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The new Traveller is digital savvy, strongly influenced by social media and more inclined to combine work and leisure in their travel.

SINGAPORE – Media OutReach – 5 October 2022 – A survey of more than 8,000 travellers globally, including 2,461 travellers in China, Indonesia and Thailand, reveals a growing appetite for overseas travel as countries reopen, that hasn’t been dampened by rising living costs.

Across the 3 countries polled in Asia Pacific, 71% of travellers in China and 56% in both Indonesia and Thailand, said that inflation had “no impact” to “moderate impact” in their decision when planning and evaluating the cost of travel. Respondents who cite a “moderate impact” also stated that cheap accommodation rates are not the most important factor when booking their travel.

The annual Changing Traveller Report 2022 by SiteMinder (ASX:SDR), the world’s leading hotel commerce platform, also found that about half of respondents – 48% of travellers in China and Thailand and 52% of travellers in Indonesia – intend to travel “internationally or domestically” over the next 12 months. Millennials (age 26 to 41) form the largest segment who plan to travel, accounting for 58% of travellers in Indonesia, followed by 56% in China and 52% in Thailand.

As the largest accommodation-specific traveller survey globally, insights from SiteMinder’s 2022 Changing Traveller Report showed that:

• Gen Z (age 18-25) are also the most likely to be influenced by the social media presence of the property they book, compared to other age groups. Thai travellers are the most influenced by social media, with 78% of respondents saying they are “very influenced” or “influenced” by the property’s social media presence in their booking decision, followed by 75% in China and 74% in Indonesia. In fact, respondents in every age group agree they are all influenced by the social media accounts of the accommodation they book.
• Bleisure continues to be a growing trend with 49% of Gen Z global travellers most likely to take a working holiday, followed by 46% of Millennials. 65% of Thai travellers, almost two in every three, are the leaders in bleisure travel, followed by 62% of Indonesia travellers and 47% of Chinese travellers. In fact, a quarter or more of travellers from every country surveyed in the report will be bleisure travellers on their next trip.
• Travellers are likely to change their perception of the accommodation provider if they have a negative customer experience when accessing and using the accommodation provider website, for example if the website is slow or the payment process is not secure. A high proportion of travellers – 89% in China, 72% in Indonesia and 75% in Thailand – said they are “very likely” or “likely” to change their perception when the accommodation provider is not using technology effectively.
• The use of AI and robots by accommodation providers to replace hospitality professionals is also well accepted with 86% of travellers in China, 85% of travellers in Thailand and 76% of travellers in Indonesia saying they are “very supportive” or “supportive” of accommodation providers using AI and robots to automate previous human work processes.

Sankar Narayan, Managing Director and CEO of SiteMinder, said, “We can see that optimism is returning from travellers to the tourism sector, and there is demand for travel as travel restrictions and health concerns abate across the world. Despite inflation and rising costs, travellers are reporting they are undeterred and do not intend to cancel their travel plans, which is a positive sign for accommodation industry resilience and travel globally, particularly in Asia.

“The long-awaited recovery of travel has also emerged with a new type of traveller, who has higher expectations from hotels and their travel experiences than ever. We can see that, more than ever, travellers now have ambitions to book, travel, work, connect, and experience the world with the greatest flexibility and security possible.”

The extensive report also extensively uncovers five key travel trends set to inform and inspire the accommodation and tourism industry:

1. The Macro-Travel Trend: The urge to travel is stronger than rising inflation
2. The Digital Influence Trend: Right now, travellers are the most winnable consumers on earth
3. The Bleisure Trend: Working travellers want the hotel of the future, today
4. The Trust Trend: Every digital touchpoint matters for the new trust-critical traveller
5. The Human Connection Trend: Tech-enabled travellers are not willing to compromise on human connection

Explore SiteMinder’s interactive hotel experience to gain more insights and to read the full report.

Survey methodology

Powered by Kantar, in August 2022, SiteMinder undertook a survey of 8,182 travellers aged over 18 years in August, 2022, in 10 markets, including Australia, China, France, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Spain, Thailand, UK, USA. Respondents were asked 25 accommodation-specific questions, and were split up by gender, generation, location (urban, suburban, rural), travel plans, work plans and the type of accommodation they plan to stay in next. The data was supplemented with reports and data from McKinsey & Company, Deloitte, Paysafe, and others.

Hashtag: #SiteMinder

About SiteMinder

SiteMinder Limited (ASX:SDR) is the world’s leading open hotel commerce platform, ranked among technology pioneers for opening up every hotel’s access to online commerce. It’s this central role that has earned SiteMinder the trust of tens of thousands of hotels, across 150 countries, to sell, market, manage and grow their business. The global company, headquartered in Sydney with offices in Bangkok, Berlin, Dallas, Galway, London and Manila, generated more than 100 million reservations worth over US$35 billion in revenue for hotels in the last year prior to the start of the pandemic.

By Nitya Chakraborty

In 1960, at the global level, the most important development was the World Conference of the   communist parties, the result of which was the 81 parties’ document. The conference laid bare the growing fissures within the once monolithic communist movement, as well as the Communist Party of China’s advocacy of a parallel line in the international communist movement, henceforth known as Maoism, after Chairman Mao Xedong, differing considerably from the   line that was followed by the Soviet Union.

In 1961, the CPI Party Congress at Vijayawada witnessed delegates vertically divided between the two distinct political lines in assessing the character of the Congress Party    and its   leader Prime Minister   Jawaharlal Nehru. The split in the CPI was averted at the last-minute following intervention by the Soviet Communist Party delegation led by Mr. Suslov but the   truce was   short lived.

In 1961 December, Calcutta witnessed its biggest cultural festival in the country for ten days at the Park Circus Maidan in commemoration   of the birth centenary   of poet Rabindranath Tagore organised by the cultural wing of the CPI. A Cuban ballet group performed and got tremendous response from the audience.  The literary elites of Bengal were astounded as the CPI leader S.A. Dange gave his Marxist assessment of Tagore. They could never think that a trade union leader like Dange could have such grasp of Bengali literature. I still remember the joy and excitement that I had during those ten days working as a volunteer for the delegates.

In 1962, the third parliamentary elections were held in the country. The Indian National Congress under Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru continued with its majority in Parliament, but the year also marked the beginning of the end of golden Nehruvian era. The CPI gained   further in 1962 elections with 29 seats, getting nearly 10 percent of the vote share. But this was the last electoral foray of the CPI as a united party. The economy started showing stress after the implementation of the first two five-year plans with moderate success.

Still, the Congress government at the centre could have tackled the economic problem effectively, but the Chinese attack on the Indian borders in October 1962 and India’s humiliation at the hands of the Chinese armed forces, gave a big jolt to the image of the hitherto relatively unchallenged Jawaharlal Nehru. Nehru of pre-1962 confidence was missing after   the border debacle. The leader had lost his mojo. The usual buoyancy was   gone. The government under Nehru carried on, but the strong governance was lacking. Nehruvian India was already fading, when on May 27, 1964, Jawaharlal Nehru passed away after suffering a cerebral stroke.

At the level of CPI, the split became inevitable after the general secretary Ajoy Ghosh died in January 1962. A compromise was made between the two factions by making S. A. Dange as the party chairman and EMS Namboodiripad the general   secretary. But the party leaders knew that this was just a temporary truce before the final storm. That came after the India-China border war. The battle lines were drawn in each state CPI unit, and finally the CPI (Marxist) was formed in 1964 by splitting the Communist Party of India. Apart from the so-called ‘Dange Letters’, the open call issued by the Chinese Communist Party in its June 14,1963 letter was used by the rebel faction in mobilising the party members behind the new party, CPI(M).

At the national plane, Nehru’s death in May 1964 was followed for some time by a feeling of vacuum in the national leadership, but soon Lal Bahadur Shastri took over as the second Prime Minister of independent India. In no time, he had to tackle the India-Pakistan war in1965. Unfortunately, he died in Tashkent after signing the India-Pakistan accord. Nehru’s grieving daughter Indira Gandhi took over as the third Prime Minister in January 1966 when the food    situation in the country turned precarious and India had to take food grains assistance from the USA under PL 480 provision. The foreign exchange reserves situation became serious, and Indira Gandhi went for devaluation of the rupee as a coping mechanism. The third five-year plan ended in 1966 with deteriorating economic situation, while Prime Minister Indira prepared for the 1967 general elections under her stewardship.

In the 1967 parliamentary elections, the fourth in the country and the first without Nehru, the Congress somehow retained the national majority, but the party lost power in eight states in the    assembly polls. The era of coalitions began in India starting with the states. In West Bengal, a coalition government of anti-Congress parties was formed for the first time in 1967 since independence. Ajoy Mukherjee of Bangla Congress was the Chief Minister and Jyoti Basu of CPI(M) was the deputy chief minister. The coalition did not last long as President’s rule was imposed. In 1969, the state assembly elections were held again, and the combined left front won with a big margin defeating the Congress. Left Front formed the government on its own for the first time in West Bengal. This too did not last long and in 1970, President’s rule was imposed once again. The elections were held again in 1971 and then in 1972, Congress came to power in West Bengal. But allegations of large-scale rigging haunted the state.

At the national level, in 1969, the Congress split took place steered by Indira Gandhi. Her candidate V V Giri defeated the official candidate N Sanjiva Reddy, and she started an ideological war against the old guards led by Morarji Desai and S. Nijalingappa. The old gang, known as the syndicate, formed Congress (O). Prime Minister Indira Gandhi announced a new economic programme and nationalised the banks on July 19, 1969, as a part of the ideological split. She sought the help of the CPI and the CPI(M) in Parliament, and both responded favourably. But the ties of the Indira Gandhi-led Congress with the CPI(M) broke in 1970 after the fall of the second united front government in Bengal, though the ties with the CPI continued.

In 1969, another   significant political development took place   in Bengal which had its impact    at national level in the following   years. Beginning 1962, a large   number   of party   members   in   CPI were influenced by Maoism. This accentuated   after the Chinese Communist Party’s call for a new political line through its letter of June 14, 1963.These members   joined the CPI(M) after 1964 split but were not fully reconciled   to   the CPI(M) political line. The Naxalbari uprising in 1967 during  the first  coalition rule in Bengal including   the CPI(M) led to  the leaving  of    many young   members from   the CPI(M)   to the Naxalites.

Finally, on May1, 1969, the official party of   the Naxalites- Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) CPI(ML) was announced    at   a big   rally in Clcutta’s Saheed Minar. The communist movement was divided officially into three parties, but the CPI(M-L)    took a violent line of struggle challenging the parliamentary system in India.  I was present at that historic meeting   and saw the faces of thousands   of young people who were inspired by Mao   to   bring a new revolution in India. Hundreds of bright young people including   students lost their lives in Bengal and also in other   parts of India in the   next   seven years.

1971 was the year of Indira Gandhi. She swept the parliamentary elections with her “Garibi Hatao” slogan and led the country to a magnificent victory in the war with Pakistan in December 1971 by perfect strategizing of her roadmap since the beginning of the liberation   struggle leading to the    emergence of Bangladesh. I was privileged to witness this incredible stint of Indira Gandhi in 1971 that culminated in the birth of Bangladesh. In 1n early 1972, when Sheikh Mujibur Rahaman came to Delhi on his way to Dhaka, I was at the Delhi airport as a young reporter, and everyone noticed a radiant Indira Gandhi looking glamorous in her saree and waiting to greet Mujib upon arrival. It was a personal victory for her too as only close advisers knew to what   extent she took stakes overruling her bureaucrats.

But in politics, situation changes fast. The economic reality of the country continued to deteriorate. In 1974, the railway strike took place under the leadership of   George Fernandes. Indira was losing the plot. In West Bengal, a reign of terror was continuing under the Chief Minister Siddhartha Sankar Ray, who had emerged as a close adviser to the PM. Things went out of control as the Allahabad High Court gave verdict against Mrs. Gandhi in the Rajnarain case. Jaya Prakash Narayan came to organise the opposition forces against India Gandhi   through his call for Total Revolution. JP even gave a call to the officials to defy the government orders.

A panicky Indira closeted herself off within a select coterie led by her younger son Sanjay. Emergency was declared on the night of June 25, 1975, and the arrests of senior political leaders took place. Indira, who was called a Durga by even Atal Behari Vajpayee after the Indian victory against Pakistan, became a demon to many just three and half years later. Finally, in early1977, Indira withdrew the Emergency and declared elections. The Congress was defeated, and Janata Party formed the first non-Congress government at the centre 25 years after the first parliamentary elections in 1952.

1977 started the year of coalition governments at the Centre. The Janata government led by Prime Minster Morarji Desai fell in 1979, and this was replaced by another coalition led by Charan Singh, which also fell, leading to fresh elections in1980. India Gandhi led the Congress to a comfortable victory and formed the government for the fourth time. At the state level in West Bengal, in1977, the Left Front led by the CPI(M) had a sweeping victory and Jyoti Basu took over as the Chief Minister.

During this last tenure of Indira Gandhi, two issues dominated politically: Sikh extremism in Punjab, and the centre-state financial tussle on the economic front. In 1983, a conference of non-Congress chief ministers was held in Calcutta hosted by West Bengal CM Jyoti Basu. The draft was prepared by the then West Bengal finance minister Dr. Ashok Mitra. The declaration from this conference still remains the core document for the restructuring of the centre-state relations even now. In the meantime, the Punjab situation went out of control in 1984 after the attack by the Indian Army on the holy grounds of the Golden Temple in Amritsar to flush out the terrorists. On October 31 morning in 1984, Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her two Sikh bodyguards. Rajiv Gandhi, her eldest son and the third from the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, was sworn in as the Prime Minister within 24 hours. (IPA Service) To be continued

The post Decoding My Seventy-Two Years In Independent India-Part Two first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By Sankar Ray

During the one year under the Taliban rule in Afghanistan, girls are more isolated, hungry and sad- often go to bed without food, 46 percent of whom say they’re not attending school compared with 20 percent of boys, according to a study, ‘Breaking Point: Life for Children One Year Since the Taliban Takeover’, by an NGO, Save the Children International. The Taliban had captured power in Kabul on 15 August 2021. The research study finds that 97 percent of families have been struggling to provide enough food for their children while girls are eating less than boys. Almost 80 per cent of children go to bed hungry in the past 30 days (study period). ‘Chill penury’ and economic distress are emblematic in the troubled Afghanistan.

The SCI   report is a confirmation of what the  United Nations World Food Program revealed in end-February this year .Out of every ten income-generating families, the income of eight families plummeted substantially in January, with the most affected families in Kabul, it stated .Many people went through the winter without any income and were forced to face challenges in the cold, according to their data  In a tweet it warned that hunger in Afghanistan is on the rise, with 95 percent of the people going hungry. The economic crunch has fuelled a hunger crisis in the country of some 40 million people.

The SCI carried out a survey conducted in June 2022 and a child consultation in May 2022. The assessment and consultations were conducted in Balkh, Faryab, Sar-e-Pul, Jawzjan, Kabul, Nangarhar and Kandahar provinces. 240 boys and girls aged 9 to 17 years old participated in the consultation, and 1,450 children and 1,450 caregivers participated in the assessment. The NGO, headquartered in London, has been functioning in Afghanistan since 1976, including during periods of conflict, regime change, and natural disasters

. “Life is dire for children in Afghanistan, one year since the Taliban took control. Children are going to bed hungry night after night. They’re exhausted and wasting away, unable to play and study like they used to. They’re spending their days toiling in brick factories, collecting rubbish and cleaning homes instead of going to school,” said SCI county director in Afghanistan Christopher Nyamandi.

Girls, bearing the brunt of the deteriorating situation, are missing more meals, ‘suffering from isolation and emotional distress and are staying home while boys go to school. This is a humanitarian crisis, but also a child rights catastrophe’, quipped Nyamandi.

The study by the NGO has exposed the misogynist character of Taliban regime explicitly. Every nine out of 10 girls said their meals had reduced in the past year and that they worry because they’re losing weight and have no energy to study, play and work, according to the NGO study found. A lack of food causes devastating consequences on children’s health and threatening their future. The crisis which in many ways is  unprecedented in the land-locked country has been taking a dangerous toll on girls’ mental and psychosocial wellbeing. Interviews with their caregivers reveal that 26 percent of girls are showing signs of depression compared with 16 percent of boys while 27 percent of girls reflect signs of anxiety compared with 18 percent of boys. The girls of whom 45 percent have not been allowed to attend school – compared with 20 percent of boys – are feared to approach towards Psychotic disorders.

The UN Security Council President Linda Thomas-Greenfield in a statement in May 2022 expressed deep concern on the increasing erosion of respect for the human rights and fundamental freedoms of women and girls in Afghanistan by the Taliban. Imposition of restrictions limits “access to education, employment, freedom of movement, and women’s full, equal and meaningful participation in public life, and emphasised that these restrictions contradict the expectations of the international community and the commitments made by the Taliban to the Afghan people”.

The Human Rights Watch monitoring group has alleged that the internationally unrecognised Taliban Emirate imposed severe restrictions on human and civil rights. “The Afghan people are living a human rights nightmare, victims of both Taliban cruelty and international apathy. Afghanistan’s future will remain bleak unless foreign governments engage more actively with Taliban authorities while pressuring them vigorously on their rights record”, laments HRW Afghanistan researcher Fereshta Abbasi.  Taliban diktat imposes restrictions on the rights of women and girls, suppression of the media, arbitrary detentions and torture, and summary executions, HRW stated.

Afghanistan is in a nutshell in a humanitarian crisis, a disastrous economy with escalating hunger. According to a World Bank report Towards Economic Stabilisation and Recovery, released in early April this year, per capita incomes might have fallen by around one-third over the last months of 2021, erasing economic progress achieved since 2007, and leading to significantly increased household hardship. The economic collapse is aggravated due to  sharp declines in international grants, loss of access to the overseas assets of the central bank, disruption to international banking relationships, and a loss of investment confidence.

After the seizure of power by the Taliban, billions of dollars in international aid were withdrawn, Afghanistan’s foreign currency reserves were frozen and the banking system collapsed. The subsequent economic crisis and the country’s worst drought in three decades unnerved the Taliban honchos. The Taliban had appealed to the international community (meaning the USA that had frozen Afghanistan’s international bank accounts after the severe earthquake a few months back killing more than 1,000 people and rendered thousands homeless. But aid groups cautioned that, in the past, Taliban authorities tried to divert aid to areas and people that supported their views.(IPA Service)

The post Afghanistan After One Year Of Taliban Rule Witnessing Extreme Poverty first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By Sankar Ray

The Sonali Bank Limited, the biggest state owned bank in Bangladesh is under controversy. The Bank management has been accused by All India Bank Employees’ Association general secretary C H Venkatachalam in a letter on 25 March 2022 of having trampled the laws of land in India to sack the general secretary of Sonali Bank Employees Association Syed Md. Sahabuddin and a few other staff of Kolkata and Siliguri branches of SBL But the SBL management chose to ignore the AIBEA letter.

The AIBEA leader reminded the CEO and managing director Ataur Rahman Pradhan of gross violation of terms of Bipartite Settlement between the Indian Bank’s Association and the AIBEA, the SBL was a party to the bipartite deal ‘by virtue of a mandate given by the SBL to the IBA. He stated categorically, the bipartite settlements provide the procedure to be adopted by the management while taking disciplinary action against the employee.

Obviously and irrefutably, Sonali Bank is also bound by these rules and procedures in as much as these procedures are inseparable part of service conditions of employees working in India. Venkatachalam reminded the CEO of the bank of statutory adherence of the bank authorities to the Indian Trade Unions Act of 1926 and Industrial Act of 1926. But the top management shows no sign of bending down for the sake of cordial relations between the management and workmen.

The staff members of SBL have been agitating for over four months against trampling down of rights by imposing new service conditions that are against the laws of land in India. SBL is run in India mostly by contract employees but now the management wants all Indian employees be converted into contract employees. In mid-July this year, the West Bengal branch of AIBEA, Bengal Provincial Bank Employees’ Association, one of whose affiliates is SBEA staged a sit-in-strike before the Kolkata office demanding withdrawal of dismissal letter and scrapping of fresh service conditions which violates the ID Act 1947’

The SBL board of directors, all based in Bangladesh, mostly in Dhaka, adopted ‘Indian Operation Employees) Officers and staff) Service Rules, 2021, and made it operational without notice. The sub-section of ID Act 1947 states clearly, states,” No employer, who proposes to effect any change in the conditions of service applicable to any workman in respect of any matter specified in the Fourth Schedule, shall effect such change.” Sahabuddin opposed the managements move to change the service conditions’ while the Indian staff is to be in consonance of Section 9 of Industrial Disputes Act 1947

Sahabuddin is also the general secretary of Bengal Provincial Bank Contract Employees Association. The employees moved the City Civil Court seeing a stay against forcing the employees to accept contract job/ This had infuriated the SBL management which clamped a show cause notice alleging in subordination and other charges which BPBEA termed as ‘cooked up’ One such charge is fraud in Pension Trust Fund of which Sahabuddin is a trustee. The PTF invested Rs 2 crores as fixed deposit in DBL and purchased annuity of about Rs 2.20 crores from the Life Insurance Corporation of India. The SBL brass termed this as ‘unethical investment’, hinting it as almost a fraud. But Sahabuddin refuted this charge as frivolous as the decision was taken unanimously by all five trustees. .

The BPBEA general secretary Rajen Nagar drew the attention of the Reserve Bank of India to deliberate disregard of bipartite settlement by the Bangladeshi bank authorities who “served ‘termination order without any end benefit’ unprecedentedly and arbitrarily to prevent bank staff in Kolkata and Siliguri of trade union rights. The BPBEA leader states that the dismissal of Sahabuddin and other staff members is without prior departmental inquiry which is mandatory as per the bipartite settlement. Sahabuddin ‘opposed the managements move to change the service conditions’ while the Indian staff are to be in consonance of Section 9 of Industrial Disputes Act 1947, wrote the BPBEA leader.

The SBEA leader Sahabuddin has been constantly raising questions on payment of income-tax ‘by debiting charges account for officers posted at Kolkata and Siliguri from Bangladesh in violation of Income-Tax laws of our country’, pointed out by not only internal editors and RBI inspector. Whether RBI went into action against this illegal act is not known, but the SBL management resorted to vindictive action against the SBEA general secretary. .The SBL management wants to get rid of Sahabuddin as he is the top leader of the Sonali Bank employees union and exposed a number of misdeeds of the management.

The BPBEA memorandum to the RBI questioned the implementation of new service conditions. The service conditions of employees of any bank – including foreign one- are ‘governed by industrywise bipartite settlements between the Indian Banks Association and Workmen’s unions (such as AIBEA and National Confederation of Bank Employees). While workmen (SBEA) are represented by AIBEA, Sonali Bank is represented by IBA. The industrywise bipartite settlements are binding for both the parties’. (IPA Service)

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By Sankar Ray

A clear win in 15 out of 20 seats in the bye-elections to Punjab provincial assembly by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf has unnerved the 13-party ruling Pakistan Democratic Movement.It indicates that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz is not at all formidable in its home turf. It was thrashing late swinger by the former Pakistan cricket team captain to trounce the PDM. Elections took place in the constituencies which fell vacant after the de-notification of dissident members of PTI in the provincial assembly. Almost all who defected to the PML-N from PTI were defeated, suggesting strongly that ‘Kaptaan’s political base remains strong vis-à-vis PML-N in Punjab.

A few days before the polling, the PTI supremo tweeted in an emotional way “Too much at stake for July 17th By-Elections, it’s a battle for Dignified and Azaad Pakistan, please go vote early and help others vote on time!”, harping on his repeated accusation that the fall of PTI-led government was inspired externally, pointing fingers at the USA. In the beginning of June this year, he warned of a civil war in Pakistan if fresh elections are not announced. The PTI chairman kept saying that he was looking up to the Supreme Court to decide on his party’s plea to provide protection to the protestors. In fine, the PTI head embarked on a multi-pronged strategy to ensure maximum wins in the bye-elections.

Energised by the sweeping victory in 20 seats, King Khan has raked up the demand for national elections. “The only way forward from here is to hold a free & fair election under a credible ECP (Election Commission of Pakistan). Any other path will only lead to greater political uncertainty & economic chaos”, he tweeted.

Prior to the 20-seat bye-elections, the Punjab Legislative Assembly had 349 members of whom the : PTI had 163 MLAs and its ally PML-Q ten The PML-N had 163 members, while its coalition partner PPP had seven, four independents and one Rah-e-Haq party. Now, with 15 additional members of Provincial Assembly, the PTI strength rose to 188 two above the magic figure of 186. This means the PTI and PML-Q have crossed the landmark to form the provincial government. The likelihood of an Independent MPA supporting the new ruling coalition is high. .

The top leadership of PML-N which has been traditionally strong in Punjab, the most populous province in Pakistan is panicky.. The PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif called for introspection. The party paid the price of “difficult decisions” taken by the coalition government, he added He spoke to the Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Punjab Chief Minister Hamza Shehbaz and discussed future strategy. An emergency meeting of party leadership is being arranged as per the directive of Nawaz Sharif to discuss the reasons for ‘political disaster’ and work out a remedial course to regain the losing grounds.

In a tweet from her official handle, PML-N Vice-President Maryam Nawaz, who spearheaded the party’s by-election campaign, admitted that her party ought to accept the election results with an open heart. What she wrote in Urdu which, translated, read, “PML-N should openly accept the results. One should bow before the decision of the people. In politics, there are always wins and losses. The heart should be enlarged. Wherever there are weaknesses, efforts should be made to identify them and overcome them. God willing, it will be fine”.

The PTI chief tweeted in Urdu stating “Thanks to the grace of God and the hard work of the people and the public trust in Imran Khan, Tehreek-e-Insaaf won 15 out of 20 seats in Punjab, thanks to all those who supported Tehreek-e-Insaf in this struggle for true freedom! For others who can’t read Urdu, he tweeted, “PTI tweet-Thank you Pakistan, the lotas and imported government stands defeated .PMLN shouldn’t be surprised at their disastrous results, after all people were impressed by Maryam’s words regarding Lotas!” However, Maryam Nawaz or anyone of top brass of PML-M restrained themselves from reacting to the venom, lying in Kaptaan’s language.

The erstwhile premier took this opportunity to repeat his accusation that the federal government is an ‘imported’ one. He snapped fingers at the Election Commission of turning a blind eye and said that “courts should be opened now”. [and] act.” The federal information and broadcasting minister Maryam Aurangzeb dismissed Khan’s claim of rigging, asserting “not a single complaint” of rigging was received in those 20 constituencies. He said these were not rigged, unlike the by-elections held during the days of premiership of Imran Khan. But it was a crucial election – a matter of ‘life and death’ for both the ruling coalition and the opposition.

Ever since the PDM coalition came to power with Mohammad Shehbaz Sharif as the Prime minister, he had been forced to take some unpleasant and unpopular decisions like increase in energy prices, taxes and reduction in spending – the conditions slapped by the International Monetary Fund which granted a US $ 1.2 billion loan to help Islamabad bail out foreign exchange crisis –the forex reserve having been dwindling worrisomely. Pakistan awaits $ 4 billion external assistance from friendly countries next month. But this can be at the most a palliative, not  a cure.

PTI’s one-point programme is to dislodge the PDM from office as early as possible and certainly the by poll results  have given a big boost to the morale of Imran Khan supporters to intensify their movement for holding early general elections. (IPA Service)

The post Imran Khan’s PTI’s Massive Win In Bypolls Is A Big Jolt To Pak Ruling Coalition first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By Sankar Ray

The four-day visit of the eight-member team of the Communist Party of China in Kathmandu, led by Liu Jianchao, the new head of CPC’s international liaison department, as well as a meeting with the chairman of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Center),Pushpa Kamal Dahal, at the latter’s residence in Khumaltar both constitute the unmistakable message that CPC looks forward to a left (read pro-Beijing)-leaning combine to win in the national elections. However, it must be noted that before meeting the CPN (Maoist Center), Liu had separate meetings with Prime Minister SherBahadurDeuba and the minister of foreign affairs, Dr Aryan Khaki, in addition to the CPC team’s dialogue with the President of National Assembly of Nepal, Biddy Devi Bandar, chairman of Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Socialist) Madhya Nepal and the party’s senior leader, Jalap Nat Chanel. Suffice to say that Beijing isn’t putting all of its eggs in one Nepalese basket.

The 58-year-old Liu, formerly Chinese ambassador to the Philippines and Indonesia and a known corruption-buster, is a diplomatic veteran. He has a bachelor’s degree in English from the Beijing Foreign Studies University, which he followed by a year studying foreign relations at the University of Oxford. He was the key person to have spearheaded the move to hunt down graft suspects overseas. About seven years back, the Chinese President and chief of the CPC President Xi Jinping appointed Liu as the head of the international cooperation department of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the party’s top anti-corruption body. He is in the good books of President Xi.

The Election Commission of Nepal has mooted a single-day polling –both federal and provincial – unlike the two-day poll in 2017. The Chief Election Commissioner Dinesh Kumar Thapaliya and other commissioners met the PM last week proposing a single-phase national election on 18 November. As per the Constitution of Nepal, while the government is obligated to announce the election dates, it is the Election Commission that recommends election schedule, which though is not legally binding. The EC has requested the premier to announce the election date at least 120 days ahead in order to leave enough time for preparations.

The Pratinidhi Sabha, or the lower house of parliament, will have 165 members, elected directly, while 110 will be elected under the proportional representation system (PRS). The seven provincial assemblies will have 330 members elected directly, and 220 will be elected under the PRS. There are almost 26 crore voters, 70 percent of whom are expected to cast their votes.

Dahal, a.k.a. Prachanda apart, senior CPN (Maoist Center) leaders, such as Narayan Kaji Shrestha, Krishna BahadurMahara, Barshaman Pun, Dev Prasad Gurung and PamphaBhusal, were present at the meeting with the CPC leader, Liu.Relations between the CPN (Maoist Center) and the CPC were discussed. The sides have agreed to further strengthen the ties between the two parties.

In addition, the Chinese delegation had meetings with CPN (Unified Socialist), one of the ruling parties. It also called on the opposition leader from CPN (United Marxist Leninist), Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli, the former PM of Nepal. Oli was ousted from power by the Supreme Court, through a landmark verdict that catapulted SherBahadurDeuba to the post of PM for the fifth time in the Himalayan country. However, the land-locked state was thrown into a political turmoil after the fall of Oli.  The country was under a penumbra of uncertainty when it had to take on the Covid-19 pandemic that took the lives of over 11,000 people, leave alone battle the controversial domestic developments, especially the brewing unrest among ethnic Nepalis.

The CPC team weighed the possibility of unity among the communist forces, according to sources in the UML. Beijing is believed to have suggested that the communist groups from the CPN (Maoist Center) to the UML to work out a “pre- or post-poll alliance between like-minded leftist forces, or only between the UML and the Maoist Centre”. However,Dahal and Oli are at loggerheads, daggers drawn towards each other. So, in reality, the possibility of even seat-sharing among the four main communist parties is quite remote.

Nepal is a Hindu-majority nation. It was until the end of twentieth century the only country whose national religion was Hinduism. But an armed struggle, waged by the CPN (Maoists) with Prachanda at the helm terminated the 240-year-long Shah monarchy, followed by a total constitutional overhaul that made the Himalayan country a secular and democratic republic, paving the way for a republican system in 2007.

The irony of history is that exactly at a time when India’s secular democratic structure is threatened by an apparently theocratic ‘Hindu Rashtra’, Nepal has rid itself from a religious statehood. Little wonder then that India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi could made little headway towards diplomatic camaraderie with the ruling alliance in Kathmandu.  As such, India has nothing significant to gain or lose in the ensuing national elections in the neighbouring Nepal.

Moreover, American influence in Nepal might be waning since 2007, but it hasn’t altogether withered away. The Pratinidhi Sabha’s ratification of a contentious US-funded $500 million grant agreement in February this year, despite strong protest from inside the national assembly and outside, was a distinct sign of efficient US lobbying. Expectedly, China expressed its reservations over the development.

The five-party coalition, led by Deuba’s Nepali Congress, completed one year past Tuesday. It strengthened federalism and checkmated corruption. But it will be too naïve to say that the Nepali electorate will respond positively towards such a gesture. Moreover, the election fever  will take some more time   to appear.  (IPA Service)

The post Beijing’s Kathmandu Headache: Will Communists Win Nepal Elections? first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By Sankar Ray

The Bharatiya Janata Party may apply the operation-dislodge model of breakaway Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde in capturing power in Rajasthan and Jharkhand. West Bengal is also in the defection antenna. The Opposition and BJP leader of West Bengal Suvendu Adhikari disclosed almost directly that after Maharashtra, BJP would form governments in Jharkhand and Rajasthan as also West Bengal by 2024.

At a meeting in Coochbehar, north Bengal, Adhikari said, “It has just started in Maharashtra. Now it will be followed by Jharkhand and Rajasthan. And immersion of this (Trinamool Congress government) in 2024.” He stated the same words in two meetings at Falakata, Coochbehar district and Alipurduar district town on the same day.  Interestingly, the BJP leader made these statements after meeting the West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankar who is accused by all non-BJP parries of functioning under the BJP diktat.  Adhikari is also very close to the Home Minister Amit Shah.

The Shinde model is splitting of the ruling party with the BJP leadership sitting in the wings. Knowledgeable circles feel that several hundreds of crores of Indian rupee have been incurred to engineer the split. Nearly 40 Shiv Sena MLAs of Maharashtra were hijacked in a chartered plane to Surat first and there from to Guwahati – both in BJP ruled states.

In Guwahati, they were lodged at the  5-star Hotel Radisson Blu whose 70 of total 190 rooms were booked by Shinde (read Sangh Parivar) . The total weekly rent of these rooms is Rs 58 lakh, while the daily food expenses had been Rs 8 lakhs. Cost of travel by chartered plane is separate.. The MLAs were virtually locked in. They were not allowed to meet with or speak to anyone, least of all media. The Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sharma of BJP went to the hotel and spoke with Shinde.

The West Bengal BJP president, Dr Sukanta Majumder, a member of Lok Sabha, endorsed Adhikari. “The fall of TMC government may happen even before 2024. TMC is internally fractured and not at all well.” But he, unlike Adhikari, pretends that BJP will have nothing to do with the impending cleavage in the TMC legislative party.

In the 200-member Rajasthan state assembly, there are 108 Congress MLAs. Two CPI(M) MLAs and an MLA representing Rashtriya Lok Dal will support the Congress against BJP which has 71 MLAs. But there are 13 independent MLAs. The saffron aim is to ensure defection of 30 Congress MLAs to the BJP.

In Jharkhand, the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and Indian National Congress have 30 and 18 MLAs respectively in the 81-member legislature, while BJP group has 30 MLAs. The unusual haste with which the Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren announced support to the BJP’s presidential candidate Droupadi Murmu, who is an Adivasi, has shocked opposition parties. Whether Soren will keep bending down further to unfriend INC and join hands with the BJP to form a JMM-BJP coalition-government as it did in the past, is a matter of guess. But the CBI and ED are sure to summon Soren’s family members who are lessee of several mines in Jharkhand. To put further pressure .Once the JMM has been delinked from the opposition on the presidential elections issue, it will be easier for the BJP leadership to continue the pressure to achieve their prime objective.

The BJP cashes in on the footloose unity of anti-BJP parties.  Many of the legislators of the non- left opposition parties have connections with corrupt deals. It is easier for the Modi-Shah regime to influence them by making use of the central agencies. Since this method has paid dividends in Maharashtra, this might be applied with more vengeance in Jharkhand in the coming days. (IPA Service)

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By Sankar Ray

Inauguration of nine km long ‘Padma Setu’ on the mighty River Padma on June 25 by the Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sk Hasina will be perhaps the brightest feather on the cap of her government. Built at an estimated cost of lithe over Taka 30,000 crore is a sound slap on the face of World Bank which arbitrarily cancelled the $1.2 billion IDA credit in support of the Padma Multipurpose Bridge project in 2012 when the implementation of the project was at the initial stage. It also exposes the US imperialism to whose tune the WB and International Monetary Fund dance.

The Bank issued a statement on 29 June 2012 alleging that it had ‘has credible evidence corroborated by a variety of sources which points to a high-level corruption conspiracy among Bangladeshi government officials, SNC Lavalin executives, and private individuals’. The Bank’s highhandedness was embossed in demanding that the Bangladesh government “(i) place all public officials suspected of involvement in the corruption scheme on leave from Government employment until the investigation is completed; (ii) appoint a special inquiry team within the ACC to handle the investigation, and (iii) agree to provide full and adequate access to all investigative information to a panel appointed by the World Bank comprising  internationally recognized experts so that the panel can give guidance to the lenders on the progress, adequacy, and fairness of the investigation.” Such diktat to a sovereign government, was something unprecedented.

Interestingly a short while back Canadian court recently found no evidence of the alleged corruption. So it is proved that the IBRD took an arbitrary decision that cost Bangladesh financially and damaged its image internationally. This has exposed the Bank .Little wonder public anger has been outpouring against the World Bank demanding its accountability in the mass media. There is a growing demand that the Bank cough up compensation and a judicial probe. to identify falsifiers’

The ruling Awami League-led government with Hasina as the PM was left with no option other than taking on the extremely tough and complicated challenge of building it through-self financing. She was solidly backed by the Bangladesh Arthaneeti Samiti (Bangladesh Economists’ Association) which organised on 19 July 2012 a national seminar, captioned ‘nijo arthe Padma Setu’ ( self-financed Padma Bridge where Dr Abul Barkat, formerly head of the department of economics, Dhaka University placed a 39-page paper on details of self-financing the prestigious project.

The BAS has not been unanimous in supporting Dr Barkat’s paper although they comprise a small minority. Dr Barkat’s paper was published in 2012 – ‘Nijaswa Arthayane Padma Setu: Jatiyo Oikya Srishtir Shreshtha Sujog (Padma Bridge through self-financing- best opportunity in building national unity). Its second edition was published by Muktobuddhi Prakashan of Dhaka.

The PM at a meeting of Awami League advisory board on 2 June at her residence Ganabhaban in Dhaka squarely criticized the Nobel laureate and founder-chairman of Bangladesh Grameen Bank, Prof Mohd Yunus for prompting World Bank to stop funding in the project. Prof Yunus apart, pro-Khaleda Zia political leaders and intellectuals ridiculed Barkat’s paper. Even the noted Maoist intellectual and writer Badruddin Umar, whose hatred towards Bangabandhu Sk Mujibur Rahman is pathological also said and wrote that the concept of building the Padma Setu was ill-advised.

Rashed Khan Menon, chairman of Workers Party of Bangladesh, second largest Leftist party and a member of Jatiyo Sangsad (national parliament), made a blistering attack against the world bank in the parliament on 8 June and highly praised Prof Barkat. He reminded all that in July his party wholeheartedly supported Prime Minister Hasina’s resolve to build Padma Setu through self-financing. On the accusation that corruption and corrupt elements dominate the implementing authority of Padma Setu, he said it was the free market economy that the World Bank inspires is the proven cause of corruption in many countries. Furthermore, the very statement by the then US Ambassador in Bangladesh proved that at the instance of Mohd Yunus, the former US Vice President Hillary Clinton became instrumental in cancelation of IDA credit.

The USA which is the largest shareholder with a de facto veto power on the decision-making in the World Bank , exercises extraordinary and enormous power to dictate the World Bank ‘more often than not, as an institutional tool to advance US interests and serve the cause of allies. Bangladesh has become the latest victim of this too formidable political pressure and influence which presumably compelled the World Bank to decline the Padma bridge loan on flimsy pretext of perceived corruption that judicially proved to be non-existent,’ wrote Mizanur Rahman

What the Bank did to Padma Setu in Bangladesh was in keeping with its dirty tradition. It granted multiple loans to the apartheid regime of South Africa in the 1960s, despite the UN General Assembly resolution banning such loans. The Bank also approved a huge loan to Russia almost unconditionally when Boris Yeltsin was the Russian President. Yeltsin was an ally of western nations , especially the USA. . Hence Washington left no stone unturned to salvage him to deal with the problems of Russian economy.

During the first 50 years of Breton Woods between (1944–1993) the net transfer from debtors caused a loss of around US $500 billion a year in GDP as a consequence of neoliberal] policies’, revealed a report .’ The World Bank and the IMF, Australian Parliament Report, Canberra (1993)’. It indicts .,the World Bank IMF, for having been instrumental in expanding western capitalism, a role similar to what colonialism once played for rapid European development and industrialisation.. (IPA Service)

The post Inauguration Of Padma Setu On June 25 Is A Big Rebuff To World Bank first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By Sankar Ray

“France has had enough of its monarch president. If the French people decide to give us a majority then we will govern . . . Destiny is in your hands,” crisply said Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the leader of the coalition of various hues of left and green at a gathering of working people a few days before the runoff elections on June 19 for the 577-member L’Assemblée nationale (French parliament)..The maverick ultra left icon failed to defeat President Emmanuel Macron-led Ensemble’s coalition, but the ruling party fell well short of a majority. No single party is dominant in the new chamber. It won 245 seats, 101 less than the last election in 2017. It’s vote share is 38.6 percent. France has now has a hung Parliament.

Mélenchon’s red-green alliance Nouvelle Union populaire écologique et sociale (the New Ecological and Social Popular Union – NUPES) made sharp gains winning 131 seats with 31.6 percent vote share, Another 22 seats went to various other left-wing candidates. But the ultra-right, Rassemblement National party bagged 89 seats – 11 times more than it bagged in 2017- with less than 18 percent vote share. President Emannuel Macron-led Ensemble emerged as the largest single group but to form the government, it needs support of 44 MPs. In the previous parliament Macron’s La République En Marche and its allies were in majority. Whether he would strike a deal with Perrine “Marine” Le Pen-led RN or other conservatives is to be awaited.

Things might have been different hadn’t 52 per cent of voters refrained from casting their votes. Some left-leaning columnists say that this had benefiter the far right and deprived NUPES from expected results. However no pollster projected that the NUPES would edge out the ruling coalition to come out ahead of the president’s coalition in terms of the number of seats on the night of the second round on 19 June.

Even incorrigible optimists did not hope that NUPES would win 200-plus seats. Nonetheless, NUPES is to be a key player in the French politics and governance in the next five years. In fact, some commentators think that the NUPES supremo Jean-Luc Melenchon should prepare for a decisive 2027 parliamentary election. NUPES strength in new parliament is up by over 40 percent. Melenchon, head of La France Insoumise (France Unbowed, LFI) is expected to start campaigning for the LFI’s politico-economic agenda: dismantling of the Fifth Republic and set up of a Sixth Republic, better socio-economic programmes such as lowering of retirement age from 62 to 60 and raise of minimum monthly wage to €1,500 ($1,575) and capping of prices for basic foodstuffs. Melenchon is for disobeying of such European Union rules that conflict with France’s interest. In fine, Melenchon’s anti-capitalist direction is open and is binding for Left leaning parties. .

However, the most worrisome outcome of last Sunday’s parliamentary poll is the emergence of the ultra-right RN. It is a major political shock. Le Pen hailing what she called as a historic event promises to mount a “firm opposition” to the president’s agenda while remaining “respectful” of France’s institutions.“The French people have decided to send a very powerful National Rally group to the National Assembly, making it a little more ‘national’,” she told her followers.

However, NUPES will be in the frontline of resistance against right-turn in the French policy and governance. It is less a new left than a new way of organising France’s left-wing movements after the collapse of the Socialist Party under Hollande’s leadership. The Communist Party of France which is now constituent of NUPES is weaker than ever before. Melenchon’s call for pro-people policies has attracted voters of both these parties. NUPES is readying itself for constitutional reforms such as more citizen referendums that would reduce the power of the French president. These two parties as well as the Greens that make up the alliance have coalesced around

The future of red-green alliance that emerged as a new type of Leftism depends on Melenchon. It is a new experiment. An eloquent and formidable debater burdened with a volcanic personality He made a strange choice by choosing not to run for re-election in the Assemblée Nationale, which could become the front line of French politics in the event of a relative majority for the presidential coalition.

A section of French political commentators describe the NUPES as s an unquestionable political marketing success,’ but it also masks a statistical stagnation. In total, it did not actually win many more votes in the first round than the sum of the left parties that had campaigned separately in 2017 (26.1percent of the vote instead of 25.4 percent) Melenchon has been able to bring about a dynamism in the functioning of the left which faced stagnation for long. Even if Macron’s coalition is able to form the new Government in the  next two months the Left led by Melenchon has got big capacity for intervention in policy issues. Melenchon has arrived as an alternative and the way he navigates the coalition during the current tumultuous period, will determine the future of the Left in the next five years. (IPA Service)

The post France Enters A New Era Of Political Instability After Macron’s Failure To Get Majority first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By Sankar Ray

Pakistan’s new foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari’s speech at the foundation ceremony of Institute of Strategic Studies in Islamabad marks a complete hyphenation from his maternal grandfather Zulfikar Ali Bhutto who took over as the foreign minister in the early 1960s following the death of Mohammad Ali Bogra under the Chief Martial Law Administrator Field Marshal Ayyub Khan.. In the mid-1960s ,Bhutto gave a call for a thousand year war with India while Bilawal made a strong pitch for re-engaging with neighbours, stressing the imperative for communicating with not only the Indian government but addressing the people on ‘behalf of my country and our people’ as the foreign minister of Pakistan. Cutting ties with any country, (without naming, but meaning India) would not be beneficial for Islamabad which ‘ is already ‘internationally isolated and disengaged.”

“If I was to sum up the political conduct of our foreign policy and frankly quite a lot of policies, has been one of cutting one’s nose to spite one’s face. It requires all of us to have a deep rethink about where we stand in the world today and where we would like to see ourselves in the next ten years, twenty years, fifty years and the next hundred years”, Bilawal stated in his 2700-plus word speech. In fine, the speech is a new script for modernising and broadening Islamabad’s worldview.

In contrast, Bilawal’s grandfather in his book ‘The Myth of Independence’ vilified India alleging that ‘the principal objective of Indian foreign policy has been to isolate Pakistan’ and India’s objective was to promote ‘grandiose designs in south-east Asia and the total isolation of Pakistan from the People’s Republic of China’ and even United Nations. But over the years, people of Pakistan realised the macro-economic destruction in keeping up warring attitude of India. His grandson has also learnt the suicidal consequences of militaristic conflicts with India.

The 33-year-old new foreign minister of Pakistan representing the Pakistan People’s Party in the coalition of parties comprising the Pakistan Democratic Movement with Mian Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif of Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) as the Prime Minister implicitly reminds us of the slogan of the undivided Communist Party of India in 1947 – Hindustan Pakistan Dost Banenge, Dost Rahenge (India and Pakistan will befriend each other and remain friends). But inexplicably enough, the CPI dropped the slogan thereafter. Now the Indian Left and democratic forces have a golden opportunity to chant the slogan once again.

The Pak minister of foreign affairs emphasised diplomatic engagement which helps Pakistan brighten its image in the world arena. By engagement he does mean diplomatic, economic, cultural and political engagement “When I say that we’re cutting our nose to spite our face, I mean that if we’re not even going to try and engage on the basis of one issue or the other, then how can we hope to impact or change the course of events?” He refrained from naming India. Islamabad has to change the course of events or direction so that the people of Pakistan feel the direct impact of global events, he emphasised.

Bilawal reposed high expectations on the Pak intellectuals for refurbishment of foreign policy. Blessed with ‘incredible intellectual capacity- addressing intelligentsia, civil society and educational institutions, Pakistan, he firmly believes has produced ‘a metaphorical army of thinkers’ who are resources for strengthening the Pak foreign policy outlook

Needless to say, the present ruling Bharatiya Janata Party – including the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and minister of home affairs Amit Shah – would never promote Indo-Pak camaraderie. The high-voltage Hindutva-supremacist strategy BJP-led government of National Democratic Alliance is in sync with bellicose attitude towards Pakistan causing anti-Muslim hysteria in keeping with the Hindu Rashtra slogan. On the contrary, when the Indian cricket team was about to go to Pakistan for playing Test matches and ODI’s in 2003, the then PM Atal Behari Vajpayee told Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly to beat Pakistan but must be back winning the hearts of Pakistani people there. Such a gesture from Modi or Shah is unthinkable.

Bilawal’s speech is almost collinear with the stand of the Pakistan-India Peoples’ Forum for Peace and Democracy. While he regretted and criticised the abrogation of Article 370 of The Constitution of India on 5 August 2019 revoking the special status enjoyed by the Jammu and Kashmir, PIPFPD .nailed Modi government for the arbitrary and unilateral abrogation of Article 370..Imposition of a lock-down on the entire state of J & K and the people – closing down all means of communications, restricting the movement of people and goods, arresting thousands of people including politicians, journalists, lawyers, teachers, social activists, youth and even minor children were mentioned and condemned in no uncertain terms

The PIPFPD snapped fingers at the ‘lies and false narratives’, put forward by the Modi government which falsely claimed that situation in Jammu and Kashmir was ‘normal’ in the state after 5 August 2019. The horrific violence by members of the state’s armed forces, illegal arrests, nightly raids on homes of people, the beating of men, women and children were bitterly criticised by PIPFPD as did the Opposition in India. This made Pakistan-India relationship plummet. (IPA Service)

The post Bilawal Bhutto Has Put Pak Foreign Policy In A Fresh Perspective first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By P. Sreekumaran

Unfazed by fresh ‘revelations’ in the diplomatic channel gold smuggling case, the Pinarayi Vijayan-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) Government has demanded a probe into the conspiracy to discredit it.

The Government’s demand has come following the ‘new’ allegations levelled by Swapna Suresh, an accused in the smuggling case. In her statement given before a magistrate in Ernakulam under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), Swapna has alleged involvement of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, his family members and top bureaucrats including M. Sivasankar, former Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister, in smuggling activities.

She has also alleged involvement of K T Jaleel, a minister in the first Pinarayi Cabinet, and C M Raveendran, who was a part of the CM’s office earlier. Swapna has alleged that the UAE consulate had collaborated with the CM’s office to smuggle currency out of the country. She also said the embassy had facilitated import of biryani vessels allegedly containing contraband metal to Cliff House, the official residence of the Chief Minister.

The revelations have, expectedly, triggered an uproar in the state. The Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have demanded the CM’s resignation. Leader of the Opposition (LOP) V D Satheesan has sought an investigation monitored by the court. He claimed that Swapna’s allegations have substantiated the United Democratic Front (UDF)’s charges against the previous Pinarayi Government. Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president K. Sudhakaran opined that the Swapna statement has exposed the conspiracy hatched by the CPI(M) and the BJP to cover up the gold smuggling case.

An unflustered Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said the people had comprehensively rejected the false allegations and slander campaign launched by the Congress and the BJP against the previous LDF Government in the run-up to the 2021 assembly elections.  Calling it an exercise in futility, Pinarayi said such attempts would not weaken the Government’s will or deter it from following its people-friendly agenda and welfare measures.

A close look at Swapna’s revelations is necessary to put things in proper perspective. In her statement, Swapna said she had no political agenda. She also appealed against politicizing her statement! If that was her intention, then, why did she have a detailed telephonic talk with Janapaksham leader and a pucca politician like P C George? Reports say George called her 14 times and she in turn made five calls to him. She also avoided a comment on newspersons’ query on whether she had met George in person! Incidentally, in an earlier statement, she had alleged that the ED had forced to issue a statement against the Kerala Chief Minister.

The CPI(M) and the LDF have every reason to suspect a conspiracy. The Swapna-George tie-up itself arouses suspicion. It is an open secret that George nurses a grudge against the Government for arresting him in connection with a communally incendiary speech he made at a Hindu sammelan against Muslims. Reports also have it that Swapna is working for an organization which has RSS links. Reports also have it that the office was inaugurated by George! This being the ground reality, the LDF leaders cannot be blamed if they see a Swapna-0BJP-George conspiracy to malign the only communist government in the country.

The allegation made by the Congress that there is an unholy nexus between the CPI(M) and the BJP is also is baseless. If that were the case, the LDF Government’s Crime branch would not file a case against BJP state president K. Surendran in connection with the Manjeswaram bribery case at this point of time. This fact knocks the stuffing out of the allegation that the gold smuggling case has been buried fathoms deep following a BJP-CPI(M) secret understanding.

The prevailing perception is that the gold smuggling case is a dead horse. The Opposition is engaged in a futile exercise flogging it. The issue has been proved for what it is – a humongous sham. Of course, the central investigating agencies – including the Enforcement Directorate – will try their level best to dig out fresh ‘evidence’. But such crude attempts to revive the gold smuggling case with the express objective of extracting political capital will once again be rejected with the contempt it deserves by the people of the state. That is the crux of the LDF leaders’ argument. Whatever the denouement, the political mercury has soared in the wake of the Swapna revelations. Coming days could see a flurry of political activity. (IPA Service)

The post There Is A Calculated Conspiracy To Discredit Kerala Chief Minister first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By Sankar Ray

The monolithic dictatorship of the Taliban shows cracks as the compulsion for compromises on certain issues looms large. There is bitter opposition within the top leadership. It was apparent months ago when the Taliban’s deputy foreign minister, Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, publicly pulled up the Taliban high command for banning girls from attending secondary school. Formerly head of Taliban’s political office in Qatar, he said “We must aim for winning the hearts of our people rather than ruling over them with batons”. Michael Semple, professor at Queen’s University Belfast and former European Union and United Nations adviser in Afghanistan finds the rift in the Taliban leadership something ‘unprecedented’.

Parallelly with Stanikzai, women’s protest in the Afghan capital Kabul against the Taliban rights restrictions, is a shot in the arm for liberals who oppose the obscurant Taliban biggies. The protesting Afghan women –around two dozens-were chanting slogans like “Bread, work, freedom, and education is my right! reopen schools” on 29May this year protesting against the rollback of women’s rights since returning to power in August 2021. Girls are now banned from school beyond the sixth grade in most of Afghanistan. In March, the Taliban ordered closure of girls’ high schools. Moreover, Taliban authorities issued guidelines requiring women including female journalists to cover their faces except for their eyes, and the orders are to be enforced by punishing the closest male relatives of women who do not comply.

The United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in Afghanistan Richard Bennett who made an 11-day visit to the troubled state expressed worries about the deteriorating situation in the country as the governing Taliban imposes new restrictions on women and attacks against religious minorities mount. The Taliban have failed to acknowledge the magnitude and gravity of abuses being committed. The dissent has aggravated irrepressible as a recent UN report warned of 97 percent of Afghan people sinking below the poverty line.

Yet Semple does not envisage a split in the Emirate leadership at least in the not-so-remote future. “The differences in matters of policy and moderation are really secondary. The more serious differences are squabbles over the division of powers and privilege. These are the real divisions that the Taliban worry about.” This is debatable as the battlefield-experienced rank and file of Taliban are hardliners who are temperamentally intolerant. “The Taliban are very serious about their unity and cohesion,” he said. “If someone works or talks against their policies, they are isolated, pushed out, and even killed”, he quipped.

However, Stanikzai’s criticism in the open has been directed at the spiritual head of Taliban Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada, the supreme leader or Amir ul-Momineen, the leader of the faithful having the final say under the Taliban’s clerically led system. Nonetheless, schism in the Taliban has been widening for nearly a year during the Taliban endeavour to transform itself from a guerrilla force into a functional government after seizing power in August last year. Reports of infighting within the militant group were pouring in. The rift has been between the Taliban’s relatively pragmatic political figures and the hard-line field commanders, and radical clerics who are hell- bent on implementing fundamentalist interpretation of Islamic law. The latter are backed by the Haqqani network — a Taliban faction based in the east, mostly Pashtun. But there are other factions comprising ethnic Tajik and Uzbek Taliban commanders who are based in northern Afghanistan.

Another Afghanistan expert, Ibraheem Bahiss too finds the public criticism as unusual and apprehends it partly as ‘a way to figure out how to navigate intra-movement differences and influence policies’. He thinks Taliban are divided into two camps .If one believes that restrictive decrees will help the new Islamic emirate fetch international recognition and sanctions removal harder to achieve, the other believes bending down to the West is no guarantee to set better ties with the West. The latter is for focusing on bolstering its Islamist credentials and consolidate its control. “The Taliban appear divided in reemploying policies similar to their emirate of the 1990s or treading a new path still in line with their ideology,” he stated.

The rift in the hierarchy of the Taliban is a hard reality. The schism expands as the Taliban grapples with a series of political, social, and economic crises, directly challenging its rule, including a freefalling economy and a devastating humanitarian crisis. The Haqqaani Network cannot suppress the growing resentment and anger as economic distress continues to spread and deepen. Rifts are thus a reflecting reaction of Taliban’s uneven policies. The collapsing Afghanistan’s economy forces its citizens to leave the country en masse in a trend which actually began before the seizure of power by the Taliban, precisely after the announcement of withdrawal of foreign forces in the spring of 2021.

Recently the Taliban administration’s acting foreign minister, Mawlawi Amir Khan Muttaqi, met an Indian foreign ministry delegation led by JP Singh, joint secretary in the ministry of external affairs. Muttaqi described visit of Indian team as a “good start”. “The meeting focused on India-Afghan diplomatic relations, bilateral trade and humanitarian aid,” Taliban foreign ministry spokesman Abdul Qahar Balkhi said on Twitter. The Indian delegation had reportedly sensed severe poverty and humanitarian deficit engulfing the mountainous country. (IPA Service)

The post Taliban Command Structure Afflicted With Bitter Factionalism first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By Harihar Swarup

In a Batch of petitions challenging the law of sedition, contained in section 124A of the Indian Penal Code, the Supreme Court on Wednesday issued a slew of interim directions. Things came to a head because the Central Government, instead of defending the constitutionality of the provision, proposed to reconsider the law purportedly because the Prime Minister wanted it to be reviewed in the spirit of “Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav.”

Just to provide more context, the court had first heard the petitions in July 2021 where the principal line of challenge was that the earlier judgment of the Supreme Court in Kedar Nath vs State of Bihar (1962) which has upheld validity of section 124A IPC was not good law anymore. The Central Government was asked to file its response to the petitions. If it failed to do so by that time, the matters were taken up in April 2022.

The court ultimately granted it time till May 5, but government sought additional time again. Notably on this date, the attorney general of India differed on the stand of the central government (which was being represented by the Solicitor General) and stated that while the law was constitutional, it would be necessary to lay down guidelines to prevent misuse of law. The Central government, on the other hand, orally argued the law was fine as it is.

The court granted central government time till May 10 to file its response, failing which it intended to decide the question of whether there was a requirement to refer the challenge to a seven-member bench. Instead the Central Government filed an affidavit stating that it will reconsider the law and requested that the challenge proceedings be kept in abeyance. It appears that the court’s oral observations in the matter, where it disapproved of the misuse of the law, had a bearing on the government’s decision.

The petition took objective to this approach mainly because such a proposal didn’t factor in pending cases and continued misuse of provision while the law would be under the government’s consideration. The Central government sought a day’s time to take instructions on interim measure to ally the petitioner’s fears. On Wednesday it proposed to establish a mechanism where sedition cases would be filed only after an officer of SP rank justified in writing and such a justification would be open to judicial review. The petitioners, on the other hand, insisted on suspension of law in totality. In fact, Senior Advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan submitted proposed consequential directions of an absolute suspension of the law which inter alia included explicit stay of pending proceedings and bar on registration of new cases.

After some deliberations, the court refused to confine itself to the suggestions proposed by government and passed  directions hoping and expecting the state and central governments to restrain themselves from registering new FIRs, continuing pending investigation or arresting people under section 124A IPC. It it clear the order does not have an effect of absolute stay as it states that if a fresh case is registered the accused would have the liberty to approach appropriate courts and seek relief on the basis of its order. However, it left to the discretion of subordinate court by recording that such courts are “requested” to examine such cases after taking into account its order and the stand taken by the central government.

By issuing such “request” instead of absolute directions, the order may have left room open to the state and central governments to continuing filing as the only consequence of not complying with the request would be that the accused would be again left to the mercy of the court to seek bail or stay of arrest. The order should have been more assertive and explicit in this regard and should have provided penal consequences for its non-compliance.

The only absolute direction passed was staying all pending trials under section 124A IPC where a charge sheet has been filed. However, the language used by courts is trail appeals and proceedings which would then be put in abeyance even such appeals where convictions are under challenge. The court should have granted liberty to the appellate courts to grant appropriate relief in cases where the accused is incarcerated the pendency of appeal.

The order appears to be a small win but left a lot to be desired. Also, its implementation at ground level remains to be seen. Lessons should have been taken from the fact that the police across the country continued filing FIR under section 66A of the Information Technology act, 2000 which was declared to be unconstitutional, it continued to be on the statue book. The lack of awareness of local police is to be blamed here.

Further, the language of section 124A IPC is mirrored in the  Unlawful Activities (prevention) Act 1967 (UAPA) under the definition of unlawful activities which continues to be misused across the country against journalists and civil society, most recently in Kashmir. There is nothing preventing the government from simply switching to the UAPA instead of section 124A IPC. Provisions pertaining to bail under UAPA are so stringent that it is near impossible to obtain the same. It also elevates the offence of sedition to the level of being federal offence and grants powers to the National Investigation Agency to investigate prosecute such offences.

Till the time of safeguards are built to prevent misapplication of the UAPA, or even laws like the National Security Act, the law of sedition will keep rearing its head under different names despite the orders passed by the Supreme Court. (IPA Service)

The post Supreme Court Order On Sedition Law Is A Significant Forward Movement first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By Sankar Ray

It was Rabindranath Tagore, the myriad-minded poet, thinker and staunch internationalist who stood up openly at a public meeting in 1897 at the historic Town Hall of Calcutta, then India’s capital in protest against the infamous sedition act, the day before it was first used –Section 124A of Indian Penal Code. It was the first protestation against the Sedition Act which was introduced in 1870. The British rulers at that time booked Bal Gangadhar Tilak for sedition—Queen Empress vs. Bal Gangadhar Tilak (1897).

Standing straight he read out an essay captioned Kantharodh (throttled voice) 125 years ago.. The very beginning of it, translated into English, read: “Today the language in which I have risen to read this essay is the language of Bengalis, the language of the weak, language of a vanquished nation; yet our authorities are afraid of this language. One of the reasons of this fear is that they don’t understand this (Bengali) language. And wherever there is darkness of ignorance, there is an eeriness of blinded apprehensions.”

Tilak earned the wrath of the Raj for writing articles in his Marathi newspaper Kesari criticising government’s lapse in curbing the plague epidemic in India. He was punished by the Bombay high court for sedition under Section 124A and jailed for 18 months .Tilak was held guilty by a jury comprising nine members- six white jurors voting against and three Indian jurors voting in his favour.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi faced a trial in a sessions court in Ahmedabad on 18 March 1922, for “bringing or attempting to excite disaffection towards His Majesty’s government established by law in British India.” He was imprisoned for 12 months. Gandhi famously said: “Section 124A under which I am happily charged is perhaps the prince among the political sections of the Indian Penal Code designed to suppress the liberty of the citizen. Affection cannot be manufactured or regulated by the law. If one has no affection for a person, one should be free to give the fullest expression to his disaffection, so long as he does not contemplate, promote or incite to violence.”

Tagore  said at his meting that the new sub-section of IPC might be misused by the colonial rulers that were paranoid and vindictive – a reflex of cowardice inside. He was prophetic. In a chaste Sanskritised prose, packed with subtle innuendos and sharpness, he wrote: “ I am neither rebellious, nor a hero, nor presumably, a simpleton. I am not desirous of being trampled by the raised colonial sceptre and succumb to it accidentally. But I do not know where and at which corner the masculine ruler reposes surreptitiously. I do not clearly know the place setting foot at which might lead me to be beaten by the ruler’s mace and be fallen. For, my ruler does not understand my language. Hence, his mace may blindly hit me like suddenly appearing meteor, crossing the limits of penal code, thus make inner senses of a weak animal shiver.”

At that time, there were several high class orators among national leaders who preferred to remain silent. The poet who cracked Nobel Prize for literature 16 years later metaphorically criticised then. “At such a juncture, symptomatically it is benignly clever to remain totally mum and in our unfortunate country, many are away from their duties to play safe”, he pointed his displeasure at roaring orators preferring to stay mum at their lair.

The bard ingenuously described the notorious sub-section of IPC as medieval in nature. Indeed, it was frequently used vindictively by the Raj. The Privy Council had snubbed the colonial executive albeit infrequently for applying the tortuous sub-section. Remember the case – Niharendu Dutt Majumdar vs. King Emperor (1942) FCR 48. The British judicial apex cautioned the British oppressor rulers crisply “public disorder or the reasonable anticipation or likelihood of public disorder”. The judges concurred that sedition would mean resistance or lawlessness in some form but if there is no incitement to violence, there is no sedition. The present regime at the centre, ‘saffronite’ government of the Bharatiya Janata Party with Narendra Modi as the Prime Minister and Amit Shah as the minister of home affairs as also BJP-ruled state governments travel beyond the bounds of Sec 124A treating non-violent and peaceful protest as seditious- a tendentious misuse often out of political vendetta.

Theoretically, the concepts of sedition and nationalism are inter-related – both postulating an exaggerated notion of love for the nation or chauvinism .Little wonder, Tagore was opposed not only to nationalism, but patriotism too in some way. “Patriotism cannot be our final spiritual shelter; my refuge is humanity” he said . Two of his songs, Jana Gana Mana and Amar Sonar Bangla are national anthems of India and Bangladesh but that does not mean he endorsed nationalism. Gandhiji in an obituary to the poet succinctly wrote “we have lost the greatest poet of our age  …an ardent nationalist who was humanitarian.”

A hard core humanitarian for which the motto of Viswa Bharati has been Yatra Vishwa Bhabatyekonedam (Where the world resides in a single nest), the muse introduced.. Like Marx, he was anti-statist. The communist or socialist society (synonymous with cooperative society) that Marx envisioned will be based on ‘collective self-activity, while Tagore who campaigned for a cooperative society, driven by ‘sammilito atmokartitwo’) collective self-authority’, pointed out Marx-scholar of international fame PareshChattopadhyay in a talk delivered in Kolkata in 2011.

Social scientist and subaltern historian Partha Chatterjee in an article in 2016 in Economic and Political Weekly snapped fingers at judiciary “Our courts, so fond of the modus vivendi rather than clear interpretation, have shied away from pronouncing Section 124A unconstitutional but have, instead, in repeated judgments, emphasized the distinction between advocacy and incitement and insisted that mere speech unconnected to actual harm caused against the state cannot be punished under this law”.

But for leniency by judges – an indulgence not all open to the judiciary- the saffron rule could not be increasingly oppressive and vindictive. The death of Father Stan Swamy in jail custody is glaring evidence. Ajay Datta, a human rights activist, associated with the Peoples Union for Civil Liberties and a lawyer, said: “Misuse of Section 124 A is nothing new. When the CPI was banned, it was misused. Thereafter too it was misused, but its misuse ever since Narendra Modi became the PM increased disproportionately.

Somnath Lahiri, lone CPI member in the Constituent Assembly of India (until 14 August 1947) spoke against the Sedition and demanded its non-inclusion in his speech on 29 April, 1947. The CPI leaders were continuously harassed in the course of the freedom movement. Lahiri a great orator mentioned the pernicious impact of the 1870’s British statute and appealed to the leaders of the Congress who were going to form the first Government in independent India to do away with the sedition law. His appeal was unheeded by the Congress Government after it came to power in August 1947. In the 75th year of independence, finally, the Supreme Court has kept the 124A section of the statute in abeyance till the centre comes out with its review before the next hearing in the third week of July this year. This is a big step forward but the abrogation of the statute is still not final. (IPA Service)

The post Rabindranath Tagore Spoke Strongly Against Sedition Law In 1897 On The Eve Of Tilak’s Arrest first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By Sankar Ray

MMTC  (erstwhile Minerals and Metals Trading Corporation) ,  India’s one of the two highest foreign exchange earners until seven years ago, largest exporter of minerals from India for several decades  and a frontline international trading company with a turnover of over $7 billion heads towards liquidation in its 60th year. Its staff members have not been receiving its salaries for months together.

There are less than 800 employees on the MMTC’s payroll. The annual average income of an MMTC staff is roughly Rs 18 lakh. The management has to cough up hardly Rs 100 crore to liquidate statutory salary dues to employees but the MMTC (obviously under diktat from the top brass of central government) is reluctant to pay the dues.

The plan for liquidation of MMTC   and sell-off of Nilachal Ispat Nigam Limited to the Tatas is obviously inter-related. The MMTC had a 49 percent-plus equity shareholding in NINL. The MMTC first incurred a loss of about Rs30 crore in 2016-17. State Trading Corporation of India too reported a loss of Rs16.5 crore. Thereafter, it has been going deeper into the red mainly due to the policies of Narendra Modi government which  has been systematically weakening central public sector undertakings – especially those that have been earning profits and paying dividends to the Union government.

In a communication to the Listing Department, National Stock Exchange of India Ltd and Department of Corporate Services, Bombay Stock Exchange Limited on 29 April, MMTC company secretary G. Anandanarayanan informed, “Pursuant to provisions of Regulation 30 of SEBI(Listing Obligations & Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015,it is hereby informed that as per the restructuring plan, entire WCL(working capital loan)  and FITL (funded interest term loan) availed by MMTC from Banks could not be repaid by the Company by 29.4.2022 under the loan restructuring norms. Hence, as per the RBI-Covid Restructuring guidelines, the account shall be downgraded to NPA.”

A senior officer of MMTC says that MMTC has been pushed to such a state during the present regime. Non-payment of salary for months together should be treated as a criminal offence, he put it angrily.  MMTC has an alibi on non-payment of salaries. In reply to a letter on non-payment of salaries for over four months from the secretary-general, Federation of MMTC Staff unions, Uday Vir Singh wrote, “MMTC has not been generating enough funds from its business activities. We may also point out that due to rationalization of government bodies in department of commerce, MMTC was denotified as canalised agency for import of fertiliser and LTA (long term agreement) for export of iron ore to Japan and South Korea was not renewed after 31.3.2021. MMTC was directed to wind down its business activities along with closure of its regional offices”.

There are reliable reports that during the regime of Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance with Narendra Modi as the Prime Minister overseas transactions of central public sector companies like STC and MMTC were markedly reduced to let private sector companies get in and make money. Mystery surrounds non-renewal of LTA for export of iron ore to Japan and South Korea after fiscal 2020 -2021.

Non-payment of salaries – unprecedented in the history of governance of the Union government – is no new to the Modi government. This has been a regular practice at the BSNL. In the beginning of 2021, the monthly revenue collection of BSNL was Rs 1,500 crore. The expenditure for the payment of net salary to the employees would have been less than Rs 450 crore. Even then employees were denied their statutory salaries. BSNL Management ‘is pushing the employees to come to the streets every month and agitate to get disbursement of their salary,” said BSNL Employees Union general secretary P Abhimanyu. Monthly salary expenditure was slashed by 50 percent through VRS-2019. About 80,000 employees were pushed out, added Abhimanyu.

How BSNL was weakened deliberately by the Modi government is well-known. In contrast to wooing the private telecom companies to help them gear up for 5G services, BSNL was forced  to battle by being forced to offer 4G services to its users. Following protracted protests by employees, the government had to allot 4G spectrum free of cost to BSNL.

Financial media is either unaware of or apathetic towards the arbitrary practice of denying salary to the staff in CPSUs and government-run companies. BSNL and MMTC are not exceptions. Take Balmer Lawrie Ltd. Its board of directors at a meeting in 2018, chaired by S N Mathur, then chairman and a non-executive director and a nominee of IBP Co Ltd, then holding company of BL had adopted such revision only for the then four whole-time directors, Dr C V Chandrasekharan, managing director and directors Rajiv Singhal, N P Singh, and P K Bishnoi with effect from 1 January 1997. Other officers (below the board level) were accorded pay revision from 1 April 1999.

However, BL board of directors at a meeting in 2018, chaired by S N Mathur, then chairman and a non-executive director and a nominee of IBP Co Ltd, then holding company of BL had adopted such revision only for the then four whole-time directors, Dr C V Chandrasekharan, managing director and directors Rajiv Singhal, N P Singh, and P K Bishnoi with effect from 1 January 1997. Other officers (below the board level) were accorded pay revision from 1 April 1999.

According to the papers prepared for winding up of MMTC, MMTC’s bank liability is Rs 2600 crore. The sales proceeds of NINL are Rs 12000 crore-plus, to be paid by the Tatas. About Rs 6000 crore should be deposited in MMTC bank account. So liquidation of all dues is no problem. In fact, beefing up of MMTC is still possible with its goodwill in the export market.  But that is not happening due to the anti- public sector policy of the present regime. (IPA Service)

The post Central Public Sector MMTC Is Under Liquidation Due To The Apathy Of Centre first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By Sankar Ray

There is a general feeling of relief at the exit of the PTI Government led by Imran Khan in Pakistan and the coming of the opposition coalition leader Shehbaz Sharif as the new Prime Minister Nazam Sethi, editor of the renowned The Friday Times, began his column, captioned, ‘Ten Days That Shook Pakistan’, put it in a hard-hitting way- “Imran Khan and his fascist hybrid regime have finally been kicked out. Thankfully, the Miltablishment and Judiciary that had supported him refused finally, to bail him out of his self-inflicted troubles”. He thanked the Opposition for closing ranks ‘in the face of brutal repression.’

The choice of 70-year old Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif of Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), youngest brother of ex-premier Nawaj Sharif as the 23rd Prime Minister of Pakistan seems a judicious step in as much as he proved his mettle in governance as chief minister of Punjab twice. In striking contrast was blatant misgovernance of Imran Khan regime. His promise of building ‘Naya Pakistan’ remained a pious platitude. Pakistani-American economist Mian Atif , who was picked up by the PTI-led government in 2018 as an adviser , but subsequently dropped out following a controversy has said that the national economy is ‘ now in a worse shape on all accounts under the three-and-a-half year rule of PTI led government. ’

The new premier announced a few relief measures immediately after elected o the post following the defeat of Imran Khan and his government such as minimum monthly wages at Rs25,000, subsidised wheat flour and 10 per cent raise in pensions as well as salaries of the government employees getting less than one lakh monthly , effective from the very first day.

Shehbaz laid down a promise that he would put in his paper in case it is proved through an inquiry that there was an international conspiracy behind the no-confidence resolution against the former PM Imran Khan. “Even if there is an iota of evidence to prove it in the National Security Committee meeting that there was any conspiracy, I will not take more than a second to resign as the prime minister,” he quipped

The smartness of new PM reflects the Opposition’s s readiness to take on the electoral battle in 2023 when the tenure of present NA is to end and a fresh election is to take place. The minimum monthly wages will be up from Rs21,000 to Rs25,000 per month from 1 April 1, 2022. The premier announced revival of the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) and its linkage with the education, provision of flour on subsidised rates under the Ramzan package and restarting distribution of laptops among the talented students.

King Khan proved once again his skill in showbiz bravado by resignation en masse of all PTI members of National Assembly excluding the twenty-plus dissidents who voted for the no-trust motion sheerly out of frustration over Imran Khan’s style of governance. The PTI supremo appears confident of winning the majority in the NA in 2023 elections.

The last three-and-a-half years witnessed the building of personality cult around Imran Khan as an incorrigibly honest politician “what Khan wants, what Khan eats, one day Khan will make Pakistan a superpower, Khan is alone, Khan needs time, Khan wants Presidential system, the captain is changing the batting order, Khan is happy, Khan is sad’ etc but the Pakistan Test cricket captain-turned politician and PM was less concerned of Pakistan, his promise for Naya Pakistan notwithstanding. Pakistan is heading towards financial bankruptcy mainly because of consistent compromising agreements made by PTI government to keep the system running but without any effort to reinvent the infrastructure of the system.

The shameless way Imran Khan coalesced with the deputy speaker Qasim Suri, a member of PTI. And tried to sabotage the no confidence motion has shattered King Khan’s image. Rather the end of hybrid regime with a conscientious judiciary gave peace-loving and democracy-yearning Pakistanis a sigh of relief as democratic norms, civil liberties and human rights were being trampled blatantly by the PTI government. About the PTI regime’s failures on economic and diplomatic front, the less said, the better. There has been brazen clampdown on dissent and political expression Imran Khan’s authoritarian rule , let alone crushing of political dissent. “They destroyed independent journalism, shrank civic space, and violated the freedom to associate, organise, express, and be informed. Significantly, the problem of enforced disappearances increased manifold under the hybrid regime,” said Pakistani political commentator, journalist, and human rights activist Marvi Sirmed

Mosharaf Zaidi in an after-edit in The News International reposes faith in the new PM. “Arguably, nothing is more important for a country of 220 million, with half the population below the age of 23. The cities, roads, highways, broadband and public discourse that these young Pakistanis will traverse in the coming decades needed to be built twenty years ago. Pakistani politics has delayed the arrival of a Shehbaz Sharif – as it has delayed so many badly needed changes in Islamabad. But has he arrived too late?” (IPA Service)

The post New Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif Starts Well Amidst High Expectations first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By Sankar Ray

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Kaptaan Imran Khan is in an existential crisis that pushed him personally into a political quagmire. His stature worsened further following the crucial observation by the Chief Justice of Pakistan Umar Ata Bandial during the hearing of a suo moto matter following the dismissal of National Assembly of Pakistan on Sunday by the President Arif Alvi on the prime minister’s advice that the NA Speaker erred in rejecting the no-confidence motion. The meaning is clear that reference to Article 5 of the Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan is incongruent.

The CJP’s remarks was in the midst of hearing of the suo moto case related to the constitutional lemma following the ruling by the NA deputy speaker Qasim Suri and the subsequent dissolution of the lower house on the advice of the PM Imran Khan. Incidentally, NA Speaker Asad Qaiser was reportedly unwilling to a ruling as per Article 5. Earlier, Attorney General Khalid Javed had too told TV anchor Humid Mir in Geo News programmed Capital Talk that voting was a must on the no-confidence resolution against the PM Imran Khan on 3 April 3 under the Constitution. The deputy speaker Qasim Suri, a member of ruling PTI, chaired the session and promulgated dissolution of NA. He blocked the confidence motion that Khan had widely been expected to lose. Hence the ruling assuming that a foreign conspiracy was behind the no-trust motion ,was considered unconstitutional by many.

Heading five-member larger bench that included Justice Ijazul Ahsan, Justice Mohammad Ali Mazhar, Justice Munib Akhtar and Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail are also part of the larger bench , the SCP is looking into the matter in terms Article 63(A) of the Constitution that suggests disqualification on grounds of defection for not obeying the parliamentary party directions in the election of the prime minister, chief minister or vote of confidence or no confidence or money bill etc

Former PM Nawaz Sharif said on Sunday that Prime Minister Imran Khan and all characters involved in the “conspiracy” against the nation are guilty of high treason and should be tried under Article 6 of the Constitution. He tweeted in chaste Urdu, which, translated freely, read :”Today, a man obsessed with power trampled on the Constitution. Imran Khan, who puts his ego before the country and the nation, and all the conspiratorial characters involved in this conspiracy are guilty of serious treason to which Article 6 applies. Abuse of Pakistan and desecration of the Constitution will be taken into account”.

Pakistan People’s Party chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari ridiculed Imran Khan saying that instead of ‘playing till the last ball had run away with the wickets. He said that the president, prime minister, NA speaker, deputy speaker and anybody involved in this act on Sunday had committed high treason.’

Pakistan’s internationally well-known TV personality Amir Liaquat Hossain and a member of PTI snapped fingers at King Khan, “”I would like to say that what the Prime Minister has proved that the opposition was doing right, I am announcing to leave the PTI, who has deviated from the constitution and who is deviating? The decision will be made by the court but unfortunately this game was played to remove General Qamar Bajwa”

A leading English daily made a blistering attack on the premier, With the parliamentary process pulverised on the orders of a leader who continues to hold it in deep contempt, Pakistan has been thrown into the dark abyss of a constitutional crisis. It seems, in retrospect, that the captain had planned to play this dastardly card all along. It came as a rude shock: it takes quite the fall for a self-proclaimed ‘fighter’ to display such unsportsmanlike behaviour. By tearing up the rules of the game instead of ‘playing till the last ball’

Whether the NA session is to be reconvened to pave the way for no trust motion is to be awaited. The defeat of ruling PTI-led government is certain as support from 172 NA members in favour of the government is almost impossible while more than 190 members are likely to vote for the motion. .

Kaptaan Imran Khan’s grip on power has been steadily weakened over the past two weeks. His rhetoric on the alleged role of foreign powers in Pakistan’s domestic affairs has proved vacuous. Even many in his party Pakistan Tehreek-i- Insaaf are not convinced that the USA backs the no-confidence motion, hatching a grand conspiracy to remove him. The premier stated, ‘they are against me because I am against corruption’ to ‘I am being removed because I am standing against the West, particularly America, for pursuing an independent foreign policy’.

The high-powered National Security Council headed by PM sat to discuss the so-called diplomatic cable which, the PTI government claimed, had evidence of the US plot seeking a regime change in Pakistan. The NSC decided to issue a demarche to the USA But the Pakistan’s military top brass pooh-poohed the allegation. The isolation of Kaptaan is more than evident. (IPA Service)

The post Imran Khan Has Pushed Pakistan Into A Major Constitutional Crisis first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By Sankar Ray

Political circles in Nepal are keenly watching how much  the Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba will score gains in his first bilateral visit (1-3 April 2022) after taking over as the PM in July last year. Moreover, the visit takes place during the year of election to the National Assembly of Nepal. It is not that it is his first visit to India as the PM. During his first tenure as the PM in February 1996 when Pamulaparthi Venkata Narasimha Rao was the Indian Prime Minister, Deuba came to India  as the then PM. He took along with him prasada (sandalwood) from Samrajeswor Pashupatinath Mahadev for Narasimha Rao who was pleasantly surprised at the gesture. Expectedly, the Nepali premier will repeat the gesture for his present counterpart Narendra Damodardas Modi.

In 1996, Deuba visited India that was fully committed to secularism while Royal Nepal was a Hindu state. Now it has changed upside down. Nepal ceased to be a Hindu state in 2015, while India under the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh-dictated National Democratic Alliance government in India, led by the Bharatiya Janata Party gravitates towards a ‘Hindu Rashtra.’ Deuba’s party, Nepali Congress is broadly secular. For the PM of Nepal, the diplomatic stance has to be cautious as it’s for him a tightrope walk.

However, Deuba is no new to India, but his camaraderie was with leaders of Indian National Congress. Towards his counterpart and the latter’s party BJP, his steps will be more diplomatic than cordial…The erstwhile PM Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli has been pronouncedly anti-Indian, quite unlike Deuba.

To be frank, Nepali intelligentsia has become more critical of India during the twenty-six year gap. The reason was Modi government’s more-than-implicit encouragement to the Madhesi parties that have been at loggerheads with the then Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist)which  had been the ruling party for more than once before and after the end of monarchy of Nepal..  On 12 February 1996, the erstwhile His Majesty’s Government of Nepal  and the Government of India signed the Mahakali Treaty for integrated development  of  the Mahakali River Including Sarada Barrage, Tanakpur Barrage and Pancheshwar Project.

The very first Article 1 had two agreed-upon decisions that were hailed by overwhelming majority of people in Nepal. One, ‘Nepal shall have the right to a supply of 28.35 m3/s (1000 cusecs) of water from the Sarada Barrage in the wet season (i.e. from 15th May to 15th October) and 4.25 m3/s (150 cusecs) in the dry season (i.e. from 16th October to 14th May)’. Two, ‘India shall maintain a flow of not less than 10 m3/s (350 cusecs) downstream of the Sarada Barrage in the Mahakali River to maintain and preserve the river eco-system.’.. .

Deuba has obviously a ‘long shopping list’ with him. How much of this will be clinched is being awaited. Dr Nishchal N Pandey, director of Kathmandu-based think-tank Center for South Asian Studies and formerly executive director, Institute of Foreign Affairs under the Nepal’s ministry of foreign affair states realistically in an interview to Kathmandu’s English daily My Republica, “We also generally raise the people’s expectations prior to the visit. When the visit falls short, there is no dearth of those that criticise and state that the visit was not a success. Besides, this is an election year here in Nepal. Local polls are due in a month’s time. Nepal needs to stress the expeditious implementation of bilateral projects and reinvigorate the already existing bilateral mechanisms across diverse spheres rather than forming new committees and groups”

The Nepali premier will in all probability raise the disputatious Kalapani issue. It all started after India had opened the Darchula-Lipulekh pass link road on 8 May, 2020 cutting across the disputed Kalapani area, claimed to be in the interests of the Indian pilgrims to Kailash Mansarovar. The tiff between two governments began when India published a revised political map in November 2019, showing the newly created Union Territories of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh, showing Kalapani as part of Pithoragarh district of Uttarakhand. Nepal protested forthwith laying territorial claim over the river which is located in the easternmost corner of  Pithoragarh. It shares a border with the Tibet Autonomous Region of China on the north and Nepal in the east and south.

The region under controversy  is situated between  Limpiyadhura-Lipulekh, and Kalapani trijunction between Nepal-India and China (Tibet), located at an altitude of 3600m on the banks of the river Kali. Even the incorrigible optimists do not expect an amicable settlement of the issue during the ensuing visit of Nepal’s PM. The Kalapani area has been under the control of  the Indo-Tibetan Police and nearby areas since the Indo-China war of 1962.

Kathmandu refers to the Treaty of Sugauli of 1816 where the then British colonial rulers recognised the right of Nepal’s to the region that fell to the east of the Kali river. The Nepali stand is that the river originates in Nepal, precisely in the mountains near Limpiyadhura. Nepal argues that the landmass in the high mountains, falling to the east of the entire stretch right from Limpiyadhura.

Nonetheless, Deuba and top bureaucrats in Kathmandu are thankful to India for helping the land-locked neighbour with vaccines and repatriation of stranded Nepalis. Nepal is looking up to Indian government to further help the Nepali tourism industry get beefed up with augmenting air connectivity to Varanasi and south India . Veteran Nepali diplomats think, the visit is an opportunity for Modi to mend the fences. China cashes in on a growing anti-India mentality. But there are many who look at China suspiciously for its propensity to dominate economically. (IPA Service)

The post Nepal Prime Minister Deuba’s Three Day Visit To India Is Significant first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By Sankar Ray

The more the Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan Niazi zooms in on 25 March (if not earlier),the fateful voting for no-confidence motion at the National Assembly, the more rattled is the hierarchical order of the main ruling party, Pakistan Tehreek-i- Insaf, headed by the PM. As if sensing that his prime ministerial existence is threatened, Imran Khan seems to have forgotten that once he was committed to play with a straight bat when he led the Pakistan Test cricket team and now swinging with a cross bat to stay on.

With some 20 members defecting to the opposition, Pakistan PM Imran Khan’s ruling PTI , the future of federal  government has entered a zone of uncertainty. The PTI strength being reduced to 155 MNAs in the PTI kitty, political analysts in Pakistan too sense uncertainty of PTI’s continuance in future, especially with King Khan at the helm. In contrast, the opposition comprising the PML(N) and smaller allies  are  assured support of  from over  more than 160 MNAs.

King Khan’s discomfiture is due to miltablishment’s reported move to ask the former  cricketer to step down, although the PM is a pet of Pak army top brass. General Qamar Javed Bajwa, has sounded Imran Khan to step down after  the ensuing  conference of the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation in Islamabad  this month. Fresh grist to the mill of political cauldron is the suggestion to the premier from one of the founders of PTI and an MNA Najeeb Haroon, a doyen among Pakistan’s civil engineers, who feels that the PM’s quit gesture will ease  current political turmoil. “The country can no longer sustain instability and PM Imran Khan must shed his stubbornness and somebody else from within the party be brought forward as the prime ministerial candidate,” he told a leading TV news channel of Pakistan.

Whether Imran Khan will gracefully step down is to be awaited. There is, however, no sign of his willingness to give up the schism inside the PTI. Which is why he keeps lambasting the Opposition which tabled the no-confidence motion. He branded the Pakistan Peoples Party co-chairperson Asif Ali Zardari, Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) president Shehbaz Sharif and Jamiat Ulema-e Islam (Fazlul)  Pakistan chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman as “three stooges” from the opposition , accusing them of “stealing” for years and facing corruption cases.

“The judiciary, Election Commission of Pakistan and the nation are observing the situation. The veil has been lifted from the eyes of the nation… opposition leaders would “badly lose this match” , he added. But King Khan is irrepressible. Spearheading the Opposition, he stated that people would not trust them.”Your children will be unable to find spouses and they will be ridiculed at school. You are destroying the future of your children by accepting this money.”

However, dissidence inside the PTI is raging. Dissident lawmakers of PTI  are coming out into  the open. Unnerved PTI party bureaucrats resort to vitriolic language to shame them. Education Minister of Punjab Dr Murad Raas wrote on Twitter “Sindh House has been turned into a Political Brothel. Political prostitutes are running in and out of this Brothel. Head Pimp – Asif Ali Bemareee. ”Strangely enough, the .throwing away of political etiquette in Pakistan’s parliamentary polity wasn’t kick started by Dr Raas. It was initiated by an Imran-adherent Aalia Hamza, PTI’s MNA and parliamentary secretary for commerce, industries and production. She abused PTI dissenters as ‘worse than prostitutes.’ She added. Sindh House was operating ‘like a brothel…. ‘pimps are sitting there.’

‘Imranocracy’ has been brewing for nearly two years. The first expression of anger had burst out through the petition en masse from women journalists in 2020 when they also called on the PTI government to act against trolls associated with the ruling party who indulged in abusive campaigns, sometimes even resorting to threats of murder and sexual violence. There was no positive response from the government. On the contrary, abusive campaigns were aggravated. Signatories were witch-hunted. Pity was that the PTI bureaucracy inspired the attackers against the journalists who were critical of PTI governance.

The premier had smelt a rat in even end-January this year and had lost his cool in a TV programme Aap Ka Wazir-e-Azam, Aap Kay Saath, he awkwardly warned his opponents in and out of PTI. In case, he would be out of power, he would make their life hell. “You will not find a place to hide if I took to the streets…I will just need to nudge people and others will be running to London as well to join the ones who already are there’ he quipped.

The dramatic turn against Imran Khan took place a week ago when a dozen of MNAs expressed their lack of confidence in him. The miltablishment that pushed the PTI supremo off the grace, is half inside and other half in the wings – a sign of quit notice to King Khan. It was evident when the

Pakistan Army spokesperson told the media last week that the military would remain neutral. A visibly angry Khan retorted at a rally in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa:: humans take sides and “only animals are neutral”. The Army ignored Khan’s barb. (IPA Service)

The post Panicky Imran Khan Bracing Himself For Possible Shock In No-Trust Vote first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By Sankar Ray

The no-confidence motion, tabled against the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-led federal government and okayed for debate and voting by the Speaker of National Assembly of Pakistan, Asad Qaiser, has unnerved and enraged the Prime Minister Imran Khan Niazi. In a speech at a gathering of the PTI lawmakers of Sindh in Karachi, he targeted the Pakistan People’s Party co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari bluntly, “Now my first target, who has been under my radar for a long time, is Asif Ali Zardari” and snapped fingers at the latter for several misdeeds like using police and ‘thugs’ to get people killed, theft, corruption and money laundering abroad.

The PM travelled beyond political etiquette and temper. “Asif Zardari your time has come. You know that after the next three months you will be in jail”. He accused the former President of Pakistan of trying to buy the support of Members of National Assembly, representing PTI.  “An MNA of mine told me he was offered Rs.200 million” in lieu of support to the Opposition. The loose-tempered PM called the former PM and supremo of Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) Nawaz Sharif as ‘braggart and boot polisher’. He also ridiculed the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, saying “Listen Fazlu, calling you a maulana (scholar) is a sin”.

In the 342-member NA, the total Opposition with 163 MNA 84  of PML-N, 56 of PPP, 15 of  Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal Pakistan, four of  Balochistan National Party, one of  Awami National Party  and three independent  needs  more  votes  to unseat the PTI ministry. The Opposition claims it has been assured of support from 28 lawmakers. Which is why the PM is tensed-up. As per rules, signatures of at least 68 MNAs are needed to table the no-confidence motion. The Opposition got 86 MNAs sign the petition for the motion. .The PTI which has 155 MNA has the support from 23 from coalition partners, including seven of Mutahida Qaumi Movement.

The King Khan as the famous Test cricket Captain who was committed to play with a straight bat and beat the batsmen with swingers directly and the PM appears as a strange self-contradiction. He lacks the moral and political courage to take on a no-confidence motion a common experience in parliamentary democracies. Instead, he resorts to allegations not backed by documentary evidence and papers. “No-confidence motion is their political death,” Khan told PTI workers and branded those who tabled this as a “gang of robbers” as they were claiming after “every two months”. He made no secret of his plan to get them entangled and ‘trapped’.  In a threatening tone, the PTI- top boss, said: “My hands were tied, so far. The shackles that were on my hands will be broken” and stated somewhat bumptiously that he ‘has been waging a struggle against these thieves for 25 years” as a commitment to ‘fight for my country.’

The PM met with MQM leaders as also those of Grand Democratic Alliance –PTI allies to reinforce the trust with his government’s allies in the Centre.  He was accompanied by Planning Minister Asad Umar, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and Maritime Affairs Minister Ali Zaidi.

The no-confidence motion is a grist to the mill of a severe economic and financial crisis faced by the Federal government. The budgetary deficit soared to record high while the trade deficit touched US $ 3.2 billion. The economy is strangulated as never before at least during the last five decades. The government has failed to stick to the commitment to keep the primary budget deficit within limits, agreed upon with the imperatives laid down by the international Monetary Fund. Instead of achieving a Rs 25 billion primary budget surplus, indications are that there will be a primary budget deficit of over 1 percent of the gross domestic product even at the revised base of the economy.

Nor could the PTI reign keep the inflation rate within and inflation will remain high. According to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, Pakistan’s consumer price index soared to 13 per cent in January this year while in December the inflation rate crossed 12 per cent.  The government promises the medium-term inflation range between 8and 9 per cent. But the reality is different.

Pakistan has already been in the grey list of the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force since June 2018 for failing to check money laundering, leading to terror financing. It was committed to checkmate them firmly by October 2019.  But it failed miserably. Financially, the PTI government is in a big mess. The people are suffering and there is disappointment all around with the Imran regime.

The Speaker is to convene the session of NA by 22 March and the voting has to take place between 26 and 30 March. Imran Khan’s ordeal is on. (IPA Service)

The post Pakistan Prime Minister Has Got Panicky At No-Confidence Motion In National Assembly first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By Sankar Ray

The Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan Niazi’s visit to the Russian Federation has resulted in a damp squib, if not a ‘diplomatic disaster’. To call it just ill-timed because of Russian invasion of Ukraine is to hide the frustration beneath. True, President Vladimir Putin had little time when Russia’s hell-bent desire to punish Ukraine was the  prime priority  even to offer diplomatic etiquette in  dialogue with him – the entire government at Kremlin having been  on pins and needles. The pessimism is over the Pakistani premier’s request for a $1 billion credit advance to Pakistan for the proposed Gas Pipeline project. It   has been politely rejected by Putin at the meeting between the two leaders, according to reports.

The Prime Minister had anticipated some major deals on Russian investments, specially, pertaining to the $2 billion worth gas pipeline, known as the North-South gas pipeline as Pakistan is desperate for a secure and cheap supply of natural gas. Islamabad needs a pipeline to be built for transporting natural gas from Karachi to Lahore through 1,100 km -long pipeline. It was conceived in 2015scheduled   to be financed by both Moscow and Islamabad and constructed by a Russian company. But the US sanctions on Russian companies came in the way. .

Pakistan’s energy minister Hammad Azhar who accompanied the PM to Russia  said, “The 1,100 km-long pipeline from Karachi to Kasur is to be laid with the cooperation of Russia” Pakistan needs it but it has no money to lay the pipeline. Now it plunges into uncertainty as it is feared to have the same fate as the non-starter Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline.

It was as if that Imran Khan was on a goodwill trip to Russia. He met with the Russian President but had nothing to report about it. Dr Ayesha Siddiqa, formerly a senior civilian officer of Pakistan and now a Pakistan expert at the University of London is of the view, “It remains an ill-timed visit, which is not necessarily going to get Pakistan into trouble. But the country will have less sympathy in the West, referring to  the visit.

Marvin Weinbaum, the Afghanistan and Pakistan studies director at the Middle East Institute, Washington bluntly called it an  “awkward” timing that  might ‘torpedo’ its main objective of improving relations with Russia. He thinks at a time when the international community turns strongly against Russia and China refrains from directly supporting the invasion, a step-upward of Pakistan-Russian relationship may not help Islamabad improve its international image.

There was no joint communiqué as it was a two-day visit. The Premier’s arrival coincided with the kick-off of Russian army’s march into Ukraine – an unintended symbiosis if not unprecedented. Veteran diplomats of Pakistan, including several former ambassadors to top western countries are reported to have suggested to the foreign ministry that the visit be deferred as the imminent invasion was a foregone conclusion.

King Khan’s words like “What a time I have come. So much excitement (told to the Russian deputy foreign minister Igor Morgulov who received him  at the airport are an over-smart gesture and nothing else,- a feel among disillusioned diplomats  in Islamabad. The very act of ignoring the sane advice by well-wishers that “it was not the right time,” to visit Russia reflects PM’s diplomatic myopia. Such a notion is doing rounds in the corridors of Prime Minister’s enclave in Islamabad. But the PM’s office in a frantic public relations cover-up claimed that the two leaders in their meeting held wide-ranging consultations on bilateral relations as well as regional and international issues of mutual interest.

Pungent reactions came from western experts of diplomacy. “It is bad diplomacy. But Imran Khan has been carrying his anti-American rhetoric too far, even believing in it, as he wants to be in love with his own words. Khan has chosen to get cosy with President Vladimir Putin when his own house is on fire – politically because of a no-confidence motion being readied against his government, and economically, because of the dire stress it is in and badly requires a hefty loan, of all the places, from the International Monetary Fund,” wrote Federico Giuliani who too termed the visit as “ill-timed” and “foolhardy”.

However, Imran Khan’s office did its best to justify the visit, recalled the telephone conversations between the two leaders during the recent months and bestowed confidence in a positive trajectory of bilateral relations in the future. He underscored Pakistan’s commitment to forge a long-term, multidimensional relationship with Russia. But referring to Afghanistan Khan made no bones of the urgency of addressing the humanitarian crisis and preventing potential economic meltdown anticipating a stable, peaceful and connected Afghanistan.

Nonetheless, King Khan expressed his concern over the military conflict between Russia and Ukraine, reposing faith in diplomacy. He asserted that military conflict could have been averted disputes should be resolved through dialogue and diplomacy. (IPA Service)

The post Imran Khan’s Two Day Moscow Visit During War Ends In Near Disaster first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By Sankar Ray

Though there is no civil war like situation in Karachi, according to the Pakistan media and all the leading Pak papers are alleging that Indian media is manufacturing news,

the standoff between the ‘miltablishment-backed federal government, led by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf in Islamabad and Pakistan People’s Party-run Sindh provincial government in Karachi is a reality which is hotting up. The Sindh chief minister Murad Ali Shah made an astounding disclosure that he had been threatened by a federal minister that the provincial government would be “dismissed” if he did not file an FIR against Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) leader Capt (retd) Muhammad Safdar, husband of PML(N) vice-president Maryam Nawaz.

“A federal minister gave me an ultimatum that if the FIR [against Safdar] was not registered, the Sindh government will face its consequences. In response to their threats, I clearly said nothing is important then the respect we have for our guests. It’s even more important than the government”, said the CM.

The PPP leadership alleges that the Sindh Inspector General of Police Mushtaq Mahar was detained in the wee hours of Monday and forced to order the arrest of Safdar from a hotel in Karachi. Inquiries had been ordered parallelly, one by the CM and other by the Chief of Army Staff Qamar Javed Bajwa into the ‘Karachi incident’ leading to registration of a first information report. Captain (retd) Safdar was scheduled to attend a meeting of the Pakistan Democratic Movement, an 11-party oppositional platform against the PTI-led federal government, headed by the Prime Minister Imran Khan Niazi. The COAS responded to a request from the PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari in a news conference, to ascertain why the Sindh police chief was pressured into registering a case against the PML-N leader, arrested from the hotel room of his wife Maryam Nawaz, allegedly for disrespecting the mausoleum of the Founder of the Nation, Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah . The reason for arrest was chanting of slogans. The arrest was made under the Quaid-e-Azam’s Mazar (Protection and Maintenance) Ordinance, 1971, governing the premises — is punishable by “imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years, or a fine, or both”.

He was released by a court hours later. PPP later issued a statement, saying he was shocked to hear about the incident, adding that the Sindh government was not informed about the arrest. Addressing the media on Tuesday after a press conference of Sindh chief minister, Bilawal revealed that Sindh police’s top officers including IGP Mushataq Mahar had decided to go on two-month leave for being “ridiculed and mishandled”.

The PDM leaders are accusing the federal government and its agencies of having “kidnapped the provincial police chief and forced him into signing the arrest order”. Former Sindh governor Muhammad Zubair and spokesperson of Nawaz Sharif and Maryam Nawaz told some TV channels that Sindh Inspector General Police Mushtaq Mahar was coerced into arresting Safdar – a statement endorsed by the PDM leader and Jamaat Ulema-i-Pakistan (Fazlur) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman and former PM Raja Pervaiz Asharaf at a press conference.

Another former PM and PML-N leader Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said security agencies take their orders from the PM Speaking to media in Islamabad, he noted that institutions like the Inter-Services Intelligence and Rangers might take their orders directly. “Both the institutions report directly to the Prime Minister, No one else can do that’, he stated.

Meanwhile, peace movement leader and a strong proponent of Pakistan-India friendship, I A, Rehman, in a post-editorial in Dawn greeted the PDM for holding two successful public meetings at Gujranwala and Karachi as ‘a healthy contribution to the country’s transition to a functional democracy. It has confirmed the existence of an opposition that is essential for a multiparty dispensation’. He bantered the Punjab government for having ‘earned credit for putting aside its intolerance of the opposition and respecting its right to assemble and raise its voice, though it meant extra work for the large brigade of ministers and special representatives charged with ragging the opposition.’ (IPA Service)

By Sankar Ray

Emerging economies pose threat to stratosphere due to an unprecedented increase in nitrous oxide (N₂O) and leading among them are Brazil, India and China. Global anthropogenic (N₂O) emission is due to agricultural production: 82 per cent. This is revealed in a paper, ‘Nature’: ‘A comprehensive quantification of global nitrous oxide sources and sinks’. It encapsulates in brief an extensive recorded data .spanning four decades, all over the world and findings thereof. It is an international collaboration project, essentially funded and monitored by Japan, in the project, Global Nitrous Oxide Budget 2020involves an international research team of 70 scientists and44 research organizations from around the world. These include two scientists from the National Institute of Environmental Studies (NIES) and Japan Agency of Marine Earth-Science and Technology (Jamstec) of Japan.

Among the authors are Hanqin Tian, Yuanzhi Yao, Hao Shiand Rongting Xu – all of Japanese origin – of the International Center for Climate and Global Change Research, School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences, Auburn University, Shree R.C. Dangal of Woods Hole Research Center, Falmouth, MA and Eric A Davidson of Appalachian Laboratory, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, Frostburg ( all three in the USA), Angela Landolfi of GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, Kiel, Germany and Istituto di Scienze Marine, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), Rome, Italy, Wilfried Winiwarter of International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Laxenburg, Austria

Institute of Environmental Engineering, University of Zielona Góra, Zielona Góra, Poland and Parvadha Suntharalingam of School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK. Prabir K.Patra, atmospheric physicist of Indian origin, a senior scientist, represents Jamstec.

An inventory, analysis and synthesis of the greenhouse gas across all sectors and regions is the construct of the comprehensive research, under the umbrella of Global Carbon Project (GCP). It is a venture to ‘develop a complete picture of the Greenhouse gases cycle by establishing complete, consistent scientific knowledge to support policy debate and actions to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions to the atmosphere, and will continue to be regularly updated with the most recent and reliable scientific findings. its importance, there is a lack of study that provides a full picture of global N₂O emissions and the interactive effects between nitrogen (N) additions and the biochemical processes that control N₂O’ .

In a press release on the work states, “The increase is primarily driven by human-induced emissions which have risen by 30 per cent over the period. Overall, agricultural activities dominated the growth in the emissions with the use of Nitrogen fertilizers in agriculture including livestock manure production. The highest growth rates in N₂O emissions come from emerging economies, particularly Brazil, China, and India, where there has been large increases in crop production and livestock numbers”

On the findings that underscore the urgency to mitigate N₂O emissions in the food production system, the researchers noted that. the emissions of this greenhouse ‘ are increasing as fast as or faster than the most pessimistic emission scenarios developed by the IPCC, which lead to global mean temperatures well in excess of 3 degree Celsius. The results provide the most comprehensive quantification of global N₂O sources and sinks resulting from 21 natural and human sectors during 1980-2016.

The abstract of the paper states, Nitrous oxide, like carbon dioxide, is a long-lived greenhouse gas that accumulates in the atmosphere. Over the past 150 years, increasing atmospheric N₂O concentrations have contributed to stratospheric ozone depletion and climate change, with the current rate of increase estimated at 2 per cent per decade. Existing national inventories do not provide a full picture of N₂O emissions, owing to their omission of natural sources and limitations in methodology for attributing anthropogenic sources. . Here we present a global N₂O inventory that incorporates both natural and anthropogenic sources and accounts for the interaction between nitrogen additions and the biochemical processes that control N₂O emissions. We use bottom-up (inventory, statistical extrapolation of flux measurements, process-based land and ocean modelling) and top-down (atmospheric inversion) approaches to provide a comprehensive quantification of global N₂O sources and sinks resulting from 21 natural and human sectors between 1980 and 2016.

Global N₂O emissions were 17.0 (minimum–maximum estimates: 12.2–23.5) teragrams of nitrogen per year (bottom-up) and 16.9 (15.9–17.7) teragrams of nitrogen per year (top-down) between 2007 and 2016. Global human-induced emissions, which are dominated by nitrogen additions to croplands, increased by 30% over the past four decades to 7.3 (4.2–11.4) teragrams of nitrogen per year. This increase was mainly responsible for the growth in the atmospheric burden. Our findings point to growing N₂O emissions in emerging economies —particularly Brazil, China and India. Analysis of process-based model estimates reveals an emerging N₂O – climate feedback resulting from interactions between nitrogen additions and climate change. The recent growth in N₂O emissions exceeds some of the highest projected emission scenarios 3, 4, underscoring the urgency to mitigate N₂O emissions’.

The N₂O emissions in India are mainly driven by the agriculture sectors, i.e., during the production of nitrogen-fertilisers, excessive application of nitrogen-fertiliser on cropland and management of manures. Technologies exist for cutting down release of N₂O in the process of fertiliser production at the chemical plants and by optimally administering fertiliser application to the field without compromising yields. The same is true for China . but the additional factor is the production of adipic acid, a chemical that is used for nylon manufacturing. The N₂O emissions in Brazil are due to farming of meat cows (manure management), and cropland expansion for soybean and corn production. (IPA Service)

By Sankar Ray

The crucial hiatus between the ruling Pakistan-Tehreek-e-Insaaf (Pakistan Movement for Justice) ,  and its satellites on the one hand and the Opposition whose main constituents in terms of parliamentary strength are Pakistan People’s Party, Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) and Jamiar Ulema-e-Islam  (Fazl-ur-Rehman) widens with the formation of the Pakistan Democratic movement at an All Parties Conference  last Sunday (20 September) and adoption of a 26-point resolution –aiming at an end of the rule of PTI whose subservience to the army biggies are increasingly open.

The APC termed the PTI-led coalition as a ‘selected’ government and demanded resignation of the Prime Minister Imran Khan Niazi. The PDM branded the National Assembly as ‘a rubber stamp’ and the government as a bonded entity of the ‘miltablishment’.  Vowing not to cooperate with the government, the resolution said, “The selected government has ruined the common man’s life with record-high inflation, unemployment, and taxes” It further demanded that a ‘new law of accountability’ be passed, in sync with the Supreme Court’s verdict and recommendations from Human Rights Watch and Council of Islamic Ideology and would hold everyone accountable, including bureaucrats, lawmakers, judicial and army officials.

The APC was attended by JUI-F chairman Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman, PPP chief Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, PML-N chairman Shehbaz Sharif and the former Pak PM Nawaz Sharif’s daughter Maryam Nawaz among other leaders. The resolution was read before the media by the JUI-F chief who snapped fingers at ‘miltablishment’ indirectly. The document, a   chargesheet against the ruling coalition, stated it has been granted “fake stability by the same establishment” which   interfered with the elections to bring the incumbent rulers to power. The regime is a “danger to the nation’s stability and institutions” through unabated interference in internal affairs of the country, the resolution bluntly wrote.

. The JUI-F supremo needled the miltablishment saying, “incumbent selected government has been granted artificial stability by the establishment that has imposed it on the people through rigged elections”. He accused the ‘selected government, for having ‘paralysed the parliament’ and suppressing ‘the voice of the opposition.’ The APC referred to the “the 1973 Constitution, the 18th Amendment and the current National Finance Commission (NFC) award that reflects ‘the nation’s united viewpoint’ The Opposition expressed its commitment to fight for guarding ‘these from any attack and will protect our provincial autonomy. No compromise will be made on this’ the veteran leader said.

The PDM, an “alliance structure which will lead and guide nationwide protests against the anti-public and anti-nation government in a disciplined and integrated manner”, is set to organise a “decisive long march” in January next year. The opposition plans to enlist lawyers, traders, farmers, students, media as well as members of the civil society in its movement. For unseating the PTI-led  government, opposition parties are readying  to deploy “every legal and constitutional option in and out of parliament, which include moving no-confidence motions and collective resignations from assemblies at an appropriate time,” states  the resolution . It strongly condemned “unprecedented” gags on the media and censorship and asked government to release the editor-in-chief Jang and Geo Media Group Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman along with other media persons. The Maulana accused Islamabad of slapping “false cases based on political revenge” against political leaders, leaders, and activists.

The PDM resolution, struck after daylong deliberations, drew up a six-point action plan to depose the incumbent government, which would be implemented in phases. In the first phase that starts in October, opposition parties will hold joint rallies in all four provinces. The intrepid mood against the ‘fauzi hukmat’ under proxy is unmistakable as the APC demanded that the retired Lt Gen Asim Saleem Bajwa step down from the post of chairman of China- Pakistan Economic Authority following the damning accusation of having amassed disproportionate assets.

Nawaz Sharif, addressing the participants criticised for having gone from a “state within a state” to a “state above the state”, and indicted the military for rigging elections to elect Imran Khan. Bilawal Bhutto Zardari in a tweet said, ‘Pakistan democratic movement is an important step towards a democratic Pakistan. Like the MRD (Movement for the Restoration of Democracy) & ARD (Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy) movements resisting dictatorships, #PDM has united all democratic forces. It has a clear, concrete plan of action to restore freedom & dignity of our people, parliament, and democracy”. ”

Former PPP senator Farhatullah Babar, reposing optimism in the opposition initiative, described the resolution in a commentary in The Friday Times as one where “the language, metaphor and diction used in the joint declaration were a significant departure from declarations adopted in similar opposition huddles in the past. In the past such declarations made only passing references to ‘establishment’ role in elections. The declaration adopted on Sunday last went far beyond the ritual expressions of reservations and directly criticized army’s role not only in elections but much else besides”.  TFT editor, despite being cautious and sceptic, too noted. ‘The newly minted Pakistan Democratic Movement to get a vital energy boost with the handshake between Nawaz Sharif and Maulana Fazal ur Rahman.

The APC got a fillip from a meeting of the Pakistan Bar Council in Islamabad on 17 September. The PBC expressed grave concern over “army’s growing interference in politics, and demanded that demanded that the “army stopped political interference”.

One discovers a distant simile between PDM and the JP movement in the 1970s in India. But the path seems more thorny than rosy for the dreamers of democracy. Slanders against the APC are strewn like ‘pro-India’ and R&AW-inspired despite the fact that the PDM slammed Imran Khan (hinting at ‘miltablishment’) for fault lines due to equivocal stance on Kashmir after demolition of autonomy in Indian part of Kashmir on August 5, 2019.

(IPA Service)

When it comes to hedge fund paranoia, few can hold a light to the world’s undisputed leader: Ray Dalio’s Bridgewater – the former employer of current FBI director James Comey – which in addition to maintaining absolute secrecy about its operations, policies and culture, and vigorously pursuing anyone who disseminates Dalio’s famous morning notes, has relentlessly sued any former employees who breach the company’s notorious non-compete. And now, Bridgewater has lashed out at a 24-year-old computer contractor from Hamden, whom it accuses of stealing confidential documents.

Sankaranarayan Subramanian, a consultant working on-site at Bridgewater who was employed by an outside firm, was identified as the alleged thief.

According to the Hamden Patch, authorities began investigating the theft of “confidential Bridgewater IT configuration documents” from the company’s 1 Glendinning Place headquarters in November of last year.

“Bridgewater IT Security determined that Subramanian had emailed himself, on several occasions, multiple confidential Bridgewater IT documents from his Bridgewater email account to his personal email account without authorization,” wrote Westport police in a statement.

“Subramanian intentionally and without authorization made copies (in the form of print and email data transfer) of data residing in the Bridgewater Associates computer system and by taking data intended for the use by that computer system.”

This is similar to the accusation that was lobbed by Goldman at its HFT programmer Sergey Aleynikov in 2009, who was fired, and spent years in prison, and who to this day is fighting the charge of corporate espionage despite being exonerated on at least one occasion.

As the Patch adds, police obtained a warrant for Subramanian’s arrest, and on March 23, Westport detectives arrested him at his Hamden residence.

The charge? E-Crime of the First Degree which includes Theft of Computer Services. Subramanian was released on a $100,000 bond and is scheduled to appear in Norwalk Superior Court on April 3.

It is unclear what documents the young consultant may have “stolen”, copied, or emailed himself. The company’s unprecedented secrecy has in recent months prompted some fringe speculation of impropriety surrounding Dalio’s investing operation.