Shining Haryana-Suffering Haryana-Health Front

National Family Health Survey 2005-2006 Disturbing facts about Haryana

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Shining Haryana-Suffering Haryana-Health Front
The process of globalisation has lead to a situation where richest 20% of the population command 86% of the world GDP while the poorest 20% command merely 1(One) %. In other words this model of development and market oriented system, has divided the world in to “Shining World” and “Suffering World”,Similarly we can say that there are tow India,”Shining India” and “Suffering India”. Haryana cannot be an exception.”Shining Haryana and suffering Haryana are very obvious now.On one side of the road there is “Shining Gurgaon” and on the other side of the same road is “Suffering Gurgaon”.It can be said about every town or village also.
Public Health is an obvios causality of this process. There is a clear contradiction between the principles of public health and neoliberal economic theory. Public health is a “public good” i.e. its benefits cannot be individually enjoyed or computed, but have to be seen in the context of benefits that are enjoyed by the public. Thus public health outcomes are shared, and their accumulation lead to better living conditions. It does not mechanically transfer into visible economic determinants, viz income levels or rates of growth. Kerala, for example, has one of the lowest per capita incomes in India but its public health indicators as such are that approach the levels in many developed countries. Infant mortality rate in kerala is less than a third of any other large state in the country including Haryana. An important consequence of globalisation has been commonly described as the”Feminisation of poverty” as women increasingly had to strive to hold families together in various ways in the face of increasing pressures , main among them are increasing poverty, insecurity and ill-health.According to one estimate less than 10% of the $ 5.6 billion spent each year globally on medical research is aimed at the health problems affecting 90% of the world’s population.
The results of National Family Health Survey-III, about Haryana need an indepth analysis but seeing it on random basis it can be said that a state which is “Shining on one side is also suffering on the other side. Economically very much advanced but socially lagging behind,Haryana is well known on the map of the world regarding declining sex ratio.The under weight children under age 3 percentage is 42 in NFHS-III where as it was 35 and 35 in first and second NFHS surveys. The wasted group has 6,5,and 17% respectively in I,II and III NFHS.The percentage of Women whose body mass Index is below normal is 27% in NFHS-III where as it was 25.9% in NFHSII. Also the percentage of women who are overweight or obese has increased from 16.6 to 21.0. the percentage of anaemic ever married women age 15-49 has increased from 47.0(NFHSII) to 56.5(NFHSIII).
Similarly the percentage of pregnant women age 15-49 who are anaemic has increased from 55.5(NFHSII) to 69.7(NFHSIII). The percentage of women who want 2 sons has also increased from 95.2% (NFHSII) to 97.4%(NFHSIII).Paradox is that per capita expenditure on health has increased from Rest. 175.02 in 1998-99 to 243.27 in 2006-2007, though it may still be less.
A very challenging situation is emerging on health front in Haryana. The medical fraternity and paramedics have to rise upto the occasion and decide whether they are for “Shining India” only or are for “Suffering India” first and then “Shining India”. We must see the writings on the wall. The primary and secondary level health care is virtually collapsing in Haryana. In Rohtak district there are 5 CHC’s – Meham, Kalanaur,Chiri, Sampla and Kiloi. As per the norms there should be a surgeon, Physician, Pediatrician and gynaecologist in each CHC. Unfortunately there is not a single specialist in any of the above CHC’s.We must see the writing on the wall.

R.S.Dahiya

S US FOLLOWING CHURCHILL'S FOLLY IN IRAQ

I Don Chapman Feb 27 2008 09:24:45 PM "Midweek" -- - "When Iraq becomes strong enough in our opinion to stand alone, we shall be in a position to state that our task has been fulfilled, and that Iraq is an independent sovereign state. But this cannot be said while we are forced year after year to spend very large sums of money on helping the Iraqi government to defend itself and maintain order." Sound familiar? Perhaps like something you've heard from a stay-the-course advocate, circa 2004-7? Nope, it's Winston Churchill, writing in 1922 as head of Britain's Colonial Office. At the time, Prince Feisal - whom Churchill had appointed king of the nascent nation of Iraq, whose borders Churchill had drawn up the previous year - was balking at the protectorate agreement the British wanted. To rule a land and people with whom he was largely unfamiliar, Feisal, a native of the Arabian Peninsula and not the land between the Tigris and Euphrates, and who had spent much of his life in Turkish Constantinople, needed legitimacy - and as much independence from the British as he could get. Which is much the same problem that the American-supported government and army of Iraq are having today. That, and the above quote, are just two among endless parallels between the British experience in Iraq and the American experience 80-plus years later - as reported in Churchill's Folly, by historian Christopher Catherwood (2004, Carroll & Graf). It wasn't written yet when the Bush administration invaded Iraq in 2003, but the information was there for the learning if anyone in the White House had cared to pursue it. E-mail subject: Things To Avoid in Iraq! For this book, Catherwood relies heavily on the archived letters and memos written by the remarkably prolific Churchill. Abrief bit of background that is necessary to understand the current situation: The Ottoman Empire based in modern-day Turkey ruled from 1299 until 1920, at its peak controlling three continents. Already with their empire in decline, the Ottomans sided with Germany in World War I, and in its defeated aftermath saw remnants of the empire subdivided, with Western nations given "mandates" by the League of Nations to govern various areas. The United States was given present-day Armenia, but the isolationist administration of President Woodrow Wilson - the U.S. was not even a member of the League of Nations - chose not to get involved. The French got what today is Syria and Lebanon, and the Brits got what is now Iraq, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, among other real estate. A map of the region before Churchill convened what he called his "40 Thieves" in Cairo in April 1921 to draw up new national boundaries shows not countries, but tribal areas - the Ibn Saud clan ruling the Nejd on the Arabian Peninsula and the rival Hussein clan ruling the neighboring Hejaz along the Red Sea, to name the largest two. They often skirmished, and the Sauds also had their eyes on what would become Kuwait. Note: The Husseins, also known as Hashemites and unrelated to Saddam, are descended from the prophet Mohammed and held the position of Sharif of Mecca. They are key characters in the film Lawrence of Arabia and the book about the Arab Revolt against the Ottomans on which it is based, Seven Pillars of Wisdom - although Catherwood says the historical details of both are quite wrong and based largely on the fantasies of T.E. Lawrence. Nevertheless, Churchill dragged the old desert soldier out of retirement, and Lawrence became one of those "40 Thieves," and much responsible for Churchill agreeing to put Hussein's son Feisal on the new Iraqi throne (after he tried usurping the new throne in Syria until the French kicked him out). Feisal's brother Abdullah would become king of the new country of Jordan. Call it arrogance, perhaps: Churchill had never actually visited what was then called Mesopotamia when he arbitrarily drew up the borders for a new land called Iraq, doing so in Egypt, although he did visit Jerusalem. And while Catherwood writes that Churchill was well aware of Sunni-Shia differences in the region, he ignored them as well as tribal boundaries. Thus Churchill, the classic colonialist, brought a Sunni from outside Iraq to rule a country that was two-thirds Shia. As for the Kurds in the north, they were Sunni but not Arabic. The "40 Thieves" discussed creating a separate Kurdish nation, but failed to do so - Kurdish homelands were split between Iraq, Turkey, Iran and Syria - to the continuing detriment of the Kurdish people. In short: Three nations - for Shia, Sunni and Kurds - could have been created at a time when Arab nationalism was rising, and such an idea might have been popular. Or the Brits could have simply let those tribal lands revert to their traditional ways. But that is not the way of empires, and today the Iraqis - and Americans - are paying for it. Oil was not yet an issue for the Brits - Iraqi oil was still just speculation in 1922 - but they had their own economic self-interest here. As Colonial secretary, Churchill was interested in Iraq because it would save several days in the time it took to send troops and goods from England to India, then the UK's prize colony. And Churchill, Catherwood shows again and again, was chiefly interested in saving the British Empire money - call it empire on the cheap. Thus it was that troop levels were always an issue, with British generals saying that far more troops were necessary to stabilize Iraq than Churchill and politicians in London wanted to hear. Ask retired Gen. Eric Shinseki if that sounds familiar. Feisal would turn out to be a terrible choice for reasons greater than his religion. He was simply not a good ruler, his administration disorganized at best. That said, as Catherwood points out, the British presence that lasted until 1932 never allowed Feisal any true legitimacy in the eyes of the Iraqi people. Who's in charge here? He died in 1933, succeeded by the young playboy King Ghazi. Churchill's formula created inherent instability in Iraq - in the nation's first 37 years, there were 58 different governments! The bloody Baathist overthrow of 1958 ended the Hashemite monarchy, and especially after Saddam Hussein seized power in 1979 would show that only an iron-fisted dictator could hold a country of such disparate parts together. So what might this history mean for America and Iraq? The greatest problem, it seems to me, is that Iraq was never a nation of ideals, or dreams, or unified core beliefs or ethnicity. Today, Catherwood points out, the people of Iraq still identify themselves more by tribal and religious affiliation than as patriotic Iraqis. They may cheer the Iraqi soccer team, because they love soccer and it's the only team they have, but they don't get all chickenskin when they hear their national anthem. And the concept of democracy does not resonate; they are content with a system that offers security, and a religion that provides answers for life's vagaries. It seems unlikely to the point of impossibility that the Shia majority, dominated by a Sunni minority going back to the Ottomans and then by a Western-appointed monarchy followed by a military dictatorship, will ever give up the dominance they now and newly enjoy. Share power? Ha! It seems equally unlikely that the long-dominant Sunnis would allow themselves to become a persecuted minority, or that the Kurds of Iraq, with a strong regional government now in place and lots of oil underfoot, would be willing to be dominated by Arabs of either Muslim stripe. And why share? And it seems there is no essential reason for these very different people to find a unifying cause other than oil profits. But that would involve sharing, and that's a problem. Whether it was the British in 1921 or Americans today, Western powers have dictated what Iraq is and what Iraqi policy should be. The stated Bush agenda to establish democracy in Iraq is a lovely idea, but so is money growing on trees. For Iraqis, democracy is not a golden ideal, but just another Western concept being forced upon them by violent means. Even if some kind of democracy prevails in Iraq, says Catherwood, expect it to act rather as Feisal did with the Brits who put him in power: ungrateful. There was never a pro-British government under the Hashemite monarchy, and there is not likely to be a pro-American government that follows our exit. Whether U.S. troops leave Iraq tomorrow or next year or even beyond that, it's highly unlikely that ancient tribal and religious identities will be superseded by national pride. As Catherwood points out, whether it was artificially configured Yugoslavia or the French creation of Lebanon, nations drawn up by outside forces are never successful for very long. The U.S. invasion of Iraq and the bloody chaos it set loose seems to bear out that historical verity. Yes, Iraqi oil is our economic self-interest, and a very serious one, but this should give Americans even more reason to find other ways to power our cars, homes and businesses, and our nation. Bottom line: I can't see any way that America can get out of Iraq without the serious involvement and cooperation of the Arabic Sunni Saudis, the Persian Shia Iranians and the Sunni Turks - a treaty between those traditional regional rivals allowing Sunni, Shia and Kurdish home-lands in the former Iraq would be a good start, and would provide a sort of buffer among those powers. And I can't see a way out of Iraq without finally letting the people of the region redraw their own borders. They've been subject to outside dominance since 1299 - a mere 708 years. They could hardly do any worse than Western meddlers have done. Will there be bloodshed as they sort it out? To answer with a double question: Is there unconscionable bloodshed happening in Iraq now? And how else do you propose to stop it? Source :Information Clearing House

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New strains on the balance of payments

New strains on the balance of payments

C P Chandrasekhar

PROVISIONAL foreign trade figures released this week show that exports during October 2008 at $12.82 billion were 12.1 per cent lower than the level of $14.58 billion in October 2007. This is disconcerting since it comes at a time when reserves have collapsed by almost $80 billion from their peak level of $320 billion. Further, reports suggest that huge borrowing in the past by Indian corporations in the form of bonds convertible to equity are now approaching maturity and would need to be paid back in foreign currency. This is because the conversion prices of at which equity can be bought is much higher than the prevailing stock markets price, in the wake of the stock market meltdown. Thus there would be few takers for conversion and firms would have to buy up dollars to repay their debts. This would draw down reserves even more.

This drop in reserves is disconcerting because it is likely to intensify the sharp depreciation of the Indian rupee from around Rs 44 to the dollar at the beginning of September to close to Rs 50 to the dollar through much of November, which gives cause for concern on many counts. To start with, while it does little to increase India’s exports given similar depreciation in the currencies of India’s competitors, it is bound to increase the foreign exchange outflow on account of imports and worsen the trade balance. Second, by increasing the rupee value of dollar debt service commitments of Indian corporations, which have risen substantially in recent years, it is bound to affect the viability of these firms at a time when demand growth is clearly slowing. Third, increases in the rupee prices of imports of an economy that is more import-dependent after liberalisation would keep rupee inflation up despite lower growth. And finally, sharp and persistent depreciation of this kind creates the possibility of a speculative attack on the rupee that can only make matters worse.

All this makes an analysis of the factors underlying the rupee’s decline imperative. What is clear is that the depreciation of the currency is not the result of any reticence or failure on the part of the Reserve Bank of India to intervene in the market to stabilise the rupee. As its Mid-Term Review of Macroeconomic and Monetary Developments declared, among the measures adopted in the wake of the global financial crisis was the decision that the Reserve Bank “would continue to sell foreign exchange (US dollar) through agent banks or directly to augment supply in the domestic foreign exchange market or intervene directly to meet any demand-supply gaps.” That this decision was implemented emerges from the facts that while as recently as April the RBI was purchasing large quantities of dollars and adding them to its reserves, its net sales of the dollar between June and September was as much as $14.1 billion. Indications are that sales have been as high or even higher in the two months since then.

In fact, ever since the week ending October 3, in most weeks the foreign exchange assets held by the Reserve Bank of India have declined rather sharply, indicating that the central bank has been accommodating demands for foreign exchange at the expense of reserves. Overall, the decline in reserves between the end of March 2008 and November 7, 2008 has been $58.4 billion, which is a substantial proportion of the $310-plus billion India had when reserves were at their peak. What therefore seems to be creating the uncertainty that leads to rupee depreciation is not the non-availability of the dollar, but evidence that normal foreign exchange inflows are far short of the requirements needed to finance outflows, leading to a sharp fall in reserves.

One factor responsible for the excess of outflows over inflows is of course the exodus of foreign institutional investors. But this does not seem to be the whole explanation. Total outflows from equity investments by FIIs between April and November 2008, which is seen as underlying the stock market collapse, amounted to $10.7 billion, or less than a fifth of the decline in reserves during this period.

This leaves outflows on account of trade related payments, which would indeed have gone up because the sharp increase in the price of oil. The average price of India’s crude import basket touched $142 a barrel on July 3, 2008. Over the period April-August, 2008 the average price of the basket stood at US $ 120.4 per barrel (having ranged between US $ 105.8 – 132.2 per barrel). This was 76.6 per cent higher than the US $ 68.2 per barrel recorded during April-August, 2007.

This does seem to have affected India’s trade deficit over the April-August 2008 period, when it stood at $49.3 billion, as compared with $34.6 billion during the corresponding period of the previous year. This widening of the deficit was on account of the oil trade deficit which rose from $12.3 to $20.5 billion, whereas the non-oil deficit actually shrank from $13.5 billion to $9 billion.

It must be noted, however, that the merchandise trade deficit does not does not really capture the excess demand for foreign currency emanating from the current account, because of the importance of invisible inflows in the form of remittances and software and IT-enabled export revenues in India’s balance of payments. Quarterly balance of payments figures, which are thus far available only for the April-June 2008 period, show that while the merchandise trade deficit increased by close to $11 billion between April-June 2007 and April-June 2008, the current account deficit rose by only around $4.5 billion, because of the benefit of increased net invisible incomes.

Moreover, the drain of foreign exchange reserves during the period when the rupee was depreciating would have been far less affected by the merchandise trade deficit because of the sharp decline in oil prices. By September 10, the average price of Indian crude imports had fallen below the $100-a-barrel level, and this figure fell below $44 a barrel by November 24. This would have moderated the trade deficit, making the current account deficit much less of a factor generating an excess demand for dollars and applying downward pressure on the rupee.

In the circumstances, the drain of reserves and the depreciation of the rupee appear to be the result of one of two factors or a combination of both. The first is a possible sharp fall in inflows of capital other than foreign institutional equity investment into the economy. The balance of payments data referred to above, point to a decline in aggregate (direct and portfolio) foreign investment from $10.1 billion during April-June 2007 to $5.9 billion during April-June 2008, and a decline in foreign debt flowing into the country from $7 billion to $1.6 billion across these two periods. Given the fall out of the financial crisis, there is sufficient reason to believe that this tendency would have not just continued but intensified in the period after June 2008. If this shortfall in capital inflows accounts for the excess demand for foreign exchange, it implies that the weakness of India’s balance of payments and of the Indian rupee stem from their fact that their earlier “strength” was not earned, but merely the result of a capital surge into the country. With that surge having reversed itself the drain of reserves and the depreciation of the currency seems to have followed.

A second factor accounting for the sharp depreciation of the rupee could be speculative activity in the foreign exchange market based on expectations that the currency’s decline is inevitable. But in a liberalised foreign exchange market such speculation is bound to occur, especially when indications are that India’s balance of payments strengths were ephemeral and were being quickly reversed. In the event, even large reserves, which are still substantial and adequate to finance more than a year’s worth of imports seem insufficient to stall the rupee’s fall.

Terrorism & National Security

Terrorism & National Security

Learning From The Mumbai Assault

Raghu

IN the aftermath of the horrific terrorist attack in Mumbai, it is only to be expected that a raging debate has erupted about national security and possible lapses. However, little light has been shed on systemic changes that are clearly required.

Much of the debate has been poorly informed and, especially on TV, often clouded by emotional responses. Unfounded rumours, unverified gossip or inspired leaks from different arms of government seeking to blame each other have not helped. Some of the desire for punitive action against the perpetrators and their sponsors may be understandable, but such attitudes are not conducive to the desired goal, namely a thoroughgoing reform of the security apparatus to prevent further such disasters.

This article is not a post mortem of the Mumbai attack but seeks to draw lessons from it and from comparable international experience. Viewing national security as part of overall security strategy, one should examine the architecture and workings of anti-terrorist security in all its dimensions i.e. detection or intelligence gathering and analysis, prevention or pre-emption, preparedness and capacity-building, and finally disruption or response.

Intelligence

The first and most obvious question for discussion is whether the attack on Mumbai could have been prevented. The only however unsatisfactory answer can only be --- probably. Even US intelligence agencies admit that, with all the measures they have instituted, a sea-borne attack on the US as in Mumbai could happen! A good thief will always find a way to beat the best lock! The goal of all security systems is therefore, not to provide a foolproof guarantee, but to make the task of the terrorist as difficult as possible, be flexible and facilitate prevention.

Contrary to accusations of “intelligence failure”, it now appears that credible intelligence had been generated about a possible sea-borne terrorist attack on Mumbai. Intercepts of communications over satellite and mobile phones spanning a considerable period were available from Indian as well as US agencies. Two major questions arise: was the information sufficient to enable preventive actions and how was the information disseminated and used?

Media leaks from India’s external intelligence agency, RAW, speak of several pointed recent alerts, even suggestions that the famous hotels by the sea were targets. The Mumbai police chief denies having received any “specific” information but says that rather vague messages were received about attacks likely from the sea somewhere on the West Coast. Navy chief Admiral Suresh Mehta states that “no actionable intelligence was provided.” Yet there is tacit admission by both that, due to this same intelligence, police forces in Mumbai as well as the Navy and Coast Guard had indeed been on alert. So much so that a Coast Guard vessel had in fact intercepted the allegedly hijacked trawler but let it go when the occupants showed some possibly fake identification.

How much more “actionable” can intelligence get? Will security agencies wait to act until they are provided the exact time and location of attack so that terrorists simply walk into the waiting arms of law enforcement?

There may well have been a problem in information transmission. If all sorts of information flow in an unsorted and non-prioritised fashion, they cease to be useful. One can well imagine bureaucrats in the security forces receiving several intelligence memos from different sources each day and simply marking them up the ladder or filing them away!

Vetting and analysis of intelligence, building upon leads to gather more related information to bring out a clearer picture (or development as it is called in the parlance), assigning appropriate threat levels, effective communication to all concerned and ensuring appropriate follow-up measures, are all important elements in the chain. Clearly all this was not done in the present instance. As it now transpires, even the prime minister’s security was not aware of the alert when they went to the Oberoi Hotel in Mumbai just a few hours before the attack to prepare for the PM’s visit a few days hence!

Admiral Mehta argues that all this represents “system failure”.

Flawed system, not system failure

This has become a much-abused term in India. By seemingly acknowledging that the whole system is faulty, it prevents closer examination of problem areas. More importantly, the term suggests a well-designed functioning system exists which somehow broke down on the day. Trouble is, the security system in India has for long been deeply and structurally flawed and, over the years regardless of the party in power, has only been tinkered with at the margins.

Sure, intelligence gathering capability could be further improved but in Mumbai, the problem was how intelligence was communicated, in what form and to whom, and what action was proposed or taken in response. Was there a system at all?

The BJP which led the central government during 1996-2004, and which is now attacking the UPA government for its failures, also invoked “system failure” after the Kargil fiasco but did precious little to rectify basic problems. Then too, as the K Subrahmanyam Kargil Review Committee concluded, prior intelligence had been ignored and the Army was finally compelled to respond in fire-fighting fashion. The Report on National Security prepared as a follow-up by a Group of Ministers (GoM) headed by L K Advani himself made many recommendations, most of which were not implemented certainly in spirit, and were also not followed up to ensure proper functioning towards the desired ends.

The GoM Report had recommended an agency to co-ordinate all intelligence: the Joint Intelligence Committee under the National Security Council was set up, but does it function as intended? What happened to the intelligence alert and how was it processed? The Navy chief told TV channels that he had seen media reports that the Coast Guard had intercepted and cleared the hijacked vessel --- note he had not heard this directly from the Coast Guard! Many coastal police stations as recommended have been set up both during the NDA and UPA tenures, including 24 in Maharashtra alone, but they are notoriously poorly equipped in terms of boats, weaponry and trained personnel. Were they alerted and activated to act on the Mumbai intelligence alerts? Should there not have been a more active cordon-and-search by the Coast Guard in view of the alert? Should coastal police stations in and near Mumbai not have noticed the terrorists landing with laden haversacks?

In a typically verbose article on CNN-IBN’s website, Arun Shourie of the BJP blames the UPA for failing to act on repeated warnings over many years that the sea-route was vulnerable. Referring to the 1993 serial blasts in Mumbai when RDX was smuggled in by sea, he asks “were those blasts not warning enough?” Indeed, but what did the BJP/NDA government do when they were in power for 8 long years till 2004? And did any other measures taken prevent the assault on parliament or on the Akshardham temple, or the hijack to Kandahar of Indian Airlines IC-817 plane which took off from Amritsar even as the NSG was getting ready?

The GoM Report had called for “dispersal of the NSG units at strategic parts across the country”, a step not taken by the NDA then or by the UPA till now after the Mumbai assault. It had recommended that “NSG should not be deployed for duties… beyond its original mandate”, in other words for VIP duties, an injunction completely ignored by both NDA and UPA. It bemoaned the “lack of institutionalised arrangements for sharing and co-ordination of intelligence at various levels and particularly at the field level”, and had also called for an “an apex body for management of maritime affairs… for institutionalised linkages between the Navy, Coast Guard and the concerned ministries of the central and state governments”. And the failure is not political alone but bureaucratic as well, both civilian and military, as the obstruction to the appointment of a chief of defence staff by the different Services shows.

Overhaul needed

Whatever the posturing today, neither the NDA nor the UPA have followed through on these. Indeed, the reality is that the entire political and bureaucratic establishment, including the strategic community, the security services and the armed forces, has failed in this regard.

Useful lessons are available from experiences of other countries. In the US, the review of the horrendous “9/11” terrorist attacks showed that intelligence about suspicious persons taking flying lessons in the US and conspiracies being hatched to attack the US simply formed part of the information “noise” and did not receive due attention. The US inquiry found that different agencies were pursuing their own paths and collation systems were not working. The US therefore created a new Office of the Director of National Intelligence sitting on top of the CIA and other agencies, and tasked with co-ordinating all intelligence and working closely with a newly formed Department of Homeland Security which in turn co-ordinates the work of and liaises with all security and police departments nationwide. By all accounts, these new systems are working well, even discounting the intrusive and extra-constitutional domestic surveillance measures initiated by the Bush administration.

In the UK, the security system was restructured after 9/11 and revamped again after the attack on the London Underground in 2005. The Anti-Terror Branch set up earlier and the Special Branch of the London Metropolitan Police were brought together into a “single counter-terrorism command not restricted… by existing structures, with a better capability and capacity to meet ongoing and future threats” and “bringing together intelligence analysis and development with investigations and operational support activity” and inter-meshing with both local police and national security structures.

In India, in response to criticism that the NSG commandos reached Mumbai only after several hours, the government has announced that four decentralised NSG hubs will be set up each with their own, independent aircraft. More such piecemeal steps would undoubtedly be unveiled over the coming weeks. But what is needed is not improvements here and there but a complete overhaul of the architecture and in the way things are done.

Two important aspects may be highlighted here, other than those already discussed.

The adoption and deployment of technologies for surveillance and detection is being rightly stressed but it is equally important to see that these are effectively used. CCTV systems should be backed by real-time monitoring so they can have a preventive role rather passively recording information for post-incident evidence. The need for X-ray and more sophisticated odour-detection or other systems for screening of luggage and people even in “open” public transport systems and other public places, not just in closed spaces such as airports, has not been given due attention rendering such spaces particularly vulnerable. Costs are no doubt a factor but resources need to be optimally deployed so that the maximum numbers of citizens, especially common folk, are protected. Luxury hotels and airports will readily get better protected but what about railway stations, bus stands, market places? The budget of the PM’s Special Protection Group currently exceeds that of the NSG mandated for the whole nation’s security!

The weakest link in the entire system, namely the local police forces, needs to be urgently addressed. These are not only a vital element in the system of intelligence gathering and surveillance but are also first responders if and when all defences are breached. The NSG or SPG “black cats” may have good weaponry and communications equipment, but surely the sight of policemen at Mumbai’s Shivaji Railway Terminal cowering behind pillars unable to counter the terrorists’ automatic weapons with their own single-loading rifles must prompt urgent action nationwide. And weaponry is just a small part of the total picture: local police also require comprehensive re-training, a redefining of their roles, a revival of the beat system with active community linkages. Modernisation of ill-equipped, poorly trained and under-motivated police forces in India is long overdue, especially in view of the threats posed not only by terrorists but also by insurgents of various hues. It is necessary, but not enough, to simply recruit more police. And impoverished state governments should not be left to carry the financial burden involved. Time will tell if the home minister Chidambaram will act differently from finance minister Chidambaram in this regard!

Looking forward

A restructuring of the security architecture must be accompanied by measures to involve the people and to bring about changes in the security environment and related behaviour of corporations, commercial establishments, shopkeepers and local markets, property owners and so on. Security standards need to be established and compliance ensured, but this is another area where India is historically poor, as recent evidence shows on failure by Telecom companies to obtain verification of mobile phone user identities. TV anchors are now lambasting “politicians” as a class for all evils, but the rot goes far deeper. The great Ratan Tata himself, head of the Taj Group of luxury hotels, said in a TV interview to CNN that better security measures at his hotel in Mumbai would not have worked since all these were at the front entrance while the terrorists came in from the unguarded rear! No anchor questioned this or the astonishing view that “hospitality and security do not go together”: indeed they must! The same anchors were earlier pushing the government, and egging on the public, to demand the release of Masood Azhar in exchange for the hostages of the hijacked aircraft held in Kandahar and, more recently, to pay ransom if need be to free the pirate-captured Indian crew of the Stolt Valor.

It needs constant reiteration that national security is strategic in nature, it is long-term and embraces both foreign and domestic policies. All those clamouring for “action against Pakistan” should realise that, quite apart from the obvious human and other costs that any military engagement with the world’s 9th largest army armed with nuclear weapons would entail, such action may only trigger even more enmity in the future. Any steps taken should be part of a longer-term strategy, meaning measures designed to achieve desired goals.

The Indian people, media and those gathered in various protest demonstrations should realise who to blame and who the enemy is: the terrorists! Their objective is to turn our people against each other, against our government and against our neighbours. These are the biggest dangers to be thwarted.

HEALTH

Five common shortcomings of health-care delivery system

1..Inverse care:

People with the most means – whose needs for health care are often less – consume the most care, whereas those with the least means and greatest health problems consume the least. Public spending on health services most often benefits the rich more than the poor in high- and low income countries alike.

2..Impoverishing care.

Wherever people lack social protection and payment for care is largely out-of-pocket at the point of service, they can be confronted with catastrophic expenses. Over 100 million people annually fall into poverty because they have to pay for health care.

3..Fragmented and fragmenting care.

The excessive specialization of health-care providers and the narrow focus of many disease control programmes discourage a holistic approach to the individuals and the families they deal with and do not appreciate the need for continuity in care. Health services for poor and marginalized groups are often highly fragmented and severely under-resourced, while development aid often adds to the fragmentation

4..Unsafe care.

Poor system design that is unable to ensure safety and hygiene standards leads to high rates of hospital-acquired infections, along with medication errors and other avoidable adverse effects that are an underestimated cause of death and ill-health.

5..Mis directed care.

Resource allocation clusters around curative services at great cost, neglecting the potential of primary prevention and health promotion to prevent up to 70% of the disease burden. At the same time, the health sector lacks the expertise to mitigate the adverse effects on health from other sectors and make the most of what these other sectors can contribute to health.

BRITAIN IN RECESSION

BRITAIN IN RECESSION

Harsev Bains

There is an old saying that when the USA sneezes Britain catches cold!

Britain today is gripped by the very real danger of a prolonged and deep recession reminiscent of the depression of the 1930’s.

Businesses ranging from a one man operated small business to those employing thousands of workers are closing at the unprecedented rate of 43 per day and this is projected to increase to 140 closures per day. Official unemployment figures of 1.8 million people (already above 2 million in real terms) are expected to rise to 3 million people next year. Every day there are further announcements of thousands more job losses and more working people join the ranks of the unemployed.

Homelessness is on the increase with over 45,000 homes expected to be repossessed by the banks in this year alone.

The crisis of capitalism as detailed in the articles and features in People’s Democracy during the last year is real and present.

Britain prides itself as having a special close relationship with the USA and aligns its foreign and domestic economic policies to reflect the ups, downs and mood swings of America. During the years of Margaret Thatcher in the UK and Ronald Reagan in the USA in the 1980’s the manufacturing base of Britain was systematically and irreparably destroyed and has served to curb the power of Trade Unions and reign in the strength of the working class.

Britain of the noughties now has an economy heavily reliant on the financial services and house building sectors. It is ill prepared to meet the challenges of either of these two pillars of its ballooned economy. Britain now has the largest deficit of the developed world and largest personal debt amongst the western industrial nations. The deficit is projected to grow from the present 38 per cent to 57 per cent of GDP by the year 2011. This will create a staggering deficit of £500 billion from government figures and closer to £1 trillion according to the opposition parties.

In the summer of 2007, reckless 'sub-prime' mortgage lending to low-income (and indeed no-income) Americans began a ripple of financial problems around the world. It has made banks less willing to lend to each other and to consumers. That is the “credit crunch”. This descended into a full-blown economic crisis in October 2008 following which a rash of bank failures and nationalisations have swept around the world.

Meanwhile, consumers have also had to deal with price rises. Commodity prices rose sharply in 2007 and during the first six months of 2008, driven by demand from the booming economies of India and China making petrol, food and other basic costs significantly more expensive. This surging inflation had prevented central banks from cutting interest rates to help ease the credit crunch.

Other global factors included the curse of derivatives. The financial innovation of capital called the Credit Default Swap System (CDSS), is being described as the monster of the deep that has endangered capitalism. In basic terms it is a simple idea on how to make money by trading in expectations. It allows an investor to buy insurance against a company defaulting on its debt payments. A little like an insurance company selling you car insurance speculating on the risk of you crashing / not crashing your car.

At first it was a useful concept, as people in the finance sector felt comfortable owning corporate debt if they could eliminate the risk of the debtor failing. The extra appetite and availability of debt helped to lower the cost of capital and inflated the economy.

Sellers of insurance base their views on risk on past experience, but CDSS, being a relatively modern concept meant that insurers relied on the insatiable greed of the speculators. Indeed, such greed to the point that if Lehman and AIG had gone bust the whole share market system would have collapsed.

In Britain, the first to fail was the bank Northern Rock, one of the largest housing market lenders, followed by Bradford and Bingley, HBOS, Lloyds and RBS. The British government nationalised the first two banks and injected £60 billion, with an additional safety net of £400 billion into the finance sector buying up to 60 per cent of the equity of RBS.

With decreasing inflation the Bank of England, the regulating body for monetary policy, lowered the base rate of interest, from 4.5 per cent to 3 per cent. There is now widespread speculation that the Bank of England will have to lower the rate further still to 1.5 per cent, being below the all time low of 2 per cent in 1951. Retailers are competing to sell their produce at heavily discounted prices to stay in business and with a declining economy; there is now a real fear of deflation creating the black hole in the capitalist economic system.

The presidential elections in the USA beamed and followed across the globe, displayed to the world the downturn of the US economy and the crisis of capitalism. The realisation of these extraordinary events and the extraordinary response by the USA and western governments was and is unprecedented.

The bail outs started with Bear Stearns in March and the financial giants Fannie May, Freddie Mac and AIG. The collapse of Lehman Brothers in September 2008 and the $700 billion US bank bail out was unthinkable.

The members of the G8 followed suit to reverse the collapse in the financial markets and committed more than US$3 trillion without much success. The size of the global crisis has now reached such a magnitude that economists in the USA have to add more zeroes to describe this scale beyond the trillions.

The banking giant Citigroup is the most recent bank being bailed out by the US government with an injection of US$20 billion, as it faced collapse under a wave of sub-prime losses of £13.3billion. The bank employs 300,000 people worldwide with more than 12,000 employed in Britain.

The combined effects of the credit crunch, rising unemployment and poverty is giving way to shrinking economies.

The American automobile manufacturers General Motors, Chrysler and Ford are on the verge of collapse with the potential to lay off 3 million workers world wide. Manufacturers of cars in Britain including Honda have already announced the lay off of 21,000 of their workforce within the next three months.

The Tata Group, the manufacturer of Jaguar cars which employs 15,000 people, has held secret talks with the government to plead for a £1billion loan. Its appeal for a taxpayer bailout comes nine months after the Indian conglomerate bought the famous marques from Ford for £1.3billion. That deal was financed by a £2billion bridging loan from banks, which also provided funding to keep the business running. Tata, which also owns Tetley Tea and the former British Steel group Corus, now wants the UK government to provide it with a further two-year loan because it is difficult to access the debt markets since the credit crunch started. According to press reports, “The (British) Queen, spoke for the nation yesterday when she asked how the credit crunch could have taken so many economics experts by surprise.” She described the financial crisis as 'awful' and inquired that, since the meltdown was so massive, “Why did nobody notice it?” The Royal concern was revealed at the London School of Economics, where the Queen opened its new £71 million academic building. Professor Luis Garicano, director of research at the LSE's management department, said the Queen asked "If these things were so large, how come everyone missed them?" It is a question which will resonate with ordinary families baffled at why politicians, bankers and City experts all failed to spot the financial storm on the horizon. Explaining the origins and effects of the credit crisis, Professor Garicano said he told the Queen: “At every stage, someone was relying on somebody else and everyone thought they were doing the right thing.”

A repercussion of this crisis could have grave implications for the migrant population including the 1.5 million people of Indian origin living in Britain. According to a recently leaked memo from the Home Office, a rise in anti-immigrant sentiment and ethnic tension is being anticipated. The hardships of the 1930’s had turned some Britons against foreigners with the rise of fascism and the cyclic recession of the 1980’s gave way to race riots. With the opening up of European borders immigration has increased dramatically and with it the electoral base of the parties of the far right. Ethnic minorities who are already feeling alienated and maligned, because of foreign policies and ‘anti terrorist’ measures will be further marginalised by the indigenous population.

It is acutely important for established organisations such as the Indian Workers’ Association to ally itself with the trade unions and other working class organisations, to defend the people and withstand the challenges of the recession.

SAMANATA

हाँ हम आज मांग रहे हर कीसी की समानता
बेटी को अवसर मीले वो तय कर सके हर रास्ता
शुद्र भी शिखर छुए उसे मील सके यह मान्यता
काले रंग को क्रिशन का सम्मान मीले यह हम चाहते |

Obama 'to rebuild crumbling US'

Obama 'to rebuild crumbling US'

US President-elect Barack Obama has promised to invest in infrastructure on a scale not seen since the 1950s, when the US highway system was established.

He used his weekly address to outline that the spending would be part of his plan to create at least 2.5m new jobs in the ailing US economy.

He also spoke of the need for expanded access to high-speed internet and the modernisation of school buildings.

Unemployment rose by more than 500,000 during November, figures have shown.

That was the biggest monthly rise in job cuts since 1974, and it drove up the jobless rate to a 15-year high of 6.7%, up from 6.5% in October.

The figures came less than a week after the National Bureau for Economic Research said the US economy had been in recession since late 2007.

Mr Obama, who takes office on 20 January, has previously said that his incoming team will be tasked with generating 2.5m new jobs by 2011.

Broadband drive

On Saturday, speaking in his weekly address, Mr Obama outlined how most of that employment might be created.

"We will create millions of jobs by making the single largest new investment in our national infrastructure since the creation of the federal highway system in the 1950s," he said.

"We'll invest your precious tax dollars in new and smarter ways, and we'll set a simple rule - use it or lose it. If a state doesn't act quickly to invest in roads and bridges in their communities, they'll lose the money."

The president-elect said that broadband internet connections in the US should be available to schoolchildren and hospitals.

"In the country that invented the internet, every child should have the chance to get online and... that's how we'll strengthen America's competitiveness in the world," he said.

School buildings, he continued, would be modernised and upgraded to make them energy-efficient.

The new administration, he added, would launch a massive effort to make public buildings more energy-efficient by replacing old heating systems and installing efficient light bulbs.

"Our government now pays the highest energy bill in the world - we need to change that," he said.

HUM CHAHTEY HAIN

HARYANA

Truth of Society

Interview With Hemant Karkare

Interview With Hemant Karkare

By Rana Ayyub

29 November, 2008
Tehelka

ATS chief Hemant Karkare told RANA AYYUB, shortly before his death in the Mumbai terror attacks, that more army officers will not be arrested

The 2008 Malegaon blasts investigations have, for the first time, linked the right wing organisations to terrorist acts in the country. ATS Joint commissioner Hemant Karkare was spearheading the investigation. In an interview with TEHELKA, he had clarified the ATS stand on the conflicting reports that have been trickling out regarding the investigations.

Reports suggest that VHP strongman Pravin Togadia funded Abhinav Bharat, the organisation which is allegedly involved in the Malegaon blasts? Has this been confirmed?

There was a reference to his name during the investigation, but that has nothing to do with the Malegaon blasts investigations of 2008. At this point of time, we are only looking into the 2008 blasts.

Will Pravin Togadia be questioned, since his name has also cropped up in the narco tests done on the accused in the Nanded blasts of 2006?

No, as of now there is no evidence against him. As I said earlier, we are looking at only the Malegaon blasts, so there is no question of interrogating Pravin Togadia.

Reports suggest the involvement of high-profile seers in the Malegaon blasts. Has the ATS got proof of this?

We are not looking at seers or saints in relation to the Malegaon blasts. We are not looking at people from a particular community when we question them. We are just detaining people on the basis of evidence. As for Dayanand Pandey, he has proclaimed himself to be a seer. There are a lot of people going around claiming to be saints.

Was Swami Aseemanand from Dangs involved in other blasts, including the one at Ajmer, as reports suggest?

A reference has been made to his name during the investigations, we cannot divulge much at this stage. These people might not have been seers. Aseemanand could also have taken the garb of a seer.

While presenting its case, the ATS said that there was a possibility of those arrested in the Malegaon blasts case also being involved in the blasts that took place in the Marathwada region in 2006. Is there evidence to prove this? Has the ATS been able to link those arrested to other blasts?

There are agencies that have been looking at the various links, namely the CBI, which has been looking at the Malegaon blasts of 2006. The link we found is that of Rakesh Dhawre. He is a Pune-based counterfeit arms dealer who was involved in the training that took place for the blasts of 2006. He is the common link between the 2006 blasts including the ones in Purna and Parbhani, and the 2008 Malegaon blasts. Investigating agencies are working on it.

There are reports that police officials from other states have been coming to interrogate those arrested by the ATS. Is that true?

Yes, police officials from other states have been coming but that’s something which is protocol in such cases. They wanted to know of the modus operandi so that they could figure out if there are similarities to other blasts, in Andhra Pradesh and Chandigarh. What they found out is something only they will be able to tell you.

The ATS made a flip-flop on the links of those arrested with the Samjhauta blasts, which raised questions when it found no mention in the remand copy.

A lot has been made of the Samjhauta Express statement that was made by the public prosecutor in the case. There was a statement made by the witness that Purohit helped in the procurement of RDX. That was a part of the case diary. It cannot be taken as gospel truth. What was wrong was the mention of the same to the media, although we had said that there is no such evidence of the same.

The BJP has targeted the ATS for its investigations. Has there been any political pressure?

We are here to do our job as an investigating agency and bring out the truth. Having said that, it’s baseless to say that we are working under political pressure. There is absolutely no pressure on me or my officials. We are doing our best to bring the truth out.

Abhinav Bharat has come out as having played a key role. Is the ATS planning to question Himani Savarkar, its founder member?

We look at individuals and not organisations when we carry out our investigations. We are not looking at Abhinav Bharat, we are looking at the individuals involved. We have not questioned Himani Savarkar so far, and as yet, there is no evidence against her.

There are reports that an ATS team has left for Delhi. Is it true?

No, it’s absolutely untrue.

There were also reports that the army was not cooperating with the ATS with regards to information on Col Purohit and his leave records?

I would like to clear this. The army has given cooperation to the ATS right from day one on every aspect of the interrogation. There have been reports that the army has not been cooperating with the ATS and that’s absolutely untrue. The army gave us his leave records and other documents, which we needed.

Is the ATS looking at arresting more army officials?

No, we are not looking at arresting or detaining any more army officials in the case.

Most of the accused have alleged that they have been subjected to physical and mental torture.

We are doing our duty as investigating agencies. Such allegations come during the course of investigations. But they are untrue. We cannot do anything about such allegations

Can Purohit and Dayanand Pandey be called the key conspirators in the Malegaon blasts? Is this evident from the narco tests of the accused?

We are yet to get the narco reports. There is evidence against Purohit, but we can’t reveal anything at this stage

As the findings of narco tests are not admissible in court, does the ATS have substantial proof to nail the accused in the case?

The ATS has been carrying out investigations. We have enough evidence against the people we have arrested and we will present it in court.

There has been a report that Purohit and Dayanand Pandey had conspired to kill RSS veterans like Mohan Bhagwat and Indreesh. What do you have to say on this? Have those arrested confessed to the same? The name of Delhi-based doctor RP Singh too has cropped up during the course of investigations. Does the ATS have evidence suggesting his involvement?

The name of RP Singh came up during the investigation of Dayanand Pandey. I can’t reveal much about it at this stage. As for the assassination of RSS leaders, some references had emerged but they can’t be linked to any organisation.

Are more arrests likely to be made by the ATS in the Malegaon blasts? Do you also see the involvement of Hindu organisations like the Bajrang Dal, RSS, and Sanatan Sanstha in various terror acts in the country?

The ATS had filed a chargesheet against the Sanatan Sanstha in a different case, but there is no proof to link organisations as yet with the blasts. We are just looking at individuals.

Does the arrest of seers and armymen in terror acts suggest a trend?

Col Purohit was just an aberration. Just because one man has been arrested it does not mean that the entire army is tainted. Tomorrow, you cannot blame the entire police force just because one officer is arrested.

Have some other names cropped up during the investigations of the accused?Has the name of Nitin Joshi, one of the key members of the Abhinav Bharat, cropped up?

At the moment we are looking for Shyam Apte and Ramji, who have been named in the investigations. They played an important role and are absconding.

rana@tehelka.com

From Tehelka Magazine, Vol 5, Issue 48, Dated Dec 06, 2008

Tehelka.com is a part of Anant Media Pvt. Ltd. © 2000 - 2008 All rights reserved

Lessons Of Mumbai Terror

Lessons Of Mumbai Terror Attack

By Dr.V.N.Sharma

29 November, 2008
Countercurrents.org

As per the news being circulated the Mumbai Terror Attack problem is over with a few dozens dead and over 350 injured. We must congratulate our NSG, Marine Commandos, Army personnel who all had to operate in the danger zone around the Action areas for over 65 hours with a few of them losing their lives in action. We salute all of them who took part in the operation and flushed out the terrorists dead or alive. We also salute those of the finest IPS Officers of ATS and Police men who lost their lives in the starting phase of the battle between the law and order keeping forces and the Terrorists.

What are the lessons of the event?

That, the country was one, is one and will remain one against all such external or internal attacks, disturbances and disorders being created by vested interest groups outside the country and also inside it.

That, Maratha warriors like Bal Thakrey and his Shiv Sainiks and Raj Thakrey and his MNS Sainiks were seen nowhere in action of saving their very own Marathi Manush Mumbai. A shameful act on part of these Maratha warriors. Mumbaikars and the Marathis must have now more faith in the United India with brotherhood between the people of different linguistic, cultural and religious background and not in so called sainiks and their leaders.

That , major part of Police administration in Mumbai, except for ATS, seemed to be paralysed and fainted. This was the same force which flashed their bravery in killing Raj, a Bihari boy from a short distance a month ago.

That, neither CM Deshmukh nor his loud mouth Home Minister RR Patil who was shouting from the top of his voice about a month ago that guns will be met with guns (against the same Bihari boy Raj ) was not visible this time with his boys and the guns when the terrorist guns were spitting fire. There were many other brave Marathas like Praful Patel who matched his frequency with Raj Thakrey and challenged just a month ago whoever challenged the Marathas and their ego which in his opinion was not the rights or property of Northies, Hindi speaking population and last but not the least Biharis and Jharkhandis. All this Maratha talk was a shameful act then and now. Otherwise they should have been in the forefront of the Save Mumbai campaign from Terrorists. Is it possible that the Terrorists fixed the exact dates for action after making sure that Mumbai in particular had become weak due to the recent MNS action against the Biharis and Northies in Mumbai and Maharashtra? This may be a major probable cause.

This also has a lesson for us and our rulers in Delhi as to why we have a non-political PM and a weak Home Minister who seemed to be totally unaware of his job, that is, the situation prevailing in the country. They are certainly not pro-active. They are reactive. Therefore, we, over 100 crore people are not safe in these hands. It is not to say that BJP or their NDA will do anything better.

What we, the citizens of this country need to do is to reject all such defective people whose total perspective is to look at the Unity and existence of this country through the eyes of BSE and NSE indices, or divide the populace for votes on linguistic , caste and communal lines and are not interested in a sensible governance and development of a United and strong India.

Mossad-CIA Connection

Mossad-CIA Connection To
Mumbai Terror Attacks?

By Yoginder Sikand

29 November, 2008
Countercurrents.org

“O ye who believe! stand out firmly for God, as witnesses to fair dealing, and let not the hatred of others to you make you swerve to wrong and depart from justice. Be just: that is next to piety: and fear God. For God is well-acquainted with all that ye do.”

(The Quran, Surah Al-Maida: 8)

Numerous theories are doing the rounds about the dastardly terrorist assault on Mumbai. The dominant view, based on what is being suggested by the media, is that this is the handiwork of the dreaded Pakistan-based self-styled Islamist and terrorist outfit Lashkar-e Tayyeba, which, ever since it was ostensibly proscribed by the Government of Pakistan some years ago, has adopted the name of Jamaat ud-Dawah. This might well be the case, for the Lashkar has been responsible for numerous such terrorist attacks in recent years, particularly in Kashmir.

The Lashkar is the military wing of the Markaz Dawat wal Irshad, an outfit floated by a section of the Pakistani Ahl-e Hadith, a group with close affiliations to the Saudi Wahhabis. It has its headquarters at the town of Muridke in the Gujranwala district in Pakistani Punjab. The Markaz was established in 1986 by two Pakistani university professors, Hafiz Muhammad Saeed and Zafar Iqbal. They were assisted by Abdullah Azam, a close aide of Osama bin Laden, who was then associated with the International Islamic University in Islamabad. Funds for setting up the organization are said to have come from Pakistan’s dreaded official secret services agency, the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI). From its inception, it is thus clear, the Lashkar had the support of the Pakistani establishment.

The Lashkar started out as a paramilitary organisation to train warriors to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan. Soon it spawned dozens of camps across Pakistan and Afghanistan for this purpose. Militants produced at these centres have played a major role in armed struggles, first in Afghanistan, and then in Bosnia, Chechenya, Kosovo, the southern Philippines and Kashmir.

Like other radical Islamist groups, the Lashkar sees Islam as an all-embracing system. It regards Islam as governing all aspects of personal as well as collective life, in the form of the shariah. For the establishing of an Islamic system, it insists, an ‘Islamic state’ is necessary, which will impose the shariah as the law of the land. If, the official website of the Lashkar announces, such a state were to be set up and all Muslims were to live strictly according to 'the laws that Allah has laid down', then, it is believed, ‘they would be able to control the whole world and exercise their supremacy’. And for this, as well as to respond to the oppression that it claims that Muslims in large parts of the world are suffering, it insists that all Muslims must take to armed jihad. Armed jihad must continue, its website announces, ‘until Islam, as a way of life, dominates the whole world and until Allah's law is enforced everywhere in the world’.

The subject of armed jihad runs right through the writings and pronouncements of the Lashkar and is, in fact, the most prominent theme in its discourse. Indeed, its understanding of Islam may be seen as determined almost wholly by this preoccupation, so much so that its reading of Islam seems to be a product of its own political project, thus effectively ending up equating Islam with terror. Being born as a result of war in Afghanistan, war has become the very raison d'être of the Lashkar, and its subsequent development has been almost entirely determined by this concern. The contours of its ideological framework are constructed in such a way that the theme of armed jihad appears as the central element of its project. In the writings and speeches of Lashkar spokesmen jihad appears as violent conflict (qital) waged against 'unbelievers' who are said to be responsible for the oppression of the Muslims. Indeed, the Lashkar projects it as the one of the most central tenets of Islam, although it has traditionally not been included as one of the 'five pillars’ of the faith. Thus, its website claims that ‘There is so much emphasis on this subject that some commentators and scholars of the Quran have remarked that the topic of the Quran is jihad’. Further, a Lashkar statement declares, ‘There is consensus of opinion among researchers of the Qur'an that no other action has been explained in such great detail as jihad’.

In Lashkar discourse, jihad against non-Muslims is projected as a religious duty binding on all Muslims today. Thus the Lashkar’s website claims that a Muslim who has ‘never intended to fight against the disbelievers […] is not without traces of hypocrisy’. Muslims who have the capacity to participate or assist in the jihad but do not do so are said to ‘be living a sinful life’. Not surprisingly, therefore, the Lashkar denounces all Muslims who do not agree with its pernicious and grossly distorted version of Islam and its hideous misinterpretation of jihad—Sufis, Shias, Barelvis and so on—as being ‘deviants’ or outside the pale of Islam or even in league with ‘anti-Islamic forces’. The Lashkar promises its activists that they would receive great rewards, both in this world and in the Hereafter, if they were to actively struggle in the path of jihad. Not only would they be guaranteed a place in Heaven, but they would also 'be honoured in this world', for jihad, it claims, is also ‘the way that solves financial and political problems’.

Astoundingly bizarre though it is, the Markaz sees itself as engaged in a global jihad against the forces of ‘disbelief’, stopping at nothing short of aiming at the conquest of the entire world. As Nazir Ahmed, in-charge of the public relations department of the Lashkar, once declared, through the so-called jihad that the Lashkar has launched, ‘Islam will be dominant all over the world’. This global war is seen as a solution to all the ills and oppression afflicting all Muslims, and it is claimed that 'if we want to live with honour and dignity, then we have to return back to jihad’. Through jihad, the Lashkar website says, ‘Islam will be supreme throughout the world’.

In Lashkar discourse, its self-styled jihad against India is regarded as nothing less than a war between two different and mutually opposed ideologies: Islam, on the one hand, and Hinduism, on the other. It tars all Hindus with the same brush, as supposed ‘enemies of Islam’. Thus, Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, Lashkar chief, declares: ‘In fact, the Hindu is a mean enemy and the proper way to deal with him is the one adopted by our forefathers, who crushed them by force. We need to do the same’.

India is a major target for the Lashkar's terrorists. According to Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, ‘The jihad is not about Kashmir only. It encompasses all of India'. Thus, the Lashkar sees its self-styled jihad as going far beyond the borders of Kashmir and spreading through all of India. Its final goal, it says, is to extend Muslim control over what is seen as having once been Muslim land, and, hence, to be brought back under Muslim domination, creating what the Lashkar terms as 'the Greater Pakistan by dint of jihad’. Thus, at a mammoth congregation of Lashkar supporters in November 1999, Hafiz Muhammad Saeed thundered, ‘Today I announce the break-up of India, Inshallah. We will not rest until the whole of India is dissolved into Pakistan’.

The Lashkar, so say media reports, has been trying to drum up support among India’s Muslims, and it may well be that it has managed to find a few recruits to its cause among them. If this is the case, it has probably been prompted by the fact of mounting murderous Hindutva-inspired anti-Muslim pogroms across the country, often abetted by agencies of the state, which has taken a toll of several thousand innocent lives. The fact that no semblance of justice has been delivered in these cases and that the state has not taken any measure to reign in Hindutva terrorism adds further to the deep-seated despondency and despair among many Indian Muslims. This might well be used by self-styled Islamist terror groups, such as the Lashkar, to promote their own agenda. Obviously, therefore, in order to counter the grave threat posed by terror groups such as the Lashkar, the Indian state needs to tackle the menace of Hindutva terror as well, which has now assumed the form of full-blown fascism. Both forms of terrorism feed on each other, and one cannot be tackled without taking on the other as well.

Mercifully, and despite the denial of justice to them, the vast majority of the Indian Muslims have refused to fall into the Lashkar’s trap. The flurry of anti-terrorism conferences that have recently been organised by important Indian Islamic groups is evidence of the fact that they regard the Lashkar’s perverse understanding of Islam as being wholly anti-Islamic and as a perversion of their faith. These voices urgently need to be promoted, for they might well be the most effective antidote to Lashkar propaganda. Numerous Indian Islamic scholars I know and have spoken to insist that the Lashkar’s denunciation of all non-Muslims as ‘enemies of Islam’, its fomenting of hatred towards Hindus and India and its understanding of jihad are a complete misrepresentation of Islamic teachings. They bitterly critique its call for a universal Caliphate as foolish wishful thinking. And they are unanimous that, far from serving the cause of the faith they claim to espouse, groups like the Lashkar have done the most heinous damage to the name of Islam, and are to blame, to a very large extent, for mounting Islamophobia globally.

At the same time as fingers of suspicion are being pointed at the Lashkar for being behind the recent Mumbai blasts, other questions are being raised in some circles. The significant fact that Hemant Karkare, the brave ATS chief who was killed in the terrorist assault, had been investigating the role of Hindutva terrorist groups in blasts in Malegoan and elsewhere and had received threats for this has not gone un-noticed. Nor has the related fact that the assault on Mumbai happened soon after disturbing revelations began pouring in of the role of Hindutva activists in terror attacks in different parts of India. That the attack on Mumbai has led to the issue of Hindutva-inspired terrorism now being totally sidelined is also significant.

And then there is a possible Israeli angle that some are raising. Thus, the widely-read Mumbai-based tabloid Mid-Day, in an article about a building where numerous militants were holed up titled ‘Mumbai Attack: Was Nariman House the Terror Hub?’, states:

“The role that Nariman House is coming to play in this entire attack drama is puzzling. Last night, residents ordered close to 100 kilograms of meat and other food, enough to feed an army or a bunch of people for twenty days. Shortly thereafter, the ten odd militants moved in, obviously, indicating that the food and meat was ordered, keeping their visit in mind, another cop added.

“One of the militants called up a television news channel and voiced his demands today, but, interestingly, when he was asked where are they all holed him, he said at the Israeli owned Nariman House and they are six of them here", one of the investigating cops said. Since morning, there has been exchange of gun fire has been going on and the militants seem well equipped to counter the cops fire. To top it, they have food and shelter. One wonders [if] they have the support of the residents, a local Ramrao Shanker said.”

A Mossad/Israeli hand in the affair might seem far-fetched to some, but not so to others, who point to the role of Israeli agents in destabilizing a large number of countries as well as possibly operating within some radical Islamist movements, such as a group in Yemen styling itself ‘Islamic Jihad’, said to be responsible for the bombing of the American Embassy in Sanaa, and which is said to have close links with the Israeli intelligence. Some have raised the question if the Mossad or even the CIA might not be directly or otherwise instigating some disillusioned Muslim youth in India, Pakistan or elsewhere to take to terror by playing on Muslim grievances, operating through existing Islamist groups or spawning new ones for this purpose.

If this charge is true—although this remains to be conclusively established—the aim might be to further radicalize Muslims so as to provide further pretext for American and Israeli assaults on Islam and Muslim countries. The fact that the CIA had for years been in very close contact with the Pakistani ISI and radical Islamist groups in Pakistan is also being raised in this connection. The possible role of such foreign agencies of being behind some terror attacks that India has witnessed in recent years to further fan anti-Muslim hatred and also to weaken India is also being speculated on in some circles.

Whether all this is indeed true needs to be properly investigated. But the fact remains that it appears to be entirely in the interest of the Israeli establishment and powerful forces in America to create instability in India, fan Hindu-Muslim strife, even to the point of driving India and Pakistan to war with each other, and thereby drag India further into the deadly embrace of Zionists and American imperialists.

In other words, irrespective of who is behind the deadly attacks on Mumbai, it appears to suit the political interests and agendas of multiple and equally pernicious political forces—Islamist and Hindu radicals, fired by a hate-driven Manichaean vision of the world, but also global imperialist powers that seem to be using the attacks as a means to push India even deeper into their suicidal axis.