India - A secret player
Jawayria Malik

AFGHANISTAN has a long and tumultuous history of outside powers using its rugged terrain as a chessboard for the ‘Great Game’. This “Great Game” has been revisited in Afghanistan and one of the chasing players this time is ‘India. In recent years, Indian increased diplomatic presence and enhanced economic assistance to Afghanistan has not only threatened the security of Pakistan but also played an effective role in jeopardizing the Pak-Afghan cooperation to contain the flow of insurgency in Afghanistan.
There is no dearth of hint that India is good times friend of Afghanistan. She welcomed the communist Saur Revolution in Kabul in 1978 and sided with former Soviet Union and is equally responsible for the destruction of Afghanistan. Indian influence which started trailing in 1979 was entirely lost in Afghanistan in 1992 and during Taliban rule. The fall of Taliban regime and the return of Northern Alliance as a dominant partner in present government in Afghanistan provided India another opportunity to regain the lost influence in the country. Since then she is trying to dominate Afghanistan. In her bid to get a firm and lasting foothold in post Taliban, she is leaving no stone unturned to perpetuate her presence there. Here the point to ponder’ is why Indians are so desperate to have cordial relations with Afghanistan?
It goes without saying that India has no legitimate role in Afghanistan but the dream to confront Pakistan. She is making all-out efforts, to prevent Pakistan from having influence in Afghanistan, by aggravating anti Pakistan sentiments among Afghan people. Apparently, Indian intention could be economic gains but real objective remains destabilizing Pakistan.
Indian diplomatic missions in Afghanistan have a role in fomenting trouble in Pakistan’s tribal areas. Indian consulates in Jalalabad, Kandahar, Herat,’ and Mazar-e-sharif and their embassy in Kabul are indulged in clandestine activities inside Pakistan in general and FAT A and Balochistan in particular. The intelligence network in Afghanistan which is established by India is fully operational. The Marines from Multiple One (India company) based at LashkarGah, a forward operation base, has been undertaking missions in Balochistan by supporting the Baluchistan Liberation Army (BLA). Their main targets include Chinese working in the province, particularly at Gwadar, Saindak, and Hub.
RAW operatives have established many training camps inside Afghanistan to aggravate the activities of Baloch nationalists with an objective of transforming it into a full bloom insurgency. Recently, with its presence in Kabul, New Delhi is encircling Islamabad with high lX trained commandoes. She has deployed 143 highly trained commandoes in Afghanistan besides stationing of a full-fledged team to train Afghan and Uzbek forces. This is in addition to the already deployed 254 Indo-Tibetan Border Police Force (ITBP) soldiers to provide security to Indian construction companies. India claims that these troops are there to protect Indian workers but in reality, these workers are actively supporting the militants in Balochistan and FATA.
Besides Indian ingress into Afghanistan through its consulates to destabilize Pakistan, she has also managed to influence the political stratum of Afghanistan as well. In this context, Afghan President Hamid Karzai has been playing ‘the evil game of blaming the Pakistan government, at the behest of Indians, to hide its own weakness to establish the writ of his government beyond Kabul. It is out in open that the government of Afghanistan is in fact a ‘B’ team of Indian intelligence agencies as instead of working for the rehabilitation of the war ravaged country and betterment of people she is dancing to the tune of .its Indian masters. Ironically, Afghan government has no explanation .for mysterious spending of the millions of dollars it received in aid and no answer for the worsening situation of law and order in Afghanistan except to accuse Pakistan for their inept policies. Recently Indian Minister for External Affairs, Pranab Mukherjee, in an interview to a Television channel said that Taliban militia had established training camps along the southern Dorder of Afghanistan which are being used as launching pads to push infiltrators across the border while expressing concern over fragile security situation and the growing influence of Taliban militia in Afghanistan.
In view of Indian government’s concern over security situation in Afghanistan it becomes imperative to bring on record the network of terrorist training camps set up by Indian intelligence agency RAW inside Afghanistan, including at the Afghan military base of Qushila Jadid, in Southern Helmand province; in the Panjshir Valley and also at Khahak and Hassan Killies in western Nimroz province.
India’s trained terrorists intrude into Pakistan’s territory and commit serious acts of terrorism such as mass killings, bombings, torture, and intimidation of civilians. This is proved by the reports when Indian national namely Rohit Vashisht was captured by the Afghan police on 3 September 2007 in district Zarai of Kandahar province for financing Taliban militants in the region. Mr. Rohit revealed that he had been financing Taliban to convince them to carry out suicide attacks against Pakistan and NATO forces.
He further divulged that he was successful to a great extent in convincing Taliban to locate and identify their real enemy (Pakistan) responsible for the mess in the region. Mr. Rohit carried maps of Pakistani cities including Peshawar, Rawalpindi, and Islamabad. Police also recovered names of various Taliban leaders and their addresses with whom he possibly met or contacted during his present stay or his probable previous visit to the area in the past.
Another incident of this kind happened when an Indian doctor working as member of a medical team in Jalalabad was caught redhanded for instigating patients to work for India. These Indian nationals were repatriated quietly to India due to the considerable influence from senior officials of the Indian Embassy including the Ambassador. New Delhi’s intense diplomatic presence has facilitated her to be one of the main aid suppliers towards Afghanistan’s reconstruction. Massive economic appearance of India, too, is not without reason. In the garb of development projects, India is cultivating its agents in the bordering~ areas of Afghanistan for stirring strife in areas straddling the Pak-Afghan border.
In a nutshell, Indian presence in Afghanistan whether diplomatic, military or economic has less to do with reconstruction and more to do with keeping the turf conducive for the workings of RAW against Pakistan. It is said that “ambition is the grand enemy of peace” and it is for Afghan government to realize that Indian expansionism is actually keeping Afghanistan into continuous state of turmoil. The security situation and the insurgency issue in Afghanistan are not going to be solved until the Indian influence on the Afghan government is removed. Only the closer Pak Afghan cooperation will help contain the growing power of insurgents but since the Indians have entirely different goals, the efforts will not bear fruit. Karzai Government should better avoid acting as a henchman or a pawn for New Delhi before it is too late.


Will Gujrat polls effect coming elections?
Waqar Ahmed


THE BJP won a landslide victory in Gujarat to gain an overwhelming majority over its nearest rival, the Congress Party. Narendra Modi has been able to win the elections despite the fact that the government in Gujarat was responsible for the death of thousands of its citizens in instances of organized violence, large-scale displacement of its minority populations, continuing denial of justice and the climate of terror that persists in the civil society of Gujarat even today. The Gujarat election result shows a frightening turn in Indian political system. The fascist tactics and strategy of Hindutva seem to have worked very effectively. The BJP campaign was led by Narendra Modi himself. True to his reputation, Modi launched a campaign of fear and intimidation, moving the Hindu voters against the pre-conceived threat of “Muslim terrorism.” His scheme was simple i.e. convince the Hindu voters that they were under a severe threat by the Muslim minority. The Muslims form a mere nine percent of the population of Gujarat, and have borne the brunt of the violence since the Godhra incident. Modi’s election campaign was thus little more than a platform for him and his Sangh followers to flex their street-level muscle. They succeeded in polarizing the electorate along communal lines. Modi’s success in the elections has huge implications for the future of the BJP, and indicates a likely shift towards a harder Hindutva strategy. There is no doubt that the election victory has emboldened the fascists, both in Gujarat and nationally. The Shiv Sena Chief Bal Thackeray (an open admirer of Hitler) said after the election results, “Had Congress come to power in that state, entire Gujarat would have been turned into Godhra once again”. The VHP warned of a storm ahead which was not going to be limited to Gujarat.
This time, a parallel strategy adopted by Hindu nationalists in Gujarat was to acquire popular support for Hindutva through social, developmental, charitable and cultural work. Sangh members were often seen presenting themselves in various villages building schools, constructing wells, and organizing religious functions. They also tried to be among the first to arrive at the site of a natural disaster, offering relief and rehabilitation aid. The Sangh utilizes such opportunities to mobilize local communities, including women, adivasis and dalits, for its cadres, involving them in Sangh campaigns against religious minorities. The participation of Sangh-affiliated, men and women, of Hinduized, adivasi and dalit communities in the assault on Muslims in Gujarat in 2002 exemplifies this pattern. Modi ensured that these people were provided full protection after they had successfully accomplished his venomous agenda of harming minorities specially Muslims. A clear manifestation of this was evident from the facts that under Narendra Modi’s leadership, more than 2,000 cases filed by the victims of the Gujrat violence were never investigated or else were dismissed. Many crimes of 2002 were not reported or the evidence was doctored to not implicate certain politicians, and the cases that reached Gujarat courts often faced a judiciary filled with Sangh members and sympathizers.
Instead of being elected heavily, Narendra Modi should have been held accountable for his complicity, instigation of anti-minority violence and injustices. Numerous inquiries and commissions, such as the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) of India, held that Narendra Modi, as the chief executive of the state, had complete command over the police and other law enforcement machinery during February 28 through March 02, 2002. They had condemned the role of the Government of Gujarat headed by Modi in providing leadership and material support in the politically motivated attacks on minorities in Gujarat. The European Union and every major Indian and international human rights organization had condemned the Gujarat violence and pointed to the complicity of the Government of Gujarat in the execution of the event. Former President Narayanan reveals that he had directed sending in the Army to Gujarat to stop the violence. He further comments that “How many instances of the serial killings could have been avoided if the Army had resorted to shooting against rioters? The slaughter could have been avoided if the Army was given the freedom to handle the riots.
Inspired by the landslide victory in Gujarat, BJP is now hoping the ‘wave of change’ that commenced in 2007 would culminate into 2008 with the expulsion of Congress led UPA government at the Centre. If this dream of BJP comes true, it will be a nightmare for the minorities because they are well aware of the fanatic Hindu agenda that the non-Hindu people in Hindustan must either adopt the Hindu culture and language, must learn to respect and revere Hindu religion, must entertain no idea but the glorification of the Hindu Nation. They may stay in the country wholly subordinated to the Hindu Nation demanding no privileges, not even citizen’s rights. The elections in Gujrat amount to a declaration of communal war and it demands an adequate response. The coming months will determine whether the secular forces can turn the tide of creeping fascism in India or not.




Economy pilots airline market
Tan Wei

UNIVERSITY professor Zhang Zhihua has long wanted to travel to Lijiang, a scenic spot in Yunnan Province. During this past National Day holiday on October 1-7, she realized her wish. “Taking a plane is my first choice,” Zhang told Beijing Review. “It takes two days by train but only two hours by plane. I’d like to spend such short holidays in a beautiful place, not on a train.” This year’s National Day holiday was a “Golden Week” in more ways than one. The General Administration of Civil Aviation of China (CAAC) released its usual “Golden Week” statistics showing that in the seven days, there were 26,459 flights carrying 3.03 million passengers. This was a growth of 6.8 percent and 17.5 percent, respectively, over the same period last year.
People having the same idea as Zhang are driving demand in the Chinese aviation market. The latest CAAC statistics showed that from January to September this year, the aviation industry generated 13.72 billion yuan ($1.85 billion) in profits. Since profits in the first half were only 4.62 billion yuan ($623.7 million), the industry gained 9.1 billion yuan ($1.22 billion) in the third quarter alone. Compared with the 5.5 billion yuan ($742.5 million) in profits in the third quarter last year, the year-on-year growth was a massive 65.5 percent. Zhou Chi, President of Shanghai Airlines, said that rapid economic and trade growth, as well as the development of a tourism industry driven by higher consumption levels and outbound tourists following renminbi appreciation, are the three factors pushing air travel demand.
According to the latest MasterIndex of Travel released by MasterCard Worldwide, outbound tourists in the Asia-Pacific region will continue to increase in the second half of 2007. It is estimated that there will be 19 million outbound Chinese tourists, 1.86 million more than in the second half of last year. Yuwa Hedrick-Wong, an economic advisor at MasterCard Asia/Pacific, says that although the global market is not yet stable and there are some uncertainties in economic expectations, the economic growth in the Asia-Pacific region still strongly supports tourism growth. The increase in the disposable income of Chinese citizens and low-price travel options make outbound traveling affordable to the middle-income group, not just to the rich.
Ma Xiaoli, researcher at CITIC Securities, thinks that renminbi appreciation is an important factor propelling the overall performance of the aviation industry. The renminbi exchange rate closed at $1=7.4476 yuan on November 7, breaking the point of $1=7.45 yuan, the record high after reform of the renminbi exchange rate regime. Since the reform, the renminbi has appreciated 8.9 percent, something that benefits debt-laden airlines. According to Ma, airlines need large sums of foreign exchange to buy or rent aviation materials, purchase fuel and maintain aircraft in foreign countries. Therefore renminbi appreciation has helped save on costs. Moreover, for airlines borrowing large amounts of U.S. dollars, renminbi appreciation also reduces their borrowing costs. A research report made by Li Shurong, researcher at Shenyin and Wanguo Securities Co. Ltd., indicates that if the renminbi appreciates 1 percent, earnings per share of Air China, Shanghai Airlines, China Southern Airlines and China Eastern Airlines will increase 0.012 yuan, 0.027 yuan, 0.056 yuan and 0.047 yuan, respectively. Air China benefits the least because its debt ratio is the lowest.

(The Daily Mail-Beijing Review Articles Exchange Item)