06-21-2006, 06:09 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Singhâs report card is dismal </b>- By Satish Chandra
As it approaches the midway point of its term in office, a holistic assessment of the UPA governmentâs performance is called for on security related issues including foreign policy, insurgency management, security reform, governance and management of the economy.
Indian foreign policy has traditionally, with few aberrations, been uncompromising in ensuring the countryâs independence of action. This time-tested approach has been jettisoned by the UPA government. India has been reduced to a client state of the US as evidenced by its unwarranted vote against Iran at the IAEA, its "soft" policy towards Pakistan, its disinterest in multipolarity, the trilateral Sino-Russian-Indian dialogue process or the SCO (India alone will be represented at the SCO summit meeting at less than head of state or head of government level), its postponement of the Agni III test etc. This turnabout has already cost us dear. It has severely damaged our ties with Iran, aroused Chinaâs suspicions, adversely affected our standing in the international community, hurt sentiment in the Islamic world, undermined our strategic deterrent, and above all, divided the country. Indiaâs autonomy of action will be further eroded once the nuclear deal goes into effect due to Indiaâs enhanced dependency on US nuclear fuel, materials and technology and to the ensuing continuous US monitoring of Indiaâs actions on the entire range of nuclear related issues.
The UPA governmentâs pusillanimity in dealings with neighbours has undermined national security. Though Bangladesh and Pakistan have been involved with terrorist activities directed against India, government has not taken any punitive action against them, thereby encouraging them to continue to do their worst against us. In Sri Lanka, scarred by our IPKF experience, we have played the role of a mere spectator allowing the Sri Lankan-LTTE peace talks to break down. Thus a fresh bout of fighting on the island with all its negative consequences is on the cards. An influx of Sri Lankan Tamil refugees is already underway. In Nepal, instead of boldly aligning ourselves with the democratic forces, we sought to prop up an unpopular monarch, thereby becoming suspect in the eyes of the former which constitute the wave of the future.
Internal security management has been below par. This is ironic, as some of our self-anointed strategic pundits had hailed the appointment of the present NSA as a panacea for our internal security problems which, they made out, his predecessors had neither the interest nor the expertise to handle. No part of India is immune today from terrorism. Insurgencies in J&K and the Northeast as well as the violence wrought by the Naxalites continue to wrack the country. ISI-supported terrorist modules are well entrenched in many parts of India.
Rather than first firmly putting down all anti-national groups and insurgents, the UPA government has opted for the soft option of dialogue. Thus we are witnessing the bizarre spectacle of the government talking about talks with the representatives of ULFA â an outfit which currently is under ISI influence and has no interest in genuine peace â even as it undertakes terrorist actions in Assam on a daily basis and against which counter-terrorist operations have been put on hold for months.
It may be recalled that when the UPA government assumed office, the Naxalites were on the run, the ULFA was on its last legs and the Hurriyat counted for little. The governmentâs supine approach has infused new life into these entities and magnified the security threat posed by them.
Far from taking steps to curb illegal Bangladeshi migration to India, which poses a major security threat to the country, government, in deference to vote bank politics and in defiance of the spirit of Supreme Courtâs ruling, has brought back the IMDT Act through the back door which will facilitate the continuance of such migration.
The National Security Council system as well as several other mechanisms established, on expert advice, for better security management, and which were being worked till the untimely demise of J.N. Dixit, the former NSA, have been allowed to atrophy. The Strategic Policy Group rarely meets. The National Security Council Secretariat, currently headless, is discouraged from making policy recommendations. The Intelligence Coordination Group, dealing with the oversight of the agencies as well as their tasking and evaluation, and the National Information Board, dealing inter alia with information security, are inactive. Not a single meeting of the Economic Intelligence Council has been convened to date under the UPA government. The implementation of the numerous recommendations made in May 2001 by the Group of Ministers for Reform of the National Security System is no longer being monitored. Even more disquieting is the fact that the Nuclear Command Authority has not met for over one and a half years.
While Indiaâs record on good governance has historically not been anything to write home about, that under the present government has touched a new low. Provision of basic services like water, electricity, health etc., is well below acceptable levels even in the capital and major metropolitan cities and little is being done to improve matters. Regularisation of illegality has become the norm for government whether in regard to illegal structures in the capital or on the office of profit issue. Vote bank politics has led the government to further divide the country on the quota issue, and to pursue a line which will lead our best and brightest to leave the country and end up making India a nation of mediocrities.
The 8.3 per cent GDP growth rate attained in the last fiscal year was not due to the government, but despite it. With a more effective government, the countryâs economic progress should have matched that of China. The rate of Indiaâs economic progress has been far below its potential because government, instead of leading, has been led by populist considerations and been timid in pursuing reform. Additionally, the government has been ham-handed in addressing issues as evidenced by the CBDT circular on the tax liability of foreign institutional investors, which dampened the mood in an already jittery stock market and contributed to its decline, by the Saral form controversy, by the creation of conditions leading to massive wheat imports, and by the convoluted manner in which the petrol price hike was effectuated. The Economist of June 3, 2006 best sums up all that ails our economy under the present regime in the following terms:
"Trade liberalisation is halting and partial; the banking system allocates credit to the wrong places; labour laws deter employment; privatisation is stuck; a fiscal deficit, bloated by ill directed price subsidies still sucks resources from productive investment in infrastructure, education and health; and foreign investment in many industries is hampered."
It would be evident from the foregoing that the governmentâs performance has left much to be desired. Under it, India is set to become a second rate nuclear weapon state, closely tied to the US coattails, counting for little in the international comity of nations and unable even to influence to its advantage developments in its immediate neighbourhood. Internally, it is fast becoming a nation divided against itself, with atrophying security systems and structures and quite unable to effectively address the insurgencies afflicting it. Incapable of providing good governance and sound economic management, such progress as we see is due in the main to the acumen, perseverance and ingenuity of the Indian people.
<i>Satish Chandra has served as Indiaâs PR (Permanent Representative) to the UN in Geneva, High Commissioner to Pakistan, and Deputy National Security Adviser</i>
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As it approaches the midway point of its term in office, a holistic assessment of the UPA governmentâs performance is called for on security related issues including foreign policy, insurgency management, security reform, governance and management of the economy.
Indian foreign policy has traditionally, with few aberrations, been uncompromising in ensuring the countryâs independence of action. This time-tested approach has been jettisoned by the UPA government. India has been reduced to a client state of the US as evidenced by its unwarranted vote against Iran at the IAEA, its "soft" policy towards Pakistan, its disinterest in multipolarity, the trilateral Sino-Russian-Indian dialogue process or the SCO (India alone will be represented at the SCO summit meeting at less than head of state or head of government level), its postponement of the Agni III test etc. This turnabout has already cost us dear. It has severely damaged our ties with Iran, aroused Chinaâs suspicions, adversely affected our standing in the international community, hurt sentiment in the Islamic world, undermined our strategic deterrent, and above all, divided the country. Indiaâs autonomy of action will be further eroded once the nuclear deal goes into effect due to Indiaâs enhanced dependency on US nuclear fuel, materials and technology and to the ensuing continuous US monitoring of Indiaâs actions on the entire range of nuclear related issues.
The UPA governmentâs pusillanimity in dealings with neighbours has undermined national security. Though Bangladesh and Pakistan have been involved with terrorist activities directed against India, government has not taken any punitive action against them, thereby encouraging them to continue to do their worst against us. In Sri Lanka, scarred by our IPKF experience, we have played the role of a mere spectator allowing the Sri Lankan-LTTE peace talks to break down. Thus a fresh bout of fighting on the island with all its negative consequences is on the cards. An influx of Sri Lankan Tamil refugees is already underway. In Nepal, instead of boldly aligning ourselves with the democratic forces, we sought to prop up an unpopular monarch, thereby becoming suspect in the eyes of the former which constitute the wave of the future.
Internal security management has been below par. This is ironic, as some of our self-anointed strategic pundits had hailed the appointment of the present NSA as a panacea for our internal security problems which, they made out, his predecessors had neither the interest nor the expertise to handle. No part of India is immune today from terrorism. Insurgencies in J&K and the Northeast as well as the violence wrought by the Naxalites continue to wrack the country. ISI-supported terrorist modules are well entrenched in many parts of India.
Rather than first firmly putting down all anti-national groups and insurgents, the UPA government has opted for the soft option of dialogue. Thus we are witnessing the bizarre spectacle of the government talking about talks with the representatives of ULFA â an outfit which currently is under ISI influence and has no interest in genuine peace â even as it undertakes terrorist actions in Assam on a daily basis and against which counter-terrorist operations have been put on hold for months.
It may be recalled that when the UPA government assumed office, the Naxalites were on the run, the ULFA was on its last legs and the Hurriyat counted for little. The governmentâs supine approach has infused new life into these entities and magnified the security threat posed by them.
Far from taking steps to curb illegal Bangladeshi migration to India, which poses a major security threat to the country, government, in deference to vote bank politics and in defiance of the spirit of Supreme Courtâs ruling, has brought back the IMDT Act through the back door which will facilitate the continuance of such migration.
The National Security Council system as well as several other mechanisms established, on expert advice, for better security management, and which were being worked till the untimely demise of J.N. Dixit, the former NSA, have been allowed to atrophy. The Strategic Policy Group rarely meets. The National Security Council Secretariat, currently headless, is discouraged from making policy recommendations. The Intelligence Coordination Group, dealing with the oversight of the agencies as well as their tasking and evaluation, and the National Information Board, dealing inter alia with information security, are inactive. Not a single meeting of the Economic Intelligence Council has been convened to date under the UPA government. The implementation of the numerous recommendations made in May 2001 by the Group of Ministers for Reform of the National Security System is no longer being monitored. Even more disquieting is the fact that the Nuclear Command Authority has not met for over one and a half years.
While Indiaâs record on good governance has historically not been anything to write home about, that under the present government has touched a new low. Provision of basic services like water, electricity, health etc., is well below acceptable levels even in the capital and major metropolitan cities and little is being done to improve matters. Regularisation of illegality has become the norm for government whether in regard to illegal structures in the capital or on the office of profit issue. Vote bank politics has led the government to further divide the country on the quota issue, and to pursue a line which will lead our best and brightest to leave the country and end up making India a nation of mediocrities.
The 8.3 per cent GDP growth rate attained in the last fiscal year was not due to the government, but despite it. With a more effective government, the countryâs economic progress should have matched that of China. The rate of Indiaâs economic progress has been far below its potential because government, instead of leading, has been led by populist considerations and been timid in pursuing reform. Additionally, the government has been ham-handed in addressing issues as evidenced by the CBDT circular on the tax liability of foreign institutional investors, which dampened the mood in an already jittery stock market and contributed to its decline, by the Saral form controversy, by the creation of conditions leading to massive wheat imports, and by the convoluted manner in which the petrol price hike was effectuated. The Economist of June 3, 2006 best sums up all that ails our economy under the present regime in the following terms:
"Trade liberalisation is halting and partial; the banking system allocates credit to the wrong places; labour laws deter employment; privatisation is stuck; a fiscal deficit, bloated by ill directed price subsidies still sucks resources from productive investment in infrastructure, education and health; and foreign investment in many industries is hampered."
It would be evident from the foregoing that the governmentâs performance has left much to be desired. Under it, India is set to become a second rate nuclear weapon state, closely tied to the US coattails, counting for little in the international comity of nations and unable even to influence to its advantage developments in its immediate neighbourhood. Internally, it is fast becoming a nation divided against itself, with atrophying security systems and structures and quite unable to effectively address the insurgencies afflicting it. Incapable of providing good governance and sound economic management, such progress as we see is due in the main to the acumen, perseverance and ingenuity of the Indian people.
<i>Satish Chandra has served as Indiaâs PR (Permanent Representative) to the UN in Geneva, High Commissioner to Pakistan, and Deputy National Security Adviser</i>
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