Bangladesh- A good friend-Lets conclude with that!

I read somewhere that Begum Khalida said “Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina sold Bangladesh to India through MOU signed in February 2010 “To me these statements will encourage hatred among people of both side and the need of the hour is spreading love and peace not hatred. How can a country be sold by a prime minister and how can Islam be in danger in a country with 90% muslim population?
In this regard, hats off to sheikh Hasina who has left no stone unturned in building this relation not only with the assurance in fighting terrorism, organized crime and drug trafficking but also have put it in paper in the form of MOU. She also assured India that she would not allow Bangladesh to be used as a base for terrorist activities against India. And she did prove that in action also, by handing over the ULFA Chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa to the BSF in Tripura. By this it gave a crippled blow to the banned organization. These organizations cross over into Bangladesh to plan and carry out their operations against the North Eastern states of India.
The MOU in question has advantage to both the countries like for India it is the access to Chittagong and other ports for economical movement of goods, a clear understanding that any anti terrorist activity will not be encouraged in Bangladesh, train services will also be started between the two countries for easy movement of goods. And for Bangladesh the gains are, it will be the first country to receive a billion dollar credit from India for its infrastructure development,250 MW power supply from India, the proposed Tipaimukh Dam to be made without harming Bangladesh’s interest. Though, Bangladeshi’s remain grateful to India for creation of their country, but still there are sections of people who believe that India has some selfish motive in extending the friendship hand towards them. But, India’s growing economy, large and vibrant strategies, and its friendly foreign policies has given us more allies than enemies and Bangladesh is no exceptional. In fact, India is the fourth largest economy in the world and its growth rate also ranks second in the world, so Bangladesh being the immediate neighbor should take the utmost advantage to share this success and by joining hands can create thousands of job and can make it a pillar for their economic growth also.
Having said the above advantages on both the sides we are still having baseless ill-feelings against each other and have named them certain issues like the problematic Farakka Barage, the proposed Tipaimukh Dam, the disputed Talpatty Island and the corridor for Bangladesh in India. But the surprising fact is even the educated and enlightened people are also prejudiced, though we should always remember that Initially we were one country and hence by and large the culture, way of thinking, practices etc are all same between us , so how can we be different just by the boundaries ? People of both the sides should remember that it is for the betterment that we stay friends forever and we sincerely hope and pray that Bangladesh does not become another Pakistan…
Apart from being sentimental reasons to be together we can also see the practical reasons : Whether it is Debt assistance, electricity supply or infrastructure development of Bangladesh, India is taking a proactive step to build beneficial long term relationship because for India it is matter of safeguarding its Eastern Border…..

Is water war with Pakistan for real or shield to terrorism?

The flow of Chenab, after entering Pakistan, had dipped from 48,242 cusecs in 1999 to 22,991 cusecs in 2008.This fact has put Pakistan in real worries and out of panic Pakistan started blaming India for Violating the IWT (Indus water Treaty between India and Pakistan signed on April 1960 ).Pakistani media claims that India is waging a water war on Pakistan and so is full of anti India articles on IWT violation. This is not true and we have enough proof to support our claim. Then what it is? Is Pakistan trying to justify the ongoing terror campaign with such artificial controversies? The treaty actually has fully safeguarded Pakistan’s water requirements and also has served both the countries to tackle the water related disputes, and moreover the treaty does not have any exit clause. We, India, despite having an upper hand on the issue never misused it in spite of two major wars and our subsequent tribulations. Pakistan should bear in mind that if the treaty is revoked, Pakistan stands to lose its lifeline.

The dipping of water has 2 reasons: melting of snow and quantum of rains, and even a kid these days knows pretty well that due to global warming both the factors are affected. It’s a well known fact that not only that the rainfall has dropped by 20% but also most of the Indian states are facing severe drought from last few years. Can we phrase this environment problem as Indian strategy? We India cannot keep taking the blame for everything, like if tomorrow it doesn’t rain in Pakistan they would claim India has started a cloud war…enough is enough.

Actually, the responsibility of water crisis in Pakistan is purely due to their mismanagement of water, for instance, Pakistan uses approximately 90% of water for agriculture and their canals, which carry the irrigation water to the fields, were designed in 1860’s. Imagine what kind of water is getting wasted in the form of seepage and evaporation. There are other wastages also of similar kinds and it’s high time that Pakistan should address this, otherwise, blaming will take them nowhere and ultimately the country will suffer.

The construction of Kishanganga Hydro Electric dam which is the main objection factor for Pakistan is well within the norms of IW treaty and is taken up to take care of the domestic power related issues and also to improve the economy of J&K which is long overdue. Hence, if Pakistan is sincerely looking for Kashmiri’s welfare (as they always claims to be) they should never object to this project. Whilst the debate is on, Pakistan should bear in mind that it is due to the treaty that Pakistan is benefiting the water availability, what it is denying today, though Pakistan can still address the problem by improving the management of water resources and developing new projects.

To my mind this treaty has a vicious cycle effect, i.e more and more the gap between water requirement and its availability widens in Pakistan, the lack of trust between the two countries also goes big. Also, due to less water supply agriculture development will get affected and which in turn will result in more unemployment and thereby giving room for more terrorism. Hence, Pakistan government should focus their energy and efforts on the long term development of the country through new projects , as suggested above, instead of creating artificial controversies against India which will not only make people of both side prosperous but also a good name for Pakistan in Global scenario…..

And if it is a shield to terrorism, then it’s high time that Pakistanis should realize that no terrorism can be justified and they should accept the fact that it is a lethal cancer and irrespective of who is being targeted at ,it is ultimately self destructive. Violence can never be an answer to any amount of injustices whatsoever….

Is Death penalty a lawful Murder ?

Pak terrorist Ajmal Amir Kasab has been awarded the Death sentence. Soon after this news hit the headline of all the news papers we were forced to look down the memory lane in the case of Dhananjay Chatterjee who was hanged till death for his crime of raping and murdering a 14 year old in the year 2004. It was then also a point of debate whether death penalty should be allowed or not ( Many human rights activists did take up the matter) because more than 130 countries have banned Death penalty.
I would definitely not get into the discussion of the statistics or history of Death penalty in all over the world, instead the point is, should killing be allowed even if it is done by the government. There are sections of people who believe that the government has the right to kill its worst citizens to protect the society from further crimes, but we should also see that one cannot atone from death but one can make a difference alive in the form of betterment.
Killing can be in 3 forms : murder done by any individual, Killing in the war, and killing as punishment. In the first instance the victim is not aware and hence does not go through the trauma, in the second case he is duty bound so takes the death, as ,more or less by pride but in the third case he is penalized and hence is unacceptable to him but at the same time he has to wait for his death to come. He goes through tremendous mental trauma, so he is not killed once but repeatedly. But we are all responsible for such penalty , as we have agreed mutually to give the government conditional power to kill with our permission( through our elected representatives ).
There was actually a huge hue and cry during the case of Dhanjaya’s hanging, but why do we support such death when we know for sure that this death is in lieu of the life they themselves have taken of some innocent human. We know that criminals are repeat offenders and death penalty can reduce this, and we don’t need a PhD to understand this.
In the case of Ajmal Amir Kasab, I know most of the mumbaikars has welcomed this verdict but if we think deeply will this death sentence solve the problem of terrorism ? I doubt, it is a much broader problem and cannot be tackled with one death sentence, instead , it should be addressed differently, because there are hundreds of Kasabs who has been brainwashed by their handlers and so by killing Kasab a new Kasab will come. The need of the hour is to identify those handlers and punish them so that no Kasab is brainwashed.
Both the abolitionists and the retentionists have some convincing views for and against the capital punishment. For abolitionists it is the right of life and the mental trauma that the criminal faces, for the retentionists it is the psychological and emotional relief for the murder victim’s survivors for causing them such a grievous loss and most importantly the harsh message to the society to curb some brutal crimes.
My personal convictions are that though I am OK with the principle, I oppose the death penalty for the reason that the mental trauma by which the offender suffers through, but again if clear messages are not passed on to the society there will be no end to such crimes like Koli case.. So I am not sure whether I am for or against capital punishment…..

Child labor is a shame to nation with so much of youth unemployed !

It is really surprising that we have 5 cr ( though official declaration is only 90 lacs )of unemployed youth in the country but still child labor persists in the same proportion… Can’t we balance it ? This will address two of our major issues of economic development – unemployment and child labor.
Widely, any child below the specified age by law ,who is engaged in some work in exchange of remuneration to feed self or his family is referred to as ‘Child Labor’. Truly speaking, child labor is detrimental to his mental, social, physical, and emotional development. Though International Labor organization allows a child to work for light hours wherein he can continue to pursue his education and at the same time can learn some craft and skills which will help him in future but the law has been bent and twisted to suit everybody’s requirement.
Industrial revolution has encouraged child labor in a broad way. Child labor can be in both the form – self employment or work for others. Child labor could be what we see in our everyday life in the form of rag pickers, organized beggars, street sellers, child prostitute etc are basically the victim of some or the other gangsters who exploit them for their own benefit and they are the worst type of child labors. The other type is the one who are sent to work in some factories or farms or similar occupation by their parents for enhancing the income of the family, but here also the hazardous working condition etc are not being considered. The most pathetic situation according to me is , when the parents sell their own child to the thugs for small amount of money. What a shame….
India is a glaring example of a nation hounded by the evil of child labor. Though child labor problem prevails in rich and industrialized countries also, but the figures are too less compared to us. On one hand the developed countries took the matter very seriously as human rights violation but at the same time the poor nations are accepting this issue in the name of living necessity though all sorts of laws are there to protect them from such callous situations.
The root cause for child labor is poverty, illiteracy of the parents, improper education facilities, social requirements etc. and the reason for the employers to hire them is less pay, more work and no union threats. Due to these benefits of child labor the parents do not get jobs and in order to run the family they are forced to send the child to work. Another major reason ( which is also age old practice in India )is the debt reconciliation, wherein the child is sold to the loaner in lieu of the loan that the parents have taken, and so the child becomes a bonded labor to the loaner. They are then exploited by the loaner against the small amount of debt. Greed overtakes where there should be humanity..
I would like to quote an example, Nike uses a plant that employs children but they also provide education as part of their day work, I see this as an opportunity for education to those children who otherwise would have never had the education, and at the same time they also learn the skill of the trade.

Apart from what government is doing to control child labor, to my opinion, government should also formulate some policies to tackle the root cause of Child labor and the corporate can help them doing this. For e.g all the premier medical institutes should have regulation that at least 15 % of their business should be spent to give free medical facilities to the under-privileged people, similarly the premier educational institutes should give free education facility to the under-privileged children, corporate should reserve some quota to enroll poorer people in their workforce so the parents don’t send their child for work, and so on.. We can’t depend on the government alone , to take up all the issues without the support of people. But, what is expected from them is that they adhere to the laws more strictly with enforcement etc..
Government has initiated the process of eradication but this goal cannot be achieved in one stroke, they have taken measures like- For the Ninth Plan Period (1997-98 to 2001-02), an allocation of Rs. 2,610 million has been made for the National Child Labor Projects. Industry specific projects have also been undertaken for the prevention of employment of children and the withdrawal and rehabilitation of children. Eradication of poverty, giving education and employment to the parents are the priority to face the child labor problem. The support of various Ministries has been enlisted with a view to adopting a multi-dimensional strategy to ensure that the benefit of development programs percolates to this group.
Though such a issue can never be summed up, but still , I would say that child labor is both, a bad economic practice and a social evil…because without an educated youth we cannot have a developed nation so education and development opportunity should be given to all the children. We should always keep in mind that industrialization, economic development, Green revolution etc can afford to wait but youth cannot be captured .So, Government as well as the people of the nation please wake up and take it as a personal agenda to eradicate child labor. Government with the implementation of its policies with authorities and enforcement agencies, and people with the pledge not to recruit and send their little ones to this menace, and also by raising voice and awareness…

Vicious circle of underdevelopment and Extremism – Maoists

Is it the lack of will of the government to fight Maoists or the local support which seems to be so powerful that such terrible organization exist or is it due to the underdevelopment of any region that gives birth to these extremist ? The questions are several and the answers are with us only. It’s only we need to address them more seriously.
If the violence reaches beyond a limit, the government should not think twice to assert its power even if it means force against its own people. Ironically, Maoist are losing popularity because of their own activities. Killing innocent people can create an atmosphere of terror but the gain is very little by this so called revolutionaries. Initially it sounds impossible to tackle the problem and the common man suffers, though the local sympathies are always with these revolutionaries but gradually this endless violence give way to the sentiments against such militants and the government knows this pretty well. So, in the long run it is worth waiting. History ( take the case of Punjab) has proved this formula but we need to pay a price for such wait.
Maoists( term took its birth in china ) and Naxalist ( term took birth in India) meaning of which in lay man term is same ‘Violence’. It has its presence in 20 out of 28 states in India with goal to throw the government of India out of power. They claim to be fighting for the rights of the tribals in the forest belt of Central India, but we all know that the main conflict is due to the fact that this area is mineral rich and so everybody( let it be extremists or the corporate biggies) seems to be eyeing on the area ,though, the main focus has been neglected since long i.e there have been numerous human rights violation of the tribals in these areas.
It is a fact that hunger and similar issues do provoke people in picking up arms and when the question comes to chose between the hunger and militancy the decision ends in creating a situation where he is torn between conscience and survival. But I feel that every individual, as part of their social responsibility also needs to educate such ignorant people that the solution of hunger does not lie in violence. What is worrying, that now they are showing strategy in attacking the security forces and involving the local populations in their so called people’s war. We read very often that government is coming up with policies of socio-economic measures to defuse the grievances that fuel the maoist cause but we all know that these things goes in very slow pace and like, these extremist cannot operate without the support /sympathy of the locals, similarly, government also need our support to make its operation successful.
Experts are of the opinion that our police are neither equipped nor trained in the art of jungle warfare and they are simply send to the dense forest to face the Maoists who are well trained as well as have sophisticated weapons. It is real surprise that wherein 76 police were killed, only 8 maoists got killed in the counter attack which proves that our Jawans are not trained enough