Remove India’s Central Services caste system (Sunday Guardian)

Rather than a plethora of services, there ought to be a single service, a National Public Service.

Caste by birth was an innovation that had no place in the traditional concept of different types of duties, which was based entirely on aptitude and work rather than on bloodline and family. Although much has been done to free society of this evil, as yet remnants remain, and few stronger than what is prevalent in the Central government’s administrative machinery. 15 August 1947 ought to have resulted in a comprehensive change in the mode of government followed in India, but this detail seems to have escaped those who assumed charge of governance once the Union Jack was lowered from what till then had been the Viceregal Palace. Despite his international fame as a tribune of democracy, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru was not merely comfortable occupying the less than Gandhian quarters of the Commander-in-Chief of the (British) Indian Army, but also in ensuring the continuation of the legal and administrative structure left behind by the British. Structures that were preserved and added on to, rather than cast away. The Indian Civil Service (ICS), an inheritance from the imperial times, was renamed the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), and both the method of selection as well as the training given to those selected for this particular service resemble what had been the practice during the colonial period.

From the time that those getting through the papers and interviews get placed in different streams — the IFS, the IAS, the IPS, the IRS and dozens of others — a caste system gets formed, in which those of the first three services, especially the IAS, become the highest caste of the administrative structure, with the others forming the lower tiers, and the so-named State Administrative Services forming the top of what may be termed the “backward classes” within the system. Why this distinction between “Indian” and “State”? A member of the Karnataka Administrative System is “Indian” enough, except for those still steeped in colonial attitudes.
Rather than a plethora of services, there ought to be a single service, a National Public Service (thereby ensuring emphasis on the “sevak” factor so correctly pointed out by Prime Minister Narendra Modi). This would end the effective caste system prevalent in the services since the period of British rule, except that in place of those mostly with white complexions, individuals usually dressed in white khaki took control of the machinery preserved with such care by the post-1947 leadership. Those who got through the National Public Service could get placed in different streams, such as Defence, Home, Finance, External Affairs, Accounts or Railways, with the Forest branch being expanded to cover Environment as well. Rigorous training could be given in such streams, so that those in positions within the administrative system would have adequate knowledge of the fields on which they were expected to make decisions. It is ridiculous in the extreme to still have generalist officers looking after departments such as Defence or Home, although this fact may perhaps explain the shoddy performance of these ministries in a country where the excuse of “security” gets reflexively trotted out to abandon opportunities, and which after seven decades of freedom is dependent on foreign countries for more than 80% of core defence needs.

Part of the colonial administrative caste system involves the recruitment of personal assistants (PAs) to key officials and their ministerial overlords. Such individuals have next to zero chance of rising up the administrate ladder, whereas it is a principle of administration that the individual at the lowest level of the ladder ought to be given a reasonable chance of making it to the top, the way V.P. Menon did during the days of the British raj, which, incidentally, seem to have been far less fossilised than is the case these days. Why not vastly expand annual recruitment to the National Public Service and post young NPS officers as PAs? The quality of work and the motivation would subsequently be much higher. Another anachronism is the restriction on age. Why should there be such a limit? If such a measure is needed, it would be better to fix it at 40 for all individuals, with specified extra marks provided for those who presently enter through quotas. The spectacle of a 22-year-old officer sharing a location with a 36-year-old selected in the same examination creates a differentiation that hurts both morale as the well as the need for looking at each recruit through the same lens irrespective of family background.
Finally, there ought to be lateral entry from civil society to each level of the NPC of 25% of total posts, so that experience and talent from outside the administrative system get made available to government within its own network.

Anomalies such as the “cadre” system result in individuals being unhappy from Day One in the cadre they get assigned to, and desperate to escape from. As for State and Central Academies, the standards should be the same for both, as serving in a state is as important for the nation as serving at the centre.

Finally, Prime Minister Modi’s admonition to regard public service as seva needs to be operationalised, so that in at least now, the country escapes from the coils of the colonial administrative system and its attendant caste system.

http://www.sundayguardianlive.com/opinion/1638-remove-india’s-central-services-caste-system

TSG-Roundtable: Nuclear Energy India's future?

http://www.newsx.com/the-roundtable/12477-tsg-roundtable-nuclear-energy-indias-future
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncIF8Nnu5J4

Xi should keep Taiwan Straits peaceful (Pakistan Observer)

Geopolitical notes from India

Friday, October 23, 2015 - The ‘1992 Consensus’ is a term thought up by Su Chian expert in the relationship between the two sides of the Taiwan straits, and holds that there is one China, but both sides differ in their interpretation of what this means. The word ‘consensus’ implies agreement on both sides, so it is curious that thus far, all the attention has been on the extent to which political parties in Taiwan believe in the formulation. Were Beijing to give the Republic of China the respect implied in the “1992 Consensus”, it would not stand in the way of Taipei becoming a part of several international organisations by whatever name, the usual formulation being ‘Chinese Taipei’. 

Hopefully, President Xi Jinping will respond to the likely DPP victory in the 2016 polls not by an increase in belligerence but by a surprise gesture of magnanimity that respects the fact that Beijing needs to ensure linkages with not just the KMT but also the DPP in its interaction with Taiwan. In the island, faced with a steep decline in its popularity and the prospect of losing not only the Presidency but the Legislature to the DPP, the aim of the KMT candidate, the personable Eric Chu, is to scare voters in Taiwan by implying that a DPP government headed by Tsai Ing-wen would lead to heightened tensions with Beijing, and possibly even armed conflict. Such tactics are not new. The Republican Party warned US voters that a victory for the Democratic Party led by Barack Obama would lead to a rash of terrorist incidents which would make 9/11 look small. Certainly several hundreds of thousands, if not millions, would have voted for the Republican Party rather than the Democrats out of fear of the prospect of a rise in terror attacks following victory of latter. As it turns out, Macho Men Dick Cheney and George W Bush were helpless against revival of the Taliban, while it took Barack Obama to locate and kill Osama bin Laden.

This columnist attended a conference organised by the Investigation Bureau of the Justice Ministry in the Republic of China (Taiwan) on ‘Regional Security and Transnational Crime’, attended mostly by police officers from several countries. Over October 19 and 20, several papers were presented on the threats to security in the region, although it must be added that in a globalised world, segmentation into regions such as East Asia or West Asia have less meaning than in the past. What happens across the oceans affects people in a particular country, while in the case of East Asia (Japan, China, North and South Korea and Taiwan), the region’s global trade has made it vulnerable to threats originating from as far away as Colombia or Nigeria. 

Thus far, terrorism has been absent in Taiwan, but during the past months, there have been threats of terror incidents, and it is likely that this side of the straits will witness the same danger as is taking place on the other side, with terror incidents multiplying in China, especially in Xinjiang. Global terror has become as much a part of the age as climate change and global platforms need to get created in order to ensure that terrorism remain a low-grade infection rather than a life-threatening disease. Given the fact that the internet has become an effective means of recruitment of the impressionable into terror groups, and also in their training, the software and hardware skills of the Republic of China would be of immense help in ensuring that security agencies remain ahead of terror groups across the globe.

As an admirer of traditional Chinese culture and a well-wisher of the Chinese people, this columnist has long supported the Deng Xiaoping- Hu Jintao formulation of Peaceful Rise of China. Had Rajiv Gandhi won a second term in 1989, it is very likely that he would have signed a border agreement with the Peoples Republic of China on the lines of the offer made by Zhou Enlai in the 1950s, offers repeatedly dismissed by Jawaharlal Nehru,who had a somewhat dismissive view of Chinese military capabilities and immense confidence in his own wisdom. Hopefully, such a border agreement will get signed during the term in office of President Xi Jinping, who has understood the importance of India in the strategic calculus of China,and has developed a close relationship with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has reciprocated by giving the e-visa facility to PR tourists and by opening gates which had long been shut to investment from China. 

Prime Minister Modi is aware that it is only if he creates tens of millions more jobs in India that his party (BJP) will get re-elected in 2019,and is also aware that China is a promising source of investment, given the cash-rich nature of that country’s coffers. Although the Chinese political system is different from that in India,President Xi Jinping also needs a huge increase in jobs in order to ensure a high degree of public support for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The problem is that this objective needs a peaceful atmosphere to get realised, and hence there is a need to tone down the rhetoric and the activities of those who seek military outcomes to political differences. Already, not only has fresh Japanese investment into China become a trickle from the earlier flood, but even existing investment is quietly moving away to Vietnam, Thailand and even Sri Lanka because of the anti-Japan sentiments heard across the PRC. The Japanese and the Taiwanese are the biggest investors in China, and in the case of the latter, businesspersons are anxious that they will be made to pay the price of the defeat of the KMT in 2016.

In 1995, Jiang Zemin used the military card to set off missile launches near Taiwan, creating a reaction that brought the DPP to power on a wave of anger in Taiwan at such intimidation. It is unlikely that Xi Jinping will make the same mistake.The fact is that because of the “sunshine” policy of Hu Jintao, the former President of China,links between the Republic of China (ROC) and the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) have expanded hugely. Should Xi surprise the world by adopting a friendly and conciliatory approach towards a new regime in Taipei headed by the able and moderate Tsai Ing-wen, relations between the two sides of the Taiwan straits will further bloom rather than wither. The ‘1992 Consensus’ implies mutual respect for both sides of the strait and it will be up to Beijing to show that it respects the consensus by ensuring the entry of the ROC (Taiwan) into international agencies, and by adopting an accommodative and cooperative approach towards the future President Tsai Ing-wen. 

—The writer is Vice-Chair, Manipal Advanced Research Group, UNESCO Peace Chair & Professor of Geopolitics, Manipal University, Haryana State, India. 

http://epaper.pakobserver.net/201510/23/comments-1.php

http://pakobserver.net/detailnews.asp?id=276658

PM Modi and CJI Dattu, ensure transparency (Sunday Guardian)

Hopefully, the Supreme Court will accept the importance of fuller transparency, by ensuring the live streaming of court proceedings on the internet.

The Supreme Court of India has struck down the 99th Constitutional Amendment as well as its corollary on the setting up of a National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC), despite the same being passed by Parliament and a sufficient number of state Assemblies. Clearly, despite their undoubted eminence and proficiency, the law officers appointed by the NDA could not convince the SC of the soundness of their case for retaining the 99th Constitutional Amendment and the setting up of the NJAC. Interestingly, during the arguments before the SC bench hearing the NJAC matter, the NDA law officers were unusually combative, one of them even going to the extent of declaring that the system of appointment of judges begun by Chief Justice J.S. Verma in 1993 had been “consigned to the graveyard” by the NDA government sworn in on 26 May 2014. Something that is in its grave obviously cannot be brought back to life, so the implication of the learned law officer was that the demise of the collegium was a fact of life that the verdict that was to be made by the highest court in the country could not affect. Among the details about judicial functioning mentioned in the open court by the law officers, in what seemed to the layman to be a very combative manner, was the revelation that a particular SC judge participated in 172 judgements but himself wrote only two of those. Not writing a judgement does not mean non-participation in the process of forming a judgement, hence the insinuation made by the law officers seems a bit misdirected.

Hopefully, the Supreme Court will itself accept the importance of ensuring fuller transparency in its functioning in this fifteenth year of 2015, for example, by ensuring that court proceedings across the country get live streamed on the internet. The names under consideration for elevation to the court by the SC collegium should be made public on a designated website in order to invite comments from a public often at its wits end at the law’s delays. 

The time has come for the whip to be cracked on the delusional few who believe that the people of India will accept repeated infringements on their personal freedom.

Should the NDA decide to once again go through the legislative process and once again seek to get passed an amendment of the Constitution on the lines of that struck down, it is not unlikely that the apex court may once again pass the same verdict. Clearly, the Supreme Court is of the view that the basic structure of the Constitution mandates the inclusion of the independence of the judiciary from the executive, and that the way to ensure such autonomy is to seal off the executive and legislative branches from involvement in the selection of judges. That being the case, a better option before the government would be to itself set an example in transparency and in accountability. If the complaint is that judges are deciding on cases involving their own brethren, what about the numerous Information Commissions set up under the Right to Information Act? All such requests involve the doings of officials, and yet thus far neither the UPA nor the NDA has understood the incongruity of almost always appointing retired or serving officials to man the Information Commissions, thereby ensuring that officials judge whether other officials should be made to stand under the spotlight or not. Now that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will soon enter the third year of his term, it is desirable that he ensure that civil society predominates in such bodies rather than follow the Manmohan pattern of giving the dominant position to the civil service. 

The RTI had been steadily weakened by the UPA from around 2011, and this trend needs to be reversed by ensuring that the colonial-era habit of officialdom of concealing information gets eliminated in the public interest. Also, PM Modi needs to seed non-officials in every department, including within the Central services, so that a much bigger pool for selection from this vibrant nation be utilised for filling posts crucial to the Prime Minister’s success in his mission to raise the annual rate of growth to double digits. 

When the Chief Minister of Haryana warns that those eating beef do not deserve to live in India, is he by extension saying that the Japanese, South Korean and other beef-eating investors in his state should go back? When the Maharashtra Chief Minister warns that he will disobey the courts and continue the R.R. Patil legacy of banning dancing in bars and restaurants, is he giving a message to those intending investors who are not as hostile to watching a dance performance as he himself is that they should place their money elsewhere? Whether it be the beef ban or other efforts at using the laws and the police to convert the people of India into saints, or whether it be the recent efforts at cleansing the internet of adult content, such supporters of Prime Minister Modi are doing him and his mission immense harm. The time has come for the whip to be cracked, not on the people of India as is the usual reflex of our colonial system, but on the few who suffer from the delusion that the people of this country will accept infringements on their personal freedoms in a manner not seen in mature democracies, or that we are living in the 19th and not the 21st century.

http://www.sundayguardianlive.com/opinion/1536-pm-modi-and-cji-dattu-ensure-transparency

Hopefully, Korea will go Germany’s way (Sunday Guardian)

By Madhav Nalapat | 10 October, 2015

A war between the North and South will not only devastate both sides, but create a wound within a society that prizes harmony and peace.

 

SEOUL: In 1947, the year India supposedly embarked on an “independent” policy, Korea was a divided and impoverished nation. Seven decades later, it is still divided, but the southern half has evolved into an economic powerhouse, with per capita income comfortably within the “developed country” range, and a public health and welfare system that is better than that of the United States, a country that has been its patron since the 1950s. Although blessed with an abundance of intellectual gifts, the Koreans have lacked that essential ingredient of success, Lady Luck, for long stretches of their history, and have consequently come under the sway of foreign powers, the most recent being Japan for a couple of centuries till Tokyo’s military defeat in 1945. While the people of North Korea still suffer the bad fortune of being dominated by a single family, a scion of the third generation of which is presently running the northern part of the peninsula, the South has leaped forward since the 1960s, although to the present, economic power has been concentrated in a half-dozen mega enterprises (or chaebols). Given the way in which the internet can empower individuals with knowledge and opportunity, it is clear that South Korea needs to free itself from the chaebol grip, so that its talented entrepreneurial class gets a level playing field in order to grow their enterprises. In a way, this is a situation similar to China or to India, where the state-owned enterprises and crony capitalists, respectively, use their control of the political class to promote themselves at the expense of those without similar patronage.

In 1990, West and East Germany got unified, not because of any exertion by the people of the two zones, but because the USSR collapsed, and with it, the only power that was separating the two sides of a single country. Once Mikhail Gorbachev made it explicit that military power would not be used to keep East Germany going, that country was doomed. The USSR, since the passing away of Josef Stalin, is a textbook case of a global power whose ruling establishment was too pusillanimous to use the immense military assets that were in their control. Afghanistan is where the US ensured the defeat of the USSR through the assistance of Pakistan and Saudi Arabia (thereby unintentionally creating the spectre of Wahhabi radicalism, which has today assumed the toxic form of ISIS). However, had Moscow the strategic boldness to use its assets against Pakistan, thereby blocking that country from helping the Mujahideen, it would not have had to concede defeat. By allowing Pakistan to do its worst unobstructed, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union showed to the world that it was hesitant to use its military power even in situations where such an exercise of capability would mean the difference between defeat and victory. In many respects, NATO headquarters is similar to the post-Stalin leadership of the CPSU, in the phenomenon of immense military power used only against much weaker opponents, and without much success even in such instances.

That North and South Korea will someday unify is a given. The Koreans are a people justifiably proud of their culture. Indeed, the folklore of the country has it that 5,000 years ago, the people of the peninsula were enjoined by their gurus to work not for their own benefit, but for that of humanity as a whole, a philosophy identical to that of “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam”. Will the present ruler of North Korea make history by decreeing the unification of the divided country, or will the rule of his family get dissolved in chaos, thereby creating an opportunity for the millions on both sides who seek to come together? Such issues were not discussed at the conference on Korea’s Peaceful Unification and Economic Development organised by the Global Peace Economic Forum on 8 October (coincidentally the day the two Germanys merged a quarter-century ago). The purpose of the meeting was to prepare an economic roadmap, so that unification would result in a sharing by both sides not of the poverty of the North, but the prosperity of the South. Ideally, Supreme Leader Kim in Pyongyang should create history for his people by opting for unity with the South, but for that to happen, Seoul will need a diplomacy much more creative than what has been on display over the past five years. The greater the people-to-people contacts and the commercial investment by the South in the North, the closer will unification be. What is clear is that war is not an option. Not only would it devastate both sides, but it would create a wound within a society that prizes harmony and peaceful outcomes. It needs to be remembered that although Korea itself has been colonised in the past, this is a nation that has never itself enslaved another people. Since Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Park talked trade and investment together a year ago, South Korean delegations have been visiting India in large numbers, although as yet Delhi still needs to work to ensure a dissolving of the bureaucratic maze, which has made investing in India a nightmare, especially for domestic industry, but also for those from outside. Even a matter as easy to solve as permitting more flights between South Korea and India has been held up for a decade, so that those wishing to travel to either country have to transit via Singapore, Hong Kong or Bangkok. Fortunately, the embassy of India in Seoul is business savvy, and has been working hard to ensure that Modi’s “Make in India” goal acquires a significant Korean component. South Korea is a country that cannot be ignored, even in a global rather than a purely East Asian matrix. 

http://www.sundayguardianlive.com/opinion/1390-hopefully-korea-will-go-germany’s-way

http://a-i.in/epaper/epaper/m/3010/561b5674e86d2

‘Minimum govt’ crucial for Modi’s success (Pakistan Observer)

Geopolitical notes from India

M D Nalapat

Friday, October 09, 2015 - Finance Minister Arun Jaitley cannot be accused of not being frank. He went public that China’s economic woes are India’s opportunity. And indeed, there is truth in the assertion, though whether it was diplomatically rewarding to mention it openly remains a matter for debate. After all, India is looking at massive investment from China for the “Make in India” programme of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with some estimates of possible investment over the next six years rising as high as $ 150 billion. 

The Indian market is of major significance for the healthy growth of Chinese companies in infrastructure, telecom and energy. Besides, its financial entities would find channels within private industry in India who would be willing to collectively borrow another $ 150 billion, for not only are Chinese interest rates more competitive than for Indian banks, so is the repayment period, which is usually much longer for Chinese institutions. And while banks based in the US or the EU also have lower lending rates than their counterparts in India, they are also less forgiving of bad times, and much more willing to close down a company by refusing accommodation during crises than Indian or Chinese banks. 

However, despite the potential for Chinese investment and lending, not only Finance Minister Arun Jaitley but another key member of Team Modi, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, who is as open and straightforward in his views as Jaitley, has made no secret of his assessment that China and not any other country poses the biggest threat to India. 

Those eager to ensure high growth are however hopeful that such blunt remarks by leading policymakers in Delhi’s high profile Lutyens Zone will not substantially affect the flow of investment from Beijing to Delhi, especially because Prime Minister Modi himself does not appear to have such an apocalyptic view of relations between India and China, and indeed is known to consider President Xi Jinping as a close friend. South Korea is another country from where Modi is looking to entice investment on a substantial scale. 

After his visit to the country and discussions with the businesslike and petite President Park Geun-hye, every week some delegation or the other from Seoul has been visiting India, concentrating mainly in the south of the country, which has been growing at a steady rate since the 1980s, fuelled by its excellent human resources as well as a societal climate that attracts the best brains from states such as Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, where local politicians have made life difficult for those looking to do an honest and productive day’s work. As a consequence, talented residents of such states have to migrate to other states, where many do exceptionally well. 

Over the past year, more than twenty South Korean manufacturing units have been planned in India, and there are plans to develop more South Korean industry parks on the lines of the small facility set up near Neemrana in Rajasthan. Over most of East Asia (Korea, Japan, the PRC and Taiwan), companies prefer to invest in clusters and create enclaves where expatriates will feel more at home. South Korean companies have of course been hyperactive in India since the 1990s and as a consequence, several large cities in India have Korean restaurants that are heavy on seafood and meat, as indeed are Chinese and Japanese - not to mention European and North American - eateries. Given the expected scale of investment from China, Japan and South Korea over the remaining period of the NDA goverment’s 5-year term,more can be expected to follow.

The economy in India has the potential to soak up $ 1 trillion before 2024. However, for “manufacturing” money to set up industries in India (as distinct from “hot” money flowing into equity markets and in banks paying extortionate interest rates to attract dollar deposits) on such a scale, much more needs to be done to create a policy matrix designed to encourage inward investment. Since Sonia Gandhi took over the de facto leadership of the Government of India in 2004, policies have been formulated that resemble those in the 1970s,when high tax rates and crippling regulatory constraints ensured that India moved at a crawl the same time as ASEAN and much of East Asia accelerated. 

This columnist has been consistent in his view that it will take two years for Prime Minister Modi to design and implement an all-India Modi model of development, the way he fashioned a model for Gujarat during 2001-2014. Others have argued that it would take only a year for the Prime Minister to adjust to the vastly different conditions in Delhi from what they are in Gandhinagar, the capital of Gujarat. A Chief Minister, if he personally commands the support of a majority in the state assembly, controls about 45% of the total administrative and policy power in his or her state, the rest being distributed amongst other players, such as industrialists, farmers and societal organisations. 

As yet, the NDA government sworn in on May 26,2014 does not seem to have made this adjustment.Indeed, it functions as though it controlled 89% of administrative and policy power,seeking to lay down rules on matters big and small the way Sonia Gandhi did. India is a country of the young, and what the 70% of the country below the age of 30 seek is empowerment and opportunity. They will not accept restraints prescribed by the state, such as the recent effort to stop the consumption of buffalo meat in a country where the meat of cows has been taboo since long, or the effort to continue the North Korea model of internet governance legislated into law by the Congress Party with the support of the BJP (then in opposition) in 2005. 

Prime Minister Modi and his ministers will find severe blowback unless the poll promise of “Minimum Government” is taken seriously by them. The world will be watching to see if Narendra Modi can get passed the Goods & Services Tax Bill in the winter session of Parliament after having been unable to do so for the last three sessions. If the GST does get passed, and is followed by lower regulation, interest rates and taxes, India under Modi will enter the same trajectory of growth that Deng Xiaoping guided China’s economy into during the 1980s. If none of this happens, the present 7% growth rate will begin to fall to the 3% growth rate witnessed during the Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi period.

—The writer is Vice-Chair, Manipal Advanced Research Group, UNESCO Peace Chair & Professor of Geopolitics, Manipal University, Haryana State, India.

http://pakobserver.net/detailnews.asp?id=275145

http://epaper.pakobserver.net/201510/09/comments-1.php 

India’s 5,000-year legacy leaves lifestyles alone (Sunday Guardian)

Lifestyles — barring the very toxic — need to be kept outside the purview of formal law, and become the focus only of social reform groups.

The ban on beef and another for a few days on meat in general imposed last month by a few state authorities was not novel. If memory is correct, as early as 1955 there was a ban on beef in the then United Provinces, while reports have it that the Maharashtra ban, which has created so much controversy in media across the globe, has been a staple of public policy in that state for over a decade, the difference being that the state government till a year ago was run by the “secular” UPA rather than the “communal” NDA. And now, days ago, the murder of a 50-year-old Muslim man in Dadri reportedly for stocking beef in his larder caused outrage across India and bemusement in other parts of the globe. In South Korea, Argentina or in parts of the US, it would be unthinkable to have a meal without beef on the menu. Locals there cannot be blamed for getting a trifle anxious about any family member working in India, a country where some would like to make the eating of beef a capital offence. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been tireless in his circumlocution of the globe as he seeks to generate external investment into India. The Dadri episode will not improve his chances, nor will such lifestyle-affecting official steps as the decreeing of vegetarianism, healthy though such an option may be.

It is extraordinary how similar the views of Wahhabis are when placed alongside those espoused by individuals claiming to represent an alternative theology, whether these be the celebration by the young of Valentine’s Day, or the wearing of dress that involves less than a few yards of cloth, besides of course rules on what can and what must not be eaten. In deference to Mahatma Gandhi and in opposition to the wishes of Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, the meat of cows has for long been banished from the kitchens of India. Now it would appear that buffalo meat too may get proscribed, followed perhaps by that of goats, pigs and chickens. A lifelong vegetarian, this columnist would be delighted to live in a world where meat, fish and poultry not be eaten by human beings, but such a situation needs to come about through the individual will of the people of this country, rather than through administrative diktat or the threats of neighbours. Certainly the media in India — and more so abroad — is selective in its outrage, for there was barely a whimper when a young Hindu boy was beaten to death in UP some months ago for the “crime” of marrying a Muslim girl, just as the planned destruction of dozens of Hindu temples in Kashmir has been ignored in narratives of the situation in that state. Even Atal Behari Vajpayee did nothing as Prime Minister to ensure that Hindu temples be placed on the same footing as mosques, churches and gurudwaras where the state was concerned, and continued the British-era policy of government control over major temples. This has to change. 

This is a country with 5,000 years of clearly recorded legacy, yet is there any showcasing of the actual area where the Kurukshetra war took place? Has there been an effort to recreate the path taken by Lord Ram (who belongs to all citizens of India, irrespective of religion) so that the people of this country will understand that theirs is not a 70-year legacy (of independence), or a 300-year legacy (of British rule), but a legacy spanning 5,000 years? Why has there, for example, been no effort to recreate the location of Ashoka’s Kalinga war, or the locations from where the Vijaynagar kings and the Cholas held sway? Why have their palaces not been recreated in the way the Chinese Communist Party has remade several portions of the Great Wall? 

Why are ancient Indian epics not being used as staples of school education, and why do history books still follow the colonial practice of regarding the ancient civilisation of India as a myth? Rather than rectify such core issues, the ideological cousins of Wahhabism who claim fealty to “Hindu” values seek to banish the English language and to impose dress and diet codes on the people in a manner completely at variance with the Sanatani tradition. It is not by removing the international link language that our culture will be preserved, but by ensuring that the young be taught the classics of this country in every language, rather than continue memorising those of the country which succeeded in enslaving most of India.

The murder of an innocent Muslim at Dadri was an act of terror, and those responsible need to be prosecuted under the terror statutes in the same way as the killers of the Hindu lad who paid with his life at the hands of bigots for marrying outside his faith. Violence in the name of religion is terror and needs to be dealt with as such, if the country is to escape the trajectory of Pakistan. Lifestyles — barring the very toxic, such as those involving molestation of the young — need to be kept outside the purview of formal law, and become the focus only of social reform groups working in a non-confrontational way. Whatever be an individual’s view on the consumption of meat or on homosexuality or on soft drugs or on alcohol, it is clear that a genuine democracy — indeed, any civilised state — would abstain from using the bludgeon of law and the instrumentality of the police to enforce a particular behaviour code, Saudi style. By focusing on relative trivia, what is being neglected is the need to move beyond the persisting colonial view of our history and reclaim our pride in an Indian — repeat Indian — identity which has stood the test of five millennia by its resilience and its excellence.

http://www.sundayguardianlive.com/opinion/1165-india%E2%80%99s-5000-year-legacy-leaves-lifestyles-alone
http://a-i.in/epaper/epaper/m/2859/56102080637ba

NATO’s ‘phony war’ on Daesh exposed (Pakistan Observer)

Geopolitical notes from India

M D Nalapat

Friday, October 02, 2015 - Although the major NATO powers have been in a “state of war” with Daesh (ISIS) over the past 15 months, after it became too obvious to ignore that the terror group was attracting dozens of their citizens each month, the response has thus far resembled the “Phony War” of the UK and France during 1939-40,when the two powers allowed Germany to gain an extra eight months between the declaration of war on September 3, 1939 and the latter’s attack on France through smaller west European countries. The refusal of Paris and London to agree to an alliance with Moscow resulted in Stalin signing a no-war agreement with Hitler days before the Nazi invasion of Poland on September 01,1939. 

Unlike Josef Stalin, who was in many respects a leader of very limited vision who failed to recognise the danger posed to his country by Adolf Hitler, Russian Head of State Vladimir Putin has been realistic in accepting that Daesh poses a severe threat to Russia, as indeed it does to the US,the UK, Israel and India, and to a lesser extent to China. Should the organisation motivate cells of suicide warriors (for they need not only use bombs to kill but also guns and other implements of mass murder) in the key cities of target countries, mayhem would result. There would be apparently random explosions and shootouts across each country,thereby scaling up substantially the security threat and affecting everyday life. Unlike the Taliban, which is transparent about its membership, and Al Qaeda, which is overwhelmingly so,in the case of Daesh, the leadership of that organisation has followed a policy of asking its members to remain recessed within the societies in which they reside.

Indeed, several of the “Active” cadre” of Daesg (as distinct from “Facilitators” and the lower-order “Followers”) bad-mouth the organisation in public so as to camouflage their participation in its activities. The Daesh ideology is at its root more about raw power over “The Other” than it is about theology, and hence the spread of this virus is potentially much more than was the case with the Al Qaeda variant, especially now that the non-charismatic Ayman al-Zawahiri is in formal charge of what is left of the group after the US has quietly rolled up the networks exposed through the data cache left behind by Osama bin Laden in his last place of stay.

Not only Turkey but Qatar as well seem to be less than enthusiastic about fighting Daesh, with the former actually assisting the group through degrading the capabilities of a leading anti-ISIS force, that led by the Kurds. This falls in the same category as Stalin’s error of judgment concerning Hitler, for both Ankara as well as Doha will be at risk from the terror group before long, should it continue to hold on to the territories within Iraq and Syria that it won through bribing Iraqi and Syrian commanders with the help of money from sources that would be known to the US,but which the Obama administration seems still to be protecting from disclosure, perhaps to avoid the exposure of policy errors made during the period Hillary Rodham Clinton was US Secretary of State. 

While Vladimir Putin may not be everyone’s favourite, the fact remains that he has adopted a course against ISIS that is in the best interests of not merely the Russian Federation but the global community. Hence the question why the US and the UK (both of which claim to be waging war on ISIS) is annoyed with Moscow for its air strikes on terror targets. A reason may be that both Washington and London are still holding on to the disastrous theory that there exists a “moderate opposition” on the battlef ield of Syria if not Iraq,that needs to be protected so that they may in time wage war on Daesh. This is a theory which makes as little sense as France and the UK standing by and waiting for the blow to fall during 1939-40 rather than patching up relations with the USSR and launching a coordinated action before Hitler could ready his forces and his plans for the campaign against France, a country he hated for its courageous resistance to Germany during 1914-19. 

Despite the theatrics and the multiple reports of “deadly” air strikes on Daesh targets, or the expansion of operations to include France and Australia, the reality is that NATO is waging a Phony War on Daesh, the way France and the UK waged a phony war on Hitler after the savage occupied Poland and began to seek to destroy its civlisation through genocide and repression. Ostensibly out of fear of civilian casualties but in reality clearly the belief that Daesh can be used as a lever to force Bashar Assad from office before taking serious action on the terror group,NATO air strikes have been pinpricks designed to sting but not to stun. In particular, Daesh has been allowed to retain control of Raqqa, when the fall of this city to any - repeat any - anti-Daesh force would severely reduce its morale and ability to hold on to the rest of the territory it controls. A week of systematic bombing could result in the collapse of Daesh resistance in Raqqa, but NATO knows that that the “moderate opposition” does not exist except in CNN,BBC and Al Jazeera broadcasts, and hence that the forces taking control would be those of Bashar Assad. It is because of this that this far, Daesh has in effect been given a free pass by NATO to rape,kill and torture countless Yazidis, Shia and Christians across huge swathes of territory.

Vladimir Putin has called NATO’s bluff. By entering the war, he has shown the deliberate impotence of NATO air strikes, and should the Russian military next target Raqqa and ensure the defeat of Daesh, it would show up NATO as being either complicit or incompetent in the war on Daesh. John Kerry and Philip Hammond placing the interests of Recip Erdogan and others who see Al Baghdadi as being more benign than Bashar Assad above the need to eliminate this scourge before the virus spreads in a manner which will result in a war needing nearly a decade to conclude. Hopefully, Russia will ignore such efforts at making Moscow too join London and Paris in a phony war on Daesh, and focus on Raqqa, the fall of which will marka Stalingrad for that evil organisation. Indeed, Daesh should be called AIS ( Anti-Islam State), for that is what it is.

—The writer is Vice-Chair, Manipal Advanced Research Group, UNESCO Peace Chair & Professor of Geopolitics, Manipal University, Haryana State, India. 

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Rahul working on anti-PM protests in US (Sunday Guardian)

For close to nine months, the Congress VP has been meeting ‘representatives of civil society from India’ in London and New York.

MADHAV NALAPAT  New Delhi | 26th Sep 2015

ongress heir apparent Rahul Gandhi has been "meeting quietly in the US with groups intending to carry out protests against Prime Minister Narendra Modi" during the PM's ongoing visit to the world's biggest economy. According to those associated with the planning of the strategy of the Congress vice-president, "Rahul is not encouraging any anti-Modi demonstrations and protests, but simply understanding what the reasons for anger are". However, analysts tracking Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi say that his role has been much more pro-active, and that should there be large-scale protests during the Prime Minister's public appearances in San Jose and New York, it would mean "some success for Rahul's carefully planned strategy of seeking to show globally that Modi has as many critics as admirers in the US", thereby taking some of the shine off the PM's Madison Square-style public rallies in the country and his meetings with corporate leaders. Those tracking the nature and extent of Rahul's activities on foreign shores claim that his "sensitive and secretive" meetings while in the US, many with anti-Modi groups, is the reason why there is such secrecy about his whereabouts and activities during this latest period of disappearance from public radar. They add that Rahul Gandhi has been meeting for close to nine months in London and New York with "representatives of civil society from India who have been active in canvassing support for condemning the Union government for what they claim is its insensitivity to minority concerns and its majoritarian agenda". Rahul's meetings while in the US are related to what analysts term as his "crusade" to ensure that the BJP led by Narendra Modi falls to a tally of 175-150 Lok Sabha seats in the 2019 polls, thereby ensuring that a non-saffron dispensation takes office in the national capital. "Rahul is aiming to become Prime Minister only by 2024 and not 2019, and hence can take the long view of political developments", they point out. Even after nine more years, the Congress vice-president would be a decade younger than Narendra Modi was when he took the oath of office as Prime Minister on 26 May 2014. These analysts say that — health permitting — Congress president Sonia Gandhi may get her term extended up to the close of 2017, or until the UP Assembly elections get decided, "so that Rahul could take charge on a fresh slate and focus on the parliamentary polls". Since the shock collapse of his party on 16 May 2014, "the centrepiece of Rahul Gandhi's game plan is to ensure that Prime Minister Modi does not get a second term, and if this means sacrificing the short-term interests of the Congress in some states, Rahul is ready". This strategy has come into operation in Bihar, where the Congress has accepted a seat quota less than half of what was allocated to either the RJD and the JDU, and is likely to get replicated in Uttar Pradesh in 2017, with the party likely to contest a lower number of seats than the last time as a gesture of goodwill to regional heavyweights Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party. Those tracking the first family of the Congress claim that the UP Assembly elections will witness the emergence of the telegenic Priyanka Vadra on the political stage, abandoning her earlier cameo appearances, "as by that time, efforts at blackening the name of her husband would have run its course" and any extra damage by such actions would be low. "Rahul has studied the way in which Narendra Modi consolidated himself in Gujarat through gaining a reputation for honesty and efficiency in government, and is therefore determined to ensure that at the Central level, Team Modi be perceived differently" (from what was the case in Gujarat). Hence the strategy of (a) blocking reforms such as GST and the Land Bill which would enhance the performance and hence the reputation of the Central government, and (b) constantly levelling allegations of corruption against state and central leaders of the BJP. Those tracking the Congress vice-president say that he has activated a small group to locate possible charges of corruption at the Central and state levels, and that "such research is being clandestinely assisted by officials who have for years been close to the Congress". In a gesture of conciliation, the Narendra Modi government has retained many officials known to have been close to the UPA in sensitive posts, and has refrained from any witch-hunt against UPA-era Central ministers, except by carrying forward probes already set in motion during the tenure of Manmohan Singh. "Even probes already existing (since the UPA period), such as that against Dayanidhi Maran, are being conducted professionally, and every opportunity is being given to the accused to defend themselves. Whether it be Maran, Kanimozhi or even Raja, they cannot claim that any undue interest is being taken in their cases," a senior official pointed out, adding that "the same is the case with the probes against Mulayam Singh Yadav and Mayawati as well". Officials say that Prime Minister Modi has distanced himself from all such investigations and has asked the officials concerned to conduct them in a manner that is not related to political exigencies. Perhaps as a consequence, there appears to have been little progress on the BJP's Lok Sabha poll promise of bringing to book those guilty of corruption in the numerous UPA-era scams. Those close to Rahul Gandhi say that the breather has given them time to regroup and also to fight back effectively against any future probe, whereas any action taken during the glow of the initial months of the BJP's 2014 triumph would have been accepted by the public. According to those studying the behind-the-curtain moves of the Congress heir apparent, Rahul Gandhi is convinced that after the lapse of nearly 18 months since the Lok Sabha results were declared, routine allegations of corruption against the Congress and its UPA partners no longer carry much weight with the public, for the reason that "they will ask why (if the charges were true) no action was taken by the NDA government against the guilty", with not even a single FIR being filed against UPA ministers known to be super-wealthy. Four polling agencies are independently being used by Team Rahul, and it is claimed by those close to Rahul Gandhi "these are unanimous that there is a change of mood towards both the Congress as well as the BJP since 2014" and that this will get reflected in future Congress-BJP contests. Apart from a barrage of corruption charges directed against BJP decision-makers and the blocking of reform proposals that could lead to a visible improvement in performance over the coming three years (till the 2019 polls), the plans being scripted by Rahul Gandhi include measures designed to "bring down the reputation both domestically as well as internationally of Prime Minister Modi". The emerging Congress supremo is "closely watching the rash of strike calls and protests by railway, bank employees and other powerful trade union groups and believes that these will launch protest after protest, strike upon strike, beginning before polls close in Bihar". During the past year, the Modi government has wheeled out its heavyweight ministers to negotiate with bank, port, coal and insurance unions, thereby giving itself little leeway in case fresh demands (such as a generalised call for OROP) come up. Rahul Gandhi has asked key members of his team to "meet with union representatives quietly" and has promised the "support of the Congress in future agitations" against the Central government, according to those privy to his thinking. Small wonder that CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury seems to be edging closer tactically to the Congress despite his party seeing the latter as its principal foe in Kerala. "Rahul Gandhi's plan is to ensure that reforms essential to better performance get delayed till the 2017 UP elections are over", so that the BJP does not reap the electoral dividend of such measures in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, which remain the primary focus of the Congress vice-president. Those privy to his thinking say that "Rahul is aware that core economic reform measures take two to three years to begin to show results, and that for the first two or three years, the political dividend is negative from such steps", although these become positive soon afterwards and remain so for long periods. They say that the Congress heir apparent has studied the working of the A.B. Vajpayee government and believes that it was "dissatisfaction in the urban areas caused by corruption, lack of jobs and price rise which got the NDA defeated in 2004", apart from "a delay in carrying out enough reforms during the first two of the six years in office of Prime Minister Vajpayee". The four factors (joblessness, inflation, corruption and slowness in reforms) form the staple theme of the Rahul-crafted Congress attacks on the Modi government. Congress success in continuing to block GST and other key reforms and in maintaining a drumbeat of charges against Team Modi will determine whether Rahul Gandhi's "NoNamo 2019" strategy is working. http://www.sunday-guardian.com/news/rahul-working-on-anti-pm-protests-in-us

P-5 is key to India’s UNSC success (Sunday Guardian)

It has been a characteristic of Nehruvian diplomacy that India’s interests have been sacrificed for the personal interests of a few.

iven the reliance of politicians on the bureaucracy to both formulate policy as well as to implement it, it is no surprise that several UPA-era initiatives are being backed equally enthusiastically by the NDA. The acceptance of a mistake being a cardinal sin in the ranks of the higher bureaucracy, it is natural that even policies that have demonstrably been shown to be counter-productive have been continued into the present. Among these is the Club of Four, or the G-4, comprising Japan, Germany, Brazil and India that got formed to collectively lobby for permanent membership in an expanded UN Security Council. Each of the four has the gravitas necessary for entry into this most exclusive of clubs within the UN system, although eyebrows may get raised at yet another European country being included in a group where the continent is already well represented, with the UK and France being permanent UNSC members. Given the declining role of Europe in international geopolitics, a situation which shows no sign of getting reversed in the coming decades, if we assume that the number of permanent UNSC members should get doubled to ten, clearly Asia should have at least three seats, Europe retain its two and South America and Africa gain two each, the new entrants from the first being Brazil and Mexico and from the second, South Africa and Nigeria. Japan clearly merits a permanent seat at the UNSC. The country has been lavish in its funding of UN operations, and has behaved impeccably in international fora since the UN got formed in 1945. However, there is zero chance that P-5 member China will allow Japan to enter the UNSC Permanent Member club, and by joining hands with Tokyo in an all-or-none strategy, the two countries with the brightest chances, Brazil and India, are dooming their quest. While going through the motions of keeping the G-4 going, such as through the meeting of Heads of Government hosted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New York, it needs to be signalled that in fact, each of the four is on its own so far as a permanent UNSC seat is concerned. What is needed is to ensure a General Assembly vote on separate proposals to include each of them (rather than the four as a combo) as a two-thirds majority is needed for consideration by the UNSC. In that forum, should each of the five back a country together with two-thirds of the General Assembly members and a majority within the 15-strong UNSC, that country would enter the club of permanent members. The country with the brightest chance is India, followed by Brazil and Germany, with Japan eliminated because of Beijing's veto. Within the P-5, should a vote take place on India, it would be difficult for China to veto the move, except if New Delhi insists on being tagged with Tokyo for the honour. It has been a characteristic of Nehruvian diplomacy that India's interests — including core interests — have been sacrificed in order to further the needs of other powers. This was done most fragrantly by Jawaharlal Nehru, even in matters as vital for survival as water, when he handed over 80% of the Indus waters to a belligerent Pakistan for reasons clear only to him and perhaps his advisors. However, Lal Bahadur Shastri's surrender at Tashkent over the Haji Pir pass and Indira Gandhi's kowtow to Bhutto at Simla are some of the many examples of such a needless sacrifice of the national interest. India has lost considerably and gained not at all from such an India Last policy, and it is expected that Narendra Modi will ensure that his promise of a consistent and principled India First policy will be followed, even if some elements of this jar on officials reluctant to abandon "time honoured" policy lines. Until Japan ensures support from China, there is zero chance of Tokyo becoming a permanent member of the UNSC. There is no reason for India to delay its own ascension to the slot till Tokyo makes it, and in such a process, far more than the G-4, it is the General Assembly as well as the UNSC — especially the Permanent Five — that will decide whether and when India will make it to the UNSC. It needs to be made clear that while each of the four countries forming the G-4 support the others, none within the group has the right of veto on others seeking to enter this most exclusive of UN clubs. In Ban ki-Moon, the UN has a Secretary-General who understands and appreciates India, and in Barack Obama, a US President eager to ensure that an alliance with India be placed in his legacy box. Our country's policymakers, invariably, give precedence to process over outcome. This should not recur in the UNSC hunt as well. India should not lock itself into a situation where it will fail to succeed, not because of opposition to its own candidacy but because of the Chinese veto over Japan's candidature. The UN General Assembly should hold a separate vote on each of the countries wanting to join the UNSC as a permanent member, followed by another vote for each such country within the UNSC. The odds are high that India will cross these barriers with greater ease than any of its G-4 partners. A propitious moment has come for India's acceptance as a UNSC Permanent Member, and this needs to be seized by Prime Minister Modi, rather than thrown away in the manner of the numerous missteps by his predecessors. Outcome is core to the future, and the process followed needs to be such as would ensure success in India's quest. http://www.sunday-guardian.com/analysis/p-5-is-key-to-indias-unsc-success

Putin seeks to cap Syria meltdown (Pakistan Observer)

Geopolitical notes from India

M D Nalapat

Friday, September 25, 2015 - IN 1938, when UK Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and his French counterpart Eduard Daladier forced Czechoslovakia to surrender its border defences to Adolf Hitler, the man believed that this act of betrayal would guarantee “peace in our time”. He even had a signed statement from Hitler to that effect, which he waved to delirious crowds in London on his return by air, the first time he had used that mode of transport. The takeover of first the Sudeten territories of Czechoslovakia and later the entire country strengthened the German military sufficiently to launch an attack on Poland a year later, the action which triggered the 1939-45 war which devastated Europe and established the US as the leader of the post-1945 international order. 

The USSR, exhausted by the death ( of 25 million) and destruction of the war,was too enervated to catch up with its former wartime ally,and the effort to do so in the field of defense slowly poisoned the Stalinist command economy. Unfortunately for Moscow, the country had no Deng Xiaoping,an economic reformer with the capability of melding communist doctrine with capitalist economics, with the result that the rising cost of maintaining a military which could counter the US and its European allies led to the effective collapse of the economy by the 1980s. From that time onwards, assisted by the bureaucratic regime led by Leonid Brezhnev, the fall of the USSR became inevitable. However,it must be remembered that Baldwin and Chamberlain saw the Communist Party under Josef Stalin as much the worse threat to civilisation than Hitler and the Nazis, which is why they refused to ally with Moscow against Berlin, despite repeated efforts by Soviet foreign minister Maxim Litvinov to form a front of the UK, France and the USSR against Germany. 

Finally, in the (correct) belief that London and Paris were uninterested in any deal with him, but only looked forward to a battle between him and Hitler from which they could walk away with the spoils, that Stalin allowed Vyacheslav Molotov, the new foreign minister (now that Litvinov had failed to persuade the democracies to join hands with Moscow), to sign an agreement with his German counterpart Joachim von Ribbentrop in August 1939, which gave Hitler the leeway he was looking for to wage war against Poland. To watch the gyrations of US Secretary of State John Kerry is to relive the 1930s as he seeks to make Vladimir Putin follow same course which Hillary Clinton adopted for Syria, and which has led during the past couple of years to takeover of a third of that country by Daesh (ISIS). Should Putin follow Kerry’s advice and cease Moscow’s assistance to Bashar Assad, the terror group would within a year gain control of more than three-fourths of Syria, including its capital, Damascus.

The problem with US policymaking is that often the roster of “experts” relied upon for this purpose remains largely constant over long stretches of time, despite what are in some cases decades of consistent misjudgement. Earlier, Hillary Clinton, who is more European than American in her mindset,led along with Sarkozy the wolf pack against Muammar Kaddafy, not even restraining herself from publicly gloating over his gruesome death. She clearly wishes the same fate for Assad, and this desire is shared widely within the State Department, hence it is not a surprise if John Kerry objects to any form of support for the Assad regime. CNN, BBC and Al Jazeera,the three main channels reflecting NATO’s viewpoint,repeated claim that the deaths which occured in Syria since 2011 are almost entirely the responsibility of Bashar Assad, when in fact, his armed forces account for less than a fifth of the several hundred thousand who have been killed in Syria as a consequence of the war since 2011. 

About a third of the deaths have been the consequence of Daesh while the rest are due to so-called “moderate” opposition fighters, most of whom are simply looking to make a fortune through the conflict. Despite evidence in their possession of the reality that almost all such “moderate” fighters either sit out the struggle after being given help, or else join Daesh and similar outfits, this policy is being continued, and is the basis for John Kerry’s efforts at getting Vladimir Putin to resile from his commitment to enhance military support for Assad, who incidentally is backed by the Christian minority which Clinton, Cameron and Hollande claim to feel for Of course, despite the posting of images on social media showing fighters using weapons supplied by the US and its allies (including regional powers) beheading Christians in profusion, support for such “moderates” has not abated. 

It would be a simple matter to identify the sources of the weapons and funds in the hands of Daesh (and which are far more modern than the ramshackle weapons of the Iraqi military, which CNN,Al Jazeera and BBC wrongly claim is the source of Daesh weaponry). 

However,perhaps because such a trace would lead to some of their proxies, such a reckoning has not taken place, with the result that several financiers of Daesh and similar outfits continue in their generosity to an organisation which resembles the Nazi Party in the savagery of its behaviour towards the innocent. It is unlikely that Moscow will listen to the chatter from those who have through their actions been responsible for the creation of Daesh. The intervention of Russia in an emphatic manner will result in President Assad getting back control of two-thirds of Syria in place of the 40% he now holds. 

The remaining third, which is located on the border with Turkey or Jordan, will continue in the hands of the extremists until these countries abandon their de facto support to such groups Although the house-trained media in those capitals will never point this out,the fact is that the only way the flood of refugees into Europe will abate is when the Putin strategy of placing a cap on the meltdown of Syria begins to take effect. Just as the medicine forced down the throat of the Czechs by Daladier and Chamberlain in 1938 led to catastrophe, so would the course of action now being recommended to Moscow by Secretary of State John Kerry with his usual volubility. Were the Assad regime to collapse, the tide of refugees into Europe would multiply threefold. However, try telling that to the Amanpours!

—The writer is Vice-Chair, Manipal Advanced Research Group, UNESCO Peace Chair & Professor of Geopolitics, Manipal University, Haryana State, India. 

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[Video] Iran an Indispensible Partner in Fighting Wahhabi Terrorism Cancer: Prof M D Nalapat

http://www.17000.ir/en/اخبار/192-iran-an-indispensible-partner-in-fighting-wahhabi-terrorism-cancer.html