Month: April 2012

By B.G. Verghese 
There has been a flurry of interest after Gen Kayani declared that India and Pakistan must live in peaceful coexistence as defence without development is neither viable nor acceptable. Hurrah! He saw all issues as capable of resolution and Siachen as an urgent starting point. This impassioned appeal followed the tragic death on April 7 of 138 Pakistani troops in an avalanche “while on Siachen”. He said “everyone knows why the army is here … because in 1984, the Indian Army occupied the area and in response to that the Pakistan army was sent in”. The facts are otherwise.

General Kayani has also got the genesis of the problem wrong though he rightly asserts that both sides are paying a high price in blood, treasure and environmental costs. Pakistan’s solution calls for an Indian withdrawal from the glacier. India in turn is willing to accept a mutual pull back and redeployment of troops to agreed positions provided Pakistan acknowledges the present “Actual Ground Position Line” (AGPL) that it holds. These are the proffered “solutions”. The Indian Army, however, fears that Pakistan could renege on the agreement and send troops dressed as “mujahideen” to occupy Siachen as it brazenly attempted to annex Kashmir in 1947 and again in 1965 and the Kargil Heights in 1998. 

The Siachen “solutions” overlook the problem. The critical date is not 1984 but July 29, 1949, when the Cease-Fire Line Agreement was signed in Karachi by ranking military representatives of India and Pakistan and the UN Military Observer Group. It delineated the entire CFL, demarcating over 740 kms on the ground. With the CFL increasingly running through high mountains and glaciated areas as it traversed north, it often followed a directional path in the absence of clear landmarks. Thus, finally, “Chalunka (on the Shyok River), Khor, thence North to the glaciers”, passing through grid reference NJ 9842. The  segment, beyond NJ 9842 was not demarcated, being an elevated glaciated, unexplored and unpopulated region that had seen no fighting. A plebiscite was soon to follow and the matter, it was assumed, would soon be settled.

The delineation of this segment of the CFL was, however, unambiguous: NJ 9842, “thence north to the glaciers”.   If every one of 30 or more earlier directional commands were meticulously followed in tracing the CFL, there was no reason whatsoever for any departure from this norm in the case of the very last command.  “Thence North”, could only mean due north to wherever the boundary of J&K State lay. The very next section crucially directed that the line be drawn “so as to eliminate any no man’s land”. Therefore, the Line could in no way be left hanging in the air. Certain sectors along the CFL were also to be demilitarised but  if deployed, troops would remain “500 yards from the cease fire line…”.

The CFL was ratified by both sides and deposited with the UNCIP. It was revalidated as the LOC after Simla, and incorporated the military gains made by either side in J&K in the 1971 war. In the Kargil-Siachen sector, all gains thereby went entirely to India which acquired the Turtok salient just south-west of NJ 9842.

Earlier in 1956-58, during the UN-designated International Geophysical Year, an Indian scientific team led by the Geological Survey explored the upper Nubra and Shyok Valleys,  mapped and measured the Siachen and other glaciers and publicly recorded its findings.

No protest followed. Why? Locate NJ 9842 on a detailed physical map of northern J&K and draw a line “thence North” and much of Siachen will be found to lie on the Indian side of the CFL. Pakistani military maps (ref. Musharraf’s Memoir, “In the Line of Fire”. Free Press, London. 2006), depicting Pakistan’s military positions during the Kargil operations, situate the entire Siachen glacier on the Indian side of the delineated line, NJ 9842, “thence north to the glaciers”.

All Pakistan, UN and global atlases depicted the CFL correctly till around 1967-72. By then Beijing had commenced its creeping cartographic aggression in Aksaichin and in 1963 signed a boundary agreement with Pakistan which unilaterally ceded the 5000 sq km Shaksgam Valley to China. Thereafter, Pakistan started extending its lines of communication eastwards and began licensing western mountaineering expeditions to venture east of K2. It was emboldened to extend this “eastward creep” when, between 1967 and 1972, the US Defence Mapping Agency, an international reference point for cartography, began extending the CFL from NJ 9842 to a point just west of the Karakoram Pass, unilaterally hardening what was possibly no more than an extant World War II air defence information zone (ADIZ) line into a politico-military divide. World atlases followed suit. So did Pakistan, which followed cartographic aggression with moves to occupy Siachen. Getting wind of this stratagem, India, pre-emptively occupied the glacier in March 1984.

In a US Institute for Peace conference on J&K in Washington in 1991, delegates were delivered a map at their hotel without the mandatory credit line regarding its origins. It was headed “The Kashmir Region: Depicting the CFL/LOC, Siachen and Shaksgam”. This showed a hatched triangle NJ 9842-Karakoram Pass-K2, and Shaksgam in the north, with a legend reading, “Indian occupied since 1983”. The conference organisers disowned what it surmised was “possibly” a CIA map that might be treated as “withdrawn”! The map not only confirmed Pakistan’s claims but labelled India an aggressor.

As on present, I “protested” to friends in the US State Department and informed the Indian Embassy and the MEA at home to no avail. Years later, US Ambassador David Blackwill said the US Defence Mapping Agency had got its lines wrong and that the impugned maps would be amended. Nothing ensued.

Any unqualified redeployment from the Siachen glacier without asserting the correct delineation of the CFL/LOC from NJ 9842 “thence north to the glaciers”, will mean  accepting the Pakistan claim and throwing the August 1948 UN Resolution and derivative 1949 Karachi Agreement into the dustbin. Dr Manmohan Singh’s 2005 peace formula would sanctify the LOC as an evolving international boundary, rendered porous as “mere lines on a map” across which movement and commerce increasingly flowed to bind the peoples of J&K and India and Pakistan together in friendship and cooperation. This is the only viable win-win solution for all in and over J&K. But unless the LOC is firmly anchored to a northern terminus, it will dangle loose and surely unravel, leaving everything for grabs.

Siachen has no intrinsic strategic value. Both sides should withdraw or redeploy from there once there is clear acceptance of the 1949 CFL-cum-LOC. Thereafter the triangle NJ 9842, K2 and the Karakoram Pass can be designated an International Glacier and World Weather Park, hopefully with Shaksgam as a partner, to study and measure climate change. India should therefore welcome Kayani’s second thoughts and pursue it without getting snow-blinded regarding the facts, larger perspectives and the national interest. 
www.bgverghese.com

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2012/04/facts-vs-bluff-on-siachen/

By Bobo Khuraijam
What a season to start with. Two new yearly lunches in a single month have brushed all our teeth. The awaited date with the rain came, have washed away the dust settled in the inmost reaches of the town’s anatomy. The velvety fleck of dust which used to caress all possible sense organ of the body is now married and settled with the water. Enough sunshine and the automobiles will disturb its honeymoon. They would soon divorce and serve us again. People yearn for a longer date with the rain. Rivers are running dry, so are dams standing empty. No water to drink, no power to light. Blessed are those who have the French sewerage in their vicinity. Water that gets stored inside comes to their salvage. This French sewerage’s crusade to smoothen the flow of our excreta has diversified its function taking into account of the need of the people. They served as a permanent employee of the traffic control police. Then can get open up anytime – anywhere and be a speed breaker with fatal signal (hole). That’s the engineering marvel of dedicated individuals who have sacrificed all their lives for the project. The list includes the engineers, planners and contractors. Their work is a testimony of their professional acumen. It is evident that they must have been a sincere individual for all their life. They mustn’t have cheated in the examination. They must have got their degree without any donation fee. We can only blame the rain for their insincerity.

WHY TALK? It has been an enduring mystery for us to ponder on why some people should talk. Why? All people talk, for that matter, human is a talking species. There are no other species which talk. One could say the animals and bird also talk in a different way. We give them all kind of names for the sound they make. No wonder, it could be the other way round. Animals and birds could have also given another name on how we make all kinds of noise. But do the animals and birds talk like us. To be precise: do they talk turn by turn with so many of the same species gathered around. Before speaking they are called up on an elevated platform. They are allowed to sit on different chairs – different from the rest of the species. They are decorated with shawls on their shoulders. On the chest they would be decorated with ribbon art work, evenly stitched in a circular motif with the brightest possible colour. Now, they looked different from the rest of the species who are sitting, waiting for them to talk. Some nosy scientist who loves noise must have invented the thing. Well, the thing on which human speaks. Their voice becomes louder in exponential term whenever they speak through it. Human being love microphone anyway.

WHO TALKS: With the kind of care given to them we expect that they would talk in so many ways different from the rest of us. The long ritualistic wait was broken by their thundering voice of reason, of new idea and what not. One of them said the book which is made public on the particular occasion is a good book and worth a read. Most of them said the same. We do not doubt the quality, so to say, the goldmine of knowledge and information stockpiled in the book. The air becomes comfortably numb when the man behind the microphone started sharing his wealth of knowledge to the people. Quoting an overseas name, he said the name is one of the most quoted intellectual in the present times. People here in the landlocked do not quote it. He has made his point by quoting him: that he is a rare species. The next byline was: people here are suffering from ‘surplus of monologue – deficit of dialogue’. He illustrates his point by vanishing from the hall as soon as he finishes speaking. Someone told us that it happens on many occasions. What followed him was another versatile man whom we have seen umpteen time behind the microphone. A good amount of time was spent on how much he loves his mother. Mother, the universal symbol of love became strangely meaningful that day. We thought we should immediately rush home and play on mother’s lap. He went on to say that the family’s meal is never cooked contrary to the choice of his mother. How did he left out his father, we do not know. Further, he said the writer writes very well, and writes very similar to his style. Good god, he did not mentioned that the writer would be sued for stylistic plagiarism. Yet another crowning glory of the moment was the declaration that he spent a good time of a day by reading books. He is getting older and is not sure of his end. So he reads a lot. It was evident; he did not touched much on the issues the book purports to throw up. An octogenarian academic who shared the dais with him was honoured by his avowal that there is no one worth to be called a teacher in Manipur. The self-adulatory rambling of the microphone heroes once for all reminded to us that narcissism is one of the most important agendas in the predicament of our times. We have a few options left with us. Get refresh with a sip of water from the French sewerage or listen to the talk of the animals and birds. We opted for Mr. Bean with the last bit of power left in the inverter.

FOOTNOTE: the Shumaang Lila Shanglen has literally become a burrow for tombola housie. People throng the place every day to throw away money with a minimum of a few thousands. Leipung Ningthou calls it, “number na arem apaa gi budhi da lila sanaba”.

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2012/04/tata-to-talk/

By Humra Quraishi
Ironical it may sound that on one hand you have this dedicated band of Khudai Khidmatgars led by activist Faisal Khan who are presently undertaking this ten day long ‘peace’ journey – April 12 to April 21 – from New Delhi’s Batla House till Hyderabad’s Mecca Masjid, and then , on the other hand, sheer violence hitting Afghanistan .The very land where the entire concept of Khudai Khidmatgars – Servants of God – had taken off, under the guidance of Frontier Gandhi , Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan.

Today it is convenient to flow along with vested interests, the ongoing Western propaganda and with that heap all blame on the Talibans, but there are definite backgrounders which cannot be bypassed …I have never been to Afghanistan, so sitting from here cannot comment on the ground realities but, yes, few years back did interview Asfandyar Wali Khan – grandson of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan and leader of the Awami National Party of Pakistan . Also , a year back I had also interviewed Jesuit priest , James C. Dhabi, who though hails from Gujarat had been teaching and working in Afghanistan. And let me write what they had to tell me .

Like all Pakhtuns , Asfandyar Wali Khan was blunt and outspoken and this is what he had to say about Afghanistan in the context of the ongoing deteriorating world scenario – “ The propaganda that Muslims are a violent lot is a fallout of today’s world politics and the games played by that superpower. In fact, when I was invited to address a forum in the US , I told the audience that you would have expected to see me – a Pakhtun -with a long flowing beard and a gun on my shoulder and here I am , clean shaven and a strong believer in non -violence. I have no security guards with me. Even when traveling in the interiors of my country , it is just me and the driver, for I do believe that there’s a time fixed for death and nobody can alter it by even a second . Such is my belief and faith …”

Commenting on the continuing havoc in Afghanistan , Asfandyar Wali Khan commented , “If you have studied Afghan history you’d know that their struggles have always been based on nationalism and not on religion .It is the US which brought in religion and used it in recent years .This phase is like a curse for the people of Afghanistan …” Commenting further on America’s role , he’d said ,”If you have two badmashes in the village its okay .They’ll be busy settling scores with each other. But there’ll be chaos and confusion if only one badmash remains .That’s the trouble in today ‘s world .There is only one badmash left !”

And also commenting on the Muslim situation the world over , “There’s no leadership of calibre in today’s Muslim world .The atrocities against the Palestinians are hurting the Muslims the world over .Post 9/11 , the situations in Iraq and Afghanistan are being looked at as if they are similar ,which is not the case…upheavals have taken place all along history .I’m optimistic because I believe that the liberals and democratic forces will replace the fundamentalists the world over…”

And now to what James C. Dhabi had to say about the prevailing ground realities in Afghanistan .This Jesuit priest served as the country director of Afghanistan Research and Development Institute in Kabul and was also visiting professor at universities in Bamiyan and Herat – “Afghanistan`s neighbours must stop using that country for their interests at the cost of the local people. There is hardly any civil society here in Afghanistan to resist and raise its voice against the vested interests within and outside. Eliminating enlightened civil society members is not a big deal here. Like in India many of the religious leaders here often are part of the problem than the solution. Newspapers are a luxury here and limited to major cities. So access to news is through radio, television and mobile phones. So protests against civilian deaths are limited.”

What about peace prevailing in that country ? And to this , Dhabi was stark with his comments – “To be honest it ( peace ) does not seem to be possible in the near future. Afghanistan presently has its own `elected government` but it is no secret that it is governed and managed by a combination of internal and external actors, interests and political compulsions. The legacy of warlords, the feudal and patriarchal ways of local governance, corruption, ethnic rivalries, family and clan networks all play a role in the politics and economy of Afghanistan…People show their dislike for religious extremists in private but they are afraid to say it openly. Many people also detest the presence of foreign forces, particularly the US, yet they know the consequences if these are moved out immediately. Many people are dependent on the international community for their livelihood. Afghanistan currently relies on aid to meet 90 per cent of its budget….The Taliban is not the only actor responsible for the insecurity. The warlords, drug mafia, transport lobbies, timber mafia, security companies (foreign and local), politicians and bureaucrats, business rivals, neighbouring countries and other international players, all have their share in creating and sustaining insecurity. Insecurity is also a blessing in disguise for NGO personnel including the UN bodies. It may restrict their movement but it increases the `risk allowance` attached to a fat salary substantially.”

P.A. SANGMA’S BOOK …

Politicians have several aspects or layers to them …maybe they develop those, to get moving upwards, towards bigger Bhavans or to fit themselves in those bigger slots. With that in the background or foreground , the latest to join the authors brigade is P.A. Sangma . Last week his book – A Life in Politics: Selected Speeches and Lectures, 1979-2004 ( Harper Collins ) was launched here, in New Delhi .

ANOTHER ROUND OF PUBLICITY FOR SHAHRUKH KHAN !

Why did External Affairs Minister complain to his counterpart in America about the treatment meted out to Bollywood’s Shahrukh Khan .Why did he limit his so called complaint to just about one lone Khan ? What about the rest of the not -so –well known Khans of the world who are subjected to sheer humiliation at the hands of the American security ? What about the US policies of discrimination along those typical formats ?

Anyway , Shahrukh has got another round of publicity !

Just by the way , why did he have to go towards a land , where he had been humiliated once or twice before !

Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2012/04/signs-of-the-times/