Indian arms imports almost triple of China, Pak: Study

Press Trust of India
Paris, 17 March: India remains the biggest buyer of arms in the world, importing nearly three times as many weapons as its nearest competitors China and Pakistan over the last five years, a Swedish think tank said today.
The total volume of arms sales was up 14 per cent in 2009-13 compared to the previous five years, according to the Stockholm international peace research institute (Sipri).
Indian imports of major weapons rose by 111 per cent in the last five years compared to 2004-08. Its share of total global arms imports increased from 7 to 14 per cent, Sipri said.
India replaced China as the world's biggest arms buyer in 2010. With its domestic defence industry struggling to manufacture high-tech arms, India is in the midst of a defence spending binge as it struggles to keep up with better-equipped Chinese forces and a range of military challenges in its volatile neighbourhood.
The main supplier of arms to India in 2009-13 was Russia, accounting for 75 per cent of all imports, reflecting India's need to upgrade and modernise weapons systems dating back to their close relationship during the cold war.
India has lately sought to diversify its sources, looking particularly to the United States of America.
Figures from IHS Jane's released in February showed that India became the biggest buyer of US weapons last year, with total imports worth USD 1.9 billion, and a string of large-scale purchases including Boeing's C-17A transport aircraft and P-8I Maritime Patrol Aircraft.
In 2009-13, however, the USA still accounted for only 7 per cent of India's purchases according to Sipri.
India's traditional rival Pakistan increased its weapons acquisitions by 119 per cent, growing from 2 per cent of the global total to 5 per cent during that period.
The five largest arms suppliers worldwide between 2009 and 2013 were the United States of America (29 per cent of global exports), Russia (27 per cent), Germany (7 per cent), China (6 per cent) and France (5 per cent).
They collectively accounted for 74 per cent of total arms exports, Sipri said.
The world's top five arms importers were now India, China, Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.
“Chinese, Russian and US arms supplies to South Asia are driven by both economic and political considerations,” said Siemon Wezeman, senior researcher with the Sipri arms transfers programme.
“In particular, China and the USA appear to be using arms deliveries to Asia to strengthen their influence in the region,” Mr Wezeman said.
Arms exports to Africa between 2004-08 and 2009-13 jumped 53 per cent. The three largest importers in the region were Algeria, Morocco and Sudan.
Imports by European nations decreased by 25 per cent between 2004-2008 and 2009-13.
Britain was the largest importer of major weapons in Europe (receiving 12 per cent of deliveries), followed by Azerbaijan (12 per cent) and Greece (11 per cent).

The Stateasman
http://www.thestatesman.net/news/44901-indian-arms-imports-almost-triple-of-china-pak-study.html

New committee formed by tribals’ organisations to thwart project

Anindita Chowdhury
aninditasmail@gmail.com
Hyderabad, 17 March
Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi may be trying to reach out to the tribal population across the country but his government’s commitment to build Polavaram dam has antagonised the Konda Reddi tribe settled in the submergence zone of the proposed project in Khammam district.
 A new committee has been formed recently by the various tribal organisations and the people’s group to launch fresh agitation against the Polavaram project, aimed at providing irrigation to areas in Seemandhra but the submergence zone lies in Telangana that has prompted the Centre to propose an Ordinance to transfer seven mandals in Khammam to the residue state for smooth rehabilitation. 
The Centre in order to pacify the people of coastal Andhra and Rayalseema post bifurcation promised the Rs 20,000 crore Polavaram multipurpose project at the cost of this vulnerable tribe.
 Mr Murla Ramesh Reddy of the Adivasi Konda Reddi Sangham pointed out that since neither the Konda Reddis nor any other tribal population have any pattas or title deeds they will not benefit from the rehabilitation package under the new land acquisition policy. 
The Konda Reddi tribe is spread sparsely in Chinturu, VR Pura, Kunavaram, Veleru Padu hills and Ashvraopeta and Dammapeta plains of Khammam district.
The new committee has threatened to launch serious agitation against the move to displace the Kondareddi tribe which is “now rated as second in terms of facing risk of extinction”. 
According to Mr Reddy there would be certain and total disappearance of the tribe in case of large-scale inundation that would occur due to the construction of Polavaram Dam.  He warned that the tribal population settled in the uphill area in the thick of forests, practising Podu cultivation would henceforth be the subject of museums and archaeological studies once Polavaram gets built. The dam which is expected to submerge 276 villages in Andhra Pradesh alone will also impact the tribal population in Chhattisgarh and Odisha.
They are not even ready to accept a change in the design which has been proposed by engineers who fear that present design would lead to an environmental disaster. Three barrages would replace the huge dam in the alternative design, described as unsuitable by the Centre. 
“Whatever happens, the Konda Reddis will be the first ones to be affected by the Polavaram Dam, even if there is a change in design,” said Mr Murla Ramesh Reddy. 
He says the proposed dam will only be beneficial to the contractors and the multinationals who will gain entry in tribal areas. The claim that the dam irrigating 6 lakh acres is a myth because the areas are already under irrigation, it was added.
 Some rights group argue that transferring of the mandals without the nod of Gram Sabhas is un-Constitutional. 
“The tribal rights came into being in the Pre-Constitution era during Nizam’s rule following tribal uprisings which were later safeguarded through certain Constitutional clauses. The transfer of the mandals to the residue state is not within the welfare of tribals because submergence cannot benefit a tribal. 
Hence we can say Polavaram goes against the spirit of the Constitution,” says M Sridhar, a Constitutional expert.

The Statesamn
http://www.thestatesman.net/news/45024-building-polavaram-dam-may-go-against-congress.html

Construction of Greenfield Airport damage houses in nearby villages

Tamanna Tamang 
tamannatamang@gmail.com

Pakyong, 13 March
The state government’s ambitious Greenfield Airport project at Pakyong in East Sikkim has come under controversy after the construction work started taking its toll on nearby houses.
The construction work that was on in full swing has affected as many as 150 houses in the nearby villages of Naya Busty, Passthang and Karthok. The houses have developed cracks, while some have started to fall apart. And needless to say, the locals there are now living in constant fear.
The wall built for the runway of the airport has caused a portion of land to cave in, due to which many villagers have vacated their houses, while many of them, who have no option at hand, are living in houses that are full of cracks.
Though the villagers say they are all ready to move out of their ancestral land and relocate elsewhere, all the department concerned has given them so far is assurance.
With the monsoon season only a few months away, the villagers are worried what will happen to them when the rains finally start to come down.
The villagers have now started hitting the streets to press for their demands for proper rehabilitation. 
They also halted the construction work since March 6, but the work resumed today, following yet another assurance from the officials concerned.
“We are on the roads to make our demands and problems heard,” a local resident, Bikash Gurung, said. He however, added that the villagers are not against development and are only seeking an alternative.
In a reply to a Right to Information (RTI) application filed by Mr Gurung, the Airport Authority of India has admitted that the houses have been damaged due to the airport construction work.
After the locals lodged frequent complaints at the Pakyong subdivision office, a committee was formed to look into the matter and provide compensation to the affected villagers. 
The state tourism department was made the nodal department that would look into the matter, while the compensation part was to be handled by the AAI.
However, the villagers claimed that the department concerned has been reluctant in taking initiatives.
The villagers also said they are not able to cultivate their land due to the huge cracks in the fields, while water sources have dried 
up. 
Even the roads have caved in, making it difficult for students to go to school, the locals said.

Source: The Statesman, 14 March 2013
http://www.thestatesman.net/news/44412-Construction-of-Greenfield-Airport--damage-houses-in-nearby-villages.html

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Far from Vietnam

The defeat  marked a severe setback for America, one that affected the psyche of   its  society.  There  was  a  growing feeling that the war was a blunder.  That impression  coupled with the Watergate scandal   led   to   President   Nixon's  resignation. Isolationist forces were strengthened   at   home   and   the   US  government was cautioned about any such   involvement    in    future.    The   victory   of   Ho   Chi   Minh   and   his  associates boosted the morale of the Communist world ~SUBRATA MUKHERJEE

The protracted war in Vietnam, which ended in 1973, was one of the most defining events in the last three decades of the 20th century. This is evident from a sequence in Satyajit Ray’s film Pratidwandi (Adversary) made in 1970. In reply to a query as to what was the most important event of the last decade, the answer  was the ‘war in Vietnam’. This was followed by a counter-query, ‘Not man reaching the moon’? The reply ~  ‘No, the progress in the field of science would have made that possible. The war in Vietnam brings to surface many new dimensions’. Are you a Communist was the retort, to which the reply was, “One need not be a Communist to admire Vietnam”.
This year marks the 40th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam war. One major contribution of the Eisenhower administration was the domino theory ~ “If there is a line of dominos standing on end close to one another and one is pushed over, it will knock over the next in the line”. This supplemented the Containment theory by which if one nation in a regional setting is taken over by Communism, its spill-over effect would affect its neighbours. On the basis of this doctrine, he supported the South Vietnamese government and though it violated the earlier agreement of holding an election for the whole of Vietnam, the Eisenhower administration continued to support the Vietnamese regime and increased military and economic aid to the Diem regime, which successfully convinced the US policy-makers that the Communists were behind all the mischief. Both Kennedy and Johnson followed this line of action and enhanced economic and military aid to South Vietnam.
This policy was defended on the ground that intervention was essential to protect the independence of the people of South Vietnam. But the actual reason was to keep the country outside the Communist bloc as a continuation of the Containment policy. This was the situation when America changed the course of its policy, aware that the Vietcong (the name of the guerrillas) were receiving substantial assistance from North Vietnam and Ho Chi Minh defended the policy because of South Vietnam’s refusal to agree to the earlier agreement to hold elections.
John F Kennedy, who was the US President from 1961 to 1963, proposed an anti-guerrilla campaign to create ‘safe villages’ in which local peasants were moved to fortified areas in order to isolate the Vietcong. He had sent 16,000 advisors, helicopters and other military hardware. This policy came a cropper  as the Vietcong consisted predominantly of peasants and had no problem in successfully carrying out their mission inside the villages. By 1964, the Vietcong and the NLF controlled roughly 40 per cent of South Vietnamese villages and enjoyed the support of the local people. Johnson (1963-69) assumed that the Vietcong was controlled and directed by Ho Chi Minh and ordered bombing of supplies. Over the next seven years, North Vietnam was heavily bombed, indeed  more than all the bombs that were dropped in Germany during the Second World War. In addition, more than half a million US troops were sent to South Vietnam. But even such massive deployment could not stop the advance of the Vietcong. By February 1968, the Vietcong controlled 80 per cent of all towns and villages in  South Vietnam. However, many of these areas were recovered by the US-assisted South Vietnamese troops; yet public opinion in the USA was building up against the war and there was an increasing demand to withdraw from Vietnam. Johnson rejected the demand of withdrawal but suspended bombing of North Vietnam in March 1968.
Nixon (1969-74) was convinced about the need for a new approach as increased US presence became untenable. Early in 1969, there were half a million US soldiers, 50,000 South Koreans and 75,000 South Vietnamese against 450,000 Vietcong and approximately 70,000 North Vietnamese troops. In this situation, Nixon introduced the new concept called ‘Vietnamization’, by which the USA would re-arm and train the South Vietnamese army to take care of defence,  allowing gradual withdrawal of US troops. This led to the reduction of US troops to half by mid-1971. Nixon resumed heavy bombing of North Vietnam again along with the Ho Chi Minh trail through Laos and Kampuchea. But this did not change the ground reality and by the end of 1972, the Vietcong effectively controlled the entire western half of the country. Nixon was under tremendous pressure both at home and abroad to withdraw.
Several factors led to the demand for withdrawal ~ the revulsion caused by the massive bombing of North Vietnam, Laos and Kampuchea; the extensive use of chemicals to destroy jungle foliage and of inflammable napalm jelly which burnt people alive; the deaths of thousands of innocent civilians; and the brutal killings of captured Vietcong soldiers and civilians which were highlighted by the media throughout the world. A ceasefire was agreed in January 1973 and this process  was facilitated by the Russians and the Chinese who were helping Vietcong but were also looking for a way out. The agreement stipulated that all US troops would leave Vietnam and both North and South Vietnam would respect the border along the 17th parallel. But the Vietcong continued the war. And without the support of the US troops, the Saigon regime collapsed and South Vietnamese defence proved to be no match for Vietcong.
In 1975, Saigon was occupied by the North Vietnamese army and Vietcong, leading to the unity of the nation and freedom from foreign occupation first from the French and then from the USA. Eisenhower’s domino effect proved to be correct;  along with the establishment of a Communist government in united Vietnam, Communist governments were installed in Laos and Kampuchea in the same year. The containment theory failed in South-east Asia.
There were several reasons for the debacle ~ Vietcong and NLP had massive popular support; the Vietcong were fighting in an area of which they had complete knowledge and intensive links with the hinterland. They were experts in guerrilla warfare; the US military could not stop the supplies to it from North Vietnam; and  the moral plank of the South Vietnamese position was weak as it did not hold the promised elections, fearing that the Communists would win any such election.
The defeat  marked a severe setback for America, one that affected the psyche of  its society. There was a growing feeling that the war was a blunder.   That impression  coupled with the Watergate scandal led to Nixon’s resignation. Isolationist forces were strengthened at home and the US government was cautioned about any such involvement in future. The victory of Ho Chi Minh and his associates boosted the morale of the Communist world. However, both the Russian and the Chinese leaderships were restrained in their reaction. Both wanted to reduce international tension, which facilitated the process of détente. A shift from the policy of containment became the cornerstone of US foreign policy from the 1970s till the collapse of Communism in the 1990s.
The writer is retired Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Delhi

The Statesman 19 December 2013

http://www.thestatesman.net/news/30483-far-from-vietnam.html

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Aadhaar Unmasked ~ In the name of the poor

Usha Ramanathan

In the beginning, and for some time thereafter, the UID project based its claims of legitimacy on the 'inclusion' of the poor. In marketing the project, phrases such as giving identity to those without an identity, being "recognised in the eyes of the government", the "lack of identity" as "especially detrimental (to) the poor and the underprivileged", and the people who live in India's "social, political and economic periphery" have been used liberally.

The movement away from the promise of inclusion to the threat of exclusion if a person is not enrolled for a UID came later, beginning tentatively in 2011 but becoming aggressive and vocal in 2012. It was January 2013 before the poor were led into panic when UID-linked bank accounts were made mandatory for receiving entitlements by cash transfer into banks. Many of them had IDs that recognised their entitlements, for instance ration cards, NREGA job cards, voter ID, post office accounts - but they were now being told that they could not reach their entitlements if they did not have a UID number.

Enrolling the undefined class of the unidentified poor is a complicated exercise. The N.Vittal headed Demographic Standards Committee recognised this, and suggested an approach where "approved introducers" could introduce a person to the system and "vouch for the validity of residents' information." This idea was borrowed from the account opening procedure in banks; with a significant departure. An introducer must have a UID number; must be easily accessible to the resident; must be above the age of 18 and must not have a criminal record. NGOs were encouraged to act as introducers. But, while an introducer needs to be "approved" by the Registrar, there is no requirement that the introducer must know the person to be enrolled. This might have seemed a pragmatic resolution of the issue of enrolment of the poor and those without identity, but it was bound to raise its own set of problems.

A case in point is the well-documented instance of the homeless in Delhi. In January 2011, I visited the Pul Mithai enrolment centre to understand how the poor were being enrolled. Under the Delhi Government's 'Mission Convergence' in which the government and NGOs share a platform for policy-making and implementation, a survey of the homeless had been carried out using the benignant though inexperienced services of an informal roster of young persons. At that point in the exercise, which had covered about 80,000 people, a "provisional ID card under Homeless Survey" carried the name, gender, age and a photograph along with an ID number which ran like this: 10HP 58/1G. 3042397. 'HP' stood for 'homeless people' and 1G for the place where they had been surveyed as sited on the Eicher map. 1G was Mori gate, 1B was Yamuna Bazaar and so on. On the reverse were a series of caveats and explanations, including this: "This ID card has been issued on the basis of self-reported information by the cardholder." The UID enrolment was done on the basis of this card.

The actual enrolment was a parody. The names were not complicated, but there were some discrepancies; for instance, where a card recorded a woman as Pooja Devi, she insisted that she was just Pooja. Gender was the easy part. Age was less certain. It often went by approximations and in some cases, the age recorded in the survey was plainly in error - a lady whose daughter had married recently couldn't be 26! We did a 'panchayat' to help her arrive at her age. 

The columns for the name of the father, and of the mother were left blank. The young lads doing the enrolment explained: "Yeh log NGO ke hain" or these people belong to the NGO, a new version of mai-baap. Where fingerprints did not work, and iris did, the system 'accepted' the fingerprints after the fourth try - in what is called 'forced capture'. Those enrolled had no idea of the consequences.

The address posed a problem. What is the address of a homeless person? The street where they are when surveyed? A pavement they occupy until a 'clean-up drive' chases them away? 

On the UID form, another option was used. The homeless were given the address of an NGO that out of benevolence was willing to lend its name. Except the NGOs are in places in South Delhi while Pul Mithai is near Old Delhi railway station and the address for delivering the UID letter, and for the UID linked bank account, would be that of the NGO. The two "introducers" at the enrolment centre were young and motivated but had no idea where those they were helping to enrol could be reached. 

So, many UID letters stayed undelivered - where the name and photograph did not help locate persons; or where, as in Geeta Colony, there was a 'clean up' drive between the enrolment and the UID letter reaching the NGO; or in Nizamuddin, where labourers engaged on works for the Commonwealth Games had moved to another site and could not be traced. Later, the Homeless Resources Centre became the address. But the problems are generic and won't vanish; and the HRCs are linked to projects with a limited shelf life after which they may cease to exist, or may morph into an altered entity.

This may have "enrolled" the homeless, but not in ways that gets them into an identity system that will help them.

Those in poverty live in a twilight zone of (il)legality. To them, an identity document is an especially valued possession. That is one reason that the voter ID was so sought after although not having a voter ID was no disqualification for voting; one among a plethora of ID documents would serve for the purposes of voting. The casualness with which the identity of the poor is being trifled with by the UID, and piggybacking on the poor in carrying on an experiment is, to use a euphemism, less than fair.

NILEKANI'S ELLIS ISLAND

The dependence on an introducer who doesn't know the person being enrolled holds the potential to actually distort identity. At his World Bank talk in April 2013, Mr. Nandan Nilekani gave a description that has the virtue of simplicity but not quite of accuracy. An introducer, he said, "will say 'I know this person, he's Ram Singh approximately born in 1977, so, we give a date of birth. He has a home, he has a home; otherwise, if he is a homeless person, we'll give him an address c/o Homeless Shelter or whatever. Basically, then, the introducer stands as some sort of guarantee in some sense for that person. Then that person's data is entered, and he gets an ID. So, that's how these people get into the system… Remember, fundamentally you get only one ID in the system. So the ID that you give at the time of your enrolment is your name in this system for the rest of your life…which is why I refer to this as a 21st-century Ellis Island…what happened at Ellis Island, let's say in the 19th century or Nova Scotia in Canada in the 19th century? 

“You had all the boatloads of people coming from Europe, Eastern Europe, Croatia, Poland, wherever, Ireland, Italy, all that. And they would land at Ellis Island and they would have very complicated names. And the immigration officer would say, ah, no, I think from now on you be Sam David. And, from that day onwards, in the New World, he would be Sam David, no matter what his name was in the Old World. So, we do the same thing, you know. This person was out of the system, except physically he is in the same place, but virtually he is outside. He comes in and gets a name and that's his name in our system for the rest of his life. So think of it as a 21st-century version of the Ellis Island."

The author is an academic activist. She has been researching the UID and its ramifications since 2009.

The Statesman 26 July 2013
Link: http://www.thestatesman.net/news/7676-Aadhaar-Unmasked---In-the-name-of-the-poor--28th-July-2013-.html