to take care of food security of the country. Look at the Indian stand at the WTO meetings.” There are many more to support this argument to ward off agrarian crises; fragmenting land holdings, falling productivity and increasing debt. You would require these sops in a rationalized manner till you touch the core problems.

Yet Manpreet Badal is rendering a service by focusing on the issues in this highly trivialized politics. What he is not saying for obvious reasons, “let us start governing. Provide teachers in schools and doctors and other para-medical staff and medicines in hospitalities and make the flabby mass of government more efficient. Some effort should be made to end corruption.” His own constituency and that of his respected uncle, the chief minister is short by fifty percent of teachers and health staff.

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Last Tsar’s Rehabilitation Needs History Reviewed in East-West Context

Sawraj Singh writes from Washington

RECENTLY, Russia’s Supreme Court rehabilitated the last Tsar, Nicholas II and his family declaring them victims of political repression. The Tsar Nicholas II, his wife Alexandra, their five children, their doctor and three servants were shot dead by the Bolsheviks in July 1918 in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg.

The Russian government has always officially considered the Tsar Nicholas II a tyrant. However, the Russian Orthodox Church has canonized the Tsar and his family as saints. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, attitude to the Tsar and his family has changed in Russia. Their remains were reburied in Saint Petersburg.

The present Supreme Court decision overturns the court’s decision in 2007. The family’s lawyer argued that coercion by state bodies, restricting the freedom and rights of citizens for class, religious or social reason, constituted repression.

This event is of great historical importance. Until now; we have a tendency to view the history from a limited, unilateral and prejudicial viewpoint. The time has come when we start reviewing history from a broader perspective and in the East-West context.

We can start by comparing the histories of the Russian and the Chinese communist parties. Such a comparative study will show a fundamental difference between the two. I feel that these differences can be understood in the context of the East and West. The evolution of culture promotes the concepts of tolerance, coexistence and unity in diversity. Killing the political adversaries or jailing them in Siberia was not uncommon in the Russian communist party, particularly during Stalin’s time. Mao never gave permission to kill his political rivals in the Chinese communist party. He started campaigns such as “Let the hundred flowers bloom” and the “Cultural revolution” to encourage expression of the different ideas in the party. However, excesses committed during these campaigns derailed these campaigns from their original direction. In spite of the shortcomings and the excesses, the history of the Chinese communist party clearly shows that there was more internal democracy in the Chinese communist party compared to the Russian communist party.

Recently there have been attempts to do a more balanced and impartial comparisons between the eastern and the Western philosophies. Two great American scholars wrote the book “The End of Suffering”. They have concluded that the western philosophy went wrong from the very beginning because it was based upon the Aristotle’s theory of logic that has a tendency to see things in opposition to each other. You are either right or wrong, you are either a friend or an enemy and either you are with us or against us.

The East did not see things in opposition to each other. If I am right that does not mean that you are wrong, because one reality has many realities in it. The things which appear to be in opposition to each other are actually complementing each other. The eastern philosophy has tried to promote concepts of tolerance, peaceful coexistence, and dialogue, multi lateral approach, accepting diversity, pluralism and unity in diversity. The Indian subcontinent was the seat of the eastern philosophy.

Vedas, Jainism, Buddhism, Sufi movement and the Bhakti movement all developed and promoted these principles. However, Guru Granth sahib, the holy book of the Sikhs, was chronologically the last major spiritual text which advocated a comprehensive philosophy of life based upon these principles. These principles are very important for the whole mankind because the replacement of the preset Unipolar world will be multi polar world based upon these principles.

[The writer is M.D. FICS and Chairman Washington State Network for Human Rights]

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116 suicide bombings in Pakistan since 2002

WITH an average of three suicide attacks per week in which at least thirty persons die, there will be 1,560 dead Pakistanis within a year. Add to this about 15 "extremists" being killed daily in the northern region, Pakistan will suffer further with a total of 7,035 dead. For every hamlet, village, and hideout bombed, and with every "extremist" killed, ten families suffer displacement.

So within a year, northern Pakistan will be a huge graveyard and there will be several thousand refugees in their own country, living in makeshift camps. As one reporters put it , “Thousands of emotionally and mentally unstable persons available to anyone who can convince them that life is not worth living anymore, so come on and die for this or that cause. The net result will be an escalation of violence in all parts of the country and the spiral of violence and death reaching all corners of the country.”

Figures compiled by the country's elite intelligence agency show that Pakistan suffered 28 suicide attacks during the first eight months of 2008, killing over 471 people and wounding 713 others, including innocent civilians as well as the armed forces personnel. On the other hand, the war-ridden Afghanistan and Iraq, despite facing a higher digit of suicide bombings during the same period, underwent lesser number of human losses. Available figures show there were 42 incidents of suicide attacks in Iraq between January 1 and August 31, 2008, claiming 463 lives, besides wounding 527 others. In contrast, 436 people were killed and 394 injured in 36 suicide attacks that took place in Afghanistan during the same period.

Iraq ranked first during 2007, experiencing over 150 attacks carried out by human bombs; Afghanistan stood second with more than 100 such attacks and Pakistan ranked third with 56 suicide hits. However, Pakistan had suffered more deaths than that of Afghanistan as a consequence of these suicide attacks.

Of the 471 people killed in suicide bombings across Pakistan in the first eight months of 2008, the number of the civilian casualties was 312. The number of the policemen killed in these attacks stood at 87, followed by 72 personnel of the security forces which have often been targeted in the aftermath of the bloody Operation Silence carried out against the fanatic clerics of the Lal Masjid (July 3-10, 2007).

The Pakistani security forces, especially the armed forces personnel, seem to be the main target of the human bombs ever since the Pakistan Army carried out the bloody Lal Masjid operation which allegedly killed hundreds, including innocent civilians. Look at the figures since then, compiled by the Pakistan's premier intelligence agency: over 500 armed forces personnel have so far been killed and over 850 injured in 65 incidents of suicide hits across Pakistan in a duration of 13 months [between July 10, 2007 and August 31, 2008].

The year 2007 was the bloodiest since Pakistan joined the war against terror, as a series of deadly suicide attacks and roadside bombings rocked the four provinces as well as the federal capital, claiming over 1,100 lives. The dangerous trend of suicide hits, targeting the armed forces personnel touched alarming heights in 2007, averaging more than one suicide attack a week as the Pakistani establishment apparently lost control of the extremist militants' networks and their leaders that it had nurtured to advance its geo-strategic agenda in neighbouring states.

While the PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto's December 27, 2007 assassination in Rawalpindi was the most high-profile suicide attack of the year 2007, there were total 56 incidents of suicide bombings across Pakistan, mostly targeting the security forces. The tragic assassination of Benazir by a sharp shooter, followed by a suicide bombing, represented the peak of the assault going on in Pakistan for almost a year now. The previous attempt to kill the PPP leader on October 18, 2007, was also carried out by a human bomb which had blown himself up near her welcome procession which she was leading from the airport upon her return to Pakistan after spending eight years in self-exile. However, it was unusual for an individual suicide bomber to kill over 140 people, as had happened in Karachi. Before the Oct 18 attack, the deadliest suicide attack carried out anywhere in the world was the one that killed 133 people in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad on Feb 3, 2007 when a bomber had detonated an explosive-laden truck at a busy market place.

Pakistan witnessed a ten-fold increase in the incidents of suicide bombings in 2007 as compared to 2006, although there are many who believe that the actual numbers of fatalities could be considerably higher given understated official accounts and erratic reportage from all the conflict zones. The year 2007 witnessed 56 suicide attacks, killing 472 armed forces personnel and injuring 230 civilians. 2007 also saw an increase of 100 percent in attacks targeting the law enforcement personnel, as 234 of them lost their lives in 465 attacks across Pakistan besides killing 262 civilians. In comparison, 224 attacks targeted law enforcement personnel in 2006, resulting in 82 personnel and 159 civilians being killed.

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