Gobind Thukral

RURAL Haryana recently went through a massive political exercise. Over 98 lakh voters struggled to elect nearly 68,000 panchayats. In a fiercely contested elections spread over two months, there were more than six candidates for each seat of a panch, sarpanch , block samiti and zila parishad. Over 84 per cent of the voters turned out to elect these leaders of the grassroot democracy. Over 1.51 lakh candidate tried their luck to capture 67,994 positions of panchs. There were 36,000 candidates for six thousand odd positions of sarpanchs. As many as 2, 772 seats in block samitis attracted 15,130 candidates and 3,882 competed to capture 374 zila parishad seats.

Clearly, over the years, panchayat elections in Haryana have attained their kind of political importance, attracting an active participation of the rural public, legislators, ministers and even top political personalities. For the State Election Commission, it was a gigantic exercise in which the electronic voting machines were used for the first time. This step improved the conduct and confidence of the voters. While the State Election Commissioner, Dharam Vir maintains that the elections were conducted with precision and impartiality, a plethora of complaints from the opposition greeted him every day.

The percentage of polling went up from 77.61per cent in the year 2000 to 84 per cent during 2010. The number of voters also increased from 88.5 lakh in 2000 to 98.46 lakh during 2010. There are several blocks where the polling percentage was more than 90%. The number of seats elected unopposed has increased from 31,846 in the year 2000 to 37,254 in the year 2005, but for the 2010 elections, the number of persons elected unopposed reduced to 22,823.

A quick survey also showed that a large number of young and highly educated young persons have contested the elections and many of them have been elected. The participation of women was particularly noteworthy.

It sounds all rosy. We are nourishing a hoary tradition of Panchayat Raj the one which is successor to the village republics of Harshavardhana’s time of early 7th century AD. If we go by the Constitution, the Panchayat Raj Institutions are amongst the most important institutions of governance in India. The 73rd amendment gave these institutions a constitutional status. They form core of Indian democratic system and socio-economic development processes. Elections are required to be held every five years and these are mostly held across India.

What has vitiated this colossal exercise is the bane of Indian democracy. At many places, money and liquor denominated any other discourse like economic development or improvement of social life. In certain pockets, particularly falling in the districts of Kurukeshtra, Kaithal, Jind , Hisar, Sirsa and Fatehabad , the power of money over the voters was on full naked display. In some villages of Sirsa, a few young candidates spent a near fortune. In a village, up to Rs one crore was said to have been spent; bribing with crisp currency notes and liquor laced with chicken legs. Every conceivable tactics was used to win voters and influence the electoral outcome. Caste considerations dominated across the state. They were more of a rule than an exception. How could these be then vehicle of development and change? What kind of renaissance are we looking forward?

It is true that seats are reserved for women and Scheduled Castes and other beneficiaries. We have added over 24,000 women to the list of village leaders. It is also stated this will provide a shift in power and is progressive development. Ignoble practices encouraged by the powers that be blight even this good endeavour.

But how are these as we noticed in some districts treated by the officials. Shabbily indeed. There are exceptions as women sarpanches have done well over 100 panchayats across Haryana.

We have been proclaiming from precincts of the Assembly Halls and Parliament that these are the vehicles of socio-economic transformation in rural India. Could these be then agents of any change? Could they counter the influence of the brutal Khap system and check this virus.

Ridden with petty squabbles, ignorant of the real powers, most elected representatives indulge in favouritism, small time corruption and use their influence for personal aggrandizement.

The fault lines can be easily traced first to the basic law that created these Panchayati Raj Institutions. Constitutional amendment and the state laws should have clearly empowered them and made the bureaucracy subservient.

From gram panchayat secretary to the block development officer and then upward, deputy commissioner and senior officers, these representatives play only second fiddle. Visit any office of the BDPO or DDPO or even deputy commissioner and observe the pitiable condition of these leaders of grassroot democracy and draw your own conclusions. All powers rest with bureaucracy or at best with ministers. District planning boards are nearly defunct. The chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and some senior officers do make heroic efforts, allocate substantial amount of money for the panchayats, yet in practice the results are not very satisfactory.

The state government should carry out drives to make gram panchayats aware of their role in strengthening local health system as a majority of panchayat representatives do not know their powers for managing health providers. We should also encourage niaya panchayats.

A research study was conducted by Dr SS Chahar, of Maharshi Dayanand University, Rohtak, on “Role of Panchayti Raj Institutions in the maintenance of grassroots health system”. It found these representatives did not have ample knowledge about the health services being provided at the village level. Their role is very crucial in taking health services at the grassroot level, but the study revealed that more than 87.49 per cent representatives were not aware of their powers. During the study, more than 87 per cent respondents thought that the panchayats were lacking funds, technical knowledge, cooperation from health staff and community participation. These were the reasons that the PRIs were not doing what was expected of them. There are other studies that support the results of this survey.

It is true in other areas also. They have no significant role in education or other fields. Their role is largely confined to small development works and there too the officials have their way.

At another level, there is need to educate these leaders as is done by the Nilokheri based Rural Development Institute. But one institute is hardly enough for over 70,000 leaders. There is an urgent need to revisit not only the laws but also real working of the PRIs.

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Pakistan underwater

IN Pakistan, Muslims began celebrating the holy month of Ramadan yesterday with "misery and fears of an uncertain future," as massive monsoonal flooding continues to ravage the country, leaving one-fifth of Pakistan underwater. After weeks of flooding, about 14 million people have already been affected by the floods -- including six million children -- and estimates of the dead have ranged from 1,200 to 1,600. Already, this "exceed[s] the number of people affected by the Indian Ocean Tsunami, the 2005 Kashmir Earthquake, and the Haiti earthquake combined." Meanwhile, there are fears of second round of flooding, as the Pakistani government issued new flood warnings yesterday that could last into the weekend for several cities in the Punjab and Sindh Provinces. But one of those cities already "looked like a ghost town after more than 80 percent of its population left because of flooding fears." Flooding began on July 22 in the province of Baluchistan when heavy rains caused the Indis river -- which runs the length of Pakistan -- to overflow its flood barriers, pouring from one province to the next. While millions are stranded without food or clean water, the U.N. is also worried about disease outbreaks -- there have already been "36,000 suspected cases of potentially fatal acute watery diarrhea." In the long run, the flooding could have a devastating impact on Pakistan's economy, leaving much of the country's crops and infrastructure destroyed in its wake.

The Pakistani government "has conceded that it does not have the resources to tackle the crisis. But officials say they have been disappointed by the relatively small amount of international assistance that has been offered." The U.N. "says that less than $45 million in international aid has been committed, with an additional $91 million pledged." Meanwhile, nearly $300 million had been pledged or committed within the first ten days after the 2005 earthquake in the Pakistani region of Kashmir, and ten days after the Haitian earthquake in January, the amount "surpassed $1.6 billion." Despite this global failing, the Obama administration's response has actually been very proactive. The U.S. "has provided the most assistance thus far," as Washington has already provided $76 million in relief aid. Much of this aid goes to U.N. organizations and other NGOs on the ground, and the U.S has also been directly involved in relief operations by sending helicopters to the area. As of Thursday, U.S. helicopters had "evacuated 3,089 people and delivered 322,340 pounds of relief supplies," and many more are on the way. Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced yesterday that he was tripling the number of helicopters dedicated to Pakistan from six to 19. The military has also positioned naval vessels off Pakistan's coast to aid with logistics, while the State Department has provided much-needed rescue equipment, in addition to humanitarian supplies, including 440,928 halal meals. "The American assistance has been considerable, it has been prompt, and it has been effective," said Tanvir Ahmad Khan, a former Pakistani foreign secretary and now chairman of the Islamabad-based Institute of Strategic Studies.

While the Pakistani military has been credited with effective disaster response, the civilian government's efforts have been widely viewed as lacking, leaving a vacuum that needs to be filled. Much of the Western media coverage of the floods has focused on a supposed struggle between Islamic charities -- some with ties to militants, such as Lashkar-e-Taiba, which is accused of the deadly Mumbai terror attacks -- and international donors, led by the U.S., over who will fill this vacuum and gain the public's good will. A number of "hardline" groups with ties to banned right-wing political parties have indeed announced major aid operations. The Pakistani Taliban itself has pledged major aid, but only if the Pakistani government refuses American help. But U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke "dismissed reports that hardline Islamic charities were filling the vacuum and gaining support in areas the Pakistani government hasn't been able to reach." "The people I've talked to question the accuracy of those reports," he said. "I don't think we should even worry about those right now. We should just worry about relief and getting assistance to the people." Indeed, regardless of the role of the Islamic charities and the militants, the U.S. has a moral obligation and a strategic interest to aid Pakistan during this trying time. A Pew Research Center survey last month found that nearly six in ten Pakistanis think of the U.S. as an "enemy," while just 11 percent view it as a partner. The floods have "presented U.S. policymakers with an unusual chance to generate goodwill." So far, Washington's response the floods has actually been about on par with its response to the 2005 earthquake in Kashmir, which killed 79,000 in the Northern Pakistani district. But while the death toll in the flooding has been low, the scale is far bigger than the 2005 quake, as it affects nearly the entire country and has devastated everything in its wake. "The magnitude of this crisis is unprecedented" in Pakistan, said the World Health Organization's Dr. Irshad Shaikh. Hoolbrooke and Gates have both acknowledged this, and thus the relief effort will need to be scaled up as soon as possible.

The flooding in Pakistan comes during a time when smoke from unprecedented wildfires outside of Moscow have "choked the city," major landslides in China have killed at least 1,000, and a "sweltering" heat wave descended on the Middle East. Meanwhile, a 100-square-mile chunk of ice calved off from a glacier in Greenland -- "the most massive ice island to break away in the Arctic in a half-century of observation." Some scientists are now stating the obvious: these disasters are fueled by global warming. "It's not just a portent of things to come, scientists say, but a sign of troubling climate change already under way," the AP reports. The "weather-related cataclysms of July and August fit patterns predicted by climate scientists." Indeed, the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) "has long predicted that rising global temperatures would produce more frequent and intense heat waves, and more intense rainfalls." The 2007 IPCC report said rains "have grown heavier for 40 years over north Pakistan and predicted greater flooding this century in south Asia's monsoon region." In Russia, it's been "the hottest summer ever recorded," fitting with the 2007 report, which predicted "a doubling of disastrous droughts in Russia this century." China is witnessing its "worst floods in decades," something the 2007 IPCC report also warned of. As Center for American Progress Fellow Matthew Yglesias points out, it would be better to address climate change -- a root cause of this extreme weather -- than to have to address its symptoms. "I don't see any substantial political dissent" about helping Pakistan's flood victims, Yglesias writes. Yet, "you see massive political dissent from the idea that the United States has strong moral and pragmatic reasons to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that make these kind of deadly outlier events more likely and more frequent." [Courtesy thinkprogress.org]

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Defeat in Iraq will quicken the end of western domination

Dr Sawraj Singh

AMERICA is withdrawing its combat troops from Iraq this month. This is being clearly perceived as a defeat in the region. Not only is this perceived as a defeat for the West but also as a victory for Iran. Many people in Iraq feel that Iran will fill the vacuum left by America. The question is what did America achieve in Iraq?

The new Chinese missile Dong Feng 21D can put an end to the American domination. This missile can attack the most advanced U.S. aircraft carriers such as the USS George Washington. This can bring to close the chapter of the Western gun boat diplomacy, which has been practiced one way or the other in the last two centuries.

One way or the other, the Western domination of the last two centuries is going to end soon. Whether it is Iran and the Islamic fundamentalists or the Chinese who will give the final blow, this is the only thing which remains to be determined.

Nobody should have any doubt about the fact that the Western domination and the American era have already outlived their life span. The American and the Western diplomacy should not seek an unachievable goal but should concentrate on what can be realistically achieved.

America and the West should accept the fact that the Old World order cannot continue and the New World order of a multipolar World is not just an idea but is a reality. The Global Community should come together and work on how to make the transition from the old to the new world order more tolerable and acceptable. The West should give up arrogance and for once try humility. Arrogance will assure destruction while humility can save the World.

Tariq Aziz former Iraqi Deporty Prime Minister said," For 30 years Saddam built Iraq and now it is destroyed. There are sicker than before, more hungry. The people do not have services. People are killed every day in the tens, if not hundreds". He also said, "We are all victims of America and Britain. They killed our country in many ways. When you make a mistake, you need to correct a mistake, not leave Iraq to its death".

It is quite clear that America did not achieve any of its goals for invading Iraq. Not only, Iraq has become now more unstable, but the whole region has become more unstable. It is not just in Iraq that America faced a defeat, but a defeat in Afghanistan looks very likely. After all, the decision to withdraw forces from Iraq was taken so that America can win the war in Afghanistan.

If the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan could not be won then how do we imagine winning against Iran. Iran is a much more formidable adversary than Iraq or Afghanistan. Iraq and Afghanistan did not have followers outside their countries. I consider Afghanistan and Pakistan as one unit, because for all practical purposes, the Islamic fundamentalists control both Afghanistan and Pakistan. However, the war in Afghanistan is still limited to those two countries.

A war with Iran will not be limited to Iran alone or to Iran and Iraq. Iranians can take the war to the strant of hormuz and disrupt the Western oil supply. This would give the final blow to the already sick Western economy. The Western capitalist economy is facing the most serious crisis and probably will not be able to survive a severe blow such as disruption of its oil supply. Oil has become the life line of the Western capitalist economy.

Iran can also attack Israel as well as encourage its allies in Lebanon to attack Israel. The last time Israel fought the Hezbollah in Lebanon, it was a very bitter experience for Israel. Most of the Israel's newspapers considered that war a defeat for Israel. This time the outcome can be much worse for Israel. From the 1967 war to the last war with Hezbollah; one can clearly see a pattern of Israel losing its supremacy in the region. This trend is unlikely to be reversed.

America is also trying to encircle and provoke China. First, America joined with South Korea to hold massive naval exercises in the yellow sea; in spite of strong objections by China. Now America has aligned itself with Vietnam and is planning joint exercises. America has openly sided with Vietnam on the question of sovereignty over the Islands in South China Sea. These Islands are claimed by China. However, the other South East Asian countries also claim these Islands. America has directly and openly interfered in this conflict. Obviously, America is upping the stakes and is openly provoking and challenging china for a show down. China will have no choice but to respond to the American provocation and challenge. If the Chinese do not show a strong reaction then they will not only lose face in Asia but can alienate their own people.

[The writer is Chairman Washington State Network for Human Rights]

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