Not everything is noble about the Nobel Prize (Sunday Guardian)

ROOTS OF POWER MADHAV NALAPAT www.sunday-guardian.com/profile/madhav-nalapat Henry Kissinger was awarded Peace Nobel despite his very ‘dubious’ role in promoting peace in the world. lthough Asia has drawn level with North America and Europe in terms of economic growth and now boasts several institutes of excellence, little of this gets reflected in the Nobel awards announced each year. While it is difficult for lay persons to judge the merit or otherwise of those chosen for the science prizes, in the case of the Nobel Peace Prize, some of the choices have been comic. Take the example of Henry Kissinger, Nobel Peace Prizeman. It was Kissinger who ensured that the United States turned away from the genocide taking place in what was then East Pakistan. Despite reports from diplomats in the field, best exemplified in the telegram sent to the US State Department by Archer Blood and others in the US Consulate in Dacca, Kissinger not only refused to so much as pick up the telephone to ask General Yahya Khan to cease the bloodshed, but assisted him as well as the "Butcher of Bengal", General Tikka Khan, in their mission of extermination. Kissinger worked the phones to ensure that the PakistanArmy was supplied weapons by Turkey, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and other states. Both he as well as his boss Richard Nixon were unhappy that the US could not itself provide such lethal assistance to Pakistan, but consoled themselves by the fact that enough weapons were supplied to ensure that hapless Bengalis continued to be shot in their thousands. In particular, the Pakistan Army went after the Hindu minority, in what was then East Pakistan, remorselessly, sparking off a panic exodus of significant numbers of the community to India. Assisting an army that was murdering tens of thousands of unarmed civilians was not the only contribution made by Kissinger to the sort of peacemaking that the Nobel committee seems to have thought it fit to award a prize to. Others include the bombing of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. While there has been much comment in the media about the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia and its contribution to the mass murders that took place in that country, there has been almost no attention paid to the contribution made by the bombing to the deaths of innocent Cambodians, or indeed those in Laos and Vietnam, who were unfortunate enough to come within range of B-52 bombers armed with, among other variants, chemical defoliant bombs. The Vietnam War could have been settled years before it finally ended, and on the same terms as paved the way for the US withdrawal from that country in the 1970s, except for Henry Kissinger's insistence that the war continue in the form of intensified bombing, in an effort to persuade Ho Chi Minh to surrender wide enclaves of South Vietnam to US proxies. More recently, the Nobel Peace Prize was given to Barack Obama, presumably because of a single statement opposing the 2003 invasion of Iraq that was made by him as a Senator. In a burst of candour, someone in the Nobel Committee has told journalists that the pathetic performance of this country of 1.26 billion people in the award of Nobel Prizes was because those in the country tasked with making such nominations allow "invitations to nominate to rot in their desks". Certainly the fact that not a single nomination from India was received last year for Medicine ignores the fact that several doctors across the country have made important breakthroughs in medical care. Not only do those tasked with making nominations for the Prize not send more than a few names to the Nobel Committee (with less than 10% of the institutions involved sending even a single recommendation), most of the names they send are those working abroad rather than in facilities in India. It is torture for members of the academic and scientific community in India to recommend anyone other than themselves for any award, but the Nobel Committee needs to introspect as to whether its own criteria for naming the individuals or institutions that send nominations for the Nobel Prizes is in need of change. Across the country, and despite the chilling effect of Victorian-era laws and official mindsets on the cultivation of original thought, there have been many pioneers who may better deserve the attention of the Nobel Committee than the usual suspects rounded up by them each year to suggest names from India. Even this columnist has run into clusters of scientists who have come up with brilliant ideas, and sometimes even operationalised them in the form of new products, only to find that both private industry as well as the state sector remains wedded to traditional (mainly foreign) suppliers. If North America and Europe are still holding on to the overwhelming bulk of Nobel Prizes, it may be because in both locations, those with original minds find a much more conducive medium to operate in than is the case in India. Only when this country gets gifted with a leadership that has confidence in its own people, and is willing to give them the encouragement found elsewhere, will India catch up not with Australia (and its Mumbai-sized population) but with countries such as France, which have excelled in science for centuries. http://www.sunday-guardian.com/analysis/not-everything-is-noble-about-the-nobel-prize

Al-Qaeda's best friend: NATO (Pakistan Observer)

Economy, not corruption, is the voter’s prime concern (Sunday Guardian)

ROOTS OF POWER MADHAV NALAPAT www.sunday-guardian.com/profile/madhav-nalapat

Arvind Kejriwal talks with AAP leader Manish Sisodia during the confidence vote in Delhi Assembly on Thursday. PTI orruption was never the prime concern of the voter, until he understood the correlation between his own miserable state and the extent of graft among politicians and officials. In the just-concluded state Assembly polls, in at least four of the states, citizens punished or rewarded Chief Ministers based on perceptions of graft. Even after the defeat of the DMK in the last Assembly polls in Tamil Nadu, the majority of those within the political class believe that the gifting of sops is the way to high office. They forget that in Tamil Nadu, the voter compared the pennies thrown in their direction by the Karunanidhi family with the hoards of gold ducats stashed away by the family and its friends. After the Delhi poll results, it would appear from his rush towards freebies that Arvind Kejriwal believes that it was the promise of cheap power and free water which got him his chair. The reality is that it was neither, but the impression of integrity conveyed by the men and women of the Aam Aadmi Party. Should the Kejriwal family, or those close to other ministers, suddenly begin to sport a lifestyle far more opulent than what their neighbours have witnessed thus far, it will not be long before the AAP begins to lose traction among the voters, no matter the quantum of freebies dished out by its government in Delhi. If Manmohan Singh has become an object of ridicule these days, it is because of the stench of graft that has clung to him ever since the 2010 Commonwealth Games scam exploded onto television screens. And if Narendra Modi is still far and away the most popular politician in the country, it is not because of the colourful kurtas he wears, but the belief that he runs a clean government. These days, now that cable television has become ubiquitous, aspiration levels have risen to heights never seen before. Even those at the lower levels of income dream of a future where they ride not a bicycle but a car. If the Tata Nano has failed to click to the extent the genius of its conception merits, it is because of the perception that it is the only car that is not a prosperous man's vehicle but that of the common man, a category few want to remain in, despite Arvind Kejriwal's new job. Ensuring a minimum wage or a beyond-subsistence level of food consumption even to the poorest ought not to be with an eye on votes, but on grounds of justice and equity. Each beggar on the streets, each farmer suicide, each child dying of malnutrition, is yet another reason why ministers and officials across the country ought to be ashamed rather than arrogant. It was not because he liked the sensation of fresh air on his chest that Mahatma Gandhi went bare-bodied, but because he knew that the way to bond with the people was to dress the way they were forced to, and to travel the way they did, in third class compartments rather than in railway saloon cars. Besides the perception that they are — still — honest, another reason why so many gave the AAP a chance was because the lifestyle of its most visible mascot, Arvind Kejriwal, resembled that of the average citizen far more than the magnificence with which the topmost leaders of both the Congress and the BJP live in Delhi, with their chartered aircraft and the BMWs and Audis they zip around the city in. Of course, now that so many millionaires and MNC executives are flocking to the AAP, there may be a dilution in the belief that the AAP is truly "aam", for after all, there were — even in its pre-millionaire days — very few genuine aam aadmis in the higher echelons of the AAP. For instance, Prashant Bhushan can be called many things, such as a superb legal brain or a dogged campaigner, but being an aam aadmi is not one of them. Neither can a former Indian Revenue Service officer of the seniority of Kejriwal pass himself off as just your man in the street. Every movement sees a huge accretion to its ranks once success is achieved, which explains the stampede to join the BJP by retired home secretaries passed over for gubernatorial posts, and by others who failed to meet the UPA's criteria for higher office. Now that the Delhi Secretariat has been won, some of such birds of convenience are now seeking nests within the AAP. Hopefully, at least a few of them will fulfil their desire to "serve the people" by being made ministers, governors and sundry office-holders of Red Light rank. The coming general election is likely to be decided on the basis of just which party or alliance is seen as offering the best economic choice. Not for the voter Manmohan Singh's excuse of international exigencies rather than non-performance being the cause of its failure. Despite the reams of comment about the Kejriwal Effect on Narendra Modi's chances, the fact is that it is still the Gujarat strongman who has the upper hand in the arena of public perception. That is, if he can convince a public sceptical of all major political parties that he has truly "Modified" the BJP. http://www.sunday-guardian.com/analysis/economy-not-corruption-is-the-voters-prime-concern

Congress chalks out anyone but Modi strategy (Sunday Guardian)

MADHAV NALAPAT  New Delhi | 4th Jan 2014 secretive "Congress Strategy Group" has been set up by Rahul Gandhi to ensure that the next government will either be Congress-led or Congress-supported, thereby excluding a Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition with Narendra Modi as Prime Minister. This group is "mining its contacts within the investigative agencies, friendly BJP sources and others, to secure information on corruption indulged in by BJP office-bearers", according to an associate of the group. The source added that the Delhi result showed that "the BJP is as vulnerable as Congress on the issue of corruption". In such a context, he saw "much merit" in the Aam Aadmi Party's contention that there was no difference between BJP and Congress on the corruption issue. He revealed that in Delhi "a whispering campaign was set loose (with information supplied by a BJP faction) reminding voters that (BJP chief ministerial nominee till the month before polling) Vijay Goel had been removed from the Vajpayee Council of Ministers (allegedly) because of doubts over his conduct". He added that "we have evidence that the facts relating to Goel were well known to Rajnath Singh" but that the BJP president as well as his predecessor Nitin Gadkari "were backing Goel 100%". A month before the polls, BJP Prime Ministerial nominee Narendra Modi intervened to replace Goel with Harsh Vardhan, but this was "too late as voter preferences had hardened". A "number cruncher" for the secret Strategy Group claimed that "as many as 16 BJP tickets were given on the basis of extraneous considerations, including family ties to senior leaders as well as the giving of consideration for securing a ticket". "All but one of such candidates lost, thereby keeping the BJP from getting the four-state sweep that Narendra Modi was aiming at," he said. These sources claimed that "in the case of several poor choices for candidates in Delhi, the local cadre was less than enthusiastic about ensuring their victory, so that nearly two dozen seats were lost by small margins". BJP office-bearers have denied that any ticket was given on "extraneous considerations", and claimed that efforts were made to ensure "a balanced and principled list of candidates". "We lost a tactical battle, in Delhi, but have paved the way for a strategic victory in 2014 (by keeping the BJP out of government at the Centre)," the Congress strategist claimed. He added that "the BJP is vulnerable on the issue of corruption in several states, and we will ensure that these facts become known to the voter." He pointed to both Nitin Gadkari as well as Rajnath Singh as leaders who were "approachable" and, therefore, vulnerable. "Remember how the honest Babulal Marandi was replaced on a flimsy charge by the BJP leadership as Jharkhand Chief Minister by Arjun Munda after less than two years," the associate pointed out, adding that the latter "obliged several top BJP leaders by giving concessions to their nominees". "In Himachal Pradesh, a vigilance inquiry is ongoing about transactions which took place under P.K. Dhumal, and the facts about this will soon be made public." He claimed that HP CM Virbhadra Singh was being "hounded" by the BJP "because he refused to call off the (Dhumal) probe. However, Virbhadra is no match for certain BJP leaders when it comes to managing media perceptions." The number cruncher added that "facts are being collated on B.S. Yeddyurappa as well as on two current BJP Chief Ministers" that will "soon become public". Aware of the anti-Congress sentiment building up across the country, the Strategy Group is working on a plan "to ensure that the BJP tally falls below 175" and to "create a negativism about Narendra Modi so that he will need to cross 220 seats to come as PM. If the BJP tally falls below 220 but above 175, the party will have to offer a PM choice other than Modi." The source did not respond when asked whether Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's jibe at the Gujarat CM was part of this strategy of seeking to de-legitimise Modi. "The best case scenario is a repeat of 2004, where we (the Congress) can head a government supported by the Left and regional parties wary of the BJP", while the "default position is a Third Front government backed by the Congress Party from outside", and which may include the Left parties. "The intention is to keep Modi out of 7 Race Course Road" and the path to this, according to these sources, is "to bring out more and more facts about corruption by BJP office-bearers, so that the huge anti-corruption vote in the cities moves away from Modi". The strategist added that "soon after Rahul Gandhi is announced as Prime Ministerial candidate, the guns will start blazing", in that charge after charge against BJP leaders will get levelled "not only by the Congress party but by activist groups and others to whom information is being supplied". http://www.sunday-guardian.com/news/congress-chalks-out-anyone-but-modi-strategy

Manmohan fulfills Mahatma’s wish (Pakistan Observer)

MD Nalapat. Friday, January 03, 2014 - The day this column gets printed, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is scheduled to announce what has been obvious since 2010,that he will not be in consideration for a third term as PM, even should the Congress Party do a Hat Trick and return to office in the 2014 polls. Since 1969,the party has in effect become the personal property of one or the other branch of the Nehru family, with Sanjay Gandhi (the son of Indira Gandhi) becoming the effective supremo in 1974,after a series of nationwide strikes and electoral defeats had led his mother to lose confidence in her advisors and to turn to her youngest son. The elder boy, Rajiv, was happy piloting an Avro propeller aircraft around selected regions of the country, usually chosen carefully so that he could return to Delhi in the evenings to be with his mother, children and wife. It was Sanjay who took charge, until his death in 1980.A few months later, Indira Gandhi asked her eldest son and sole surviving child Rajiv Ratan Birjees Gandhi to resign from the state-owned Indian Airlines Corporation and “assist” her in politics, and after her passing in 1984,it was Rajiv who got sworn in as PM, despite not having a day’s experience in government, except from 15,000 feet up in the skies.

When Rajiv himself was killed in 1991,there was a clamour from within the Congress Party that his widow Sonia take charge. An ambitious politician from Maharashtra State, Sharadchandra Govindrao Pawar, wanted the job. It was clear that he would push to the sidelines the Nehru family, were he to get the job. Groomed and promoted by a regional satrap, Yeshwantrao Balwantrao Chavan, and not by one of the Nehru clan,Pawar had no reason to feel a sense of loyalty to a family that had taken over a party which till 1969 had vestiges of collegial functioning. His mentor (Y B Chavan) had himself wanted to see the Nehru family replaced, rebelling when it was safe to do so, but coming back later once Indira Gandhi re-asserted her dominance. Sharad Pawar himself walked out of the Congress Party in the 1970s in order to become the youngest Chief Minister of his state, a show of independence which led Sonia Gandhi to quietly lobby for the ageing Pamulaparthy Venkata Narasimha Rao to take over as PM after the 1991 elections.

Her influence was far greater than that of Pawar, and although he had much more support within party than Rao, Sonia’s voice prevailed and he lost out. It had been expected that Narasimha Rao would step down after half his 5-year term was over, thereby enabling Sonia Gandhi to replace him with a trusted retainer, Arjun Singh. However, Rao refused to quit, signalling in mid-1993 that he would accept a fresh term as PM, should Congress return to power in 1996 Sonia Gandhi made sure that the Congress Party would get defeated, by encouraging a group of dissidents to form Congress (Tiwari) and contest against the Rao-led Congress Party in general elections.

The splitting of the vote ensured large gains for the BJP, which however had to cede ground to an alliance of smaller parties supported by both the Left parties as well as by Congress. In 1998,this ramshackle outfit collapsed, and this time, the BJP was able to lead a coalition government. National Security Advisor Brajesh Mishra, who was in effect the Executive PM because of ill-health of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, felt insulted when AIADMK (a major coalition partner) leader Jayalalitha made her secretary reply to his missive, and showed his petulance by blocking even inconsequential requests of the AIADMK, such as the appointment of favourites to boards of nationalised banks. Finally, Jayalalitha had had enough of such insulting treatment,and she withdrew support to Vajpayee, thereby forcing an election in 1999.

Fotunately for Vajpayee, then Chief of General Staff Pervez Musharraf chose that time to launch a military adventure in Kargil.War usually rallies people to the side of the government, and Kargil was no exception. Even though the war had been caused by the carelessness of Team Vajpayee in securing the frontier, the spoils of war ensured that he got re-elected, only to get defeated in the next election, in 2004,because of his failure to curb corruption within his team Manmohan Singh took over in 2004 because he was handpicked by Sonia Gandhi as an individual with a zero political base of his own, and therefore no threat to the family’s control of the Congress Party. Had Singh focussed on doing his duty by the country rather than appeasing his political master (or,in this case, mistress), he would have established his grip from the start by sacking a few ministers and officials off his own bat.

Instead, from the start, he allowed Sonia Gandhi and her Political Secretary Ahmed Patel to control both personnel as well as policy. This resulted in a steady diminution of the Prime Minister’s Office. Were Manmohan to give an order and Ahmed Patel a contrary command, it would be the latter who would prevail, because it was obvious that ministerial appointments were made not by the PM but by the Congress President. The boost given to the economy by liberalisation since 1992 helped cover up the maladministration caused by the post-2004 government, until by 2008,it was becoming obvious that the cocktail of high taxes, high regulation and high interest rates was slowing down India significantly. Since Manmohan Singh came to power, the freedoms given to the people have been sharply reduced. Small wonder that by 2010,a popular movement against corruption and maladministration blossomed, l ed by Anna Hazare. His disciple Arvind Kejriwal has now become Chief Minister of Delhi.

The rise of Kejriwal and his Aam Aadmi (Common Man) Party sounds the deathknell of the Congress Party. Although Rahul Gandhi can be expected to work hard at reviving the fortunes of the pary he has inherited, it is unlikely that he will succeed. Indeed,should the BJP defeat the Congress and annoit Narendra Damodardas Modi as Prime Minister this year, the Congress Party is likely to go the way of the dinosaur. It will fragment into splinters which get absorbed by other parties, notably the BJP and the AAP. Mahatma Gandhi sought the dissolution of the Congress Party once India became free in 1947.Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, by not offering the slightest resistance to pressure from his party leadership in deals big and small, has fulfilled the wishes of the Mahatma. He will probably be the last PM from the Congress Party.
http://pakobserver.net/detailnews.asp?id=229049

BJP’s Helmut Kohls need to emulate Pope Benedict (Sunday Guardian)

ROOTS OF POWER MADHAV NALAPAT www.sunday-guardian.com/profile/madhav-nalapat Pope Benedict t is difficult to persuade the holders of high office that the time has come for them to gracefully step aside. Ask the Catholic Church. It was as far back as 1294 AD that Pope Celestine decided that ill-health made it impossible for him to carry out Papal functions, and hence stepped aside. After that, it was Pope Benedict who on 28 February 2013 handed over the papacy to a successor, Cardinal Bergoglio, now Pope Francis. There are those, including many within the Catholic faith, who have had issues with Pope Benedict's unbending opposition to liberal tendencies, but none can deny that by his resignation, the former Cardinal of Munich revealed a grace that few have exhibited before or since. In the somewhat more dusty field of politics, had Helmut Kohl stepped down as Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1998 before trying to further extend his 16-year stint in office via a fresh election, he may have been remembered more kindly by his people. After all, it was Kohl , who, together with Francois Mitterand, crafted the Maastricht Treaty, which became the foundation for the modern European Union. It was Kohl who oversaw the re-unification of Germany, even if he had been a trifle over-generous to his eastern cousins, a very un-German profligacy for which taxpayers in the Federal Republic are paying for to this day. As happened to Winston Churchill at the time of his greatest triumph in 1945, Helmut Kohl was defeated at the hands of the despised Social Democrats. However, next to Africa, where the apparently ageless Robert Mugabe continues on his mission of driving his country into the sand, it is in India that politicians carry on for what seems an eternity to their party colleagues. Jawaharlal Nehru was showing his age by 1958, but in deference to the belief of numerous essayists, who saw him as crucial to the very survival of India, he soldiered on, making errors of judgment that haunt the country to this day. Even after the 1962 defeat at the hands of Mao Zedong, a defeat caused by bad policy implemented through personal favourites of scant ability, Nehru flicked aside any thoughts of stepping down, grimly hanging on until his physical frame gave way less than two years later. His party was, at least for the record, as insistent on his carrying on to the end as the BJP was in the case of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who was visibly in poor health by the middle of 2003. Indeed, the then Prime Minister graciously offered to step down, only to be greeted by a cacophony of wails from his party colleagues beseeching him to stay, despite his ill-health and the obvious attraction of retirement in the bosom of his family. A similar wailing took place in 2004 when Sonia Gandhi announced her decision not to become Prime Minister, although in her case, she persevered with this decision, unlike Vajpayee, who quickly withdrew his offer to quit, only to be turfed out of office by the electorate a year later. Had the chorus asking Vajpayee to reconsider his desire to quit been ignored and L.K. Advani taken over from Vajpayee in 2003, the BJP may have remained the party of government a year later. Except to the higher-ups in the BJP, it was clear that the cadre of that party were disillusioned with Vajpayee. They saw him as following a "Congress like" agenda, rather than seeking to implement at least a few of the measures that the saffron party had for years been proclaiming as its reason for existence. In the 2004 polls, a significant chunk of core BJP voters stayed away from the voting booth, even as several of the cadre worked less than enthusiastically for a BJP victory. An Advani-BJP would in 2004 have spelt change, the way a Modi-BJP will next year, provided Narendra Modi provides a clean break with the past by refusing to field those discredited by two successive defeats in general elections. These lines are being written in Tamil Nadu, where too there is a soft Modi wave. Provided that the present, hugely discredited, state leaders of the BJP there and elsewhere are denied tickets in favour of fresh faces. 400 fresh faces in the Lok Sabha polls, to be exact. The remainder can be given to party hacks, and should be told to contest from difficult seats in view of their vast experience. Visiting BJP headquarters at Akbar Road, there is no indication that the party has learnt anything from the victory of the Aam Aadmi Party in Delhi. The hacks, especially the senior most, are busy stitching suits for the swearing in after what would essentially be Modi's victory. But if they swamp the lists of candidates, then it will not be the BJP that will head the next government, despite the Modi wave. Winston Churchill once spoke of giving a peerage to a superannuated politician — not himself, as of that date — so that "it becomes a disappearage". There are several Helmut Kohls in the higher echelons of today's BJP. They need to accept that the public want change, which is why they are for Narendra Modi, and for a 21st century team that is not simply a retread from a failed past. http://www.sunday-guardian.com/analysis/bjps-helmut-kohls-need-to-emulate-pope-benedict