India in Central Asian Republics
Muhammad Asad

India desires to further strengthen its military ties with the Central Asian Republics (CAR). To achieve this purpose, several Indian military delegations have been visiting capitals of Central Asian States, particularly Tajikistan. The visits are aimed at firming up plans for joint military exercises and economic projects. Several ministers of the CAR have already visited India.
The USA is also encouraging India to deepen her ingresses in the Republics as peoples of some republics abhor USA because of her over-ebullient support to Israel vis-à-vis Muslim countries. Agha Shahi in “Geopolitics of Central Asia” points to “combination of India and Israel” which “serves the American Strategic interests in the Middle East and is now being focused on Central Asia” (see Islamabad Policy Research Institute Factfile Pakistan and Central Asian States, 1992-2006)
India has already been using Tajikistan as a base for her aircraft carrying humanitarian and reconstruction aid to Afghanistan. Several batches of Tajik Army officers have already been trained in Indian military establishments (as per agreement signed between the two countries).
Central Asia occupies an important place in New Delhi's "security calculus". India visualizes CAR as a scene of a new geopolitical game. It expects competition between the United States, Russia, and China in this area _ China and Kyrgyzstan have conducted joint military exercises aimed, ostensibly, at coordinating their response to terrorism. The United States has enhanced its military presence in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan since its involvement in Afghanistan and secured cooperation from Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan.
India wishes to supplant Russia from the CAR. But, certain treaties sanction Russian presence in the CAR. For example, (a) the 1993 Treaty of Friendship between Russia and Tajikistan gives Russia's Federal Border Service authority for the protection of the Tajik border. Russia's 201st Motorized Rifle Division occupies a base near Dushanbe. (2) The Russian Air Force has deployed its planes at the joint Russian-Kyrgyz air base, Kant Air-Base, in Kyrgyzstan, under e Collective Security Treaty.
Despite its frantic efforts, it would be hard for India to realise her dream of being the master player in the CAR. India lacks the sophisticated weaponry that Moscow and Washington could provide to the CAR. India’s immediate aim is to isolate Pakistan in the region and gain political support on Kashmir issue. Already, India feels much embarrassed by creation of the China-dominated Shanghai Organization. The organisation unites Russia, China, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan.
Stephen Blank, a professor at the Strategic Studies Institute of the U.S. Army War College, had warned that the visits of Indian military officials to Tajikistan was part of a broad design, which he believed was "quite alarming" in its potential. "There are many signs that India is gearing up to put military pressure on Pakistan," he said. "The Indians are absolutely furious with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf…”. Blank envisaged the possibility that the Farkhor base in Tajikistan, close to the Afghan border, will be the focus of India's deepening involvement in Central Asian defence.
The Farkhor military base was established to funnel Indian relief assistance to Kabul after India and Pakistan imposed mutual bans on over flights in December 2001. However, the base is actually meant to force Pakistan to thinly spread its air-defence assets towards Afghanistan. Aini air base is another threat to Pakistan’s military interests.
India understands that Pakistan is an energy-deficit country. India wants to utilise her presence in the CAR to scuttle Pakistan’s efforts to tap energy resources of the CAR. Because of India’s overt and covert manipulations, Pakistan has not been able to make headway with projects to lay pipelines from the CAR to Pakistan.
Because of India’s presence in Afghanistan, it is now becoming increasingly difficult for Pakistan to run the pipelines across Afghanistan to the CAR. Dr Maqsoodul Hassan Nuri in “Pak-CAR Relations: Future Outlook” (The News, August 23, 2004) questions: “What are prospects of gas and oil pipelines? Firstly, they are still statements of intent. The Afghan government will have to muster financial resources to build pipelines, the plants needed to turn natural gas into liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and to improve the harbour facilities for LPG tankers. The UNOCAL and BRIDAS litigation deterred many U.S. companies to invest, as they are worried about instability of Afghanistan and even South Asia’. The pipeline from Iran is under a cloud because of India’s uncertain cooperation and US cooperation.
Obviously, India has not accepted Pakistan’s existence at heart. It wants to weaken Pakistan militarily and economically.
RAND scholar Tanham in Indian Strategic Thought points out, “Indian politicians viewed the 1947 partition and creation of Pakistan as an unfortunate but temporary breach in the strategic unity of the subcontinent”. But, India must realise it would not be easy to break up a nuclear Pakistan. Clearly, it is in India’s interest to accept Pakistan as a friendly neighbour. It should abandon Chanakya’s mandal policy_ ‘all neighbouring countries are actual or potential enemies’.

Promoting Interfaith Harmony
Khalid Khokhar

Pope Benedict XVI’s recent speech has stirred a wave of tension and anger amongst Muslim throughout the world. Last year in the same month, the publication of twelve blasphemous cartoons ridiculing the Prophet of Islam (PBUH) in Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten also ignited a simmering controversy culminating into protests, demonstrations and rallies against Danish Government. It is very unfortunate that the Pope’s comments have been aired at such crucial time when Palestine, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Syria and Lebanon are at the heart of terrorism and its resolution must take precedence over all other issues. A statement of regret by Pope Benedict XVI on 17 September, 2006 has quieted some Muslims' anger, but his clarification fell short of a real apology. The President of Pakistan has rightly said in that “This is the time to build bridges, not to burn bridges”. It is the duty of moderate and enlightened elements both in the West and the Islamic world to work for the promotion of inter-faith harmony through dialogue. In fact, things seem to be getting worse from the point of view of the Muslim world’s relationship with the West.
The incident of 9/11 on WTC acts as a prototype of a major paradigm shift - from cold war to combating Islamic terrorism. Due to globalization of the world, surfacing of religious and cultural prejudices has become a dangerous development further fading away the optimism in the post Cold War era. Interfaith dialogue brings people of different religious faiths together for “conversations”. Such dialogues have become an increasingly important tool for those who seek to end violent conflict worldwide. As a progressive Islamic state of 162 million, Pakistan has endeavored to promote peace and stability in the Islamic world and discouraged the polarization between the world of Islam and the West. In this context, the President of Pakistan has propounded the concept of "Enlightened moderation", which envisages a two-pronged strategy - to curb militancy and terrorism, and establish constructive and cooperative relations between the Muslim countries and the West. The first prong of the strategy calls on the Muslim countries to vigorously undertake internal reform of their societies, ensuring socio-political and economic progress of their populations. The second prong entails that West, on its part, should put in their efforts towards the resolution of the long standing disputes because they fall into a core of terrorism and extremism. In order to have a peaceful and secure world, we need to promote tolerance, understanding and respect for each others values, culture and trade. In other words we have to develop interfaith harmony so that Samuel Huntington’s thesis which predicts a ‘clash of civilizations’ has to be rejected. We are not living in an era of crusade. This is the 21st century and there is no clash of civilization going on. Let us not take the world back to the crusade therefore, recent provocation against the Muslims in the form of Pope’s comments against Islam is most unacceptable to the Muslim world.
The need to promote cooperation and understanding among religions and cultures was all the more essential. The necessity for dialogue among different faiths needed to be driven forward and transformed into “bridges of friendship”, to ameliorate the sufferings of those who were the victims of intolerance and interfaith friction. Pakistan believed in building linkages with other faiths and hoped that Muslim Ummah would pursue the goal of interfaith harmony. Islam is religion of peace and propagates moderation and tolerance. It does not allow violence under any circumstances. Such a task inevitably involves: creation of a work ethic through new educational programmes; and increasing the participation of women in the nation's labour force - recognizing them as contributors to the economy and community. To conclude, it is only through education and dialogue, we may shape a new world order.
 

World’s 47th Corrupt Country
Amjed Jaaved

In its annual report on quality of governance, the World Bank has ranked India forty-seventh in the list of 200 countries surveyed for the level of corruption, quality of governance and enforcement of rule of law. The Bank’s director of global governance, Daniel Kaufmann has predicted that India’s fast growth rate of eight per cent will falter unless the rampant corruption is curbed.
Kaufman pointed out that concomitant growth of corruption pari passu with fast economic growth was a lame excuse. He pointed out that several countries (smaller than India) like Slovenia, Botswana, Estonia, Tanzania, Ghana, Mozambique and Nigeria had made substantially arrested corruption and demonstrated improved governance. India could emulate them in improving her score on level of governance. sThe report observes that rule of law is a sine qua non of democracies. But, India has a poor record of enforcing the rule of law.
There are several stages of economic growth. Attaining eight per cent growth is no guarantee for self-sustained high growth in future years. To avoid slow-down in existing level of economic growth, India should launch an all-out war against corruption in various sectors of her economy.
Kaufmann elaborated those widespread practices of graft eventually slow growth in the long term (above 10 years). Corruption leads to poor enforcement of the rule of law, weakens regulatory systems, adds to political instability and makes the government less effective. The cumulative effect of these factors worsening of the quality of governance in a country.
It is significant to note that, despite its tall claims, India has not been able to reduce corruption during the past year. Earlier, Transparency International, in its annual report (London, October 18, 2005) had ranked India 88th in the list of 159 countries surveyed for the level of corruption.
The organisation had observed that there was a correlation between poverty and corruption. The nations perceived as the most corrupt ranked among the world's poorest, which showed how corruption and poverty fed off each other.
The Transparency International conducts its surveys in cooperation with Indian NGOs like ORG-Marg Research. The survey reflects how various classes of Indian people view government’s performance in various sectors. The survey tries to quantify the over-all amount of bribes paid to various government departments. Indian police is generally perceived to be the most corrupt. However, corruption is accepted as a ubiquitous feature of other law-enforcing or nation-building departments.
The critics in Indian media are rueful at India's current rating. They point out that the survey draws inferences from a limited number of households contacted through questionnaires. They assert that India truly deserves the number one position on the corruption scale.
According to analysts, the mechanisms of public accountability in India have collapsed. Corruption has become a serious socio-political malady as politicians, bureaucracy and armed forces act in tandem to receive kickbacks. The anti-corruption cases, filed in courts, drag on for years without any results. To quote a few cases: (a) There was no conviction in Bofors-gun case (Rs 64 crore), because of lethargic investigation (the case was filed on January 22, 1990 and charge sheet served on October 22, 1999). Among the accused were Rajiv Gandhi, S K Bhatnagar, W N Chaddha, Octavio, and Ardbo. The key players in the scam died before the court's decision. (b) No recoveries could be made in the HDW submarine case (Rs 32.5 crore).The CBI later recommended closure of this case. (c) No progress on the Taj-heritage corridor case, Purulia-arms-drop case and stamp-paper case.
Indian Express dated November 11, 2003 had reported that the stamp-paper co-accused Assistant Sub-Inspector of Police (ASI) drew salary of Rs 9,000, but his assets valued over Rs 100 crore. He built six plush hotels during his association of six years with the main accused Abdul Karim Telgi. The ASI was arrested on June 13 and charged under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act. Investigations by the Special Investigating Team (SIT) probing the stamp scam had found that the ASI Kamath accepted Rs 72 lakh from the scam kingpin, Abdul Karim Telgi, on behalf of IGP Sridhar Vagal.
The problem is that the modus operandi of corruption ensures that it is invisible and unaccounted for. There are widespread complaints that the politicians exercise underhand influence on bureaucracy to mint money.
World Governance Survey has rightly observed that in India ‘Right from birth to death, nothing happens without bribery and corruption.People can neither live nor die with dignity’