Iran oil import: India not to come under pressure

New Delhi, May 9: External Affairs Minister SM Krishna Tuesday met US secretary of State Hillary Clinton in order to boost bilateral relationship and expressed satisfaction over the progress in economic relationship and hoped for it to grow faster.

The discussion covered range of issues such as security and economic development of Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Asia Pacific, Indian Ocean region (IOR), China, Bangladesh, and commercial cooperation in civil nuclear energy,.

Krishna raised the issue of difficulties faced by professional, especially IT companies on mobility and protectionist sentiments in the U.S. with regard to global supply chain in services industry.

Both Krishna and Clinton urged Pakistan to make greater efforts to combat violent extremism.

Clinton underlined that Pakistan needs to ensure that its territory is not used as launching pads for terrorist attacks anywhere.

“Recent attacks in Kabul highlight once again the need for elimination of terrorist sanctuaries in the neighborhood and the need for stronger action from Pakistan on terrorism, including on bringing to justice the perpetrators of Mumbai terrorist attack,” Krishna averred.

Clinton expressed contentment in the progress in trade and investment between India and the U.S. “We have come a long way. When I first visited India in 1995, trade stood at nine billion dollars, and this year we expect to surpass 100 billion dollars,” she said.

Clinton lauded the India’s progress in reducing its purchases of oil from Iran, and expected further cut in oil imports to build pressure on Iran in order to prevent it from acquiring nuclear weapons but Krishna made it clear that Iran is a key country for India’s energy needs and it is an important source of oil for India and the decline in oil import is nothing but the result of decision by refineries on the basis of commercial, financial and technical considerations.

Krishna held that Iran had rights as a member of NPT, but it must also abide by its obligations as a non-nuclear weapons state under the NPT.

He reiterated that India’s position on the nuclear issue has been clear and consistent and that it pledges to implement the UN Security Council Resolutions.

Yesterday’s meeting was a preparatory step for strategic dialogue in June in Washington DC.

Future of India Bangladesh enclaves

Image from Deccanherald

     Enclaves, also known as Chhit Mahals, are outlying and detached tracks of land situated inside Cooch Behar district. There are 51 such Bangladesh enclaves located in Indian Territory covering 7110.02 acres of land with population 14215.  Similarly there are 111 Indian enclaves in Rangpur district of Bangladesh covering 17158.13 acres of land having population 37,334. People inside these enclaves are treated as foreigners. They are deprived of human rights being enjoyed by people in their respective countries They do not have access to facilities such as health, basic education, electricity, clean drinking water and decent livelihood. They live in abject poverty. The estimation of their average income is less than Rs 17 per day. They are not included in census and have no proof of their Indian citizenship.

 There is a state of lawlessness. They have no access to administration of the respective countries. If there is any crime, residents of these enclaves cannot complain in local police station nor can they move to respective country police station.

None of the enclaves in India has access to Bangladesh except for Dahagram-Angaporta Enclaves which have access to its motherland through Tinbigha corridor. Tinbigha corridor is a strip of land situated 10 km south east of Mekhliganj sub divisional town measuring about 178 metres x 85 metres in dimension. It is located between the Bangladesh enclaves of Dahagram and Angorpota on the west and Panbari Mouza of Bangladesh on the east.

Image from Coochbehar.nic.in

  Tinbigha corridor was inaugurated on June 26, 1992 as a result of agreement between Governments of two countries. 

So far three agreements have been signed between India and Bangladesh Government for exchange of enclaves, First being Indira-Mujib Agreement in 1974 and second Indira-Ershad Agreement in 1982 and the latest on September 06, 2011. None of these agreements has been implemented.

“The agreement remains on paper. Practical implementation doesn’t happen. Only reason is lack of political will”, says Diptiman Sengupta, coordinator of Bharat Bangladesh enclave exchange coordination committee (BBEECC).

“In 1947, India got independence, afterwards it acquired Cooch Behar, Portugal, Sikkim but for all these, agreements were not signed; they were just acquired and taken control of, then why in India-Bangladesh enclave case agreements are being signed. It only reflects lack of political will. Thirty eight years have passed since first agreement was signed. No implementation took place. There is no scope of implementation even now”, said Diptiman.

    The India Bangladesh land swap agreement which entails exchange of enclaves requires constitutional amendment for it requires demarcation of boundary. Two-third of support is required in both houses to pass the bill. Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) and UPA ally Trinamool Congress seem to be upset with the move and do not want to support.

 To get the backing of opposition National Security Advisor Shiv Shankar Menon approached Sushma Swaraj, opposition leader in Loksabha and Arun Jaitley, opposition leader in Rajya Sabha but his effort failed to fructify.

BJP party led committee headed by S.S. Ahluwalia visited these enclaves to check the ground reality. There is anger among residents, they are not happy with this agreement. Any agreement signed should consider national interest and people concerned, said S.S. Ahluwalia.

Well, as long as Government doesn’t get backing of opposition and its own ally to make it reach two-third of majority in parliament, it can’t pass constitutional amendment bill and consequently the agreement will remain on papers.

Hillary to hardsell FDI to Mamata

Hillary Clinton is on her tour to China, Bangladesh and China from May 3 to May 8. She is already in China for the fourth joint meeting of the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S&ED). She will spend two days here then move to Bangladesh and finally to India on the evening of 6th May.
 
     Top priority of Hillary Clinton’s visit here is meeting with Mamata Banerjee. Before she meets SM Krishna in New Delhi, she wants to meet Mamata Banerjee in Kolkata on 7th May. Of course, aim of this visit is to review progress in the strategic partnership as a preparatory step for the U.S.-India Strategic Dialogue to be held in Washington, D.C. on June 13, to be co-chaired by Secretary Clinton and Indian Minister of External Affairs S.M. Krishna but why is it that she is doing this important work on the second day of her visit.
 
     Very clearly, her visit aims at changing the attitude of Ms Mamata Banerjee towards Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) who has been reason for withdrawal of Government decision to bring FDI in multibrand retail which would have paved the way for opening of global retail stores like walmart, Carrefour and Tesco in major Indian cities. This decision would have opened the sector to foreign investment resulting in great economic reform but Mamata Banerjee being pro-poor believed it to be against farmers and did not allow it to happen and said more discussion was required on this issue.

    Mamata’s Trinamool Congress is the second largest party in coalition Government having 19 members in Loksabha and 9 members in Rajya Sabha which can anytime do arm twisting to get its decisions accepted by Government, latest one being resignation by Dinesh Trivedi, Railway Minister for passenger fare unacceptable to Didi ji. United Progressive Alliance (UPA) cannot afford to anger Mamata Banerjee or it would fall flat on ground. Let’s see if Hillary can please our “difficult to please” Didi.

India: Country of no systematization

India grows at a rate which developed countries can only dream about. Country which plays pivotal role in world economy has no system. People in ministries and its departments know nothing about other departments of the same ministry. They try to pass the burden on other person. To get information is like andhere mein teer chalana. You have to contact at least ten people to reach the right person and there is no surety that information would be provided even at the end. Most of the time, right person is not available. Every time you call you will be asked to call at a new time. All they want all the time is time. They don’t have time. Your deadline for story would come to an end but their time demand would not end. If you are lucky enough to speak to the right person, don’t ask too many question or he would kill you on phone. This is the level of their frustration. They project to be so busy as if they are signing some big deals all the time.

If you want to interview some senior official be it from some ministry or public sector undertaking (PSU), you will die calling but you would not get positive response. The time would come when they would even stop taking your calls. There is no courtesy or consideration. If you want information, file an RTI application and wait for 30 days. Government knows slow pace of its people, that’s why prescribed 30 days for a query to be responded. Till that time news would be stale and you would be working on some other news story. There is no resolution to this problem because our country is moving at snail pace in terms of improving system and bringing relevant bills. Years pass on but bills which concern common people remain with parliament for consideration, courtesy bad dramatic politics. If you have patience, wait, else change your line. There is  no better option.

Rahul - a winner or a loser in UP?

Uttar Pradesh is a state where votes are  based on Caste and community. BSP was in power but people were fed up of corruption by BSP leader & CM Mayawati. The other alternative UP people had was SP and so they voted in favor of SP and that’s the reason of SP's leading results. SP and BSP are the only two major parties of UP.

Rahul Gandhi took leading role in UP elections. His campaigns started in the month of November at the time when no other political party was campaigning. He held roughly 200 rallies in UP. Rahul Gandhi's main or internal aim was to have good number of seats and not the formation of Government in UP which he would never speak.  Congress party is very weak in UP and Rahul campaign was to strengthen the party position in UP which he seems to be achieving as congress is likely to get better number of seats this time. Rahul Gandhi's focus was and still is on general elections scheduled for 2014. He always thinks long term.

Rahul Gandhi never projected himself as CM in UP and so people probably took him as an outsider who only came for campaigning in UP and would go after elections. Congress is trailing because it has not been able to woo large population of UP which is divided on the basis of Caste, religion and community. Moreover Congress is not doing well at centre which everyone is seeing in UP. All MPs of Congress in UP are non-performing. In such a scenario, how can one expect congress to form Government in UP. Congress is still a winner. It’s going to pocket good number of seats this time as compared to last time in 2007.

India confused between Iran and Israel

Attack on Israel diplomat’s wife on Feb 13 in New Delhi has brought India into a dilemma over deciding whom to support - Iran or Israel. This confusion was created after Israel accused Iran of its involvement in the terror attack. Similar attacks were witnessed in Bangkok and Georgia on Israelis. The only country involved in these attacks is Iran as Israel believes. India is abstaining from giving any statement against Iran because of its long and cordial relations with Iran. Iran is oil rick and India is oil poor. India, in no condition, want it relations with Iran to be strained. Iran is the second largest oil supplier to India after Saudi Arabia. Recently Iran had threatened India of stopping oil supply on account of non payment of $5 billion for oil. At this instance, India decided to diversify its oil imports from other countries. However problem didn’t worsen as India paid all the dues. In January this year, India became the world’s largest Iranian crude oil. India imported an estimated 2.2 million metric tonnes in January as compared to roughly 1.4 million metric tonnes every month in previous year. India can’t afford to anger Iran for one of its important needs is met by Iran. On the other shore is Israel which is the second largest weapon supplier to India after Russia. Weapons are among basic needs of India. However good India tries to be with China or Pakistan, they continue to remain India’s enemies. As long as India continues to take initiatives to improve relations with these two countries, they won’t attack India. Firing is not uncommon on Indo-Pak border of Kashmir. Recently Chinese troop had entered Indian Territory and destroyed some old Army bunkers and tents in Chumar division of Nyoma sector, about 300 kilometres from Leh which China clearly denied. China has been continuously making efforts to surround India as part of its strategy – String of pearls. In such a situation a country can’t survive without sufficient weapons to counter such attacks. India believes in defensive strategy rather than offensive which is actually the strategy followed by Pakistan and China. Relationship of India with Israel is as important as with Iran. If India stands with Israel at this point, it’s ok but if India stands with Iran, it’s not ok with Israel. India is working hard to balance its relationship with both countries. India did join diplomatic initiative by the US and Israel in UN security council to issue statement condemning terror attack on Israeli diplomat but at the same time ensured no statement would be issued against Iran by saying investigation is still in progress.

Nasheed’s resignation - Result of coup

Mohamed Nasheed, President of Maldives says he is victim of coup which Mohamed Waheed Hassan and military deny. Nasheed said he was forced to resign with guns all around him and he was told that if he didn’t resign, military would not hesitate to use arms so, in order to avoid violence he had to step down. “I was forced to resign with guns all around me. They told me if I don’t resign, they wont hesitate to use arms”, said Nasheed.

He also said that Mohamed Waheed Hassan was involved in coup attempt as he wanted to take over the presidency and demanded immediate resignation from him.

The military denied it forced Nasheed to resign. There was no one in military who could point gun towards Nasheed, said Brigadier General Ibrahim Didi.

Though Nasheed stepped down, but he has not accepted his defeat. He said, "We will come to power again. We will never step back. I will not accept this coup and will bring justice to the Maldivian."

Arrest warrant has been issued for Nasheed on account of his claim of being ousted by a coup and violence spread in Male as thousands of his supporter swept into the streets of Male and clashed with security forces. His house is surrounded by his supporters. His family has already left Maldives for Sri Lanka.

Countries are closely watching the development in Maldives.  A UN special envoy Assistant Secretary General Oscar Fernandez-Taranco is arriving Male on Friday for talks with the new administration in the Maldives. A top Indian Foreign Office official is also flying to Male on Friday as the situation in Maldives is volatile and has not stabilized. US envoy Blake has planned his visit on Saturday.

Nasheed resigned on 7th Feb amid weeks of opposition led protests in Maldives and handed over presidency to Waheed Hassan. This was the news that first came in. His resignation followed police getting hold of State TV broadcasting facilities and broadcasting opposition calls for President Mohamed Nasheed to resign.

Crisis peaked when hundreds of policemen demonstrated in capital Male on the official order of withdrawal of protection to government and opposition supporters protesting close to each other. Protection withdrawal resulted in clash between two parties injuring three, forcing troops to fire rubber bullets at police. This was followed by clash between police and military. On Tuesday, 18 police and army men took control of military headquarters and demanded Nasheed’s resignation.

Protests began in January after Nasheed ordered military to arrest top criminal court judge who is considered to be Ex President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom’s loyal on charge of corruption and political biasness involving his order to release Government critic under Gayoom’s influence. Judge was detained by military despite Supreme Court and prosecutor order of his release. Then Vice president Hassan criticized the arrest of Judge and ordered the release of detained critic. “When it comes to the judiciary, its head is the chief justice and the rulings of the chief justice should be obeyed by all parties,” Hassan said. But he also acknowledged that he and Nasheed could still work together.

Gayoom ruled Maldives for 30 years under one party system until 2008 when Nasheed won multi party elections. Nahseed was arrested 27 times under Gayoom reign and was jailed for almost six years in all on being a political activist. Mr Nasheed is best known globally as an environmental campaigner passionate about human rights to a stable climate. He hit the global headlines three years ago when he held a cabinet meeting under water to highlight global warming and the threat to his nation.

Struggle between Pak Govt and Military

Tension between Pakistan civil government and military is not likely to go down any time soon. On one side where Military doesn’t seem to have faith on government, Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani sacked defence secretary, retired Lieutenant General Naeem Khalid Lodhi, on Jan 11 with an allegation of "gross misconduct and illegal action which created misunderstanding between institutions”. Next day Army announced it would not acknowledge Nargis Sethi as Lodhi's replacement. An army officer also made it clear that they would not react violently to the appointment of new defence secretary but at the same time, would not cooperate with the secretary. Lodhi was the most senior civil servant responsible for military affairs, who acted as the bridge between government and military. Lodhi’s suspension came amid Kayani’s warning to Gilani against allegations leveled against him and ISI chief Lt Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha. Gilani alleged that affidavit filing by army and ISI chief in Supreme Court on memo scandal without the permission of government was unconstitutional.
{What is Memogate scandal? There are allegation that Hussain Haqqani, close aide of Zardari and former Pakistani Ambassador to US had sent a memo to the former U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, Mike Mullen in May, seeking US intervention in preventing a coup in Pakistan after the Abbottabad operation. Haqqani had to resign amid controversies. Probe has already started to identify reason and role of Zardari in the memo scandal.}
In response, Kayani warned Gilani that his statement would have dire consequences on the country and he needs to clarify or withdraw his statement. Kayani’s warning lead to sacking of Defence Secretary Lodhi which further worsened the tussle.
Gilani was summoned on January 19 in the case of contempt for not obeying an order to reopen corruption probes into the country's president. Supreme Court wants Gilani to write to Swiss authorities to reopen corruption case against Zardari which government had refused to earlier. He got two weeks breather from Supreme Court as he presented before court. “Zardari has complete immunity inside and outside the country. It will not give a good message to proceed against a President elected by two-thirds majority. A president could not be handed over to foreign courts,'' Gilani told the court, referring to approaching Swiss authorities. Controversies have left several questions unanswered. Will same Government continue to rule? Will it lead to early elections? Is Military coup an option?

Google Vs Vinay Rai

Scenerio goes like this… Kapil Sibal invites chiefs of Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Microsoft etc. and asks to remove the cartoons of politicians uploaded on these websites. IT companies refuse to comply with his direction. Matters cools down with Kapil Sibal backward step. Suddenly, a 39 years old journalist of weekly Urdu newspapers Akbari files plea in Supreme Court against the content on these websites. Does it look self motivated or a conspiracy by Government or just a publicity stunt?

We spoke to Mr. Vinay Rai, man who filed plea in Supreme Court. “Pictures uploaded on these social networking websites are objectionable, in the form of cartoons and comic pictures of God and Goddess which hurt religious sentiments of people and can cause communal violence. Nudity and obscenity are common on these websites”, said Mr. Rai. He also added that every website should review the content before it be uploaded as they do with the feedback that they receive about their websites. On being asked why he filed plea on Jan 17 after Kapil Sibal episode, he replied, “I approached Kapil Sibal five months back and in December also along with Muslim leaders. Sibal was only concerned about cartoon pictures of politicians such as Sonia Gandhi, Manmohan Singh, etc. He backtracked when he got no positive response from website owners.” If Mr. Rai is to be believed, then he is self motivated and has no influence of Kapil Sibal or any other political leader.

Then we contacted Mr. N.K. Kaul, an advocate representing Google. As per him, it’s not technically possible to block these websites in India or to remove all the content already uploaded on websites. “If Mr. Rai or any other individual finds something objectionable on websites, then he should report the content as spam/obscene to website itself instead of moving to court. “Sex” is an objectionable word but in our passports, voter ID cards, gender is written as “Sex”, that doesn’t mean Google will block important information pertaining to passport or voter ID cards. Same goes for “virgin”. This word is also part of virgin airlines. Google can’t block as it will deprive surfers of important information”, said Mr. Kaul. Mr. Kaul refused to comment on the motive behind filing of plea against these websites by Mr. Rai.

 In today’s world, people are smart enough to decide what is right and what is wrong. Any sensible man would report the objectionable content to website. If each person moves to court, then court would be too small to accommodate all. It has been observed that websites take action on reported content. In terms of IT knowledge, India is advancing at a very fast pace. Almost every person has an account on Facebook and similar social networking websites. Important is we regulate ourselves, instead of trying to regulate websites. Generation Y is much smarter and faster than Generation X. Any content cannot remain hidden for long.

Tie up; No tie up

Mamata Banerjee, chief of the biggest ally of UPA government has kept Congress on tenterhook. Since Trinamool has joined UPA, clouds are hanging over government. It’s a party, UPA can’t depend upon. The most crucial time when UPA needed it the most in parliament in its support over Lokpal Bill, Trinamool was standing with the opposition with its demand to remove Lokayukta clause. Mamata said that centre was framing laws which were binding on state and centre should not impinge on state matters. Centre should be concerned about Lokpal at centre and not Lokayukta at state as that’s the matter of state and should be left to be dealt by the state only. Trinamool has 19 members in Lok Sabha and 6 in Rajya Sabha. The moment Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee announced FDI in retail sector, Mamata attacked back saying decision had to be rolled back and she didn’t pacify until Pranab da gave her assurance. She said it was a unilateral decision of UPA and announcement was made without consultation with allies. Mamata even threatened to withdraw support at UPA’s decision to hike fuel prices. Before this, Mamata even refused to accompany Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on his visit to Bangladesh where he was initially likely to sign treaty on equal water sharing of Teesta river with Bangladesh. Despite Manmohan’s assurance to Manmohan that treaty would not be signed, Mamata remained firm on not being part of the trip scheduled for Sep 6 and 7. Mamata was among five chief ministers of Assam, Tripura, Mizoram and Meghalaya, who were to accompany Manmohan in Bangladesh but Mamata pulled out at the last moment and government had to face embarrassment. The latest one was the dispute over renaming Indira bhavan in Kolkata after the poet Nazrul Islam. All limits were crossed when both parties came out in open with their arms up. Congress staged protest against Trinamool decision over renaming the Bhavan. Responding to this, Trinamool accused Congress of having colluded with CPI(M) which is the main opposition party of Trinamool Congress in West Bengal and ruled for 34 years before Trinamool Congress came in power in 2011. Mamata said, “ Congress is protesting over renaming of Bhavan but it never protested when the Bhavan was being used by Jyoti Basu as CPM party office during his regime of 34 years. Despite all this I have never used strong words against Sonia or Manmohan Singh”. It’s just the beginning. There is more to see in future. Big question is whether Trinamool would remain with Congress or move separately!