After all, if 10 young Indians from a splinter wing of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party traveled by boat to Pakistan, shot up two hotels in Karachi and the central train station, killed at least 173 people, and then, for good measure, murdered the imam and his wife at a Saudi-financed mosque while they were cradling their 2-year-old son — purely because they were Sunni Muslims — where would we be today? The entire Muslim world would be aflame and in the streets.
So what can we expect from Pakistan and the wider Muslim world after Mumbai? India says its interrogation of the surviving terrorist indicates that all 10 men come from the Pakistani port of Karachi, and at least one, if not all 10, were Pakistani nationals.
First of all, it seems to me that the Pakistani government, which is extremely weak to begin with, has been taking this mass murder very seriously, and, for now, no official connection between the terrorists and elements of the Pakistani security services has been uncovered.
At the same time, any reading of the Pakistani English-language press reveals Pakistani voices expressing real anguish and horror over this incident. Take for instance the Inter Press Service news agency article of Nov. 29 from Karachi: “ ‘I feel a great fear that [the Mumbai violence] will adversely affect Pakistan and India relations,’ the prominent Karachi-based feminist poet and writer Attiya Dawood told I.P.S. ‘I can’t say whether Pakistan is involved or not, but whoever is involved, it is not the ordinary people of Pakistan, like myself, or my daughters. We are with our Indian brothers and sisters in their pain and sorrow.’ ”
But while the Pakistani government’s sober response is important, and the sincere expressions of outrage by individual Pakistanis are critical, I am still hoping for more. I am still hoping — just once — for that mass demonstration of “ordinary people” against the Mumbai bombers, not for my sake, not for India’s sake, but for Pakistan’s sake.
Why? Because it takes a village. The best defense against this kind of murderous violence is to limit the pool of recruits, and the only way to do that is for the home society to isolate, condemn and denounce publicly and repeatedly the murderers — and not amplify, ignore, glorify, justify or “explain” their activities.
Sure, better intelligence is important. And, yes, better SWAT teams are critical to defeating the perpetrators quickly before they can do much damage. But at the end of the day, terrorists often are just acting on what they sense the majority really wants but doesn’t dare do or say. That is why the most powerful deterrent to their behavior is when the community as a whole says: “No more. What you have done in murdering defenseless men, women and children has brought shame on us and on you.”
Why should Pakistanis do that? Because you can’t have a healthy society that tolerates in any way its own sons going into a modern city, anywhere, and just murdering everyone in sight — including some 40 other Muslims — in a suicide-murder operation, without even bothering to leave a note. Because the act was their note, and destroying just to destroy was their goal. If you do that with enemies abroad, you will do that with enemies at home and destroy your own society in the process.
“I often make the comparison to Catholics during the pedophile priest scandal,” a Muslim woman friend wrote me. “Those Catholics that left the church or spoke out against the church were not trying to prove to anyone that they are anti-pedophile. Nor were they apologizing for Catholics, or trying to make the point that this is not Catholicism to the non-Catholic world. They spoke out because they wanted to influence the church. They wanted to fix a terrible problem” in their own religious community.
We know from the Danish cartoons affair that Pakistanis and other Muslims know how to mobilize quickly to express their heartfelt feelings, not just as individuals, but as a powerful collective. That is what is needed here.
Because, I repeat, this kind of murderous violence only stops when the village — all the good people in Pakistan, including the community elders and spiritual leaders who want a decent future for their country — declares, as a collective, that those who carry out such murders are shameful unbelievers who will not dance with virgins in heaven but burn in hell. And they do it with the same vehemence with which they denounce Danish cartoons.
Seeking removal of Kerala Chief Minister V S Achutanadan for his remark on the family of slain NSG commando Sandip Unnikrishnan, Railway Minister Lalu Prasad said he would ask the CPM leadership to show the door to the communist veteran.
"It is a very serious issue. What the CM has said is absolutely wrong and a great insult to our martyr. I would demand from the CPM Politburo to remove him," Prasad told reporters in New Delhi.
Criticising the CM's remark, Prasad said, "We are also in politics and at times people do not behave properly with us while venting out their anger. But we are in public life and we have to understand the sentiment. The martyr's father was in the state of shock and this should have been understood by the chief minister."
Karat says sorry for 'dog' remark
Responding to Kerala Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan’s remarks on late NSG commando Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan’s family, CPM General Secretary Prakash Karat has clarified that the CM’s comments were regrettable. The CPM boss also added that he had spoken to Chief Minister Achuthanandan on the issue.
Seeking to validate the revelations made by Lt Col Prasad Purohit during interrogation, AICC media cell chairperson M Veerappa Moily said the Army had deputed a senior Colonel to accompany the arrested Army officer and he was present throughout the interrogation of Purohit.
Replying to a question about the revelations made by the arrested Army officer, Advani had told reporters in Indore on Monday, "These are things related to political leadership, not to the agency." Rebutting his charges, Moily said here on Tuesday, "When Muslim outfits were arrested, there was a huge demand for enforcing POTA; none of the Central or state politicians interfered. The first political interference of a politician is from Advani."
Vouching for the neutrality and objectivity of the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), the senior Congress leader said the ATS detected 13 cases of Terror in the past four years in which it arrested 75 persons, including 24 Hindus and 51 Muslims. Eleven of the Hindus are connected with Malegaon case, said Moily. The other cases are related to Nanded, Peruwani and Jalna.
By Asit Jolly
Chandigarh
Nov. 20: The Dalai Lama has admitted that a resolution to the vexing Tibetan situation is "complicated". The Nobel Peace Prize winner and spiritual leader of the Tibetan people made the statement on the sidelines of the largest-ever conclave of exiled Tibetan leaders who have been called to McLeodganj to chart a fresh course of action on the future of their homeland.
Speaking at a special function at the Rotary Club at Dharamsala in Himachal Pradesh, he said of the three commitments of his life, resolving the Tibet situation was the most "complicated".
He listed "the promotion of compassion and love as a human being and promoting religious harmony as a Buddhist monk" as his other two, relatively more straightforward, commitments.
Significantly, the Dalai Lama sought India’s help in helping to resolve the Tibet situation. He said: "India and Tibet have the relationship of a ‘guru and chela’ (teacher and disciple), and when chela is in trouble, the guru must look after him."
The spiritual leader had earlier publicly expressed his disenchantment after the consecutive failure of as many as eight separate rounds of talks between his emissaries and representatives of the People’s Republic of China.
The Tibet situation has been simmering for the last half century, almost ever since the Dalai Lama was forced to flee his homeland along with his followers after the failed 1959 uprising against the People’s Liberation Army. He has since made McLeodganj his home and headquarters of the Tibetan government-in-exile.
Asked about his deliberate decision to stay away from the ongoing week-long conclave that has drawn considerable participation from the global Tibetan diaspora, he said: "I made it clear earlier that if I attended the meeting I may have made some comments. My presence could have hampered the free expression of opinions of the participants. So I am keeping away from the November 17-22 conclave."
But all of Tibet is anxiously awaiting the Dalai Lama’s post-conclave address on Sunday, which is likely to be coloured by the range of opinion delegates there articulate on the future of their homeland, now under Chinese rule.
Cloistered in his monastery, the monk has been regularly receiving summaries of what is being said at the 15 separate sessions by the 680 delegates.
'Let us be a little humble; let us think that the truth may not perhaps be entirely with us.'- NehruRaigarh, Nov. 18: Terming the Chhattisgarh government corrupt, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday said that the BJP government in the state did not spend the huge amount of money provided by the Centre, for developmental schemes.
Addressing her lone election rally in the state at Kharasia in the district, Mrs Gandhi said that the Central government had provided funds to the state without any bias, but the funds were never used for developmental works.
"The UPA government provided Rs 8,000 crores to Chhattisgarh to carry out developmental works. But unfortunately the state government did not spend the money for the purposes it was meant. It is yet to be ascertained where the money has gone," she said.
Referring to Naxal-related incidents in the state, Mrs Sonia Gandhi said that the problem multiplied several folds during the last five-years due to the faulty policies of the state government. She also said that the law and order situation in Chhattisgarh has deteriorated under the present regime.
"Chhattisgarh used to be a peaceful state. But now the situation is different. Law and order situation in the state has deteriorated and Naxal problem has multiplied," she said. Mrs Gandhi also spoke about the flagship initiatives of the UPA government, including the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.
Meanwhile in Delhi, the Congress charged Chhattisgarh chief minister Raman Singh with misappropriating central funds. "We charge Chhattisgarh CM of misappropriating the Central funds, which went into the pockets of BJP ministers," said Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari.
Targeting the CM, the Congress spokesperson said if the people of the state will vote for the governance of Raman Singh, then it is certain that the Congress will for the next government there.
"We had started a movement against the BJP government right from the beginning and will expose it," Mr Tewari said.
—PTI
Delivering the 40th Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Lecture here, the editor of Newsweek International said governments have always tended to defer hard decisions, while pampering their constituencies with unsustainable policies.
“The current problems we are experiencing have at root the problem that governments — and they are mostly democratic governments — have lost the ability to inflict short-term pain on their constituencies for long-term gains,” he said.
“When looking at the fiscal situation in most Western countries, the core problem remains that democratic governments find it very hard to cut subsidies, reform entitlements, and restructure welfare programmes. Instead, they defer costs to the future using a combination of debt and creative accounting.”
This tendency of the governments manifested in India in the form of what Prime Minister Manmohan Singh described as “competitive populism”, he said. “It has been possible (in India) to go without enacting a major reform programme because the effects of the 1990s reforms were still working their way through the system. But that free ride is now over. Ultimately, Government policy matters, and good government policy will be rewarded,” he said. Asking the people to guard against the tendency to over-hype India’s economic success, Zakaria said India was still a long way from becoming a superpower and many other developing countries were doing as well, if not better. “Before counting on becoming a superpower, it would be worth doing the hard work that will make India one,” he said “India has done exceedingly well compared to its past but not as well as some other developing countries. China’s economy is already three times the size of India’s and continues to grow at a substantially faster pace. Brazil has turned itself into an energy powerhouse. Turkey, a country of just 70 million, now gets more foreign direct investment than India and has a GDP that is only 20 per cent smaller,” he said. Despite the current crisis being largely a making of governments, Zakaria said he had no doubt that in the end it was the governments that would prevail, though he did not know when or how. “At the end of the day, governments are more powerful than the markets. They can close markets down, nationalise firms and write new rules. And the governments have already decided to put an end to the crisis.”...
“The 1984 riots were wrong. I strongly condemn the carnage,” Rahul said at a news conference in response to a question on Operation Bluestar and the riots. “There is no truth that there is hatred among Sikhs against the Congress party. I have travelled a lot and wherever I go and interact with them (Sikhs), I find lots of love for us... When my grandmother lost elections in 1977, I saw with my own eyes many Sikhs assembling by her side at our residence, when many others had left her isolated. We cannot forget all this.”
Rahul said he and his family bore no ill-will against the community of “which the whole country is proud of”.
Rahul reacted to BJP chief Rajnath Singh’s description of him as a “bachcha” in politics. “Yes, I am a bachcha. But then, 70% of the country’s population is bachcha. What kind of message is Rajnath Singh sending?”
In an interview with The Indian Express Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta on NDTV’s Walk the Talk, Rajnath Singh had said, “I would not like to comment on Rahul at all, I consider Rahul a child... Maybe some politicians consider him a rival but as far as I’m concerned he is just like my child.”
Bangalore, New Delhi, November 14 : It played hide and seek in the cloudy skies above the Indian Space Research Organization’s command centre tonight but in the deep reaches of space, when it was 8.31 pm on the ground here, India finally touched the moon.
A small cube-shaped instrument, with the Tricolour on all four sides, met its tryst with the lunar surface signalling a mission accomplished step by flawless step over 24 days and nights — and a giant leap for the country’s space programme.
The 35-kg Moon Impact Probe (MIP), one of the 11 payloads on Chandrayaan-I, ejected from the main spacecraft — orbiting around the moon at a distance of 100 km — at the appointed time of 8.06 pm. And, after a 25-minute textbook journey, hit the lunar surface at a designated location on the Shackleton crater near the moon’s south pole.
The MIP became the first Indian object to leave its imprint on the moon’s surface. The United States, the erstwhile USSR and the European Space Agency are the only other three to have “deliberately landed an object on the moon.”
“As promised, we have given the moon to India,” said a beaming ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair, the face to this historic achievement scripted by a team of hundreds of scientists of all disciplines working 24 by 7 for close to four years at a cost of Rs 386 crore, the least expensive mission to the moon so far. “It has a huge symbolic value apart from being a tremendous scientific achievement,” said Mylswamy Annadurai, mission director of Chandrayaan-I. “We are literally over the moon,” he told The Indian Express. “But there is still a lot of science left in Chandrayaan. The real scientific experiments start now.” The spacecraft, which is now left with 10 payloads, will continue in its present circular orbit for the next two years and carry out a variety of scientific experiments. These include testing the possibility of presence of water on the moon’s surface, mineral mapping of the lunar terrain and details about the presence of Helium-3. If the sense of joy at ISRO’s Telemetry Tracking and Command Centre was overwhelming, so was the tension as the clock pushed past 8 pm. Giant screens across the room streamed in various health parameters for the probe — including temperatures and data transfer rate. Former President A P J Abdul Kalam, who had proposed the idea of landing a probe on the moon...
July 22, 2008
The Leader of Opposition, Shri L.K. Advani has chosen to use all manner of abusive objectives to describe my performance. He has described me as the weakest Prime Minister, a nikamma PM, and of having devalued the office of PM. To fulfill his ambitions, he has made at least three attempts to topple our government. But on each occasion his astrologers have misled him. This pattern, I am sure, will be repeated today. At his ripe old age, I do not expect Shri Advani to change his thinking. But for his sake and
As for Shri Advani’s various charges, I do not wish to waste the time of the House in rebutting them. All I can say is that before leveling charges of incompetence on others, Shri Advani should do some introspection. Can our nation forgive a Home Minister who slept when the terrorists were knocking at the doors of our Parliament? Can our nation forgive a person who single handedly provided the inspiration for the destruction of the Babri Masjid with all the terrible consequences that followed? To atone for his sins, he suddenly decided to visit
As for my conduct, it is for this august House and the people of
When I look at the composition of the opportunistic group opposed to us, it is clear to me that the clash today is between two alternative visions of
I have already stated in my opening remarks that the House has been dragged into this debate unnecessarily. I wish our attention had not been diverted from some priority areas of national concern. These priorities are :
(i) Tackling the imported inflation caused by steep increase in oil prices. Our effort is to control inflation without hurting the rate of growth and employment.
(ii) To revitalize agriculture. We have decisively reversed the declining trend of investment and resource flow in agriculture. The Finance Minister has dealt with the measures we have taken in this regard. We have achieved a record foodgrain production of 231 million tones. But we need to redouble our efforts to improve agricultural productivity.
(iii) To improve the effectiveness of our flagship pro poor programmes such as National Rural Employment Programme, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, Nation-wide Mid day meal programme, Bharat Nirman to improve the quality of rural infrastructure of roads, electricity, safe drinking water, sanitation, irrigation, National Rural Health Mission and the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission. These programmes are yielding solid results. But a great deal more needs to be done to improve the quality of implementation.
(iv) We have initiated a major thrust in expanding higher education. The objective is to expand the gross enrolment ratio in higher education from 11.6 per cent to 15 per cent by the end of the 11th Plan and to 21% by the end of 12th Plan. To meet these goals, we have an ambitious programme which seeks to create 30 new universities, of which 14 will be world class, 8 new IITs, 7 new IIMs, 20 new IIITs, 5 new IISERs, 2 Schools of planning and Architecture, 10 NITs, 373 new degree colleges and 1000 new polytechnics. And these are not just plans. Three new IISERs are already operational and the remaining two will become operational from the 2008-09 academic session. Two SPAs will be starting this year. Six of the new IITs start their classes this year. The establishment of the new universities is at an advanced stage of planning.
(v) A nation wide Skill Development Programme and the enactment of the Right to Education Act,
(vi) Approval by Parliament of the new Rehabilitation and Resettlement policy and enactment of legislation to provide social security benefits to workers in the unorganized sector.
(vii) The new 15 Point Programme for Minorities, the effective implementation of empowerment programmes for the scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, paying particular emphasis on implementation of Land Rights for the tribals.
(viii) Equally important is the effective implementation of the Right to Information Act to impart utmost transparency to processes of governance. The Administrative Reforms Commission has made valuable suggestions to streamline the functioning of our public administration.
(ix) To deal firmly with terrorist elements, left wing extremism and communal elements that are attempting to undermine the security and stability of the country. We have been and will continue to vigorously pursue investigations in the major terrorist incidents that have taken place. Charge-sheets have been filed in almost all the cases. Our intelligence agencies and security forces are doing an excellent job in very difficult circumstances. They need our full support. We will take all possible steps to streamline their functioning and strengthen their effectiveness.
Considerable work has been done in all these areas but debates like the one we are having detract our attention from attending to these essential programmes and remaining items on our agenda. All the same, we will redouble our efforts to attend to these areas of priority concerns.
I say in all sincerity that this session and debate was unnecessary because I have said on several occasions that our nuclear agreement after being endorsed by the IAEA and the Nuclear Suppliers Group would be submitted to this august House for expressing its view. All I had asked our Left colleagues was : please allow us to go through the negotiating process and I will come to Parliament before operationalising the nuclear agreement. This simple courtesy which is essential for orderly functioning of any Government worth the name, particularly with regard to the conduct of foreign policy, they were not willing to grant me. They wanted a veto over every single step of negotiations which is not acceptable. They wanted me to behave as their bonded slave. The nuclear agreement may not have been mentioned in the Common Minimum Programme. However, there was an explicit mention of the need to develop closer relations with the
In 1991, while presenting the Budget for 1991-92, as Finance Minister, I had stated : No power on earth can stop an idea whose time has come. I had then suggested to this august House that the emergence of
Carrying forward the process started by Shri Rajiv Gandhi of preparing
I am convinced that despite their opportunistic opposition to the nuclear agreement, history will compliment the UPA Government for having taken another giant step forward to lead
What is the nuclear agreement about? It is all about widening our development options, promoting energy security in a manner which will not hurt our precious environment and which will not contribute to pollution and global warming.
Now, hydro-carbons are one source of generating power and for meeting our energy requirements. But our production of hydro-carbons both of oil and gas is far short of our growing requirements. We are heavily dependent on imports. We all know the uncertainty of supplies and of prices of imported hydro-carbons.
We have to diversify our sources of energy supply.
We have large reserves of coal but even these are inadequate to meet all our needs by 2050. But more use of coal will have an adverse impact on pollution and climate. We can develop hydro-power and we must. But many of these projects hurt the environment and displace large number of people. We must develop renewable sources of energy particularly solar energy. But we must also make full use of atomic energy which is a clean environment friendly source of energy. All over the world, there is growing realization of the importance of atomic energy to meet the challenge of energy security and climate change.
The nuclear agreement that we wish to negotiate will end
When I say this I am reminded of the visionary leadership of Shri Rajiv Gandhi who was a strong champion of computerization and use of information technologies for nation building. At that time, many people laughed at this idea. Today, information technology and software is a sun-rise industry with an annual turnover soon approaching 50 billion US dollars. I venture to think that our atomic energy industry will play a similar role in the transformation of
The essence of the matter is that the agreements that we negotiate with
I confirm that there is nothing in these agreements which prevents us from further nuclear tests if warranted by our national security concerns. All that we are committed to is a voluntary moratorium on further testing. Thus the nuclear agreements will not in any way affect our strategic autonomy. The cooperation that the international community is now willing to extend to us for trade in nuclear materials, technologies and equipment for civilian use will be available to us without signing the NPT or the CTBT.
This I believe is a measure of the respect that the world at large has for
I wish to remind the House that in 1998 when the Pokharan II tests were undertaken, the Group of Eight leading developed countries had passed a harsh resolution condemning
Our critics falsely accuse us, that in signing these agreements, we have surrendered the independence of foreign policy and made it subservient to US interests. In this context, I wish to point out that the cooperation in civil nuclear matters that we seek is not confined to the
We appreciate the fact that the
But this does not mean that there is any explicit or implicit constraint on
We have differed with the
I should also inform the House that our relations with the Arab world are very good. Two years ago, His Majesty, King Abdullah of
CONCLUSION
The Management and governance of the world’s largest, most diverse and most vibrant democracy is the greatest challenge any person can be entrusted with, in this world. It has been my good fortune that I was entrusted with this challenge over four years ago. I thank with all sincerity the Chairperson of the UPA, the leaders of the Constituent Parties of the UPA and every member of my Party for the faith and trust they reposed in me. I once again recall with gratitude the guidance and support I have received from Shri Jyoti Basu and Sardar Harkishen Singh Surjeet.
I have often said that I am a politician by accident. I have held many diverse responsibilities. I have been a teacher, I have been an official of the Government of India, I have been a member of this greatest of Parliaments, but I have never forgotten my life as a young boy in a distant village.
Every day that I have been Prime Minister of India I have tried to remember that the first ten years of my life were spent in a village with no drinking water supply, no electricity, no hospital, no roads and nothing that we today associate with modern living. I had to walk miles to school, I had to study in the dim light of a kerosene oil lamp. This nation gave me the opportunity to ensure that such would not be the life of our children in the foreseeable future.
Sir, my conscience is clear that on every day that I have occupied this high office, I have tried to fulfill the dream of that young boy from that distant village.
The greatness of democracy is that we are all birds of passage! We are here today, gone tomorrow! But in the brief time that the people of
Some People Want China, And Not India,
To Become Economic Super Power
P. Chidambaram
(While participating in the debate on the motion of confidence in Loksabha on July 22, 2008)
Mr. Speaker Sir, 42 months after this Government came into office, we have this Motion of Confidence moved by the hon. Prime Minister.
I have listened very carefully the whole of yesterday to the speeches led by the speech of the Leader of the Opposition and many other hon. Members.
Sir, this Government did not move a Motion of Confidence when it was first sworn in office. It is widely accepted that this Government enjoyed a clear majority. The withdrawal of support by the Left Parties created a situation where despite the numbers, the numbers were easily demonstrated by simple arithmetic by the hon. External Affairs Minister yesterday, a question arose whether this Government enjoyed the confidence of this House or not.
Sir, the Prime Minister offered to move the motion and he has moved the motion with a brief but eloquent speech.
My good friend, Mr. Salim said that we have moved away from six basic principles of the Common Minimum Programme. If I have the time, I would deal with each one of the six, but since I have limited time today, there are many other hon. Members, like Mr. Malhotra, who will be speaking, let me deal with two of the more important of the six principles.
The first is that this Government will ensure that the economy grows at least seven to eight per cent per year in a sustained manner. After 42 months what is the position? The economy has grown at an average of 8.9 per cent in the first four years. Compare this with the average of 5.8 per cent during the six years of NDA Government. We came into office towards the end of the Tenth Plan. The target for the Tenth Plan was eight per cent. It is because the economy grew at 9.4 per cent in 2005-06 and 9.6 per cent in 2006-07 that we were able to achieve an average growth rate for the Tenth Plan of 7.8 per cent, which was nearly close to the target of eight per cent. The Eleventh Plan began in 2007-08. There were prophets of gloom and doom. I had always maintained that in 2007-08 we will grow close to nine per cent.
Actually, when the revised agricultural estimates have come in, the growth in 2007-08 is close to 9.1 per cent. We have made a resounding start of the Eleventh Plan and I am confident that we can redeem our promise to grow at over seven to eight per cent.
Sir, I wish to make a special mention of agriculture. The year 2007-08 is a watershed year in India’s agricultural history. Food grains production has registered an all time record of 230.7 million tonnes. Of this, rice production was 96.43 million tonnes, which is a record; wheat production is 78.4 million tonnes, which is a record; coarse cereals was 40.7 million tonnes, which is a record; pulses was 15.1 million tonnes, which is a record; oil seeds was 28.87 million tonnes, which is a record.
Cotton was 25.81 million bales, which is a record. How did this come about? This came about through farsighted plans, missionary approach and attention to details. This Government launched the National Horticulture Mission. This Government undertook renovation, repair and restoration of water bodies. This Government appointed the Vaidyanathan Committee for reviving cooperative credit institutions. This Government launched a mission for pulses. This Government set up the Rainfed Area Development Authority. This Government launched the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana for Rs. 25,000 crore and the National Food Security Mission for Rs. 4,882 crore. Under this Government’s charge, capital formation in agriculture has increased from 10.2 per cent in 2003-04 to 12.5 per cent in 2006-07.
In the first four years, we have sanctioned proposals for Rs. 50,000 crore under RIDF and the corpus for the current year is Rs. 18,000 crore. So, I ask, Sir, respectfully, show me any other four year period in the history of independent India where so much has been done for agriculture. This is a difficult year. I promise you, even in this difficult year, we will achieve a growth rate which is better than what was promised in the CMP. That will be a growth rate far better than what is achieved in the six years of the NDA Government.
Another of the six principles was to enhance the welfare and well-being of farmers, farm labour and workers, particularly those in the unorganized sector. No Government has done more for farmers than this Government. I recognize that some farmers take extreme step of committing suicide. It was so ten years ago; it was so four years ago. Every suicide is a blot. Whenever there is a suicide, we have to hang our heads in shame. We have, therefore, addressed the needs of farmers in a systematic way. We are confident on that. While some results are visible, more results will be visible.
Sir, farm credit has increased from Rs. 86,000 crore in 2003-04 to Rs. 2,50,000 crore in 2007-08. This year, the target is Rs. 2,80,000 crore; but we will exceed the target. In order to take care of farm labour, who do not get work throughout the year, we introduced the NREG Scheme. In less than 15 months, the Scheme has been rolled out to all the 597 rural districts of India. Why did the NDA not introduce the NREG Scheme? A paltry amount of Rs. 75 was given as old-age pension. We raised it to Rs. 200 a month. We have removed the condition that they must be a destitute. We persuaded the State Governments to match it by another Rs. 200. Why did the NDA turn a blind eye to the suffering of old people?
For unorganized workers, there is a path-breaking Bill before Parliament. We are debating the Bill. We have not yet resolved the differences of the Bill. Yet, even before the Bill was passed, we introduced Aam Aadmi Bima Yojana which would provide death and disability insurance to the poor. By October 1, we will enroll one crore people. The Swasthya Bima Yojana would provide medical cover to the poor; 11 States have signed it up. The Janashree Bima Yojana would provide health and life cover to millions of women who are members of self-help groups. So, why did the NDA not introduce a single scheme for the unorganised sector?
Finally, never before in the history of this country, has any Government undertaken a loan waiver scheme of the size and scale that has been undertaken by this Government. I am happy to report to this House that on the basis of data gathered from the participating financial institutions, these are our conclusions. Debt waivers have been granted for a sum of Rs. 50,254 crore. Debt relief has been granted for a sum of Rs. 16,223 crore. Thus, the total amount of debt waiver and debt relief is Rs. 66,477 crore.
Sir, the total amount, I repeat, granted under debt waiver and debt relief is Rs. 66,477 crore. Among the beneficiaries, the number of small and marginal farmers is 2,98,05,305, and the number of other farmers is 65,81,818. Thus the total number of beneficiaries is 3,63,00,000.
Sir, the hon. Members will note that I have more than fulfilled my promise made to this House. But for the loan waiver and debt relief, these three crore and sixty-three lakh farmers would not have been entitled for loans, and they are being given loans. That is reflected in the increase in the sowing area, and that would be reflected eventually in the increase in food production at the end of the year.
Sir, this debate naturally turns on an agreement that we have signed with the US. We should remember that India signed agreements not with just one country. It has signed agreements with more than one country. We have signed an agreement with the US, we have signed an agreement with France, and we have signed an agreement with Russia. As the External Affairs has said, we need to cross two stages before we can operationalize any of these agreements. The first is the safeguards agreement of the IAEA, and the second is the waiver from the NSG.
Questions were asked about the 123 Agreement and the Hyde Act. Let me explain the terms which I understand, and I would earnestly request the hon. Members to just lend me his ears for a couple of minutes. These are not very complicated legal issues.
In 1954, the U.S. adopted the Atomic Energy Act. That Act prohibits the US from cooperating on nuclear matters with any country until certain conditions are fulfilled. Section 123 authorizes the President of the US to exempt the proposed agreement from the conditions. That is why, this agreement is called ‘123 Agreement’. The Hyde Act was passed in 2006 and it became the law in December, 2006. Please mark the date. The 123 Agreement text was agreed between India and the US on August 1, 2007.
So, the 123 Agreement is an agreement after the Hyde Act came into force. In the US, it is a well-accepted Constitutional principle, well enshrined that while passing a Bill into law, the President may issue a signed statement asserting his Constitutional prerogative powers and refusing to abide by any provisions of the US Act.
We are not concerned with the provisions of the US Act nor are we concerned with what the US President said. That is their domestic matter. But the fact is that the US President issued a signed statement when he signed the Hyde Act into law. Six months later, we agreed to the text of the 123 Agreement. The question is, what is the status of the 123 Agreement. In the US, the status is quite clear. Every US commentator, every US newspaper, every analyst has said that the 123 Agreement is not inconsistent with the Hyde Act because, according to the White House, when properly construed, the later 123 Agreement nearly flushes out the details for the US-India Nuclear Cooperation, and then the 123 Agreement dwells upon the exceptions carved out in the Hyde Act, and once the Congress approves the 123 Agreement, then the Agreement and the Agreement alone, will delineate the specific rights and responsibilities of the US and India as a prevailing law that governs and controls the Agreement.
Now, look at it from our point of view. This is the US interpretation; this is the interpretation, which I rely upon because that is the way the US looks at it. The 123 Agreement alone will delineate the rights and responsibilities of the parties. Look at the way that we can look at it from the Indian law point of view. The 123 Agreement is, according to Article 2.5— and I urge you to read it — “to enable full civil nuclear energy cooperation between the parties.” Please underline the words ‘to enable’. It is an agreement to enable full civil nuclear energy cooperation between the parties. It contemplates such cooperation on an industrial scale or a commercial scale. Under Article 16, the Agreement enters into force on a date on which the parties will exchange diplomatic notes, informing each other that they have completed all applicable requirements. The legal status of the 123 Agreement is that it has not yet entered into force. It will enter into force after India and the United States notify each other; and they can do so only after completing all applicable requirements. It is, therefore, an enabling agreement. And, even after it enters into force, you would have to enter into further agreements for industrial or commercial scale cooperation in nuclear energy.
The next question is: How do you interpret under our law and international law, the 123 Agreement and any earlier agreements? Article 16.4 of the 123 Agreement says: “The Agreement shall be implemented in good faith and in accordance with the principles of the international law.” Please underline that. The Agreement shall be interpreted and implemented in accordance with the principles of the international law. Under the customary international law as well as the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, any party may not invoke the provisions of its internal law as justification for its failure to perform a Treaty. The 123 Agreement is a Treaty. The Hyde Act is an internal law. You cannot invoke the Hyde Act in order to refuse to perform your obligations under a Treaty.
And further more, when the 123 Agreement is ratified by the US Congress, it is up or down vote, it is ratified by the US Congress, it will be the last expression of the Legislature on the subject and under principle, which is known to every lawyer, the last expression of the Legislature will prevail over any earlier law passed by the same Legislature.
Besides, under Article 6(2) of the US Constitution, all treaties made or which shall be made under the authority of the United States shall be the supreme law of the land. In any view of the matter, the Hyde Act does not bind India. It cannot interfere with the implementation of 123 Agreement. The 123 Agreement alone will delineate the rights and responsibilities between India and the US. It will be the last expression of the Legislature, and under the Vienna Convention, we are bound only by the 123 Agreement.
The UPA-Left Committee held nine meetings between September 11, 2007 and June 6, 2008. At the fourth meeting on October 9, 2007, the CPI(M)’s Members noted that the Left Parties were not opposed to a safeguards agreement on principle just as they have not been opposed to the separation plan.
Their objection continued to be to the 123 Agreement. This issue was discussed at the fifth meeting on October, 22, 2007 and at the sixth meeting on November, 16, 2007. At the sixth meeting, after the exchanges, it was decided that the impact of the provisions of the Hyde Act and the 123 Agreement on the IAEA Safeguards Agreement would have to be examined, and since it requires talks with the IAEA Secretariat for working out the text of an India-Specific Safeguards Agreement, the Government will proceed with the talks and the outcome will be presented to the Committee. That is precisely what this Government has done.
It went to the IAEA Secretariat for talks. It agreed upon a text. It froze that text. We came back to the Committee on March, 17, May 6 and June 25, and we have reported the outcome of the talks to the Committee. We have done nothing in a non-transparent manner. We have done it in the most transparent manner. We have taken everybody on board and we have told them that this is the outcome of the talks, and now the text is available. The ISSA text is available.
None of my comrades were members of the Committee. We know what happened in the Committee. We have said the ISSA text will be made available on the same day it is circulated officially to the Members of the IAEA Board. When we decided to go forward and circulate it to the Members of the IAEA Board, on the same day it was made available in India. The text is now available in India.
Sir, the short question is – does India want to end the nuclear isolation which we find ourselves since 1974, more so since 1998? What did the hon. Prime Minister Shri Vajpayee say in the United Nations General Assembly? I quote. After referring to the tests he said : “These tests do not signal a dilution of India’s commitment to the pursuit of nuclear disarmament. Accordingly, after concluding this limited testing programme, India announced” - India, the Government of Mr. Vajpayee announced – “a voluntary moratorium on further underground nuclear test explosions”.
“We conveyed our willingness to move towards a de jure formalization of this obligation in announcing a moratorium. India has already accepted the basic obligation of the CTBT. India is now engaged in discussions with our key interlocutors on a range of issues including the CTBT. We are prepared to bring these discussions to a successful conclusion so that the entry into force of the CTBT is not delayed beyond September, 1999.”
Then he came to this House and made a statement on 15th December, 1998. He says : “This House will be reassured that in the assessment of our scientists this stand” - that is converting our voluntary moratorium into a de jure obligation - “does not come in the way of our taking such steps as may be found necessary in future to safeguard our national security. It also does not constrain us from continuing with our R&D programmes nor does it jeopardise in any manner the safety and effectiveness of our nuclear deterrent in the years to come.”
“In addition to the talks between Shri Jaswant Singh and Mr. Strobe Talbott” – they did have talks Mr. Malhotra, may be you forgot; the Prime Minister confirms that they had talks – “we have had detailed exchanges with France and Russia. Discussions have also taken place with UK and China at the level of Shri Jaswant Singh and at official level with Germany and Japan as well as with other non-nuclear weapon States. I have been in regular correspondence with President Clinton. President Clinton has also expressed to me his desire for a broad-based relationship with India that befits the two largest democracies of the world. I have fully reciprocated these sentiments. Indeed, our ongoing dialogue with the United States is geared towards that end. I am confident this House will want to wish it all success”.
What has this Government done? It has taken the dialogue forward. Today we have the 123 Agreement. The question is that, do we want to come out of the nuclear isolation? Sir, in this connection, I want to share with this House what China is doing. China’s electricity today is produced, 80 per cent from coal and 18 per cent from hydro power. Two per cent of China’s electricity comes from nuclear power. Mainland China has eleven nuclear power reactors in commercial operation. Six are under construction and several more are about to start construction. Additional reactors are planned including some of the world’s most advanced to give a six-fold increase in nuclear capacity, to at least 50,000 megawatt by 2020 and then – this is important – a further three to four fold increase to 1,20,000 to 1,60,000 megawatt of electricity by 2030. The country aims to become self-sufficient in reactor design and construction as well as other aspects of the fuel cycle.
Moves to build nuclear power in China commenced in 1970 and the industry has now moved towards a steady development phase. Technology is being drawn from France, Canada and Russia with local development based largely on the French element. The latest technology acquisition has been from the US and France. A country with two per cent contributing nuclear energy towards total electricity.
We cannot because there are some people in this country who do not want India to catch up with China, who do not want India to go ahead of China. There are some people who want China to become an economic super power but India should never become an economic super power. Sir, I have no hesitation in saying that I do not envy China. I want to emulate China. I want India to be an economic power and economic super power.
Sir, when we talk about India, we should talk about only countries which are as large and as complex as India and that is China. We cannot talk about countries which are smaller than India or poorer than India. We must aspire to greater heights. Our ambitions must be large. When we talk about growth, we say that growth is a necessary condition not a sufficient condition. Let me give you some examples. Sir, China, for instance, has 29 million hectares under rice cultivation. India has 43 million hectares under rice cultivation. China produces 6.26 metric tonnes per hectare. The world average is 4.08 metric tonnes per hectare. India produces 2.1 metric tonnes per hectare. China has 23.4 million hectares under wheat while India has 25 million hectares under wheat. China produces 4.42 metric tonnes per hectare. The world average is 2.7 metric tonnes per hectare. India produces 2.72 metric tonnes per hectare. When I say we must grow, we must grow more wheat; we must grow more paddy; and we must emulate the best in the world. China produces 419 million tonnes of steel. India produces 44 million tonnes of steel. China produces 2,482 million tonnes of coal. India produces 427 million tonnes of coal. China generates 2,834 megawatt hour of electricity; India does 726 megawatt hour. When I say we must grow, we must produce more coal, produce more steel and generate more electricity. That is the only way we can bring economic justice to the people of this country.
The BJP and NDA seem to agree that we should end our nuclear isolation. After all these interruptions, no one is clear about the stand of the Left Parties. Let the two groups. Yet the two Groups are voting together against this Motion of Confidence. The NDA has no problem with a strategic relationship with the US. The Left Parties are ideologically opposed to any partnership — strategic or otherwise — with the US. Yet the two Groups are voting together against this Motion of Confidence. The NDA believes, as I listen to them, that India should become a nuclear weapon State, whereas the Left Parties have always been opposed to nuclear weapons and nuclear weaponisation. Yet the two Groups are voting together against this Motion of Confidence. The NDA says that if it comes to power, God forbid, it will renegotiate the Agreement. The Left Parties say that they will do everything possible to scuttle the Agreement now and for ever. Yet the two Groups are voting together against this Motion of Confidence. I doubt if in the history of India’s Parliament we have seen anything more bizarre than these two Groups voting together against the Motion of Confidence.
Yesterday, from the Speaker’s Chair, you welcomed one of the youngest Members of Parliament. There are millions of young boys and girls, and young men and women out there who are looking towards this Parliament and looking to the future. We can make our future; the future is in our hands. We can make our future, if we decide to have the vision and the farsightedness that can take this country forward. In the late 1980s and in the early 1990s, my beloved leader, Shri Rajiv Gandhi, followed by Shri Narasimha Rao and Dr. Manmohan Singh blazed a new path which made India a stronger economy than what it was 15 years ago. Today, this Government under Dr. Manmohan Singh’s leadership is charting out a new path which will end India’s nuclear isolation, which will pave way for India becoming an economic super-power.I ask this House to give a resounding vote of confidence to the Prime Minister. Thank you.
