Gobind Thukral

INSURGENCY is spiraling across India. Its shadow spreads across 180 of some 600 odd districts of the country. This is one fourth of India. Here the poorest of the poor live whom the civilised people call these original inhabitants as adivasis or tribals. This is also the richest area of India, not only because of mineral wealth but due to its large forest wealth and rich water resources. Some of the very rich fauna and flora of the country is located in these areas. May these areas be in Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Orissa, West Bengal or Jammu and Kashmir.

Though the central government keeps pumping in thousands of crores, yet these rarely reach the right places and the needy persons. The governance is missing and the economic and social issues thrown up by these thousands of mutinies are treated like mere law and order problem. The government of India and the states consequently spend huge sums of money on security forces despite any visible success. Our home minister who is part and parcel of the corporate India wants to end Naxal movement in weeks and provide land to the Tatas and Vendantas . Strangely he wants to talk to the Naxalites if they end violence and does not want to end the state violence which is at times at the root of the problem. Another reason is that the Indian state treats its farmers and adivasis as outsiders except at the time of elections. Look how their land is acquired and given to the industrialists at throw away prices, leaving them in lurch. At the root is also the faulty development mindset that believes of exhausting all natural resources for the benefit of corporate India, the big business sections. Here Kodas [former chief minister of Chhattisgarh now under arrest for plundering the state worth Rs 2,500 crore in a two yeas time span] prosper and the poor in whose name the loot goes on have to trudge miles for days to get to the market and sell their small products.

One small proof of how we have treated these poor tribals becomes clear from one such admission by government of India. After years, the Prime Minister acknowledged the fault line and intervened and withdrew over one lakh cases against adivasis which they were facing for many years. These cases related to theft of chickens [jangli murga], tendu leaves, grazing of cattle in the forest areas and like that. Where should the poor tribals go if not to the forests, their traditional home for centuries? In Punjab and rest of the country who farmers who default on their cooperative loans are arrested and put in the hawalat and the big industrialists who owe thousands of crores[ Rs 74,000 crore was counted ten years back] are treated with velvet gloves.

A Gandhian leader Himanshu Kumar and his wife who dedicated their lives two decades back to help the tribals of Chhattisgarh recently spoke to the journalists in Mumbai. The BJP government has burnt down his Vanvasi Chetna Ashram and barred his entry in certain areas. He was allowed to go after the Supreme Court intervened.

Himanshu Kumar as a true Gandhian wants justice for the tribals who have suffered for centuries at the hands of the civilised world. He finds a nexus between the corporatism and the state government. “Yes, it is very clearly established. There is a government report which was published by Outlook magazine which says that the Tatas and Essar funded Salwa Judum which means Collective Peace Campaign. And being there on ground zero, we see that the Tatas and Essar have stakes there. They want land and they want no Naxal activity in the area so that they can mine the mineral wealth peacefully and in an uninterrupted manner.”

He says, “In the forests of Dantewada, people live like aboriginals used to, in tune with nature. Natural justice prevails there. In the jungles, there is no police, no crime. I went to Dantewada a month after my marriage. My wife and I built a hut without any walls, just a roof. I would leave my wife to travel all over Madhya Pradesh, for five to six days at a time. She never felt afraid.” And about the situation now he says with great pain. In 2005, the Chhattisgarh government started feeling the Maoists in Dantewada were a danger. It started the Salwa Judum. They knew the Maoists had the support among the adivasis, so they decided to empty the villages. They forced them out of their villages and tried to shift them into camps near police stations, at the edge of the village road. They got together a force of goondas who along with the police, would pounce on the villagers and force them into camps.”

Himanshu Kumar’s story runs like this: “At one point, there were 54,000 people in the camps, from 1,000 villages. The government claimed it had “sanitised’’ 644 villages. Fifty thousand adivasis had run away to the jungle. That is when the Chief Minister Raman Singh declared that those who have come to the camps are with us, and those who have run away are with the Naxalites.”

He says, “I wrote an Open Letter to the CM – as the chief of the state, you are saying that those citizens who choose to stay in their own homes are Naxalites! And will you give orders to shoot them? That is exactly what he did. There would be attacks on the same village again and again. The adivasis would try to come back and cultivate their land; every time they would be caught and terrible atrocities inflicted on them. Their harvests would be burnt. In such a situation, it was the Naxalites who supported the adivasis. That is why they regard the Naxalites as their friends.

“The State talks of the violence of the Maoists, but it is the State which is violent. The home minister keeps on talking about peace. But how can peace come when you are all the time attacking the adivasis? The situation has now reached a point where every outsider is looked upon by the adivasis as an enemy. The adivasi looks upon his fellow countryman as an enemy.”

Even if we believe half what this leader tells, there is serious fault with the government policies. Take a map of India. Now mark the districts of the country in terms of forest wealth. Then overlay on them the water wealth of the country the sources of streams and rivers that feed us. On this, plot the mineral wealth of the country iron ore, coal, bauxite and all things nice that make economies rich. But don’t stop here. Mark on these wealth of India, another indicator districts where the poorest people of our country live. These are also the tribal districts of India. A picture will emerge: The richest lands of India are where the poorest people live. Now complete this cartography of the country with the colour red. These are the same districts where Naxalites roam; where government admittedly is fighting a battle with its own people. Clearly, there is a lesson of bad development that we need to learn.

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Worrying climate change

Gobind Thukral

IT has been firmly established by science that climate change, global warming largely due to industrial activity is posing a real threat to existence of all life on our planet. Studies after studies show how glaciers are melting, seas warming up and weather getting knocks.

World leaders - presidents and prime ministers and the scientists from across 150 countries have been meeting often to find ways to face the global warming challenge. Recently they met at Copenhagen to deliberate on this serious threat that cuts across countries, ideologies and religions. There was the historic Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 that produced the climate treaty which is now being updated in Copenhagen.

The Copenhagen climate summit offers great opportunity and American President Barack Obama attending it is a sure sign of that. This moment is more filled with genuine possibility and hope. When Obama and Chinese president Hu Jintao jointly announced on November 17 steps that each nation would take to tackle climate change, it marked the first time the two climate superpowers had publicly told the world they would limit their emissions. India too joined in with its emission cuts. To be sure, there are a thousand ways things could still go wrong in Copenhagen. But make no mistake: momentum is building, governments are feeling the heat and Copenhagen could bring an historic breakthrough--if the public pressure that got us this far is sustained over the next few months. The UN has christened this summit "Hopenhagen," a nice touch indeed.

Recently in Hyderabad editors and publishers from 45 major countries met to discuss among other things what media should do to ward off this climate change. These 56 all big newspapers spoke with one voice and issued an editorial that was published across the world. It said, “Today 56 newspapers in 45 countries take the unprecedented step of speaking with one voice through a common editorial. We do so because humanity faces a profound emergency. Unless we combine to take decisive action, climate change will ravage our planet, and with it our prosperity and security. The dangers have been becoming apparent for a generation. Now the facts have started to speak: 11 of the past 14 years have been the warmest on record, the Arctic ice-cap is melting, and last year’s inflamed oil and food prices provide a foretaste of future havoc. In scientific journals the question is no longer whether humans are to blame, but how little time we have got left to limit the damage. Yet so far the world’s response has been feeble and half-hearted.

“Climate change has been caused over centuries has consequences that will endure for all time, and our prospects of taming it will be determined in the next 14 days. We call on the representatives of the 192 countries gathered in Copenhagen not to hesitate, not to fall into dispute, not to blame each other but to seize opportunity from the greatest modern failure of politics. This should not be a fight between the rich world and the poor world, or between east and west. Climate change affects everyone, and must be solved by everyone. The science is complex but the facts are clear. The world needs to take steps to limit temperature rises to 2C, an aim that will require global emissions to peak and begin falling within the next 5-10 years. A bigger rise of 3-4C — the smallest increase we can prudently expect to follow inaction — would parch continents, turning farmland into desert. Half of all species could become extinct, untold millions of people would be displaced, whole nations drowned by the sea.

“At the deal’s heart must be a settlement between the rich world and the developing world covering how the burden of fighting climate change will be divided — and how we will share a newly precious resource: the trillion or so tonnes of carbon that we can emit before the mercury rises to dangerous levels. Rich nations like to point to the arithmetic truth that there can be no solution until developing giants such as China takes more radical steps than they have so far. But the rich world is responsible for most of the accumulated carbon in the atmosphere — three-quarters of all carbon dioxide emitted since 1850. It must now take a lead, and every developed country must commit to deep cuts which will reduce its emissions within a decade to very substantially less than its 1990 level. Developing countries can point out they did not cause the bulk of the problem, and also that the poorest regions of the world will be hardest hit. But they will increasingly contribute to warming, and must thus pledge meaningful and quantifiable action of their own.

“Social justice demands that the industrialised world digs deep into its pockets and pledges cash to help poorer countries adapt to climate change, and clean technologies to enable them to grow economically without growing their emissions. The architecture of a future treaty must also be pinned down – with rigorous multilateral monitoring, fair rewards for protecting forests, and the credible assessment of “exported emissions” so that the burden can eventually be more equitably shared between those who produce polluting products and those who consume them. And fairness requires that the burden placed on individual developed countries should take into account their ability to bear it; for instance newer EU members, often much poorer than “old Europe,” must not suffer more than their richer partners.

These editors also wrote, “Overcoming climate change will take a triumph of optimism over pessimism, of vision over shortsightedness, of what Abraham Lincoln called “the better angels of our nature.” It is in that spirit that 56 newspapers from around the world have united behind this editorial. If we, with such different national and political perspectives, can agree on what must be done then surely our leaders can too. The politicians in Copenhagen have the power to shape history’s judgment on this generation.”

But there are scientists who are convinced of the looming danger of global warming who are worried about any flawed settlement . they say it would be better for the planet and for future generations if the Copenhagen climate change summit ended in collapse. In an interview with the Guardian, James Hansen, the world’s pre-eminent climate scientist, said any agreement likely to emerge from the negotiations would be so deeply flawed that it would be better to start again from scratch.

“The whole approach is so fundamentally wrong that it is better to reassess the situation. If it is going to be the Kyoto-type thing then people will spend years trying to determine exactly what that means.” He is vehemently opposed to the carbon market schemes — in which permits to pollute are bought and sold — which are seen by the EU and other governments as the most efficient way to cut emissions and move to a new clean energy economy. “On those kind of issues you cannot compromise. You can’t say let’s reduce slavery, let’s find a compromise and reduce it 50 per cent or reduce it 40 per cent.” There has to be complete end to all kinds of emissions.

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Pakistan becoming the arena for the final showdown between West and Islam

Dr Sawraj Singh writes from Washington

IT is becoming clear that Pakistan is becoming the arena for the final and decisive showdown between West and Islam. American leaders are also admitting that Pakistan is now the main seat for the war against terrorism and the war in Afghanistan is also primarily based in Pakistan. Why is Pakistan so important for West’s struggle against Islamic fundamentalism? The major cause for this is that Pakistan, Afghanistan and the Indian subcontinent have the largest Muslim population in the world.

At present there are three main centers of struggle between the West and Islamic fundamentalists. These are Afghanistan - Pakistan, Iraq and Somalia. Out of these three Afghanistan – Pakistan has the biggest population. Its population is about 10 times bigger than the other two. It is not just Pakistan but the whole Indian subcontinent is practically one unit of population. In this area about 500 million Muslins are living. This makes the area to have the largest population of Muslims in the World.
The second cause of the area’s importance in this struggle is historical. Historically, this area has played a very important role. In the ancient times, the Indus valley civilization of the Dravidians was a very highly evolved civilization. They had developed big cities such as Mohenjo daro and Harappa.

Their ships traded with Mesopotemia via the Indus River and the Arabian Sea. The Aryan civilization also developed in this area. Alexander also attacked this area and when he met stiff resistance from the kings such as Porus, he decided to stop advancing further and return to Greece. Chandar Gupat Morya also defeated Seleucus, the Greek Governor, in this area and founded the Morya dynasty.

This area flourished under the golden age of the Gupta period and under the great kings such as Kanishka and Harshvardhan. The first and the greatest university was also built in this area. This was the University in Takshila attracting students from all over the World. This is the area which came in contact with Islam for the first time in the Indian subcontinent when Mohammad Bin Kasam invaded the area. Guru Nanak, who developed the Indian spirituality and thought to the peak, was also born in this area.

In the modern times also this area played a very significant role. In the nineteenth century, the greatest power of the century, the Great Britain tasted defeat for the first time in Afghanistan. In the twentieth century, the greatest military power the Soviet Union was defeated in this area and in the twenty first century the greatest power America is probably going to be defeated in this area.

The third cause of the importance of the area is geographical. This is the most strategically located area in Asia. This can be called a link between the three major parts of Asia, South Asia, Central Asia and Middle East. Therefore, whatever happens in the area will not only affect the whole Asia but will also affect the balance of power in the World.

At this time, it appears that America and its Western allies are heading toward their final defeat in this area. The pro american military and civilian elite in Pakistan are facing its worst crisis and possible demise. Most probably the Islamic fundamentalists will come to power in Pakistan just as they have come to power in Iran.

The American defeat in Pakistan will be similar to the defeat in Vietnam but will also be different than that war. The defeat in Vietnam did not end either the American era or the Western domination of the World. However, the defeat in Pakistan will lead to the end of the American era and the end of the Western domination of the World. This will also lead to the beginning of “Asia’s century” because Islam can defeat the West but it cannot conquer the whole World. Actually, the third force, led by china will become the leading force in the World. China, Japan, Korea and the ASEAN countries will become the biggest financial and trading centers of the World.

I have been continually saying this for the last two decades that in the second decade of the twenty first century, Asia, led by China will become the major center of the World. I feel that my predictions are becoming true. India’s future depends upon whether it will continue its alliance with America and then suffer along with the defeated side or India will join Russia and the Asian countries and be on the winning side. India’s future can only be bright if it joins its natural allies, Asia and the third World.
[The writer is a physician by profession and is Chairman Washington State Network for Human Rights]

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Kingdom of a single religion and many mysteries

Bal Anand

FOR the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia blessed by Almighty Allah with 25% of planet's known reserves of oil, not to be in the news is the best news! But when a country is so fabulously rich and so sparsely populated is also the land of the Two Holiest Mosques of Islam hosting the largest annual congregation of the Muslim pilgrims from all over the world, friendly and envious international attention is impossible to be avoided. And to add, when the most luxurious dreams had been ordered and realized in the largest desert by the recognised 39 sons of King Abdul Aziz Ibn Saud, one can expect even the most realistic accounts to be the stuff of which dreams are made of. Even the sworn critics of Saudi rulers will, however, have to admit that children of Al Saud have proved themselves to be the most competent managers and custodians of their enormous wealth and that too in the most volatile region continuously rocked by seismic scale violent conflicts in the recent human history.

The Kingdom and its character were most unexpectedly interrogated on the last 21st November at the forum of International Conference of Jurists on International Terrorism and Rule of Law graced by the President, Chief Justice and the Law Minister of India. The interrogator was the eminently controversial and irrepressible lawyer & former Law Minister, Ram Jethmalani .The self confessed maverick, 86 year old veteran of many politico-legal battles, in his typical Jethmlanian blunt speak ,Ram identified the source and financial strength of 'Islamic-Jehadi Terrorism' to the ideology of Wahhabism, patronised by the rulers of Saudi Arabia. The former Law Minister went on to say, 'India has friendly relations with a country that supports Wahhabi terrorism.' He castigated the jehadi doctrine which allegedly propagates the belief that martyrs would "get a place in the heaven and the company of the opposite sex there." Poking fun at this idea of God ,he wondered at ,"Almighty's job in heaven" This was enough to incense the Saudi Ambassador Faisal-al-Trad to go up to the dais to protest and stage a walk out-a spectacle rarely seen in meticulously organised such functions in India.

With the controversy ignited ,Law Minister M Veerappa and the event organiser lawyer Adesh Aggarwala were quick to mollify the the Saudi envoy to come back and defusing the situation by stating firmly that the views expressed by Jethmalani were strictly his personal. Jethmalani himself attempted a damage control saying that all religions had their share of terrorist elements. Justice Awn S Al-Khasawneh of the International court of Justice cautioned the former Law Minister, 'against making sweeping comments...' President Pratibha Devi Singh Patil stuck to her prepared text referring to the "need to work towards universal ratification and full implementation of international conventions and protocols related to terrorism...financing of terrorists...money laundering...regulation of charities. circulation of fake currencies ...nexus between narcotics, drug trafficking ,illegal gun running and terrorism" Delivering the Valedictory address ,Vice President M. Hamid Ansari pondered over the the teasing aspects of the topic and elaborated ,"that societies and polities differ on the purpose of Rule of Law and how the elite are able to subvert the Rule of Law with money..." Some lessons for the aged Lawyer in diplomacy and decency of expression by some one a generation junior to him!

The venerable Jethmalani has, however, taken me to my own innings of posting of one thousand plus nights-September '89 to August '92- in the Kingdom. Saudi Arabia would indeed initially arouse strong nauseating feelings among any Non-Muslim and even liberal Muslims for its obsessive preoccupation with its own Brand of Islam. The put off reactions could, however, start cooling down in terms of comforts of different kind once one stops asking for what is not there for asking!

The people of Saudi Arabia-not long ago the roaming brave children of mountains of sands and hot winds sweeping during the day -have been witness to a transformation of their life at break-neck speed with centuries compressed into decades! All the miracles -from camel ride to Cadillac and from tent to the most audacious dreams in architecture -have become a reality in a single generation.

King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud(90) had been Crown Prince to half brother King Fahd for closer to a quarter century; the current Crown Prince Sultan(85) has been Defence Minister for 47 years ;Prince Saud Bin Faisal should be the longest serving Foreign Minister since 1975...the Kingdom(2.2 ml sq km) was after all founded in only 1932 and it is still ruled at the top positions by only the second generation of the Founder! More than 40% of the population (24 million) is under 15 years; the GDP per capita is $ 20,500; of the 6.4 foreign work forces, India contributes the largest, about 30%; Saudis have been reliable suppliers of about 23% of India's oil imports; the number of Indian Haj pilgrims last month was more than 160.000.

As for the Wahhabi sect of Islam, named after Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab (1703-1790) practised in Saudi Arabia, it need be understood in the typical over all local circumstances in Najd region of the desert Kingdom. The single dimensional interpretations, "to purify Islam by returning Muslims to what he (Wahhab) believed were the original principles of Islam' have been increasingly found incompatible with the running of a modern state by the Saudis themselves. The strict segregation of sexes & role of women in society(70% in universities but 5% in work force);the challenges posed by modern education; the questions of whole range of universal human rights; the enforcement of Shariat code( amputation of body parts for crimes of theft/public beheading(102 in 2008 including 40 foreigners) but a section of extremists turning against the regime itself; the continuous fall out of 9/11 and imbroglio of Afghanistan-the richness does not offer ready made solutions to all such problems of Saudis!

The closer links of Saudi Arabia with Pakistani rulers, particularly since the flow of huge oil wealth and the Afghan crisis; needling of India in the forum of Organisation of Islamic Countries(OIC) and flow of substantial Saudi funds to select Islamic organisations have been under scrutiny in the Indian Media. The signing of Delhi Declaration by King Abdullah and PM Manmohan Singh on January 27, 2006 has been hailed as a historic landmark. The two countries have significant stakes in ensuring peaceful environment in Asia during an epoch widely predicted to be the 'century of Asia'.

As for my own 'thousand plus tales' of sojourn in Saudi Arabia, suffice to narrate only one here. It is never easy for diplomats in Riyadh to have Saudi officials at their parties. The religious police-Muttawa'an - could be lurking around any where 'sniffing scent of the forbidden liquid' I was luckier in having a friend of great wit and wisdom in Hussein Marzouki ,deputy Chief of Protocol, who was reputed to be the ever -smiling and ever- helpful face of an otherwise stern and cold Foreign Office.

It was late past mid-night of a lively dinner evening at my home when Ilhan Atink, popular Turkish counsellor who had served in Tehran before coming to Riyadh persisted in asking Marzouki," When will we see Saudi Women driving on the roads of Riyadh?" The ladies of American forces had indeed been a great sight in drivers seats during the recent days of war over Saddam's occupation of Kuwait.Marzouki got up with a full throated laughter, pointing at his Rolex watch. Ilhan was still pressing for his reply. Marzouki ,again waved out his watch saying ," Anand, our Indian host, has got my answer," and asked me to speak. I, just intuitively said,"Ilhan,Mr Marzouki says that it is a matter of time." There was a loud laughter among all the friends gathered that night and Marzouki left, patting me on the back.

The journeys of all the Faiths of humanity on the path of the ultimate universal truth(s) would seem to be destined to be excruciatingly too long: there is, however, going to be no escape from striking equilibrium between the two planes-the earthly and divine. "The different people would always want different things out of life ," to quote celebrated thinker Isaiah Berlin," that this was part of human condition, and we had better got used to it." Saudi Arabia too would deserve to take its time to 'get used ' - and strike its harmony with the other religious harmonies!

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