SOUTHASIA THIS WEEK

WEB NEWS 7 DECEMBER

INDIA

CLIMATE PARTNERSHIP
An unlikely duo, India and China, took a joint stance this week in Bali, where 190 countries have come together to discuss climate issues, particularly post-Kyoto Treaty. Pakistan, as the chairman of the so-called G-77, is providing back-up support to both New Delhi and Beijing. Both ahead of and during the Bali proceedings, India and China have been pressured to cut emissions and accept environmental targets. Overcoming any other political difference, Beijing and New Delhi are now working together on nearly every issue of the meet, with an eye to ensuring that their growth is not limited by the cuts and targets. Both have also defended themselves by asserting that, although they house the highest number of billionaires of the world, their poverty levels are not low. Along these same lines, India has proposed utilising per-capita emissions as a unit of measurement, though the proposal did not meet with much excitement.

BUDDHA ADMITS NANDIGRAM FAILURE
“We have failed in Nandigram,” West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee told journalists this week, clarifying also that he saw the whole land-grab catastrophe as both a political and administrative failure. The chief minister also noted that a lesson has been learned – that the people need to be taken into governmental confidence. Attempting to sound a positive note, Bhattacharjee said that the situation in Nandigram was now returning to normal, and most of the evicted have been resettled. The rehabilitation process has already begun, having received INR 10 million from the West Bengal government, much of which has been spent on reconstruction and repair of damaged houses, roads and bridges, as well as clothing and fertiliser for farmers to get on with the rabi planting. The chief minister also expressed regret for having stated, after the recapture of Nandigram, that those opposed to the CPI (M) and land acquisition had been “paid back in the same coin”. He did note, however, that the industrialisation of West Bengal would not be hindered by the Nandigram fiasco, saying that none of the investors have withdrawn from the state, while adding that major companies from Japan, the US, Singapore and Dubai have sent proposals for investments in the state.

PAKISTAN

NO DUAL CITIZENSHIP
The petition to extend the India’s overseas-citizenship policy to all those who migrated from India and acquired foreign citizenship received a negative response from the Centre this week. New Delhi stated that the ‘persons of Indian origin’, PIOs, who had migrated from India to Pakistan and Bangladesh, are not eligible for dual citizenship. The reasons given were security concerns. A PIO card allows for a 15-year period with no visa concerns ‘within facilities on a par with non-resident Indians’, meaning that a card carrier receives all of the same opportunities as are given to non-resident Indians, except in matters relating to the acquisition of agricultural lands. No parity is allowed in the sphere of political rights, however. The petitioner, K N A Farooqi, a Lucknow-born resident of Pakistan, said that the current overseas-citizenship policy is discriminatory. The government defended the current policy, noting that nationals of Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Bhutan, Nepal, Iran, China and any other country that might be specified are also not eligible for PIO cards. “The exclusion of certain classes of persons from the PIO scheme is made with sound basis and not in an arbitrary manner,” the government reasoned. “However, the scheme does not debar them to avail themselves [of] the benefits of visa regime applicable to those nationals for the purpose of specified duration of visits to India.”

BANGLADESH

SEEKING SUNDERBAN REVIVAL
Following the massive destruction of the Sunderbans by the 15 November Cyclone Sidr Bangladesh this week sought emergency funding from the Paris-based World Heritage Center for rehabilitation purposes. The call was made after a loss-assessment report on the Sunderbans was submitted by a natural-heritage specialist to UNESCO. The report followed a daylong inspection of a few of the worst cyclone-affected places in the mangrove forest. The funds do not look set to begin flowing anytime soon, however, with the WHC contemplating a USD 75,000 aid package, and promising to call upon multilateral donors to come forward with more assistance. The WHC’s fund is meant to re-establish the forest department’s management capacity within the Sunderbans. On a positive note, the UNESCO report suggested that the forest would rejuvenate itself naturally as long as it is left alone and spared of indiscriminate resource extraction. Dhaka has now drawn up a five-year plan to develop and safeguard the area, at a cost of BDT 5 billion. Sidr’s effects on the Sunderbans is now estimated as having severely damaged 30 percent of the forest, and ‘partially spoiled’ another 30 percent, in addition to rendering thousands of people homeless. The forest department has estimated the financial loss to be between BDT 8-10 billion.

NEPAL

WE WANT RAIL LINK!
This week the Kathmandu government expressed hints that it would be keener on extending the new Tibet rail line into Nepal, rather than a proposed highway along the Indo-Nepali border. Having already signed an agreement to resume the Kathmandu-Lhasa bus service from this coming January, Nepali Foreign Minister Sahana Pradhan reportedly explained the government’s stance to a Chinese delegation in Kathmandu, headed by Wang Jiarui, a high-level member of the Communist Party of China’s Central Committee. Previously, the Nepali government had never discussed the rail extension as a major priority, though Beijing has long indicated the possibility, even before the line was laid. Kathmandu and Beijing have also agreed to widen the single-lane Kathmandu-Lhasa road. The proposed highway in the south, on the other hand, has caused speculation among the Kathmandu’s political circles, with fears being raised of encroachment and possible waterlogging on the Nepali side, as the road is likely to be elevated many places. Observers have suggested that Kathmandu’s actions are in line with the governments increased attempts to reduce its dependency on India.

SRI LANKA

TAMIL ‘SUSPECTS’ RELEASED
Roughly 1800 Tamils are breathing were released this week by the Colombo government. They were among the 2184 people who had been arrested following the two bomb blasts last week in Colombo, which killed 17 and injured 40 others. More than 350 of those arrested are still in custody. The government has been heavily criticised for the arrests, with Tamil politicians and human-rights groups accusing Colombo of indiscriminately arresting Tamil civilians. One group warned that those detained were being subjected to “cruel and degrading treatment”, while Amnesty International stated that the arrests had been made on “arbitrary and discriminatory grounds, using sweeping powers granted by the emergency regulations”. Tamil National Alliance spokesman Kanagalingam Sivajilingam claimed that it was desperation that has driven the government to the random arrests, in essence suspecting every Tamil to be a terrorist. A similar incident of arrests had taken place in June, when hundreds of Tamils staying at hostels in Colombo were rounded up and forcibly expelled.

BURMA

CHINA DAM A BOOST FOR JUNTA
The Shweli dam, a Chinese-sponsored dam across the Shweli River is simultaneously strengthening the relationship Beijing and Rangoon, while also wreaking significant impacts on local livelihoods and the environment. Additional reports arose this week suggesting that the construction of the dam has led to widespread human-rights abuses, including incidence of forced labour, uncompensated land reclamation and environmental degradation. “When they took my farm I had to clear another farm plot to subsist on, and to send my children to school,” reports one villager. “But just after tilling the new fields, the Chinese company building the conveying tunnel dumped earth onto the fields. After toiling for years on the farm, now I’ve had to give up everything because of this dam project.” The 600-megawatt project is the first so-called ‘build-operate-transfer’ hydropower project between China and Burma, and will allow China to operate the power station for 40 years, after which management will transfer back to Burma. Watchdog groups in Thailand report that, during those four decades, the Chinese will receive 80 percent of the revenue generated.

REGION

TWO SOUTHASIANS VIE FOR CITIGROUP
Two candidates, one position: the chairman-cum-CEO of the world’s largest bank, Citigroup. The 4 November resignation of the former top official at the bank, Charles Prince, this week raised tense speculation on who is his successor would be – and both are Southasians. Spokespeople for the bank this week were tight-lipped, but both figures present monumental resumes. Vikram S Pandit is currently Citigroup’s investment banking head, while Shaukat Aziz, formerly in charge of the bank’s global private banking section and, of course, most recently the prime minister of Pakistan. Either one would have their hands full, however, in the current global economic situation. Prince resigned at an emergency board meeting after the bank had lost billions of dollars in the sub-prime crisis wracking the US and banks around the world.

CONNECT, CONNECT, CONNECT
The issue of direct road and air connectivity between SAARC countries was the main agenda for the SAARC meet on Regional Transport Cooperation late this week. Following the first meet this year, in April, the ministers are meeting again to discuss the SAARC Regional Motor Vehicle Agreement, an attempt to better connect the region’s countries by ground. The April workshop had produced agreement on the subject, but no formal memorandum. The current meeting is also set to discuss the possibility of implementing direct flights between state capitals. At present, India has one road link with Pakistan, with buses plying between New Delhi and Lahore regularly. New Delhi is now reportedly interested in signing similar agreements with all SAARC countries, including Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan. “Most countries support this initiative,” one SAARC official noted. “But Bangladesh has expressed reservations. The biggest problem, they say, is illegal immigration.” Deliberations have started over a common transport policy, patterned on the European Union, which is hoped would help both trade and tourism. Each country is tasked with identifying entry points for the movement of passengers and goods, and sorting out protocol, security and customs-related issues. “Once people start getting short-stay visas, we can gradually start movement of goods vehicles,” the official continued. “At present, there is very limited trade movement by road to Pakistan. This has tremendous potential with other SAARC nations as well.”

INCOME INEQUALITY RISES
According to a new report released this week, despite Southasia’s accelerated growth in recent years, the region’s population is living under rising inequality in income. This was according to the Human Development Report in Southasia 2006, prepared by the Karachi-based Mahbub Ul Haq Human Development Centre. According to the report, 40 percent of the world’s poor are in Southasia, with 437 million people living on or below one dollar a day, and three-fourths of the population below two dollars a day. The report warned that the deprivation of a huge portion of the population has created the potential for social turmoil, which, if not addressed, could cause severe damage to the region’s stability.

30 NOVEMBER 2007>>