Vidya Sharma On Attack On Indian Students In Australia False Impressions Ht 030609

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WORD OF THE DAY

HINDUSTAN TIMES, NEW DELHI, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 3, 2009

Besieged but belligerent

The LeT chief ’s release suggests that Pakistan’s instinct is still to first sacrifice India

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HERE IS something both absurd and worrisome in the court release of Lashkar-e-Tayyeba chief, Hafiz Saeed, and Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani’s accusation that India is not serious about improving crossborder relations. Islamabad knows well that New Delhi has made progress on the 26/11 Mumbai attack investigation — a prerequisite for the resumption of bilateral dialogue. Clearly a turnaround in Indo-Pakistani relations seems unlikely in the early stages of the second Manmohan Singh government. Gilani’s government will blame the judge, but it is obvious his officials could have easily found a legal reason to detain Saeed indefinitely. What needs to be asked is what motivated Pakistan to take such a blatant and provocative action. The likely answer lies in the recent offensive in the Swat valley. President Asif Ali Zardari and Gilani are a political regime under siege. Islamabad is under unremitting pressure from Washington to take action against a Taliban movement that has many sympathisers in the establishment and general public of Pakistan. Many Pakistanis refuse to accept that their domestic terrorism problem is a consequence of their own government’s decades-long sponsorship. They prefer to blame India and the lack of a Kashmir settlement or the United States and the drone attacks along the Afghan-Pakistan border. In recent months, the Obama administration has upped the military ante in Afghanistan and become more strident in its criticism of Islamabad. Caught between the devil of public resentment and the deep blue sea of US pressure, Pakistan’s civilian leadership has decided to appease Islamic radicals and sacrifice relations with India. It may even hope to re-kindle the idea of Kashmiri interference among some American hearts and minds. For the time being, India can afford to take a broader view of things. It was always doubtful if Pakistan would ever put the Lashkar chief behind bars. On the other hand, the US ‘Afpak’ campaign is largely in concord with Indian interests. New Delhi should accept that the latter’s continuation will come packaged with a rhetorical rollback of the former. But tolerance cannot be the policy if Saeed’s release is a precursor to renewed terrorist violence against India. Islamabad being unhelpful about terrorism is an old story. But given its present problems, Pakistan turning a new leaf would have been a welcome sign if it was starting to realise that its own national survival lay in turning away from the likes of Saeed and the Lashkar.

ourtake

In cloud cuckooland Switzerland’s economy has finally dipped into recession. Welcome to the club

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O SURPRISES but our ‘club’ of miseries actually runneth over. After being ‘recession buddies’ for a while, we were all getting slightly bored with each other’s falling GDP charts. But not anymore: we now have a brand new member in the hallowed league of shrinking economies. Switzerland is officially in recession. But, there is only one difference: if we are neck-deep in an economic morass, Switzerland is just about dipping its toe into it. With results for the last quarter in, the country’s economy took its fastest tumble in 15 years with a teeny dip of 0.8 per cent in GDP. Yes, 0.8 per cent! But if you are thinking that this smallish dip has dampened their spirits, we are glad to report (and just in case you think we are jealous, we are not) that while lesser mortals like us worry about holding on to our jobs and think twice about splurging, Swiss consumers have actually increased their spending by an marginal increase of 0.1 per cent. While we editorial writers were getting tied up in knots trying to understand the billions that add up to make this fraction, our in-house statistician is completely unmoved. The reason: this small statistical change, says a number cruncher, is a statistical error margin. So why did they leak this news out? You know, it must be that desperate itch to be a part of the majority club. Welcome Switzerland!

thepundit

EVERY PICTURE TELLS A STORY

The number of people listening to a radio station or concert, or visiting an online music site

There’s a difference between beauty and charm. A beautiful woman is one I notice. A charming woman is one who notices me John Erskine

Bright lights, dim policy

Farm policies hinder the movement of rural Indians to cities. This undermines their progress

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T IS politically incorrect to say, but the Indian government is doing much to prop up its farmers. In the long run, this is going to hurt both — them and the country as a whole. There is a heartwarming tendency among upper-middle class Indians to think that anyone who lives outside the city limits lives in quasi-destitution, is on the verge of suicide, at the mercy of moneylenders and the monsoon. Therefore, New Delhi is right to take money from the cities and give farmers loan waivers, tax exemptions and workfare schemes. But here’s an iron law of economic development: policies that keep your people in the field ultimately keep them in poverty. Policies that help urbanise them make them wealthy. Except those floating on oil, all developed countries go through this transition. As Nobel economist Paul Krugman once argued, the miracle economies of Southeast Asia were little more than a repeat of the West’s farm-to-factory switch taking place over a very compressed period of time. Ditto the China story. On the other hand, India has, on paper, seen its urbanisation rate slow down over the Pramit Pal Chaudhuri years. The more handouts rural people are given, the less incentive they have to shift to urban areas. This means that the economy is growing well below potential — fields can never be as productive as factories or even call centres. Worse, it means depriving millions of what history has shown is the only real escape ladder from the mass poverty pit. First, let’s understand that rural India is no monolith. Almost half of it doesn’t even do agricultural work. The National Sample Survey bizarrely classifies a man who spends even one day out of 365 on a field as a farmer. These 300 or so million people benefit from loan waivers only indirectly. Second, no amount of government dole will get them out of poverty, for they are absurdly small. Ninety per cent of

Wonk’s World

A DIFFICULT TRANSITION Indian farm holdings are less than two acres and don’t benefit from loan waivers. They are subprime borrowers. Welfare projects like the NREGA provide a welcome income supplement — but won’t get them out of poverty. Third, the farmers who get the lion’s share of governmental assistance are far from destitute — they are flat screenFord Endeavour affluent. The 6 per cent who have 10-plus acres of land have annual household incomes comparable to middle-class urbanites. And they don’t pay income tax. So, what’s the best way to get rural Indians off their handkerchief plots of desperation — and also lift the 100 million landless farm labourers — and help them prosper? Follow those countries that have ended mass poverty: move them to towns and cities. Obviously, people can’t be herded from one to the other. But incentives can be provided and barriers removed to make the move less traumatic. Right now, what New Delhi does only serves as an incentive to stay on the farm, sink further into poverty and hope more money will be doled out. The NREGA, especially after wage rates were raised by the states, may actually be drawing workers away from the cities. India’s barriers to urbanisation are plenty. Most towns and

Come one, come all Kanchi Kohli and Manju Menon

be distributed in advance and a public hearing be held only if issues of dispute are apparent in information colT IS no longer a surprise when the process of envi- lected through these. It has also been recommended that ronment and forest clearance of development proj- agencies like the state industrial development boards ects is referred to as a ‘bottleneck’. It seems to be a (SIDBs) be allowed to conduct hearings, which have so perpetual refrain of the project developers racing to mark far only been done by pollution control boards. This rectheir newly-acquired territories with chimney stacks and ommendation, if realised, will systematically bring the turbines Government of India (GoI) playing the referee. practice of public hearings, the only open space in an othOnly this game is increasingly without any rules. erwise bureaucratic formality, to an end. Allowing SIDBs Precautionary clauses are called hurdles and impacts on to conduct hearings will also bias the outcome of such the poor and the environment are collateral casualties. hearings, if held, in favour of industry. The latest in the offing is the November 10, 2008, reAnother problematic recommendation is the stanport of the Finance Ministry’s ‘Expert Group to Exam- dardisation of the Terms of Reference (ToR) for “repetiine the Scheme of Statutory Clearances for Industrial tive projects”. The ToRs were added to the scoping stage and Infrastructure Projects in India’, a document so that the basic requirements of an Environmental marked ‘secret’ but now secretly open as its recommen- Impact Assessment can be developed based on projectdations are about to be realised by specific and site-related parameters. the newly-elected government. The To recommend that all projects with document reveals that the expert similar technology be issued a stangroup was carved out of the Prime dard ToR shows the understanding Minister’s promise to find ways to of impact assessment procedures speed up clearances to developmerely as a common inventory of ment projects at the 54th meeting of items that need to be collected for a the National Development Council decision to be made. It is akin to colin December 2007. lecting and submitting all required The Secretary of the Department documents to obtain a passport or of Economic Affairs chaired this running a common set of diagnoscommittee which comprised repretic tests irrespective of which part sentatives from the CII, Ficci and of the body is suffering from an ailAssocham. Strangely, the represenment. With each new project of simRED TAPE? WHAT RED TAPE? tative of the CII is also the present ilar or varied kind that is added to head of WWF-India, a leading nature conservation or- an area, the ToR is likely to change as the physical landganisation. The Infrastructure Leasing and Financial scape and the socio-cultural parameters have been altered. Services and Infrastructure Development Finance Finally, but most significant, is the recommendation Company and the India Infrastructure Finance Compa- for deemed clearance, that is of clearance obtained autony Ltd, a few officials from the Department of Indus- matically if the Ministry of Environment and Forest fails trial Policy and Planning and the Planning Commis- to complete the clearance process within an identified sion also found seats as experts on this committee. time period. With a ministry that is crumbling under the The recommendations of the expert group and the weight of a huge number of pending project files, this Ministry’s new proposal made through a draft notifica- clause will offer the shortest route for undeserving projtion in January 2009, two months after the expert group ects to dodge the scanner. finalised its report, are cause for grave concern to social To make speed of clearances central to the review of justice and environmental groups. Qualitative impact impact assessment and clearance procedures is as good assessment procedures have been reduced already to as not having these procedures at all. A qualitative process meaningless ‘green’ approvals since they are said to cause such as this cannot deliver good decisions if time is short. ‘time and cost overruns’. In order to prevent what it calls “roving hearings”, the Kanchi Kohli and Manju Menon are members group has recommended that standard questionnaires of Kalpavriksh Environmental Action Group

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[email protected]

United against racism THIS IS in response to the incidents in Australia. I feel that foreign students in any country are considered assets for they are a major source of income for the country. It should be the responsibility of the host country to ensure the safety of its guests. But the response from the Australian government leaves much to be desired. The fact that the Federation of In-

cities are riddled with rental and tenancy laws that make finding a house a migraine-maker. Education levels are nightmarish in rural India. Small town municipal governance is a joke. Indian cities tend to think their job is to keep rural migrants away. The World Bank’s latest World Development Report rightly derides Mumbai’s absurd attempt to limit its population to 7 million. And rigid labour laws mean that many of the perfect transition jobs — like making textiles and garments — have migrated to Bangladesh. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh likes to say he wants to replicate the South Korean urbanisation experience of the 1970s. Seoul put together a universal health and education system to make the transition easier. However, the Koreans also made it legally easy to convert farmland to industrial use. And they had an adrenaline-driven export sector to finance all this. The first Singh government accomplished less than half its target in another urbanisation booster: infrastructure. However, it did a praiseworthy job in two urbanisation promoters: building rural roads and increasing rural telephony. This is heresy to many, but rural life in India is half-decent by low-income country standards. Yes, Indian farmers kill themselves. But consider the figures: they are about 15 per cent of the country’s total suicides. Even assuming there are only 300 million Indian farmers, last year’s farmer suicide figure of 16,600 means that the average American is two times more likely to kill himself. The difference between poverty levels in rural India versus urban India is all of 1.1 percentage points. No one is claiming rural Indian is a paradise: it is riddled with caste, stagnation, patriarchy and a crushing lack of choice. But the continuing policy of helping farmers with bailouts and dole-payments, something which has been going on now for 60 years, is only slowing rural India’s descent into poverty. The answer lies in the flickering lights of India’s neglected towns and cities. The rural-dweller knows this. The last census showed that some 50,000 villages have been abandoned. This urban shift needs to be abetted, not treated as a tragedy or simply neglected. In fact, a simple measure of whether an economic policy is good for the rise of India is to ask the question: Does it boost the shift? [email protected]

Racism exists in all societies. Given this, why single out Australians?

The government is hellbent on diluting project clearance procedures

CARRYING PICTORIAL warnings on all tobacco products is judicious and bound to scare away some of the chronic smokers. Realising the incalculable harm being done to national health due to this malady, all efforts should be made to keep the populace away from the scourge of nicotine. In this age of the media blitzkrieg, it will go a long way if smoking is strictly banned on the big and small screens. Smoking is not genderspecific and reports have established that the number of boys and girls who smoke is nearly same. Those students who smoke are also more likely to use other drugs and engage in other anti-social activities. AMRIT SETHI, via email

offers a dish to Surin Pitsuwan, Secretary-General of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), during a luncheon after the ASEAN-South Korea Special Summit at Seogwipo, South Korea. (PHOTO: REUTERS) THE STORY: South Korea and the 10-member ASEAN signed an agreement to boost investment, which they said completed their broader free trade pact. With all that buttering up, the dish looks really delectable.

IT OVER

PAGE 10

No smoke without fire

THE PICTURE: South Korean President Lee Myung-bak (left)

THINK

EARBALLS

False impressions V.S. Sharma

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N THE last 12 months, more than 70 Indian students have been assaulted in Australia. Though the Australian police insists that these attacks were not racially-motivated, Indian students and the government have disagreed with this view. Thanks to the focus on the issue in the Indian media, an impression has been created among the people back home that the Australian authorities are not doing much to curb such attacks. But this is not true: Australian leaders have already convened a meeting with foreign students and have tried to find out more about the nature of these crimes and the administrations of different universities. They have also demanded quick action against the criminals. A senior police official has been sent to India to assure prospective students about It is unfair to their safety in the country. paint all The problem is that Indian students in Australia stay in rundown suburbs Australians as and in over-crowded apartments to racists. There save money. Unfortunately, these are are enough laws also the places that are home to drug addicts and unemployed people. in the country In the current context, if racism is that safeguard being defined as unequal treatment of the interests of ‘others’, then I am afraid I must say foreign students that ‘white Australians’ are not all racists. On the basis of the above definition, even if we ignore the treatment meted out to ‘Dalits’ and Muslim-Hindu riots in India, I would say south Indians suffer discrimination in north India and viceversa. The same is true for people from Bihar and UP looking for work in Mumbai. But I do not mean to convey an impression that there is no racism in Australia. But there are anti-discrimination laws here that have proven to be effective in punishing the perpetrators. There are some precautions that Indian students can take to protect themselves like avoiding fly-by-night operators and search on the Internet about the university and the place. Indian students already in Australia must also make an effort to reach out to the local population. They must also not hesitate to report any incidents of abuse. Further, they must form a body to represent their interests.

Hindustan Times House, 18-20, K.G. Marg, New Delhi-110011 Phone: 91-011-66561234

Yesterday’s jihadis, today’s terrorists

CHANGING IDENTITIES

V.S. Sharma is based in Australia

SHERRY REHMAN in An unsettling problem (May 29) makes a passionate case in favour of the internally-displaced persons from the Talibaninfested areas of Pakistan. It is the proponents of the same pan-Islamic mindset that chased away Kashmiri Pandits from the Valley who are ravaging Pakistan now. It’s ironic that the ‘jihadists’ nurtured to inflict a ‘thousand cuts’ on India are now wreaking havoc on their mentor. It was not too long ago that Sherry Rehman chose to describe Kasmiri jihadis as freedom fighters following Zardari’s remark denouncing them as terrorists. LALIT AMBARDAR, Delhi

dian Students of Australia has hit the streets in Melbourne shows the detrimental effect of these attacks on Indian students in Australia. It is high time that we show solidarity with them and send out the message that no such incident will be tolerated in future. ASHNA BAHL, via email

Don’t take His name in vain NO ONE should be allowed to take exception to ministers who have not taken the oath of office in the name of God. India is

constitutionally a secular country and, in fact, swearing-in in the name of God should not be made mandatory at any official event. But, those who file PILs in the apex court in this regard should stop wasting the court’s valuable time. PRIYALAL ADHIKARI, via email

Rise above petty problems APROPOS OF the editorial Beyond the first 100 days (Our take, June 1), though the electoral verdict underlined continuity and stability rooted in focused

governance, the bargaining of the DMK, and the rigid stance of Mamata Banerjee, along with a lack of principled clarity on government formation suggest that the government is yet to resolve the dichotomy between its ambitious campaign pledges and the conflict of personal and party interests. One hopes that the UPA can avoid the quicksands of political compulsions and manage to remove structural rigidities in the economy for the growth and development of the nation. VED GULIANI, Hisar

Bowing to the wishes of allies WHEN L.K. Advani called Manmohan Singh a weak Prime Minister, Congressmen got angry. But, now the PM has bowed to pressure from the DMK, despite knowing that the DMK state gover nment depends on the Congress for support. A. Raja has been inducted into the Cabinet though the PM had initially refused to accomodate any tainted minister. In the light of this U-tur n on the Cong ress’ decision, Manmohan Singh, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi owe an explanation to the people of India. OM PARKASH DHINGRA, via email