Delhi cops rope in pay phone operators - MSN India

Tuesday, August 05, 2008

Delhi cops rope in pay phone operatorsPhone booth operators have been asked to keep an eye on people calling Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Jammu and Srinagar as Independence Day approachesNew Delhi: Telephone booth operators, taxi drivers and guesthouse owners in the capital have been asked to keep an eye on people calling Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Jammu and Srinagar as Independence Day approaches. Cyber cafes and guesthouses have been told to install closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras.Telephone booth operators have been asked to maintain a separate register for people making local, intra-state and international calls in the run up to Aug 15."Try to overhear the conversation and if any suspicious activity is noticed, inform police immediately and keep a watch over the person. Keep an eye on persons making calls on ISD codes 008801 (Bangladesh), 0092 (Pakistan), 09977 (Nepal) and local codes 0191 (Jammu) and 0194 (Srinagar)," the instructions read.Raju, a phone booth owner in southwest Delhi, told IANS: "The cops come daily to my shop and check the register to see whether we are maintaining a record. A constable then signs and put the date at the end of the particular day's record."Apart from keeping a call record, guesthouses have been told not to allow guests to use the hotel address for delivery of new mobile phone SIM cards. They have also been asked to install CCTVs at the entrance and maintain the footage of visitors.A "watch (is) to be kept on persons using guesthouses and they have to obtain photo identification cards of users and local contacts in case of a person belonging to another state or country," the instructions say.Also, don't be surprised if a taxi driver asks for a passenger's identity proof or reports to the police if a passenger has been clicking pictures of any important monument in the city."Terror threat increases manifold during the time of Independence Day and Republic Day. So we are asking each and every person to remain vigilant and report any suspicious matter to police," a top Delhi Police official told IANS."If we don't keep their phone call records, it is very likely that the terrorists may escape easily after executing blasts in the city. We appeal to people to cooperate with the police," the official added.Mobile SIM card dealers have been strictly instructed to ask customers for photo identification proof. Besides installing web cameras with recording facility, cyber cafe owners have been directed to keep a watch on people surfing the Internet."We are very particular about cyber cafes after the series of blasts in Jaipur, Bangalore and Ahmedabad. The terrorists have used cyber cafes before executing the blasts," said a senior official.Apart from briefing phone booth operators, taxi drivers, guesthouses, parking attendants, vegetable sellers and market associations, the Delhi Police have for the first time sent requests to large hospitals, colleges, schools and resident welfare Associations to take precautionary measures.Letters have been sent to medical superintendents of Safdarjung Hospital and the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and principals of schools and colleges."In Ahmedabad, terrorists did not spare hospitals and they exploded bombs there when media people and relatives of affected persons in the bomb blasts gathered in the hospital," said Assistant Commissioner of Police Kumar Gyanesh."In view of the terrorist attacks on hospitals, we have written letters to AIIMS and Safdarjung hospitals for strengthening security in and around their premises," Gyanesh said.In a letter to colleges and schools, the police have asked them to be vigilant as they could prove vulnerable targets for terrorists.Source: Indo-Asian News Service

Delhi cops rope in pay phone operators - National News – News – MSN India - News

SAARC Security Pact

S Asian leaders sign security pact

Saarc leaders signed deals to develop energy, food security and to fight terrorism [AFP]

South Asian leaders have called for joint action against terrorism and more regional trade, according to a draft declaration adopted at a regional conference in Colombo.
The two-day summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation, or Saarc, ended in the Sri Lankan capital on Sunday. The eight Saarc member countries adopted a regional anti-terrorism co-operation agreement on Sunday, despite accusations that members of Pakistan's main spy agency, Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI, helped carry out a deadly bombing of the Indian embassy in Kabul.
Saarc, which groups Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, also noted the urgent need to develop energy and food security.
The leaders approved the immediate establishment of a food bank to cope with regional shortages triggered by rising prices, as well as plans for improving energy security in the region, home to nearly one-fifth of the world's population. The foreign ministers of the Saarc members signed the anti-terrorism agreement, and endorsed the creation of a regional development fund and rules for standardisation of products traded among member countries. The leaders agreed to focus on developing hydropower and renewable energy programmes involving solar equipment and wind turbines.Saarc was established in 1985 to promote economic co-operation, but progress in most areas has been slow.

'Terrorism combat'

The security pact calls for freezing funds that might be used for terrorist activities, regular meetings between security chiefs, the exchange of intelligence, and training of personnel dealing with terrorism and drug offences. The deal may be difficult to implement in view of accusations by India and Afghanistan that elements of the ISI helped an armed group bomb India's embassy in Afghanistan on July 7, killing 41 people. During a meeting with Manmohan Singh, the Indian prime minister, on Saturday, Yousuf Raza Gilani, Pakistan prime minister, offered to launch an independent investigation into the allegation, Shivshankar Menon, India's most senior diplomat, said.Pakistan had earlier denied the accusation.

Afghan-Pakistan pledge

Separately, the leaders of Afghanistan and Pakistan agreed to "re-engage" in the fight against extremism, a joint statement said. Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, and Gilani met on the sidelines of the summit on Sunday, according to a joint statement. "The two sides agreed to co-ordinate their efforts to stop cross-border terrorism," the statement said. "At the suggestion of Pakistan, the Afghan side agreed to re-engage on all bilateral and multilateral forums.

Dhaka mulls Free Trade

Dhaka mulls free trade pacts with India, Pak, Sri Lanka

4 Aug, 2008, 1146 hrs IST, IANS

DHAKA: Bangladesh has decided to sign bilateral free trade agreements (FTA) with three major South Asian trading partners - India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka - in view of the failure of multilateral trading arrangements to serve the country's interests. The decision was taken at a meeting Sunday with stakeholders and experts at the commerce ministry. Commerce and Education Adviser Hossain Zillur Rahman chaired the meet, a national newspaper said on Monday. While negotiating with India on the FTA, the issue of transportation and regional connectivity will come up for discussion automatically, former foreign secretary Farooq Sobhan was quoted to have said. He said Dhaka should have its position clear on this. Although the meeting considered trade data based on research done at home and by the World Bank, it decided to go for further studies, indicating that the process would be slow. A core group comprising public and private sector representatives will be formed with the chief executive officer of the Bangladesh Foreign Trade Institute, M Ali Taslim, as its chief, to assess probable risks and gains of striking the free trade deals with the neighbouring countries. "The whole exercise will be accomplished under a public-private partnership so that the interest of the country can be served," said the commerce adviser, who performs ministerial functions in the cartetaker government headed by Chief Advisor Fakhruddin Ahmed. The Bangladesh high commissioners to these three countries will be asked to give their opinions in this regard and contact the host governments to resume negotiations that remain stalled since their beginning in late 2003. The latest collapse of the World Trade Organisation talks at the level of mini-ministerial conference in Geneva as well as a slow progress in expanding the regional trade under the SAARC Free Trade Area prompted Bangladesh to go for bilateral trading arrangements. Demands including duty and quota-free access of products of the least developed countries like Bangladesh to markets of developed countries remain unrealised despite their commitments during the Hong Kong trade ministerial meeting in 2005. "It will also mean boosting of the regional trade through bilateral arrangements," said an official present at the meeting, in reply to the question why Dhaka would now prefer the bilateral FTA. The meeting also decided to ink similar deals with Nepal and Bhutan in order to justify the objectives of signing FTA with the three major trading nations in the region. Bangladesh has been suffering balance of payments deficits with India over the years at a range of more than $2 billion. Dhaka also has trade imbalance with Islamabad and Colombo although the overall trade volume in this regard is much lower than that with India. Issues of service sector, non-tariff barriers and sensitive list, especially how they would be dealt with in the FTA deals, came up for discussion at the meeting which was attended by representatives of the trade bodies and research organisations and officials of relevant government agencies, the newspaper said.

Faith

Condoms `Promote Sin' in Papua New Guinea as AIDS, Faith Cross

By Simeon Bennett

Aug. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Godfrey Wippon, the pastor of Papua New Guinea's 70,000-member Revival Fellowship Church, has a simple HIV-prevention message for his flock.``Flee from sin, flee from committing adultery and fornication,'' Wippon, 56, said in a telephone interview from Goroka, in the country's Eastern Highlands. ``If you are a church and you're issuing condoms, you are promoting sin and you're anti-Christ.'' Those infected should turn to God, who has healed 40 church members of HIV, Wippon said.Religion has helped and hindered global health officials battling HIV. While faith-based groups care for AIDS patients, efforts to slow infection have been stymied by religious beliefs and practices. These include Islamic prohibitions against gay sex, which shames gays in Malaysia from responding to prevention efforts, and opposition to circumcision by Hindus and Sikhs in India, global health officials said.``On one hand, some faith-based organizations may be the greatest providers of care and support,'' said Sally Smith, an adviser on faith-based partnerships for UNAIDS, the United Nations' HIV agency. On the other hand, she said, reactions by some religious leaders ``haven't always been positive.''The role religion plays in the fight against HIV is under discussion at the world's biggest AIDS conference, taking place this week in Mexico City. The six-day meeting of 25,000 researchers, health workers and activists features about 100 poster presentations on faith and HIV. It was preceded by a separate summit for Christian groups working with patients.Changing Views``Ten to 15 years ago it was something you didn't talk about,'' Smith said in a July 18 telephone interview from Geneva. ``Now everybody you talk to is saying, `Oh yes, we are just about to start work with faith communities.'''In India, even discussing circumcision to help prevent HIV has run up against historic tensions between Hindus and Muslims. Circumcision reduces men's risk of contracting HIV by at least half and could prevent 5.7 million new infections and 3 million deaths over two decades in Africa, according to the UN's World Health Organization.``For various reasons, religious and otherwise, it has been identified as a very non-Hindu procedure,'' said Nomita Chandhiok, deputy director-general of reproductive health and nutrition at the Indian Council of Medical Research.India has 2.5 million HIV sufferers, according to a November estimate by UNAIDS. The agency reduced the number from 5.7 million, which would have been the largest total for any country, citing improved surveillance. Almost 90 percent of transmission is through unsafe sex, according to India's National AIDS Control Organization.Twice as LikelyA study published last year in the journal AIDS found that uncircumcised homeless Hindu men in Kolkata were more than twice as likely to have HIV as circumcised homeless Muslim men, even though the Muslims had more sexual partners and more frequent contact with prostitutes.The medical procedure is seen as a mark of religious identity, says Shivananda Khan, an AIDS activist and chief executive officer of Naz Foundation International. The a London- based group works to prevent HIV among gay and bisexual men in India, Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.``Because my family name is Khan, people think I'm a Muslim,'' he said in a July 11 interview. ``I've been questioned by various intelligence agencies in different parts of this region as to what I do, who I am, and am I a Muslim. In one situation the only way I could prove I was not a Muslim was to take my pants down and say, `See, I'm not circumcised.'''Truck Driver's OpinionGurdev Singh, a 44-year-old truck driver, says he doesn't care what the benefits are. As a Sikh, he says the procedure is unthinkable.``Only Muslims circumcise,'' Singh said at a road stop in Hosur, on the outskirts of Bangalore. ``I will not circumcise as it is against my beliefs.''In Malaysia, where about half the population is Muslim, officials don't need to promote circumcision. The challenge lies in prevention among gay men and bisexuals, AIDS activists say. The Koran and Malaysian law prohibit sex between men.``For Islam it's non-negotiable,'' said Adeeba Kamarulzaman, chairwoman of the Malaysian AIDS Council. ``Homosexuality is `haram,' full-stop,'' she said, using the Arabic word for forbidden, in a July 16 telephone interview.New HIV infections among gay and bisexual men in Malaysia rose to 184 last year from 51 in 2002, according to the council's data. The real number is probably higher, said Raymond Tai, acting executive director of the Kuala Lumpur-based PT Foundation, which promotes safe sexual practices to gay men.More InfectionsIn Papua New Guinea, where 97 percent of people say they are Christian, health officials expect 5 percent of the population to be infected with HIV by 2012, compared with 2 percent this year. AIDS is the main cause of hospital admissions and deaths.From the beginning of the epidemic, established denominations such as the Catholic and Anglican churches have provided care, counseling and testing services ``when the government was in denial,'' said Richard Eves, an anthropologist at the Australian National University who edited a book on HIV and Christianity in Papua New Guinea.More recently, evangelical, charismatic and Pentecostal churches such as Wippon's Revival Fellowship have flourished, promoting a form of Christianity that characterizes HIV as ``the wages of sin,'' Eves said in a July 17 telephone interview.To contact the reporters on this story: Simeon Bennett in Singapore at sbennett9@bloomberg.net;Last Updated: August 3, 2008 00:01 EDT

Bloomberg.com: Worldwide

American Chronicle | Nepal: Wither SAARC? Or withering away?

Nepal: Wither SAARC? Or withering away?

Atul Chatterjee:

 Atul is a post graduate in Economics from the Delhi School of Economics. He has been a school teacher, NGO worker story writer and contributor to various publications. He has written on political, education and economic issues.author's emailauthor's web siteview author's other articlesJoin this author's mailing listYour Name:E-mail Address:Atul Chatterjee


August 03, 2008This is the 15th South Asia Association for Regional Cooperation meet at Colombo. When SAARC was founded a major objective was economic cooperation. At present intra SAARC trade is just five per cent, what does Nepal have to gain by lowering of tariff and non-tariff barriers?Firstly, Nepal does not have a slew of manufactures which it can export. So removal of non tariff barriers is not going to help it all that much on the export front. Further Pakistan has stalled any major agreement by linking the resolution of the Kashmir issue and has refused to grant most favoured nation status to India.India has been erecting all sorts of economic barriers against Bangladesh, and on the other hand in this multilateral institution of SAARC it claims to be lowering barriers to trade. So SAFTA (South Asia Free Trade Association) is still a non starter.It has been announced that Nepal´s Prime Minister G P Koirala is looking for a meeting with Indian PM Manmohan Singh on the sidelines during the meet. What is he going to ask for? What is the continuity from the past?Another agreement that India is looking for is in the area of terror. It will have to get Pakistan to agree to sign the document which mainly concerns exchange of information about terror activities and suspects.What does Maldives and Bhutan also members of SAARC really have to do with terror? India could well have pursued the case bilaterally with Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and possibly Afghanistan. Each country would have a different level of comfort dealing with India which is the main mover for this agreement.Alternately India should look towards a general agreement under UN auspices to cover this area of terror and try for a 'Global Accord on Terror'.Pakistan has been asking for the inclusion of China in SAARC, India does not want that. China will be able to bring in substantial funds and expertise into SAARC. Nepal would be well advised to support Pakistan in this venture. With China in it would act as a counterweight to India.India on the other hand is supporting the inclusion of Myanmar, this is a good move for that country as it will start coming out of seclusion. But again it is a country with a very weak economy.SAARC needs an injection of fresh blood, best in the form of China. Or else it will become an association of the weak which is rapidly turning into a battle ground and wither away in due course.Nepal should weigh its options, at present the secretariat of SAARC is located in Kathmandu, the employment generated due to that is the main advantage it is gaining!!

American Chronicle | Nepal: Wither SAARC? Or withering away?

Bangladesh, Bhutan call for freer trade for South Asia's SAARC nations - LANKA BUSINESS ONLINE

Bangladesh, Bhutan call for freer trade for South Asia's SAARC nations

August 3, 2008 (LBO) - Bhutan and Bangladesh, tried to fan the flame of free trade in South Asia as dismantling trade barriers went off the agenda, when leaders of seven nations that make up a South Asian regional grouping met in Colombo.The agenda of the South Asian Association of Regional Co-operation (SAARC) was dominated by calls for action against terrorism and ways to counter an oil and food commodity price bubble, the worst the world has seen since 1973.Intra-regional trade in the grouping made up of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka is low largely due to high tariff barriers that block the movement of goods across the states.Bangladesh first mooted the idea of a free trade bloc for South Asia as early as the 1970s, and after SAARC was created in 1985 the foundation for a preferential trade deal was laid in 1993.Negative ListsIn 2006 it was extended with a deal on the South Asia Free Trade Area (SAFTA) which is expected to bring down tariffs by a modest 20 percent, but it is loaded with a 'sensitive' or 'negative' list.The 'negative' lists are in place to appease domestic producers who have long profited from selling goods to a captive domestic customer base, without competitive pressures forcing them to be more efficient.The helpless domestic consumer base includes half the world's poor, who are forced to buy unnecessarily expensive goods as a result of trade barriers which worsen their living standards.To help South Asians access the cheapest producers of the region, trade barriers need to be dismantled.In addition to improving living standards of consumers, bringing down the barriers would also reward the most efficient producers while punishing those that don't become efficient."Our goal in SAARC is to create new opportunities and to promote linkages for attaining better living standards for our people," chief advisor to the caretaker administration of Bangladesh, Fakruddin Ahmed said at the inauguration of the summit meeting Saturday."Despite SAFTA, non-tariff and para-tariff barriers, complicated and cumbersome customs procedures stand in the way of greater intra-regional trade."Similarly, long sensitive lists closed to preferential tariff and rigidities in other structural and policy frameworks stand in the way of our desire to have a fully integrated South Asia."Clearly there is a need to remove these hurdles to enhance intra-regional trade."EchoedThe appeal was also echoed by Bhutan, which is a landlocked country and is also highly dependent on overland transport links."The imperatives of economic co-operation and free trade in a highly globalised and interdependent world cannot be over-emphasized," Prime Minister Jigmy Y. Thinley said."Recognizing that the furtherance of intra-regional trade is the key to promoting and encouraging an environment of innovation, healthy competition and enterprise that will stimulate economic growth, create gainful employment and generate high income for our peoples, we have created SAFTA."But for this instrument to be meaningful, the number of items on the negative list must be reduced, non-tariff barriers removed and the trade facilitation measures implemented."At the same time liberalization of trade in services and investments must also be perused in earnest."The negative lists however allow barriers to come down at least on goods which are not in contention allowing entirely new trade to start in goods that were not even considered for export and import within the region earlier.Impatient with the delay in SAFTA, India has been striking bi-lateral deals with her neighbours with highly successful deals with Sri Lanka and several other nations.An enhanced economic deal with opening of services, was due to be signed between Sri Lanka and India on the sidelines of the summit.But it was aborted at the last minute after Sri Lanka got cold feet following protests from protectionist lobbies and Marxist political elements.Real LiberalizationMeanwhile, Sri Lanka's president Mahinda Rajapaksa laid the foundations for cheaper communication among the people of South Asia by calling for a reduction in international tariffs within the region.Telephone tariffs within the region are absurdly high, and in many countries it is cheaper to call Europe or North America than their neighboring nations due to artificially high call charges driven by an archaic tit-for-tat penal fee system."Although the numbers of mobile phone users in South Asia are rapidly increasing yet, our people remain distanced through the barrier of tariffs," President Rajapaksa said."I, therefore, propose that we actively promote a reduced tariff for IDD (international direct dialing) calls within the South Asian region to bring our people much closer, much sooner."Bangladesh also called for liberalizing investment within the region saying that intra-regional investment flows are very small in South Asia."Given the right kind of environment and confidence, the potential for increased intra-regional investment is huge," chief advisor Fakruddin Ahmed said."I feel that a restrictive investment regime is one of the inhibiting factors in attracting foreign direct investment."In this context it is important that the draft agreement on promotion and protection of investments in finalised at the earliest."While an incomplete liberalization agenda remains, new areas for action have been added, including terrorism, which is an acknowledged serious problem within the region - sometimes egged on with the help of sanctuaries in each others' countries - climate change and rising food and energy prices.The call of Bangladesh and Bhutan comes as critics compared SAARC unfavourably with the European Union and the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) pointing the two groupings' achievements on economic integration.

Bangladesh, Bhutan call for freer trade for South Asia's SAARC nations - LANKA BUSINESS ONLINE

Zee News - india traffickers hub

India becoming transit point for human traffickers: Minister

Chennai, Aug 02: India is fast becoming a transit point as well as a destination for human traffickers from Nepal, Bangladesh and other Commonwealth nations, Union Minister of State for Law and Justice K Venkatapathy said on Saturday."A large number of children and women are reported missing every year in India. About 1,34,000 women are reported missing in India between 1996 and 2001. Trafficking has acquired grave dimensions with penetration of organised crime syndicates," the minister said.He was speaking at a seminar on 'Consultation on methods to combat trafficking of children and women for commercial sexual exploitation in Tamil Nadu' here.Venkatapathy said factors like underdevelopment, privatisation, liberalisation and commercialisation of agriculture had paved way for increase in trafficking of children and women in India.Madras High Court Chief Justice A K Ganguly said while 30 per cent children enter prostitution after being raped, two per cent enter due to natural disasters which increase vulnerability of women and girls."Human trafficking has become major money making business next to arms and drug trafficking. Illiteracy coupled with poverty is the main reason, making women and children fall prey to trafficking," he said.Tamil Nadu DGP K P Jain said the state, which had recently figured in high supply zone for traffickers, had constituted a special cell to check trafficking."We have appointed nodal officers in all the districts to monitor the trafficking. Only through sensitising the society we can bring an end to this menace," he added.Bureau Report

Zee News - india traffickers hub

The Island-Features

On Indian Expansionism

        by

Gamini Seneviratne

This is a subject that merits close scrutiny in the context of the efforts of the Indian bureaucracy to force a ‘Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement’ (CEPA) down our throats. Indian is evidently afraid that others, notably China, who are competing for resources in this part of the world would get a foothold here. That, they already have; the pressure now is to pre-empt further expansion of the presence of China, Japan & Co. in, shall we say, Lankan waters.As projected, CEPA would simply choke economic enterprise by our people and appropriate our resources in the interests of a Pax Indiana. ‘Histories’, written, naturally, by the perpetrators of such violence, refer to a Pax Romana, a Pax Brittanica and, nowadays, in the present continuous, a Pax Americana. This Indian initiative must also be seen in the light of India’s nuclear deal with the USA: it foreshadows the nature of the ‘Pax’ contemplated by Delhi.Though the small and medium print or even much of the large have yet to be made public, the CEPA (which is now said to be on hold), would no doubt underwrite the same kind of ‘peace’ that every invader of sovereign territories has sought to achieve.In his study of ‘Ceylon Under the British Occupation’, Dr. Colvin R de Silva gives a vivid account of the ‘Madrasi administration’ that was imposed during the early years of the British occupation on the maritime provinces. He characterises them as predators who had no sympathy for the people and their culture (the Brits sent them back). Perhaps Dayan Jayatilleka, whose personal / political positions as they have meandered over time to his benefit should read that.We seem to have it all over again now, and in spades: tea & rubber estates, the Uva Vellassa on the back of magnetite, oil farms in Trinco, the LIOC etc all bent on proving themselves to be the most rapacious.In the not too distant past the parsimony of Indian officials was reflected in the terms they demanded for such products as arecanut (from here), and beedi wrapper leaf (from there). The range of products governed by more recent and equally one-sided deals on trade is much wider. Illustrative of the Indian bureaucracy’s absence of good faith is their prohibition on the export of onion seed for our use. The results of a study of Indo-Lankan trade by a researcher at the ARTI should throw much light on the subject (for use by policy makers who wish to be enlightened).In my formal encounters with the bureaucrats who used to control all human activity in India, but no longer do on terms that tend to be those mentioned below, some of them were so vain (‘arrogant’ might be their preferred term of self-description), and constipated that we felt they had been bawled off by their wives that morning.In a somewhat rambling piece on ‘Will India Become A Superpower?’Ramachandra Guha, author of ‘India After Gandhi: The History of the World’s Largest Democracy’, says,"The terms that came to mind in characterizing an earlier generation of Congress leaders were: patriotic, efficient, social democratic, incorruptible. The terms that come to mind now are: selfish, nepotistic, sycophantic, on the make. . . the unelected officials at times exceed the elected politicians in the scale and ambition of their corruption."Guha also comes up with a quote from (Mahatma) Gandhi which is pertinent to any review of where India is being shepherded by her mercantilists such as Manmohan Singh. The proposed CEPA is but one example:"God forbid that India should ever take to industrialization after the manner of the West. The economic imperialism of a single tiny island kingdom (England) is today keeping the world in chains. If an entire nation of 300 million took to similar economic exploitation, it would strip the world bare like locusts." "These words," writes Guha, "come from an article published in the journal Young India in December 1928. Two years earlier, Gandhi had declared that to "make India like England and America is to find some other races and places of the earth for exploitation".Dr. Manmohan Singh, ironically, was Secretary to the South Commission chaired by Dr. Gamani Corea. Many years ago, Dr. Corea told me how astonished he had been by the sentiments expressed by his colleague at an open conference. Dr. Singh had been conscious of it, but at a tête-à-tête over lunch, Dr. Singh had been evasive.The collection of States ruled by the Rajahs & Ranis, coupled with those over which the British had firm control, became the ‘India’ of today (less the newly created ‘Pakistan’). Commencing with that demarcation (and the concurrent appropriation of Jammu & Kashmir), India has been muscling all around her own territory. She has, for example, choked land-locked Nepal, forced Bhutan to generate hydro-power its people did not need in order to feed Indian industry, violated our air-space and is hell-bent on building a canal through our territorial waters.Among such ‘interventions’, I recall the anguish that enveloped Mohammed Haroon, Minister of Agriculture of Pakistan, as we listened to his Indian counterpart, Fakruddin Ahmed, (later the President of India), outline India’s programme for developing her agriculture. Haroon muttered, ‘The Farrakar barrage’. It was India’s ‘enterprise’ in managing cross border waters: the barrage / dam was built just above her border with East Pakistan, its waters diverted to India in the dry season and, during the monsoon, released to drown what is now Bangladesh. I soothed him with words. More could be said about that and about that occasion. Such a ‘procedure’, was read as an act of hostility.1971 has come and gone. In Bangladesh, chaos has erupted from time to time. The partition of ‘Bengal’ that the Brits failed to carry through a hundred years ago has been made real by Delhi – checkpoints at the ‘borders’ that had not existed for people from ‘East Bengal’ to travel to ‘West Bengal’ for work. Every day. The policymakers in Delhi seem unconscious of the myopia that governs them and their country (which is yet engaged in the long haul towards ‘nationhood’).Their latest move has been to demand that the administration of Bangladesh, no less ‘interim’ than ours, should permit India to run her trucks and trains through Bangladesh in order to establish contact with her north- eastern states of Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram. A further demand is that Bangladesh should build the infrastructure required to carry heavy Indian trucks (and truckers carrying AIDS). Bangladesh has turned down the Indian proposal.Jayantha Dhanapala & Daryll Kimball have termed Manmohan Singh’s Nuclear Deal ‘A Non-proliferation Disaster’ (The Island, 31st July) As I suggested in a recent article on our Foreign Service, Jayantha was conscious that India did not challenge the iniquitous provisions in the NPT (over which he presided) in the expectation of a horse-deal with the USA at a later date. That date has now arrived.The gist of this agreement is that India would be exempted from "long-standing NGO guidelines that require full-scope IAEA safeguards… … intended to prevent the use of civilian nuclear technology and material or weapons purposes." They note that, "Unlike the 178 other countries, India has not signed the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). It continues to produce fissile material and expand its arsenal," and "give India the rights and privileges of civil nuclear trade that have been reserved only for members of the NPT."They observe, further, that "Incredibly, Indian officials also want exemptions from NSG guidelines that would allow supplier states to provide India with a strategic fuel reserve that could be used to outlast any fuel supply cut off or sanctions that may be imposed if it resumes nuclear testing," and that "This flatly contradicts provisions in the 2006 U.S. implementing legislation that were authored by Sen. Barack Obama."And what would that Senator, now the leading candidate for President, say to this? - "India is also demanding "full" nuclear cooperation, including access to advanced plutonium reprocessing, uranium enrichment, and heavy water production technology." And what would he say to Iran?Suvrat Raju, in an analysis of ‘The Nuclear Deal and Democracy’, notes "India's vote against Iran, its support for the war in Afghanistan and its endorsement of American positions on climate change, missile defense and chemical weapons -- where the Indian government acted against domestic opposition and long held policies to support the US." India would not be able to "protest loudly against the oppression of Palestinians, organize developing countries in defence of Iran or repudiate iniquitous conditions laid down by the WTO; it must support the US in diplomatic forums and provide logistical support for US military operations in Asia."Raju reports: "According to figures provided by Anil Kakodkar –- the chairperson of the Department of Atomic Energy –- the deal will increase India's installed energy capacity by 2.5% by 2020," – a tiny change in that respect.It was clear from the start that the deal was about a larger strategic relationship with the US (which would also help India obtain a seat in the Security Council)."India is ruled by a government", says Raju, "that is willing to make (in the words of Nicholas Burns, the American negotiator for the nuclear deal), "courageous decisions" -- and bulldoze domestic dissent -- if this is demanded by Washington or Brussels!"No wonder, Manmohan Singh has been contemplating the merits of a "single party state".Raju concludes that "The idea that a government may imperil its own existence to fulfil commitments made to a foreign government is antithetical to the idea of democracy." Yeah.

The Island-Features

Can SAARC take a blance path to Regional Integration

Can SAARC take a balanced path to regional integration?
By Ameen Izzadeen

Regional integration is largely a myth. Absolute regional integration totally wipes out the identity of the state and gives birth to a new political unit in the form of a confederation, union, grouping or even a new mega state. In the unification of Germany, the formation of the United States of America, the creation of the Soviet Union and the birth of independent India, there is evidence to show how states formed into mega states through a process of integration, changing the world map. Colonisation, invasion, occupation and the use of force by a powerful state against a weaker nation are also tools of integration.The fear that weaker neighbours feel regarding a powerful regional bully also leads to regional integration. The long-defunct United Arab Republic —a union between Egypt and Syria from 1958 to 1961 — is a classic example that shows how factors such as fear, economic benefits and political ideology contributed to both integration and disintegration. The fear of a Communist takeover of South East Asian countries was one of the reasons that held together ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations).But under normal circumstances, governments and nations have vested interests and nation-states will not dismantle voluntarily for the sake of integration.If the collective interest of two or more states far outweighs the national interest of the individual nation-state, then there is inducement for integration.But in terms of the prevailing political order, integration does not mean the formation of new mega states or confederations. Integration has assumed a new meaning in the form of greater cooperation in the fields of trade, communications, social welfare, transportation and other such areas where nations see there is greater advantage to be accruing to them through regional unity. In this form of regional integration, there is little or no threat to a state's sovereignty. Therefore, there is a tendency among states to form or join regional groupings.It is in this context that the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) came into being and has survived the test of time. But the undercurrents that flowed beneath the surface of regional cooperation in the years prior to the formation or SAARC, have also survived. SAARC is essentially an economic bloc, a grouping that was formed with the stated intention of uplifting the living standards of South Asia's poor. But the undercurrents that prevailed in the late 1970s and the early 1980s, when the idea of South Asian regional integration was being mooted, told a different story.It is no secret that India's South Asia policy is guided by a doctrine similar to the United States' Monroe doctrine — which simply states that no outside power can interfere in the affairs of states in the backyard of a superpower. This vital policy doctrine of India was named the Indira Doctrine after the former Indian Iron Lady and Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, for it was she who added flesh to India's South Asia policy. Since independence, India has been formulating its South Asia policy on the assumption that it was the natural heir of Britain to rule the waves of the Indian Ocean.Obviously, India's neighbours — particularly Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka — resented New Delhi's claim for hegemony in the region and had been looking for a mechanism to check India.Sri Lanka's then President, J. R. Jayewardene, a political realist to the core, thought that by joining ASEAN, Sri Lanka, the first South Asian state to liberalise its economy, could not only gain immense economic benefits but also check India's hegemonic designs on Sri Lanka. But India outmanoeuvred him and warned ASEAN against any move to enrol Sri Lanka.But the old fox, as President Jayewardene was referred to by both his friends and foes, outfoxed India and embraced the idea of South Asian regional cooperation no sooner it was first mooted by Bangladesh's then military President Zia-ur-Rahman, another South Asian leader who resented India's hegemonic South Asian policy.It is naïve to assume that India was unaware of the moves by its neighbours to trap it in a regional grouping, which would seriously undermine its geostrategic objectives. This explains why India was circumspect and did not jump at the idea of South Asian regional cooperation. It joined SAARC only after it had studied the pros and cons from its own national interest perspective, especially in the light of its Indira Doctrine, which continue to this day.It is amidst these undercurrents that SAARC set sail from Bangladesh in 1985. President Jayewardene addressing the inaugural summit in Dhaka said, "We are setting this ship afloat today. There may be mutiny on board, I hope not. The sea may be stormy but the ship must sail on and enter the ports of poverty, hunger, unemployment, malnutrition, disease and seek to bring comfort to those who need it."Twenty-three years after these words were spoken, those steering the ship can still see the port from which they began their voyage while in the ports of poverty, hunger, unemployment, malnutrition and disease the arrival of the ship is eagerly awaited.But don't dismiss SAARC as a total flop. It has some achievements to its credit. For instance, the SAARC Secretariat website proudly claims that there is complete integration in agriculture and rural Development; telecommunications, science, technology and meteorology; health and population activities; transport and human resource development.Though the areas look many, they belong to four main categories. Sadly, the South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA), which many hoped would inject new life into SAARC, is not on the list, although SAFTA is supposed to have come into being in January 2006.SAFTA's lack of progress was a classic example of how member-states give precedence to their national interest over the collective interest of the region. The arduous process that led to SAFTA speaks volumes for the mutual suspicion and undercurrents in the grouping, especially between India and Pakistan. Pakistan and India are looking at SAFTA not only from an economic point of view but also from a strategic point of view. Neither country is willing to offer sweeping concessions to the other. India says that it is Pakistan's unwillingness to grant India the most favoured nation status that is blocking the full implementation of SAFTA.There is a viewpoint in India's neighbourhood that the biggest beneficiary of SAFTA will be India as it could swamp the whole of South Asia with cheap Indian goods while other South Asian countries will find it difficult to compete in the Indian markets.Sri Lanka, frustrated by the lack of progress the talks on SAFTA were making, promoted a different mechanism — bilateral Free Trade Agreements between South Asian nations. The credit for initiating this practical approach should go to Sri Lanka's much respected foreign minister, the late Lakshman Kadirgamar. His initiative has borne fruit with Sri Lanka signing FTAs with India and Pakistan, and other South Asian countries also taking steps towards FTAs.In fact, the present trend in regional integration appears to be FTAs and RTAs (Regional Trade Agreements). According to World Trade Organisation (WTO) statistics, RTAs and FTAs have grown by one hundred percent between January 1995 and April 2002.But again, FTAs between South Asian states are not without their problems. There are still areas of disagreement. For instance, many in Sri Lanka believe that India is adopting subtle protectionism under pressure from its industrial and agriculture lobbies. They cite opposition from India's garment and tea industries to exports from Sri Lanka, notwithstanding the FTA. Perhaps, India would have acted differently if it had followed the Gujral doctrine, which called for concessions to India's weak neighbours in trade agreements.India's protectionist attitude was blamed for the failure of last week's Doha rounds of WTO talks in Geneva. India's external trade policy is a fine example of how countries would not agree to any deal inimical to their economic or national interests.The challenge before SAARC is to find a working formula to balance the collective interest of South Asia against the national interest of individual nations. One proposal is to bring in China as a full member. China could qualify to be a South Asian nation as it borders India and Pakistan. China's presence will make SAARC the world's most powerful trade bloc — not only because the grouping will represent nearly 40 percent of the world's population but also because it would allay fears of Indian hegemony.

Sri Lanka Breaking News-Daily Mirror Online

FACTBOX-Politics hobbles trade at Colombo SAARC meet

FACTBOX-Politics hobbles trade at Colombo SAARC meetWed Jul 30, 2008 12:17pm IST Email | Print |Share| Single Page[-] Text [+]July 30 (Reuters) - Trade and terrorism are on the agenda for the 15th South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit in Colombo on Aug. 2 and 3.Here is an overview of the group and its agenda:For a full story, please click on [ID:nSP322153]HISTORY, AIMS:- SAARC was established in 1985 by Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Afghanistan became the eighth member in 2007.- Formed to help boost economic growth and trade in one of the world's poorest regions -- home to about 1.5 billion people, tens of millions of whom live in abject poverty -- it has been flayed by critics who say it has remained a talking shop where lofty speeches are rarely translated into action.TRADE RHETORIC AND REALITY:- Trade between members did not accelerate in the five years after structured economic cooperation began with the SAARC Preferential Trading Arrangement (SAPTA) in December 1995.- Intra-SAARC commerce remains at just over five percent, compared to other regional forums such as Asean's internal trade at 26 percent and EU's 55 percent.SLOW PROGRESS, INDIA-PAKISTAN PROBLEMS:- Signed in January 2004, the South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) agreement, supposed to supersede SAPTA, finally came into force in July 2006.- Aimed at achieving zero tariffs on almost all products by 2012, SAFTA has witnessed squabbles over tariff concessions with Pakistan accusing India of violating the agreement with various Non-Tariff Barriers.- SAARC's perceived failure to take off despite many summits has been traced to mistrust and animosity between its two biggest members, India and Pakistan, whose rivalry dates back to their independence in 1947. Their uneasy ties, particularly over disputed Kashmir, still undermine greater regional cooperation.ISSUES ON THE TABLE IN COLOMBO:- Officials say no major agreements are expected -- accords could include one to launch a SAARC Development Fund (SDF), a pact on regional legal cooperation to fight crimes and a fund to manage food and energy crisis.- India would push for counter-terrorism drive after facing a wave of bombings last week, and another attack on its embassy in Kabul that India blames on Pakistan's spy agency. (Compiled by Krittivas Mukherjee; Editing by David Fox)

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Bangladesh Civic Group Blames Foreign Envoys for Prying in Domestic Affairs

Bangladesh Civic Group Blames Foreign Envoys for Prying in Domestic AffairsBy: iStockAnalyst Thursday, July 31, 2008 9:56 AMSend Email Email View Comments Comments (0) Post Comments Post Comment Bookmark It Text of report headlined "Foreign diplomats blamed for meddling in internal affairs" published by Bangladeshi newspaper New Age website on 31 JulyA civic group has alleged that diplomats of some influential countries have been meddling in Bangladesh's internal affairs blatantly flouting the globally accepted diplomatic etiquette.It also criticised the leaders of political parties for creating scopes for foreign diplomats to poke their nose into the country's internal affairs.The National Interest Group, launched in April 2008 to keep a watch on activities and statements of Dhaka-based foreign diplomats, published its first-ever quarterly report Wednesday, found envoys of the United States, Britain, European Union and India most active and consistently flouting Vienna Convention on Diplomatic and Consular relations."They have publicly spoken about our governance, political process, anti-corruption drive, election procedure, foreign policy, economy and even security matters," Mahmudur Rahman, coordinator of the group and former energy adviser to the [BNP] Bangladesh Nationalist Party -led alliance government, told a press conference.Referring to statements by different foreign diplomats over the last four months, the report said that the present "unelected and weak" government showed extreme tolerance towards the external interferences without any protest in most cases.Politicians rushed to diplomats' residences and hold closed-door meetings with them in the name of tea parties, it revealed.It also castigated a section of the media for giving excessive coverage on foreigners' statements."They in fact instigate diplomats and visiting foreign dignitaries to make derogatory remarks about Bangladesh," the report said.The group, which placed seven-point recommendations to the government seeking an end to foreigners' meddling in Bangladesh's domestic affairs, also called upon the media not to be used as a tool of propagating foreign policy objectives of the imperial powers.It stressed the need for raising mass awareness to stop violation of the Vienna Convention and protect Bangladesh from unwanted external interventions.The diplomats should be warned against violation of the international norms and politicians should be condemned for parleying with local embassy people on internal political matters, it said.The group also asked the foreign embassies to maintain lists of local guests who pay frequent visits to their residences and make those public to ensure transparency.Prior permission from the government should be made mandatory for the embassies to hold any meeting with political parties, it suggested.The report pointed out that the neo-liberal economic policy of the West had been continuously undermining the economic sovereignty of the smaller and weaker South Asian countries like Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and Maldives.While these countries need supports to advance their economies to strengthen their positions and capacities in the given global order, multilateral and bilateral development partners did the opposite, the report added.Originally published by New Age website, Dhaka, in English 31 Jul 08.(c) 2008 BBC Monitoring South Asia. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.trackingStory Source: BBC Monitoring South Asia

Bangladesh Civic Group Blames Foreign Envoys for Prying in Domestic Affairs