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Created on Friday, 21 October 2016 08:13
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Flooded Indus 5th September 2010.
(Image Courtesy: earthobservatory.nasa.gov)
“The Indus Water Treaty (IWT) was an international treaty and India could not revoke it unilaterally,” stated Sherry Rehman of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).
A Pakistan Government release last month also quoted her as saying that “India had adopted a policy of ‘water terrorism’ against Pakistan”. The propaganda release is headlined ‘Stopping of water by India to be considered an act of war: Senators.’
Sherry is clever by half. So are many Indian peaceniks and Pak apologists who have flooded the media with warnings and scare-mongering to browbeat Modi Government from tinkering with IWT.
Had they cared to respect blacked-out facts, they would have realized that India has a genuine case to rescind archaic IWT, which was signed in September 1960. This would become crystal-clear later in this column.
The first fact that Sherry and her ilk have not disclosed is that their contention against unilateral revocation is hypocritical. This same contention was once made by India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, when Pakistan backtracked.
“An agreement between two parties could not be abrogated by unilateral action,” he stated on 8th July 1954 while referring to IWT precursor, Inter-Dominion Agreement (IDA) on Punjab Canal Waters dated 4th May 1948. It provided reasonable framework for resolving canal water dispute between West Punjab (Pakistan) and East Punjab (India).
Read more: India has strong case to revoke Indus Water Treaty
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Created on Thursday, 12 May 2016 08:46
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(Image Courtesy: Delhi Tourism)
What is common between late Lala Deshbandhu Gupta, a freedom fighter, and Arvind Kejriwal, Delhi Chief Minister? A lot.
Mr. Gupta humiliated and ridiculed Dr. B.R. Ambedkar while belligerently pitching for Statehood for Delhi in the Constituent Assembly during the late forties. Mr. Kejriwal is repeatedly insulting India’s first OBC Prime Minister with a national mandate, Narendra Modi, in his quest for more power that he would get as Chief Minister of fully fledged Delhi State.
Both the activists preferred Delhi citizens’ right for self-determination to the national unity. Mr. Gupta, however, ultimately let nationalism prevail over regionalism as we find later in this column. Can Kejriwal see Delhi through the prism of national unity and thus limit his demand to seeking control over municipal corporations & other utilities controlled by the Centre?
This throwback from history is relevant to Mr. Kejriwal's recent tweet that he would soon release draft Bill for Delhi's full Statehood. He is again raking up one of the most flogged governance issues. Over-flogged because it was intensely studied and wisely disapproved by Constituent Assembly, States Reorganization Commission (1954), Balakrishnan Committee (1989), Parliament's Standing Committee on Home Affairs (December 2003). Two ex-PMs, Jawaharlal Nehru and Lal Bahadur Shastri, disapproved statehood proposal to sustain and promote national integration.
Before elaborating the issue - Delhi as national capital (representing interest of all states & Union) versus Delhi as a fully fledged State like Bihar, see how Mr. Gupta insulted Dr. Ambedkar, the chief architect of Indian Constitution and champion of social justice. This will put in perspective Mr. Kejriwal’s repeated slurs on the office of Prime Minister.
Read more: Kejriwal, Read History on Delhi Statehood & Abort Draft Bill
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Created on Monday, 02 May 2016 03:19
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(Image Courtesy: PIB)
The Neta-Babu cozy ties have lately come under fresh phase of strain. And the strain is serious one to merit scrutiny. This will show how civil servants and ministers have jointly derailed or sidetracked vital administrative reforms over the decades. And both have thus taken the public for a ride!
The Prime Minister Narendra Modi last month did loud thinking on declining accountability of officials to elected representatives of people. Replying to debate in Lok Sabha on President’s budget session address to Parliament, he sought the cooperation of the Opposition to devise means to increase accountability of the executive.
Without cooperation of all MPs, he believed, this challenge can’t be overcome. “The government of the day would get abused, second government would come and the executive would continue to have merry time,” Mr. Modi bemoaned. (translated from his Hindi speech)
Delhi Chief Minister, Avind Kejriwal, outdid PM while delivering a lecture on civil service day on 20th April 2016. Mr. Kejriwal pitched for a bureaucracy that is totally committed to Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) that swept to power with brute majority.
He recollected suspension of two officials of DANICS cadre by Delhi Government and the resulting one-day protest leave availed by cadre officials in December 2015. And he thundered: “We can tolerate anything but we will not tolerate politics. If you are interested in politics, then resign, contest elections and confront us.”
Referring to a letter sent to him by a very senior Delhi Official, Mr. Kejriwal reportedly said: “This officer wrote that the permanent bureaucracy is the government, the minister is not the government. Bureaucracy is the government.”
Well, it is not for the first time that he has berated bureaucracy.
In December 2015, he had described the officials’ protest leave as an act of “goodaism”. He warned bureaucrats that his government would throw them out of Delhi if they did not follow their orders. He also did loud thinking on replacing generalist bureaucrats with professionals and experts to bring innovations in governance.
Read more: Fix Accountability of both Political Executive & Civil Services
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Created on Wednesday, 03 February 2016 09:19
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(Image Courtesy: narendramodi.in)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is perhaps attracting more eyeballs than ever for two reasons. First, he has started 2016 with a bang. He is scouting for innovations in governance to transform his rhetorical vision into robust, inclusive growth.
He excelled as a dream merchant at a global business summit on 29th January. He proved that he only loves to quote or twist data that scales up his image as leader with magical wand who can turn around slump into boom. Mr. Modi took credit for developments that originated elsewhere.
His notable initiatives in January include Start-up India, meeting with secretaries of different ministries in groups to get refreshing ideas on issues such as energy conservation & efficiency and Ganga rejuvenation.
In his interface with officials, he has relied on project monitoring through a platform called PRAGATI (Pro-Active Governance and Timely Implementation) that he launched in March 2015. The interactions have inspired favourable ‘leaks’/ ‘exclusives’ in media. News attributed to sources showed PM pitching for dismissal of non-performing officials and timely redressal of public grievances.
Second, Mr. Modi’s natty pictures are the star attractions in the Government advertisements. It has lately become almost a daily fair at least in eight English dailies that I read. His image glitters even in advertisements for events with which he is not directly associated. His image is becoming trade-mark for all advertisements and official websites that profile different government entities & their achievements.
The advertisement blitzkrieg is unprecedented, which perhaps irked Jairam Ramesh into accusing Mr. Modi of indulging in “shameless personal PR campaign.”
Read more: Time for PM to Unveil Model Code of Governance
